Older Than They Look: Difference between revisions

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Content added Content deleted
VisualWikitext
(Rescuing 0 sources and tagging 2 as dead. #IABot (v2.0beta9))
Tag: Replaced
(Some examples had already been moved to subpages. Finishing the job.)
 
(24 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{trope}}
<!DOCTYPE html>
[[File:Yugi is short 8655.jpg|link=Yu-Gi-Oh! (manga)|frame|[[Anime Hair|The hair must suck out all of the hormones.]]<ref>(Read from right to left).</ref>]]
<html class="client-nojs" lang="en" dir="ltr">

<head>
{{quote|''If she tells you she's 26, and ''looks'' 26, she's damn near forty!''|'''[[Chris Rock]]''', "No Sex (in the Champagne Room)"<ref>The preceding line is "[[Younger Than They Look|If a woman tells you she's 20 and looks 16... she's 12]]".</ref>}}
<meta charset="UTF-8"/>

<title>Login required - All The Tropes</title>
Sometimes characters look their age. But in this instance, they don't. Whether it was a deliberate artistic choice on the behalf of the creator (usually to make the character more attractive or to [[Legal Jailbait|legally fulfill a fetish]]) or something much deeper and linked to their characterization and the plot, this character will be older than they look. Although still within the normal range of the human lifespan (for that setting, anyway), this character will be noticeably younger than their age. Sometimes even improbably younger; it's not unheard of for a seeming teenager to be over the hill chronologically.
<script>document.documentElement.className = document.documentElement.className.replace( /(^|\s)client-nojs(\s|$)/, "$1client-js$2" );</script>

