Why I Don't Hate Arvo/Want Him Dead
Let me pose this to you:
You've got a wounded leg, and you have to wobble around everywhere. You've got a sister in a bad condition, and you’re in a group that pretty much only keeps you around as a translator. You are stealing supplies from your group to keep your sister feeling okay, kind of like what Molly was doing. You go try to hide the things so it can’t be planted on you if it’s found. You are robbed of your gun (and determinantly the supplies) by people you do not know. If a Walker catches you, you’re pretty much dead because of your leg. You go back to your group, and they want to know where you've been. Since they can’t know you've been stealing, you say the half-truth: You were robbed and abused by a group of people not far. These people, Buricko and Vitali, are obviously interested in robbing these people, considering the rough conditions of the apocalypse. They drag you along so you can catch them off guard, and force your sister to come, so you don’t try to run.
Once you find out they have a baby, you immediately try to tell them in effort to diffuse the situation. People shoot anyways, shit gets bad, and it’s all pinned on you. Now that people have started shooting, you see your sister, the person you’ve been close to for as long as you can remember and the only person you have left anymore, drop to the ground, having been shot a few times in the stomach. As chaos unfurls around you, you are desperately trying to resuscitate her, despite being an easy target for anyone who wants to shoot you. You perform CPR, you press on her chest a good bit, you try anything you can. Right as you think it’s about to work, a man you do not know grabs you and holds a gun to your head. You are desperately trying to escape his grasp, as he handles you roughly and threatens to kill you. You turn him around a little bit, and you see your sister moving, what looks like her trying to escape to cover. The little girl, Clementine, holds up her gun and shoots your sister, who you thought was alive and never knew that she turned. You break from the man’s grasp and run towards her, mourning over her body. You stay there for a few minutes, until all of a sudden the man walks over to you and roughly punches you, threatening to kill you. They argue, and you say that there is a home with food nearby in attempt to stop him from killing you, saying that you know where it is and will take them. It may not be close, but the tiny lie is what saves you. You are tied up, and constantly abused by the man with the eyepatch, being degraded, beaten, and insulted constantly. But it is not him you hate most. It is the girl who shot your sister and murdered her. You reach the power area, and they tie you up to a pole in the cold. You are still mourning Natasha’s death, now knowing that you are a prisoner and that everyone you love is dead.
A man comes over and offers you some rum, but you think him just like the rest of them. You shout at him, telling him to leave you alone. He kneels down and comforts you, apologizing about your sisters death, mourning her with you. This man is the only one who has been kind to you so far. You continue on the next morning, still being degraded and physically abused by the eyepatch man. You reach the lake, and see the house. As you have crossed the lake before, you volunteer to cross the ice first, and step out there. As you walk, you ponder escape, thinking that you REALLY NEED to get away from this evil man with the eyepatch. Once you have gained enough distance, you make a break for it, running as fast as you can for having an injured leg. Just before you can make it to the other side, some ice cracks and your legs fall in. Eyepatch man catches up, and throws you to the ground. Now one of them has died and the little girl has fallen in the water, nearly having frozen to death. As this little girl was the one you still believe murdered your sister, you feel nothing for her. The eyepatch man walks up to you and blames you for the death of the man who died in the lake, pushing you and mocking you, accusing you of lying about the supplies. Having had enough of his shit, you look at him and say “Fuck you.” He responds by calling you a commie piece of shit and begins bashing your face in with his fists, damaging your glasses, bruising your face badly, and nearly killing you. The little girl tells the man who was nice to you to let the eyepatch man keep going, increasing your hatred towards her. After the eyepatch man is finished or stopped by the little girl, you are tied to a bar and left there. The nice man, who you now know is Mike, helps you and gets you things to help with your face. He makes a plan to leave with you, and he gets another girl, Bonnie, in on it too.
The next morning, Mike untied you and you go out to the car, gathering up supplies to bring with you on your escape. The people you are leaving behind are the people who robbed you, killed your sister, and beat you nearly to death, and you have no remorse for any of them. The little girl comes out and finds you, and then proceeds to call out to the eyepatch man and Jane. You, having built up all of this rage towards the girl who killed your sister, pull the trigger and shoot her in the shoulder. After she falls to the ground, you realize what you have done. You realize how badly you have messed up. You realize what you have become, shooting somebody for revenge. It is too late to fix your mistake now, so as the eyepatch man runs outside, you dash off into the woods with Mike and Bonnie, escaping in fear of being killed by the eyepatch man.
Now, should Arvo have shot Clem? No. However, Arvo NEVER KNEW that the reason Clem shot Natasha was because she had turned. Had Arvo known this, I don’t think he ever would have considered shooting Clementine.
Comments
I felt bad for Arvo, I could see a lot of Ben in him but when he shot Clem I literally yelled at my screen YOU FUCKING SHITBIRD!!! (Shooting Clem was Bad But I knew she wasn't going to Die, because she's the main character and they wouldn't end it like that..)
These are all your assumptions. Maybe Arvo was just a hateful little prick.
Nobody knows I guess. Judging from his look after shooting Clementine, I'm gonna go with prick.
Yeah...
Well he still shot Clementine so I cant forgive him...
I've gone over everything we know about him quite a few times at this point. The translations, facial expressions, and the exact details of the situations we've found him in. These are inferences, yes, but I can't exactly see his situation being much different.
And that's fair. All I seek to do is explain his actions, and if you still hate him after that, that's fine.
