Older Than They Look: Difference between revisions

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Content added Content deleted
VisualWikitext
(moved the Film examples to a new subpage)
(Some examples had already been moved to subpages. Finishing the job.)
 
(13 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 10: Line 10:
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]]).
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]]).


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


Contrast [[Animation Anatomy Aging]].
Contrast [[Animation Anatomy Aging]].
Line 17: Line 17:


{{examples on subpages}}
{{examples on subpages}}

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==
* [[X-Men|Magneto]], despite having white hair for most of his adult life, is actually physically in his late thirties/early forties, thanks to being reverted to infancy by Alpha the Ultimate Mutant one of the many times he was Absolutely Finally Defeated, then later re-aged to his physical prime by the Shi'ar agent Eric the Red after the series returned under [[Chris Claremont]]. Neither of these events get mentioned much anymore, though. The movies have him the age he'd actually be.
** Meanwhile, in [[X-Men: Evolution]], Magneto is restored to his prime through the [[Captain America (comics)]] [[Super Soldier]] project, which didn't suffer from [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]] as in the comics, but was dangerous to all non-mutants, with Cap himself currently in suspended animation until a cure can be found.
* [[Wolverine]]'s son Daken counts (while Wolverine himself, being born in the 19th century, just tips the scale at [[Really 700 Years Old]]). Daken was born in 1946, which makes him old enough to be the father of most of his teammates when he served with the [[Dark Avengers]]. He barely looks like he's in his early 20s [[Depending on the Artist|most of the time.]]
* [[Nick Fury]] was a World War II combat sergeant and hero, heading up the "Howling Commandos". By the time he became "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in the 60s, he was taking a special "youth formula" to explain why he he'd barely aged a day since then without some outlandish retcon. Not that youth formula isn't any weirder.
** Parodied with [[Nextwave]]'s "Dirk Anger", who was 90 years old and kept alive with drugs and pureed live chickens.
* Mystique is self-admittedly at least eighty years old, but her [[Shapeshifting]] powers greatly mask this fact.
* [[Black Widow (comics)|Black Widow]] also has been handwaved as being experimented on with something to keep her young. It explains how she could be a spy during the Cold War and still not look a day over 30.
* The ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' has Mina Murray, who's immortal due to her bath in the fires of youth at the lost city of Kor (from ''She: A History Of Adventure''), and thus always looks to be in her twenties. This might lead to her becoming [[Really 700 Years Old]] after awhile but, at the time of the Victorian-era comic book, it just means she looks really good for her age.
* ''[[Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl]]'' looks like she is ten years old and her friend, Ragamuffin, looks like he is a 25-year old guy. ''[[Undead Child|She is actually 100]] [[Vampire|and he is 400]].
* In ''[[Planetary]]'', there are certain characters called "century babies", that are born at midnight of a century's initial year(i.e. 12:00 a.m. January 1, 1900, etc.). These characters can still be killed, but once they reach a certain point in adulthood, they stop aging and it's never made clear if they can in fact die of old age. Century baby Elijah Snow looks about 40 but is(at the time of the book) in his late 90's; Jakita Wagner and Anna Hark are the daughters of century babies(Lord Blackstock and Hark, respectively); both are in their mid-70's and neither look a day over 30, with Anna predicting that she will live for at least three hundred years. Spy John Stone has been aging at about 1/5 normal speed since his 40s. Then there's [[Doc Savage|Axel]] [[Expy|Brass]], who figured out how to [[Charles Atlas Superpower|stop his aging]] when he was 43. Jenny Sparks from ''[[The Authority]]'' is also a "century baby" and stops physically aging at the age of 19, though she looks to be in her mid-20's.
* Jack Knight from ''[[Starman (comics)|Starman]]'' looked like he was somewhere in his late 20s, when he was really in his mid 30s. It's not that drastic, but they do lampshade it a few times.
* Most of the surviving [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] DC characters have had a few decades taken off as a result of various adventures and continuity paradoxes. Notably not used with Wesley Dodds AKA The Sandman.
** At this point, the remaining survivors actually have it built into their powers. Strangely, back when older versions of the Big Three were part of the team, they aged normally despite having the most leeway to excuse slow aging.
** John Byrne's Generations series had several characters with this including a [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|superpowered immortal Batman]].
* Jessica Drew, also known as the first ''[[Spider-Woman]]'', went into cryogenic stasis to speed up the effects of an experimental spider serum her dad injected her with. She went into stasis when she was four, spent at least thirty years in it, and came out looking seventeen.
* Ed "Baby Brain" Stargard in ''[[Seven Soldiers]]: Manhattan Guardian''. In flashbacks to the Newsboy Army he's a superintelligent baby. In the present he looks like a baby who's got old without maturing.
* Cecil in ''[[Ghostopolis]]'' {{spoiler|at first}}. He looks approximately 10 years old, despite being the ghost of a 60-to-70-year old man.
* Neil Nordegraf from the [[Scott Pilgrim]] series is generally known as "Young Neil" among his friends due to being the youngest of the gang (atleast before Knives Chau showed up). {{spoiler|This was played with to such an extent that when Scott finally acknowledged him simply as "Neil" in the final volume, Neil thought it was the best day of his life}}. Many people will however argue that alot of other characters in the series look younger than they make out to be due to the comic's art style, and due to [[Art Evolution]], it becomes less and less obvious.
* Monster Girl from ''[[Invincible]]'' is 29 and looks about 9. Every time she uses her powers she gets younger but her powers get stronger.
* [[Doctor Strange]] was born in the 1930s but remains 40-something (since that was his age when he met and accepted Death just prior to becoming Sorcerer Supreme).
* Max from ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' looks, acts, and sounds (in the game and cartoon adaptations) like a child, but he's actually an adult.

== Fan Works ==
* A [[Fan Wank|fandom]] example: for a while, it was vaguely popular among ''[[Harry Potter]]'' [[fanfic]]tion writers to claim that (a few hours per weekday for a year of) [[Time Travel]] had sufficiently aged Hermione that it is no longer squicky to have her [[Shipping|paired with Snape]]. Which is silly on the face of it, since two or three extra hours every weekday for an entire year (without even considering summer vacation) adds up to less than thirty days of additional aging. Not to mention she was petrified in her second year for about the same length of time. That's right folks, she broke even.
* Maoimi in ''[[Soulless shell]]'' is supposed to be seventeen, but her age isn't mentioned until the final chapter and thanks to the [[So Bad It's Good|hilariously clumsy writing]] she comes across as being about seven. The [[MSTing]] does not let this go un-riffed.
{{quote|'''Romsca:''' (as Maoimi) C'n I 'ave some candy, pwease, nice mister paedophile?}}
* Zigzagged with in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', with {{spoiler|Kyon, Mikuru, Kanae, and Yuki}} aging a year [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|during training]] every night, but having {{spoiler|Yuki}} [[Fountain of Youth|de-age them afterwards]] with added [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]. Then, Kyon time-travels all over the place, running errands for his future self, which makes things more complicated.
* The ''[[Naruto]]'' fanfic ''[[Hakumei]]'' has a jounin-level villain in her late teens convincingly disguise herself as a 12-year old genin.
* ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' takes place in 1980; when [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] are sent on their journey, they are physically (but not mentally) de-aged from the thirty-something men they are into the ages they were when Beatlemania was at its height.
* Lady Venus in ''[[The Blue Blur of Termina]]''. According to Tatl, despite appearing to be in the human equivalent of her late twenties, she is actually over five hundred years old.

