Kenny, a foe in my book
Am I the only one who has had it with seeing Kenny in the game's series ? After 5 long episodes, you, the player, is reunited with probably one of the most problematic characters in the whole series. Many things just prove that Kenny is a favourite among the Telltale studios.
There are a number of reasons why he is more of a burden, a nuisance than a helpful companion. Furthermore, he is a self-centered prick, not being able to contain himself, all of his ideas are on the spur of the moment and he does not forget even the one time if you did not back him up during your playthrough. But do not worry yourself, Telltale wrote his character in a way that he will always end up as a heroe
Starting off with Larry and Lilly, a family who was, in fact, more humane than Kenny. Larry was also a major pain in the ass, leaving you for dead after a punch in the face, but our good friend Kenny saves the day by helping us get up. Despite Larry's attitude towards your Lee, you can get on Lilly's good side and eventually on Larry's, however Kenny has to get his way, no matter how much you disagree with him. Larry's head gets smashed no matter who you choose to help, causing a chain of events, making Lilly emotionally unstable, leading to the death of Doug/Carley. I do not exclude Ben from this, playing a large role in breaking the stabillity of the group.
Ah, Ben. For many fans he was one liability, a useless character. His actions were more than stupid, not to speak about leaving Clementine alone on several occasions. Let's put aside Ben's mistakes. Kenny showed that he is a heartless person, not caring that Ben will almost certainly die in the bell tower in Crawford, unless you intervene. No matter what has been done, nobody deserves a fate such as Ben's and it is up to you to decide his fate. I admire Ben, beacuse if he is saved during the escape in Crawford he stood up against Kenny's verbal abusing and reminded him that everyone has suffered from losses. Nevertheless, Telltale Games have to excuse his behavior somehow and later on he becomes the savior of Christa or the defender of Ben.
The same things goes on in Season 2. Sarita is being bitten and is up to your Clementine to decide how to act. Even if you kill the zombie, leaving Sarita with a few hours to live, which you do not witness, after a while when you regroup with the others Kenny blames you ( Clem ) for her death. He repeats his actions, leaving Sarita to suffer, despite her request to be killed before she turns. Familliar ? Kenn Jr., aka Duck much ? Duck did not ask for this, but in his case Kenny also refused to accept that his boy was facing certain death. When you have the conversation in the tent, if you pick the right words Clem almost cries when mentioning Lee to make a bigger impact on Kenny and how does he response? With "I don't need this shit." Kenny totally forgot what Ben told him a while back, to make matter worse Clementine - a little girl who witnessed unspeakable things, did not blame anyone, hardly even offended someone. Kenny can not accept the fact that in that world people die, morever he can not take responsibility.
I must also add his ''briliant'' ideas. #1 Go to Savannah, then get a boat. That is your plan ? No destination, just get a boat and go somewhere unknown? Not to mention the probability of finding an actual boat. Yes, they found one, but it was pure luck. #2 In the truck, when Carver is taking the group to his camp, he ignores all of the requests to stop resisting. Good thing he got hit hard druing a bump before they stopped. #3 I mentioned it before, but it counts here - killing Larry. Yes, you choose wether to help Kenny or Lilly, but you can not argue that Larry was alive and could have been brought back to life. Even if Larry did not survive afterwards, either of much bigger stress or lack of medication, Lilly was not going to go through such a crisis, knowing that he could have been saved.
Furthermore, let me give other examples of the loveable Kenny:
1. Molly saves his life. Later on, in Crawford, when he was trying to open the door to the armory, he says that he does not trust Molly. Lee reminds Kenny that she saved his life. Kenny replies something like this: "Yeah, but what has she done for me lately?"
2. Is a total douche to Luke all the time, despite Luke never doing anything wrong in the first place. After Luke makes some wrong moves, those will just act as an excuse for Kenny to continue to dislike him.
3. Mike gets the same treatment as Luke from Kenny. Insulting someone will never lead to anything good. Okay, Kenny does not trust him, but why does he continue such a behavior to a person who wants the same thing as the rest of the group ?
4. Am I the only one, who noticed during Season 1 that he did not give a flying fuck about Clementine ? Even after the death of his family, he cared more about finding a boat, rather than Clem's wellbeing. If he REALLY cared about Clem, in Around Every Corner he would have comed to Lee's aid, no matter their relationship during your playthrough
5. Brutal murder of Carver. Carver was a psycho, he was way ot ouf the line, however even he did not deserve such a brutal death.
