Yep with me being 41, males under 30 for me are like puppies, maybe totally sweet and cute, but just not sexually attractive. 
But other people might do as they please.
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It seems like when people talk about age gap romances in CSGs, they mostly mean younger MCs with older ROs. Are there examples of the opposite dynamic?
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Boytoy/trophy boy
A very unusual term to hear but have heard the two used in gossip between very southern religious ladies talking about “that Trollop and her boy toy”
At least here toy boy isn’t a version heard…
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I think it depends on the age range. Relationships between someone who is 18-19 and someone much older (10 yrs plus) make me uncomfortable, because in my experience those relationships always have a power imbalance and a predatory nature to them. But if it’s a difference between someone who’s 30 and someone who’s 40, then 10 years is nothing. Generally, for younger characters, I prefer romance with little to no age gap, and for older characters, I’m indifferent.
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I think Masashi/Manami from SoH
I was curious, so I did a poll:
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If a 90 year old man hangs out at a high school and seduces a teen girl the reaction very understandably is “that’s disgusting”, and “call the police there’s a pedophile at the school”.
If a 90 year old male vampire does the exact same thing however, it’s “true-love” and a blockbuster movie series. It’s kind of ironic since the power imbalance is much greater, but hey, at least he doesn’t have wrinkles…
Sometimes I think far more people are uptight about being approached by someone to whom they aren’t attracted, then they are about an actual age gap, ie. it doesn’t matter if they’re really 90 or even 900 as long as they still look young.
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Eh, I’m more okay with it, because the framing is different. A romance between a mortal old man and a teen is deliberately trying to romanticize and normalize a way out of line situation that can happen (there is no other reason to write it that way).
A romance between an immortal vamp (who is usually written as basically an emotionally volatile teen with angst) and a mortal teen is written as a fantasy story where you can stay young and in young love forever with a powerful pretty boy. It’s for kids who only know high school emotions and want things like first love to last forever (ie very few, if any kids are going to take away “Being with someone 90 years old is romantic!”)
I still really only read immortal-mortal romances with (emotionally mature, not just arbitrarily over 18) adult characters, but I’m not exactly appalled by the vampire escapism fiction I read in high school.
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The immortal is in my opinion totally a excuse to say is because that other is beautiful and physically seems younger.
It is easily to see with Pop stars and rock and actors…
Random 20
“I WILL NEVER DATE A 50 YEARS OLD”
That 50 is Brad Pitt Angelina Jolie Jonny Deep…
“Where I have to sign?”.
It is OK not dating someone because is sexually unpleasant. But that’s most people reason no date olders they aren’t just attracted to them
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I’m kinda with Mara on this one. To me it’s a question of what we actually find objectionable about a 90 on 19 romance. Is it the difference in experience and emotional maturity? That difference is just as big for the vampire as it is for the nursing home. Is it about the “power imbalance”? The vampire has a much, much bigger power imbalance than the old man ever could.
And when you get those out of the way, it looks like the only reason Edward Cullen can date high school girls and Abe Simpson can’t is that Edward looks young and hot and Abe Simpson looks old and ugly. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t think appearance should be the deciding factor in whether a relationship is considered predatory or not.
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I would care about the age gap a lot less if there were a few more MCs who were explicitly adults. Even when age is not stated (like implied by school and college stories) there is always a stress on the MC being new or green in some way, never someone established in their field and secure in their personality. Romance between a kid fresh out of college with all the confusion that attends, and an adult in their forties or so, or even someone my age… Well, that’s weird for me. I remember being twenty. I remember being hit on by older dudes. Those are not happy memories.
And just… adults. A relationship between two people who know themselves and each other well enough that I can believe it when the story implies they’re going to spend the rest of their lives together.
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How old are people in american college?
Because past high school in my country people are beginning to live adult live in different rates.
