[afa]

Originally Posted by miguel1626

Nonetheless, Alexander the Great became king when he was 19. And 19 is not so far from 16 maturity-wise (if I can remember my misspent youth accurately). Life experiences matter more than raw age. And the g factor stabilizes between 16-19 years (and they all have high g).

I knew someone was gonna bring up old Alexander.

My answer would simply be that he was clearly a very rare and exceptional individual. ASoIaF seems to have a few too many exceptional kids.

Also, what do you mean by the g factor? I'm not familiar with that term. The only thing that comes to mind is g-force...

And to be fair to GRRM, both Jon Snow and Daenerys have their teenage moments, when they make patently stupid/naive decisions that are emotion-driven.

True, but they are fewer and farther between than would be reasonably expected from teenagers. I can actually accept this from Jon; as a bastard and a bit of an outcast in his own home, and knowing he would never get anything handed to him on a silver platter, he has had to mature rather quickly.

But Dany at the start of the series is thirteen. Thirteen! I find that hard to swallow. I'm just gonna go ahead and keep pretending that she's ten years old than what she is.

Originally Posted by Hellmark

A: most of the main children characters are Ned Stark's offspring and we all know how he was. In Game of Thrones, when he interacts with his kids he tries to instill his level of maturity in them, even in the younger Arya and Rickon.
B: The main kids are all highborn and held to high standards. Ned Stark wants well behaved kids, and arguably miniadults, and the Targaryens aren't given a chance to be kids because they're being chased and expected to be king and queen.

But it's not just the Stark kids. Yes, Joffrey was a jackass, but in some ways even he seemed older than his years. Not in terms of wisdom or such, but even his malicious and cruel streak suggests maturity. An evil sort of maturity, but still.

And take Jaime Lannister. He won his first tourney at 13 or 14, became a member of the Kingsguard at 15. And that happened after Cersei convinces him that he should join them so they would remain close. That's some pretty clever scheming from 15 year olds. And Jaime's aunt mentioned to him how his father Tywin had protested against their father's plan for her marriage, even though he was just a kid as well.

Ser Barristan the Bold gained knighthood at 16...

I mean, I can accept an exceptional child or two. There always are a few. But this many defies reality, in my opinion.


Note to those who haven't read the series: Don't worry; nothing I've written above constitutes any sort of major spoiler.