How old is Guybrush exactly?
Something has been bugging me. And it's shaped like Morgan Leflay. She claims that she's been following Guybrush Threepwood's piratey exploits all her life, ever since she was a little child. Though, to be honest Morgan doesn't look incredibly young, compared to Guybrush.
I would guess that Guybrush is, at most, in his early twenties. And he likely started pirating on Melee Island at age sixteen at the earliest (the standard age for a callow youth with a fantastic destiny ahead of him). He's certainly not scarred nor grizzled enough to have been a pirate for that since then. And he's still got his boyish good looks. In the Monkey Island continuity, we can be fairly sure that the events that have taken place so far have spanned over a period of no more than ten years. Likely even less than that.
So the question I have to ask is... Isn't Morgan a little bit well-developed for someone in her early teens?
I would guess that Guybrush is, at most, in his early twenties. And he likely started pirating on Melee Island at age sixteen at the earliest (the standard age for a callow youth with a fantastic destiny ahead of him). He's certainly not scarred nor grizzled enough to have been a pirate for that since then. And he's still got his boyish good looks. In the Monkey Island continuity, we can be fairly sure that the events that have taken place so far have spanned over a period of no more than ten years. Likely even less than that.
So the question I have to ask is... Isn't Morgan a little bit well-developed for someone in her early teens?
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I'm sure there's a better way to explain it though, I just assume things from hints in the games.
We can actually map this out, His card says he's 20 in CMI, he lies and says 21 in MI2 (Legal Drinking Age), so if we go from that twenty in CMI, take off Three Months (according to Stan in TOMI) to lead back to MI2. If he's still 20 in MI2, then he must be around 21 in EMI, plus that decade makes him 31.
Taking into account his 19 slip in MI2, Three Months pass to make him 20 in CMI, another Three Months in EMI makes him nearly 21 in a way. That would make Guybrush just 16 years old in MI1!
He looks a bit older in this game than in the previous ones, too.
wonder what that means..
That was my read on it at least, that their "decade together" was an approximation of their total time knowing each other. I don't think Guybrush is 30, for instance.
32? That's way too old for Guybrush. By the time he's 32 he'd probably be retired and have a couple of kids.
As Curse starts at night and the daylight in each area loops around through a full day and back to morning at the end, it's possible that the events of that game unfolded over one day, but perhaps not. Either way, I doubt the events of that game took 9 months, so if Guybrush and Elaine were on their three month honeymoon for the duration of the time between Curse and Escape, Guybrush must have still been 20 in Escape.
Now, if Telltale is pulling an Indiana Jones and making the amount of time that passed in the real world between games the same as the amount of time that passed in-game between games (and they seem to be), that would make Guybrush 29 now.
Also, if Elaine's reference to leaving her for three years is indeed an indication to the time between the first and second games, that would make him 16 in Secret and might also explain why she was so pissed off at him in Monkey 2.
.... That actually makes sense! Good job!
Thanks. I seem to have a real talent for overthinking things.
Point taken. I still wonder how old she's supposed to be, though. Not that it really matters.
Morgan could be just 18 and have been following his career since Secret, which would have made her about 8 years old, easily classified as a little girl. I've noticed that teenagers and young adults in general tend to refer to their past selves as "little" up to about 12 years.
Obviously, this is definitely debatable and contains a lot of supposition, but Guybrush could be just 26 (inferring from the decade statement and taking into account the ages mentioned in the early games). Morgan could be 22, if he started his exploits at 16, while she was 12, this could fit into the logic of Morgan's hero worship story while still leaving them fairly close in age.
Just take a look at as recent as a little over 100 years ago.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was 10 years younger than her husband. She WAS 18 when she got married, but at that time it was not unusual for women to get married as early as 15 or 16.
As time has gone by, the age of majority has gone up. Maybe in another 150 years, you'll be considering a child until you're 30 and the average life span will be 110 years
Also, can anyone explain her reference to the timeline in court? I just replayed the game and I'm sure she actually said "then he left me hanging over a pit and went to look for the treasure of Big Whoop. I didn't see him for three years after that." This sounds like she's talking about the events near the end of MI2; I can't see how it relates to something that happened in between MI1 and MI2. If Guybrush is 19 in MI2 and 20 in MI3, how does her suggestion of three years make sense?
Elaine's always been depicted as being fairly close to Guybrush in age, and I'm not so sure about the three years bit. I really doubt he was just 16 in Secret. My guess is he was at least 18 in that game.
Also, I don't have any memory of the three years line, so I'm just going off of what others have said for that. I can't see it referring to the MI2/Curse gap. I mean, even in the Monkey Island universe, three years is a long time to survive in a coffin without food or water. Plus Elaine was poxed at the time and spewing all sorts of nonsense (assuming the line was said during this game. I honestly don't have any idea when she's supposed to have said it). I'm definitely more inclined to believe Stan on that than Elaine.
in MI2, Guybrush is 19. Since Largo's been on the track of the mystical beard of LeChuck for "years", Guybrush was probably 16 in MI1 (although allegedly the game manuals put just a month between the two games).
In CMI, I gather Guybrush claims 20, consistent with other indications in the game (eg Wallys subscription to LeChuck's pirating course) that a year has passed snce MI2. However, in TMI Stan says it was only three months, and Elaine says it was three years.
