Childhood flashback character ages

[rheasilvia]

A quick question for people who know about kids!

About how old is Zhao Yunlan when we see him as a kid?

I would say the various instances he appears in flashbacks all fall into a span of time that's about a year long (ideally, I would like to place the hospital scene with Zhao Xinci even later, but I doubt that's plausible). Given the rate at which children grow up, does this seem vaguely believable to you or would you say it has to be shorter for him to look more or less the same all the way through?

And while I'm asking: How old are Shen Wei and Ye Zun in their childhood flashback?

Comments

[jo_lasalle]

I'd have no trouble finding 'a year' believable. It's not like the kid is being tracked with exact height measurement info, and in general, at least my brain makes allowances for TV kids because I know they can't cast someone who looks exactly the same except six months older five times etc.

No idea about Shen Wei and Ye Zun, though. My gut feeling was 7~8ish, but the hair and outfits are not helpful.

[rheasilvia]

Yeah, the rules that apply to TV kids are generally a bit relaxed, so I could probably get away with two years, too, although it seems a bit like cheating to stretch it too much. ;-) Plus theoretically the hospital scene could also be before his mom's death - it just seems to me that even a year afterwards, he would not be this relaxed and open with his dad, even if dad is in the hospital.

Well, will think more on it.

Looks like Shen Wei and Yezun are in the same age range, so around 12...

(OMG, your icon has stunned me. So lovely!)

[unrelaxing]

Shen Wei and Ye Zun looked juuust on the cusp of puberty (I remember this conversation on Guardian Discord) and we placed them at around 10-12. They seemed too big to be any younger - my experience with children have kids younger than nine tending to be a bit smaller and very very immature looking, especially the boys.

Childhood is weird BUT this is that kid on Fresh Off The Boat at age 12 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/IanChenFoxLa_Screening2018.jpg/800px-IanChenFoxLa_Screening2018.jpg.

An 8 year old: https://www.worldofbuzz.com/8-year-old-can-listen-feel-colour-cards-using-brain/

So I put the twins more towards 12.

I place Yunlan at around the same age, too. Or an underdeveloped 13? We seem him talk and he seemed older just because of that...

[rheasilvia]

I am so bad at guessing childrens' ages it's ridiculous. Thank you for this, it really helps - 12 does seem to be a good age, particularly because Trobadora mentioned that one of the flashbacks mentions Zhao Yunlan just graduated.

12 it is, then, for everyone. :-)

Yunlan does seem very mature - when he talks with his Dad in the hospital, he is definitely unusually insightful for his age - but then, it's Zhao Yunlan. So yeah, I buy it at 12. ;-)

[trobadora]

IIRC in one of the young!ZYL flashback scenes it says he just graduated, and china_shop dug up this link a while back. I'd say he's probably 12.

A span of about a year seems plausible to me.

[rheasilvia]

Cool - 12 seems to be the right answer. Thank you, that clears it up! :-)

The only scene that seems a bit out of place in the "one year" timespan is the hospital scene, because it looks to be set after ZYL's mother's death, but ZYL seems very relaxed and open with his father. I don't know if 10 months or so and some health problems on Zhao Xinci's side would be enough to get him there.... and it seems odd to place that scene before his mother's death, too.

It's not that much of a problem for me, just a teensy snag. And maybe t is before, and ZYL's mom just popped out to find a vase for the flowers or something. ;-)

[trobadora]

What episode was the hospital scene in, do you remember?

[rheasilvia]

It's ep 39! (The wonders of detailed note-taking. ;-) )

[trobadora]

Hee! Thank you. :D

[trobadora]

I just rewatched the hospital scene, and I think I'd place it before his mother's death. Yeah, I don't think he'd talk to his father like that, afterwards.

[extrapenguin]

IMO, Shen Wei and Ye Zun are maybe 10-ish* (clearly prepubescent), while Zhao Yunlan is older than that, since he looks to have started puberty. I'd have placed him at ... 14-ish, based on his appearance.

* I disagree with the "12" assessment, because their action plan of "uhh let's sod off into the wilderness" reads as really young to me, and none of the actions they take really points towards having to be older than 10. Of course, Ye Zun and Shen Wei, despite being identical twins later on, look like they have an age gap due to some reason, so idk.

[china_shop]

because their action plan of "uhh let's sod off into the wilderness" reads as really young to me

Doesn't that depend on what they're sodding off from? If they were leaving behind a safe and stable home/community, that's one thing, but they're orphans in hardship, and maybe there are rumours that opportunities are better elsewhere, in which case it could be a reasonable decision.

Ye Zun and Shen Wei, despite being identical twins later on, look like they have an age gap due to some reason, so idk.

Maybe Ye Zun's pillar is a cryo-stasis chamber!

[unrelaxing]

Yeah, and I mean - decision making when you're a kid, 10 or 12, is pretty similar, so we can only really go from physical.

A lot of the questions Yunlan asks in episode 39 makes him seem older but he looks the same to me as young Shen Wei and Ye Zun? Maybe just a year or so older.