== Literature ==
* Longevity (alongside [[Immortality]]) is a recurring theme in [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s work, resulting in several instances of this trope in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'':
** Humans of Numenorean lineage, such as Aragorn, physically age slower and live longer than normal men. Aragorn, for instance, turned 88 the day he met Gandalf the White in Fangorn Forest. A [[Deleted Scene]] in the film of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Two Towers]]'' has Aragorn reveal his true age to Eowyn, much to her surprise.
** Possessing the One Ring also slows down aging; for the 60 years Bilbo carries the Ring he does not appear to age much at all (but it catches up with him after he abandons it), and for the 17 years Frodo has the Ring he experiences the same thing.
** Alongside Bilbo, normal Hobbits also age slowly - Frodo was 33 when he took up the Ring and considered to have only just come of age, Pippin was 29 during the War of the Ring and is mistaken for an early teenage male. When Aragorn and Legolas ask Eomer if he did not find Hobbits among the slain Orcs, they describe them as small bodied and child-like in appearance. There are many short people in [[Real Life]], but they do not look childlike. By comparison: Frodo is 10 years older than Boromir, and Sam is only two years younger.
* In [[Teresa Edgerton]]'s second ''[[Celydonn]]'' trilogy, Gwenlliant is initially twelve years old (in ''Castle of the Silver Wheel''), and looks it, but thanks to [[Time Travel]] is at least a year older than her official age by the time she is technically fifteen (in ''The Moon and the Thorn'').
* Gets a passing mention in David Weber's ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series due to recipients of prolong treatment have a very extended physical adolescence. A visitor from a planet that doesn't have it is disturbed at seeing a combat warship full of what looks like teenagers and even pre-teens. Also mentioned in passing is that sex among crewmembers is something that happens fairly regularly, so...
** Even newborn babies are Older Than They Look: for a mother who's had prolong treatment, pregnancy lasts eleven and a half months.
** The trope also occurs in Weber's ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'', as a combination of biological enhancement, suspended animation, and (among the bad guys) outright [[Body Surf|body surfing]].
* Most of the characters in [[John Scalzi]]'s [[Old Man's War]], thanks to them being {{spoiler|the minds of elderly humans copied into young, super-powered clone bodies}}. In the same series, a bunch of characters Invert the trope, being instead {{spoiler|newborn minds "born" inside the same kind of young adult bodies}}-- and by sight it's almost impossible to tell which is which.
* In Garth Nix's ''[[Old Kingdom|Lirael]]'', the 19-year old title character senses her travelling companion Nick (her nephew Sam's best friend), developing a romantic interest in her, so tells him she's thirty-five with a marvelous skin-care regimen. Her [[Non-Human Sidekick]], the Disreputable Dog, backs her up because [[It Amused Me|she thinks it's hilarious]].
* In the latest novel in the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' series, ''Cain's Last Stand'', Cain is a nearly 100-year old retiree who appears to be in his early fifties or so thanks to [[Applied Phlebotinum|regular juvenat treatments.]] Characters who have been receiving the treatments longer can cross into [[Really 700 Years Old]], such as Alizabeth Bequin in the Eisenhorn series, who's 170 or so but doesn't look any older than her 20s.
* ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]''. For example, Tanith Low is eighty, and looks about twenty two.
* In ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', the four Pevensies though they look like children they are in a sense technically adults having spent fifteen years in Narnia though they did de-age once back in England, they are the only people who have gone to Narnia and grew up. This idea is more played with in the fan-fiction universe.
* In the short story ''[http://www.benjaminrosenbaum.com/stories/start.the.clock.html Start the Clock]'' by Benjamin Rosenbaum, a virus that caused humans to stop physically ageing struck the Earth around thirty years ago, making the protagonist, physically nine years old, technically thirty-nine. An interesting facet of this is that characters who are physically children tend to act like children who have had around thirty years extra experience at being them. Then later in the story, the protagonist meets a girl who is mentally the same age as she is physically, having been infected by the virus at the age of two and only just recently been administered a "cure" to allow her to age naturally.
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Stand]]'', Tom Cullen is said to be looking no more than twenty-three; actually he's at least forty-five. The fact that he acts like a kid probably doesn't help.
* Speaking of Older Than They Look Cullens, all those [[Twilight (novel)|sparkly vampires]] are at least 80 years older than they look, ranging from Older Than They Look for the youngest to [[Really 700 Years Old]] for the oldest.
* Several of the secondary adult ''[[Harry Potter]]'' characters qualify here, in particular Dumbledore and Griselda Marchbanks, each of whom are well over a hundred years old; it's implied that wizards have a somewhat [[Wizards Live Longer|longer natural lifespan than muggles]]. Voldemort had also ceased aging altogether, being 71 years old by the last book, though his monstrous appearance hardly seems like a fair trade for smooth clear skin.
* The vampiress Claudia in ''[[Interview with the Vampire]]'', the first book of Anne Rice's series [[The Vampire Chronicles]] is [[Not Growing Up Sucks|forever stuck in the body of a 6-year old girl]]. She would've grown into being [[Really 700 Years Old]], but was killed just a few decades after she was turned. In the 1994 film adaption of the book, her age was changed to twelve. Considering that Anne Rice wrote the screenplay for the movie, we can assume she changed it to reduce the [[Squick]] factor of the love story, along with pragmatic reasons concerning child labor laws and acting ability.
* Willie Wonka is this. While nothing in ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' suggests he's a ''young'' man, he's actually a ''very'' old man. older than he implies, which is why he is [[Passing the Torch]] to Charlie in the final scene of the book.
* Although he still looks pretty old, Jack Holloway in H. Beam Piper's ''Fuzzy'' novels is technically 10 years older than he appears physically due to the time dilation effects of hyperspace.
* In ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', the character of the title transfers the effects of age and wickedness to a portrait of himself. After twenty years, he hasn't appeared to age a day.
* In [[Jim Butcher]]'s ''[[Codex Alera]]'' series, [[Making a Splash|watercrafters]] have an innate healing ability which causes them to retain their youthful appearances even as they age—Gaius Sextus, for examples, is over 80 but looks around 40. A scene in the fourth book has a cop mistaking the 50-year old Isana for a streetwalker, until she lifts her hood so he can see her graying hair.
** Mention should also go to main character Tavi. In the first book, Amara guesses he's [[Cute Shotaro Boy|twelve or thirteen]], only to be informed that he's fifteen. {{spoiler|Thing is, Isana's been lying to him about his age: he's actually ''almost eighteen'', since he was born the night Septimus was killed. Granted, his apparent youth is due to her magically stunting his growth.}}
* Most of the Wilds in [[Trudi Canavan]]'s ''The Age of Five'' trilogy and most of the The White and The Voices are a lot older than they look. Juran, the leader of the White, is actually over 100 years old, his aging having been stopped by the Circle of Gods when he was chosen to be one of their human representatives. They [[Really 700 Years Old|only get older]] from there.
* [[Wizards Live Longer|Lakewalkers]] in ''[[The Sharing Knife]]'' books tend to be this to some degree. When Fawn Bluefield brings her [[Rescue Romance|rescuer/beau]] Dag Redwing home to her parents her father starts an interrogation about his intentions with a question about his age (everyone, including 18-year old Fawn herself, takes him to be [[May–December Romance|somewhere in his thirties]]) over the dinner table. When Dag answers (with some hesitation) "fifty-five", Fawn promptly chokes on her cider.
{{quote|'''Fawn:''' ''(whispering)'' Pa... is 53!}}
** Also Fawn herself. Her entire family is short, and she is best described as petite. She is constantly mistaken for a child and twice the mistake is only realized by seeing or touching her breasts. The misunderstandings increase when she is standing next to the [[One Head Taller|two heads taller]] Dag.
* John Geary, the protagonist of Jack Campbell's ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' series, was a [[Human Popsicle]] in a lost escape pod for over a century. After his rescue and revival, his "posthumous" promotion to Captain gives him seniority over every other Captain in the fleet—which he exploits to pull their collective chestnuts out of the fire, whether they like it or not.
* The protagonist (and [[Unreliable Narrator|questionably sane narrator]]) of ''[[The Tin Drum]]'', Oskar Matzerath, throws himself down the stairs at age three to stop growing. Over the years he exploits his young appearance to get (and get away with) whatever he wants, at the expense of those around him. {{spoiler|He forces himself to start growing again when he's in his twenties, after his father dies.}}
* In ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'', Nico di Angelo looks twelve. He's actually seventy-something from being put in the Lotus Casino, which slows down time. A lot. His sister is also the same. Being set in a world where [[Greek Mythology]] is true, many of the other characters are [[Really 700 Years Old|at least 2000 years old]]. Grover, on the other hand, is thirty-two but looks sixteen (satyrs age slower than humans).
* In Peter Watts's ''[[Rifters Trilogy]]'' a pedophilic character is captured by a police sting operation which used a man who had been artificially transformed into an apparent child as bait.
* [[Magic Knight|Serroi]], in [[Jo Clayton]]'s ''[[Duel of Sorcery]]'' and ''Dancer'' trilogies, is [[Little Miss Badass|tiny and baby-faced]] enough to pass herself off as a preadolescent at the age of twenty-seven.
* In the ''[[Alliance Union]]'' novels by [[C. J. Cherryh]], FTL travels slows down physical aging by around 25%. So spacer teenagers look like middle school kids, twenty-somethings look like teenagers, etc.
* ''[[Posleen War Series]]'': All rejuvenated personnel qualify for this, appearing to be in their early twenties or younger, while dating back, in some cases, to before [[World War Two]]. It's occasionally an issue until people start assuming that anybody who looks 20 is probably older. Often a lot older. And you get generation bending, Michael O'Neal Sr's second wife is almost assuredly younger than his son (her age isn't stated, but comparing the children's ages leads to this conclusion).
* In Stieg Larsson's ''[[Millennium Trilogy]]'', lead character Lisbeth Salander is mentioned as looking "barely legal", which in Sweden is 15. She's actually 24 at the time of the first book, but is described as an "uncommonly thin and fine-boned" person.
* The title character in [[Arthur Machen]]'s short story, "The Bright Boy", looks to be about 7–10 years old, but is actually {{spoiler|a man in his 60s}}. The ending reveals that {{spoiler|he was likely conceived by a mortal man and an [[The Fair Folk|infernal]] woman.}} It also reveals that {{spoiler|he is a fugitive rapist who is passing himself off as the son of a wealthy couple. Because of his abnormal nature, he stands out like a sore thumb and there is no other way for him to hide from authorities.}}
* In P.N. Elrod's vampire novels, vampires who are older than about 20 revert to that age when they die and return. This was most evident with {{spoiler|the once-elderly Gaylen}} in ''Lifeblood'', and is a frequent annoyance to Jack Fleming, who's chronologically in his late 30s yet is regularly called "kid" by people who don't know this. {{spoiler|It also means Jack may never be able to see his parents again, as he doesn't want to tell them he was murdered and his newfound youthfulness would demand an explanation.}}
* [[Big Bad|Scourge]] of [[Warrior Cats]], mostly because of his small size. Firestar even mistakes him for an apprentice at first.
** His name was Tiny when he was a kit, to emphasize this further.
* From the [[Left Behind]] books: once the Millennium starts in ''Kingdom Come'', all the naturals who enter this time period experience decreased aging similar to the first several generations of mankind in the book of Genesis, with the children becoming young adults by the time they reach 100. It's not explained how those who were already adults, including those who were already at advanced age, experience this decreased aging at the same rate as the children who enter the Millennium. By the end of the Millennium, however, the longest-living naturals end up really showing their age.
* ''[[The Witcher]]'':
** Geralt of Rivia, the titular character. Reading between the lines, you can see that he is well into his eighties, and has white hair. However, the mutations he has been exposed to and his active lifestyle give him the appearance and physique of an extremely fit man in his mid-twenties.
** Geralt's friend, chronicler and drinking buddy Dandelion has been described as being forty, sounding like he's thirty, looking like he's twenty and acting like he's ten.
** [[The Obi-Wan|Vesemir]], Geralt's mentor and the oldest witcher alive, may be pushing ''800'' but is still a match for Geralt physically.

