Tuesday DE

[inlovewithwords]

When is "coming of age" for your character? Is it marked culturally, whether by celebration or solemnity or specific ritual? What significance did it hold for them personally?

Comments

[bjornwilde]

Ahsoka: I think the coming of age ritual/thing in the Jedi Order is being chosen by a jedi knight to be their padawan learner and being chosen was a very important thing for Ahsoka. She was crushed when she thought she'd failed to impress Anakin enough to take her on. I'd almost think he was her last chance at becoming a jedi with how badly she took it. This occurs when she is 14 if my memory is functioning right. The next "coming of age" would be advancement to jedi knight...which she never does cause reasons.

Sabine: Canon is vague, but warrior cultures do coming of age rituals. I think it varies by Clan and family. For hers, I'm going to say it was a private thing and was the forging of her armor. I'd bet it was the chest plate pieces, though the helmet could've been part of the ritual as well. This was a big thing for wee Sabine and meant she was part of her heritage.

I think I'll come back later and see if anyone else wants to answer.

[inlovewithwords]

Eriond: ascending to godhood proper. It was not so much marked culturally as by the climax of two series worth of plot and cosmic and metaphysical shifts. For Eriond, it was... expected in a way, just a calm fulfillment of one purpose (or Purpose, even) and start of another.

R2: N/A

Lois: seems to be skipping driving for the moment, so high school graduation and moving out from her parents' will do. It will be incredibly freeing and empowering.

Evelyn: Harrowing. It sucked massively, despite Noodle Incident shenanigans.

Anakin: Jedi have two, usually, I think, and as he skipped Temple-to-padawan, his definitely is the off-screen between AotC and Clone Wars promotion from Padawan to Knight. It was extremely exciting for him, and he expected to finally be treated as an adult and acknowledged for being Awesome. And he was! But also the Order was always wary of him, and it definitely maintained a tension that always left his hopes somewhat unfulfilled.

Tavi: ... why did I pick this topic? Dammit. I will answer for him later.l

[student_of_impossibility]

tl;dr: Alerans in general: furycrafting; also Alerans in general: Legion service; Citizens: graduating Academy/proving Citizenship; Cursors: surviving first assignment trololol; House of Gaius: prove you're competent enough to rule, usually accompanied by a) Legion service and b) commanding the Crown Legion. Tavi somewhat by coincidence did all of these things (other than prove Citizenship, he just sort of took on a Citizen persona for work reasons) at twenty in book three, other than it being the First Aleran rather than the Crown Legion. So... uh, his coming of age is not marked ritually, though it should have been under other circumstances, mostly just by war and treason and stomping. Arguments could be made there's a second stage of it that comes with taking over and a belated ritual marking of, you know, being crowned emperor, but mostly book three. Half-way is a good point for it!

The Essay Version you can absolutely skip, I just wrote for a while:

There's a ton of cultural context here, to be honest. Alera in general has a few different milestones, although how much they are 'coming of age' is hazy. One Growth Milestone is actually coming into one's furycrafting proper, but as that can happen anywhere between ten and fourteen, that's only partly a 'coming of age' thing. I'd equate it more to Jedi younglings becoming padawans: coming into that awkward adolescent age where one is no longer a Child, not yet an Adult.

Alera is a military culture, mandatory service, etc. For most male Alerans, including to some degree the Citizenry, Legion service is the major marker. Service can lead to being granted land, it's required for all who qualify (other than the lucky Citizens who get themselves a pass), and first tour usually happens anywhere between 14 and 20, so it's a pretty good marker of "you went in green and not an adult, you're an adult now" line. For women, similarly, being in the camps is a pretty good equivalent and where many of them find husbands.

For the Citizenry, finishing schooling (especially the Academy) can be kind of that marker, as it's 17-20ish, especially for the women. For the men in particular, though, becoming a Citizen is marked by a trial (sometimes kind of for show) of 'yes I have the furycrafting to merit special treatment.' So there is some actual ritual!

Cursors have their own internal culture where, uh, 'coming of age' is pretty much 'okay, you have finished enough training to get a coin to contact the First Lord directly (and wake him up in the middle of the night if need be), now go do your first assignment, if you survive it you're a Fully Functional Spy, mazel tov.' That totally counts as a ritual, right?