<script>(window.RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.config.set({"wgCanonicalNamespace":"Special","wgCanonicalSpecialPageName":"Badtitle","wgNamespaceNumber":-1,"wgPageName":"Special:Badtitle","wgTitle":"Badtitle","wgCurRevisionId":0,"wgRevisionId":0,"wgArticleId":0,"wgIsArticle":false,"wgIsRedirect":false,"wgAction":"view","wgUserName":null,"wgUserGroups":["*"],"wgCategories":[],"wgBreakFrames":true,"wgPageContentLanguage":"en","wgPageContentModel":"wikitext","wgSeparatorTransformTable":["",""],"wgDigitTransformTable":["",""],"wgDefaultDateFormat":"dmy","wgMonthNames":["","January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"wgMonthNamesShort":["","Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"],"wgRelevantPageName":"Special:Badtitle","wgRelevantArticleId":0,"wgRequestId":"4108aba6308771f1bda3f07d","wgIsProbablyEditable":false,"wgRelevantPageIsProbablyEditable":false,"wgBetaFeaturesFeatures":[],"wgWikiEditorEnabledModules":[],"wgCategoryTreePageCategoryOptions":"{\"mode\":0,\"hideprefix\":20,\"showcount\":true,\"namespaces\":false}","wgCollapsibleVectorEnabledModules":{"collapsiblenav":true,"experiments":true},"wgMetrolookEnabledModules":{"collapsiblenav":true},"wgPreferredVariant":"en","wgMFExpandAllSectionsUserOption":true,"wgMFEnableFontChanger":true,"wgMFDisplayWikibaseDescriptions":{"search":false,"nearby":false,"watchlist":false,"tagline":false},"wgMediaViewerOnClick":false,"wgMediaViewerEnabledByDefault":true,"wgPopupsShouldSendModuleToUser":true,"wgPopupsConflictsWithNavPopupGadget":false,"wgRelatedArticles":null,"wgRelatedArticlesUseCirrusSearch":false,"wgRelatedArticlesOnlyUseCirrusSearch":false,"wgVisualEditor":{"pageLanguageCode":"en","pageLanguageDir":"ltr","pageVariantFallbacks":"en","usePageImages":true,"usePageDescriptions":false},"wgNoticeProject":"open","wgCentralNoticeCookiesToDelete":[],"wgCentralNoticeCategoriesUsingLegacy":["Fundraising","fundraising"],"wgCentralAuthMobileDomain":false,"wgVisualEditorToolbarScrollOffset":0,"wgVisualEditorUnsupportedEditParams":["undo","undoafter","veswitched"],"wgEditSubmitButtonLabelPublish":false});mw.loader.state({"ext.globalCssJs.user.styles":"ready","ext.globalCssJs.site.styles":"ready","ext.gadget.NoSmallFonts":"ready","site.styles":"ready","noscript":"ready","user.styles":"ready","user":"ready","user.options":"ready","user.tokens":"loading","ext.socialprofile.responsive":"ready","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript":"ready","mediawiki.legacy.shared":"ready","mediawiki.legacy.commonPrint":"ready","mediawiki.sectionAnchor":"ready","mediawiki.skinning.interface":"ready","skins.vector.styles":"ready","ext.globalCssJs.user":"ready","ext.globalCssJs.site":"ready"});mw.loader.implement("user.tokens@0phoura",function($,jQuery,require,module){/*@nomin*/mw.user.tokens.set({"editToken":"+\\","patrolToken":"+\\","watchToken":"+\\","csrfToken":"+\\"});
This is an extremely common trope in [[Speculative Fiction]], where magic or [[Applied Phlebotinum]] can be used to explain the characters appearance being at odds with their age.
});mw.loader.load(["site","mediawiki.page.startup","mediawiki.user","mediawiki.hidpi","mediawiki.page.ready","mediawiki.searchSuggest","ext.centralauth.centralautologin","ext.collapsiblevector.collapsibleNav","ext.eventLogging.subscriber","ext.gadget.ATTSiteCode","ext.gadget.Altredirects","ext.gadget.purgetab","ext.gadget.Auto_Complete","ext.gadget.HotLicense","ext.gadget.Edittools","ext.hideSection","ext.popups","ext.urlShortener.toolbar","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.init","ext.visualEditor.targetLoader","ext.centralNotice.geoIP","skins.vector.js"]);});</script>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?debug=false&amp;lang=en&amp;modules=ext.socialprofile.responsive%7Cext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript%7Cmediawiki.legacy.commonPrint%2Cshared%7Cmediawiki.sectionAnchor%7Cmediawiki.skinning.interface%7Cskins.vector.styles&amp;only=styles&amp;skin=vector"/>
When science fiction or fantasy takes this trope to its illogical extreme, it leads to [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]] or a [[Time Abyss]]. See also [[Age Is Relative]] and [[Improbable Age]]. Not to be confused with [[Older Than They Think]]. Contrast with [[Younger Than They Look]]. If they're just drawn in a way that makes them seem older, it's [[Artistic Age]]. When a character is played by a much younger actor, it becomes [[Hollywood Old]] unless the difference is [[Justified Trope|justified]]. When the ''actor'' is older than the character they portray, it's [[Dawson Casting]] (although the actor themselves may just fit this trope, justifying the [[Dawson Casting]]).
<script async="" src="/w/load.php?debug=false&amp;lang=en&amp;modules=startup&amp;only=scripts&amp;skin=vector"></script>

<meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content=""/>
Compare [[Mistaken Age]], [[Age-Inappropriate Dress]], and [[Really Was Born Yesterday]].
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?debug=false&amp;lang=en&amp;modules=ext.gadget.NoSmallFonts&amp;only=styles&amp;skin=vector"/>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?debug=false&amp;lang=en&amp;modules=site.styles&amp;only=styles&amp;skin=vector"/>
Contrast [[Animation Anatomy Aging]].
<meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.31.1"/>

<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"/>
Remember, this trope only covers characters who aren't impossibly old, just much older than they look. For characters who are impossibly old, see [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]] and [[Time Abyss]].
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png"/>

