Sadder story? The Stranger or Kenny?
These two men have had the worst luck in the game but who do you show the most sympathy towards?
The Stranger in Season one
or
Kenny?
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These two men have had the worst luck in the game but who do you show the most sympathy towards?
The Stranger in Season one
or
Kenny?
Comments
If I'm being honest, I think I'd go with Kenny.
Now here's the thing; a lot of people think his appearance in S2 is... questionable. Or that it ruins the way his story ended in S1. But that's exactly why I like his role in S2.
For all intents and purposes, if he died back in S1, it would have been for the better. He could have died with a clean conscience, as redeemed as he could be given the circumstances. But against all odds, he survives certain death, and arguably ends up dying an even worse and less meaningful death in the end. The best example being if you decide to shoot him: Kenny should have gotten an honorable death, sacrificing himself for the well-being of someone else. But the world of TWD robs him of that as well. Instead of being able to find some semblance of peace in a meaningful death, he survives, only to end up entering a slow descent into madness and instability. The man he used to be slowly gets chipped away, and in the end, he ends up dying a pathetic, lowly death instead; being put down like a wild animal by the only person he still trusted and cared about in the world. I don't know if it's possible for there to be much more of a tragic series of events for a single character.
However, there's also the fact that even when he survives S2, it's bittersweet. He finally manages to get the people he cares about to safety, only to find out that he has to sacrifice himself for them to be allowed entry. And unlike with S1, this particular sacrifice doesn't even reward him with the peace of death. Now he's left alone. Sure, he has the closure that he was finally able to protect his family, and in a sense, atone for what he's done, but now he's forced to wander the world for the rest of his days pretty much. In a way, his redemption is a punishment of its own.
And if you stick with him going into ANF... well, yeah. This one gives him a meaningful death in that he dies for the sake of Clementine and AJ, but then there's the fact that not only is it not by choice (he gives himself up for Clem and AJ because he literally can't do anything else), but this is a guy that has survived hell two times over. All the shit he's endured, only to die in such a mundane and anticlimactic way; thrown out of a car and paralyzed. Which I think is even worse when you think about it. Kenny is naturally a fighter, but in this death, he isn't even able to properly defend himself. The world robs him of one final thing; the opportunity to go down fighting, AND to go out on his own terms.
Kenny is pretty much a long-term version of the Stranger. He continually loses everything; his family, his eye, his peace of mind, and like I said above, he even gets robbed of a meaningful death. So yeah, out of the two, I sympathize with Kenny the most. I honestly think he's been put through a hell worse than the Stranger, and tried his best to hold it together, despite the fact that he pretty much broke the day his wife and son died.
Are you kidding me? Kenny, obviously. I didn't feel bad for Stranger cause what happened to his daughter and wife was his fault cause he left his car unattended with the key on ignition, door left open and headlights on. Did he not expect anyone that would rob his car or walkers sneak in? I dunno what happened to his son cause he never explained how he went missing in the woods but I understand why he wanted to teach him how to survive.
Kenny. I don’t feel sorry for the stranger at all. Like my Lee said to him “You fucked up.”
I think the kids have had it sadder.
To answer the title itself, it honestly could go either way given the different flow of events.
I suppose I'd say Mr. Campman, though.
Exactly.
AHEM AHEM KENNY FRICCIN DUH
Kenny, who fucks whenever he has any chance to be happy. As for the Stranger, he himself is guilty of his own misfortune.
Kenny. I felt bad every time I looked at him, seeing what he had endured and how much he lost and how he is always exposed.
Now I agree I think kenny had it worst but could we think that just because he was with us longer than the stranger so we have more feelings for kenny?
Not for me. To me a lot of what happened to the Stranger was his own fault. Him losing his son? All on him.
Ok fair enough
Kenny's story is sadder. He did everything he could to protect his family yet they still died for reasons outside of his control. Then he bounces back and finds a new girlfriend and friends, and then they die for reasons outside of his control. He kept losing and losing, it's really heartbreaking.
The stranger's family dying was his own fault. He took his son hunting despite his wife begging him not to, and a zombie apocalypse is not the right time to just go off in the woods to teach your young child to hunt. Then because of that they left all of their supplies unattended which resulted in them getting stolen. And because he fucked up so badly his wife no longer trusted him and left him and got her and her daughter killed. The stranger was no Kenny, Kenny wouldn't have been so stupid so therefore the stranger's downfall was largely his own fault.
Was it specifically a hunting trip? I was under the impression that this was a camping trip that happened before the outbreak, hence their station wagon being visible heading down the road the day of the outbreak.
They are both sad....Kenny lost his family due to an old story telling trope of causality. Kenny pushed for the taking of the food and clothes in the car...the Stranger and his family had left it looking for their son who probably got chomped by walkers while he and old dad were hunting. So the Stranger and his wife and daughter get to the car...and bam all their stuff that could keep them going is gone. Wife goes nuts and takes daughter with her away from the Stranger(Who at this point is just a dad watching his whole world fall down around him.) When he catches up to them...they are dead....a family lost in a blink.
Causality...Kenny is the one who pushed the move to take the goods....So the old trope gods smite his family the next episode. See Kenny is an asshole....he gets shafted back in the same coin.
That is another possibility, although the fact that he left his door with the keys still would be especially dumb in that case.
Adam was among the characters I was expecting to turn up in "Season 3."
Again, I was under the impression that this happened sometime before the outbreak.
Kenny. There s really no way to say the stranger s more tragic than Kenny in this case because we dint see what he went thought while with Kenny we were there with him when he lost everything while with the stranger we were only told what happened to him.
No he disapeers at the same time they are at the St.John's Dairy
But that just doesn't make sense: how do you search for hours, come home empty-handed, pack up a bunch of food, clothes, and other supplies in the station wagon, and then drive aaaaall the way back to hastily exit the vehicle in the middle of a woodland trail between the Dairy and the Motel within a single day?
That is not what happened....they were surviving in that car...but the Stranger wanted to see if there was anything worth hunting...the son went with the father hunting and got separated...maybe a small group of walkers....so the stranger got back to the camp and they were going the back roads in hope of finding the kid when the gas went out and they set on foot looking.
Honestly did you never pay attention to the story
That... still doesn't really make sense. Or sound reasonable, really.
. * Sigh, * you know what, let me do some research on the topic and I'll get back to you with whatever I find.
EDIT: Okay, so the wiki seems to be backing up your claim a bit, but I'm transcribing the actual explanation as I type this.
EDIT 2:Okay, so here's what The Stranger says in the game proper:
"My son Adam went missing--I took him out hunting even though my wife said he was too young. I figured he had to learn. I came back without him and the look on her face said, "...You are a monster.""
"We all went looking for him. We never found him. I hurt her so bad. Then you took all of our things. I could have earned her trust back, Lee, but not after that."
"The hungrier we got, the more she blamed me until she finally took our daughter Elizabeth and left. They didn't get far, I...found them a day later in the road. ...Do I look like a monster to you?"
I see where the confusion comes in: he jumps from not being able to find him to having their supplies stolen--both in relation to hurting his wife.
Sokath, his eyes open!
But iss steel unqueer--he neva spehcifwi!