6. Overall he just cares about his loved ones. Do not get me wrong, that is more than normal, however he WILL care about your Lee and Clementine, only if you agree and support him with EVERYTHING he says or does.
To sum it up, I am more than sure that Carver said at least one true thing. Kenneth has a thick fucking skull. He just does not listen to anything. Only his thoughts are the right ones. Anyone who does not agree with him, does not deserve his respect or pitty, the difference is that Kenny is not as brutal as Carver. This all shows what kind of a person is Kenny and to be fair many much more likeable and underdeveloped characters were removed, almost certainly just for the sake of a bigger role for our loyal friend to play. Even worse, in Season 2 there is nothing to indicate that he has grown as a person. Mr. Facial Hair's story is just recycled and can not add to the themes of the game. Adding Lilly to the second season was going to increase the weight on your decissions and thoughts, mostly because of her previous actions. But Kenny has made his return, let us all enjoy his unpredictable, selfish character with his recycled story which, frankly, I can not see what so dramatic. He just had to be in the limelights again, did not he ?
The script is made on purpose for Kenny to survive anything, moreover to redeem himself from every mistake he made.
Season 2 Finale. Damn. To be honest, I was largely disappointed when I played this season, due to the badly written script, pushing away many interesting characters, however this is a different topic for discussion. Kenny, yet again, was in the spotlights, doing what he always does - ending up as the heroe. Firstly, I just want to say how unsurprised I was when Jane showed up at the rest stop without the baby. Everything Jane said since her introduction concerning Kenny was hinting that either she or someone else's actions were going to reveal Kenny's true identity. Her actions were more than risky, which depending on your playthrough could end in her death, but it still proves that Kenny has, in fact, become a psycho murderer. I want to state that I did not approve Jane's doing, however it proved my point. Kenny is a foe.
Let me rewind, earlier in the episode how he continues to treat everyone like garbage. ( Except the baby. Naming the baby Arvin Jr., I just laughed my ass off. Kenny Jr. ? Lack of creative mind. ) Not giving a damn about Luke's condition and afterwards his death. If I have to dwell on it, Kenny was probably relieved that Luke was no longer with the group. Oh wait, he beat up Arvo, so he could avenge Luke ? I think not. Moreover, this deed he thought was more important than keeping Clementine warm. Furthermore, nobody agrees with him that Wellington is a promising destination. Everyone's oppinion overweight his. He got the pickup truck running, yes, but coincidence ? He was the one who HAD to get it running to increase the cheap drama which was going on the whole season.
I have to be honest, in Season 1 I never did like Kenny, but at least his place there was correct. Also what he was going through was something that we, the players, had to cope with or deal with. And it felt interesting. His story should have ended in the alley or in the building. TTG brough him back for what ? To add tension to the cheap drama, trying to make you believe that you deal with themes of trust. Okay, he was here in Season 2. But as I made myself clear in previous points, many new characters which where still not developed to their full potential had to be dropped, just for the sake of Kenny yo be some kind of a new father-Lee figure to Clem, which was not the case. This was insulting, mostly for people who build up realtionships with Nick and Sarah...
You know what, I got tired of this. Episode 5 was the last nail to the franchise's coffin. Kenny was just one of the many reasons of why I started disliking the game.
Screw TTG for Season 2. Made one of the best PaC games ever to be seen and after a while took a huge nasty crap on their own creation. I lost any interest in an eventual Season 3.
Comments
I wish that Kenny wasn't brought back this season. He's been taking too much of the spotlight this season, leaving little room for other characters to get developed. It also bothers me that he is basically repeating his character arc from season 1 all over again in season 2.
Gotta agree that he have a Godlike Beard though.
I completely agree. I've never liked Kenny. I mean, if you don't agree with him on everything in season 1, he won't come with you to save Clementine. How fucked up is that? Leaving a little girl to suffer with a man who's doing god knows what to her all because of some petty bullshit like not taking his side everytime he mouths off to someone? Like I fucking shot your child, in the head, to put him out of his misery, stopped him from turning, because you couldn't. And you're still not going to help get Clem back? That's fucked up.
I think it was a bad idea to bring him back. It was kind of ridiculous and cheapened his season 1 "death". Now maybe this would have been fine if the season's writing had been better and I really felt like there was some reason for him to be there but there doesn't. It feels like he's there because LOOK, KENNY, HE WAS FROM SEASON 1 YOU LIKE KENNY RIGHT? His role could be filled by anyone and his presence just pushes the new characters to the side somewhat whilst polarizing the fanbase.