And related to that, honestly, is the last little cultural thing that needs to be addressed, which is a family culture that literally applies to at most three people at any given time, at least for a few centuries: the House of Gaius itself. Sure, there's the official legal and ritual Citizenship thing, but a) they get their furycrafting at like five or something so that doesn't count, and b) at least for the Princeps, I am reasonably certain (based on Septimus' experience) that being given command of the Crown Legion/maybe responsibility for the Imperian lands around the capital (rather than Realm politics)?/possibly other responsibility is kind of the Okay, Adulthood transition. Also since First Lords try not to have to die in office, to some degree "you are competent and adult enough to be First Lord, you finally have say over your own life and incidentally everyone else's" may be a sort of secondary one, but despite 'majority' being technically earlier, yeah, internal family culture of "Can I trust you with responsibility yet?" Also there's a comment somewhere about Septimus had 'showed his power,' which implies that there's a tradition the Princeps is kind of regarded as Not Fully Developed until something prompts him to give a highly overt demonstration that he can stomp anything and is thus ready to take on the Crown. It's kind of family-specific issues of adulthood, but considering it affects an empire, it seems relevant.

Tavi is an edge case of all of these things. Quite by accident (aka narrative imperative), the end of book three is basically the confluence of: a) his first Legion assignment, b) something dubiously like Citizenship (his cover is a Citizen and he definitely was not one before so *hands*), c) surviving his first assignment as Cursor, d) his furycrafting finally starting to come in, and e) well it wasn't the Crown Legion but Tavi totally accidentally steals and then is allowed to keep a pet Legion and Sextus is entirely too pleased. It's actually a huge moment for him, because he finally comes to terms with not having furycrafting and knowing he can push forward into Winning Impossible Battles without it, and then gets furycrafting. It's when he really goes yeah, okay, I can do this. So it's mostly marked by war, death, mad science with magic, spying, and absconding with increasingly massive power.

Arguments could be made that his coronation counts as coming of age ritual, for reasons noted above of Princeps becoming First Lord, but book three is probably realistically that point.

[onceaviking]

Awakening as a vampire and making it through the first night is a pretty big deal.
You celebrate it by not having your Maker have to kill you again.

[lazy_but_loyal]

That is true, I didn't think of that. Also things like Baby's First Kill.

[onceaviking]

Always adorable.

[dwellsinthedetails]

Age of majority in Japan is 20. Coming of Age Day is in fact a national holiday, but it's been some time since I looked up the specifics.

For Yusuke, by that point it's likely to be a formality anyway, given that everyone who could claim to be his legal guardian is dead or disgraced.

[childofrebellion]

This is inspiring me to give teen Cassian another post in the sandbox once I'm finished fact checking and my words come back to me. They've been rattling around in my head but nothing solid enough to grasp yet.

Hm, for Cassian I don't think there's anything specific since in my headcanon he left Fest when he was a little boy which was also when his father died. Instead his coming of age markers were from within rebel cells, his first kill, his first solo mission, his first solo flight.

Charles, growing up in the 1940s/1950s in a privileged environment, I think first time on his own in NYC, first drink and first time having sex.

Quentin, the age when you're considered an adult I think depends a lot on the Fae and the situation. I need to reread canon but a big thing for him will be turning eighteen and becoming a knight. His fosterage won't officially end until he's I think 25 or 30. A big coming of age moment for him was being sent away as a foster at age twelve.

Sameth, I know the Old Kingdom must have various ideas like when you first start fighting, ideas tied to the Charter but I think a big thing for him was going away to school.

William, he grew up quickly because of the Civil War going on during his childhood but he's from an era when he would have gotten a pair of long trousers. And then getting his own gun, its an interesting thought, how did Dan teach William and Mark in terms of their ages and I'm not sure.

Will S.'s biggest marker was becoming Robin's squire.

Ivan's from a military culture with helpful markers like graduating from the Imperial Academy and getting first ship duty. I think within the High Vor and particularly within the court there are probably others that I'm blanking on.

Demeter is immortal but I think the first time she brought in a harvest was a major time.

For Tumnus, that's the kind of worldbuilding I love and I don't know in terms of him.

[death_fangirl]

Trolls are required to leave the planet and join the Alternian space military upon reaching adulthood, but we don't currently know what age is considered "adulthood"; the most common fanon is 10 sweeps, which is around 21 in human years, but some people use 9 to bring it closer to the most common human age of majority and I think I might have seen one fic that had it at 8.