I can see where he's coming from, but I still think he's an ungrateful little shit. If you don't take his stuff, and stick up for him EVERY time, he still shoots at you dirty looks and just flat out fucking shoots you. I even gave up my gun! The Hell, Arvo?!?!?
Note though, i've been extremely nice to him so the part where you tell Kenny to keep hitting him, or scolding him was different here. I also didn't rob him.
Anyway, you made some really nice points and definitely opened the eyes of others.. I can see why he would shoot you with the decisions you made though. But i was extremely nice to him :c
He should've asked why i killed his walker sister when i offered him the rum. Things would've turned out better probaly.
Having looked at his translated lines and finding out that Kenny can give him yet another beating in the campfire, I'm inclined to forgive him for shooting Clementine.
Telltale obviously tried to justify Kenny's treatment of Arvo by making Arvo shoot Clementine regardless of your choices, making you think that's its okay to beat and demean an unarmed, crippled, terrified teenaged boy, so as long as he turns out 'evil' in the end and shoots a little girl out of the blue.
I'd imagine that had Kenny not done what he did to Arvo, the shooting wouldn't have happened. Being a prisoner to a group who had killed your people, and being beaten several times by a madman would make anybody incredibly paranoid, especially towards a girl who was friends with the madman, who would have called out to him and stop you from trying to get away from him.
I wouldn't exactly boil it down to bad writing by Telltale, but I do wish they had perhaps not set up his character in a light that makes it so that one must seriously analyze the situation to justify his actions. And I also recently learned Kenny will knock Arvo out at the campfire if you don't get him to rejoin the group. It definitely does help my case here.
This is exactly my mindset. I just feel really bad for him. Even after he shot Clem...I mean, for a minute I was like "WHAAAAAT?!" But when the Lee sequence came it calmed me back down and got me looking at things from different perspectives. I can completely see where Arvo was coming from in everything he did.
Too long didnt read. f*ck Arvo!
You're ignorant.
Tl;dr
Just read it
Yep, I can sort of understand why Arvo acted the way he did. The group (mainly Kenny) was completely antagonistic towards him and Clementine was there both when he was jumped and when his sister was killed (being Clementine who shot her) but that doesn't mean the first second I see him it isn't this (yes I've posted this before but la)
I'm gonna post this in /r/fuckarvo
will give you credit
I liked Arvo and was extremely nice to him, then came Natasha,I knew he blamed me for it and he would do something he would regret. When he shot Clementine I was angry but then the Lee dream happened and I thought of it differently, its another Lilly situation. It mirrored Lilly, Lilly was still broken after her father like Arvo was about his sister. A bad situation happens and for the good of their group, Lilly and the Motel survivors and Arvo with Mike and Bonnie, they shoot someone. Immediately they regret their choice both with looks of terror on their face. The Lee dream showed your previous actions and tried to explain why Arvo shot you through Lees voice, in the end they mirror situations and I forgave Lilly and if I ever see Arvo again I probably will forgive him too.
It really does feel like Telltale tried to justify everything Kenny did to him by having him shoot Clementine. I admit even on my second playthrough I didn't defend him at all when Kenny beat on him, I just let him do it.
Arvo has committed (In the eyes of pretty much all the players of this game) the worse crime out of anyone so far. He shot Clementine. And I enjoy seeing people's attempts to analyze why he did it as long as they don't try to excuse his actions. I think the writers could have handled his character better, had Clementine talk to him, befriend him maybe, and actually tell him that his sister was a fucking walker and he has no right to be mad that Clem shot Natasha to protect herself. However, the plot called for Arvo to shoot her so Clem couldn't go with him and Mike/Bonnie. (I personally would have taken that choice out of any.)
I see why everyone hates him and wouldn't want to look deeper into what little characterization the writers have given him, (Even though I wish more people would be open to doing this.) because Clem is basically like a virtual daughter to people and he could have possibly killed the little girl whom people have loved and cared for and cried over for 2 whole seasons. Arvo almost took her away from the players and for many that is the unforgivable 'worthy of a slow and painful death' sin.
Its just that I don't hate him, and I wish people would be more willing to exploring his decisions (I understand though if they do not want to, as mentioned earlier) and thought process like this topic has. There is a lot to be said about the parallels between him and Lilly. (Another character that I love whom everyone else in the fandom seems to hate.)
So yeah good topic.
I know he thought Clementine murdered Natasha, but shooting her even if you didn't steal the supplies just pissed me off. I wouldn't say I hate Arvo, it's just that his impulsiveness bothers me. I didn't approve of Kenny constantly berating him and felt bad when he was crying.
That is still no excuse for him to shoot a child
I appreciate anyone who really tries to see Arvo's side. I feel like everything is not so black and white. Maybe if Arvo had a chance to talk to Clem and get her side, he wouldnt have had so much hatred for her. In my playthrough, I stuck up for him everytime, and when he shot Clementine anyway, I figured that he must not have understood that none of it was her fault.
If you were nice to Arvo the whole episode, he should realize that little girl wouldn't shoot his sister for no reason whatsoever. But he was too busy planning to get revenge on Clementine to do that. Also, he could have told the group he just dropped the gun, if the only thing stolen was the gun. If the supplies were stolen, then he had reasons to go after the group.
I think Arvo is a evil genius who uses sympathy as his superpower.
Don't fall for Ondore's lies.