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico"/>
{{examples on subpages}}
<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/w/opensearch_desc.php" title="All The Tropes (en)"/>
{{reflist}}
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" href="https://allthetropes.org/w/api.php?action=rsd"/>
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
<link rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"/>
[[Category:Aging Tropes]]
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="All The Tropes Atom feed" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&amp;feed=atom"/>
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
<link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//login.miraheze.org"/>
[[Category:Elders]]
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script src="/w/load.php?debug=false&amp;lang=en&amp;modules=html5shiv&amp;only=scripts&amp;skin=vector&amp;sync=1"></script><![endif]-->
[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]
</head>
<body class="mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns--1 ns-special mw-special-Badtitle page-Special_Badtitle rootpage-Special_Badtitle skin-vector action-view"> <div id="mw-page-base" class="noprint"></div>
<div id="mw-head-base" class="noprint"></div>
<div id="content" class="mw-body" role="main">
<a id="top"></a>
<div id="siteNotice" class="mw-body-content"><!-- CentralNotice --></div><div class="mw-indicators mw-body-content">
</div>
<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" lang="en">Login required</h1> <div id="bodyContent" class="mw-body-content">
<div id="contentSub"></div>
<div id="jump-to-nav" class="mw-jump">
Jump to: <a href="#mw-head">navigation</a>, <a href="#p-search">search</a>
</div>
<div id="mw-content-text">Please <a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&amp;returnto=Older+Than+They+Look&amp;returntoquery=action%3Draw" title="Special:UserLogin">log in</a> to view other pages.<p id="mw-returnto">Return to <a href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Main Page">Main Page</a>.</p>
<noscript><img src="https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" title="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;" /></noscript></div> <div class="printfooter">
Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:Badtitle">https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:Badtitle{{Dead link}}</a>" </div>
<div id="catlinks" class="catlinks catlinks-allhidden" data-mw="interface"></div> <div class="visualClear"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="mw-navigation">
<h2>Navigation menu</h2>
<div id="mw-head">
<div id="p-personal" role="navigation" class="" aria-labelledby="p-personal-label">
<h3 id="p-personal-label">Personal tools</h3>
<ul>
<li id="pt-login-private"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&amp;returnto=Older+Than+They+Look&amp;returntoquery=action%3Draw" title="You need to log in to use this wiki [o]" accesskey="o">Log in</a></li> </ul>
</div>
<div id="left-navigation">
<div id="p-namespaces" role="navigation" class="vectorTabs" aria-labelledby="p-namespaces-label">
<h3 id="p-namespaces-label">Namespaces</h3>
<ul>
<li id="ca-nstab-special" class="selected"><span><a href="/w/index.php?action=raw&amp;title=Older+Than+They+Look" title="This is a special page, and it cannot be edited">Special page</a></span></li> </ul>
</div>
<div id="p-variants" role="navigation" class="vectorMenu emptyPortlet" aria-labelledby="p-variants-label">
<input type="checkbox" class="vectorMenuCheckbox" aria-labelledby="p-variants-label" />
<h3 id="p-variants-label">
<span>Variants</span>
</h3>
<div class="menu">
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="right-navigation">
<div id="p-views" role="navigation" class="vectorTabs emptyPortlet" aria-labelledby="p-views-label">
<h3 id="p-views-label">Views</h3>
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="p-cactions" role="navigation" class="vectorMenu emptyPortlet" aria-labelledby="p-cactions-label">
<input type="checkbox" class="vectorMenuCheckbox" aria-labelledby="p-cactions-label" />
<h3 id="p-cactions-label"><span>More</span></h3>
<div class="menu">
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div id="p-search" role="search">
<h3>
<label for="searchInput">Search</label>
</h3>
<form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform">
<div id="simpleSearch">
<input type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search All The Tropes" title="Search All The Tropes [f]" accesskey="f" id="searchInput"/><input type="hidden" value="Special:Search" name="title"/><input type="submit" name="fulltext" value="Search" title="Search the pages for this text" id="mw-searchButton" class="searchButton mw-fallbackSearchButton"/><input type="submit" name="go" value="Go" title="Go to a page with this exact name if it exists" id="searchButton" class="searchButton"/> </div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="mw-panel">
<div id="p-logo" role="banner"><a class="mw-wiki-logo" href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page"></a></div>
<div class="portal" role="navigation" id="p-navigation" aria-labelledby="p-navigation-label">
<h3 id="p-navigation-label">Navigation</h3>
<div class="body">
<ul>
<li id="n-Home-Page"><a href="/wiki/Main_Page">Home Page</a></li><li id="n-ATT-Community-Portal"><a href="/wiki/All_The_Tropes:Community_Portal">ATT Community Portal</a></li><li id="n-recentchanges"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChanges" title="A list of recent changes in the wiki [r]" accesskey="r">Recent changes</a></li><li id="n-randompage"><a href="/wiki/Special:Random" title="Load a random page [x]" accesskey="x">Random page</a></li><li id="n-MediaWiki-Help"><a href="/wiki/Help:Contents">MediaWiki Help</a></li><li id="n-Upload-file"><a href="/wiki/Special:Upload">Upload file</a></li> </ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="portal" role="navigation" id="p-Troper_Tools" aria-labelledby="p-Troper_Tools-label">
<h3 id="p-Troper_Tools-label">Troper Tools</h3>
