History Main / ImprobableAge

* Probably destined to become a problem for LupinTheThird. He has [[VagueAge no definite age]], and his series runs on ComicBookTime and NegativeContinuity, so you wouldn't think this trope would be an issue. But he ''is'' still Lupin '''The Third''', grandson of Literature/ArseneLupin, who was born in 1874. The timeline isn't impossible yet, but every year it becomes a little harder to reconcile Lupin being a young-ish guy with his family history.
* A Prequel Manga of SakigakeOtokojuku shows that Edajima is specially admitted in the Tokyo Imperial University at the age of eleven, and he passed the test in such a short time, complete with saying the test is far too easy.

* ''{{Haganai}}'' has Maria and Kate, who are both teachers and ''nuns'' at the age of 10 and 15 respectively. [[spoiler:Maria not officially, though she's capable of the teacher part -- but the characters have been expected to buy her in both roles for seven books before they find this out.]]

* Lampshaded in ''EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'':

* And then we have the anime OVA ''{{Spriggan}}'', whose protagonist appears to be starting high school: he's not only an elite super soldier, he's a hardened, proven veteran who's seen so much action that he's [[MandatoryUnretirement called out of retirement]] for one last mission by his superiors.

** Uryuu Ishida is the same age as Ichigo. When he fought Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi he displayed Quincy skills beyond anything [[MadScientist Mayuri]][[hottip:*: who'd studied a great many master Quincy inside and out, to the point that he ''thought'' he knew everything there was to know about them]] had ever seen, to the extent that he [[CurbStompBattle kicked Mayuri's ass]] upon unleashing his ultimate ability. Although Mayuri lampshaded how improbable it was for a child to possess such high level Quincy ability, Uryuu's father has stated that Uryuu's power is still under-developed and immature and that the power he used against Mayuri was therefore not the true extent of his abilities. [[spoiler: At the age of 17, he's revealed to possess the ability to surpass the thousand-year old Quincy King who himself was capable of easily defeating the immensely powerful Yamamoto.]]

-->I am the captain and I have been told[[hottip:* :in an earlier verse, followed by: "That tomorrow we land and my ship has been sold."]]

* After Cain is captured in ''RoboCop2'', the leadership of the gang is taken over by his prepubescent apprentice. This is ''somewhat'' justified in that he threatens to cut off the supply of their designer drug of anyone who doesn't obey him.

*** The most egregious example is Rakutsu (Nate), who is probably no older than 14 but is a ''high-ranking'' member of the International Police.

** Ironically, Brennan's level of education appears to be a toned down version of what Kathy Reichs had done by that age.

** He did graduate high school at age ''12''...

* ''GreysAnatomy'': In a rare case of characters being implausibly ''old'' for their positions the characters that start as interns in the first episode are nearly all a little on the mature side. A normal intern would be roughly 26 years old but except for Katherine Heigl the other actors were 7-10 years older.

*** Falkner is portrayed as a policeman despite most likely being under 18.

* Many have commented that every main character in the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series is about ten years too young for the palette of skills at their disposal. Chris Redfield is an ex-[[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous Air Force fighter pilot]] and member of a crack police unit at 25. Jill Valentine is ex-Delta Force (a unit which does not admit women) at 23.

* Rachel Dawes from the [[Film/TheDarkKnightSaga rebooted Batman films]] looks way too young for her prominent position.

** [=SeeD=] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' fits this trope, with all of its members being special forces certified mercenaries before hitting age 20. Quistis in particular is notable, as she's not only a [=SeeD=] but a [=SeeD=] ''instructor'' (the license for which she got when she was 15) despite being only 18, just one year older than most of the other party members. On the other hand, the Garden that trains the [=SeeDs=] starts accepting students at the age of five, and Quistis started training at around twelve...
*** Worse, any Balamb Garden student who reaches the age of 20 and doesn't join SeeD is expelled. The game apparently sees nothing wrong with [[MoralDissonance Cid creating an army of child soldiers, picking the best among them for his own private mercenary army and then abandoning the rest even if they're orphans who've lived all their lives in the Garden]]. Unlike Galbadia Garden, which is a more conventional military academy for young people. Yet the Galbadians are presented as the bad guys.

