Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-7526254-20160510162817/@comment-24674051-20160610175419

One thing, my estimate is not based on the apparant age of the actors. And let's face it, Lana, JMo, and Ginny have all portrayed younger (much younger) versions of their characters, going back as far as their late teen years. So I would suggest that the age of the actor is not a valid consideration for determining the age of the Character.

First, thanks for the additional reference to the Newspaper in "Welcome to Storybrooke".

I think the main reason everyone assumes that Snow and David  are late 20's/early 30's is the statement that was made regarding Emma being around the same age as her parents. And by modern standards, a couple getting married and having children in their late 20's is not unreasonable.

But the setting for the EF is more Renaissance. Now, there are a variety of views on what marriage looked like in that era, but generally, Men were much older than their brides (upwards of 14 years older), and most women were married before they turned 20. If we take what we know to be Canon in the show, and combine it with the cultural norms from the Renaissance, then the following woiuld be myguess for the approximation of the ages:

Ella was 19 when we met her in "The Price of Gold". And that falls right in line with the EF Culture.

Snow was of Marrying age even in "Labor of Love", and while there is no clear evidence where that episode falls in the timeline, I would suggest that it was probably not more than 2 years before Leopold's tragic death and Snow's escape (with the help of the Huntsman). So if Snow was 14-15 in LoL, I would guess she was 16-17 in "The heart is a lonely hunter", probably 18 when she met David, 19-20 when married, and 21 when she had Emma.

And allowing for the usual once twist, Aurora is probably still in the 17-19 age range when we first see her in season 2.

Given that the fimeline for Belle probably falls something like "Her Handsome Hero", "Family Business", and "Skin Deep", with  "The Outsider" and Lacey occuring during the events of Skin Deep, I guess that Belle was probably around 16-17 during Her Handsome hero (allowing a little for a doting and overprotective father) and based on everything else, the events from that point to Skin Deep probably happened quickly, making Belle around 18 at the beginning of Skin Deep, and therefore around 19 by the time of the curse.

Regina is around 8 years older than Snow. She was around 18 when she was in love with Daniel, and ultimately forced to marry Leopold (which, btw, was also not an uncommon occurance for nobility during the renaissance). And since Snow was 10 during that time (and we have heard Snow mention several times that she was 10 years old at the time), that would put Regina 29, maybe 30, when she cast the curse.

And Zelena is 2-3 years older than Regina, so she was 33-34 when we first meet her in 3B. based on the guess for Regina's age.

And without going into the details, I guess that Cora was aproximately 21 when she married Henry and had Regina, making her around 50 when she was killed by Snow.

Killian, as a officer in the navy, and given the circumstances that led to his joining the navy, was likely in his late 20's, perhaps even early 30's, when he became the pirate and journeyed to Neverland.

David was probably in his early 20's when we first meet him in "the Shepherd", and is therefore probably 4-5 years older than snow, making him 25-26 when Emma was born.

Rumple was called up to serve in the Army, probably not long after his wedding. Given his status of town coward, he probably had a difficult time finding a woman willing to take him, yet he was also young enough to serve in the Army. So I would place him at close to 30 when he went to war (they were getting desperate for bodies at the front). And similarly, Milah was older as well, if she was willing to settle on being married to the town coward, but probably older as in being in her mid 20's. which would put her in her mid 30's when she dumped Rumple for Killian (Bae was 8-10 when Milah left).

Anyway, that's my guess on what their ages are.

