Talk:Snufkin/@comment-44399812-20191113081106/@comment-36678579-20191117030236

That got longer than I invisioned, but I hope that it helps somewhat.

I understand the concern in inappropriate shipping and age gaps, but, despite a lack of actual numerical ages, Snufkin definitely seems to be in the same age group as Moomintroll. They are described as best friends, they play together and spend time together like friends who have an equal footing, they relate to each other more than either would relate to an elder figure. When there are elder figures, they both look up to them as mentors, not as equals. Little My's independence and maturity is quite different from Snufkin's, which makes their age difference apparent quite often. Also, the Joxter exists as basically the grown up version of Snufkin, he is his father and is basically what we would imagine an adult Snufkin to be, which again makes it apparent that Snufkin is not an elder figure.

I think it can be easy to forget how independent and mature both Moomintroll and Snufkin and a lot of the younger characters are in the original books, when looking at more recent adaptions. They drink alcohol, they smoke, they travel alone for days, they live alone, they use guns and sharp objects, a lot of the time they represent how laws and parenting were different back when Tove created these characters, and often they just represent how carefree Finnish children can be, especially in rural areas, compared to in other countries. But sometimes they seem to also be very unspecific in age to keep reminding us that they aren't human and are different creatures who live in a different place with lots of different adventures. Applying human age to them is hard on purpose!