Dangerous Hero Addict Support Group discussion

I know that we all have a favorite hero or heroes and we can read about them over and over again. Do you see your favorite hero(es) as being the same age forever or getting older like we do in real life? Say you read a book and fell in love with a hero in 2005 and he was 30 years old and you read about him again in 2016, would he still be 30 to you or 41?

I have to admit, when I reread about a favorite hero of mine, I sometimes tend to figure out their present age. I don't mind him getting older, because I do. The book was him then. I like to think of how he would be now.

It's sad to say, but it's true. By the year, a historical book was written and read, in real life the hero would have already been dead and today, in the fiction world that hero would be dead. This case is true in regards to Cole Clayborne - my baby from Julie Garwood's Clayborne Historical series.

Lol, paranormal fans, what do you think about your favorite paranormal heroes? : )

Arch wrote: "I know that we all have a favorite hero or heroes and we can read about them over and over again. Do you see your favorite hero(es) as being the same age forever or getting older like we do in real..."

Fascinating question. I guess I always see the hero the same age, but I understand their choices better because I'm more mature, particularly when those choices are the less of two evils, moral choices, gray areas... I understand them better now.

the hero in my favorite book is James Fraser from Outlander.
throughout the series he does age. In the first book he was 21 or 22 and in the 2nd book he was in his 40's...in the last book he is in his 60's and I love him just as much older as he was younger. When he was young he was immature and to watch him become a man was very interesting.
Also the heroine in the book ages...and it's nice to read a love story where the female lead is older than 16.

Arch, I also try and work out a hero's present age (the heroines too!).
I hadn't really thought about whether I think of them as older in my head, so I had to give this one some thought!
I think the answer for me is that I do, briefly. If I work out their age then I try to imagine what they'd look like now, but then I revert back to the age they have in the book to enjoy their story! Thinking of how old they may look now is more a side curiosity than a main shift I make to the story.

I actually tend to see characters, especially heroes, as younger, even if they are written as an older man. If they are a hero of 40+ my mind tends to put them as ageless! A healthy, good looking and capable older man - who looks great for his age. So, yes, looking younger!

I remember two of the first times I read an older hero - one was Outlander hero Jamie Fraser and the other was the hero in the first Shadowlands book by Cherise Sinclair.
I agree with Vanessa above about Jamie Fraser's character and watching him mature being so interesting. Jamie is so well portrayed that his aging isn't even an issue (though again, my mind sees him as a healthy older hero who has aged well!).
The Cherise Sinclair hero though had greying hair at his temples and for some reason I found it so bizarrely off putting in a hero in his position I just had to imagine him without the grey!!

Paranormal heroes is easy, if they're immortal they are always in the prime of their life :)

Some men looks good with grey hair. The grey hair brings out their looks.

Arch wrote: "Some men looks good with grey hair. The grey hair brings out their looks."

That's true. I think it definitely depends on the character and how they are portrayed.
I actually thought of another book example I read where the hero had a 'salt and pepper' hair and beard. In my mind it just worked great for him and suited him. The way he was written the maturity just added to the whole air. That character was Kane 'Tack' Allen in Kristen Ashley's Dream Man series.
I was thinking that some of my favourite book heroes, such as the (non-immortal) Sherrilyn Kenyon book heroes, would now end up being about 20 years older now than when the books were written!!

I would love to read about Sam at his age now.

It's funny how I imagine certain characters' ages based on how they act...there is a certain vampire character that, even though the author says he looks like a man in his 30's, because he carries such a responsibility and is so respected, I imagine him like in his 40's and with some gray in his hair,,, and a beard, for some reason even though he does not have one, in my mind, he has a graying beard.

I tend to read books with immortals so they do stay the same in my mind and in the "real book life". For me they tend to stay the same in the series (if it is a series) but each book in the series they age. Like Tom Paoletti in Troubleshooters. He isn't getting bald in the Unsung Hero but he starting to in Gone Too Far.

I like when a man age well. Some men are hotter in their older age, Example: Timothy Olyohant is 49 years old and that grey is looking good on him.

Sam Starrett will always be sexy to me and i know he will be a looker at his present age.