Drama Over Aging-Up Characters
To start, if you’re equating authors aging-up characters to actual pedophiles, you’re doing a massive disservice to people who have been victims of that. It’s actually maddening to witness people making that comparison. Are some fic writers pedophiles? Oh absolutely. There’s people like that in every area of society. But are most people aging up characters pedophiles? It’s sad that I even have to say this but- no.
I’ve seen enough people get shit for this that I decided to think it over.
I saw some conversations with teens talking about how “aging-up” made them uncomfortable, which makes sense from a bird’s eye view. But then I saw weird fucking adults who support teens through their porn writing?! saying those people were pedos because they were attracted to “teen” characters. From what I witnessed, there seems to (usually) be a misunderstanding about what (most) people mean when they say “aged up.”
I must admit the only non-canon adult character I’m into is Shinsou… and it’s because of aged-up fanart and Yato audios (Wonder how many other adult writers are the same :D). But, I can understand why some healthy adults might be attracted to these fictional personalities.
First, let me explain why an adult who is not attracted to real teens, can be attracted to the personalities of anime teens (which are then further altered for aging up which I’ll explain in a second.)
1. BNHA Characters are Written From an Adult’s Perspective: Horikoshi is 33. No matter how hard we try, after a certain point we cannot project our mind into that of a teenager. Brain physiology and life experience won’t allow it. Anime teen’s personalities are vague, and they end up much more infantilized to compensate for that disconnect, or much more mature than a real teenager. This isn’t about intelligence, it’s about the biological changes our brains go through as we age. We can’t unlearn things on a whim or take years off our lives to accurately portray teen behavior.
Past a certain age we can barely remember what it’s like to be a teen, let alone adopt one’s personality and thinking processes. Horikoshi wrote the characters in BNHA. Horikoshi is a grown ass man. Horikoshi’s teens do not act anything like real teenagers for more than a few seconds at a time. Hate to break it to you.
2. So again. They don’t act like real teenagers: I’ll be blatantly honest here. To most adults, teenagers are annoying. If BNHA were an anime that accurately portrayed teen behavior, I would avoid it like the plague. Even if they have some relatable traits to “you” as a teen, they don’t act like you or your peers overall. Guess what? They have relatable traits to adults as well.
Our brain collects information our whole lives, and save it to for reference as we navigate the world. Teenagers don’t have enough experience witnessing the cause and effect of complex decisions to do the things these characters do. These are things even some adults lack the critical thinking to come up with.
Here’s an example of a common situation where people thought Bakugou was sexy: “Unf. Bakugou was so hot when he took down Kurogiri. He located his body and alkdjf-”
Oh, look, critical thinking, a sense of selflessness, and the confidence to act after first gathering information rather than doing it on impulse.
Super uncommon behavior in teens.
3. They are voiced by adults and their dialogue is not authentic to teen speech. They don’t talk like teens. Wanna know how I know? They are capable of articulating second and third order thinking and staying on point without redundancies, all while discussing complex issues. You develop that with experience. An example of a pre-teen that can do that? Malala. You are not Malala.
Now let’s talk about what (many) writer’s brains do when they age up a character:
I’ll speak from my and a few friend’s perspective.
I cannot possibly be attracted to a teenage anime character in canon form. When I’m watching the show or reading, I’m not interested. However, my attraction to Shinsou formed after seeing aged-up fanart of him and listening to Yato audios (and, much like Hori, the audios are done by an adult with an adult’s perspective and experience).
Now, when I imagine him, I imagine my version of an ideal male partner. Listen, I know I’m brainwashed by mainstream ideals, but for me that’s about a. 6ft tall highly athletic male with a razor sharp jaw and perfect purple plumage. On top of all that? He’s introspective, intelligent, experienced, even tempered, and about 50 other adjectives that are not often associated with teenagers.
Interestingly enough, I saw teens bitching about this too. “There’s no way he’s going to tower over me in 4 years when he’s an adult we’re the same age.”
And there it is, you found the point.
As I write him, I shape him with experiences that I, as a late 20s adult, could experience. I also give him behavior that I’ve witnessed other late 20s and older males display. Like I said before, I used my experiences to shape the character. I’m tossing all those child-like qualities in the bin. I don’t think of him in school, I don’t think of him at the sports festival, I think of him as a sarcastic, intelligent, highly analytical hero who is around my age and has had similar life experiences.
Adults are usually imagining a highly idealized, far from canon portrayal of the character they are aging up. past some basic personality outlines and some features like hair, eyes and quirks, they are barely the same character.
Hopefully, if you’re a teen feeling uncomfortable about adults writing aged-up characters, this eases your mind a little. Don’t get me wrong, there are some people who do write teens as 18+ just to write teen porn without backlash. Those people make me super uncomfortable o/. But! It’s still fiction and not illegal. However, most adults writing aged-up characters are not doing that.
For some I know you’ll still think age-up is just a way to make it cool to bang a teen character, but hopefully it comforts others with the understanding that when fic writers are writing, even if they try to write someone younger, it’s going to be more reflective of a person their age.
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Please note- I’m not engaging anyone in debate about this. It’s half factual evidence and half personal experience. Do your research and leave fic writers the fuck alone.
P.S. Adults who are, stop talking to fucking known children on the internet about sex. You actual creeps.
