#if u genuinely believe that short = minor you would be floored to meet my 4'8 mother

[h2o2-and-baking-soda]

yknow what i'm gonna talk about the traveller's age.

i'm so, so, so annoyed at how people seem to want to infantalise them, especially on tiktok and twitter. from what i've seen, there's two main arguments for why the traveller is a minor, and here's my responsesto both (as well as some other less-used arguments i've seen).

disclaimer: this is a longass post. i'm so sorry. i don't know how to do cuts on mobile to make it shorter. also, i don't really ship the traveller with anyone, so please don't tell me that i just want to ship them.

the first argument i see is "the traveller is a self-insert". news flash: not all of the people playing the game are minors, nor is all content created for minors. in fact, most of the players aren't minors. the current age demographics are "27% [of GI players] are under 25, while the average age is 35." (source: this article)

also, if they wanted to make it catered towards minors, why would they disregard everyone's opinion who's under 18 in their surveys?

if the average age is 35, then why on earth would the player insert be minor-coded? also, if they are a player insert, then why do the different twins have separate personalities? i've asked these questions to people who've said that the traveller is a minor and i haven't ever gotten a conclusive answer from them, which leads me to believe that they either didn't think that far ahead or are just echoing what they've heard other people say.

the second argument is that the traveller doesn't drink alcohol, to which they cite kaeya's voiceline saying that the traveller is underage, and also diona's voiceline from her story quest saying that she essentially doesn't believe them saying they're older than they look.

if not drinking is a sign of being a minor, then why isn't diluc minor‐coded? isn't his whole deal about not liking alcohol?

the traveller is literally trapped in a world where to their knowledge, a god refused to let them leave it with their sibling and then took their sibling away and forced the traveller to sleep for 500 years. if i were the traveller, i'd be extremely wary of being drunk while in that situation, especially since they're in a world that they're not native to.

them saying that they're underage to kaeya, to get out of drinking, is a smart move on their part. we know that kaeya likes to gather information while drinking and hanging out in taverns, and what better way to get information out of a traveller who pretty much popped out of nowhere than by offering them a drink, mondstadt-style?

in one of the traveller's voicelines, they mention giving tavern owners money in exchange for information, and then say they might've learnt that in another world. this implies that they were able to go to taverns many times in other worlds (since that's not a skill you learn by just going once), and they're choosing to not go in teyvat.

in 4) i mentioned them going to taverns in other worlds; this is slightly in response to another argument i've seen:

"the traveller was a minor before they arrived in teyvat, and technically they're 500 years old now, but since they were asleep for all of those years that doesn't count."

this entire argument is dashed by two things: the fact that the traveller, along with their sibling, has seen the birth and death of stars; and that the traveller has also been to taverns in other worlds enough times to know that tipping the owners money can sometimes buy information.

firstly, even if the birth and death of different stars were happening at the same exact time, at the very least that process would take a million years. we all know about scaramouche's line of "the stars, the sky, it's all fake," but that's about teyvats current celestial bodies, and not about anywhere else in the universe. just from that line alone we can infer that the travellers are like a million+ years old.

secondly, in china and most parts of the world, you have to be at least 18 to go to bars/taverns to drink. that means that they're at least 18 in another world. this would mean that even before they had their 500 year long nap they were an adult.

thirdly, they were unphased at sleeping for 500 years. idk about you but if i fell asleep for even a single year, i'd be in shock and react a lot stronger than the traveller did. this leads me to believe that they're really old, since 500 years seems like almost nothing to them.

additionally, do you really think a pair of kid twins would be traversing the universe without at least someone going "hey where tf are their parents?"

i've also seen people claiming they're a minor because they use the short model. venti is literally 2000+ years old and is a god, and also uses the short model. the traveller is just short.

tl;dr- it's advantageous of the traveller to present as a younger person- they wouldn't get questioned about things as much as an adult would. however, from the lore and their voicelines about themself, you can easily infer that they're significantly older than they appear.