I don't hate Luke... A personal self grilling of "I hate Luke..."
So by now most people have seen my "I hate Luke..." post. Reading this now as a Luke fan, you are probably thinking "Why the hell am I still looking at this assholes' posts?"
Well I have news. Thanks to some very helpful Luke fans, a lot of my issues with his character have been cleared up. So I thought in order to honour those fans and see that their well-constructed posts have influenced my initial feeling towards Luke, I will now proceed to perform a self-grilling and correct my past mistakes.
Firstly, in my original post I did not mention that I do have Asperger's, as I didn't feel it was relevant to mention at the time. I do sometimes forget that I process social situations differently and constantly look for logic/ reason behind speech and movement, which can cause unreasonable over thinking and this is a mistake on my behalf. One commenter mentioned this, after seeing a comment that I left, that because of this I had missed slight expressions and body language that compensated some of Luke's behaviour. They also suggested that my problem is that I don't hate Luke, but rather just don't get him. The more I think about this, the more I believe this person is right. Trying to understand Luke was like playing a board game as a child, failing miserably and then stating that this is dumb! I don't get it! (And) I hate it! Pathetically, I admit, this is the exact reaction I had eventually towards Luke after playing the whole season several times through and still not completely understanding his character background, morals and motives. In saying this, I do believe that there were some “slip ups” with the way his character would sometimes act and this is largely due to Telltale's writing. I sometimes feel that they didn't always know 100% where they were going with Luke's character and maybe if he was developed in Episodes 3 & 4 a little better instead of being shelved for Jane, I probably would've understood the purpose of his character more and not have had issues in the first place.
Secondly, I did not write my original post in pure anger like some people believe I did. It was written light-heartedly, and by my rather dull use of language and my constant Pumkinhead references I believed that this would show. Clearly I was naïve and forgot that written words are not read as they are spoken and again, that is my fault. I wrote the post straight off the top of my head in about 20 minutes, obviously this one will have a little more consideration and thought, like I should have did in my original post but just didn't even think about the misinterpretation issue. It should also be mentioned that I am somebody who enjoys reading opinion posts if they stretch beyond "I love/ hate this character just because so go fuck yourselves!" Clearly not everyone is like this and I just have to say that we as a society need to be more open minded and understand that not everyone has the same opinions and listening to others opinions can help self-improve, understand and influence our own opinions. Like the awesome commenters that cleared up my Luke issues.
So here we go, self-grilling time. If I don't mention anything from my original post then I have either forgotten, still don't understand or just purely cannot justify its reason, (again personal interpretations).
1. Luke does not generalise his apologies
I mentioned before that I had missed certain expressions and movements which expressed Luke's apologies, even if he didn't define what the apology was specifically for. I know that it is unrealistic to say that we always define what we are apologising for, but Telltale wrote it into most of their characters dialogue. When they apologised they always specifically stated what they were apologising for. This doesn't happen as often with Luke and here is why I think this is... Luke seems to be the character who apologises the most on screen, and Telltale is lucky that Scott Porter was a good enough voice actor to be continuously doing that without it becoming mediocre. By continuously, I don't mean every two seconds but Luke does seem to have the most apologies during season 2. Because it may have become too bland for Telltale to write every single word revising why Luke is apologising again, they most likely took the easy route and this is because I believe that they thought Luke's personality had enough push behind it to sound genuine. The character that Luke was originally shaping to be, (The Good Guy!) would have easily pulled off each apology, and the majority of fans believe he did. Unfortunately for me, because I didn't see complete development in Luke and was actually overwhelmed by how many times the good guy/ relentless survivor dynamic would change in one scene, I just completely lost the genuine factor behind his apologies. Considering that my initial interpretation of Luke was to be suspicious as to why he was quite inconsistent in character, (to me). I played the scenes in the episodes again, where Luke would apologise, after seeing those good comments and completely ignored my original interpretation of Luke. And he does appear genuine in his apologies through expression and body movement. But like I said, I do have minor issues when you place the whole season together. Because of these changes in Luke's character several times during a scene (Through expression/ dialogue), I was initially led to believe that Luke's apologies were just generalised and not genuine. Again, this is shown to be caused by how I originally interpreted Luke's character and because he felt inconsistent to me, I didn't completely trust his character.