<div class="body">
<ul>
<li id="n-User-Blogs"><a href="/wiki/Special:ArticlesHome">User Blogs</a></li><li id="n-Newest-Blog-Posts"><a href="/wiki/Special:ArticleLists">Newest Blog Posts</a></li><li id="n-Write-a-Blog-Post"><a href="/wiki/Special:CreateBlogPost">Write a Blog Post</a></li><li id="n-Follow-Your-Friends"><a href="/wiki/Special:UserActivity">Follow Your Friends</a></li><li id="n-See-Friends.2FFoes"><a href="/wiki/Special:ViewRelationshipRequests">See Friends/Foes</a></li><li id="n-View-Your-Messages"><a href="/wiki/Special:UserBoard">View Your Messages</a></li><li id="n-See-Your-Gifts"><a href="/wiki/Special:ViewGifts">See Your Gifts</a></li><li id="n-Gift-a-Friend"><a href="/wiki/Special:GiveGift">Gift a Friend</a></li> </ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="portal" role="navigation" id="p-Troping_Utilities" aria-labelledby="p-Troping_Utilities-label">
<h3 id="p-Troping_Utilities-label">Troping Utilities</h3>
<div class="body">
<ul>
<li id="n-ATT-Page-Creator"><a href="/wiki/All_The_Tropes:ATT_Page_Creator">ATT Page Creator</a></li><li id="n-Trope-Workshop"><a href="/wiki/Category:Trope_Workshop">Trope Workshop</a></li><li id="n-ATT-Forums"><a href="/wiki/Special:WikiForum">ATT Forums</a></li><li id="n-ATT-Forums-.28old.29"><a href="/wiki/Forum:All_The_Tropes">ATT Forums (old)</a></li><li id="n-ATT-WebChat-.28IRC.29"><a href="/wiki/Special:WebChat">ATT WebChat (IRC)</a></li><li id="n-ATT-WebChat-.28onwiki.29"><a href="/wiki/Special:Chat">ATT WebChat (onwiki)</a></li><li id="n-Troper-Userboxes"><a href="/wiki/All_The_Tropes:Userboxes">Troper Userboxes</a></li><li id="n-Mechanics-of-Writing"><a href="/wiki/Mechanics_of_Writing">Mechanics of Writing</a></li> </ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="portal" role="navigation" id="p-Troper_Social_Networks" aria-labelledby="p-Troper_Social_Networks-label">
<h3 id="p-Troper_Social_Networks-label">Troper Social Networks</h3>
<div class="body">
<ul>
<li id="n-ATT-Twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/ATTropes" rel="nofollow">ATT Twitter</a></li><li id="n-ATT-subreddit"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AllTheTropes/" rel="nofollow">ATT subreddit</a></li> </ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="portal" role="navigation" id="p-tb" aria-labelledby="p-tb-label">
<h3 id="p-tb-label">Tools</h3>
<div class="body">
<ul>
<li id="t-specialpages"><a href="/wiki/Special:SpecialPages" title="A list of all special pages [q]" accesskey="q">Special pages</a></li><li id="t-print"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:Badtitle&amp;action=raw&amp;printable=yes" rel="alternate" title="Printable version of this page [p]" accesskey="p">Printable version</a></li><li id="t-urlshortener"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UrlShortener&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fallthetropes.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DSpecial%3ABadtitle%26action%3Draw">Get shortened URL</a></li> </ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="footer" role="contentinfo">
<ul id="footer-places">
<li id="footer-places-privacy"><a href="//meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy" class="extiw" title="m:Privacy Policy">Privacy policy</a></li>
<li id="footer-places-about"><a href="/wiki/All_The_Tropes:About" title="All The Tropes:About">About All The Tropes</a></li>
<li id="footer-places-disclaimer"><a href="/wiki/All_The_Tropes:General_disclaimer" title="All The Tropes:General disclaimer">Disclaimers</a></li>
<li id="footer-places-termsofservice"><a href="//meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use" class="extiw" title="m:Terms of Use">Terms of Use</a></li>
<li id="footer-places-mobileview"><a href="https://allthetropes.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Badtitle&amp;action=raw&amp;mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile{{Dead link}}" class="noprint stopMobileRedirectToggle">Mobile view</a></li>
</ul>
<ul id="footer-icons" class="noprint">
<li id="footer-copyrightico">
<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"><img src="https://meta.miraheze.org/w/resources/assets/licenses/cc-by-sa.png" alt="Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)" width="88" height="31"/></a> </li>
<li id="footer-poweredbyico">
<a href="//www.mediawiki.org/"><img src="/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki_88x31.png" alt="Powered by MediaWiki" srcset="/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki_132x47.png 1.5x, /w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki_176x62.png 2x" width="88" height="31"/></a><a href="https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/"><img src="https://static.miraheze.org/metawiki/7/7e/Powered_by_Miraheze.png" alt="Miraheze Wiki Hosting" width="88" height="31"/></a> </li>
</ul>
<div style="clear: both;"></div>
</div>
<!-- Matomo -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var _paq = _paq || [];
_paq.push(["trackPageView"]);
_paq.push(["enableLinkTracking"]);
(function() {
var u = "https://matomo.miraheze.org/";
var globalId = 1;
_paq.push(["setTrackerUrl", u + "piwik.php"]);
_paq.push(['setDocumentTitle', "allthetropeswiki" + " - " + "Special:Badtitle"]);
_paq.push(["setSiteId", "2"]);
_paq.push(["setCustomVariable", 1, "userType", "Anonymous", "visit"]);
if ( globalId ) {
_paq.push(['addTracker', u + "piwik.php", globalId]);
}
var d=document, g=d.createElement("script"), s=d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; g.type="text/javascript";
g.defer=true; g.async=true; g.src=u+"piwik.js"; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s);
})();
</script>
<!-- End Matomo Code -->
<!-- Matomo Image Tracker -->
<noscript><p><img src="https://matomo.miraheze.org/piwik.php?idsite=2&amp;rec=1&amp;action_name=Special:Badtitle" style="border:0;" alt="" /></p></noscript>
<!-- End Matomo --><script>(window.RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.config.set({"wgBackendResponseTime":169,"wgHostname":"mw3"});});</script>
</body>
</html>

