The Kids Aren't All Right

[Warning: Mild spoilers for Walking Dead Season 4 premier and The Last of Us]
I just finished watching the season 4 premier of The Walking Dead. For something that's supposed to get people excited about the new season it fell pretty flat, but it did serve to introduce two story elements that the show will likely be playing with. The first is that there's a new type of "walker" disease that isn't transmitted from a bite (which is a huge relief from the maniacle, one-eyed Governor-tastrophe of last season). The second is that we get to look at how kids are handling life in a zombie apocalypse.

I don't think you guys have gotten me ranting on Carl, the son of the show's leading actor. To the kid's credit he's gotten a pretty bum deal, having to grow up in order to survive, and even sitting with his mom as she turned in to a zombie after giving birth to Carl's sister, shooting her in the head as soon as she turned. As a character, it really sucks and I think the show has done a pretty good job of balancing him against the adults of the show.

However, Carl also falls prey to the cliches of being a kid in a mature story. When kids have their own stories the writer gets to explore who they are and make them be believable, sometimes even likable. This is all despite them going through all that puberty stuff that made us all little buttheads when we were younger.

When a kid is tacked on to a story aimed at adults, there's no time for that. The kid doesn't get to shine as a strong character - they exist as something for the other characters to overcome. Unfortunately writers can only come up with a few ways of adding them to the story - making them whiny little brats who usually run away because things are just too hard for them to deal with emotionally is the go-to move that most use. Making them "lose their childhood" is another.

The Walking Dead is all about stealing the innocence of its younger characters. There was at least one instance where a kid ran away and got someone killed during the search, but the writers seem to have left that ridiculous plot hook alone (for now). However, this season the ragtag group of survivors has added a very small town to their mix, and with that has come a group of children. In this episode we saw them being naive and talking to zombies on the other side of their safety fence, to which Carl responds by yelling at them about how this isn't a game and blah blah blah.

Later on we learn that the kids always attend "story time," which Carl never attends because it's for kids. He sneaks in to hear the end of Tom Sawyer, only to see the teacher move on to a lesson on how to stab zombies with knives. Oh no, the children are growing up too fast! Considering all the time that was spent dropping hints at how damaged Carl is, and how innocent these new kids are, I'm pretty sure this is going to be the secondary plot line throughout this entire season, and I'm not remotely excited about it.

It's hard to explain this without sounding like I hate kids. In real life, I think kids are awesome as long as they aren't being dramatic. But in stories, the only thing people use kids for is to cause drama, and I've yet to see it done well. Rather than having them improve the story, they're always just a liability because you know they're going to screw something up since, apparently, all kids are brash, irrational, selfish, and will respond to a stressful situation by running in to a warzone.

The only time I saw someone come close to pulling it off was The Last of Us. Despite being a bit older than your typical "fictional kid," Ellie had all the makings of a great character. She has real emotional depth, she had an innocence that didn't make her helpless, and she stood her ground when things got bad. Without spoiling anything, all of my love for the character came crashing down when she threw a fit and ran away, making me chase her through a forest full of murderous raiders so that I could tell her sorry. To this day I still don't understand the point of that scene, especially considering how well the rest of the game was written.

I wish writers would stop feeling compelled to add kids as though it somehow raises the stakes of a story. Yes, seeing kids in a dangerous situation immediately makes it more real, especially for someone with kids of their own. I admit the show has made me internalize some of the situations that Carl was put in. And while I don't like using absolute language in a serious discussion, I really believe that adding kids is always done to the detriment of the story.

Kids in fiction aren't strong, emotionally mature, or remotely relateable for the intended audience. Sometimes they have their Little Engine That Could moment and pull through for the adults, but to me it's just relieving that I don't have to watch them struggle against their urge to go in to the fetal position instead of saving someone's life. Overall though, they're just too two-dimensional in fiction to be worth the trouble they bring to the story.

I'm not saying ban kids from fiction. I'm saying that in an age where we're constantly reevaluating and challenging cliches, kids should be added to the list. I want to see a kid do more than grow up too fast or play the drama card. I want a young kid who handles the world realistically - with a mix of fear, doubt, and a need to rise to the occasion. I want to see a kid grow and add something to the story, not just be a burden that the other characters have to worry about.

Instead of running away, begging for attention, or act like little adults, they should just act like people with hopes, fears, ideas, talents, shortcomings, and a whole host of human traits that are in no way tied to their age. Writers seem to assume that hitting 18 flips a switch that turns you in to an interesting person. Until that point you are required to be sarcastic, dramatic, "too cool," scared, or living in innocent ignorance.

Keep your cliched idea of what a kid looks like out of my stories. If they want to be scared, fine. If they aren't mature enough to handle a situation, fine. But have them react to it like kids really would, and not in an overused way that drives the story in a more dramatic direction. Whenever someone has to feel guilty because they wish the kid would just disappear from the story, or cheers when it finally happens, you know you've done something wrong.


See you tomorrow!

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