Ages of characters? by Firefight

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Ages of characters?

POSTED BY: FIREFIGHT
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 13:00
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Monday, December 27, 2004 12:37 PM

I'm new to the scene, folks, so if this is up somewhere on the board already I apologize. I'm wondering what are the fanon-accepted ages for everyone? I'd specifically like Book's and Inara's, but everyone's would be great to know.

Thanks in advance,
Firefight

Preacher man gotta gun

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Monday, December 27, 2004 1:33 PM

BRUISERSMOM

No one knows exactly how old people are on Firefly. Joss never told anyone in an interview or through the show, as far as I know. So, we can only guess and your guess is as good as mine.

For example, Simon is very smart and probably moved through school quickly. He mentioned that he moved through residency very quickly but he didn't say anything about how quickly he graduated from high school, college, medical school, etc. We know Simon's talented but he's not a genius like Doogie Howser. And, to become a trauma surgeon, he probably had to specialize which takes longer than it does to become a general practitioner. So, from what I know about how long it takes to become a surgeon and Simon's ability to move through the process quicker than the average person but not at a Doogie Howser rate, he's probably in his late twenties, early thirites at the latest.

For the rest of the characters, we are guessing just as we are for Simon and I don't know if there is a consensus.

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Monday, December 27, 2004 2:51 PM

TLACOOK

I could be misremembering this part but, I believe River is mentioned as being 17 in the movie. So that puts Simon probably under the age of 23.

Everyone else is pretty much up for speculation.

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Monday, December 27, 2004 3:31 PM

RANDOMLING

I have some rough guesses, but there are no "accepted ages" that I know of. Come on and disagree with me, I'll even specify ages to make it easy! [grin]

Book is probably over 50 to earn the title "grandpa". I'd put him in his mid, possibly late fifties. Let's say 57.

Mal seems to be in his mid-thirties, maybe even late thirties. Lots of fanfics seem to put him at 35 or thereabouts, which has always sounded about right to be.

Jayne could really be anywhere between about 30 and 40. I'd actually put him a little older than Mal, maybe 37. (Adam Baldwin is 42 or so, IIRC, but I'd think Jayne was younger than that.)

Zoe is probably in her late twenties to early thirties - I could put her anywhere between about 28 and 33. Let's call it 31.

Wash seems a little younger than Zoe in maturity (if not actual age) - I'd probably put him at 30 at the oldest.

Inara looks young but acts wise, which makes her enigmatic. I'd probably put her in her late twenties, maybe her early thirties. Let's call her 29.

Kaylee is probably in her mid-twenties, maybe 23 or 24. She came aboard an unspecified number of years ago and seemed to be still pretty much a kid back then. 23?

Simon is 22, maybe 23 - still young enough for everybody but River and Kaylee to think of him as a boy. 22.

River, we have a near-definite age for because of the chronology given in Serenity - in that episode she has to be either 17 or very nearly 17.

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Monday, December 27, 2004 3:53 PM

CYBERSNARK

Quote:
Originally posted by randomling:
Zoe is probably in her late twenties to early thirties - I could put her anywhere between about 28 and 33. Let's call it 31.

You call it 31, I'll call it 28. Or younger.

I've hung around enough (warrior) women to know how this works.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Monday, December 27, 2004 4:00 PM

BRUISERSMOM

Simon made it through school very quickly to be a trauma surgeon at 22 or 23. To become a trauma surgeon you have to specialize after regular medical school which is 3 or 4 years and that is after you earn your B.A. which takes 4 or 5 years.

Either Joss didn't know how long it takes to become a trauma surgeon or people don't have to go to school for as long as they do now or Simon was being modest when he said that he had been called a gifted surgeon.

I guess we will never know unless the question is answered in the movies or in an interview.

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Monday, December 27, 2004 4:16 PM

TLACOOK

What most people have assumed is that he graduating from high school (or the equivalent) at 13 or 14. Pretty easy to do now, even if you aren't "gifted".

And then finished up his BA in 2 to 3 years. Definitely possible even today.

So that makes him 15 to 17 before starting med school.

Say he is 20 getting out of medschool.

So not a stretch if you assume that Simon was gifted and just exceled in schooling.

I know kids now who have the intelligence and book learning to graduate from high school at 12 or 13. If they had proper support for the lack of maturity almost anything can be accomplished ridiculously early.

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Monday, December 27, 2004 6:55 PM

RIVERGIRL

we have to go with Simon at 23ish since he sure doent look much more that 6 years older than River in that flashback scene

Also, I can kill you with my brain.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 2:59 AM

HARDY

ok, the show plays in 2517

according this list:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/reference.asp?r=500
the ages are as follows:

mal: 31 (2486)
zoe: 33 (2484)
jayne: 40 (2477)
wash: 31 (2486)
kaylee: 20 (2497)
simon: 27 (2490)
book: 57 (2460)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mal: "Everybody dies alone"
http://beam.to/firefly (deutsche fanpage)
http://48688.forum.onetwomax.de (deutsches forum)

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 3:46 AM

RIVERGIRL

but this would make River 21 and she is the only one for whom an age IS given and thats 17

Also, I can kill you with my brain.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 4:26 AM

HARDY

perhaps she was in stasis for 4 years...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mal: "Everybody dies alone"
http://beam.to/firefly (deutsche fanpage)
http://48688.forum.onetwomax.de (deutsches forum)

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 4:31 AM

PURPLEBELLY

Quote:
Originally posted by Hardy:
... according this list ...

