#I'll talk about hair on a separate post because it's a whole trope that keeps happening in YA literature

[jkags-doodles]

Okay I'm not done with this and I'm going to get into it, because I don't have anything better to do.

The problem is not necessarily the increase in muscle by itself, and if one were to look at this character change from a Watsonian perspective (in-universe), it is possible to justify on a surface level; Zeke wanted to become stronger in order to survive on his own when he was traveling, or Zeke distracted himself from his trauma by working out, or Zeke went to a place frozen in time and immediately got whacked by 60-year-old beauty standards. However, the issue is not that there is no possible way to justify this character decision, but rather that this choice has underlying implications.

So, let's rehash: Zeke lived about 14-15 years in some isolated holler, spent 3 years as a nomadic scavenger, and then finally reached Eden, which is seen as a land of plenty— there's an abundance of food, the health sciences are alive and kicking, and he's no longer under the stress of exhaustion or exposure. This is to say, Eden is a much healthier environment to live in, and the main thing separating Book 1 Zeke from Book 2 Zeke is that he is healthy.

I do not like that this was portrayed specifically through defined musculature. Not changes in his skin, the way he moved, or (shocker) mentioning he put on fat, but defined muscle. This makes the implication that the healthy body for a man is one with defined muscle, specifically abs, which is a facetious implication that can and does do a lot of harm.

Now, you CAN make excuses for it, as outlined above. However, those still loop back to the same problem— regardless of an in-universe justification, why was this the OUT-of-universe reason for this portrayal. If Zeke wanted to get stronger in order to find Allie without getting eaten by rabids, why was this shown by him getting defined muscle instead of literally anything else, especially when he'd want a HIGH body fat percentage to survive the wilderness in winter? If he were working through his thoughts about Jeb and his commune, why did he process it through working out instead of the hundreds of other methods he could use? If he had the time to start putting in more thought about his appearance, why was this the standard he chose to persue? Regardless of the excuse, the underlying implications remain: When Zeke becomes healthier, he becomes more muscular. Why is that?

There is no reason to show him post-Eden, as a more "badass" character, with abs and defined muscle. No-one needed that.

Okay I know in canon Zeke went to Eden and immediately got a haircut and abs, but counter concept: I know better and neither of those things happened. Zeke went to Eden to get hairties and nothing else.