The Soda Shop Message Boards

Nelson S. wrote:Emily and Matthew are in at least high school. Which would make them at least 14.
Because in "The Lost Riddle", they use high school lockers. And why would they use high school lockers if they were still in middle school?

Nope, they are in middle school, click the spoiler to see the explanation

WAIT!! I was wrong. I listened to the episode again.
You were right, GG. The high school students moved to the middle school lockers. My bad.

Thanks for the explanation God's girl.

The Old Judge wrote:First of all, I would like to introduce you to a concept I formulated a year ago called Odyssey Time.
Now, AIO writers knew their time was warped because of Katie Leigh's voice, but this is the actual scientific approach to it:

When Connie came to Odyssey in 1987, she was sixteen.
When Connie graduated in 1997, she was eighteen.
Thus, one Odyssey year equals five Normal years.

So, if Whit was in WWII, he'd at least have to be born in 1928.
By 1987, the start of the show, Whit would have been about 59 years old.
Using Odyssey Time, only five years have passed, placing Whit's age to be about 64 years old.

Actually, Connie is 28, confirmed by the official podcast

Eeh. I personally subscribe to the "death of the author" mode of media criticism—the author can intend all they want, but unless it's directly stated in the show, the audience doesn't have to take it as canon.

In a more continuity-focused show, I might care a little bit more about making everything jive with the little facts stated in the show, but this show gave us Connie as a high schooler for thirty-one albums, so I just go with "Odyssey time isn't real time" and make up whatever makes the most sense to me overall. (So for instance, I think that Connie and Whit talking about how it's been two years since "The Battle" in "Waylaid in the Windy City" can be disregarded, because Connie still hasn't graduated high school like she probably should have and won't be graduating for another several years.)

If Whit did indeed serve in the second World War, he would be either in his eighties or nineties at this point in time. Given my cynicism, and the traveling he's done, his clear and able brain...I suppose it's possible Whit is nearing a century, realistically though, I feel like he's younger.
The intentions of the writers were to create a sort of comic strip with Adventures in Odyssey. In which no one ever aged, although that idea withered away because the voices of the original child actors changed and now we've been debating this ever since.

Every time I think I have an answer, I'm reminded of the Melstner's saga, or Whit's time as an archaeologist, even Novacom. We have to think of all the characters have endured, how long did Dr.Blackgaard attempt to hold power over Odyssey? I mean, realistically, if Whit and Jason aged, then Connie would need to be in her fourties, and Eugene might be fifty. Then his brother couldn't possibly be ten years old, and...

I don't think there is one definite answer, even Paul McCusker has agreed, it's a timey-wimey mess. And I think we have a little liberty to believe then, that our favourite characters aren't as old and hopeless as they could be.

I imagine Connie is her mid-twenties, Eugene is around thirty, Jason is close to fourty, Whit is around seventy...

Or Odyssey is simply a town out of the normal space-time continuum and everyone who leaves has their years spent in Odyssey catch up to them so they die and never come back, leaving the people still in town (and the listeners) confused on what happened to them.

…Huh, that got a lot darker than I wanted it to. cx

Autumnal wrote:Or Odyssey is simply a town out of the normal space-time continuum and everyone who leaves has their years spent in Odyssey catch up to them so they die and never come back, leaving the people still in town (and the listeners) confused on what happened to them.

…Huh, that got a lot darker than I wanted it to. cx

Hmmm...that might explain it.