What do you think Veld and Vincent's ages are in FF7. It says in Wiki Vincent was born around 50 years before ff7 But it also says he spends 30 of them in the coffin. And the opinion is that he was 27 when he went into the coffin....This hurts my brain. Nobody gives us any hint to velds age at all. Just that he's the TURK director and has been around awhile. So thoughts?
I want to warn you of two things before we get into this. One, the Compilation contradicts itself often, not in the least because the OG dates are different from what every other part of canon says. Two, the Final Fantasy Wiki must be taken with a grain of salt because it’s trying to mesh inconsistent canon, and you have a lot of people who don’t cross-check editing things. It’s a good resource, just go into it with the understanding that it’s flawed material from the get-go.
Now.
Vincent’s birthday (as one of the members of the main party in the OG) was actually given in canon as October 13, 1950. So having that already, I can give you his chronological ages with the (as of this moment) “updated” dates of when things occur:
- CC (2000/0000) - 50
- OG (0007-0008) - 57/58
- AC (0009) - 59
- DoC (0010) - 60
Here’s where things start getting complicated, of course, because he died before any of that. I really don’t remember off the top of my head where the number 27 is, but that’s what I’ve always heard, yes. So we’ll go with that, that he’s lived 27 years… that’s 1977, 30 year nap until you meet him in OG, when he starts having life experience again. So mentally and emotionally, Vincent is the following ages:
- OG - 27
- AC - 29
- DoC - 30
Which makes him “younger” than Barret (35 in OG) and Cid (33 in OG) out of the original party. Given he was a Turk, he’s an “old” 27, but still 27.
Another fun fact! Assuming that Vincent was born in 1950, as canon states, and died at age 27 - math then says it was sometime in 1977 - and Lucrecia was pregnant at that time… Sephiroth was born either in 1977 or 1978. Angeal and Genesis were born then or earlier. Genesis is said to be older than Angeal and I believe it’s heavily implied that Project G got going before S.
Now, back to our Turks, more specifically Veld. Fact is, there’s no date given for Veld as far as I know, and I’ve peered around some. So what we’re going off of is that he was a peer of Vincent’s, and that comes from translation of a word used in BC when Veld and Vincent meet up again that has implied they were partners. Not a lot to go on, but fandom has run with it and it makes sense.
That scene is what I’ve based my age of Veld on - I put him slightly younger than Vincent. Generally, I see Veld written as the older and definitely the senior Turk, but I think if Vincent had been used to following Veld’s lead, he would have gone with him. Remember, at the time Vincent was still very broken up and emotional for all that he emotes like a brick wall. If Veld had been his mentor or even an authority figure, I think he would have fallen back in step because it was comfortable, it would be the first hint of familiarity and safety that he’d had since things had started going wrong back then. (I doubt he knew how much time had passed until Veld came, looking much older, anyway.)
Mind you, a man who is content to sulk for 30 years in a coffin might just be stubborn enough to go back to it regardless, but Veld meant enough to him that he got out to help him so until presented with concrete fact, I’m going with Veld as a little younger. At most, two years, I don’t see a big gap between them and they were both presumably at least teenagers when they were hired on to ShinRa so there you go.
So, with those reasons based on dynamics alone - again, I can’t help you with canon there, I really can’t - and maybe also the fact that Veld is still running around as an operative himself despite considerable bodily trauma sustained in his younger years (re Kalm Bombing, plus whatever you want call that explosion that gave him the scar) I put him, at most, as two years younger than Vincent. Which would give you a birth year of 1952, and the following statistics:
- CC (2000/0000) - 48
- OG (0007-0008) - 55/56
- AC (0009) - 57
- DoC (0010) - 58
There’s also a benchmark that Veld’s daughter, Felicia/Elfe, is at least a teenager when you see her in BC, which is during Sephiroth’s time as a First Class - and Veld could definitely be old enough to have been the father of a kid that old, with this age set, so I continue to go with it.
So that’s my take on Vincent and headcanon into Veld.