Shojo's Age?

[StickArc]

My apologies if this concern has been raised before, but I'm quite confused. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

In OOTS # 408, "Fallsville, Population: 1", Roy refers to Lord Shojo as an octogenarian, implying that he is at least 80 years old. In OOTS # 277, "The Crayons of Time: Breaking Up is Hard to Do", Lord Shojo says that he was but a Boy when an aged Soon Kim approached his father. For the sake of argument, let's assume he's 15 at the time, although he looks much younger. Lastly, in OOTS # 276, "The Crayons of Time: The Order of the Scribble", Lord Shojo says those events came to pass 66 years ago.

Lord Shojo does not appear to be born yet when he's referring to to those events 66 years ago. When you see the aged Soon, Shojo was a very young boy. If Shojo was 80 years old, however, then he should have been 14 at the time. This doesn't make sense to me.

If anybody could clear this up for me, I would appreciate it. I also apologize if this issue has been raised and answered before. It's just very disconcerting to see such a time flaw in a story otherwise masterfully articulated and storyboarded.

[Lissou]

I say that the Giant made a mistake.

But there is another explanation: Shojo looks a lot older than he is. Roy assumed he was in his 80s, when he's actually in his 60s or something.

[Thanatosia]

In OOTS # 408, "Fallsville, Population: 1", Roy refers to Lord Shojo as an octogenarian
I think applying a strict literal interpretation of Roy's comment, when as far as we know Roy has no clue as to the precise number of Shojo's age (and I have difficulty imagining a good reason for it to come up) is the big mistake here.

[Aris Katsaris]

I think Roy was making only an estimate, and Shojo was probably a bit younger.

I see some OOTS timelines on the web (e.g http://chrismith85.googlepages.com/ootstimeline ) but I don't know how accurate they are.

[Thanatosia]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0410.html

If you take every OotS character's comment as literal truth to his age, then he's 1,000,000,000 years old.

[StickArc]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0410.html

If you take every OotS character's comment as literal truth to his age, then he's 1,000,000,000 years old.

I think you're probably right, it probably was just awkward for Roy to use such a specific and technical term for an estimation. Shojo may be younger than he looks, if he was 55, perhaps, I could see the events fitting.

[factotum]

Shojo has been on the throne for 47 years, according to Miko...seems unlikely to me that he's been ruling the city since he was 8 years old. I'd say his minimum age would be 65, given that comment. I think the Giant just made a slight continuity error in the Order of the Scribble--hey, it happens!

[RMS Oceanic]

In War and XP's, he's explicitly stated to be 72.

[Vargtass]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0410.html

Sorry, wrong quote: I ment the one on available timelines above...



I would say this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35936) is as accurate as they come. It was even commented on by The Giant itself in the start...