›

I hate Luke...

CaptainDoctorGhostCaptainDoctorGhost
edited December 2014 in The Walking Dead

DISCUSSES MAJOR PLOT POINTS OF SEASON 2 EP 1-5

I'm probably super alone on this but I believe my reasons for hating on Luke are justified. I've played through season 2 several times now and each time I play I hate him more and more. I'm making this post because I always see people making posts about how much they love him, so I thought I'd make one from the POV of a player that can't stand the guy.
First a little background... No I'm not "jealous". He's a fictional character and also I'm a girl who just happens to realise that the only thing nice about him is the way he looks. He looks like a discount Nathan Drake, who is an absolute hunky sex god. So now that's out of the way I shall begin.

1. Luke generalises his apologies.

If you don't understand what I mean by this, allow me to explain. Remember when they first find Clem in the woods injured and Luke mistakes her dog bite for a walker bite, throwing her on her ass. He never actually apologises for that specific incident (He does say sorry about locking her in the shed but that wasn't a direct action caused by him).
He basically goes on to apologise on multiple occasions but they never feel sincere like the apology Clem receives from Nick or Rebecca. His pathetic apology about getting Sarah killed because he was thinking with his penis still gives me the absolute shits. Sure some people applaud Luke for causing Sarah's death, but I disagree with that method of thinking. She was a child who most likely had autism and she'd just lost her father. Give her a break. After this event, Luke's apology still feels generalised and insincere. And I feel that he was only sorry for himself because he appeared as an embarrassment/ disappointment to the group and to Clementine.
Also my reasons behind why Luke generalises his apology is because he always acts like he is right and I don't believe he understands truly why he needs to apologise. Remember when he says to Clementine. "You're the one who's bit here, don't look at me like that". Clem should've replied... "Don't throw me on my ass, prick".

2. Luke doesn't actually do anything helpful or productive.

So let's start at my first point about the dog bite. Many would consider that Luke is a great guy for saving Clementine in the woods and carrying her back to the cabin. But when he sees the dog bite, he kind of overreacts and throws her. Okay so that's understandable, right? I mean... he'll come good after we explain about the dog. NOPE! He is completely sour towards her and remember that it's Pete who says he isn't willing to let a little girl die in the woods when they have a doctor with them. So no help from Luke there.

So in my first playthrough I went with Nick to the shed after Pete gets bit at the river. And the player is greeted with the most realistic dialogue that could ever occur in an apocalyptic situation. (THANKS BUNT WALLACE! Who knew Brian Bremer was such an authentic voice actor?). Depending on player choices, Nick will actually help Clem escape the shed by punching walkers, whilst drunk and highly depressed. Later we return with Luke who gives his friend a hug and we as players are all like ER MEH GERD! Luke is such a great friend. NOPE! Didn't anybody else find it odd that (again depending on player choices) when Nick says "Thanks for not giving up on me back there", to Clem, and after she responds and he starts lagging behind... WTF is up with Luke's face? He is mad because his best friend is depressed about the death of his Uncle and still dealing with the loss of his mother. Other than that one hug, Luke isn't emotionally helpful to Nick at all. Unless they hugged it out for that five day time skip that we missed... Also when Nick shot Matthew on the bridge, I sided with Luke at first until Nick said "I thought you were signalling me to shoot, you gave me a clear shot". Upon going back and viewing that scene, Luke does flail hysterically around and then ducks out of the way. Honestly, I'd probably shoot too. He doesn't help his best friend at all and then goes to school girl bitch with Carlos about what a liability Nick is becoming.

At the Ski Lodge when the player gets that obscure choice of sitting with Luke or Kenny... unless you absolutely hate Kenny (which I don't) then it's an easy choice. Sit with the guy who you were with for a year and haven't seen in about 2 years or with the guy you met 5 days ago, threw you on your ass, locked you in a shed and then was completely useless fighting walkers on a bridge. Luke hasn’t really proven himself and I thought the walker fight on the bridge would be a sweet opportunity to see how useful this guy is going to be to Clementine. Yet Clem ended up proving herself which just made Luke appear even more unhelpful.

Depending on player choices, again, if Clem decides to listen to Luke's advice on Matthew's death and not tell Walter -This gets Nick killed! Even though Nick wants to tell him or doesn't know about it (player choice) if they both listen to Luke then Walter doesn't save Nick from the attacking walker. Wow! Isn't Luke just the greatest guy? He's so helpful 0_0

So we learn that when Kenny and Luke went to fix the generators, Luke had a hissy fit and Kenny told him to "take a hike" which is why he isn't taken to Howe's with the rest. Clementine is soon intercepted by Luke in a comic book store who has a plan to get them free and needs a walkie-talkie to pull this off. So Clementine does a nice little heist within the heart of Howe's and gets away with the walkie-talkie, only to discover that Luke has been captured. Can I just ask... Was this guy dry humping the outer wall of Howe's screaming Carver's name? Because that's the only way I can see how he could've been caught. Once again, the attempt to prove Luke's worth as a productive character is taken from the player.