2. Luke isn't there to be majorly productive/ helpful, but rather a brotherly and supportive figure for Clementine.
Although Luke was introduced as rather helpful, I do still stand by my points, as this apparent helpfulness disappeared as the season progressed. I feel that as an audience, Luke was introduced to players as a guy that could get shit done. Because that was my initial reaction towards him. He was dressed in a Nathan Drake-esque attire so I believe my reasons in initially thinking that was his purpose are justified, considering that the first on-screen thing he does is save Clem. He is the hero, right?
So upon thinking about this, I admit that I most likely went about Luke's purpose in the story the wrong way. He is not highly productive, but he does support Clementine and upon deleting my biased views (which I don't believe were unreasonable just because I misinterpreted it) I see now that his character was just mainly there to encourage Clementine. I do rather like when you go for the "big one" and he gives Clem a high five afterwards. But this doesn't help to 100% sum up his character. I am still confused about his support for Clementine but lack of support for Nick, Sarah, etc.
In saying that, where Luke fails (like getting caught at Carver's for one example) this gives Clementine the chance to prove herself as not being just that little 11 year old girl.
3. Luke isn't highly critical of others... Sort of...
At least not to Clementine. It is easy to forget about Luke's interactions with others because he is so encouraging and supportive of Clementine. But because I am a Nick fan as his character felt realistic and relatable (majority of people would be depressed and given up by that point as well), it may be why Luke's high criticism of Nick's understandable behaviour really ticks me off and makes me dislike Luke as a person. Which is why I started to believe that he lacked empathy and morals, or that he at least had selective empathy. But this brings me to my last point...
4. Luke doesn't lack empathy and morals, but rather forgets that he deals with situations better than his friends.
I made a list on my original post by this point that basically summed up how I feel Luke approaches several situations. At first I thought this was super ass-holey of him and the evidence of everything I stated is there. I just interpreted it as rather unkind behaviour on Luke's behalf, whereas a lot of fans believe it was rational behaviour and clearly the majority didn't interpret it the way I did. Like I said, I try to make sense of the characters behaviours to get a clear understanding of who they are.
So here's my point. Because the way my thought process works and I mostly make sense of first-hand information given to me from characters themselves, I did happen to overlook one detail that I think someone did bring up in the comments of my original post. Nick tells Clementine that he isn't built like that, after mentioning that Luke "keeps moving". This line helps justify most of Luke's irrational actions towards all his broken friends. He forgets that he is not mentally built the same as everyone else, (much like I forget that I too am not mentally built the same as everyone else and interpret certain characterisations incorrectly), and can continue to move on even after he loses his own family. Because I admit that once everyone he was familiar with and cared for is gone, he starts to breakdown... and this is where Telltale stops the Luke development, replacing him with Jane. So maybe it is safe to say that although I thought the Luke VS Kenny situation was going to extend into the finale, Luke just would not have pulled through for that long because he was beginning to suffer guilt. The thing is Telltale didn't emphasise on this until moments before his death. Which again, because it was so abrupt to see Luke change that quickly, I was left overwhelmed due to poor, lack of and then completely rushed, development between episodes 3, 4 and 5.
Basically to sum this up, there are issues within ALL the characters. This is something we can all agree on, and many have. I had comments from Luke fans saying that they do admit there are flaws within his character but they trusted their own grounded sense of who Luke was and overlooked these issues. I too have done this with a lot of my favourite characters throughout seasons 1 and 2. I had complaints as to why, because there are so many flaws in all the characters, why was I just targeting Luke? I mentioned that I would sometimes notice Luke pull several different facial expressions within a short scene, facial expressions that would have opposite meanings to each other. This may have been something that was overlooked by Telltale animators or thought that nobody would notice. I however am hyper-sensitive, due to mass concentration, to change in expression and rely solely on this and vocal tones during a scene to decipher what a person is thinking/ feeling at the time. And because Luke was initially introduced as a good guy then made some angry faces, then happy but turned quickly to anger then back to happy several times throughout the whole season, I never knew what his motives were and whether he could be trusted.
