I have a... Somewhat maybe-unpopular, maybe-controversial opinion floating around in my head that I've kept to myself for quite a while, but I'm also genuinenly curious to hear other peeps' opinions on this, so let me preface

This thread isn't meant to be a personal attack on anyone's work or tastes. I genuinenly do not want to hurt anyone, it isn't my intention, I just want to hopefully spark an interesting discussion but for all I know I might just be reading too much into this

Which, if it's the case, feel free to just tell me 'yo Noha it really isn't that deep' lmao

But alright, preface made, here we go...

I have to confess that whenever I stumble into manips of 'young' Crowley and Aziraphale I go "Mmmmmh : T"

And let me explain why

First, simple personal taste. One of the things that immediately caught my attention of GO was how comfortably middle aged the leads were allowed to be
That isn't to say M Sheen and D Tennat are ugly, because they clearly aren't

But they are not Hollywood levels of sparkly, perfect, drop dead gorgeous conventionally attractive and in "their best years", so to speak, and I like that

(and there is a whole discussion to be had about societal push to paint one's teenage years/early twenties as the best years you'll ever have, but this thread is not that place. Let me just leave this as "this concept is bullshit" and move on)

I like that we have these two individuals who aren't 'pretty boys', who don't care to appear conventionally attractive, and they are still allowed to be completely, utterly devoted and in love to one another

(and one might argue that Crowley with his ever changing style might trying to chase some concept of beauty, but I don't. He just likes to keep on with fashion and to be flashy, I don't think he gives a fuck if people thinks hesy pretty or not)

And I feel like these manips to make them appear twenty years younger is kinda... Demeaning in a way?
Now, again, I'm not accusing anyone, and I genuinenly don't think ppl who make thess manips meant to be demeaning. I'm sure no one wanted to do that.

But I cant help but feel there might be a sort of low-key, internalized, unintentional 'ageism' at work, behind those manips.
It's undeniable that the scales of the GO fandom's medium age probably tip toward the late twenties/thirties and onward,

But there are also plenty of younger fans, and that's fantastic! It's a fun series with a lovable duo of leads we all love to OTP-stan and fans of all ages should be welcome! But idk, probably talking out of my ass here, but maybe these manips are a way for the younger fans

To sort of 'bridge the gap', so to speak. Age them down so they might feel closer to the main duo, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that, I also feel like... It's not needed? It feels like a sign that the idea of growing older (which we all do, at some point)

Might be alienating, that the idea of trying to pur yourself in an older's character shoes might be too difficult, and that to me reads like a quiet sympthom of that low-ley, unintentional 'ageism' I mentioned earlier.
Again, maybe I'm reading too much into this

and it is not that deep. Maybe I'm projecting feelings that really aren't there, and I'm just allowing myself to get excessively rubbed the wrong way. And yet... I don't know if I'm entirely wrong, feeling like this

What really convinced me to write this thread was seeing some manips who had them appear more female-presenting, and they were good manips! I love people making them female-presenting, the fact that you can 'play around' with these characters' gender presentation

And sexuality, that anyone can see themselves reflected in these characters and that there's no wrong way to do so is my absolute fav thing of this OTP and this fandom, and I stand by that.
So, why did those manips rub me the wrong way?

They were all. So. Young.
Every single one of the female-presenting manips I've seen were so young, and conventionally attractive, and I just... Sigh
There are some absolutely excellent fan arts with female-presenting Az Crow who are older

And I *love* those. They are fantastic.

The fact that not a single one of the manips I saw allowed them to appear as older women saddens me even more than the male-presenting ones did

Because women more so than men are considered 'expired' after a certain age. There's even a bigger pressure on women to consider themselves useless and expendable once they get over a certain age, and for better or worse, this iternalized concept SHOWS in those manips

I'm running out of thread space so let me sum it up: while there's nothing inherently wrong with these 'younger' looking manips on a basic level, they still hella rub me the wrong way, and to me they feel like a sign of an internalized fear of growing old,of losing one's 'youth'

Now the ball is in you guys' court. Feel free to tell me I just read an entire novel in what was only the back of a shampoo bottle or something lol