Why Alphinaud and Alisaie are so well treated despite being just kids

[Breakbeat]

In the United States, you can join the active military when you're seventeen. Pretty close.

The rest of the world ranges between fifteen and seventeen years of age.

In other countries, sixteen is considered quite 'adult'. In the UK, for instance, you can consume alcohol legally at sixteen, you can give consent for sexual activities, you can leave home and get your own place of living, work an 'adult' level job, etc. It's really only the USA that puts this hard line on eighteen as being 'an adult' whereas 16-17 is still considered a child. We Americans are unique in that belief.

[TheMightyMollusk]

It started as just having money combined with riding on Louisoix's good reputation. Since then, they've been on the front line fighting for Eorzea. They've earned their own reputations by now.

[Espon]

In most jRPGs, being 15-17 years old is enough to go on a grand adventure to save the world. Why would FF14 be any different?

[kpxmanifesto]

From the context of the game's universe: They're kids riding on their parent's/grandparent's coattails. If Alphinaud and Alisae weren't the kids of a politician and the grandkids of a world-famous hero, would they wield the same influence and power as they do now?

From the point of view of the devs: The devs want the game to appeal to the widest audience possible, and that also means including characters of all ages (within reason). It makes sense for the devs to include characters in the game that are around the same age as some people in the playerbase.

[Shurrikhan]

I mean, they are 16 years of age, who in their right minds would accept them in any military organization

Depends. If you have an "army" composed mostly of irregulars and scrapped-together bodyguards and militia with minimal formal training and zero education anyways, are you going to refuse the help of, say, some rich 16-year-old prodigy with an understanding of logistics and geopolitics from the worlds' most prestigious university?

It's not great, but most of the Eorzea armies, let alone any of their international forces, were pretty... limited, to say the least, back then. When we first met the twins, the GCs were largely defunded vestigial elements or still being (re)formed, weren't they?

[Necrotica]

Having kids act as diplomats is insane. Either they won't be taken seriously or the other party will think it is some kind of insult.

I am okay with them being in the Scions. I HATE that Alphinaud is the face of the Scions and want him dead. Or at the very least shamed to the point of being a support side character like he should be. Can an adult please take charge of our organization?

[Lily_Skye]

nice so we can lewd Alisaie now?

[Shibi]

Having kids act as diplomats is insane.

Some might say "case in point" other will disagree and love her.

[Rongway]

Having kids act as diplomats is insane. Either they won't be taken seriously or the other party will think it is some kind of insult.

They're not just kids; they are Studium graduates. While I don't think it's clear whether that corresponds to a real world bachelor's degree or master's degree, it did require them to write theses to graduate: Alisaie's was on "the combat applications of aether" and Alphie's was "a lengthy discourse on [Sharlayan]'s duty to the world". Real world college graduates can get commissions in the US armed services. Stretch the age limit down a bit to accommodate a fantasy setting and it's not that big a stretch for them to be given opportunities to apply their studies to practical world matters.

Dialog from quest "The Wisdom of Allag"

I'm sure this Owen fellow was very learned, but "Eikonic Corruption -- An Overview" sounds like a Studium thesis. We all had to write one.

Lest you wonder, mine was about the combat applications of aether. I'm nothing if not practical...

Alphinaud's was more philosophical, of course. Political, dare I say it. He chose to write a lengthy discourse on our nation's duty to the world.

That the other Scions let them take on so much responsibility might be a bit harder to believe (that is to say, a real world Ensign or Lieutenant would not be given Commander-level responsibilities), but then again the other featured Scions are almost all Archons, who know what their own specialties are and what their colleagues' specialties are. They would/should be able to recognize when someone else is better suited to a task than they.

[kpxmanifesto]

Having kids act as diplomats is insane. Either they won't be taken seriously or the other party will think it is some kind of insult.

I am okay with them being in the Scions. I HATE that Alphinaud is the face of the Scions and want him dead. Or at the very least shamed to the point of being a support side character like he should be. Can an adult please take charge of our organization?

Yeah, I agree with that. It was really obvious from the get-go that Alphinaud was way too inexperienced to be handed major responsibilities, such as the inception of the Crystal Braves. That was his first colossal screw-up. Homeboy didn't bother to vet any of the soldiers joining the company, and the end-result was half of them were spies working on behalf of either Ilberd or Lolorito and Teledji.