Benjamin Arnold

## Benjamin Noah Arnold

This is @forbeskaytlin on twitter's interpretation of Ben's appearance. He does not have a canon appearance.

### Aliases

Benjamin, Benny, Benny-Cat, Benedict Arnold, Danny Zuko, the Heart

### Affiliations

King Falls, Sammy Stevens, Emily Potter, King Falls AM, Wright On, Lily Wright

## Biographical information

### Relatives

Betty Arnold (mother), Randy (cousin), unnamed father, unnamed great-grandfather

## Behind the Scenes

### Voice Actor

Noah James

Ben Arnold, first introduced in May 1, 2015, is the co-host of The Sammy and Ben Show at King Falls AM with his partner Sammy Stevens. He is known to be in love with the town librarian, Emily Potter.

## Appearance

Little about Ben's appearance is known. Lily Wright refers to him as "short, dark and handsome", and he's known to wear tight sweaters. Fan-art of him often depicts him with dark skin, dark hair, glasses, and a slim frame. Everyone teases him about being short.

## Personality

Ben is a cheerful and well-meaning young man, who's always eager to help others. He is full of full of passion, charisma and is quick to anger. He's unafraid to stand up and speak when he feels something needs to be said. Ben is extremely genuine, almost to a fault – when he believes in someone, he has a tendency to become too involved in the other person’s problems.

Nevertheless, uniting these qualities is his altruistic nature, and his unyielding desire to do good in and for King Falls, he's seen to seek harmony and cares deeply about other people’s feelings, plus he always mentions how much he loves and supports his friends.

Ben can also become distraught or angry about what people think of him and things outside of his control, compared to Sammy, like counting how many people call in per week saying hateful messages or dealing with Pete Myers.

## Backstory

Ben grew up in King Falls with his mother, Betty Arnold. She worked two jobs to make sure Ben never wanted for things, but this resulted in him being left alone a lot. He self-identifies as a latchkey kid and didn't have many friends, but he's known many people in town since he was a child.

When Ben was in grade three, he found a sugar glider named Serendipity, left over from a carnival. He kept it, and, after showing it to friends at school, Troy Krieghauser told an adult about it, who handed it off to Sheriff Judd Gunderson. Gunderson took the animal away and had it put down. This caused a rift between Ben and Troy for years, until as adults Troy bought Ben another one, named Peas, in order to make it up to Ben after he found out what happened. Ben accepted it, although he refers to the pet as his 'cat' as sugar gliders, or any exotic pet, are banned in the state and King Falls.

During a high school stage production of Grease, Ben was laughed off the stage by Maggie Masterson and her clique when he slipped and fell during "You're The One That I Want". Though Maggie didn't mean anything by it, Ben was deeply scarred. That Sandy laughing at Danny when they were supposed to be "expressing their love through the magic of song and dance" was hard to take seriously. Ben ran off stage and didn't come back. In the same year, Ben asked Maggie to prom, saying "Danny and Sandy are meant to be together" though Maggie turned him down.

Ben has always dreamed of being one of the most famous journalists of all time. He interned at King Falls AM during high school, likely into college as well, and tried to get a job at Channel 13 as a producer on multiple occasions which he got denied, leading to his animosity towards the station.

He also produced almost every show on the station before Sammy Stevens came to town, identifying Late Nights with Diamond Dave, Esther Rollens' Sewing Corner, and Chet's Jazz Corner.

## King Falls AM

Ben's reliability and involvedness allows him to save Emily Potter and Tim Jensen by literally blasting a UFO with a laser and sheer willpower. But this blind determination and tunnel vision also caused a rift between him and Sammy because of a certain Notebook. But the long road to saving Emily was extremely hard on Ben and took a toll on his mental health. In particular, his blind rage led him to trying to find Tim Jensen in the middle of the night and had to take Sammy to calm him down.

When Sammy is outed as being gay on air by Greg Frickard, Ben doesn't judge at all and continuously shows his support saying:

He only wishes that Sammy would've told him earlier but makes it his new mission to save Jack and help Sammy recover. He is open to being inclusive of everyone and willing to learn and implement it, like when he learns about Non-Binary people from Sammy.

## Quotes

* "Average height, medium rage."
* "Bad times are tough, but not tougher than me."
* "Cronkite. Brokaw. Ben Arnold."
* "Please insert Tumblr joke here."
* "I’m trying to cut down… on water. Fluids in general."
* "Why are you calling Satan?!" - about Gwendolyn

## Trivia

* Ben is possibly bisexual. At the end of the second episode, Sammy sarcastically remarks that Ben will flirt with the good doctor just like he did with Emily. Ben asks, "Is he lovely too?" He also seemed to have a bit of a crush on Rich McGuff.
* As a student, Ben was friends with Troy Krieghauser.
* The official KFAM Tumblr and Twitter accounts are run by Ben in-universe.
* Ben used to go camping in Big Pine as a kid.
* Ben is regularly referred to by the childhood nickname "Benny", which he dislikes.
	+ Characters who regularly call him this include Emily Potter, who he allows, as well as Doyle Bevins, Cynthia Higgenbaum, Dwayne Libbydale, Chet Sebastian, Archie Simmons, and Jacob Williams.
	+ Some people use it specifically to get a rise out of him, including Lily Wright, Judd Gunderson, Greg Frickard, and from time to time, Sammy Stevens.
* He is known to hate Channel 13, due to the fact he applied and was rejected multiple times before getting a job at King Falls AM.
* On multiple occasions Ben has replied to jabs about his height with "we're the same size", claiming Dan Ackers, Greg Frickard, and Lily Wright are all the same height as him. How they actually compare is unknown, besides that Lily claims she is in fact taller.
* Kyle Brown claims that Ben is shorter than his voice actor, Noah James.
* Ben is known to prefer a "tight sitting hoodie".
* In A King Falls Christmas Story, Sammy reveals that Ben is Jewish.
* Ben graduated high school in 2001, meaning he's most likely around 35-36 years old as of Dark Horse.

## Fan Art

Fanart by Soldraws (@ForbesKaytlin), uploaded by permission from the artist.Fanart by BFire92