Does a Child Mage have to be a pre-teen? And how is it related to Goo Goo Godlike?

Does a Child Mage have to be a pre-teen? Or does it encompass all mages that are pre-pubscent and pubscents?

Are Goo Goo Godlikes just mages and other powered people who are toddlers (1-3 years old) and younger? Or do they also need to be godlike?

edited 16th Mar '17 7:52:42 PM by Malady

I would say they have to be like 13 or under, or at least appear to be. That's the stereotype for the type. Its a way to work in a loli / shota type character into an RPG or action show without them needing to have reach and wield a weapon and such, they just use magic.

Highschool ish teens have the reach thus do not need that and Teen mages are just well normal, especially in video games and anime where anyone over the age of 25 might as well be using a walker.

Goo-Goo-Godlike need to be probably like ~5 or under and be far far far more powerful than their babysitters, leading to antics since they do not understand what they are doing. 6 and above kids start getting some agency and not the trope.

edited 16th Mar '17 9:54:21 PM by Memers

Once a child starts being significantly verbal, Goo-Goo-Godlike can't really apply. "Very young children" allows for toddlers and the like, but that's the upper limit.

edited 17th Mar '17 5:36:24 AM by Fighteer

- So, are generic superpowered toddlers and fetuses, Exaggerated Child Mages, or Downplayed Goo Goo Godlikes?

edited 17th Mar '17 7:43:11 AM by Malady

I don't really get how there is such a thing as a "generic super-powered toddler or fetus". Please explain, preferably with actual examples.

Most superhero works have their characters manifest powers in their adolescence (or later) largely because of the story problems inherent in having a child too young for reason or agency throwing buildings around. Those works that do feature very young children with superpowers tend to gloss over the problem of how exactly you raise such beings (most kids' temper tantrums don't result in massive property damage or casualties).

As just one case, Superman was canonically three years old (IIRC) when his spaceship crashed on Earth and was discovered. The original film shows him lifting a car as a toddler. Yet we cut to his high school/college years without the slightest allusion to how Ma and Pa Kent raised him without being horribly mutilated. (Imagine trying to spank him, or even play catch!)

Remember that tropes are plot devices, not merely Fridge Logic. It only counts as Goo-Goo-Godlike if the narrative emphasizes the child's powers and how the adults deal with them (or don't, as it may be). If we, as in the Superman case, just see that they have powers and then we cut to maturity without any intervening cataclysm, it's not an example.

What I see as a possible missing trope, or maybe room for expansion, is the situation wherein the child's powers are not actually "godlike", but there is still an emphasis on how one raises a super-powered baby. I suppose this is the "downplayed" version you're talking about, but I despise that adjective as it's usually an excuse for shoehorning in non-examples.

edited 17th Mar '17 8:19:35 AM by Fighteer

- I should have said something like "Fetus or toddler with powers that aren't Godlike, like a telekinetic toddler that can only lift up their formula bottle, not so powerful to be a dangerous Reality Warper."

'Generic' was totally the wrong word.

Well in no way is it a Child Mage since that isn't magic.

Also on Goo-Goo-Godlike IMO it all depends on how the toddler is treated in the work itself, if it is normal to do that, the kid is pretty well behaved, caregivers have no problems and no antics then no. But if the kid is a superpower terror and so powerful that the mother literally abandons her to the state cause she cant handle her then yes.

edited 17th Mar '17 5:51:05 PM by Memers