Is it possible Sarita was only created so that Kenny would be in Season 2?
This is all opinion, I'm NOT Stating anything as Fact. So Opinions are welcome and please keep things civil....
So, I started thinking about Sarita's role in the Walking Dead. While there's a lot of people in games and movies and books whom are usually created to serve a convenient purpose, I feel that that's all Sarita was. A convenient character whom was put in to further make Kenny even appear in Season 2 and to also to make Kenny's arc in Season 2 that much more tragic/important.
I've read around the interwebs that Kenny was originally supposed to have a more ambiguous death, that they didn't initially have plans to bring him back into Season 2.
So, here's my opinion on Sarita and Kenny in Season 2...
I mean, when we first meet her and she tells us that she found him holed up in a restaurant probably near death because he seemingly had 'given up' IMO. I mean, after losing Duck And Katjaa, he still had the drive to get to the boat, and (determinently) would view Lee and Clem as his only family left, and it would serve as the reason he kept going in Season 1 after losing his blood family. But, after he sacrifices himself for the group near the end, we are left to assume he died. I think even TT and Gavin have admitted that Kenny was supposed to be dead at the end of Season 1 either being lost when trying to save Ben or getting lost when he saved Christa.
I mean, if Kenny had just given up after losing his friends at the end of Season 1, he might've tried to find them for a while, then became too depressed and sorta just caved in and lost his momentum. IMO, without meeting Sarita, Kenny might've just died because he was just going to wither away. I'm not saying this is fact, I'm just saying this is how I see Kenny actually being if Sarita had not come into the picture.
So, with Sarita in his life, Kenny had a reason to go on and they eventually made it to the Ski Lodge. So, when Season 2 comes around and Kenny has his new foreign chica lover, Sarita was essentially the reason that Kenny even made it to the Ski Lodge with Matthew and Walter. And also why Kenny was present there at the time Clementine and the Cabin group come rolling along. Y'all see what I'm getting at?
Not only that, but when we get into Ep. 3 of Season 2, and we got into the walker herd, and Sarita was bitten, I think it was apparent the moment we see her in the situation that she's done for. Again, this only goes to serve as an emotional strain on Kenny, as no one else even seems to care that she dies. I mean, yeah, Clementine shows regret, but literally no one else mentions her. Not that she was super friends with anyone else, but not even Mike whom was there or Rebecca whom she seemed to interact with the most aside from Kenny mentioned her. It's like, Sarita existed for the sole reason of furthering Kenny's story.
I know we can look back at other characters in the series and see they might've been there soley to serve as a convenient plot device, but I kinda think Sarita was the convenient plot device to bring Kenny back into Season 2. In which case, makes me kinda sad for Sarita. Now, I'll be the first to admit I'm glad Kenny came back into Season 2, though not everyone is. But, I still kinda think she was just a plot device.
Thoughts? Opinions? Please don't call me stupid, I just wanted to see what y'all think about Sarita's and her role as a possible plot device. I'm not saying it's wrong she's a plot device, just that that's all she seems to be.
Comments
I think Sarita was created for Kenny's angst.
That too. XD
Yup, she was purely a plot device for Kenny. It was obvious she would be killed from the moment we met her and realized her relationship to Kenny. What a shame.
Honestly, Sarita was a bit disappointing, her death if you chopped her arm off is fine, it's an "Oh shoot! I screwed up!" Moment for the player. However, if she makes it out of the horde she has suddenly lost the ability to talk and is later killed offscreen for Kenny to use his "Beating" speech in the tent. Literally in the same episode Kenny just sort of forgets Sarita, just so the plot can move on.
That seems to have been a common theme in this season. Once someone dies, the rest of the characters forget they ever existed then it moves on.
Plot device really. Kenny is the type of character that needed a reason to live and keep on going.
Not going to reiterate my disdain for the writing quality for season 2, but yeah you pretty know she's gonna die 5 minutes into her introduction (and telltale didn't do anything to give us a reason to care)
The most disappointing thing about her death in my opinion was, that Kenny had the same reaction no matter what you did. His anger was understandable if you decided to cut her arm off. But for those players " like me " that didn't cut her arm off and still got the same reaction, this was very disappointing and underdeveloped.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't with Kenny I guess.
