THIS EXACTLY!!! A Lot Of What Happened Was Due To Him Being Viewed As An Adult And Seen As Responsible!! - Blog Posts

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