me and my friend read the Secrets of The Silent Witch light novels and web novels, and there was an issue that appeared to us:
Felix's status as a love interest.
normally, it'd be whatever. it's a love angle, two guys, one girl, seen it a million times. but there's a detail that most people seemed to have glossed over, which im going to talk about under the cut.
this is your spoiler warning for the entire main series of Silent Witch, there will be lots of talks about the major overarching mystery, and you should at least read vol7 of the light novels to not get extremely spoiled, if not vol14 of the web novel for the major details.
so, felix(ike)/monica. its a popular ship, which tells me 1 of 3 things.
1. you're an anime watcher who hasn't seen just how morally gray ike can be in the light novels, which is fine
2. you haven't seen the light of either silent snow (cyril/monica) or aro/ace monica
3. you missed the detail that im talking about here
we know monica is 16-18. she was 14 when she became a sage, it's been 2 years since then (thanks bernie), she's 16. over the course of the story, she turns 17, ultimately ending the story at 18 after a one year time skip.
ok, well ike is 18 at the start of the story, and while a birthday is never specified for him, he probably turns 19 at some point, just due to how long the story takes in canon, then he's probably 20 at the timeskip. 2 years isn't that insane for teenage relationships, and if we're generous, he might even be 19 at the end, so what's the problem?
the problem is that i just lied to you. ike isn't 18 at the start, he's 20. he's established in volume 14 chapter 4 of the web novel to be 2 years older than felix. and if felix died at 8 years old, then ike was 10 when he took over as the "felix", and if it's been 10 years since then when the story starts, then ike starts the story 20 years old.
remind me, when does ike develop feelings for monica? oh yeah, near the start of the story, when she is a 16 year old girl and he is a 20 year old man.
even if we assume he doesn't have a birthday during the story, he still ends the story at 21 years old. but he likely turns 21 over the course of the story, then ends a 22 year old man.
a 22 year old man, who moved himself into the home of an 18 year old girl and is actively competing for her affections.
uhoh Matsuri Isora! you accidentally did a pedophilia! that's not good! that's not good at all!
so that's the "Felix" problem, and it's somehow one that a lot of people seemed to miss, which is slightly understandable, considering it's only explictly mentioned maybe twice, but is still a big deal when you're writing a romantic subplot with teenagers.
write down your characters' ages people. especially if your lying about your character's age.
