Ethical Question

[AstreiaNyx]

Romance between an undead and a young adult.

Had ethical questions been raised about it? Sure, "Twilight" and "Buffy" can be romantic, whatever, but would you consider the idea of a 200-year-old person stalking a 16-year-old girl romantic?

Or age doesn’t matter as long as the undead is hot?

This is for um…research.

 

[J_Chemist]

what

 

[Conqueror_Quack]

stalking

Never a good thing even if the ages are equal

 

[2wordsperminute]

I guess it depends on how the undead works. An elf might isn't considered an adult until the age of 100 (in dungeons and dragons at least), so an elf at the age of 60 might have about the same mental age and be in about the same stage in childhood as a human at the age of 12. If the undead works similarly, it might be less weird. But really, there's been weirder relationships in fiction so I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you don't go out of your way to make it creepy. edit: talking about relationships not the stalking part.

 

[J_Chemist]

So you've got a 200 year old dead dude stalking a 16 year old girl.

1. The age gap is wild.
2. She's 16 and underage.
3. That age gap is wild.
4. It's gross and no. You should not. Regardless of the excuse statutory is still statutory. What's illegal is still illegal. Of course, if they were both 16 or closer in age, it wouldn't be much of a difference but you literally have an old asf guy stalking and preying on this young girl who doesn't know any better.

do not.

I guess it depends on how the undead works. An elf might isn't considered an adult until the age of 100 (in dungeons and dragons at least), so an elf at the age of 60 might have about the same mental age and be in about the same stage in childhood as a human at the age of 12. If the undead works similarly, it might be less weird. But really, there's been weirder relationships in fiction so I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you don't go out of your way to make it creepy. edit: talking about relationships not the stalking part.

I do agree that if the racial status is in play, then it might make sense but it doesn't sound like it is in this case. It sounds more like it's a human undead than an elf or something. So I don't think it would fit here.

 

[GlassRose]

I guess it depends on how the undead works. An elf might isn't considered an adult until the age of 100 (in dungeons and dragons at least), so an elf at the age of 60 might have about the same mental age and be in about the same stage in childhood as a human at the age of 12. If the undead works similarly, it might be less weird. But really, there's been weirder relationships in fiction so I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you don't go out of your way to make it creepy.

Pretty sure Elves in D&D actually mature at the same rate as humans, they just aren't considered an adult culturally until they're 100. Common misconception.

Anyways to answer the original question, it's not ok, a 16 year old is far too young, not even an adult yet, barely at the age of consent in some places, and not even there yet in others. Iirc, the human brain takes until somewhere in the mid-twenties to fully develop. I believe that before then, such a large age gap is unconscionable. After? Well, if the involved parties don't mind, power to them.

 

[RepresentingPride]

So you've got a 200 year old dead dude stalking a 16 year old girl.

1. The age gap is wild.
2. She's 16 and underage.
3. That age gap is wild.
4. It's gross and no. You should not. Regardless of the excuse statutory is still statutory. What's illegal is still illegal. Of course, if they were both 16 or closer in age, it wouldn't be much of a difference but you literally have an old asf guy stalking and preying on this young girl who doesn't know any better.

do not.

I do agree that if the racial status is in play, then it might make sense but it doesn't sound like it is in this case. It sounds more like it's a human undead than an elf or something. So I don't think it would fit here.

16 is not underage depending on the country.

It's fantasy so do what you want, but for more acceptance with the reader give 2 more years to the girl.

 

[Satansoul]

I have no idea how an undead is supposed to relate. But regarding the age part, I must say that despite the large number of Xianxia novels, we have relationships between multi-million-year-old people and 16-year-old people. So no, 184 years of age difference does not seem very strange.(Only in my opinion, there is a little problem with the 16-year-old part, it is better to be above the legal age)

16 is not underage depending on the country.

Well, looks like I learned some scary knowledge...

 

[2wordsperminute]

Pretty sure Elves in D&D actually mature at the same rate as humans, they just aren't considered an adult culturally until they're 100. Common misconception.

Didn't know that. I suggest to petition wizards of the coast to make elves age like yoda's species because long lived species maturing at the same rate as short lived species is wack.

 

[Conqueror_Quack]

Is the 16 year old emotionally , physically and mentally mature enough to handle a proper relationship?

 

[GlassRose]

Didn't know that. I suggest to petition wizards of the coast to make elves age like yoda's species because long lived species maturing at the same rate as short lived species is wack.

Not really. A species should only take as long to reach maturity as it is physically/biologically necessary, it's more advantageous to reach maturity and then stay there for a long time. Elf brains seem to work much the same as human ones, it makes sense that it would only take them the same approximate amount of time to develop.

The way I see it, the reason you're not an adult in elf culture until you reach 100 is because they have such a long life span, that it isn't unreasonable to wait that long for the elf in question to gain wisdom about the world. Because it doesn't matter how developed your brain is if you don't have any useful experience to help you make good judgements. Humans don't have so long, so they don't get that luxury, but for elves, they do, so they place more importance on that time to gain wisdom.

 

[RepresentingPride]

Well, looks like I learned some scary knowledge...

Well, sorry for you. Japan used to be 13 and in some rare countries, there "woman" getting maried at 8.

 

[GlassRose]

Is the 16 year old emotionally , physically and mentally mature enough to handle a proper relationship?