Eh, I don't go into deep about characters. Kenny makes me laugh and he had my back in S1. I like everyone in twd, TTG makes amazing characters. Even the antagonists I like a lot. Andy is one of my favorites.
Let me put it this way, Gavin Hammon is too cool for me to hate Kenny.
Yeah but a lot of the characters that should have been developed were killed off without ever reaching their potential, One of the problems in S2...
I agree, Gavin Hammon's amazing voice acting always made Kenny one of the coolest characters.
I love all the characters in this game and really see no point in making an anti-anyone thread...
You know Kenny was doing just fine without the cabin group showing up and kinda ruining everything for him. I mean think about it, Mathew would not have gotten shot and killed on the bridge. Then with the combined team work of Kenny's group they would stop the wind turbine from going crazy. Worst they would get would be no power and a few walkers. So don't be too hard on the guy he could be a hell of a lot worse to everyone.
Shawne Green.
Larry.
Katjaa and Duck.
Ben Paul.
Lee.
Walter.
Sarita.
Kenny's probably looking back on the people he cared for and lost, friends too, and his own mistakes. And you want to know why he might get angry if you mention shooting Lee? Cause no matter who Lee was, even if Lee was an asshole to him? He was still there to help him when his son died and the child in the attic. He can never forget Lee.
Honestly, I'm so tired of the Kenny/Luke hate. If you can't see the reasons for all the shit they do, and consider why they might do something illogical to your perspective under all the conditions they were in? Kenny hates Lilly for her strict leadership, Larry advocated to kill his son, he let Shawne Greene die due to his INACTION, his family was in danger, he and his family could've eaten human meat, Larry's medical condition was a liability anyway, Clem and Lilly wouldn't likely help if Larry turned, they were in a confined space, and everything in that moment was weighing on if Larry would live. For all we know, Larry's sudden breath aside (Not a sign if he'd live by the way), Kenny saved Lilly's life.
And that's just somewhat scratching the surface of reasons Kenny did what he did back then. You can dislike a character for their logic, but has Kenny really detracted away from anything? Especially in Season 1?
Has Kenny detracted away from anything? Well, your mileage may vary, but I'd argue that he's detracted plenty from the story of Season 2. The explanation behind his return was a complete cop-out, and there was so much focus on him in Episodes 2, 3, and 4, all at the expense of other potentially interesting characters.
Sarita is the most glaring example of Kenny's spotlight hogging. She was essentially created for no other purpose than to be a prop for Kenny's development, just to milk angst from him and his fans. We barely interacted with her. We never learned about her past, her interests or philosophy or character. When she died, how many people's initial thoughts were "Oh no, I feel so bad for Kenny, he's lost so many loved ones!"?
Now, how many people's initial thoughts were "Oh no, I feel horrible for Sarita! She didn't deserve to die such a horrible death..."? Nowhere near as many, I'm certain.
Quoting Strange_Brew here:
I could not agree more. Kenny's arc this season was basically "Starts as decent family man. Loved one dies. Becomes unstable. Fights emotional pain and redeems himself". Hm, now why does this sound so familiar? And what's more, there happened to be 4 other Season 1 survivors who could have taken the helm instead of Kenny this season, who could have been so much more compelling than Kenny's lazily recycled story.
Imagine if Christa had died, and Omid became the deuteragonist. How would such an optimistic person cope with the loss of his family? Would he retain hope for Clem, or would he succumb to Christa's more cynical outlook on life? This was a man who trusted total strangers back in Season 1. Would he retain that trust and optimism after his loss?
What if Christa had stuck around instead of Kenny? How would she be coping with the deaths of her child and boyfriend? Would she blame Clem, and would some part of her realize that doing so would be irrational and unfair to Clem, and what kind of drama could arise from this strained relationship? Would her cynicism, once kept in check by Omid's contrasting hopefulness, eventually take over her world view now that he was gone?
Molly? Her sisterly relationship with Clem was only teased back in season 1, and so much more could have been done with it. She could've taken Clem under her wing, become irrationally overprotective of Clem as a result of her past failure to protect her own sister. How would Lee's interactions have changed her previous loner mindset? If Lee had sympathized with her, treated her kindly and watched her back, would she finally start opening up to other people? If Lee had failed to save her in Crawford, would she still be a hardened lone wolf?