*** It also provides the refreshing aversion of Laguna, who was a soldier out on tour of duty at the age of 27.

* Fighters in VideoGame/ArcanaHeart range in age from 5 to 16 (ignoring the [[RobotGirl robot]]), with most girls being around age 14. Two characters deserve special mention: [[BunnyGirl Catherine]] [[MiniMecha Kyoubashi]] and [[SchoolSwimsuit Kira]] [[MakingASplash Daidouji]] are both on the younger side (12 and 11, respectively), and each holds a doctorate from a prestigious university. Kira, in particular, is considered a pioneer in her field; the fact that she's [[CompulsorySchoolAge not exempt from mandatory elementary school]] in Japan after earning a doctorate in America is what pushes her toward WorldDomination .

* In ''MiraiNikki'' the two main characters, and their friends, are all 14 years old, and often have to fight for their lives. Yuno in particular has the highest kill count in the series, and is seen as horrific by most fans, at least on some level.
* In ''Manga/BlackButler'', Ciel is the head of the Phantomhive noble family and Funtom company. It does [[JustifiedTrope help that his parents were killed]], but he is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears pretty intelligent for someone who is only 12 years old]].

** Galois was a mathematical genius who did most of his math in his head, so his proofs were shockingly incomplete -- there were many gaps in them because he'd done the math mentally, so it wasn't quite so much not being clever enough to understand as it was him being a bit too cocky and thinking everyone would understand him on their own.

* ''MassEffect:'' Tali is 22 in the first game, but this is justified as her being a technological savant amongst a race of technological savants, as well as her father being a member of the Admiralty Board, a group of five people that guides their entire civilisation. It ''does'' get out of hand in the third game when [[spoiler:she's made a member of the Admiralty Board]], though.
** On the other hand, she's 26 or so by the time she's [[spoiler:promoted to admiral]], and she doesn't think she's really qualified. [[spoiler:She never actually commands ships in battle, either; it's more of a political appointment and it's explicitly stated that she only got it because she was both the daughter of the previous admiral and had the most experience fighting geth (thanks to teaming up with Shepard in the previous two games) of any quarian in the fleet.]]

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': In the episode "The Stand", Danny Matheson uses a rocket launcher to blow a helicopter to oblivion. This is made more remarkable by the fact that he is only 19 years old, and has never had occasion to use a weapon like that in his life.

For characters whose age seems inappropriate given their ''maturity'' (rather than competence), see WiseBeyondTheirYears. If the people running a society are improbably young, see TeenageWasteland. Can be easily [[HandWave hand waved]] by making a character OlderThanTheyLook, or even ReallySevenHundredYearsOld. May lead to ChildSoldiers. Contrast CompetenceZone.

** This is explained in ''[[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0021.html Darths & Droids]]''; is it a bad thing when the parody makes more sense than the original?

** Unless of course, she was child prodigy.
** Not to mention the Ph.D. you usually need to teach at college-level and beyond. However, that may work differently for the FBI Academy.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** All potential slayers are between the ages of about 15 and 18 when, or if, they are activated.
** Willow becomes the most powerful [[StealthPun witch in the Western hemisphere]] at the age of 21 (after learning magic was real at 16), and in the season 8 comics Buffy is one of the leaders of the Slayer Organization at 23, Xander, who is [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection mission control]] is also 23, and Dawn ([[spoiler:who's now in a relationship with him]]) is 18. These people could take over the world if they wanted to.

* ''{{Dollhouse}}'':
** The Dollhouse is filled with people who are far too young and pretty to actually be masters of the jobs they are sent on. Strangely, no one ever calls them out on this.
** Well, except in the very first episode, where ''everyone'' comments on the fact that Echo is far too young and pretty to be a competent hostage negotiator. Eventually contributing to her partial breakdown.
** Not to mention Topher, who supposedly is one of the world's best experts on neurotechnology when visibly he is at most in his late 20s. This put him actually as too young to be even a normal neurosurgeon, which requires four years of college, four years of med school and ''seven'' years of residency to achieve. Yet somehow Topher manages this super-secret and revolutionary technology despite being a guy who could only be a few years out of grad school at best.
** Although given [[BrainUploading what the Dollhouse does]] there might be an [[FridgeHorror explanation.]]

* ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'': Colonel Barnfather is Captain and then Colonel of the Homicide unit despite being around the same age as the Homicide Detectives, and much younger than Giardello, the shift Lieutenant.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** In the last seasons, Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell's in-show age (younger than the actor's real age) is so low that in order to be a lieutenant colonel he would have to have received almost all of his ranks shortly after the legal mandated minimum time between ranks.
** It is implied he was promoted to Lt. Col. because of his action in Antarctica.
** And the SGC looks to recruit the best and brightest, so if there really was someone so good as to get all his promotions all the way up to Lt. Colonel in the legal minimum time, it would come as no surprise that he'd work at the SGC.
** Called out in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' with Doctor Keller, especially in the Episode Vegas where she replaced a coroner and there's no way she should be old enough.
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': Especially the early seasons, where 20-something Prue is an expert antiquities appraiser and her younger sister, Piper, is a gourmet chef/nightclub owner. The youngest, Phoebe, was originally something of a slacker, but she eventually became a star advice columnist with a major San Francisco newspaper. Phoebe then became romantically involved with the ''owner'' of the paper (who was, of course, about 30), with access to his private jet for romantic getaways to Hong Kong.
* ''OneTreeHill'': Brooke went from relatively unremarkable teenager who had just graduated high school with a starting fashion line to an internationally famous multi-millionairess owner of a fashion company, magazine and television channel in under four years thanks to a TimeSkip between seasons 4 and 5. True it is later revealed that Brooke's mother is the business brains behind the empire, but the fact that Brooke personally became so famous and that her designs were so successful so quickly stretches credibility beyond breaking point.
* ''GossipGirl'':
** Fashion-related example: Jenny Humphrey. Somehow, some way, at age fifteen, she's a mini-couturier, able to rival nearly all of New York Fashion Week's regular fixtures.
** As of mid-season two, Chuck Bass fits this trope. The guy took over his father's company ''at age seventeen'', albeit briefly. As of season three he runs his own hotel, hosts political election parties and has a grand opening of his new club... and the guy has only just turned eighteen. The club opening episode revolved a lot around acquiring a liquor license, yet the fact that the club owner was not legally allowed to purchase alcohol was never brought up.

* ''{{Bones}}'':
** Many characters have this problem. Most of the scientists are in their mid-thirties and yet have been at the Jeffersonian for at least four years, have more than two degrees, and a high amount of volunteer work in other countries. One character has several psychology degrees, was a Rhodes Scholar, is an experienced FBI [[TheProfiler profiler]] and has time for video games. He's 23. It is a bit unrealistic, even for geniuses.
** Ironically Brennan's level of education appears to be a toned down version of what Kathy Reichs had done by that age.

* ''{{Lost}}'':
** Ethan Rom, the only surgeon the Others had and apparently a very good one, was 27 when he died. Daniel Faraday is a tenured professor at Oxford when at the earliest he had to be born in 1977 and was probably born in 1978, but it is justified by him being explicitly said to be the youngest graduate in Oxford's history (meaning he graduated when he was 13 or less) and he screws up rather badly when he's a professor, [[spoiler:putting his girlfriend in a permanent coma and gradually getting severe memory problems]].
** Boone is mentioned as running a part of a large business despite being only twenty-two or so (Ian Somerhalder was twenty-five when the show started). However He explicitly states that his mother is head of the company and it is quite obvious that he did not earn it through experience.

* ''DoogieHowserMD'': The premise revolves around a sixteen-year-old doctor.
* ''ThePretender'': Jarod was a boy-genius who was kidnapped by an Evil Corporation at age four and exploited for his intelligence for over twenty years. He was designing airplanes, engineering buildings, and helping catch serial killers by about the age of twelve and developed a method for human cloning in his late teens.