After everyone either dies or gets split up after Howe's, Clem and Jane find Luke in a trailer home surrounded by walkers as he tries to help Sarah. Again, what a good guy right? Until you get inside and you realise that as soon as the heartless Jane recommends leaving Sarah. Luke gives zero fucks. Saving Sarah from that dilemma is absolutely pointless as she is killed by walkers who catch the group off guard because Luke was thinking with his dick. Jane and Luke are the bane of Episodes 4 and 5. The cherry on top was when Luke says something like "I forgot what it felt like to be human" to Jane as Clem catches them. Was this guy a horn dog pre-apocalypse? That's real charming... Also I thought that being human was thinking about others before yourself. Like the pregnant lady who's about to bloody pop. (No pun intended, eww). Again, Luke demonstrates his uselessness. I miss Nick, I bet his corpse and that fence are getting on well.

Luke's fate is finally sealed, beginning with his leg getting shot. Mike has to carry him around and like I stated before, he hasn't been helpful at all so just put the guy down already! On the frozen lake, if you choose to help Luke then a walker will grab Clem who will be saved by Luke who head locks it but is then dragged down to presumably drown and zombify to become the most well preserved walker ever. So Luke is redeemed right? Sure I guess... But what the audience doesn't know is that Luke was trying to feel human one last time by not saving Clem but by shoving his dick into that walker.

3. Luke is highly critical of others.

I've basically already talked about his excessive criticism of Nick already so I won't head further down that road. But let me bring you back to Luke in the woods when we first meet him and how irrational he is, but upon returning to the cabin and Clem being confronted with a barrel to her face and a bunch of pricks surrounding her, Luke immediately takes the moral high ground. "What's wrong with you people, she's just scared". That line to me just screams the word 'HYPOCRITE'. He criticises the cabin clan (that's their street name now) for their behaviour which he showed in the woods. Pete is the only one who is truly 'nice' to Clementine in season 2, he's clearly going to be missed. But that doesn't stop Luke criticising Nick's mental state. (I know I said I was done with Luke's criticism of Nick but in the words of Uncle Pete "it seems relevant"). Also one rather small detail that people may miss. Remember when Kenny made that joke about Peaches and Beans not being good on the way out and it was awkward as a tension eradicator (As much as I love Kenny). Anyway Luke gives Kenny a disgusted look, as if criticising his decision to make that joke. Then in episode 5, around the fire, Luke and Jane can be heard joking about their sexual encounter. One that led to the endangerment of the group and the baby and (player choice) the death of Sarah. And they just joke like nothing happened. Luke also criticises Kenny for killing the evil and sadistic Carver (Michael Madsen YAY!) who almost killed him, killed Walter, Reggie and Alvin, tortured Carlos and made him slap Sarah, and this is all just what the player knows he has done. He also criticises Clementine if she stays to watch. Luke also criticises Clementine if she admits that she killed the dog that attacked her. "Still... you don't kill dogs". So if Luke was in that situation he would either (A) Just let the dog rip his arm off, or, (B) Let the dog suffer as it lies impaled on tent poles. Remember when I mentioned that Luke likes to take the moral high ground? He always seems to do it in the wrong situations. Which brings me to my last point!

4. Luke lacks sympathy and morals.

Sure Luke pulls some sad faces and some generalised sorrowfulness, but the man never truly shows sympathy and has a bipolar moral compass.
We could make a fun list here about what truly goes through Luke's mind when he interacts with others.

1.Clementine - "Here's some food, now let's talk about your dead parents".

2.Pete - "Don't ever bring up about me not beating you in poker again! I will change the subject now!"

3.Nick - "You get one hug and then I expect you to get over this shit..."

4.Kenny - "You make me look less cool in front of Clem and that makes me insecure".

5.Carver - "I want you dead but it's not okay if everyone else does too".

6.Sarah - "I'm going to attempt to save you but once I'm on the roof... Meh".

7.Jane - "Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex."

8.Walter - "Your partners dead but I don't care if you never find out".

This list could go on forever but I think you all get the idea. So that's it, the reasons I don't like Luke. I think he was just a flawed character because he takes the Gold in Moral Fence Jumping. He was just an unrealistic character to me and I didn't connect to him as much. I ended up connecting better with characters like Nick and Rebecca who started out as major assholes but they had better character development and ended up becoming good fleshed out characters. Nick's death is not justified considering he is voiced by a man who was grabbed by pumpkinhead twice but... you know (I'm just rambling on now). Even though I don't like Luke, Scott Porter did a great job with his voice acting. Also to all those Luke fans out there, I'm not sorry for the words on this post. Heheh. I had fun writing this and I've been pondering on this idea for a long time.
Thanks for reading if you pulled through!

References to Pumpkinhead (1988) were made in this post

Thanks to user sialark and Lilacsbloom who actually cleared up a few of my issues with Luke. Your comment was very helpful!

*Also correction to my post, thanks to the commenters that corrected me on my statement about Sarah. I wasn't aware that Telltale clarified that she had PTSD. I thought she had autism because I have a close friend who has a sibling with autism and Sarah reminds me so much of him.
I apologise for that mistake. *

So I had a change in heart about some of the issues with Luke's character, thanks to great commenters. And to reward you all that you did impact my opinion on Luke I have grilled this post with another called "I don't hate Luke... a personal self grilling of "I hate Luke..."

«13456

Comments

Sign in to comment in this discussion.