== Live-Action TV ==
* An episode of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' features a girl named Janie Spear with Turner's Syndrome, so even though she is seventeen years old, physically, she looks like a 12-year old child. The episode focuses on her relationship with a 30-year old employee of her father's; since she's seventeen it isn't statutory rape, but none of the detectives are comfortable with what this says about [[Lolicon|her boyfriend's taste in girls]].
** And in another episode, a girl in her late to mid-twenties not only poses as a 16-year old, but is under the delusion that she is, despite having a complete memory of all the years she has spent going from one foster home to another and creating false identities. Based in the real case of [http://swallowingthecamel.blogspot.com/2010/11/fake-teens-iv-serial-teen-treva.html Treva Thornberry].
** In another episode, there was a young rookie cop who took down a suspected rapist until it was found out that the cop was really a 16-year old wannabe.
* An episode of ''[[Law and Order]]'' revolves around a teenager who is arrested for the murder of one of her teachers, followed up by another teacher arrested for sleeping with her. {{spoiler|In actuality the "teen" is a con-artist who is in her thirties, and killed the teacher to prevent her from revealing her real age.}}
** {{spoiler|A very similar plot forms one episode of ''[[Psych]]''.}}
* In one episode of ''[[CSI New York]]'', there is a subplot where {{spoiler|one of the suspects was actually raped by a fellow "student" who was really a wanted sex offender}}. Compare to the examples above.
* The 1980s hit ''[[21 Jump Street]]'' was entirely based around the premise of cops who looked young enough that they could go undercover as high school students.
* In the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Rascals", Keiko O'Brien is temporarily turned into an adorable 12-year old. The fact that she still wants to be treated like a wife [[squick]]s Miles out a bit. Three other crewmembers - Picard, Guinan, and Ro - are similarly altered, but none of them are in relationships at the time, though they all happily exploited this trope to retake the ship from a hostile Ferengi takeover.
** The O'Briens seem to get more than their fair share of this trope. There's another ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space 9]]'' episode, "Hard Time", where an alien race sentences O'Brien to a 21-years-long virtual prison sentence. He experiences all 21 years of his brutal, tortuous prison term in only a few days, making him mentally 21 years older; 21 really, really crappy years older. And even their daughter gets a [[Overnight Age-Up]] treatment due to a [[Negative Space Wedgie]].
* In ''[[Firefly]]'', Malcolm Reynolds looks like he is, at most, in his mid-thirties. However, a comparison of the dates of his birth and the dates of the "present" indicates he is in his late forties to early fifties, which is supported by Mal referring to himself as a "mean old man." This can be justified by the advanced medical technology of the setting, however, or perhaps by [[Joss Whedon]] originally envisoning the character as being played by an older actor.]
** The screenshot that gives us Mal's year of birth might well be a mistake caused by a goof switcharound of the last two digits of his year of birth from 2486 to 2468, which means he ends up eighteen years older than he looks. This makes sense considering everyone ''else'' on the show, including Mal's second-in-command, Zoe (whom he is closest to) seems to be aging at relatively normal human rates.
*** Also Mal, as someone who wasn't brought up or living near the Core planets, probably wouldn't have access to advanced anti-aging technology - which points at there being a goof somewhere along the way.
* Jesse Travis of ''[[Diagnosis: Murder]]'' got this on occasion. How gracefully he reacted depended on how snotty the other person acted.
* Nearly all the regular vampire characters in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' are a century or more old but look the same age as when they became vampires. This trope applies to vampires in general, really, though very few in the Buffyverse seem to make it [[Really 700 Years Old|past their first hundred years]] without getting staked.
* In the future dystopia of ''[[Dollhouse]]'', "Iris" seems to be a 10-year old girl but actually has the imprinted mind of a grown woman—first a woman who pretends to be a girl before pulling a gun on Zone, and later Caroline, whom Zone and Mag upload into the girl to find the way to Safe Haven to avoid the mass mindwiping that has thrown civilization into chaos.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' novels reveal that Alfred Bester is in his seventies by the time we first see him.
* In ''[[6teen|30 Rock]]'', it's implied that head page Kenneth is lots older than his callow youthful appearance would suggest.
{{quote|'''Tracy:''' Ken, you don't want to be a page forever?
'''Kenneth:''' ''(alarmed) Who said I've been alive forever?'' }}
* During ''[[Degrassi]]'s'' first [[Big Damn Movie]], while Paige is living up the diva socialite lifestyle, she has herself an 18th birthday party. Which could be chalked up as [[Blatant Lies]]. The actress is in her mid twenties and the character is in her early twenties. It also can be counted as a casual jab at [[Dawson Casting]].
** [[The Ingenue|Clare]]'s schoolgirl attire and hairstyle does a good job of dropping her apparent age from 14 to a tween. Probably as a means to play up her innocence. Her pink outfit in ''Causing a Commotion'' has a similar effect, as this before her wardrobe upgrade.
* An episode of [[Glee]] had one character stating that Kurt (who was about 16 at the time) couldn't have purchased alcohol with a fake i.d. because he looked "like a 12-year old milkmaid." She's exaggerating, but [https://web.archive.org/web/20121014015126/http://www.nypost.com/r/nypost/blogs/popwrap/200910/Images/01/kurt-milkmaid.jpg not by much]. Chris Colfer himself was 19 at the time of filming.
* In the original performance of ''[[Cinderella (film)|Cinderella]]'', 30-yearold Edie Adams portrayed the centuries-old Fairy Godmother.
* Omar on ''[[The Wire]]'': Carries a sawed-off shotgun, dresses in a [[Badass Longcoat]] with an impressive physique underneath, makes a living through professional armed robbery of drug dealers, escapes from several deadly firefights like a damned ghost in the night, and is an overall smooth operator. Looks to be in his mid 30s, but {{spoiler|a card on his body bag}} reveals he was 48 years old at the time. The actor playing Omar is actually not much younger than the character.
* Used in ''[[Lost in Oz]]'' as a plot point. Princess Ozma is said to be in her 20s, but {{spoiler|was enchanted to be an 8-year old forever.}}
* ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]]'''s Gou Fukami looks like he is in his mid to late 20s, but in flashbacks to his brother's childhood looks exactly the same age as he does now, and dialogue implies that he is or should be around the age of the 40-something Miki. It can possibly be implied that he stopped aging physically {{spoiler|after turning into a werewolf.}}
** A similar example is Masato Jin in ''[[Tokumei Sentai Gobusters]]'', who spent 13 years in the subspace and didn't age during that time.
* In one episode of ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' when Eric goes to Hollywood to work on a sitcom he meets an actress who plays a little girl on the show but is actually 42 years old. She then hits on him by grabbing his ass.
* In one episode of ''[[Smallville]]'', Lana Lang is haunted by the ghost of a childhood friend, Emily. Emily was stated to be 10 years old, but she looks and acts much younger, with handwriting that looks more like a 2nd grader and interests and speech patterns more typical of a 4 or 5 year old. In flashbacks, Lana appears to have been an improbably immature 10 year old as well, since she didn't act very differently from Emily.

