Character's ages

[Szczuku]

9 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

idk if I buy it.  The devs also made this

Well that's too bad. It's confirmed. 

The short shows her childhood in the orphamage, cuz that's what 'revealing a character's past ' is all about 

[Zeklo]

12 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

Well that's too bad. It's confirmed. 

The short shows her childhood in the orphamage, cuz that's what 'revealing a character's past ' is all about 

It is a bit confusing though. Since not all shorts focus on a character's past. Willow in particular can be befuddling since she still holds onto Bernie to the day.

I can see how people could get confused without the official statements.

[minespatch]

23 minutes ago, Zeklo said:

how people could get confused without the official statements.

Yeah, the Winona short felt like a lie once the Woodie short came. I was hoping for a explanation on that board.

[Pop Guy]

Seriously speaking: Klei and Joew can say what they want, and that's the truth. Having said that, a truth does not necessarily have to be shared and, especially if we talk about a fantasy product, we can also ignore it personally. It is not a physical law, it is not a historical fact, we are on two completely different levels.
Is Wendy 8-10 years old? Yes. Are you 8-10 years old for me? No, because she doesn't behave like a child, she doesn't talk like a child, she seems more adult than other adult characters and because she lives in a world of horror and madness, where I don't see well a 10-year-old girl. So for me Wendy is at least 16 years old. I know it's not true, but frankly "I don't care"

And no, I don't agree with the Wendy-Webber report, because Webber is a horrifying monster, a child eaten by a spider. I don't care if Klei showed us he and Wendy hugging each other, for how I "live" the game (in a more horror and "Lovecraftian" way) Webber is an abomination.

[CutChemist]

And with that last post surely this thread gets locked

 

 

And dont call me Shirley

[Yuuko]

15 hours ago, Szczuku said:

Well that's too bad. It's confirmed. 

The short shows her childhood in the orphamage, cuz that's what 'revealing a character's past ' is all about 

Not to be argumenative - but there is a theory that an author simply saying something does not make it canon, especially when the work illustrates through a characters actions something completely different.  For example - J.K.Rowling can say that Dumbledore is gay, but until she wrote a scene that illustrated this in action it was just something she said.  The devs need to answer to their inconsistencies.

Even if this is just backstory, what qualities about her give any impression of being 20 besides a comment from a developer.  Until they tell her story like she's 20 there is no reason to take their word for it.  This is why things like "show don't tell" are important in storytelling.

[Zeklo]

21 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

there is no reason to take their word for it.

The reason is if you actually want an accurate awareness of what is and isn't canon to lore.
If you want to ignore it then by all means do so. You don't need an elaborate excuse to justify it. Just... ignore it. It's your choice.

Wendy (a confirmed child) is described as "young lady" in the Curio Cabinet. In a similar way Webber (presumed to be of similar age) is described as "young monster". Willow, however, is described as woman. 

That's at least something stated in-game.

[TheMelonNinja]

49 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

Not to be argumenative - but there is a theory that an author simply saying something does not make it cannon, especially when the work illustrates through a characters actions something completely different.  For example - J.K.Rowling can say that Dumbledore is gay, but until she wrote a scene that illustrated this in action it was just something she said.  The devs need to answer to their inconsistencies.

Even if this is just backstory, what qualities about her give any impression of being 20 besides a comment from a developer.  Until they tell her story like she's 20 there is no reason to take their word for it.  This is why things like "show don't tell" are important in storytelling.

Willow specifically states that Bernie is her childhood toy in her examination quote for him. Would be weird to say that if she were still a kid. 

Willow is drawn differently in From The Ashes (shorter chin, messier hair, no bags under her eyes) and has a higher pitched voice. 

Willow is specifically called a woman in her Curio Cabinet bio. 

Willow sounds nothing like a child in Starver's Carol.

Willow is consistently called a lady by characters such as Wolfgang, who calls Wendy a girl.

Don't Starve doesn't have the luxury of being a highly descriptive series of books that later got movie adaptations. Willow has had several instances that prove she's a woman outside of a comment from the devs. 

[ImDaMisterL]

Just a friendly reminder that intellectually gifted kids exist. I always imagined that was the case for Wendy, and it would explain her high verbal abilities.

