Tuesday DE

[bjornwilde]

Happy Ahsoka Day!!!

By modern cultural standards, would your character(s) be, or have been, a child soldier?

Comments

[bjornwilde]

Ahsoka and Sabine definitely were, but it was also culturally appropriate for their respective societies.

Jess wasn't unless you account for emotional/developmental aspects. She was in a coma for most of her childhood and teen years and then was drafted into HYDRA.

Viv would say no. She was never a child. Vision created her and programed her as a 16 year old with free will. Thus she chose the super hero life as a teen.

Ben absolutely was. Thanks Reggie.

I don't think Alustin was. I think he didn't join his doomed city-state's military until he was 17 or 18. Alas, there would be a very strong argument that he is/will be creating child soldiers when he gets his apprentices in canon.

I don't think Wen Qing was either. She was raised more to be a court lady and doctor, as well as a cultivator.

Tybalt is an interesting case. He was absolutely raised to be a fighter, what cat isn't? But he was also raised with the awareness that one day he would be a king and would have to fight and face duels to keep his place and keep his people safe and strong.

I never realized how much child soldier was a thing of mine. :/

[splash_of_blue]

For Viv, I think 16 counts as a child for these purposes...

[bjornwilde]

True. I am just on the fence on if she would count as a soldier being a super hero. She also had no pressure from adults to become a super hero. Still I can see an argument for either side. :)

[alongfallfromgrace]

Wei Wuxian: I first wrote no, but he was First Disciple of the Jiang when he was fourteen, and would have been actively running night hunts, so... yeah.

Klaus: HAHAHAHAHA um. Yes. omfg.

Cecil: No, no he's not really a soldier by any definition.

Jon: No. Almost a child dinner, but not a soldier.

Ballister: No, just one in training.

[splash_of_blue]

Molly - says 'yo'. Been at the superhero game since she was eleven, dude.

McGonagall - no. She was 19 when WW2 broke out and she got co-opted into that/the Grindelwald War. She has however known a damn sight more of them than she'd like...

Coulson - has been a literal soldier, but, y'know, properly. He went through West Point and everything.

Snow Leopard Woman - No. She was a child, once, but a herdsman's daughter on the slopes of the Himalayas.

War - has never been a child. She finds being an adult woman is MUCH more useful for her purposes...

Victoria - was recruited while she was up at Oxford, so no. She does suspect that one of Daddy's old business acquaintances 'spotted' her and ensured she was given particularly intensive marksmanship and self-defence training as a child, but she's never been able to prove it.

Max - was a teenager when he did his national service, so, kinda? IIRC, I think when I did the maths, he was just slightly the wrong age to be sent out to Korea, so was never deployed. He'd have made a terrible soldier, anyway - he's no good at any kind of physical violence (and not that keen on physical activity, either).

Nebula - doesn't really remember ever not being a soldier. Thanos wiped most of her pre-him childhood memories from her CPU as not relevant.

Poe - No. He enlisted at about eighteen or so, like his mom. He'd totally have lied about his age and jumped in an X-wing as a younger teenager if there'd been an excuse active war going on at the time, though.

BB-8 - is a perfect rønd baby, and kind of a soldier, ish. But technically, no.

[alongfallfromgrace]

... just had a mental image of WWX poking at BB-8 with a stick because what the actual hell is this I want twelve.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yes.

Yamato gets drafted into an interdimensional monster war when he's eleven. And with Digimon AUdventure making it clear that this is a pattern that happens across different timelines (and sometimes multiple times within a single timeline), this seems to be the entire point of these eight kids: A multiverse-threatening crisis happens, they reincarnate, they become child soldiers, and then whenever they eventually die they reincarnate in another timeline to do it all again.