== Tabletop Games ==
* This generally happens to [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|werewolves]] once they undergo the First Change. As werewolves have a strong [[Healing Factor]], it's understandable that aging would be somewhat slowed. There's a vignette in one book meant to emphasize this - a werewolf who looks to be in her early 40s is called in for a polygraph test, and completely confuses the cops when she admits to being in her 70s and the test shows she's telling the truth.
* The same goes for the [[Geist: The Sin Eaters|Sin-Eaters]]. The fusion of the Geist and human soul causes Sin-Eaters to stay roughly in their prime in terms of energy and ability. They don't necessarily stop aging, but they avoid most of the problems of old age, such as arthritis and organ malfunction, often resulting in this.

== Theater ==
* [[Older Than Radio]]: In the [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operetta ''Iolanthe'', the hero, aged twenty-five, is caught embracing a woman who is not his fiancée and looks seventeen. She's actually his mother, a fairy, but the other characters think that's a staggeringly improbable cover story. "Her age upon the date of his birth", reasons one, "was minus eight."
* In the [[Distant Finale]] of ''Vanities: The Musical'', the women are in their late 30's or 40's, but are still "lookin' good", as the closing song in the off-Broadway version says.
* {{spoiler|Clara}} in [[The Light in the Piazza]].
* {{spoiler|Raina Petkoff is 23, but gets mistaken for 17}} in ''[[Arms and the Man]]''.

