hi please dont light me up like this when i left it in the tags. i did read the manga. i know this. im saying i dont get why its written like this, but if it needs to be specified its totally cool ryoko kui writes it like this. I just personally dont get it and would want to write it differently. shes a good writer i should also specify, and don't think this is bad writing either. please be nice to me.
i dont think ppl understand that thistle is a good example of the “1000 year old kid” trope. it was used right, it makes such a good allegory to the adultification that happens with brown kids. everyone around him ASSUMED he was an adult and gave him adult responsibilities, and it backfired tremendously. but the thing is people in this fandom are so ship brained it flies past people’s heads so they do shit like ship him with an adult like laios or his brother.
he’s not a *literal* child but there is a reason why kui has deliberately drawn him several years younger than his first appearance lol. even his tallman form looks like a child, whereas short elves like fleki and otta look like adults as tallmen
remember, wrt full-blooded elf aging 80 year olds are equivalent to 16. if thistle was brought into the castle when he was 20, and delgal was 40 by the time the dungeon was made, he’d be 60 at most