* ''GreysAnatomy'': In a rare case of characters being implausibly ''old'' for their positions the characters that start as interns in the first episode are nearly all a little on the mature side. A normal intern would be roughly 26 years old but except for Katherine Heigl the other actors were 7-10 years older.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'':
** Ziva David is less Improbable Age and more ''Impossible'' Age. She joins the show in her early twenties, supposedly after she's graduated high school, served her two years in the IDF, attended college, applied for Mossad, become immediately tapped for inclusion into an elite and highly competitive special operations unit with a training period of several years, and still have enough time to become "an experienced agent" with multiple missions under her belt. And this is at a age the youngest CIA intelligence officers would be ''beginning training''.
** In a less obvious and less egregious case from ''NCIS'': If you pay attention to the various backstory tidbits dropped for Tony along with his stated age (a little younger than his actor), it works out that he made detective at around age twenty-eight and this is after he most likely got a Masters. In context he must be a law-enforcement prodigy- though that does fit in with his characterisation [[DependingOnTheWriter some of the time]].
* ''AustinAndAlly'': Ally, whose dad runs a music store, is president of the mall merchants' association at age 15/16. Granted, this essentially means she acts as moderator at their meetings, could happen if nobody else wanted the job, and involves no pay but would look ''great'' on a college application.
* ''Warship'': One episode of this BBC documentary series includes a brief visit to a cemetery in a foreign port where a number of British seamen are buried. One of the graves belongs to a lieutenant-commander of the Royal Navy [[note]]NATO rank code OF-3, equivalent to the Army rank of major[[/note]] who was killed in action during the Second World War. He was ''twenty-four''.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. All potential slayers are between the ages of about 15 and 18 when, or if, they are activated.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has an example, though one that people will only notice in a FridgeLogic type of way. The gang rescued Fred from Pylea where she had supposedly been stuck there for five years. She was a pretty girl in her mid-20s. Yet she was also said to be a very accomplished grad student before being sent there. At the age she was sent there, she could've been only a college junior at best.
* The {{Dollhouse}} is filled with people who are far too young and pretty to actually be masters of the jobs they are sent on. Strangely, no one ever calls them out on this.

* Routinely occurs in CrimeAndPunishmentSeries, particularly with replacement characters, where detectives and officers often seem far too young to have achieved their rank. It's common among not-quite-main protagonists, and particularly blatant in the case of female bosses, who are are routinely played by actresses in their late twenties and early thirties. Most often, they look like, well, actresses, thin, pretty, fragile, well made up and well dressed.

* In HomicideLifeOnTheStreet, Colonel Barnfather is Captain and then Colonel of the Homicide unit despite being around the same age as the Homicide Detectives, and much younger than Giardello, the shift Lieutenant.
* In the last seasons of ''Series/StargateSG1'' Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell's in-show age (younger than the actor's real age) is so low that in order to be a lieutenant colonel he would have to have received almost all of his ranks shortly after the legal mandated minimum time between ranks.

* See also ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' (especially the early seasons), where 20-something Prue is an expert antiquities appraiser and her younger sister, Piper, is a gourmet chef/nightclub owner. The youngest, Phoebe, was originally something of a slacker, but she eventually became a star advice columnist with a major San Francisco newspaper. Phoebe then became romantically involved with the ''owner'' of the paper (who was, of course, about 30), with access to his private jet for romantic getaways to Hong Kong.
* Brooke from ''OneTreeHill'' went from relatively unremarkable teenager who had just graduated high school with a starting fashion line to an internationally famous multi-millionairess owner of a fashion company, magazine and television channel in under four years thanks to a TimeSkip between seasons 4 and 5. True it is later revealed that Brooke's mother is the business brains behind the empire, but the fact that Brooke personally became so famous and that her designs were so successful so quickly stretches credibility beyond breaking point.
* Fashion-related example: Jenny Humphrey of GossipGirl. Somehow, some way, at age fifteen, she's a mini-couturier, able to rival nearly all of New York Fashion Week's regular fixtures.

* Dr. Spencer Reid on ''Series/CriminalMinds'': Three [=PhD=]'s, FBI profiler, turns 24 in the show's first season. Needless to say, he has a hard time getting taken seriously by people who don't know him very well (which fact he has been known to turn to his own advantage).