Lilly? The developers stated before Season 2's premier that a big part of this season would be the question of trust, and who a vulnerable little girl would be able to trust in a ruined world. If Lilly had returned, the question of trust would have made for an interesting and endlessly divisive dilemma. Would Clem trust the woman who murdered a group member? Would she forgive her? Would Lilly forgive Lee if he'd left her to die? Would she feel remorse for her crimes? Would Lilly still hold some lingering attachment for Clem after everything?
Bottom line, I'm bored with Kenny's storyline this season.
I dont care that much about Molly but the others I would have liked to see. Im still holding out hope that we get Christa back or at least some word of what happened to her.
Yeah, Season 2 has been just a huge kick in the face for Christa fans. "Oh, like Christa do you? Too bad, you get to see her for about 10 minutes and then she's gone! Now you're stuck with Kenny for the rest of the season instead!"
And that really isn't fair once you consider how Kenny essentially co-starred in 5 episodes back in season 1 already, while Christa appeared in a measly 2 and 1/4. And now Kenny's getting even more screen time.
We dont really know if he would have done fine if the group didnt show up. For all we know, bandits could have attacked the lodge and they would have been even worse off.
I don't like how the game seems to be featuring him too much, and just us knowing him longer seems to be his advantage no matter what he does. But, what really can we do? He's here now, and while I didn't think he needed to come back, it isn't exactly a horrible thing too.
Thank you for this thread. It's brilliant.
I can only hope this hypocritical ball of a character is killed off in this finale for good.
Actually you could not be there when Duck and the kid in the attic die. If you give Kenny the gun and stay silent, you leave Duck to reanimate in the woods. You can actually tell Kenny, "I'll see you when you're done." and leave him alone to deal with the kid attic (though this also results in Kenny telling you, instead of staring at you and staying silent, when you're dangling Ben over the bell tower, "I'll see you when you're done"). Those are just some interesting facts.
Exactly, and lets not forget that Kenny also tries to take 100% control of the group and make every decision, oh and also, if you decide to neither help Kenny kill Larry, or try to save Larry, Kenny will shove you over and say "You're fucking useless Lee" and kill Larry and then after Lilly says she isn't mad at you and she understands that you froze up, kinda shows whose a better person morally here
Quite frankly, I can no longer see how people can like or relate with Kenny. He doesn't even care about Clementine anymore, that baby is his new Clementine.
People say they'll stick with him 'till the bitter end, that's what they'll get IF they stick with him.
Yeah, no matter what Lilly may have done after losing her dad, I'll always appreciate that she was much more reasonable than Kenny ever was... well, at least before she went nuts.
It's only Kenny who ever violently insisted that Lee has to pick sides. It's only Kenny who said stuff like "you can't sit on the fence Lee!" or "Whatever Lee, you've already picked your sides!" Lilly was understandably unhappy if you didn't side with her, but she didn't harp about it for eternity or act like Lee's allegiance in the rivalry between her and Kenny was some kind of super-important life-or-death dilemma.
Lilly didn't hold it against Lee if he froze in the meat locker and helped neither person, while Kenny hated him for it. It's implied that Lilly always cares about Clem regardless of her relationship with Lee (panicking over her health when supplies go missing, promising to protect Clem after Danny is killed, Clem hiding behind her if Lee decides to kill Andy, all invariable scenes), and I'd argue her theft of the RV, the one time she endangered Clem, was an act of paranoia and self-preservation, rather than of any sort of malice towards Clem.. Meanwhile, Kenny's concern for Clem depended entirely on his relationship with Lee. He can be perfectly willing to let Clem die in Savannah out of a petty grudge for her guardian.
I like every single character in the game along with their flaws and virtues my only complaint is that i wish i got to know them better if they had longer screen time.
The only people you can really trust are the ones you consider to be family.
This post is so perfect, I love you.
Kenny is the biggest asshole ..... certain death following him
Your right. He don't care about Clementine , he don't care about anybody. I thought in season 2 upon my first time seeing him and talking too him , I thought he changed , but he's the same old piece of shit
And for people who think Kenny actually cares about his Katjaa&Duck replacements, just look at what he did to Sarita if she escapes the herd.
Kenny was more concerned about his own feelings than with ending Sarita’s suffering. He says so himself that “I won’t be left alone again.” His concern was not Sarita’s well-being. What he really cares about is himself, that he never have to feel the pain of being alone again. While that’s an understandable desire, the fact that he put that desire above Sarita’s wishes is what makes him disgustingly selfish. He cared more about his own pain than Sarita's horrible suffering. His relationship with Sarita was not one of love, she was nothing more to him than a substitute for Katjaa, and as soon as she was dying, Kenny was more concerned about "oh no, now I won't have a wife anymore", rather than "oh no, my wife is dying horribly, I need to end her suffering." That is not love. It may have initially looked like love, Kenny may have claimed that it was love, but that is not love.