I was not mature at 20, but at that age I did go to classes with people who were married, settled, had a kid or left a semester or two to take maternity leave and they were all somewhere in there twenties. (Well, one where 60 and had grand children, but she doesn’t quite count here) Not all were like that of course. There was also the we are still young groups. Weirdly enough my german studies were very different from my litterature studies when it came to diversity in life experience. (The later being more like the we are still young and party group)
In my experience past twenty people are on so many different tracks that it is impossible to say how mature they are. And quite frankly it is nobody else business.
I do agree it is creepy when a 40 years old looks for 20 years something, because that seems skeevy and you have to question why they go looking for that, but I don’t seem what is wrong with two adult who just happens to meet and fall in love.
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I think the problem here is people is imaging a old Fat dude ugly pursuing Beautiful innocent angels through forest to stole their panties the Manga stereotype.
When not thinking that people could falling in love without PURSUING creep the other part. I have seen job companions that after working one of two years together have fallen in love yes one has 22 and other 35 But that doesn’t mean That the 35 girl was pursuing creeping the guy.
If someone is creep pursuing that’s TOXIC no for the age gap. It is toxic BECAUSE THE obsession.
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Yeah, that is properly true.
Most people I know with age gap met doing work or volunteer work. It never seemed weird to me.
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There is a saying, love does not discriminate against age.
But only when that is love.
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The discussion over physical/emotional maturity kinda reminds me of this video I watched a while back that I most certainly have not been looking for on-and-off for two days :
Just some food for thought 
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College age varies depending on campus (some cater to a more non-traditional student body than others.) But traditionally, if someone left high school and went to college right away, you’d see the age span as 18-24, depending on how fast they completed the degree. Bachelor’s degrees are meant to be completed in four years if you don’t attend summers, which is how many scholarships are set up. But some take 5 or 6 years, especially of they are working too. If you want a master’s/graduate degree, that’s another 2-3 years, and a reason you’ll see older students on campus in the 22+ range who aren’t undergrads(along with PhD students, who can be even older.)
That said, when most people refer to typical college age in protective tones, it’d be the 18-22 year old with little life experience outside of schooling, not the non-trads who are working their way through, have a family, or attended college later in life.
Ok, I originally muted this topic because it was too painful for me; but I’m trying to change myself a bit and stop running away from everything so here’s my 2 cents:
I was in an abusive relationship due to age gap when I was 17 and the other boy was 26; I failed at the time to understand how much more able were older people to handle feelings and emotions, how having his own car and house, a job and knowing which wine was best at dinner wasn’t something to be in awe of… I know it’s a personal issue and that for my bad experience there could be good ones, but endorsing relationships with big age gaps is always a risk because abuses are far more frequent than not. So I think 15-16 should never go past 3 years gap and 17-19 can use the 5 years rule.
That being said think that 20 years old could handle almost all age gap if I try to force myself to be openminded for the most extreme situations and 25+ can have relationships with anyone they want without me even thinking twice about it. There might be abusive relationships as well but that could happen even between two people of the same age.
Still I think authors should keep in mind that even tho teens end up in relationships with older people all the time irl most of said relationships never “age well”(sorry for the pun 
) and a few times they leave scars that could still hurt a lot even several decades after.
Just my opinion tho.
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Personally I’m not bothered at all by age gaps. Especially in supernatural games, the age gaps might be thousands of years and nobody cares. Usually if a game makes people uncomfortable, don’t play it. There is something for everyone out there.
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18 is generally a good number to draw “the line” even though this number might slightly vary elsewhere (or in the past).
Anyway, generally speaking as long as everyone is 18 or over and consenting, romance age gaps of whatever size can be workable.
The bigger issue is going into the fantastic/scifi realm where age stuff can get messy.
On the show Voyager for example there was a relationship between two aliens (Neelix and Kes) and one of them only had a lifespan of 9 years, so she was basically full grown at age “1.” There were always comments from some saying “Neelix is a pedo!” which was silly since they obviously had a different biology.
Still, its always going to be creepy when you’ve got something like a 500 year old vampire that looks like a 10 year old. Vampires by their very nature are predators so the power imbalance is always going to be on their side of things, but that doesn’t change the fact that the human that they’ve picked in this case is a big pervert. (Something like Let the Right One In)
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