Improbable Age -- Does it stretch the Willing Suspension of Disbelief?

I'm writing a story set in a fantasy world. Most of my characters are of realistic ages, i.e. most warriors are at least in their mid-20s. Many are in their 30s and up. The kings in the story are all of appropriate age. Furthermore, there are characters that are Really 700 Years Old, either due to long life spans or magic, and those characters only get more prominent as the series goes on. Contrasting all of these characters are certain prominent characters that are teenagers. While it makes sense that the children of a royal family would be teenagers, some play an important role in the plot. One is a 17-year-old princess who runs away from home after her homeland gets taken over, and is an important POV character in the story. Another is a 16-year-old thief who steals from the corrupt, and fights for good while seeking adventure. Much of the drama is that he's Just a Kid, and is an inexperienced combatant who, while he can win in a fight against other teenagers, needs to be taught how to fight against warriors who've seen more combat in their life than he's been alive.

Additionally, while not a teenager, we get a 21-year-old Badass Bookworm Chessmaster who leads a rebellion that becomes one of the most powerful forces in the story, and is smarter than many other characters including those much older than him. My story is quite mature, and is not geared with a kid audience in mind. I made this with the attention of telling a story about adults, but wanted to have younger perspectives for contrast. There are Loads And Loads Of Characters in the story, many of whom are fully-grown adults or people with centuries under their belt. I was just wondering if you think the contrast between the really young characters and everyone else would be odd?

I don't see anything wrong with it personally, because I think it makes the cast varied to have all these different ages involved. However I shared it with a friend, and he thought it was weird, said that kids shouldn't be involved heavily into the plot, fearing they will be despised. What do you guys think?

I don't think it is odd at all. In fact, I think it is incredibly common to get this sort of mix in fantasy fiction. Usually, the second or third youngest in the main cast is the main viewpoint character.

I have no idea where the idea that the younger characters might be despised could be coming from. Yes, a lot of Scrappies are on the young side. But this feels like a wild guess to me.

I also don't think it is a good thing to hide from contrast in writing. Stories thrive off contrast.

edited 18th Jul '16 3:48:18 PM by war877

You know their ages, and we might know too, but except for the sixteen-year-old thief who's actually being called a kid, do their ages matter to the plot?

Because that's the next question: is the story going to make a big fuss about how young aaaaaall these young characters are? That can get very old (tee-hee), very fast. I'd be annoyed by the lack of variety than I would if it was just a bit of flavour, because I'd want to read something that doesn't define every person the same way (by their age). You know, unless that was the real plot, and not a subplot hijacking the main events, which is what I'd want to warn you about.

In a pseudo-Medieval setting, having young characters doesn't matter very much. In real life back then, a young man would begin his apprenticeship as early as possible (say, 12 years old), and a girl would be considered a woman and be eligible to marry upon her menarche.

The only place it bugs me is in a modern setting. Take, for example, a fighter-jock movie. Military fighter pilots go through officers' school, and receive exhaustive training for a good couple of years, coached by seasoned veterans with decades of experience, before they're considered ready for front-line service. Then, along comes little fifteen-year-old Awesome Mc Cool Name, who's done nothing but play video games, yet he can beat them all with raw talent alone. Umm... No.

Usually, Improbable Age occurs due to marketing-a character is given the age of the target demographic rather than a more "realistic" one. For example, Pokemon trainers are stated to start usually around the age of 10 or so because that's Pokemon's target demographic. However, in most societies this would be considered a rather extreme example of Free-Range Children (basically, imagine handing a 10-year old a trained guard dog and camping equipment and sending them on, at best, a weeks-long errand on foot to other cities through wilderness you know to be filled with dangerous wildlife and perhaps light gang activity). A more logical age would be mid-teens or so. Of course, there are necessary weasels, acceptable breaks from reality, as well as Values Dissonance between our world and theirs (Pokemon is a World of Badass where people are probably fairly numb to danger)