Movies

People Are “Cancelling” Popular TV And Movie Characters Over Their Age Differences

There’s been a lot of discourse on Twitter lately about what constitutes an age-appropriate relationship. The general perception of May December Romances has changed pretty rapidly. Lots of movies and TV shows feature these types of relationships, most often between an older man and a borderline underage woman.

Not to let the young man and cougar version of this off the hook—there are way too many plotlines in teen shows about female teachers seducing students that are treated as “normal.”

It’s a good thing to talk about because power disparities in relationships with huge age gaps are very real, and TV and movies help to make it seem totally chill for an adult with a business and full life to date someone right out of high school.

But the topic has dipped into the absurd, especially around fictional fantasy characters. Like, yeah, we do need to send every vampire dude who dates a high school chick to jail! Also, who cares?

Twitter user @TheEpicDept joked about this trope, comparing the ages of Aragorn and Arwen from Lord of the Rings:


As you can see, Aragorn is merely 87:

And Arwen is 2700! Years! Old!

That’s messed up. How do they both look so damn good?

People were quick to pick up the joke:

And apparently, the characters are related. Arwen is either his cousin or his aunt, a hundred times removed. Not cool.

And it happens again throughout the series. Clearly, J.R.R. Tolkien liked older ladies and thought everyone else should like them, too:

It happens throughout other movies and TV shows, too:

 

Inappropriate.

More TV and movie tweets:

Aimeé Lutkin