So, Ivetta is eighteen years old… and Chev is thirty. Twelve-year age gap.
Yep.
I can explain! I promise!
Okay, so, I guess I should first start by saying I'm not someone who gets bothered by large age gaps in relationships. I grew up with a grandpa and step-grandma who had a significant age difference, so that was normal to me. As long as everybody is a legal, consenting adult, and the couple actually loves each other and has a solid relationship, I don't care.
(Maybe that’s why I’m also horrible at guessing a person’s age? Because it doesn’t matter to me?)
Anyway, I know this isn’t the case for everybody. I know there are plenty of people who have negative experiences with arranged marriages and large age-gap relationships, and there are people who even think a two-year difference is too much. And there are many valid reasons for concern about this issue.
I never intended to write ADT as an age-gap story—not that big of an age gap, anyway. When I first wrote it, I didn’t know how old any of the princes were. I’d only read Chev’s romantic route in the game, which doesn’t mention ages for anybody. I thought Chev was maybe in his mid-twenties. So, having him get into a relationship with an eighteen-year-old Ivetta wasn’t a problem to me.
(Oh, did I ever mention that’s my default character? An eighteen-year-old girl who is an orphan or whose parent/parents are dying? It means I don’t have to come up with a backstory before I start writing.)
Anyway, eighteen and twenty-five? Doable, depending on the maturity level of the two parties. And Chev and Ivetta are definitely both mature enough to handle each other.
But he isn’t twenty-five. He’s thirty.
That’s different.
I could have changed Ivetta’s age, but I decided not to for a number of reasons, and yes, I will admit laziness was one of those reasons. It wasn’t the primary one, though.
Think about Ivetta’s background. She’s a young, impoverished woman growing up without a father figure in a time when women had no power and no rights. She and her mother are incredibly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. It’s really a wonder she made it to eighteen without being raped. And the likelihood of something happening to her goes up every day.
Now, think about the time. Even in the present day, there are still cultures that marry girls off the moment they have their first menstrual cycle and thus become fertile, and while I certainly don't condone that, that practice was even more commonplace in the past. The setting for the game and these stories is the late 1300s. An eighteen-year-old girl who isn't married already? That's weird for the period.
And no, the age of her prospective husband wouldn’t have mattered. In fact, a girl would have preferred someone older, someone already established who had the means to provide for her. Not that she would have had much say in the matter. Arranged marriages for political, social, and economic reasons were much more common than marriages for love, and why would someone ask the girl’s opinion? She’s just supposed to keep her mouth shut and serve men, right?
I’m so glad times have changed.
Anyway, I hope I’ve made it clear why the age difference isn’t that striking in these particular stories and why it's important for Ivetta to be young. Not that the age difference is the emphasis. Ivetta’s relationship with Chev is not based on age, but on trust. Their ages are a side note. However, a huge part of the trust between them comes from Chev providing the masculine protection and reliability she's never had, keeping what innocence she still has intact.
Ivetta doesn't care about his age. She never expected to get married anyway, and she never gave the matter much thought.
As for Chev…
If you’ve read ABT, you’ll know this, but I’ll enlighten anybody who still has concerns (which are valid). You know how some people look much younger than they are? At the beginning of ADT, the princes think Ivetta is one of those people because of her maturity level. By the time they discover her age, they’re already hooked on her, and Chev is too far gone.
Her age bothers him. She bothers him. He knows she’s too young for him, and socially, she isn’t an option. Remember his commitment to his duty as royalty? He plans to marry for political reasons, nothing more, and his background has made him want nothing to do with feelings, especially love. Ivetta’s age is just another item on his list of reasons to write her off.
But I am a cruel author who relishes in piling emotional and mental turmoil on my characters until they finally give in to their feelings. And I break Chev bad.
I should probably say right here and now that age will play a big role in AWT/ACT and AST. I’m not a planner by any means, but this is a really important issue that triggers strong feelings in many people, so I’m doing a lot of thinking about how I’ll handle the matter for these stories. It’s more clear-cut to me in AST, especially since I’ve already laid the groundwork for Evelyn and Arvon’s relationship in ADT/ABT, but in AWT/ACT… that’s tricky.
I don’t want this to be what drives people away from these stories. I’m trying to portray healthy romantic relationships in difficult circumstances, and it is my hope that the messages I’m writing can transcend the age barrier. That’s my hope, anyway. Please, please, please give me all the suggestions and feedback you want on this and any other issues you have with the stories. It’s reader feedback that has brought me this far, and I want to write the best stories I can for all of you.
(Within the bounds of legality, of course. All romantic partners involved in the relationships I write are eighteen and older. Guaranteed. Adult/minor relationships and child marriage are wrong and should be illegal everywhere.)9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1B8WeD1iot