I don't understand what you are trying to say.
Yep.
And after all the hope I put into her turning into a good character.
He will blame you for cutting off Sarita's hand, but he will also blame you for not cutting her arm off. No matter what you do, you still get blamed 100%. That's what you said right?
Yes, exactly. And in my opinion, this is very dissapointing.
Oh my God! Nick became a walker and has bites on his neck and legs! Well let's forget him.
Holy Heck! A teenager was just ripped to shreds in front of our very eyes! Aww, isn't that baby cute?
My girlfriend/wife just died and I'm sad. I'll help deliver this baby, isn't he cute? What was I sad about?
Many characters were made just for the sake of the plot, It's a normal thing in games/shows/movies. :P
" My girlfriend/wife just died and I'm sad. I'll help deliver this baby, isn't he cute? What was I sad about? "
It's not like Kenny didn't suffer about Sarita's death, he obviously did. The baby just gave him new hope again and made him realize that his life isn't over yet.
Sarita was really there as the person who tried to bring Kenny back but failed.
She died which had a great impact on Kenny and how the players empathise with Kenny.
When she says she thought she could bring him back it kind of means that she failed, seeing as though Kenny barely told Sarita about his past, something bad might have happened after Sarita rescued Kenny. I really want to see a Sarita DLC.
Is Sarita hispanic? I got the impression that she was middle eastern. But as to the question, I think her sole purpose was to be Kenny's girlfriend and give him a reason to start breaking down from grief. I did like her so I wished she was more significant.
She's indian.
She's Indian (As in, from India, not Native American). She says so in Episode 3.
I believe that Kenny's return was already planned before Sarita. She had nothing to do with him actually being in the Season, but her only reason for existing was so he could get violent and depressed again when she died. It's a shame because I liked her. She was nice and had a cool accent. Plus, dat nose stud.
Here's a quote from Sarita that shows he ethnicity.
Troy: Shut up, weird, uh, Indian lady.
Kenny: Hey!
Sarita: It's fine I am Indian.
Yeah, I thought so. I just wanted to clarify because the OP called her "chica".
Just to clarify I know she's Indian, I just said Chica just cause. I thought it was pretty obvious she's of Indian origin. XD No offense!
She existed only to reiterate Kenny's angst about losing his wife. Rubbish writing, really.
What would have really been a brave move was to kill him off instead and develop her as an individual.
Yeah, I think Sarita had potential but I also believe that Telltale wrote her into this season for the soul purpose of bringing back and then torturing Kenny... -__-
That would have been really interesting.... But then who would single handedly tear the group apart by beating up a Russian kid? Because I can't see Mike, Bonnie, Luke or anyone else we met (besides Carver) doing that.
Why would we even need a Russian kid to beat up? Is the year 1985 or something?
The real flaw of this Season was the whole decision to reverse Kenny's death and make him the deuteragonist of Clementine's story. Keep in mind that back in Season 1, he was LEE's friend, not Clem's. The writers brought him back not because he mattered to Clem, but because players remembered him. That's not the most clever of decisions.
Imagine the story if we had met Matthew, Walter AND Sarita at the ski-lodge.
I understand what you mean about Kenny beating Arvo, but I personally don't think it was simply Kenny beating up Arvo that tore the group apart. It was a few things but that was the final straw IMO. Hopefully this won't start a debate, and I'm not trying to shit on anyones opinions, I'm just saying, in my mind the group was cracking before EP. 5 and through EP. 5 for multiple reasons.
But if it had been Sarita who lived, what would our final choice have been? Would it have been Jane v. Luke, even though it seemed stuff and thangs might've worked out.
True a lot of things were pulling the group apart, but most of the thing did kind of evolve around Kenny.
As for Pizza and Ice Cream choice.... I'm not really sure we could have ended up in that kind of situation unless it was a go after Person A or Person B in the blizzard kind of situation.
The story really became about whether you should trust the great white middle-aged man to be a leader or not. Carver showed the dark side of that archetype, and Kenny seemed to be going down that path. Unfortunately, Telltale was too afraid to actually condemn Kenny and end up trying to redeem him in every one of his final scenes.