* Many characters on ''{{Bones}}'' have this problem. Most of the scientists are in their mid-thirties and yet have been at the Jeffersonian for at least four years, have more than two degrees, and a high amount of volunteer work in other countries. One character has several psychology degrees, was a Rhodes Scholar, is an experienced FBI [[TheProfiler profiler]] and has time for video games. He's 23. It is a bit unrealistic, even for geniuses.

* The "ducklings" on ''Series/{{House}}''. Given that Cameron and Chase are both stated as 26 in season one and Foreman is 30, they're a bunch of medical prodigies alright. Cameron, an immunologist, would have had to graduate high school roughly at age 14. Foreman, the neurologist, could have gotten that far in his career by 30, but he's also shown as being a neurosurgeon meaning he also would have graduated high school early. Chase is the one who stands out the most though, since aside from being a Trauma specialist and having some form of expertise in pediatrics (meaning he would have graduated high school around age 13) he also spent a few years in seminary training, back when he wanted to be a priest. He must have graduated high school around age 10. However in season two he is aged up to 30.

* The whole point of ''{{Joe 90}}''. A child secret agent was thought to be less conspicuous than an adult one, and every week his scientist father would add knowledge into his mind that were only accessible when Joe wore glasses.
* Tommy Oliver from ''Franchise/PowerRangers''. Between the years of [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo 1997]] (when he graduated high school) and [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder 2004]], he managed to have a successful career as a professional racecar driver, go through college, get a doctorate in paleontology, become a mad scientist and create several varieties of incredibly advanced cyborg dinosaur thingies, and become a licensed teacher. Makes you feel like you've already wasted your life, doesn't it.
** There is a bit of fridge here though, when you spend 4 years fighting monsters in a robot dino, driving giant cars, and teaming with TeenGenius Billy Cranston; some of that is going to rub off.

* [[{{Lost}} Ethan Rom]], the only surgeon the Others had and apparently a very good one, was 27 when he died. Daniel Faraday is a tenured professor at Oxford when at the earliest he had to be born in 1977 and was probably born in 1978, but it is justified by him being explicitly said to be the youngest graduate in Oxford's history (meaning he graduated when he was 13 or less) and he screws up rather badly when he's a professor, [[spoiler:putting his girlfriend in a permanent coma and gradually getting severe memory problems]].

* In the college years of ''SavedByTheBell'', Kelly has a brief fling with her professor while she's nineteen. It's explicitly mentioned that he's 32. Now, it's possible to get a Ph.D. and be a professor by that age, but it's also stated that he has two published books, and an appearance on Good Morning America. Also, he somehow found time to get married, have a child, and get divorced. Borderline possible, but highly unlikely. Interestingly, the actor was in his late 20's at the time, so they were aware of the age issue and tried to fix it somewhat.

* The premise of ''DoogieHowserMD'' revolves around a sixteen-year-old doctor.
* Jarod of ''ThePretender'' was a boy-genius who was kidnapped by an Evil Corporation at age four and exploited for his intelligence for over twenty years. He was designing airplanes, engineering buildings, and helping catch serial killers by about the age of twelve and developed a method for human cloning in his late teens.
* Daisy's employment agency boss in series 2 of ''{{Spaced}}'' seems about 12 years old. This isn't commented on in-show beyond Daisy's incredulous looks, but fits the ongoing theme that Tim and Daisy are starting to feel a little old as they approach their ''late'' twenties.
* In a rare case of characters being implausibly ''old'' for their positions the characters that start as interns in the first episode of ''GreysAnatomy'' are nearly all a little on the mature side. A normal intern would be roughly 26 years old but except for Katherine Heigl the other actors were 7-10 years older.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' has Sela, a (half-)Romulan commander who has been seen leading two very important operations with potentially galaxy-wide consequences at the ripe old age of 22. This becomes even more unbelievable when you consider that Romulans have about twice the lifespan of humans, making her roughly the equivalent of an 11-year old general.
** In ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada'', which doesn't take place much later than the series, she has made ''admiral''. This is all the more glaring since her appearances in the show tended to be her being involved in ''failed'' Romulan schemes. Even if she avoided being demoted or otherwhise punished, it would at least put a crimp on her promotion prospects.
* A mild case happens in {{The X-Files}}. Scully's birthdate is in 1964, which makes her 28 at the start of the series (since the date given for the pilot is March of 1992, though it aired in 1993). She's introduced as a medical doctor with a specialty in foresic pathlogy, and she teaches at the FBI Academy. On top of that, it's mentioned that she had already put in two years at the FBI. This seems highly unrealistic, because becoming a forensic pathologist in the US requires a person to graduate medical school with an MD, then a 3-5 year residency specializing in anatomic pathology, then a 1 year forensic pathology fellowship. That's at least 13 years of education. Add on the two years Scully is supposed to have been at the FBI, and that's 15 years at the start of the series. She should be in her early to mid-30's, not her late 20's.