[TemporarySolutn]

On 11/1/2019 at 5:00 PM, Szczuku said:

Webber- age unknown but he's obviously a kid

Wurt- a young Merm

Webber is about the same age as wendy so also about 8-10 and judging by wurts intentionally short height puts her at between 4-7

[me real life]

1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

J.K.Rowling can say that Dumbledore is gay, but until she wrote a scene that illustrated this in action it was just something she said.

I do dislike a lot of things J.K. Rowling has said, but this is such a silly attitude to have. It implies there's a required amount of illustrated gayness before a character can actually be considered gay... even after the author, who created said character, says they are. It implies that gay people have to be actively showing they are gay, rather than them just being regular people who happen to be attracted to the same gender.

[Pop Guy]

25 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

I do dislike a lot of things J.K. Rowling has said, but this is such a silly attitude to have. It implies there's a required amount of illustrated gayness before a character can actually be considered gay... even after the author, who created said character, says they are. It implies that gay people have to be actively showing they are gay, rather than them just being regular people who happen to be attracted to the same gender.

He didn't want to target homosexuals.
It simply meant that according to him an author must show, not say. And I agree with the general concept. Show, don't tell.

1 hour ago, ImDaMisterL said:

Just a friendly reminder that intellectually gifted kids exist. I always imagined that was the case for Wendy, and it would explain her high verbal abilities.

I don't generally like the "prodigy", "chosen" or super-powered characters. I prefer mediocre and inept protagonists, wonderfully normal. That's why I love both Wilson and Maxwell =)

[Yuuko]

1 hour ago, Sunset Skye said:

I do dislike a lot of things J.K. Rowling has said, but this is such a silly attitude to have. It implies there's a required amount of illustrated gayness before a character can actually be considered gay... even after the author, who created said character, says they are. It implies that gay people have to be actively showing they are gay, rather than them just being regular people who happen to be attracted to the same gender.

Real people and fictional characters are not the same thing.  A real person may have infinite traits which are imperceptible yet existent.  Fictional characters begin and end in the story they are written in.  I am speaking about fictional character design, and consistent story telling.  I haven't mentioned anything about real people. 

I don't see any reason to presume rules for writting a compelling and consistent character would also apply as a filter for real people in the real world.

[ImDaMisterL]

1 hour ago, Pop Guy said:

I don't generally like the "prodigy", "chosen" or super-powered characters. I prefer mediocre and inept protagonists, wonderfully normal. That's why I love both Wilson and Maxwell =)

And I respect your preferences, but you said it yourself, Wendy doesn't act her age, so we can presume she isn't normal. For an 8 to 10 year old kid to have this level of maturity and vocabulary, they'd have to be gifted, at least in this area.

[Pop Guy]

4 hours ago, CutChemist said:

And with that last post surely this thread gets locked

 

 

And dont call me Shirley

"And as usual, he was wrong"

[TemporaryMan]

17 hours ago, Shosuko said:

This isn't a 20 year old.  She is obviously much younger.  I think the devs lied to us about her before, covering up her true age!

Pretty sure the trope they're aiming for here is Psychopathic Manchild (well, womanchild in this case).  She still clings to her teddy bear in her 20s, calls everything stupid, laughs at pig butts, sets fires everywhere, and even shows signs of being a Knife Nut judging by her examination quote for axes.  Willow is not a mature, mentally-stable adult.  She has 120 sanity, only 60% as much as most other, better-adjusted adults.  That's on par with the woman who has no traces of her real personality left, being completely lost in character as a viking shield maiden.

 

3 hours ago, ImDaMisterL said:

Just a friendly reminder that intellectually gifted kids exist. I always imagined that was the case for Wendy, and it would explain her high verbal abilities.

Intellectually gifted and traumatized.  Wendy's references to reading material well above her age category has always reminded me of the account I read in university from a traumatized child (the details of which I won't go into here) who had retreated into books for escapism.  

[Yuuko]

1 hour ago, TemporaryMan said:

Pretty sure the trope they're aiming for here is Psychopathic Manchild (well, womanchild in this case).  She still clings to her teddy bear in her 20s, calls everything stupid, laughs at pig butts, sets fires everywhere, and even shows signs of being a Knife Nut judging by her examination quote for axes.  Willow is not a mature, mentally-stable adult.  She has 120 sanity, only 60% as much as most other, better-adjusted adults.  That's on par with the woman who has no traces of her real personality left, being completely lost in character as a viking shield maiden.