This list was compiled on the basis of the age of the cast members. While of interest, it is unlikely that date of birth was the definitive critereon in casting or Morena Baccarin would not have been considered a replacement for Rebecca Gayheart.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 4:35 AM

PURPLEBELLY

Quote:
Originally posted by BruisersMom:
Simon made it through school very quickly ...

Could it be that a school career on a Core Plant in the twenty-six century is as different from that in the US in the twenty-first century as the latter is from that in the China of the sixteenth century?

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 4:45 AM

PURPLEBELLY

Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
... Morena Baccarin would not have been considered a replacement for Rebecca Gayheart.

The ages of Inara and Book will have been determined by the programming that created those particular covers. How old the underlying entities of those instances are ... is problematic.

Only Purplebelly believes this

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 4:45 AM

RANDOMLING

IIRC, the characters' ages in that timeline (if it's the same one) are loosely based on the actors' ages when it was written (Gina Torres 33, Alan Tudyk & Nathan Fillion 31, Adam Baldwin 40).

I tend to think that Zoe is younger than Gina and Wash is a bit younger than Alan, and Mal older than Nathan. I'd still put Jayne a couple of years shy of 40, but that's just me. I think 20 is a bit of a low estimate on Kaylee's age

Cybersnark, I'll bow to your superior knowledge of warior women - let's call Zoe 28, then. :D

On the subject of Simon: he finished his internship in eight months. How long do internships usually last? A year? Two? It's mentioned that he's young for a doctor, and if he really is gifted, he could have run through pretty much everything in two thirds of the time. (Twelve years of school in 8 years, four year degree in 3, four year med degree in another 3 - he's still only 20, as Tlacook says.) Rivergirl, I agree - River's six (stretching it) or seven (just about possible, but maybe eight) in that flashback scene, Simon twelve, maybe thirteen, definitely no older. A six-year age gap is about right - if River's 16 or 17, Simon is 22 or 23.

Hardy - stasis for four years? You mean cryo? What was Simon doing for four years, then?

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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 4:50 AM

RANDOMLING

Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
Quote:
Originally posted by BruisersMom:
Simon made it through school very quickly ...
Could it be that a school career on a Core Plant in the twenty-six century is as different from that in the US in the twenty-first century as the latter is from that in the China of the sixteenth century?

Could be!

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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 9:53 AM

BRUISERSMOM

Simon could have been modest in saying that he was gifted when he should have said genius but that would go against the whole Simon is arrogant idea in the series. It could also take a shorter amount of time to become a doctor in the Firefly universe. I don't know. No one does. The people who wrote the show didn't tell us. Maybe they didn't think these things through thoroughly or maybe they didn't think that they mattered.

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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 10:07 AM

PERIDIDDLE

Quote:
Originally posted by BruisersMom:
The people who wrote the show didn't tell us. Maybe they didn't think these things through thoroughly or maybe they didn't think that they mattered.

I'm sure Joss has everything we ever wanted to know about all of his characters, universes, ect. hidden away in that mind of his. He just doesn't seem to be the one to not think it through. One of these days, we should hold him hostage until he tells us...or, to avoid being arrested, we'll just ponder and guess, as we are now. ^_^

This is yet another thing we need to look out for in the movie(s). Though, am I the only one that thought Jayne was younger than late 30's/early 40's? Adam just looks younger to me...same with Mal, though I can certainly see him being in his mid 30's. *Shrug*

"Bwaa...it's kind of a warrior...strikes fear into the hearts of..."

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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 10:28 AM

SHINYSEVEN

Simon is not just a doctor, he has a subspecialty (he's a trauma surgeon rather than just a surgeon). If their hospitals work like ours (and the one in Ariel looks suspiciously 21st century) after finishing his internship he'd still have several years of residency ahead of him. FWIW I'm convinced that Simon is about 25 and Mal about 32 and, as mentioned here, Jayne is younger than Adam Baldwin--if for no other reason than it's not very likely that people in his line of work ever *get* to be 40.

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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 10:51 AM

TLACOOK

Joss doesn't always think these things through like his obsessive fans do or so I have gathered from interviews with him.

He doesn't like to answer questions about science and doesn't much care about the "facts" if they get in the way of the story. I don't consider this a bad thing like some do.

The story should be first and people can learn to deal with the rest.

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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 12:49 PM

DESANGRO

Yeah, but a fictional universe must have internal consistency. If it doesn't, then the brains of fanfic writers go BOOM! when they try to figure stuff out.

(Granted, I'm not saying that Firefly doesn't have internal consistency, but it is an important thing.)

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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 1:00 PM

TLACOOK

The story is consistent. Details like physics and the impossibility of being a trauma surgeon at age 23, not so very important to the story.

I don't read fanfic so i can't relate to the poor author's exploding brains.

I actually get irritated with the fools who get all angry when something in season 4 of Angel contradicts something that happened in Season one of Buffy.

That is asinine. Who cares? No one seems to have a problem that DB aged 8 years and gained about 40 pounds...

But the world will stop turning if Joss decides to change his story. Well, it's his story.

Sorry for the rant. Wasn't directed at you. Just all the annoying schmucks who just possibly overthink things a bit.

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