== Video Games ==
* ''Apollo Justice: [[Ace Attorney]]'' is twenty-two years of age. However, in the second case of the game, the police seem to be under the impression that he's of the same age as Trucy (who's fifteen), shooing him away from the crime scene telling him to "go play somewhere else."
** Likewise, Lamiroir's age is 40 years old according to her profile in the Court Record, despite her looking like a woman in her mid-twenties.
*** Most likely a side-effect of being {{spoiler|Apollo's [[Hot Shonen Mom]].}}
* B.B. ("Baby Bonnie") Hood (aka "Bulleta" in Japan) from ''[[Darkstalkers]]''. The same game has an example of [[Really 700 Years Old]] in ''Lilith''.
** Not quite right, the official guide states her age as being "between 10-14". Around 12 seems about right for her.
* The character named "Jr." in the ''[[Xenosaga]]'' series appears to be twelve or thirteen years old, but is actually twenty-eight. His genetically engineered powers caused him to be physically stuck with a kid's body due to a major trauma when he was actually that age. He has a clone twin brother, (well, two, actually, but let's not get into that) who is younger by a small margin but has aged normally, and at one time chides him, "You're older than I am. Try to act like it sometimes." There is a running gag in the series about how one popular rumor is that Jr. is actually the "illegitimate son" of his clone twin. Jr. doesn't seem quite sure whether to be amused or annoyed by this. Being so young in appearance makes it acceptable for Jr. to have a romantic interest in an artificial human girl who is Loli in appearance and is actually about the age she looks...
* Rose in [[The Legend of Dragoon]]. She might look like she's only in her twenties or thirties, but she fought in [[Great Offscreen War|The Dragon Campaign]], which happened at least a thousand years ago.
* While most demons in ''[[Disgaea]]'' are definitely in the category of [[Really 700 Years Old]], there is one "mundane" example in Yukimaru, who is twenty years old but looks rather younger.
* Both {{spoiler|Kori}} and {{spoiler|Sox}} in ''[[Time Hollow]]'' are frozen in time, so they don't age. {{spoiler|Kori}} is about forty, while {{spoiler|Sox}} is implied to be [[Really 700 Years Old]].
* If you choose to date her during the summer festival, 15-year old Ayane Matsunaga from ''[[Persona 4]]'' is mistaken for an elementary, then middle school student by one of the vendors. To add insult to injury, when she wins a book in a festival raffle, the host politely warns that it may be too difficult for her to read. She doesn't take it very well.
* According to Grienko's notes in ''[[Second Sight]]'', the psychic Zener Children are afflicted with a developmental disorder that has stopped them from aging past puberty. Since Project Zener has been active (if not funded) for several decades, this would place most of them in their forties or fifties.
* Either this trope or the opposite appears in [[Resident Evil 4]], with Ramon Salazar. While most players assumed he was a child no older than 11 playing dress up, Leon refers to him as old man. Both are wrong, he's in his mid 20's.
* Pretty much everyone in ''[[Bayonetta]]''; the heroine looks about thirty, but she's actually more than six centuries old.
* Several characters in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' fall under this trope because of [[Magitek]] experiments.
** Presea Combatir had her biological and mental growth stunted by a magical implant for 16 years, leaving her a 28-year old with the body and ([[Emotionless Girl|heavily traumatized]]) mind of a 12-year old. Due to her circumstances, she is treated much like a [[Human Popsicle]] by the rest of the cast.
** ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]: Dawn of the New World'' has Alice. While it's never explained how or by how much, in one of the skits Marta explains that Alice, who looks younger than her, is actually much older. Alice flaunts her cuteness constantly, much to Marta's annoyance and Decus' delight.
*** Well, they do give the excuse that she's half-elf (but then, so is Genis and he looks about right for his age.) She's said to be ''at least'' eighteen, but she's rather short, and she acts and dresses like she's about six.
** Beryl Benito in ''[[Tales of Hearts]]'' is the requisite [[Token Mini-Moe|tiny squeaky thing]], but she's supposed to be eighteen.
** Pascal from ''[[Tales of Graces]]'' is supposed to be 22 years old. Considering how she looks [[Adult Child|and acts]], this is pretty hard to believe.
*** To say nothing of the 40-year old [[Cool Old Guy|Malik]].
* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Path of Radiance'' and its sequel, ''Radiant Dawn'', a few characters are described as "Branded", meaning they are a result of a taboo union between the two races in the game: laguz (shape-shifters) and beorc (normal persons). While the branded are most like the beorc, they generally age slower like their laguz forefathers. As branded are shun by laguz and beorc alike, they cannot settle down, and need to hide their brand (which can be difficult if it shows up on, say, the face).
** While the laguz also generally belong to this trope, their life spans are a lot longer, and a few races (like the dragons) become [[Really 700 Years Old]].
* Vincent Valentine of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' appears and is listed in all game materials to be age 27, but that fails to factor in the thirty years he spent sleeping in a coffin. As his age in all future installments has failed to increase like the rest of the cast's, it can be assumed that the bizarre experimentation Hojo subjected him to has sealed his age.
** Vincent's love interest Lucretia is just about as old as he is but thanks to Jenova cells she still looks just as young.
** In ''[[Dirge of Cerberus]]'', Vincent meets Shelke, a new character (and possibly [[Squick|a new love interest]]). She's a 19-year old whose body stopped growing at [[Token Mini-Moe|age nine]].
** In ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', {{spoiler|Fran's sister}} reveals she left the village ''fifty'' years ago. This revelation is later played for laughs, with Vaan being utterly (and understandably) confused by this information.
** Rydia in ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]'' is probably in her forties or at least her late thirties, since she was an adult at the end of ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', and TAY takes place seventeen years later. Nonetheless, she retains much of her youthful appearance and mannerisms.
*** Possibly a side-effect of {{spoiler|the time she spent in the World of Summons in the original game, where time flows differently.}}
** As of [[Advent Children]], Sephiroth is 32 but stopped physically aging at 25 (that's what you get when {{spoiler|you go several years without having a physical body at all}}).
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[Majoras Mask]]'', Kafei is a grown male that is about to be married to his fiancé. He comes across Skull Kid, when Kafei doesn't play with him Skull Kid transforms him into a child, he spends the game in hiding or covering his face with a mask.
** In ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'', the Kokiri don't appear to age over the seven years that Link grows from ten (their apparent age) to seventeen, though it's strongly implied that they are [[Really 700 Years Old]] as long as the Deku Tree ({{spoiler|or at least ''a'' Deku Tree}}) is close enough to support them. Impa from the same game may be a straighter version of the trope (in the present, that is, and not just the future), but not enough information is given in canon to confirm this.
** Don't let [[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Malo]]'s cute baby looks fool you—he is actually ''eight years old'' and [[Wise Beyond Their Years|very savvy when it comes to business]].
* [[Meido|Fiona]] of ''[[Arcana Heart]]'', who stopped aging after she was pulled into the Elemental World, so while she's approximately as old as [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo|Saki]], she still looks like a little girl.
* In ''[[Secret of Evermore]]'' this trope extends to all four of the human characters who have been trapped for thirty years in the virtual world of Evermore, since nobody physically ages there, but it particularly comes into play with Elizabeth, who was 10 years old at the time of the experiment. When the present-day hero's accidentally transported into Evermore and meets her, she's become the ruler and protector of a prehistoric village, and has a mature, [[The Obi-Wan]] personality that's completely at odds with her appearance.
* Lymle from ''[[Star Ocean: The Last Hope]]'' looks and acts around six years old, but really is around 15 due to both the size of her people in general and from an accident with symbology that caused her to fall into a demon portal and suffer so much hate and miserly she cut off all of her emotions. (This is only revealed in the [[All There in the Manual|in-game encyclopedia]].)
** She's also supposed to be autistic, but because that's a hot potato topic the word "autism" was left out of the localisation.
* Akuma from ''[[Street Fighter]]'' is ''50'' in the most recent game in the timeline (Street Fighter III). You wouldn't know it by looking at him.
* Shadow the Hedgehog, [[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'s rival, is 50, but that's just the time he's accumulated being preserved in a machine on Prison Island. Apparently, he shouldn't even be ''two''. Funny, considering that he curses up a storm in his game...
* In ''[[Super Smash Brothers|Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', the ''[[Mother 3|Mother]]''/''[[EarthBound]]'' series characters Ness and Lucas are depicted as looking very young, when they are actually supposed to be teenagers. It's justifiable in that their original in-game sprites and character models look like children, but it's still pretty funny when you see just how ''short'' they are. It's especially evident in the Subspace Emissary scenes where Lucas and the Pokémon Trainer are traveling together. According to the ''Pokémon'' series canon, people can apply for Trainer's licenses at 10 years of age, and yet Lucas, who could be at least 3 years older than the Pokémon Trainer, is half his height.
** That rule applies to the anime only. In the games and most other media, you can become a trainer whenever you can handle Pokémon and they listen to you (in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' you even fight ''kindergärtners'' in the Japanese version; pre-schoolers in the international ones). Pokémon Trainer is eleven, though, since he's based off Red.
* To an extent, some of the ''[[Pokémon]]'' protagonists. In canon, most of them are around eleven years old from the looks of it, but several look a bit younger. The ''Black and White'' protagonists are supposed to be older, though.
* Pit in ''[[Kid Icarus]]''. It can be gathered by a comment Palutena made in the demo of ''[[Kid Icarus|Uprising]]'' that Pit is at least over 24. Being an angel, it's very likely he is [[Really 700 Years Old|centuries old]].
* Jaguar from ''[[Space Channel 5]]'' doesn't look much older than Ulala and Pudding who are respectively 22 and 19, though he's actually 35.
* Carlie of ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'' looks like a toddler. She's actually 15, because {{spoiler|she's a half-elf.}}
** The [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-beastman]] Kevin fits too, although not quite to the extent of Carlie.
* ''[[Tekken]]'' has its moments. Marshall Law in Tekken 6 specifically looks younger than 49, and even fans speculated that could be his son Forest in disguise.
** Lee Chaolan also looks younger, he looks like he's in his late twenties to early thirties. He's actually 49, but it isn't really surprising to fans, since he was in the first two Tekken games, and the newer Tekken games take place 20 years after Tekken 2. But for people new to the games, it's a bit surprising.
** The queens of this trope for this particular series have to be Nina Williams and her sister Anna. Both are 42 years old biologically, but spent the 19 years between Tekken's 2 and 3 in cryogenic slumber, which explains their early 20's-ish appearance.
*** [[Fetish Fuel|Not that it's a bad thing]].
** [[Missing Mom|Jun]] [[Hot Mom|Kazama]], especially in ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'', which came out over a full decade after the first ''Tag'' which subsequently was her last appearance. Seriously, for someone who's lived for almost 40 years now, she is glowing. And that's ''without'' cryogenic sleep.
* Most of the human race is this in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', due to vastly improved medical technology and genetic engineering. Kaylee Sanders is in her early forties, but appears to be in her early thirties. The Illusive Man looks fairly young but is implied to be much older. Miranda Lawson is in her mid-thirties, but appears to be in her early-to-mid twenties.
** Liara spends the series messing around with this trope, she looks about twenty, but is really [[Mass Effect|106]]/[[Mass Effect 2|108]]/[[Mass Effect 3|109]] years old. Normally this would fall under [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]], but in her [[Darker and Edgier|later]] [[Cerebus Syndrome|portrayals]] she's at least as bitter and [[Jade-Colored Glasses|cynical]] as the members of the cast who are ten times her actual age.
* Aya in ''[[Parasite Eve]]'' is somewhere between her late 20s and early 30s, but her parasite energy powers keep her look at early 20s. She complains about this a few times to herself whenever she goes on about how [[I Just Want to Be Normal|she just wants to live a normal life and not live forever.]]
** Aya is actually stated to be aging in reverse in Parasite Eve 2, which is why when that game comes around, she actually looks younger than she did in the first. She actually mentions how she's worried that the reverse aging won't stop and will make her a kid again.
* The Jedi Exile from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2''; according to Mira, the Exile's appearance hasn't changed since the Mandalorian Wars, ten years prior to the game. This would put the Jedi Exile in her thirties at least.
* Most of the 'magical' cast in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]''.
* In ''[[Narcissu]]'', the female lead Setsumi is 22 years old, but the 20-year old male lead often comments that she looks considerably younger than him. For Setsumi, whose life consists of a hopeless cycle of hospitalization and release, "time has stood still" ever since she was first hospitalized in middle school.
* Tonnio and Liina in ''[[Phantasy Star Universe]]'' both look like 12-year old kids but are actually on their late twenties, which came as a surprise in Portable 2 when {{spoiler|they are a married couple.}}
* Pretty much everyone in [[Mr. Driller]] looks older than they look, mostly the teenagers, all of them look like they're 11 years old or so, most of them are already 14 or even 17.
* Shows up now and then in the ''[[Golden Sun]]'' games. Isaac and Garet look about ten in the prologue, despite being supposedly around fourteen. They still look fairly young three years later, and join forces with Ivan, who is fifteen but looks around ten. Felix on the other hand looks ''much'' older, though his age is never specified.
** [[All There in the Manual|Felix' age is stated to be 18 (post-timeskip) in the manual.]]
** Becomes a plot point in ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn|Dark Dawn]]'', as Alchemy exposure has caused the major characters of the first two games to age much more slowly. As a result, Isaac and Garet are now in their late forties and look to be in their mid-twenties, and Kraden, while seventy to begin with, only looks about 80, despite being over a century old. {{spoiler|And of course, Alex still looks around twenty, despite being in his mid fifties...}}
*** Dark Dawn still has some straight examples, though: Rief and Himi look like small children but are implied to be teenagers, Amiti looks closer to fourteen than nineteen-ish, and there's no way Eoleo is over thirty (and again, an inversion shows up—Briggs has gone from his mid twenties to looking about Kraden's age).
* [[Donkey Kong Country|Dixie Kong]].
* While ''[[Touhou]]'' mostly goes with [[Really 700 Years Old]] characters, there are still some that fit this trope. [[Ill Girl|Patchouli]], for example, is "only" about a hundred (or has been living with Remilia for about a hundred years; it isn't definite), [[The One Guy|Rinnosuke]] merely ages slowly instead of stopping aging all together, appearing identical when Marisa was a child but being laughably young by Gensoukyou standards, and [[Ninja Maid|Sakuya]] appears to be somewhere in her twenties but is noted as being far too mature and worldy to be so young.
* The ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' trio in their first game, and subsequent gang appearances featuring said designs. Sora and Kairi especially, who are fourteen but could pass for eleven or 12-year olds; it's probably [[Artistic Age]] and symbolism. Riku less so, since he's muscular and [[Bishonen]]. The biggest contenders for this, however, were Tidus and Selphie. They're the same as as the trio, but look and act years younger; like seven - nine years old, though Tidus does have some muscle on him.
* {{spoiler|Joshua}} from ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' is [[Really 700 Years Old|much older than he looks]]. It's explained in the Secret Reports that this is because he's from a different plane and it causes him to look way younger than he should be. On another note, this plane shift also causes him to lose several abilities, such as {{spoiler|fully and properly demonstrating his Composer abilities.}}
* The upcoming ''[[Soul Series|Soul Calibur V]]'' game takes place after a 17 year [[Time Skip]]. Between her alchemical experimentation and exposure to the Spirit Blades [[Ms. Fanservice|Ivy]] (conveniently enough) has not aged at all.
* Finn from ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', is 35 in the second generation and 34 in the related game ''Thracia 776'', but in both he looks like he is only in his early-to-mid twenties. It becomes especially apparent when you compare him to Glade and Oifey, who are in their mid thirties and look their age.
* [[The Witcher]]:
** All witchers age slowly due to the mutations that make them witchers.
*** Geralt looks like a fit man in his late twenties. By putting pieces of [[Backstory]] together, you can place his age at 80 at the youngest.
*** Vesemir, the [[Old Master]] of the witchers, looks like about sixty, but has a physique that makes 30-year olds green with envy. Vesemir's age is unknown, but is implied to be ''[[Really 700 Years Old|pushing eighthundred!]]''
** Dandelion the Bard. As Triss so eloquently puts it: "You are 40, sound like you're 30, look like you're 20, and act like you're ten!"
* Ezio Auditore is 48 by the end of ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]''. Although Cesare calls attention to it, calling him an "old fucker", he doesn't really look the part. ''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations|Revelations]]'' fixed this by giving the now 52-year old Assassin plenty of grey in his hair and noticeable wrinkles. [[One-Man Army|Not that it's]] [[Made of Iron|slowed him down at all]].
* Radio advertisements in [[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]] mentions a show called ''Just the Five of Us'', featuring a character called Jimmy who looks 12 but claims to be a 42-year old investement banker. This turns out to be real, in show and out in [[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas|San Andreas]], about 9 years later when we hear the actor who played Jimmy again, still looking and sounding like a kid, even though he's in his fifties.
* All the deities from [[Asura's Wrath]], To absolutely ridiculous extents. The deities we see in the game look around to be specific ages, but are actually countless Millenia in years of age. And they are all descended from earlier generations of older deities with similar mantra types.
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'': [[The Medic]] is in in his late forties or early fifties (got his medical license right after World War II, game takes place in 1969), but [[Hospital Hottie|you'd never know that from looking at him.]]

