[ SECRET POST #3716 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3716 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 29 secrets from Secret Submission Post #531.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

How much younger are we talking about here?

To my knowledge, John and Sherlock's canonical ages are unknown, though information we are given about Sherlock can potentially be used to put him at 30 years old at the time of the first episode (notably four years younger than BC was at the time). And I believe Martin Freeman was 39 at the time the first episode aired. So some fans choose to see MF's age as indicative of John's age, while others choose to see John's age as MF's age minus four, in keeping with Sherlock being four years younger than BC.

The vast majority of Sherlock fanfic puts Sherlock at an age that agrees with his most likely canonical age, or even slightly older. Occasionally a fic will age him significantly younger, which I tend not to like. But I find it pretty understandable if the fic was written early on in the series' run, because BC looked so damn young in S1 of the show.

I think John is more commonly aged down, but even then it's rarely a radical de-aging. He most commonly seems to be written as being 33 - 35 at the start of the series, a reasonable (if somewhat flattering) estimate, given the narrative factors I have already discussed above.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not concerned about exact ages, but a dramatic difference (i.e. 10+ years) bugs me, at least if the characters are still young enough that shaving off a decade would remove a lot of life experience and affect who they are. It's something I've come across in multiple fics for multiple fandoms.

With Sherlock and John specifically, I've seen them written as both under 30 - or with John in his early 30s and Sherlock well under 30 - and that's just weird to me. Since they don't have canonical ages, like you said, I find it weird for someone to insist on specific ages at all, which is one reason I tend to think of this fandom when I think of the phenomenon. (Picking ages if you need it to come up in the story is fine, but bringing it up in authors notes is strange.)

-OP

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

but a dramatic difference (i.e. 10+ years) bugs me, at least if the characters are still young enough that shaving off a decade would remove a lot of life experience and affect who they are

I think I tend to feel the same way. In the few cases where someone's put Sherlock at like 23 or 24 I always have a needle-scratch moment of, like, say what? Even putting him in his late twenties is a bit jarring, because to me he just seems like someone in his thirties.

But with John, I'm trying to think of a fic I've read where someone characterizes him as being under thirty (and not as an AU). I'm sure I've read a couple, but very few. I've read approximately 2700 Sherlock fics (I didn't just pull a good-sounding number out of my ass there, I actually keep track) and I've probably come across less than ten fics that de-age John and Sherlock to that degree.

Do you read most of your fic on AO3, or another site? I would think de-aging would be more common on FF.net, for example, since on average the crowd there seems to be younger - at an age when characters in their thirties might seem unrelatable.

Picking ages if you need it to come up in the story is fine, but bringing it up in authors notes is strange.

It's weird if you're doing it for no reason. But if you've deliberately de-aged the characters and you want to prep your readers for that, then it makes sense.