Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-7526254-20170430003451/@comment-7526254-20180407170301

There seems to be a lot of facts that people are forgetting. While for most characters, their exact ages are never mentioned, they still have been implied. We know that our world, EF, and WR all have the same time flow. NEF is the problem. There time moves either faster or slower relative to certain characters.

If Ella is 16 by the time of the curse, she would be 34 years older than Henry if she experienced time the same way. Obviously she didn't. Ella is not in her 60s.

Alice was born right before the curse and lived in the tower for 17 years (excluding leap years). I'm willing to ignore the leap years because it so insignificant and just assume a year is 6 hours shorter in NEF. Alice spends an unknown amount of time in NWL, where I will assume time is frozen. She leaves some time before the ball.

Here's the really confusing part. How much did Henry age? He was at least 18 when he left SB, even though he looked younger. He aged significantly before meeting Ella. Then they escaped her step-mother, slowly fell in love, watched Drizella turn evil, eventually got married, and at least 9 months later had Lucy. Then there is another 8 years before the curse and presumably 2 more years before Henry arrives. Henry has to be at least in his 30s, based on this.

In 7X06, Regina says she was like Drizella when she was around her age. This leads me to believe Drizella was around 18 at the time, making Ella around 22, which could very well be Henry's age. This is at least 11 years before the present, which makes sense. I can see Henry and Ella as 33. This means only 6 years passed between Anastasia dying and Drizella becoming evil. Since Alice aged 17+ years during that time, I'm going to have to believe that Ella and Drizella were cursed somehow and this had nothing to do with the timeflow in NEF.

In 7X08 we learn Ella gave up custody of Lucy because she felt she was unfit to raise a child. This leads me to believe she was really young when she had her. The flashbacks imply that she was at least 23, which I guess is considered young in modern society. I don't believe Ella was 30 when she had Lucy. Otherwise, why would she give up custody?

When Robin leaves Storybrooke she is 18. She then lives in NEF for 7 years until she is 25. Henry is clearly not 38 by the time of the curse, so she must have experienced time faster.

However, Regina, Hook, and Emma all seemed to have not aged when they visit Henry. They might have aged at the same rate as Henry. It doesn't show as much at that age. (Henry aged from 18 to 22 while Emma aged from 36 to 40) Emma was still young enough to concieve a baby. When we see Emma and others in the finale we can see how much time passed for them. According to Robin's age, time moves faster in SB, but that seems inconsistent with everyone else's age. I have no explanation for that.

Regina and Zelena don't appear to age, but they both have magic so I'll let that slide.