Just sharing something that bugs me incessantly in a completely OCD kind of way...
I don't know whether this has been brought up before, though I have a feeling it has. How could it not? It's about the timeline in QAF and how it's so convoluted that I sometimes want to rip my hair out, especially when I'm contemplating writing a fic. It's just always been so...I don't know, intimidating I guess, trying to figure it out. But I have made an attempt! I would just like some kind of input from all you lovely people who have probably been a part of the fandom for much longer than I and probably know this stuff a lot better than I do. I know some of you have some very definite ideas, but I'd like you to give my thoughts a chance. I just want to know that I'm not out of my mind, so I can finally stop obsessing over the stupid timeline long enough to give some of my plot bunnies a chance.
This is taken straight from my own journal, so excuse the ranting, stream of consciousness quality plzkthx
Something's been bugging me about the qaf timeline, so I'm just going to work some things out here. We assume that a year passes over each season, but frankly, that's impossible. It's especially screwy in later seasons, because it seems to be permanently winter in QAF-land S3 and on.
In season one, we know a year passes between 101 and 201, because of Gus's birthday.
Also in season two, approximately a year passes because Justin's birthday comes around mid-season. There's never any birthdays after that, as far as I remember, to mark the passage of time. And only a week passed between the end of S2 and the beginning of S3 (or at least the infamous punch-out party) However, Justin goes through the PIFA and daddy angst before he finds out that Brian paid his tuition, so I believe that would have had to have been around late August to September (despite the unflattering marshmallowesque coat that Justin liked to wear during this time) Making 302 beginning at around the same time as 201 only a year later.
And, I'm sorry, but I just don't see, in the time frame presented, how Justin and Ethan's relationship could have lasted more than a couple months, three tops. The "Mel and Lindz new baby thing" didn't take too long and neither did the steroid angst thing and the whole Ethan thing only lasted through those two storylines. They split the same episode as Mel finds out she's pregnant and Ben quit using! And after that, only...we'll say 10 weeks, (assuming Mel found out she was pregnant super early) pass before the end of the season. Because you'll remember that Mel was exactly 12 weeks along in 314. So, putting all this information together the whole season took place over possibly 5, but no more than 6 months. Meaning Justin is still 19 at the end of S3--possibly just 20. And this only makes sense, because S3 is only a little more than half as long as S1 and S2.
Now, S4 is definite--we know that only 6 months could have passed between 314 and 414 because Mel has her baby in 414. There is no possible way that Justin could be 21 at the end of S4.
In 501 a year has passed since the opening of Kinnetik...at least, a fiscal year has ended, which makes this information sort of inconclusive. Due to Brian's comment in front of the motorcycle display, I'm inclined to think it's only been three months, rather than the six that seems to be the consensus, since Justin moved to LA. Just go back and listen to the way it's phrased. So, three months. And I've watched the rest of the episode and there's nothing concrete about time. And I'm not willing to give the rest of the season more than three or four months. So...six months.
So here's how it goes--Justin turns 18 in season one, 19 in season two, possibly 20 at the end of season three/more likely the beginning of S4. And 21 sometime in S5, maybe. There is no way that five years passed in-show at the end of S5, and if the show said that they're full of shit (though I don't think they did). In the timeline they gave us, it's just not possible, right?.br /> I'd really like any input anyone has to offer. I'm not above skewing my recollections or forgetting some pertinent facts. I just get so frustrated with trying to place the timeline that I had to work it out on "paper" so to speak. I'm not insane, right?