* Ziva David from ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' is less Improbable Age and more ''Impossible'' Age. She joins the show in her early twenties, supposedly after she's graduated high school, served her two years in the IDF, attended college, applied for Mossad, become immediately tapped for inclusion into an elite and highly competitive special operations unit with a training period of several years, and still have enough time to become "an experienced agent" with multiple missions under her belt. And this is at a age the youngest CIA intelligence officers would be ''beginning training''.

* Ally in ''AustinAndAlly'', whose dad runs a music store, is president of the mall merchants' association at age 15/16. Granted, this essentially means she acts as moderator at their meetings, could happen if nobody else wanted the job, and involves no pay but would look ''great'' on a college application.
* One episode of the BBC documentary series ''Warship'' includes a brief visit to a cemetery in a foreign port where a number of British seamen are buried. One of the graves belongs to a lieutenant-commander of the Royal Navy [[note]]NATO rank code OF-3, equivalent to the Army rank of major[[/note]] who was killed in action during the Second World War. He was ''twenty-four''.

** Uryuu Ishida is the same age as Ichigo. When he fought Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi he displayed Quincy skills beyond anything [[MadScientist Mayuri]][[hottip:*: who'd studied a great many master Quincy inside and out, to the point that he ''thought'' he knew everything there was to know about them]] had ever seen, to the extent that he [[CurbStompBattle kicked Mayuri's ass]] upon unleashing his ultimate ability. Although Mayuri lampshaded how improbable it was for a child to possess such high level Quincy ability, Uryuu's father has stated that Uryuu's power is still under-developed and immature and that the power he used against Mayuri was therefore not the true extent of his abilities. [[spoiler: At the age of 17, he's revealed to possess the ability to surpass the thousand-year old Quincy King who himself was capable of easily defeating the immensely powerful Yamamoto. In short, Uryuu really is second only to Ichigo in terms of ability.]]

** Uryuu Ishida is the same age as Ichigo. When he fought Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi he displayed Quincy skills beyond anything [[MadScientist Mayuri]][[hottip:*: who'd studied a great many master Quincy inside and out, to the point that he ''thought'' he knew everything there was to know about them]] had ever seen, to the extent that he [[CurbStompBattle kicked Mayuri's ass]] upon unleashing his ultimate ability. Although Mayuri lampshaded how improbable it was for a child to possess such high level Quincy ability, Uryuu's father has stated that Uryuu's power is still under-developed and immature and that the power he used against Mayuri was therefore not the true extent of his abilities. [[spoiler: At the age of 17, he's revealed to possesses the ability to surpass the thousand-year old Quincy King who himself was capable of easily defeating the immensely powerful Yamamoto. In short, Uryuu really is second only to Ichigo in terms of ability.]]

** Uryu Ishida is the same age as Ichigo. When he fought Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi he displayed Quincy skills beyond anything [[MadScientist Mayuri]][[hottip:*: who'd studied a great many master Quincy inside and out, to the point that he ''thought'' he knew everything there was to know about them]] had ever seen, to the extent that he [[CurbStompBattle kicked Mayuri's ass]] upon unleashing his ultimate ability. Although Mayuri lampshaded how improbable it was for a child to possess such high level Quincy ability, Uryuu's father has stated that Uryuu's power is still under-developed and immature and that the power he used against Mayuri was therefore not the true extent of his abilities.