Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-7526254-20170430003451/@comment-31231929-20180304221527

Saintfighteraqua wrote: Nothing about this timeline makes sense anymore. Unless they have some sort of elaborate reveal to explain it all, it looks like they've just aged people at random and don't care anymore since it's the last season. I am sincerely hoping they address this since I love some of the new characters.

If they don't, and the timeline really is this screwed up, anyone's theory could be true and I'd almost go as far as writing off season 7 as non-canonical, for me. That would be a shame. I thought I had it all figured out until Robin was stated to be 18. Not aged up, but actually 18. Unless she spent some time in another realm where time flows differently (same for Alice) then none of it makes sense.

However, since these are such obvious contradictions, I can't imagine there's not a bigger plan in place. Whether it gets revealed or not is a whole other story. Yeah, Robin being 18 when Lucy is born really messed things up. I've since headcannoned that both she and Zelena traveled back in time when they went to the NEF. It's really the only thing I can think of that would explain her age. I don't think the characters have aged all that randomly, though. They seemed to have aged normally (by aged I don't mean physically, but that they've become older) based on what realm they've spent the most time in. In the case of Henry, he is 18 when he leaves Storybrooke. I've speculated that he meets Ella a few years later when he is 21 and Lucy is born a few years after that when he is 24. Then the curse is cast when he is 32. The curse seems to have been active for two years so he is currently 34. Since time appears to move twice as fast in the NEF compared to Storybrooke, Emma, OG Killian, Regina, and Zelena have aged half the amount Henry has. In Emma's case, she is 35 when Henry leaves Storybrooke (she would turn 36 that year). Because 3 years passed for Henry until he met Ella, Emma aged 1.5 years and is about 36.5 in 7x02. She would be 38 when Lucy is born and 42 when the curse is cast. OG Killian and Regina would also have also aged 6.5 years from the end of S6 to the 7x02 flashbacks. Regina was 39 at the end of Season 6 and was 45.5 when she joined Henry. I've speculated that Killian is physically the same age as Emma so he is about 36 in 7x02. Regina would have then aged at the NEF rate so she is 48 when Lucy is born, 56 when the curse is cast, and is currently 58. Since Zelena is about 2 years older than Regina she is 41 at the end of Season 6. Based on my time-travel theory, she is 59 when she goes after Robin to the NEF. She is 67 when the curse is cast and is currently 69. My explanation for why people don't seem to be aging normally is that all the curses they've been under has caused their aging to slow way down.

In terms of Wish Killian and Alice, I believe Alice was born in the ultra-condensed between time of the Wish Realm that others have theorized about. If she was born during that time, she would have been born not long after Robin was (she was obviously born 30 some years earlier according to the between time of the Wish Realm, but since the between time occured during Storybrooke Season 6, they are the same age). This fits with Wish Killian being old in 6x11 because he would have also aged at the super speeded-up rate of the Wish Realm. If OG Killian was 36 in 7x02, he would have deaged himself to 36 and be currently 49. This explanation does have it's faults though because Alice was born around the time the curse was cast and would actually be 31 in 6x11, but maybe she didn't age for a really long time. I think Wish Killian deaging himself caused his aging to slow down.

Belle obviously aged at a super speeded up rate at the Edge of Realms and Rumple hasn't aged since he first became the Dark One.

So basically, I think the only character whose aging is weird is Alice. As far as Ella, Drizzy, Ana, Tremaine, Tiana, and Jack go: Ella, Tiana, and Jack are about the same age as Henry, Drizzy is in her early 20's, Ana is 14 (at least I think that's her age), and Tremaine was probably in her 40's.