Latest revision as of 20:39, 3 April 2022

The hair must suck out all of the hormones.[1]
If she tells you she's 26, and looks 26, she's damn near forty!
—Chris Rock, "No Sex (in the Champagne Room)"[2]

Sometimes characters look their age. But in this instance, they don't. Whether it was a deliberate artistic choice on the behalf of the creator (usually to make the character more attractive or to legally fulfill a fetish) or something much deeper and linked to their characterization and the plot, this character will be older than they look. Although still within the normal range of the human lifespan (for that setting, anyway), this character will be noticeably younger than their age. Sometimes even improbably younger; it's not unheard of for a seeming teenager to be over the hill chronologically.

This is an extremely common trope in Speculative Fiction, where magic or Applied Phlebotinum can be used to explain the characters appearance being at odds with their age.

When science fiction or fantasy takes this trope to its illogical extreme, it leads to Really Seven Hundred Years Old or a Time Abyss. See also Age Is Relative and Improbable Age. Not to be confused with Older Than They Think. Contrast with Younger Than They Look. If they're just drawn in a way that makes them seem older, it's Artistic Age. When a character is played by a much younger actor, it becomes Hollywood Old unless the difference is justified. When the actor is older than the character they portray, it's Dawson Casting (although the actor themselves may just fit this trope, justifying the Dawson Casting).

Compare Mistaken Age, Age-Inappropriate Dress, and Really Was Born Yesterday.

Contrast Animation Anatomy Aging.

Remember, this trope only covers characters who aren't impossibly old, just much older than they look. For characters who are impossibly old, see Really Seven Hundred Years Old and Time Abyss.

Examples of Older Than They Look are listed on these subpages:
  1. ↑ (Read from right to left).
  2. ↑ The preceding line is "If a woman tells you she's 20 and looks 16... she's 12".
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Older_Than_They_Look?oldid=1961292"