I would think the person who didn't shoot a perfectly fine person in the face is better morally.
Except that incident had less to do with morals, and more to do with trauma-induced nervous breakdowns.
I agree. Lilly was never right after she watched her dad get killed. She was paranoid and irrational and it came to a head at that moment. Nothing to do with whether or not she's a good moral person.
I noticed that too. "I wont be left alone again." Jeez Kenny, make everything about you. But we all know that Kenny is a selfish person. That's just part of who he is.
It's one thing for her to be treated as a pet by Kenny. It's another for the writers themselves to treat her as a toy who exists purely to make Kenny feel miserable by being taken away. If you choose to spare her arm, you don't even get a chance to apologize to her or talk to her when she's slowly wasting away - her death is still purely centered around Kenny's misery rather than herself. This is a flaw of the writers, and it's a mark against Kenny.
That being said, I appreciate the OP's opinion but disagree with how strong it is. The initial impression I had of Kenny was of a friendly, good-natured man with a hot temper towards any threats to his friends and family, and I still sympathize with him. But I resent the writers forcing him into such prominence while marginalizing other characters, particularly the guy who's supposed to be his rival, and contriving situations that force us to rely on him. I don't like that he has been resurrected for a retreading of his original character arc, even if there are hints that he's becoming the monster that Carver was. I resent that the universe circa Season 2 seems to revolve around him and his feelings, and that he's sidelining Clementine herself. And I dislike the fact that he's pretty much invincible while the more likable, reasonable characters continue to be killed off.
I want to like the character, but I dislike how the writers seem to be in love with the character and want everybody else to feel the same way. He exists as a crutch for the writers, so that we can be influenced by our memories of him in Season 1 rather than focus on developing the huge cast of characters in Season 2 further. Why couldn't we have stuck with the storyline of NICK becoming gradually more unstable and doing the actions that Kenny takes upon? It could have been a more interesting story if Nick was the man who kept resisting Carver and becoming a problem to the group while remaining sympathetic.
I personally love that Kenny is back.
He is one, of my two my favorite character in the series.
The other being Lee, who sadly bit the bullet in season 1.
I personally find Kenny to be a very colorful character.
He's energetic, tenacious, brave, and loyal.
Now some may raise an eyebrow when I said he's loyal, but if as Lee; if you were loyal to him, he was loyal to you.
One character I would never want to see again is Lilly.
I thought she was bitchy when the group first met her, and when she killed Carly, I was completely done with her.
I like that idea. I actually thought thats where we were going with Nick. Oh well.
His loyalty is conditional. It shouldnt be that way. It wasnt with Lee.
Gavin Hammond is superb. I have no problem with him, just the character.
Telltale did seem to make a deliberate choice with designing Nick to resemble Kenny from the back - hence why so many people speculated that Kenny would make his return in Episode 1 following Nick's appearance in that episode's trailer.
But the dramatic potential of having to choose between Nick and Luke is a conflict that could have been less forced. Nick respects his friend, but feels frustrated by living in his shadow and his attempts to prove himself cause friction among them. Imagine if Nick was the one who decided to shoot at Carver in the ski-lodge and inadvertently get innocent people killed? Or if his reaction to Luke seemingly abandoning him to Carver leads him into reckless, nigh-suicidal escape attempts?
Think about this.
If you saved someone's life, but when your life was in danger, and they don't back you up, like you did for them, would you still be loyal to that person?
What reason would you have to continue to be loyal to them?
Loyalty is a two-way street.
And if you've been loyal to someone, and they do not return the loyalty, it wouldn't make any sense to continue to be loyal to them.
lol @ the brutal killing of Carver. The guy pushed one guy off of a roof without a care in the world, and beat another man to death. You call it brutal, I call it karma.
The problem with Kenny's murder method was that he took valuable time away from their escape in order to have his dramatic revenge, and also allowed Carver to remain smug and die pretty quickly (he was unconscious by the first hit). If he really wanted to have revenge and remain pragmatic, he could have just tied up Carver or shot him in the dick and let him be eaten alive.
Well, Kenny was still an idiot for not just shooting Carver. He held up the group's escape even though he knew they had to leave as quickly as possible.
Luke wasn't exactly the brightest guy either in that incident.