I'm really just fatigued with that kind of character. Maybe I'd be happy if a pretty middle-aged Indian lady had a larger role in the story? She took care of Sarah and Clem, and maybe she could have gotten along with Carlos. I honestly feel that a lot of Kenny's scenes could have still worked if Carlos - the tough, overprotective father figure with a temper - had been the one to do them instead.
You could reason that all character deaths are made solely to affect an individual to further their story.
Season 1
Clem's Parents- Affect Clem
Shawn- Affect Herschel and Kenny
Doug/Carley(drugstore)- Affect the person who survived
Larry-Lily
Mark-Lee
Carley/Doug(road)-Lee
Duck-Kenny and Clem
Katjaa-Kenny
Chuck-Lee
Ben-Lee and Kenny
Kenny-Lee
Season 2:
Omid-Christa and Clem
Pete-Nick
Matthew-Walter
Alvin-Rebecca, Kenny
Carlos-Sarah
Sarita-Kenny
Carver-Clem, Kenny
Nick-Luke
Sarah-Luke,Clem, Jane
Rebecca-everyone
Luke-Bonnie, Jane, Clem
Kenny-Clem
They did imply in episode 2 that Carlos had done some messed up things and then they dropped it.
Luke: ...Now your Dad's the nicest man I know, which is why he won't do anything crazy, or not nice, right?
I honestly think this was bad writing when it came to the Kenny being angry at us. Personally I think TT just wanted the fans in general, no matter what they did (cut off her arm or kill the walker) wanted the mean, depressed, and nearly broken side of Kenny to be shown, which is him being angry and lashing out at whomever.
I can understand why Kenny was pissed when we cut her arm off, but when we kill the Walker the only way I can understand where he was coming from, is when you're that angry/upset over something, anyone is 'fair game' when it comes to lashing out. It's not justified or excusable, but still, I at least understand it a bit better.
And another thing, everyone was shitty for sending Clem to go talk to this emotionally compromised man. I know Clem is closest to Kenny, but seriously, they all knew Kenny was gonna lash out at someone and better it be Clementine than themselves. Even how the sneak off behind you in the scene pisses me off. -__- Again I say, EP. 4 wasn't awful, but the bad writing IMO made me dislike everyone equally.
I think Luke was just trying to keep Carlos calmed down, and make him not do something bad in front of Sarah, that doesn't make him bad. But yeah, I kinda believe Carlos might've been Carvers right hand man at some point and then was majorly turned off by Carver hence why they all escaped.
Carlos was the doctor for the community, and likely had to see first-hand the kind of injuries Carver would put him through. Perhaps he was forced to let the 'weak' die to save resources - it certainly rubbed off on him after their escape. I also bet they fought over how Sarah was meant to be raised. Carver has no qualms with indoctrinating children, while Carlos wants to coddle his daughter at the expense of other children.
If you asked Sarah back in Episode 1 if Carlos had let people die before, she stutters and says "Not on purpose!"
I know that it's a common thing used in fiction and games and tv shows etc. But in the Walking Dead Game it really didn't feel prevalent in Season 1, like all the characters were independent and had their own actual story then shit happens to them and it affected everyone else usually. But I guess Sarita's presence just really seemed specific in the fact she was Kenny's girlfriend. I love Kenny and Sarita, just kinda sad that's just how she was incorporated into Season 2 and how she was dealt with was as Kenny's girlfriend, not much else.
This, all this. Yes.
Okay, I was just wondering if you thought she was hispanic. I get it now.
This is one of my biggest gripes with this season, there's too many new characters introduced, and half of them don't really get anything to do or leave any kind of impact and are either simply plot devices or just there. For example: Mike, what impact does he have on whats going on? He shows up in episode 3 and then suddenly is friends with everyone including Kenny and suddenly goes along with the escape plan because the plot needs a nice token black guy for the group, he's nice and likable, but that's it, you don't really get to know him as a character, and then he suddenly leaves and becomes a traitor because the plot demanded for conflict. I know some folks might say Omid had the same problem, and to some extent yeah, by himself, Omid probably would've suffered the same kind of problems I have with Mike, but he had Christa, and the two played well off of each other,and they both sorted of acted as the last chance of hope for Clementine if Lee wasn't going to make it, what exactly does Mike bring to the table of Clem's story?
It seems like Sarita's character only exists to development Kenny, and nothing else.