Ooh okay so about the "how did elves get abilities" thing I actually really like this theory I saw and would love to hear your opinions on the whole thing. It's by Keeper KOTLC on YouTube and it's called the Youth In A Bottle Theory!
Thanks for your patience as I answered this, one of my biggest weaknesses is watching videos to completion in one sitting, but!! I finally checked out the video you mentioned and it was interesting!
Here's a link for anyone anyone curious, but if you don't want to watch the video here's a basic summary: they theorize that bottles of Youth are connected to the well known fountains of Youth we see in popular media, the bottles of water retrieved from the springs. The magic properties of these springs are then theorized to be the explanations behind all the differences between humans and elves, as if elves were humans who became elves through fountains of Youth, all their differences can be attributed to that one change. It goes into more detail about other things like sanity and the cache secrets, but that was the premise!
(my thought are under the cut for space)
So for a quick recap on the info behind the bottles of youth that we get in canon, they're introduced mainly in book one by Elwin with this exchange on page 120:
"Good girl," Elwin said as he cleared the empty vials away. He placed a large, clear bottle in front of her. "All of us drink one of these every day, but I want you to drink two for a while, to make up for lost time."
"'Youth in a Bottle,'" she read from the label. "Like the fountain of youth?"
"I suppose that is where those legends come from," he agreed. "It has a few enzymes that are essential for our health."
So that's confirmation that the bottles of youth and fountains of youth are connected, as they said! Canon seems to imply that it was the bottles that came before the fountain instead of the other way around. Instead of the water being collected from those fountains around the world and drank by elves, it's part of their medical arsenal, so that does clash with the Youth in a Bottle theory.
Aside from that, attributing the elves' long lifespans and magical capacities doesn't seem like too far of a stretch. If the legends were inspired by Youth, and those legends spoke of it granting eternal life, one has to wonder where they got that from. It may very well be because they get their lifespan from the Youth and humans simply mistook where they sourced it from. It's also possible that humans extrapolated the evidence they saw, all elves being young and attractive and all elves drinking Youth daily, coming to the conclusion that it must be the explanation for it and taking it from there without verifying.
There's the matter of it being named Youth in a Bottle and drank daily, which seems to indicate that it's related to their youth. And while I'm not discrediting that, it's also possible that in this instance it's not meant literally. Youth is a word often attributed to health and wellness, and younger people are generally (not always) in better health. As Youth is essential to elven health, the name could be misleading and instead conflated, meaning more "health in a bottle."
There's also the description of Youth from page 351 of Unlocked, which reads as follows:
Elves drink at least on bottle of this cold, sweet water daily because it contains an essential enzyme that helps flush toxins out of the system. Any treatment plan for an illness or injury always includes additional bottles of Youth.
This equates Youth to more of a detoxer than something that makes them eternally youthful, which could help explain how Sophie went so many years without it without consequence. It also confirms the theory's assessment that Youth is not a multi-vitamin! The reasoning about Elwin prescribing Sophie more Youth not being how vitamins work is correct, though slight error as there are things (bad things) that can happen when you take excessive vitamins, but that's not important.
If it's a detox, I'm curious how that could link up with the Youth in a bottle theory! Perhaps cleansing the elven body of the human toxins that humans are afflicted with allows their bodies to advance somehow. You know all those things like "you gotta cleanse your body to activate your third eye and spiritual energy!!" that's essentially what I'm equating all this too. Which also fits with the theory saying that elves used to be humans until they drank Youth, as if what it does is cleanse the body to be able to advance, any human could become an elf. Hence the secrecy and cover-ups. Not quite sure how this gives them pointed ears as they age but we can figure something out
After watching the video twice, my overall conclusion is that there are some reasonable conclusions drawn here, but I'm not 100% convinced. I think enacting this theory would take the worldbuilding a step farther than Shannon intended, but that's not necessarily a bad thing! Given what we know about Youth being the inspiration for the fountains and it being more of a detox, those details clash a bit too much for me to fully accept the theory.
But that's just me! The theory makes enough ties between eternal life, the fountain of youth, the function of Youth, and elven society to hold it's ground. I wouldn't argue with anyone for believing it and using that as the basis to understand the elven world! It's one of those "i can see exactly the logic behind that," I'm just sticking a little closer to what I know of canon for the time being
thanks for sharing the video/theory, as it was a new perspective to look through! Youth definitely isn't focused on a lot, so it's nice to explore it
Hey there! Meet my newest character in the line of what was supposed to be random characters before I fucked up and got attached, whoops! Anyways this is Sam and I love them, they got their abilities at a pretty bad time though, in a pride parade is not exactly the best timing y’know? Anyways I also did a speedpaint if you wanna check that out!
