Did ***** Sustain A Brain Injury?
Hey everyone. I've been lurking on here quite a while, but after the phenomenal season finale, I was finally compelled to share a theory I've developed with you guys. Now please bear with me if this is stupid/implausible/totally obvious...here we go.
Yep, I seriously believe that Kenny suffered some sort of brain damage during this season.The ways he began to act from the end of ep. 3 onwards - somewhat savagely beating Carver to death, verbally abusing Clementine and accusing her of killing Sarita, battering Arvo repeatedly and threatening to kill him several times - these behaviors are not normal, even by Kenny's standards of emotional instability (and I'm not even going to get started on Kenny fighting Jane to the death over what she claimed to be an accident - but I digress, I don't want this to turn into another Kenny vs Jane thread). I can't justify the things Kenny's done, but I can provide a biological explanation. So let's take a moment to look at some science:
Do you see that part of the brain to the far left, right above the eyeball? That is the frontal lobe. This section of the brain is responsible for our emotions, our ability to think logically, and our personalities in general - in fact, the frontal lobe plays a large part in determining who we are. As you might expect, injury to this part of the brain may result in grave consequences.
How does this tie in to Kenny? The frontal lobe is the largest and most vulnerable part of the brain - one hard blow to the head may be enough to cause trauma. But in the infamous "Kenny takes a beating" scene, our bearded pal gets the side of his head bashed by Carver not just once or twice, but at least half a dozen times. Carlos remarks that Kenny's orbital (the bone holding his eye in place) was "completely crushed". If that's the case, then that means the shattered bone fragments of Kenny's skull could have come in contact with the brain, potentially creating lesions or even becoming embedded in the soft tissue.
Kenny loses consciousness after being beaten, but recovers enough to escape Carver's camp and function normally afterwards - or so we think. As with many minor traumatic brain injuries, the damage is not immediately visible; it is revealed over time through a person's actions. The website brainandspinalcord.org has this to say about injuries to the frontal lobe: "Damage to this vital lobe can cause impairments in judgment, attention span and organizational ability, as well as a loss of motivation. In addition, the frontal lobes are charged with the task of regulating mood and emotions. Consequently, when they are compromised, a patient may become impulsive, act rashly, and adopt risky behaviors." I don't know about you, but that sounds a lot like Kenny to me.
During the latter half of this season, I was upset and confused by the way Kenny was acting. But if he really did sustain a brain injury, everything suddenly becomes clearer - it still isn't right, but at least now it makes sense. Clever move, Telltale.
TL;DR: Carver beating Kenny may have resulted in an injury to his frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls judgement, mood, and personality. Because of this damage, Kenny got gradually more irrational, aggressive, and dangerous as the season went on.
Comments
Uh...yeah. Don't you remember Carlos saying he doesn't know if there is going to be any brain damage?
Well I stayed at Wellington in the end of my playthrough for a number of reasons. I love Kenny and I just done what was best and that's what he wanted, and at the back of my mind was "does kenny have some major damage to the brain?" so maybe he did, so i'm glad I stayed at wellington before anything got worse but I still love KENNY!
he might have suffered brain injury. but to pin his behavior on it is nonsense to me.
the way he behaves after is completely in character, the logical conclusion what would happen, if he lost sarita, and obsessed about something new.
His thinking didn't affect much.So?Who cares if he is ok.
Kenny before Episode 3 would neither have beat Arvo like that nor killed Carver the way he did.
It actually makes sense.
There was this man once, a long time ago, in the 1800s. He worked in a mine, but something exploded out of plan right next to him and sent a piece of iron right though his brain.
It was like a miracle he survived it, everyone thought he was dead for sure. But they noticed he was very different afterwards. Before, he was a nice and caring person. After his accident he suddenly became violent and choleric.
Later they found out about the different sections of the brain, and that they all worked differently.
The man's frontal lobe had been stabbed and almost destroyed. That changed his whole personality for the rest of his life.
And Carver beat Kenny hard and many times, Kenny even passed out. It's very possible that Kenny's frontal lobe suffered damage from that.
Those of us who might like to plumb the depths of the story a bit further, sir. That's who. Thank you Snarks for the well-researched and
well-written theory
I have a suspicion I am feeding the troll, but just in case, there it is.
I actually got a Brain Injury from all the Jane/Kenny fighting.
Carlos said "but until he wakes up... We won't know if there's any damage to the brain." This only means that he can't tell at the moment whether or not there is brain damage, he isn't saying that there may not be brain damage, if that's what you're implying, I can't really tell.
Funnily enough, its been known to work the opposite way too. Crotchety old man gets in a bad wreck, wakes up 3 days later everybody's favorite guy. That sort of thing.
This is actually a pretty interesting topic of discussion. See, if we all could think about things and maybe do some research on a good topic, instead of posting troll threads or "Kenny vs. Jane" threads, then maybe we wouldn't have users wanting to leave the site as we do, which saddens me, honestly.
he would not have killed him that way because he had no reason to kill carver like that back then.
kenny was a reckless and aggressive person far before the beating.
sarita spend far more time with kenny and she seemed to expect something like that would happen. (her words when you do not watch carver's death and the way she questioned clementine about kenny appearing different)
possible but not likely.
occam's rasor.
why would you suspect something that barely ever happens instead of the most likely thing?
Well, didn't happen though :P
Don't you remember Carlos is the guy who don't know the difference between a dog bite and an human bite ?
Lol, i wasn't implying anything about Kenny, EMG. It just seemed an interesting point of fact while we were on the subject of frontal lobe trauma.
Did you know that human doctors and animal doctors are different, and that even vets usually specialize in one or two species?
lacrimal gland is lacrimal gland, brain is brian.
Nice post. But I think that Kenny's problem is more mental than physical. He's personality is not so different that it has to be a brain injury. And he's actually really calm with Clem in E5.
He has a thick fucking skull, that Kenneth.
Dogs have long mouths (I'm not fluent in english so sorry for not knowing what they're called) while humans don't... I think that should at least an indicator of whether someone was bitten by a person or a dog. Unless the dog was a pug or whatever.
BUT JANE IZ A FUKIN HOOOE!!111!
Come on man. I know what the moon looks like and I'm not an astronaut.
You can remove the eye in this Picture..cuz..Kenny.