Age of characters.

[The Mountain That Posts]

Actually, what I kind of wish happened was Sansa was the oldest Stark child with Robb second.

If the books began with Sansa being 14 and Robb being 12 or 13, that would've been something I think I could've believed.

[Xray the Enforcer]

[mod] Do not post spoilers for any books beyond AGOT in this subforum. thank you. [mod]

[The Ghost and the Hound]

I think it was my post that was deleted by the mod...my apologies.

Ok so just GoT ages

Eddard - 35

Catelyn - 35

Robb - 14

Jon - 14

Sansa - 12

Arya - 9

Bran - 7

Rickon - 3

Daenerys - 13

Joffrey - 12

Myrcella - 8

Tommen - 7

[Sarah Lannistark]

I agree, I am still very enjoying it.

My opinion on certain characters has changed a bit though.

In the show, I didn't really care for Catylen, but in the book I kinda hate her lol. The way her attitude is torwards Jon, I don't think they showed that in the show or at least I didn't notice it.

Your opinion of Catelyn changes soon

[AbareBlack]

I'm not big on the idea of aging the kid characters, but I don't fault the show for doing it. With Dany (and I guess Sansa to a slightly lesser extent), they didn't have much choice. And if they were going to increase their ages, they had to do the same with the other Stark kids. So while it's not a choice I really care for, I do understand it.

As for why I prefer their book ages, it's mostly because I've rarely seen kids that young so involved in a story like this. As I've mentioned, I'm into Daytime Soaps and my one gripe about that genre is that their kids (with a few exceptions) are just background characters. They tend to keep them separate from the actual stories, shield them from the darkness of their world, in an effort to not offend viewers. So when I started reading GoT, I was glad to see that GRRM hadn't done that. He treats all of his characters equally, all taking part in the story no matter how young they are. I know it's kind of apples and oranges, I'm just saying that I liked how George did what my Soaps couldn't; allowed the kids to be real characters and not just cardboard cutouts.

[Jars]

I also felt that the ages were at odds with the maturity of the characters, but then I thought I don't know the length of time between each Nameday. Are they named at birth? This is a fantasy series, we only know of two seasons Summer and Winter, both of which have a variable duration lasting many Westeros years. Without knowing how long a Westeros year is, I 'aged' the characters up so it made sense to me. There is also the ages of the Maesters to consider - some very old, which is slightly at odds with the die young theory.

GRRM has made a fantasy world. It is set in a feudal system not unlike our own history but I think the constant trying to make it fit into our own Middle ages with the medieval values of our own history takes the fantasy out of it.

[Sherlockian]

It was especially weird to me where Robb and Joffery were in some kind off practice duel, since I was picturing Robb from the show, I was thinking to myself, what teh hell?

This gave me a hilarious mental image.

[Boleyn]

I was also shocked by their book ages, but when I read I always imagine them older.

[That Demon Monkey]

Their book ages would just look downright creepy on our TVs.

A Song of Pedos and Vice

[TheSwordmaker]

it seems to me that the characters are older then what they really are

[Hodoris]

As I mentioned in another thread, its not possible to implement everything from the books as it is. According to the books, most of the characters are kids and its hard to show kids doing the things they do in the books in real life.

Eg : Daenerys was married to Drogo at the age of 13. How can the producers show a real 13 year old getting banged by Drogo

[TheNiggardlyBastard]

I like there age in the tv show better.

[WhitewolfStark]

Anyway the gap between Robb and Sansa is rather large (3 years). Sure, there was the war and Ned and Cat didn't see each other until a few months after the war, but if we assume that there was no quarrel between Cat and Ned, there is no reason for more then 1,5 years between the births of Robb and Sansa, so it would have been easy to make her 13 at the beginning. Of course there might have been a quarrel, oh weil...

Not only was there likely a quarrel over Jon, but I've also heard it was considered that a woman couldn't get pregnant if she was nursing. From what I recall Cat nursed her own children instead of having a wetnurse do it, so perhaps another reason is simply because Ned and Cat just didn't try while she was nursing Robb.

And then of course there's also the fact that having sex does not always equal getting a baby for whatever reason--as is shown by the fact that GRRM mentions that Ned and Cat have sex and while she hopes that the "seed will take" she knows also that there's no guarantee that it will either.

[Jo498]

I acutally do not really understand why the children start out so extremely young in the books. Whatever may have been the case in the real middle ages, young men were traditionally knighted around 20 after serving from about 7-14 as a page and from 14-21 as a squire, whereas in Westeros about everybody is a "Ser" with 18 (remember Ned and Robert were only 20 at the time of the rebellion). There was Edward, the "Black Prince" commanding armies at 16, but this was a notable exception.

BTW they are not adults according to Westeros standards, the "official age" of maturity seems to be 16 (for boys). Not so much would change if everyone was about 2-3 years older, they would still be very young. (In the show they are about 3-4 years older than in the book, I'd say, i.e. Robb and Jon around 17 and Dany 16-17).

One explanation may be the 5-year-gap originally planned (but then, one reason for this gap would have to have time for the young characters aging...). Maybe a more plausible one is that adults in the novels, especially women like Cersei should still be youthful beauties with the possibility of bearing further children which is more plausible with 32-25 than with 40 (again, in a pseudo-medieval setting).

Another reason might be shock value, especially for Dany - Drogo and Sansa in KL.

[laughterkillz]

Personally, I prefer the book ages. Mostly because I think a lot of people forget what age they started to take interest in the opposite sex (or same sex, depending of sexuality), if I remember correctly, I had my first crush in the second grade, when I was around 8. I also remember being shocked when I had a younger cousin (I was the youngest person in my family, so my experience with younger siblings is N/A at best), and his parents were talking about girls he had crushes on when he was around the same age. It's not as pervasive in how they act and think as it is once they actually hit their teens, but it's definitely something they start experiencing. I also feel that because of how our society is set up today, we forget how receptive children are, and how much they are actually capable of handling, although admittedly, not in quite the same manner as an adult would.

Anyway, to sum it up, I feel the book ages are accurate for how kids around the ages of the characters would act and see the world.

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

I think it was my post that was deleted by the mod...my apologies.

Ok so just GoT ages

Eddard - 35

Catelyn - 35

Robb - 14

Jon - 14

Sansa - 12

Arya - 9

Bran - 7

Rickon - 3

Daenerys - 13

Joffrey - 12

Myrcella - 8

Tommen - 7

Catelyn was born in 264AC, and thus was 33/34 in Game ;)

Also, in Game, Sansa is 11 years old (mentioned several times)

Dany, though starting at 13, turns 14 somewhere in the middle

Myrcella begins at 7, but turns 8 later on.