== Visual Novels ==
* Angie in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]'' looks and acts like a little girl, but she's about the same age as the both Mary and Charlie and is the only one with an actual fiancee.
* From ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', Saber is about twenty-five years old (i.e. not counting the centuries since {{spoiler|King Arthur's death}}), but fifteen in appearance (when she stopped physically aging). Ilya, looking about ten years old, is actually older than Shirou (who's about seventeen).
** In Saber's case, this actually caused her problems. When her subjects realised she didn't age, they began to call her inhuman, and started saying that she, as a apparently unaging immortal, couldn't possibly understand ordinary humans. This eventually lead to {{spoiler|The Battle of Camlann, the fall of Camelot}} and Saber's death.
** In ''[[Fate/Zero]]'', when Ilya actually ''is'' around ten, {{spoiler|Kiritsugu}} is worried because her growth is so slow that she only weighs about twenty pounds!
** And apart from these examples, Gilgamesh drank a youth potion in ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia]]'' and is walking around in the form of an adorable elementary school aged version of himself.
* Every single female in ''[[Kanon]]'', ''[[AIR]]'', ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'', etc. It's particularly jarring when we're supposed to believe that characters who look no older than sixteen are mothers and aunts of other characters.
** In ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'', Akio and Sanae Furukawa look barely older than their daughter, Nagisa. Sanae is often mistaken for Nagisa's older sister in the anime.
* ''[[Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!|Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai]]'' has [[Token Mini-Moe]] Mayo, 2-F's [[Class Representative]]. Joined by Monshiro Kuki, Hideo's younger sister, in the sequel.
* Emi of ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' is short and has a youthful appearance, but is one year older than Hisao and the rest of the girls, having taken a year off of school while relearning how to walk.

