SLBP and IkeSen MC's age
Mar. 16th, 2020 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollInspired by a conversation with Scytale...
I think SLBP and IkeSen are intentionally coy about MC's age to allow us to self-insert better. In IkeSen I feel like the MC really could be any age from early 20s to early 50s. She's about to start her dream job, so she could be right out of school or at the peak of her long career. As a fashion designer she could be stunning at any age. I didn't see a lot of 'youthful innocence' tropes with her. So she could be young, or not. Since the warlords don't have canon ages, you could imagine them as younger or older depending on the age you give to MC.
With SLBP, we get a few more clues.
In the Mitsunari route she's stated to be older than Mitsunari, and also old enough that Sakon is surprised by how old she is. But that might not be saying much, since Mitsunari might be pretty young and Sakon originally thought she was a teenage boy. MC does refer to herself as a 'young girl' towards the end of the first route. Mitsunari's two routes last a long time in real-world years, they start when Nobunaga is in power and ends after Hideyoshi's death, so even if she's young at the beginning she's probably not so young at the end. In the Fates ending her mother retires and she takes over the restaurant, so she's old enough to have an elderly mother. But she's also young enough to get pregnant relatively easily. My guess is around 25 at the start, around 35 at the end.
In Hideyoshi's route it's a major plot point that she is kind of innocent and sexually inexperienced. While that doesn't necessarily make her that young, it's a set of tropes that work better with someone younger. So I'd say mid-20s at the oldest, maybe younger.
Nobunaga's MC I think is the youngest, maybe late teens or early 20s. The whole business about how it's so cute that she (futilely and powerlessly) resists his advances could really only work with someone young. I don't think Nobunaga would find it cute if someone older headbutted him. He's also very into how virginal she is, again in a way that works better with someone younger.
I read Shingen's MC as the oldest of the group, although you could also read her as younger if you're into daddy kink. She's very self-directed and independent. In her first sex scene with Shingen she seems like she knows what she's doing, so I could see her as having a previous relationship or even being a widow. I think of her as around 30.
Mitsuhide's MC would have to be young enough that they could talk about having lots of kids, but other than that I didn't get a sense of her age.
Do you have headcanons for MC's age? If so, are they the same across routes or different for different routes?
I think SLBP and IkeSen are intentionally coy about MC's age to allow us to self-insert better. In IkeSen I feel like the MC really could be any age from early 20s to early 50s. She's about to start her dream job, so she could be right out of school or at the peak of her long career. As a fashion designer she could be stunning at any age. I didn't see a lot of 'youthful innocence' tropes with her. So she could be young, or not. Since the warlords don't have canon ages, you could imagine them as younger or older depending on the age you give to MC.
With SLBP, we get a few more clues.
In the Mitsunari route she's stated to be older than Mitsunari, and also old enough that Sakon is surprised by how old she is. But that might not be saying much, since Mitsunari might be pretty young and Sakon originally thought she was a teenage boy. MC does refer to herself as a 'young girl' towards the end of the first route. Mitsunari's two routes last a long time in real-world years, they start when Nobunaga is in power and ends after Hideyoshi's death, so even if she's young at the beginning she's probably not so young at the end. In the Fates ending her mother retires and she takes over the restaurant, so she's old enough to have an elderly mother. But she's also young enough to get pregnant relatively easily. My guess is around 25 at the start, around 35 at the end.
In Hideyoshi's route it's a major plot point that she is kind of innocent and sexually inexperienced. While that doesn't necessarily make her that young, it's a set of tropes that work better with someone younger. So I'd say mid-20s at the oldest, maybe younger.
Nobunaga's MC I think is the youngest, maybe late teens or early 20s. The whole business about how it's so cute that she (futilely and powerlessly) resists his advances could really only work with someone young. I don't think Nobunaga would find it cute if someone older headbutted him. He's also very into how virginal she is, again in a way that works better with someone younger.
I read Shingen's MC as the oldest of the group, although you could also read her as younger if you're into daddy kink. She's very self-directed and independent. In her first sex scene with Shingen she seems like she knows what she's doing, so I could see her as having a previous relationship or even being a widow. I think of her as around 30.
Mitsuhide's MC would have to be young enough that they could talk about having lots of kids, but other than that I didn't get a sense of her age.
Do you have headcanons for MC's age? If so, are they the same across routes or different for different routes?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-17 08:13 pm (UTC)I feel like in many genres the 'default' female character is about that age, unless there's a plot reason to make her older or younger. Or unless she's a teenager.
I can see Mitsuhide!MC as maybe up to late 20s: still moderately young but old enough to know who she is.
That makes sense! She's very confident and has a strong moral compass.
Yukimura seems pretty young, maybe even late teens, and Yukimura!MC is presumably not a lot older or someone would comment on the age gap. But I can see her being a moderate amount older than him, like early to mid twenties.
In Mitsunari's route there *are* comments, which makes me wonder how young he's supposed to be. But he's also had a lot of life before we meet him, including a previous long-term relationship, so he can't be *that* young.
Haha yeah we can't use historical ages for anything. But if we go by history - which again we can't - Mitsunari was 40 when he was executed, and MC is older than him, so that would make her early-mid 40s by the end of the routes. Which could actually sort of work.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-18 01:07 am (UTC)That's really interesting about Mitsunari!MC. I tend to imagine time and ages in SLBP as being ambiguous and non linear: Shingen is decades older than Yukimura but also as young as you want him to be on his path etc.