#and if Ben and Kenny were both 11 in s1

[michelleelizabethtanner]

Why did Beth and Dean wait so long to have kids? If by s1 Beth and Dean had been together 20 years, and they started dating when Beth was about 14 (based on Michigan’s minor work permit laws, since Beth had that ice cream parlor job), then Beth is 34 at the start of the show. And Kenny is 11, if we are to believe his birthday cake. So they waited until she was 23. Which doesn’t seem very old, but considering that she probably married him immediately after high school, that’s five years where she probably actually liked the guy. And if she never had a job after the ice cream shop, the way Dean says she didn’t, then what did she do for 5 years?

[jade-marie]

How old do you think Young Rio is supposed to be? The actor looks too old to play a teenager imo. And if the three guys that all posted about working on the show are for the Rio flashback(s), they all looked early-/mid-twenties. Kinda related, I can't believe how much Isaiah has grown since S1 (especially compared to the actor who plays Kenny who I think was supposed to be the same age). I wonder if they'll age up Ben.

Hi!

Honestly, I have no idea. Marcel, who’s playing young Rio, is only 21 but I think he looks older - especially with the beard and he doesn’t appear to have shaved for the role. I would be leaning towards a flashback to Rio‘s early 20s as opposed to teenage years, purely because they didn’t make him shave. But that might be totally wrong because I’m trying to apply logic to the situation, which is clearly a foreign concept to the gg writing team 🙃

Yeah, Isaiah has grown up so much over the course of the show! He’s a couple years older than Braxton, who plays Kenny, irl though.

They were definitely both supposed to be 11 in S1 and I think they attempted to age Ben up by dropping in the line about Annie being 33, but they just fucked up the timeline even more. If they weren’t planning to do the standard one year per season, they should’ve just avoided mentioning current ages altogether and no one would really question it.

As above, logic is a foreign concept to these writers so I just avoid thinking too much about character ages, it gives me a headache🤣

[angeltannis]

Kenny in S1 was a great character because he was on relatively equal footing with Lee, both of them being grown men with lots of life experience behind them, and he was a great example of how, in the apocalypse, you can’t really pick and choose the perfect companions but have to try to make the best of people who are overall good but have lots of flaws (like, you know, being casually racist, having massive anger problems, etc.). 

Season 2 fucked that all up because Clem was never on an equal power level with Kenny. she’s an 11 year old child being told by this terrifying, violent adult man that she’s the reason everyone around her dies. what the fuck is that. then, no matter what, they try to frame him as a dad figure to Clem, who had this big positive impact on her and was a hero even though he was a shitty coward right from Season 1 and that was the POINT of his character in S1. Both Kenny and Lilly were shitty cowards, and that was the point. It’s the apocalypse. Lee had to make do with who was immediately around and who could help keep him alive. Neither was framed as a hero (even Kenny’s “sacrifice” for Ben was more of an atonement than the act of a heroic, altruistic man). They were both shitheads, just in (slightly) different ways.

I just wish they hadn’t tried so hard to make him this flawless being in Clem’s life, and have Clem remember him fondly no matter how badly he treated her and the people she cared about. They really fucked up a good character.