Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-28162607-20170103120839/@comment-1916997-20170103173044

Here's my two cents: the math is weird because writers usually aren't very good at math. Even J.K. Rowling initally messed up the math in Chamber of Secrets with Nearly Headless Nick and his deathday (it was corrected in later editions). So forget the actual ages, the intention is that Emma was 17 when Henry was concived and 18 when she gave birth. But that is not the big problem here, the big problem is you are acting like Neal is some 40 year old man who was heir to a crime family or something. Neal is like a 21 year old orphan, who has to resort to crime and the like, because he has no real identification, due to coming from a different world. The actual age is impossible to say, because he was 14 in London in 18XX, but then when to Neverland for 100+ years, and didn't age. But it doesn't matter, we know he was in his early 20's, and we know that the male brain doesn't fully mature until like 28. Basically, it is unfair to say that Neal was some really mature adult, and Emma was a naive little girl, when they both had about the same level of maturity.