Yet, beginning writers do this all the time. He vowed that his kids would never have to live with an abusive relationship like he did. Now means everything. Of course not. But let one guy dent another guy's fender a little bit, and you may sit for hours as folks creep by staring.
Immediacy changes everything, including the observer's state of interest.
And that applies equally to fiction, including our example above. Their characters grow out of their very different responses today to the stimulus of their present environment. It's that simple. Of course not. Size might be a contributor to those and a thousand other qualities, but of itself it shows nothing.