Hello, my name is Conner. I'm an 18 year old TWD enthusiast and I've created this rentry page to dump my reasons for believing in RARL and why I am a Ron Anderson defender until I die.

this will be extremely watered down with bias as I am not a professional media guy

Firstly, I need to explain Ron Andersons character so his actions and behaviours can make more sense. Ron Anderson is a mid-teens boy who, just like Carl, grew up in the apocalypse. Only, he never had to learn how to use a gun before Rick's group came along. He never even knew how to fight (evidently) since he never had proper encounters wirh zombies, but a lot of people forget that Ron still had intense struggles. His entire life was filled with abuse from his alcoholic father, both towards him and his mother. Despite this, no one in Alexandria (before Rick's Grimes) ever tried to stop the situation, let alone acknowledge its existence. It's going to make a growing kid like Ron believe that this behaviour is completely normal, that its just strict parenting or that theres a whole zombie apocalypse just outside their walls, and his dad getting drunk heavy handed with them wasn't the worst that could happen.

Carl, on the other hand, is a boy who had to fight with all he's got to survive, and while he mightve lost his mother he always felt love. His father would go above and beyond for him no matter what. Now he was in Alexandria, a place with running water and actual homes. A real community.

Now, lets get into the evidence!

  1. Carl and Ron's care for each other.
    It would be a lie to say their feelings towards each other in this show aren't extremely complicated and at times negative, but there are many scenes when they look out for each other even when they seem to hate each other.

There is no heart-to-heart scene between Enid and Ron, but there is a scene where Carl checks up on Ron after his dad is killed by Rick and then asks him to go look for Enid. Ron refuses and says its pointless and that its Enids own fault. But when Carl, the son of his father's killer and the guy who hangs out with his girlfriend, says he will go look for her, Ron physically fights him to stop him from going because of how dangerous it is. He even says he'll tell Rick, the guy he despises, just to stop Carl from going. All because he wants to save Carl's life. Why would he prioritise Carl's life over his own girlfriends life?

When the zombies get into Alexandria, Carl goes to check up on Ron. After Ron tries to kill Carl, Carl covers for him without even a little bit of hesitation. He takes Ron in private and only then does he take the gun from him and tries his best to knock some sense into Ron. Even after almost being killed, Carl covers for him and gives him advice?

  1. Ron's jealousy.
    Ron's jealousy is a big factor into his relationship with Carl. He obviously hates the fact that he has been hanging out with Enid. But why? Is it really because he doesn't want Carl to be around his girlfriend? The girlfriend who he couldnt care less if she died out in the woods? Or could it be because he is actually jealous of Enid?

We already know about him fighting Carl to keep him inside and leaving Enid to practically die on her own, but what about the time Carl saved Ron? Ron was running and his attacker was just about to get him before a string of gunshots drop him to the floor. Carl invites him into the house to protect him and you can see Ron genuinely contemplate this offer until he sees Enid. How weird? He doesn't want to run to her and check up on her? And how come he was contemplating the idea before he saw Enid? Could it be because he thought it would be just him and Carl? Maybe he thought Carl would rush to save him first instead of saving Enid? It would make more sense if Enid was the one who saved him and he was contemplating it until he saw Carl, not the other way around.

To me, it seems like Ron desperately wants to be Carl's number one. Hes extremely hurt by the idea that Carl started hanging out with Enid after his dad died instead of sticking by his side. All that along with his terrible ways of processing his father's abuse and death bring me to our next point.

  1. Ron's plan.
    You can see that episodes before Ron died, he pretended to be worried for his family and desperate to learn how to shoot to protect them, meanwhile his entire plan was to kill Carl. Please do me a favour and think to yourself for a second why he wanted to kill Carl. Given our previous points, it has nothing to do with Enid. Ron does not give 1 single shit about her. No, hes jealous. He's jealous of Carl's loving father, of the fact that Carl's attention is more on his girlfriend instead of him. He's angry at Carl's dad, too. In fact, it was Rick who pulled the trigger, yet Ron seems to be tunnel visioned on Carl. In my own opinion, this would lead me to believe that Ron is misinterpreting and misdirection his anger due to his jealousy towards Carl.

Please also note that when Ron was training, Carl had absolutely no reason to stick around. He knew Ron was going through a tough time and he cared about him and wanted to be there for him when he could. It wasn't a necessity to do so. He could have easily gone and hung out with Enid or Mikey or anyone else, but he chose to watch Ron learn how to shoot.

My conclusion on Ron's entire plan is that it is moreso him pinning the blame on Rick and being jealous of Carl due to him being unable to process what he went through his whole life. I also think it does not take away from his feelings towards Carl, just that he is unable to distinguish what kind of emotions hes feeling towards him.

  1. The looks.
    Honestly, I dont think I need to say much for this point. The images speak for themselves.

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Pub: 17 Aug 2025 11:34 UTC

Edit: 27 Aug 2025 15:34 UTC

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