After reading @TheMelonNinja's post I think y'all're right.

[Lammarr]

We don't really know if merms grow slow as humans. Wurt could be way younger than we think and could even have structural birth defects that make her look so different from other merms or young merm guards are just that weird.

One of Wortox's quotes implies that he was a child once due to the fact that he had a mother that took care of him,but it seems that demons are immortal because Wortox calls his human friends mortals and perhaps demons can't age any further after their powers grow in,like it happened to Wortox after he ate Krampus' soul.

Wormwood is a confusing one,i believe that the green gem in his chest has the power to mutate plant life,this means that the green gem mutated some random plant and attached itself to it and used it to move away from it's horrible location and do it's unknown objective while the plant is distracted with it's given ''life'',this would also explain why Wormwood can plant seeds without farms,tore his own arm off to make living logs and use them to craft armor and traps.

[Jessie_]

6 hours ago, Shosuko said:

For example - J.K.Rowling can say that Dumbledore is gay, but until she wrote a scene that illustrated this in action it was just something she said.  The devs need to answer to their inconsistencies.

i know you've already been convinced, but i just found this analogy to be plainly silly

how would you illustrate a character being gay? the analogy doesn't really make sense, age and sexuality have to be presented completely differently

jk rowling, the author in your example, doesn't have to answer for any inconsistency: there isn't any conflicting evidence against dumbledore being gay afaik (if i'm wrong, then tell me since i don't follow or like her franchise)

you can hang around someone not knowing they're gay for quite a long time but you'd have a very close guess of what their age is; age is immediately obvious, sexuality is not

like wolfgang could be gay for all we know but we can confidently say that he's an adult, the same way you couldn't tell if dumbledore was gay or not until it was stated but it's pretty obvious that he's an old man

[Yuuko]

51 minutes ago, Jessie223 said:

itt: people who don't realize there is a difference between real people and fictional characters.

 

[Jessie_]

1 minute ago, Shosuko said:

itt: people who don't realize there is a difference between real people and fictional characters.

so why were you arguing the age of a fictional character? this same statement can be turned against you lol

[Yuuko]

Just now, Jessie223 said:

so why were you arguing the age of a fictional character? this same statement can be turned against you lol

What part of a character being fictional means we cannot discuss this?  I have only discussed fictional characters in this thread.  How does that turn anything against me?

[Jessie_]

4 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

What part of a character being fictional means we cannot discuss this?  I have only discussed fictional characters in this thread.  How does that turn anything against me?

i never said you couldn't discuss it, i don't exactly remember saying that

[maradyne]

Kinda get what they were going for.
Out-of-medium lore reveals like that tend to not feel attached to their reality. In that example, the author said something was true about a character...without that character's actions ever having actually indicated that they swung that way; or the other way, for that matter. It just seems like an out-of-nowhere proclamation for the author to make, as far as the story went at the time.
The statement wasn't backed by character behavior until after the fact.

Wendy's specific age is a similar case. Story-wise...it really isn't important, and different people have different interpretations based on her in-game behavior thus far. Case and point being this topic.
When the age thing first dropped, I thought it seemed off as well, but after some thinking I realized that I was somewhat similar to Wendy when younger. However, a lot of people have never met a kid like that. Or an adult like Willow, for that matter.
In those cases, the claim doesn't seem backed by the character themself.

 

Oddly similar scenario. The cinematic where Wendy is acting more like her official age than ever happened after the lore drop; if it had been before, it may not have felt as random.

[Jessie_]

3 hours ago, maradyne said:

In that example, the author said something was true about a character...without that character's actions ever having actually indicated that they swung that way; or the other way, for that matter. It just seems like an out-of-nowhere proclamation for the author to make, as far as the story went at the time.
The statement wasn't backed by character behavior until after the fact.

what are gay actions and gay character behaviours?

the only way you'd be able to tell if a character is gay is if it's stated somewhere or if it's immediately obvious (like being in an relationship), otherwise you wouldn't know someone's sexuality at all

again: silly analogy, sexuality and age are presented differently and that's literally just a matter of fact