EMI is meant to be three months after CMI, but obviously that's not true. Obvoiusly Guybrush and Elaine postponed their three-month honeymoon in order to settle down living together in the mansion, get Timmy, move Guybrush's stuff into the mansion, rebuild the interior of the mansion, move the SCUMM bar.....
A 'decade' of adventures in TMI seems reasonable to date from Elaine giving up all her political appointments to become a full-tiime pirate at the end of EMI - so, TMI must be tennish years later, Guybrush about 30 years old
Tutenkhamun was 9 years old when he became pharoah, Henry the Young King was crowned at the age of 15, and even the current British monarch Queen Elizabeth II began her reign at the relatively young age of 25. Given the time period of Monkey Island, I think it's perfectly plausible that Elaine is no older than 20 in SMI.
It can still fit in regards to Stan comment, Guybrush could of been 19 years old and 11 months in MI2, add three months on to that and you get 20 years old and two months. I just gather that Elaine is bad with her time keeping or an easy script error, Three Months and Three Years are close, just one word wrong.
As far as Guybrush's age, wasn't there some article saying that it had been (like real time) 10 years since MI4, and Guybrush has spent the entire time crafting the cutlass? That'd make him about 31 I'd say.
Okay, I finally saw that line in context tonight (I think I went straight for the sponge the first time I played chapter 4), and it's definitely intended to be referring to the MI2/Curse gap. Given that Stan wouldn't have survived in a coffin for three whole years, plus Elaine's tendency to exaggerate while poxed, I'm sticking with Stan's three months and saying that we have nothing at all to indicate his age in Secret.
But he would for 3 months?!?!
n = number of pixels in the original Guybrush sprite 1 while idle (from MI 1)
s = number of times Stan moved his arms on all MI games (up to MI 5)
m = number of times Elaine thought about Guybrush
V = Voodoo Lady's constant of unknown, doom and foretelling
h = number of "har" "spoken" by LeChuck
H = number of "har" written on screen in the non talkie versions
You'll have to find the V constant though, by some oddity I have forgotten after asking the Voodoo Lady...
I'm inclined to believe Stan when he says he was locked in the coffin for three months (survived by eating a previous corpse if I remember correctly. Doesn't explain how he kept hydrated but that's cartoon logic for you).
I too was wondering about the "three years" Elaine mentioned...
But I'm going to say that she's poxed and pissed, so she's mixing up her timeline (seems more likely than Stan thinking he was locked in a coffin for 3 months when it was 3 years).
And since sometimes when you complain about someone, you say things out of order...
I'm going to say she didn't see him for 3 months after the Big Whoop thing, but she also didn't see him for three years between secret and revenge (or less but she exaggerated, could be a bit over two years for instance), and she just got herself mixed up while complaining.
So... I would say Guybrush would be 16-17 in the first game, then we know he's 19 in the second, 20 in the third (the two ages that are given in-game), then three months pass so he has to still be 20, and since they adventured for about ten years together he'd be around 26 in Tales.
Morgan might be 20 or so, meaning she'd be 10 at the time of Secret, and followed Guybrush since then.
Elaine I always pictured as older than Guybrush by at least a few years but I'll agree there is nothing definite about that since her age is never given anywhere.
Does anyone has other theories and/or do we have any official word about the "three months" vs "three years" thing?
EDIT: oh, and about Stan and his jacket. I'd say he's exaggerating more than lying. He wear a different jacket in MI2 due to it being coffins (so he chose more... funeral colours) but I think he really means he's had that jacket for about 20 years, even though he didn't wear it non-stop.
He also says his mojo comes from the pattern, so I'd say he became a salesman about 20 years ago. If he started as early as Guybrush that would make him ten years older than him, or 26 in Secret and 36 in Tales. But he could also have started later and be more around 30 in Secrets and 40 in Tales.
I think that's all for the recurring characters. I wouldn't try to figure out the Voodoo Lady's age because she probably uses voodoo, and Murray is already dead so that's irrelevant.
And LeChuck, well he died too. I'd say human LeChuck was probably the age of LeChuck when he died rather than the age he would be if he was still alive.
I agree with this.
I agree with this too, except that it sounded more like 10 years since they had been adventuring together, which would be Curse, not Secret. So Guybrush would be 30 in Tales.
Since Guybrush says he's 19 in Revenge and 20 in Curse, there can't be 3 years between them, but three months could be, so I'd say your explanation is right.
There's no reason to assume he started shortly before Secret. He could have been in business and weasring his jacket for 6 years already then.
I always picture LeChuck in his fourties or maybe fifties.
Or 10 is the "ten years adventuring" start at Secret. But yeah, that's what I think too.
About Stan surviving in the coffin, I honestly can't say I'm 100% sure, but I seemed to remember that was what happened. I think I read it somewhere or other, that could be wrong. I'm probably going to play Curse again soon so I'll tell you about that then.
EDIT: I think I might have read it on wikipedia
Of course, considering it's wikipedia (and that they say "a year later" but that could be due to his age going from 19 to 20), that doesn't mean anything. That could just be someone's theory, or that could be something Stan says if you question him in Curse. Does anyone know more about that?
As for Elaine, she's a little bit older than him. I think, though unsure again, she was 22 in SMI. So that would put her, with the same count, at 27-28 in Tales. And Morgan, yeah, I think she's barely 20.