There's nothing wrong with older mentors, or old witches for that matter, and of course it makes more sense for fast-paced action games to have a young main character, because it's often some elite soldier or a coming-of-age story or whatever.
But especially with female characters in games, often anything between 20-ish heroine and 70-ish mentor/witch/grandmother simply doesn't exist.
What is odd too, is that Capcom made the male characters age appropriately while coming up with a fancy explanation that stopped aging in the woman. Why?
I'm not trying to make a drama out of this, I just think it's great to remember that people don't die or turn into Gandalf immediately after their 30th birthday.
Showing real humans (or elves, dwarves, aliens) with all their flaws and imperfections, strengths and vulnerabilities, has always made stories more interesting. That includes the fact that characters in a game that goes over several decades, or a franchise that warms up the same people after years, will change. Acknowledging that is human, and healthy.
And yes, it is a very big deal how the madness about perfection, eternal youth and distorted body image is having an impact on people, especially young people.
As for the final argument, I am well aware that kids aren't only influenced by parents. But it is parents' responsibility to be aware of what influences their kids. All of the studies you linked were about social media, and here's why I said parents shouldn't expect for everyone else to raise their kids for them - because I know how harmful social media can be, especially since young age.
I don't want to get too personal, but I don't think you're aware of what you're saying by blaming the parents.
It is possible to talk a lot to children and keep them away from social media for a long time, and to continue talking to them about what is and isn't realistic, and how people edit pictures and how cosmetics industry lies, and how influencers look and talk like their friends but earn money with the stuff they recommend.
Then take a pandemic, where a kid of 11 years begs for her first mobile phone to stay in touch with her friends. With severe time restrictions and with sites and apps like YouTube and Instagram blocked or showing videos for age 6+ only. And complaining already that all her friends are allowed more.
Then take school in lockdown, all online, can't keep all restrictions in place then, but can't keep sitting there and watching what else the kid reads and watches, even with safety filters and child control apps in place. Some measure of trust must be possible, I'm a mother, not a spy, and parents needed to continue going to work even with schools closed, surprisingly.
Kids get older, school starts again, which parent can honestly say they can and should know and control everything a 13 year old talks and watches with her friends? It's slow trickles of influence, and conversations and communication at home continue, but there comes a time when they listen more to their peers than their parents, and what they see online every day becomes slowly the new normal.
Every age filter hides nipple pictures, but I'd infinitely prefer them to see what normal bodies look like than to constantly see digitally edited and surgically or cosmetically enhanced plastic doll faces everywhere.
So no, parents don't expect everyone else to raise their children for them. But they also can't be expected to withhold devices with internet connection until age 18, or to constantly stalk them, or lock them up so that they don't watch or discuss anything with friends.