[china_shop]

Or maybe just precocious. :-)

[extrapenguin]

See, a 12-year-old I'd expect to have at least a preliminary destination in the plan! Leaving a village as orphans in hardship/potentially the only survivors of the community is one thing, but IIRC they had no planned destination in mind, not even "let's check the next village over, where our second cousins live".

Shen Wei was in cryostasis; Ye Zun was just disembodied for 10 000 years and had to regrow a body to break out from the pillar.

In the baby scene, they look like they have an age gap, but even a few years later, in the time travel sequence, they look identical. Handwavey Dixing biology?

[china_shop]

See, a 12-year-old I'd expect to have at least a preliminary destination in the plan!

Well, Shen Wei could be eliding a lot of information. Maybe they'd heard about a healer who might be able to cure Ye Zun of his illness, but Shen Wei doesn't want to talk about it, for example.

[trobadora]

+1

I don't think we know what their plans were or weren't, so we can't conclude anything from that.

[asya_ana]

This is so weird. Are they canonically identical twins? I also thought it was bizarre that they seemed to have an age gap as kids and don't seem to be identical twins. It makes no sense one way or other other.

[extrapenguin]

Canonically, they're brothers, and Shen Wei is older; however, since they look identical even in the past time travel bits, they must be identical twins???

Given that Ye Zun had a terrible cough as a baby, I guess I can just handwave this as Dixing biology meaning protracted illnesses can delay growth spurts. Shen Wei just had one, while Ye Zun's got delayed a bit more, so they look like they have an age gap!

[jo_lasalle]

Given that Ye Zun had a terrible cough as a baby, I guess I can just handwave this as Dixing biology meaning protracted illnesses can delay growth spurts. Shen Wei just had one, while Ye Zun's got delayed a bit more, so they look like they have an age gap!

I like this theory!

(I'm pretty sure they're identical twins. It just still seems to matter who was born first (hence the 'older'), especially if you have a language that differentiates between 'older brother' and 'younger brother'.)

[extrapenguin]

Dixing biology gives us so many opportunities to handwave!

Yeah, Chinese doesn't have a way of saying "brother" without commenting on the birth order. They're identical twins, Shen Wei merely popped out into the world a few minutes earlier.

[trobadora]

They don't seem to me to have an age gap as children? It's just one of them is sickly and the other is healthy.

[rheasilvia]

Since we don't know what situation Shen Wei and Ye Zun are leaving behind, I don't know if we can say that their plan is lacking. Sometimes the only choice is to leave immediately; they might well be lucky to have escaped with their lives. (My headcanon is that there was some kind of bloody palace intrigue that involved their family being murdered - perhaps they were simply shoved out the door under the cover of night and told to run as fast and as far as they could, and that's why they're on their own in the wilderness.)

Plus, in my admittedly limited experience, 12-year-old kids are not generally significantly better at planning than 10-year-olds. ;-)

Ye Zun and Shen Wei, despite being identical twins later on, look like they have an age gap due to some reason, so idk.

How so? I thought they looked like identical twins in the flashback scene, as well - what gives you the impression of an age gap?

[extrapenguin]

Hm, in my experience 12-year-olds are much faster to address the "where" question of running away/going someplace than Shen Wei and Ye Zun seemed to be. (My own personal headcanon is that their parents died of an epidemic the meteor strike caused, and that they're of no special lineage whatsoever.)

How so? I thought they looked like identical twins in the flashback scene, as well - what gives you the impression of an age gap?
Ye Zun is so much shorter than Shen Wei! It's excacerbated by him being bent over double coughing, but he's noticeably smaller.

[rheasilvia]

Also a very plausible headcanon! Sadly enough it seems like a time where there were many orphans around, for a variety of reasons. Regardless, though, since we don't know what led to them being on their own in the middle of the wilderness, I find it impossible to judge their planning, or lack thereof.

Ye Zun is so much shorter than Shen Wei! It's excacerbated by him being bent over double coughing, but he's noticeably smaller.

Oh, I never noticed! In that case, yeah, it might well be general sickliness that makes the difference. (In twin births, even identical ones, one twin is often born smaller and more prone to illness because they did not receive an equal share of nutrients in the womb - so this wouldn't even be unusual.)

[extrapenguin]

Oh, I never noticed! In that case, yeah, it might well be general sickliness that makes the difference. (In twin births, even identical ones, one twin is often born smaller and more prone to illness because they did not receive an equal share of nutrients in the womb - so this wouldn't even be unusual.)
Huh! Is the size difference noticeable even after about a decade, and if it is, does it disappear by adulthood? (I suppose we could always handwave Ye Zun as being like a centimeter shorter and more lightly built than his brother, but that would be handwaving.

[rheasilvia]

Is the size difference noticeable even after about a decade, and if it is, does it disappear by adulthood?

That depends on so many factors it's impossible to say - nutrition, health care and genetics play a major role, of course, but there are also a host of other things that can influence this. There's no need to handwave anything, since it certainly isn't unrealistic that they can be different sizes as kids and look identical in body shape as adults!

[extrapenguin]

Ah, good. Ye Zun can be his adult self and be very resentful that gege stole all the food in utero, making Ye Zun be born smaller and more sickly. (How very selfish of Shen Wei! :P)