realizing thistle never actually reached the maturation point for an elf is so. eye opening. especially bc he actually witnessed both delgal's birth and the birth of delgal's son (AND HIS GRANDSON!!). as a human reader it's so easy to be lulled into thinking he's so old and marcille's remark of him being a child came so fast it's so easily forgotten
like i definitely think the golden kingdom and delgal himself never knew let alone be able to perceive thistle as an immature person. bc in their years he's just so old. and i think growing up surrounded with all tallmen also gave thistle false perceptions of how mature he was and it played a part in him taking on the responsibility of rejecting death for the whole kingdom. it's a brilliant and raw display of what age discrepancy actually means in the world of dungeon meshi