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

[VelKallor]

Even if you are rich and powerful you must know that you have to be of a certain age to join organizations or military service.

Having joined and served with a volunteer medical unit starting at age TWELVE, you are sadly mistaken.

16 years old is not a "kid" either. Not by many nations standards.

[kpxmanifesto]

Having joined and served with a volunteer medical unit starting at age TWELVE, you are sadly mistaken.

16 years old is not a "kid" either. Not by many nations standards.

People are going to argue that there's a difference between volunteering and enlisting, though. There's plenty of volunteer programs for kids these days, but they're not involved in combat in any way.

[Saraide]

They never really joined any official military organisation. Alphi made his own, he's not gonna fire himself from it. They've also proven their capabilities in combat so no one is going to say no at this point anymore.

[cooker]

They're essentially JRPG protags? So uhm.. yeah?
That's just how it works.

Yeah, kid/teen protagonists are hugely common, especially in jrpgs. I mean in ff7 Yuffie is 17 adn has been doing her thing for who knows how long (I'm sure people know but I don't), Persona 4 and 5 have famous kid detectives, etc.

[kpxmanifesto]

While it happens mostly off camera, Alph is often said to have excellent negotiating skills on top of being incredibly book smart. He is as much a scholar and tactician as Cid is an engineer.

He's probably a lot like the nerds in Big Bang Theory, or Ender from Ender's Game.

Yes, if they do TLC/polish the story to make that a little clearer, but it is what it is.

The thing about Ender was that he rarely made mistakes, if any at all. He won every battle decisively. Alphinaud made some serious errors that almost got the sultana killed.

[hydralus]

What I wanna know is why people keep listening to these dumb little twerps. It's one thing for them to make mistakes. It's another thing for all the adults around them to just go "Yeah sure I will follow you/let you do that". Like the first thing they do when they venture out in Garlemald is fail to bridge cultures and improve diplomatic relations and yet they're the first ones to volunteer to go speak with Quistis. And the other scions/adults just LET them. Y'shtola even mentions it sounds like a bad idea. But for no reason at all they just let them do it.

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

So unrealistic.

/drives away in flying car.

[Wanzzo]

So unrealistic.

/drives away in flying car.

or a flying young behemoth (so much weight for so much flight!)

The wonders of red bull! (in this case, red behemoth).

[kaynide]

The thing about Ender was that he rarely made mistakes, if any at all. He won every battle decisively. Alphinaud made some serious errors that almost got the sultana killed.

You're not wrong, at all. I'm in the "WTF why is Alph leading a new free company!?" camp as opposed to literally any other scion (WoL included)...but I think this is the kind of character (Ender-esque) the devs were attempting to emulate.

[Thorio]

And why would you assume 16 is not considered adult in eorzea?