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[IndigoWolfe]

One thing that's continually bothered me in my time here is the often repeated statement that "bah, Liara's the equivalent of sixteen, making her romance awkward" when in fact, this is simply not true.

Here are the facts:

Liara is one hundred and one hundred and eight years old, and she describes herself as having "spent her entire adult life studying the Protheans".

Adult life. And she's been studying the Protheans for over fifty years. We may conclude that an asari is considered physically mature at around fourty to fifty years of age. If asari ages could be linearly compared to human aging --more on that later-- that would put Liara at the time of Mass Effect 1 at around twenty-one to twenty-three and most certainly 'mature', well within the human social norms for a relationship with someone Shepard's age.

Further proof of this is an asari on Illium, who remarks "she's sixty years old and finally out of her parents house", implying that it is expected of an asari to be personally independant from her parent(s) by that age.

More telling, is the fact that Morinth has been on the run since she was fourty, when it was discovered she was an Ardat-Yakshi. And Samara states quite implicitly that Ardat-Yakshism manifests "at maturity" --ostensibly sexual maturity.

She even equates puberty to "entering the Maiden stage". Entering.

Taking all this into account, I think we can conclude with no small amount of certainty that Liara is far older than the human equivalent of a teenager.

Now, what's confusing is when Liara says "she is barely considered more than a child" by asari, so it's understandable that people make the assumption of her being equivalently young. But let's try to put ourself into a more asari-like mindset; they live for a thousand years. That's a long time. And since asari don't take fifteen years to grow out of infancy, this means that correlative ages between asari and human lifespans is not a clear equivalent. The two species progress through life at an intrinsically different rate. An asari of seniority --which is most likely the kind of asari Liara had to deal with in her acedemic pursuits-- would view a younger individual as "barely more than a child" to a much broader span of time. With this in mind, I think any comparisons between the human state of being barely more than a child and the asari equivalent are simply inaccurate. I think it likely that an asari could be galavanting across the galaxy on her own at an age where it would be completely socially acceptable for her to have sexual encounters, and still be considered "barely more than a child" by asari of seniority.


I am making this thread mainly so that I, and any like-minded others, can link to a comprehensive document when this particular issue comes up in future discussions instead of having to recall and retype all of it.

If anyone else has anything to add, let me know.

[TheMarshal]

I tend to think of asari reaching physical maturity far younger than when they enter "adulthood" (at around 60 years or so). The reason for this is that even longer-lived species, such as tortoises, reach their maximum size and reproductive age fairly early on relative to the extent of their lives. I imagine that the factors in determining whether an asari is "mature" are more social in nature than anything related to physical maturity. Sort of a "you haven't seen enough of the galaxy yet" kind of thing.

[ladyvader]

I think people are blowing things out of proportion big time when it comes to Liara. Yes, she is young for an asari, but that does not mean she is a child. How many humans get a Ph'd in archaeology in Prothean studies at the age of 16?

Even in society today, an 18 in the USA is considered an adult. But one in their young 20's is considered barely an adult, if I use how Liara phrased it.

@The Marshal, I agree with everything you said.