Talk:Elliot Stabler

Order
The original article was informative, but poorly-organized. Without changing much, I rearranged the article so it flows chronologically, added wikilinks, and removed a line of spoiler information about an episode in the current season. Also, I do not know which episode in which he was forced to kill a suspect, it would be nice if someone edited that information in. Marikology 05:52, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Children
Doesn't his character have 3 daughters? I one episode, I thought he had a son, so maybe the discrepancies in his children could be considered for trivia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.66.188.90 (talk) 12:16, 8 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Stabler has three daughters and one son, and his wife has recently been revealed to be pregnant with his fifth child. —Mears man 01:29, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Edited that Stabler's son's name is Elliot Jr., named in Paternity when he was born, but nicknamed Eli. --Nelliebellie (talk) 04:25, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Injuries
In the second season, (I'm not sure of the episode) Stabler is cut on his hand and is later exposed to infected water on the same injury, placing him at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. I think that's worthy of a mention under the injuries section.58.172.209.140 14:18, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I think he also got injured in that episode involving the FBI agent, where Benson left for a short while. Didn't he get hurt from an explosion involving dynamite in that episode?207.14.79.81 01:42, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

If someone doesn't reply today, then I am going to search for the name of this episode and add this information into the article. 207.14.79.71 21:27, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Ages
Does anyone know the age (or at least the approximate age) or Elliot Stabler and/or the rest of his family? I believe a relative age is given for Maureen at one point, but neither the age of Elliot nor the ages of his wife and other children seem to appear anywhere in the article. Also, some sort of source for this would be nice so that the information could be incorporated into the article. —Mears man 01:35, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I know that Maureen is 22 in the ninth season. and his other two daughters I have no idea. I know he has twins, a boy and a girl, ages I do ot know, and then there is the newest member who was recently borne. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.162.172.53 (talk) 02:50, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

His background information on the show is inconsistent - he joined the NYPD in either 1986 or 1989 depending on which statement you go by, meaning he would have to be born no later than 1965 or 1968 respectively as the minimum age for the police force is 21. He has a high school-aged daughter in 1999 and no mention is made of unusual circumstances such as him still being a minor when his wife became pregnant, which means he should be at least 33 years old (birth 1966 or earlier). There's no real way to reconcile him being a Desert Storm veteran with the timeframe of him joining the police department other than assuming he was a reservist, even though the way he talks about his time in the Marines strongly implies he was a full-on enlisted member of the military. He also somehow fit a full four-year degree in evening classes into this, despite the fact that his family was in poor financial circumstances and the NYPD didn't require police officers to have college degrees until after 1993. The timeframe that fits best with what's presented of his character probably has him getting married and having his first child right out of high school, which would make him born in 1965 and span the ages of 34 to 46 on the show. It somewhat strains credulity that Stabler in 2020 would be 55 years old and yet somehow still a detective and doing street-level work on the task force, but suspension of disbelief and all that. This is all WP:SYNTH and won't have a source that can put it into the article, though I can source a published book by a TV critic that lays out the "the timeline doesn't make sense" problem if you want. Predestiprestidigitation (talk) 15:04, 19 April 2020 (UTC)

As an addendum to the above, the most likely age for him joining the police is 22. NYPD applicants must have completed two years of either college or military service. We know Stabler was in the Marines, which has a minimum four-year hitch for enlistees, and then went to school at night during his time as a uniformed officer. Most likely he entered the military right out of high school. He's certainly never alluded to having any other job. This would put his birth year at 1962. That means he's 59 in 2021 which is two years from retirement age, and I'd expect the show to retcon this a bit if Organized Crime lasts more than two seasons. 16:19, 23 March 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Predestiprestidigitation (talk • contribs)

Aggression
Shouldn't there be a section noting the number of times he has gotten aggressive with suspects? Like the episode I saw last night with RDK, he nearly choked RDK to death. Anyone else agree? 207.14.79.74 (talk) 18:11, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

In-universe
The majority of the article currently written as if Stabler was a real person and this is his biography. I believe Manual of Style/Writing about fiction discourages this sort of presentation and instead asks editors to balance information about the fictional characteristics with more information about production, and information about the character's real-world reception, etc. Mz7 (talk) 03:29, 4 September 2015 (UTC)