Plotting and Stuff

A lot of people are wary about writing two characters with large age gap interacting because of the power imbalance. From what I've seen, these people already made two mistakes even before they started writing it:

the belief that it will only turn toxic if they ended up romantically involved

the assumption that the abuse of power can only be done by the older character

let's look at two examples from two wildly different franchise where a much older adult is serving a child as his profession:

artemis fowl and his butler, butler. butler is a well-trained bodyguard capable of not only fighting but also tactics and housekeeping. artemis fowl started out as a 12 years old teenage bond villain who is willing to do a lot of dangerous things to revive his family's glory. despite knowing the danger as something no children should pursue, butler simply follow his master's order, bound both by his duty and his pride as a professional. he has no power over artemis, his employee. at some point, they begin to refer to each other as friends, with a more balanced dynamic to each other. once again, age alone gives butler no power over his friend.

the second example is kuro and wolf from the video game sekiro. unlike in artemis fowl which takes place in modern era and mentioned that artemis NEEDS therapy for his childhood trauma multiple times, sekiro takes place in a supernatural feudal japan. the concept of therapy doesn't exist here, let alone the human rights for children that we are familiar with in modern era. wolf, the retainer in this relationship, is subservient to kuro, his master who is a very young child. thinking of kuro as "a child to be protected" is a disrespectful thought for a retainer to have, he is "a master to be protected".

from this alone we can see several points that can affect power dynamics:

wealth

social standing

and although not immediately obvious from the examples above: life experience

the reason why most of the time the older character is the one who have the power is because they are the one who have lived long enough to accumulate all three

however, a military captain in his 20s will have more weight to throw around towards a civilian in his 30s who has never fought in a war before.

Yes, nobody quite realize that they’re each other’s rivals, since all their invention seems to complement each other’s works. They do not see the point of trying to make something the other already made. Instead, they want to make something that renders the other person’s works obsolete.

One day, one of the inventors claimed they have made the perfect automaton. The creation can write, can read, can speak, and interact like a living being. His rival doesn’t quite believe it, and the first inventor allows his rival to inspect the claim.

Indeed, the automaton is perfect in every way. It’s not just its skills, but also in the way it interacts with people. It always knows what to say, how to comfort others, how to defend others, and everybody in their hometown loves the automaton.

The rival wracks his brain, trying to figure out what is lacking from the automaton, so that he will not become obsolete.

A bright idea comes to him, and he asks the creator about the automaton’s durability. The creator says that it’s not something that has been tested. The rival nods, asking if he is allowed to test it. The creator agrees, since the rival has always been allowed to do so.

The rival then brings his sledgehammer and smashes the automaton to bits and pieces. The rival is satisfied with his find, and tells the creator that the automaton is not so perfect after all.

The creator frowns, his expression dissatisfied. “You think of death as a flaw?”

The rival argues that the automaton cannot be considered dead, since it has never been alive in the first place.

“I think our neighbors disagree with that.”

working on the pilot chapter of traveling morgue again

for example: a story of a quiet tragedy where one is a low ranking subordinate who dies in the battlefield and the other is a superior who only receives the news of the subordinate's death in a report among many numbers of other casualties and have to push the thought to the back of their mind as the superior continues onward for the war effort

another example: two nobilities married off to different families as their duty dictates

But with power came responsibility. As a ruler he was expected to take care of the people under him and the land he ruled--and because he wished for the world, then it was the entire planet and more.

After his new secretary explained the job to him--or rather, in the middle of it- he balked, saying that he didn't want to do any of that shit.

He didn't want to think about others, let alone feel burdened by responsibilities. He only wanted to live without care, that was the only reason he even seeked the orb.

The orb granted his wish once again, and turned him into a single cell organism.

while orcs are considered savages who can only pillage and loot, humans are considered opportunistic scavengers following behind the orcs like fish poop