No matter how mature for their age they may seem, their brain is still going through heavy development and they don't have the necessary judgmental capacity nor life experience to make the decision to put themselves in the hands of someone who will have so much power over them.

 

[2wordsperminute]

Not really. A species should only take as long to reach maturity as it is physically/biologically necessary, it's more advantageous to reach maturity and then stay there for a long time. Elf brains seem to work much the same as human ones, it makes sense that it would only take them the same approximate amount of time to develop.

The way I see it, the reason you're not an adult in elf culture until you reach 100 is because they have such a long life span, that it isn't unreasonable to wait that long for the elf in question to gain wisdom about the world. Because it doesn't matter how developed your brain is if you don't have any useful experience to help you make good judgements. Humans don't have so long, so they don't get that luxury, but for elves, they do, so they place more importance on that time to gain wisdom.

Good point, however the idea of bartenders having to pull out the list of legal drinking ages for different species is just too funny to pass up.

 

[AstreiaNyx]

there’s no stalking involved! I was talking about twilight and buffy ?

 

[RepresentingPride]

No matter how mature for their age they may seem, their brain is still going through heavy development and they don't have the necessary judgmental capacity nor life experience to make the decision to put themselves in the hands of someone who will have so much power over them.

Then male shouldn't date any one older than them before they turn 25 if we take what you said into consideration since male brain going through emotinal development until then.

 

[GlassRose]

Good point, however the idea of bartenders having to pull out the list of legal drinking ages for different species is just too funny to pass up.

Lol I've seen that. Still works for other species I bet, and maybe some elven cultures don't let those under 100 drink because they don't yet have 'wisdom', I bet the young elves hate and rebel against that though.

However, legal drinking age in a medieval setting doesn't make much sense, since it was the primary drink, as it was safer to drink, the process of brewing killing harmful bacteria. In fact, there are countries that still allow kids to drink alcohol so long as the percentage is low enough, they have kid beers and stuff.

Then male shouldn't date any one older than him before he turn 25 if we take what you said into consideration since male brain going through emotinal development until then.

A small age gap (like, a year, maybe a few as one gets closer to the mark) is negligible, but for anything much larger than that, yeah, that's exactly my point. Now, that is somewhat just my opinion, some people abide by the, I believe it was the -7 *2 rule? Which is in my opinion kinda arbitrary. I can't say definitively how large of an age gap is too much, it also varies depending on the individuals involved, but I will say that 100 years is definitely too much of an age gap at that point.

 

[Satansoul]

Well, sorry for you. Japan used to be 13 and in some rare countries, there "woman" getting maried at 8.

I know that in Islam, marriage of girls is allowed from the age of 9.(so I have some scary knowledge) But I didn't think that marriage under the age of 18 is possible in the country's law.

 

[RepresentingPride]

I know that in Islam, marriage of girls is allowed from the age of 9.(so I have some scary knowledge) But I didn't think that marriage under the age of 18 is possible in the country's law.

I don't know for mariage, but the law with the legal age for consent sexual relationship differ from each country, but a lot have it around 18.

A small age gap (like, a year, maybe a few as he gets closer to the mark) is negligible, but for anything much larger than that, yeah, that's exactly my point. Now, that is somewhat just my opinion, some people abide by that, I believe it was the -7 *2 rule? Which is kinda arbitrary. I can't say definitively how large of an age gap is too much, it also varies depending on the individuals involved, but I can say that 100 years is too much of an age gap at that point.

It's fantasy setting the age gap doesn't matter, people can live thousand year, when you reach 2000 year and she will reach 1816 years, the age gap will be like 18 and 20 year old.

If it's in real life, then yes there some moraly way of thinking, while people can do what they want since they are legally able to make their own decision, the other can said whatever they want.

I don't like the idea of having a 16 year old girl with a 30 years old man in real life, but in a fantasy setting that doesn't matter at all since I'm accustomed in my country to the fact that 16 year are legally able to make their own choice with their partner.

 

[Cipiteca396]

However, legal drinking age in a medieval setting doesn't make much sense, since it was the primary drink, as it was safer to drink, the process of brewing killing harmful bacteria.

That's a myth. Even cavemen had the capacity to boil water, so anyone with a pot and a fire source wouldn't be forced to drink beer, which is somewhat hard to brew to begin with...

there’s no stalking involved! I was talking about twilight and buffy ?

As a recall, stalking was a major point of both stories. Especially in buffy, since there was a lot of hunting going on.

Romance between an undead and a young adult.

Had ethical questions been raised about it? Sure, "Twilight" and "Buffy" can be romantic, whatever, but would you consider the idea of a 200-year-old person stalking a 16-year-old girl romantic?

Or age doesn’t matter as long as the undead is hot?

This is for um…research.

Age doesn't matter, it's maturity that counts. That said, it's very unlikely that a human 16 year old will be a valid pairing unless the undead was permanently stuck at a similar or lower level of maturity.

For a 200 year old with an appropriate level of maturity for their age, it would make more sense to wait a few decades and see if the kid doesn't experience any drastic shifts in personality over time. If you've waited so long already, what's a few more years?

Especially if it's a case where conversion to undeath is an option- you don't want to be stuck with someone you hate for the rest of eternity, right?