== Web Comics ==
* Parodied in the NSFW adult Webcomic ''[[Ghastly's Ghastly Comic]]'' with the character Chibi Sue, a 36-year old woman who appears to be under twelve due to being from a race of [[Super-Deformed]].
* In ''[[Questionable Content]]'', {{spoiler|Amir}} turns out to be about ten years older than he looks.
* in ''[[Errant Story]]'': Meji, age seventeen, looks twelve (she's a half-elf). All kinds of angsting and insecurities ensue.
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', Pompey the half-elf is approximately sixteen both mentally and physically; chronologically, he's forty-three, and [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0258.html complains about being called "kid"] when it's revealed that he's taking orders from a (human) 21-year old.
** Vaarsuvius has two elf children, aged twenty-six, who look and act like small kids and are currently in kindergarten. Both of these are the result of [[Our Elves Are Better|long elf]] [[We Are as Mayflies|lifespans]].
** Also Redcloak, who still looks like a goblin teenager thanks to the Crimson Mantle despite being over fifty (which, for a goblin, is beyond venerable age).
* Also a [[Real Life]] one, since it's from a [[Journal Comic]], but Shazzbaa from ''[[Today Nothing Happened]]'' looks a lot younger than her current age at least since she was eighteen.
** It's not just [[Artistic Age]] -- [[Word of God]] has insisted that she really does look abnormally young, and she's addressed it in the comic [http://www.shazzbaa.com/index.php?c=217 more] than [http://www.shazzbaa.com/index.php?c=333 once].
* Nearly everyone in ''[[Earthsong]]''.
* Made fun of in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20180114204936/http://shapequest.net/ Shape Quest]'', when it is [https://web.archive.org/web/20160313113217/http://shapequest.net/?id=114 revealed how old Clark is.]
* Hanna (of ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]]'') is [http://hanna.aftertorque.com/wp-content/gallery/hannarts/hanna_ref.jpg twenty-four.] [http://hanna.aftertorque.com/?p=151 Believe it or not.]
* Greg, boyfriend of Kili in ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]'', is really 60 but looks about 20-something. However, he's not alone, as apparently quite a lot of people are able to purchase rejuvenation in the setting.
* ''[[Ozy and Millie]]'': {{spoiler|Locke is actually Millie's father and in his world, everyone ages backwards. He's actually just a few years away from death.}}
* Weijuaru of ''[[Juathuur]]''. The thing is... he's a shift user.
* The T-Girls of ''[[Jet Dream]]'' are chronologically in their 30s or 40s, but appear to be young women in their early 20s. When the former men of the Thunderbird Squadron were [[Gender Bender|turned into girls]] by [[Applied Phlebotinum|Virus-X]], the effect also rejuvenated them.
* Vinci, of ''[[Vinci and Arty]]'', is often mistaken for a child, in spite of being well into adulthood.
* Miho of ''[[Megatokyo]]'' has stated outright that she's older than she looks (about seventeen), though Largo thinks she's [[Really 700 Years Old|ancient]].
* [[Badass Teacher|Mr. Raven]] of ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' looks fifty-ish, but he's old enough to have taught one of his current student's mother (herself about forty). At one point, we see him unconscious, and he actually looks ''[[Younger Than They Look|younger]]'', implying he has some sort of illusion spell going to make himself look older. Oh, and [[Our Elves Are Better|he's an elf]].
** Grace is 18. Not all that implausible, but this has caused some in-story surprise when people found out that she's the oldest person among the main cast.
* Nina Delacroix of ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' looks and acts like the comic's [[Token Mini-Moe]], but she's the same age (14) as her friends and in high school.
* Angela from ''[[Queen of Wands]]'' and ''[[Punch an Pie]]''. She doesn't seem to mind it much, because hey, ordering off the kid's menu is cheaper and you get to color on the placemats.
* Torg and Riff of ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' had been old enough to drink for multiple years (They had been giving each other beers for Christmas) at the start of the comic in 1997. Their comic makes note of major holidays, making [[Comic Book Time]] and real time correspond to a rough degree. But despite the fact that those two should be close to 40 years old now, neither they (nor anyone else in the strip) has noticeably aged.

== Web Original ==
* At the [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', Generator (Jade Sinclair) and Warlocke are both fourteen, but look only ten or eleven. Then there's Headmistress Elizabeth Carson, who looks like a hot movie starlet in her early thirties, but is actually over seventy. And there's at least one teacher there who's [[Really 700 Years Old]]: Circe. [[Greek Mythology|The Circe.]]
* 18-year old ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' character Kimmy Redmond is described as looking about thirteen, which is simply down to physical immaturity rather than anything fantastical. There are also Laeil Burbank, who looks about 16, and Alice Jones, who is commonly mistaken for an ''elementary school'' student. A recent addition is V4's Celeste Beaumont, who looks like an under-developed freshman.
* This trope is in full force in [[Deucalion Chronicles]] - to the point where it's easier to name characters that actually look their age. Almost everyone stops aging after a certain point, thanks to either natural magic or the alchemical solution Ambrosia. Some Outsiders barely age past puberty. The only exceptions are certain religious groups that refuse Ambrosia and non-CU worlds where it is unavailable.
* Enrei Islio, 21 in ''[[Chaos Fighters]] II-Chemical Siege'' is called an ''8''-year old man due to this trope.
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] is 30, but still has the same babyface as he did when he was fourteen.
* Similarly, while [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]] has definitely aged over the last three or so years, he still looks younger than his actual age (32).

== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', Aelita is chronologically 22-23, but ten of those years were spent in stasis as a [[Digital Avatar]] in Lyoko. Because of this, she has far more knowledge and intelligence than any ordinary teenager, but she's still physically and emotionally 12-13, and is in a relationship with Jérémie, who's physically the same age.
* Judging by the age of her daughter, [[Hot Mom|Susan Vandom]] of ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' is about 45 years old and works in IT. Judging by appearances she's about 25 and a professional glamor model. Compared to her, Cornelia's mom and Irma's mom are less mind-blowing, but still look ''nowhere near'' what middle-aged women should (or do) look like. Though we do get an idea where their daughters get it from...
** Halinor, the blonde bombshell of the previous team of Guardians, still looks quite good for her age, with only a few facial wrinkles. She definitely doesn't look like she's pushing 60, and Yan Lin even comments on Halinor's youthful appearance when the two see one another in a second season episode. Similarly, when we meet Kadma (basically a grown up version of the [[Alpha Bitch]]) she's supposed to be at least in her sixties, maybe seventies. Physically she has, like, a line under her eyes and white hair...otherwise she maintained her [[Most Common Superpower|prized assets]] and slender, youthful looks perfectly. Compared to her contemporaries, Yan Lin (who looks her age) and Narissa (who looks the Universe's age) one has to assume she's been either getting very good plastic surgery over the years or tapping her magic to stay young. Don't even get me started when all four turn into [[Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!|eye-popping teen hotties]] later.
* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' has Mary "Baby Doll" Dahl, a former actress-turned-criminal who, due to a rare genetic disorder, continued to look like a small child even after reaching adulthood. Her anguish over being an adult trapped in such a body, and the public's refusal to respect and treat her like her true age, is the source of her criminal mindset. In a later episode, "Love is a Croc", she romantically teams up with Killer Croc, a similarly outcast bruiser who looks like a human crocodile.
{{quote|'''Batgirl:''' What do you suppose they do on a date?
'''Batman:''' [[Brain Bleach|I don't want to think about it]]. }}
* From ''[[The Simpsons]]'':
** Kearney (the bald, fat bully with the white T-shirt, blue pants, and studded wristbands): Even though he looks old enough to be in high school (yet he's been held back to the fourth grade for a long time), Kearney is actually older than that. He was alive when the Watergate scandal and the 1976 Bicentennial happened [[Lisa the Iconoclast]], has a child from a divorce [[A Milhouse Divided]], was in Otto the bus driver's third grade class [[The Mook, The Chef, The Wife, and Her Homer]], is old enough to drink in a bar [[El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer]] (though he often uses fake IDs [[Much Apu about Nothing]] or tricks Homer into getting him alcohol [[Last Tap Dance in Springfield" and that Mary Poppins parody episode from season 8]]), was tried as an adult and put in an actual prison [["Realty Bites]], voted in a U.S. Presidential Election [[Treehouse of Horror XIX]], and has a car [[Lisa's Date with Density]], even though he can be seen on the school bus. Of course, this can be interpreted as a satire on how children grow up too fast and how the most childish of men are somehow fathers before they're emotionally ready (it is ''The Simpsons'' after all).
** Ned Flanders: All outside appearances seem to imply that Flanders is around the same age as Homer (late 30s/early 40s), but in season 10's "Viva Ned Flanders", Flanders reveals that he's sixty years old and looks young because he's never done anything sinful and crazy in his life.
** One episode has Hans Moleman being 31 years old, but has aged significantly due to alcoholism. Other episodes show him to be a senior citizen due to [[Negative Continuity]].
** Krusty appears to be the same age as most of the prominent adults on the show, but it's implied that he's actually much older. Considering his harsh lifestyle (and the fact that his father is still alive and well), this is pretty impressive.
* Shapey from ''[[Moral Orel]]'' looks, talks and acts like a 3-year old but he is actually seven.
** How about Doughy's parents, still dressing and acting like high school kids. On top of treating Doughy like an [[Annoying Younger Sibling]] at best,and a expendable pet,at worst. [[Theme Naming|The last name "Latchkey" is extremely fitting,indeed.]]
* Quagmire from ''[[Family Guy]]'' has been revealed to be 61. His secret is carrots.
** Speaking of Quagmire, Quagmire's transsexual father from the episode "Quagmire's Dad" barely looks any older than his son. Quite impressive, given that he would have to be in his seventies or eighties.
* In an episode of ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'', Flapjack encounters what appears to be a creepy, annoying, wide eyed little boy who won't leave him alone. Finally he tells him "You need to grow up", and the "boy" responds "Grow up? I'm 38 years old!", which is followed by a [[Gross Up Close-Up]] of his wrinkled face.
* Probably Mrs. Dr. Possible. In fact, in one episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' ("Mother's Day"), Dr.Drakken truthfully believes that she's Kim's sister.
* Slurms Mackenzie's party girls from ''[[Futurama]]''. Before he makes his [[Heroic Sacrifice]], he says that they have served him well during the past 40 years. The two of them look to be about twenty years old.
** Bender accuses the Planet Express ship of this because the ship has tubes.
** And Fry is 1000 years older than he looks.
** In one episode the entire crew jumped into an alien fountain of youth to reverse their rapid anti-aging and as a consequence all came out physically younger than their original ages (except for the Professor, who got even older). Which explains how after over ten years they all still look roughly the same age.
* Magneto in ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' is at least as old as his movie counterpart, but looks only middle-aged the first time we see him without his helmet. In a later episode it turns out he uses his knowledge of genetics to maintain vitality and the appearance of youth, and when this fails him he reverts to his true age. ''Then'' he uses the Rebirth formula (which granted [[Captain America (comics)]] his powers) to de-age himself again, and looks like a young [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]] for the remainder of the show (on the rare occasions he's seen without his face-concealing helmet).
* Mrs. Ridgemount from ''[[Stoked]]''. She looks (and behaves) more as the older sister of her daughter Lo that her mother.
* Mr. Garcia, Jonesy's father, from ''[[6teen]]''. He looks more as the older brother of his children. Heck, he looks younger that his new wife, Emma Masterson, Jen and Courtney's mother.
* Crystal Zilla from ''[[My Dad the Rock Star]]'', who looks barely older than her daughter!
* Taken to an extreme with Aang in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', who, thanks to a century spent in [[Suspended Animation]], is technically 112 years old. He's still not the longest-lived Avatar, though; Avatar Kyoshi lived to [[Really 700 Years Old|the ripe old age of 230]], while never looking any older than 40 in her appearances.
* Henry and June of ''[[KaBlam!]]!'' are supposedly around 8 to 11 years old...yet depending on the artist for the episode, they look about 5 (could also be [[Rule of Cute]] in effect)
* [[Invader Zim]] is described by [[Jhonen Vasquez]] as "older than any human alive". Whether that puts him into [[Really 700 Years Old]] territory or just Older Than They Look is the subject of much fan speculation.
* The young adult male [[The Smurfs|Smurfs]] are really about 100 years old (150 in the cartoon show), while [[Really 700 Years Old|Papa Smurf is 542]]. Of course, this could also be referred to as the [[Vague Age]] where it's uncertain what particular human age their ages are supposed to correspond to.
* Miss Martian in ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' is actually 48 years old in Earth years, but since Martians age slower than humans, she has the mentality and maturity of a 16-year old.
** Which makes it [[Unfortunate Implications|weird]] when you consider that her [[Love Interest]] is [[Younger Than He Looks|less than six months old]].
** Superboy is a bizarre example - he's technically [[Younger Than He Looks]] (being that he is chronologically 5 1/2 years old by the second season) but is mentally 21 in the body of a 16-year-old. It's stated that due to the cloning process, he will look 16 for the rest of his life.
* Cute, pink-haired assassin Claire from ''[[Titan Maximum]]'' looks like she's eight, but Gibbs points out she's 24.
* There was a clever variation in ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' with the episode "Conway the Contaminationist", in which the eponymous Conway is in his 130s and can backflip around at will if he feels good—but, instead of looking distinctly elderly, he just looks bizarrely deformed.
* Elmyra Duff from ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' looks and acts like she's somewhere between 5-8 but she's 13.
* Cody in ''[[Total Drama Island]]'', despite being 16 like his fellow contestants, he looks a little like a 13-year old boy.
** Likewise, Dawn in ''[[Total Drama Island|Total Drama Revenge of the Island]]'' looks like a pre-teen despite being 16 in actuality.
** A lampshaded example is Chris, who looks about 25, but is actually in his mid-forties.
* Sarah and Jimmy from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' look and act like they're around seven or eight, but are apparently old enough to attend junior high.


{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Aging Tropes]]
[[Category:Aging Tropes]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Elders]]
[[Category:Elders]]
[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]
[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

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"