Anyways everyone! Thanks for reading my personal grilling of my original post. It just goes to show that constructive criticism can influence opinions if it is well thought out and helps clear up misinterpretations and introduces new ideas.
I want to give credit to @sialark and @Lilacsbloom whose comments made me reconsider my initial representation of Luke, which inspired me to write this post and put my Aspergic thinking in its place.
Comments
Nice clean up.
It's good to see you admit your mistakes instead of staying on your high horse.
My initial post was just purely frustration and misinterpretations and I was never doing it to troll, I genuinely did not understand his character at all.
But thank you, I was never planning on staying on my high horse. I'm not that kind of person. I was just a bit naïve and forgot that I was coming across a bit irrational because of the way I think.
But like I said, some great comments helped me reconsider what my mind was placing limits on and I basically had to do a brain wipe.
But seriously, that would be stupid of me to not clean up my original post if I thought differently just to be a cocky asshole and prove a point.
Like the comment above me said, good job at clearing this up.
Thanks
Very nice post. It's great to see you were able to learn from your mistakes and admit them, then create a well thought out post explaining how your perception of Luke has changed after reading what others had to say.
I wish more discussions could end like this. Thank you for taking your time to write this up, and take my like for it!
No problems! like I said to InfiniteDawn, I was never trying to prove a point or troll. I was just really in the dark about Luke's portrayal.
And yeah, all discussions should end like this. My initial post was to show my POV of why I hated Luke and I'm glad that the comments shed some light on the issues I was having
Aww, thanks again, CaptainDoctorGhost. Glad to have helped. I salute you, oh Captain, my Captain!
You're a pretty cool gal for being big enough to change your mind about Luke, and to even write up a whole new post about it! Just to be clear, I never thought any of your posts were written in "pure anger," though I can understand how some people might've felt that way.
Preach, sister! I have to confess that I myself forget this sometimes, though I try my hardest not to.
And erm...I never meant to put your Aspergic thinking "in its place" as you say. I was just pointing out that it could be playing a part, is all.
But it's very refreshing to meet someone with such an open attitude, and I think we can all learn a lot from you!
And ah...ahem so now we've convinced you about Luke, if you'll just come with me, I'll explain to you why Jane isn't so bad......
...
...
...
XD ahh well, might be too much to hope for that with peeps anymore. Suppose I should take a page out of your book like in your quote above and just let people have their opinions. :P
I thought the title was 'I hate Luke...' at first glance.
OH NO NO NO NO! That was me saying that hahah!
I was just naïve because I did forget my different thought process, so I was being a dick to myself and putting myself in my place hahaha. You helped to point out that I may have missed body language, which you were 100% right and I thank you for this
I completely understand Jane's character, although I don't like her. Except her sudden Clem love is a little rushed in my opinion.
This is a grilling of my original post which was called "I hate Luke..." where I revisit the issues that people corrected me on in my original post.
I thought it seemed familiar.
Yeah it had blown up pretty quickly hahaha
Aw, come here you T.T
Haha, well I'm glad you were able to get something out of it then.
I know I did too. And I'm just rereading your post again, and lol, please don't call yourself an asshole, I didn't think you were one, nor were your a troll or anything of the sort, and I'd gladly read any of your future posts, especially since we've had time to discuss and whatnot.
Hahaha. Nah, I can sonetimes be an asshole and that's okay because I can always accept my mistakes.
I'm more like a self improvement asshole. Not just an asshole, asshole. Hahaha.
And thanks, I'm glad I did post my original post because a lot of people helped clear up so many issues I was having understanding the character.
I hope my two posts helped someone else as well who had issues with Luke's placement in the story.
virtual hugs back