My Epiphany About Kenny in S2
I've been thinking a lot about Kenny, today. Mostly in Episode 4 of Season 2. No matter what you choose, Sarita dies, and Kenny blames you. I don't know the situation if you choose the axe the walker's head, because I've never played that route. Instead, my first instinct was to save Sarita's life by chopping her arm off. This, of course, proved to be folly, and she died on the spot. Despite my best intentions, Kenny became unbearably angry at me, and blamed me solely for her misfortune. Originally, I thought he just had to vent and that I wasn't REALLY at fault, but today I see things in a different light...
There was one specific line Kenny used. I don't remember EXACTLY, but it went something along the lines of "You can't just do whatever you want, Clem!" Now I didn't WANT to chop her arm off. I didn't WANT to get her killed. I didn't WANT anything bad to happen. Why did he say that? Venting, like I originally thought? No, today it became clear. I made a choice that wasn't mine to make. I saw Sarita's hand getting bit, and my first instinct before she could even comprehend what was happening was to disfigure her for life. As a human being, and a healthcare worker IRL, I am disgusted with myself. Doctors don't amputate without consent from the patient. Such a choice should have been Sarita's to make. I regret not killing the zombie, attempting to make it out together, and then letting her decide her own fate. That should be anyone's given right.
And Kenny is no hypocrite. In season 1, if he accompanies Lee on the quest to save Clementine, he gives Lee the decision on whether or not to keep his arm. Sure, he MIGHT have cut it off if Lee stayed unconscious for another 5 minutes, but we can never base things off of what people MAY have done IF something was different. The fact is, he ultimately asked Lee what HE wanted. And as someone who opted to KEEP his arm in season 1 episode 5, I am in fact the hypocrite for chopping Sarita's arm off in Season 2 episode 4 without even asking her.
Kenny is seen as a very angry and unreasonable man to a lot of people on these forums. I think this may provide some insight to his thought process to those people.
Comments
Just so you know, if you axe the walker and Sarita makes it out of the herd, she asks Kenny off screen to kill her so she doesn't have to suffer. Kenny refuses on the absolutely insane grounds that "maybe Sarita is different and she won't die". So he condemns the woman he supposedly loves to die a slow, horrible death against her wishes.
"She didn't want me to wait. But I had to. In case she didn't turn."
I mean, it's understandable he'd be reluctant to kill his girlfriend, but Kenny's still a pretty huge hypocrite. So don't feel too guilty about your choice, it's just a video game and heat of the moment and all that, and Kenny's really no better.
Basically what happens is Sarita stares at her arm and tells Clem she's doomed, later when you meet back at Kenny he's angry at you like he if you chopped Sarita's arm off except he makes you look at her as she's coughing and suffering and tells you that "She's dying because of you.", then later back at the tent Kenny informs you that Sarita had asked him to kill her so she didn't suffer, Kenny refused and didn't kill her until she turned.
This version is a bit more messed up.
Well that does sound really messed up and hypocritical of Kenny...
I guess my route is one of the reasons why I always believed in Kenny.
I think they ruined him in Season 2. This is what was wrong with the writing team they basically just wrote your everyday redneck asshole. The reason people liked Kenny was because depending on how you played you can see a different side of him. Season 2's Kenny was a 1 way street at points he was an asshole no matter what
I actually find that route more interesting because of this fact
Instead of showing us his instability and psychological damage through him just being really angry at everything as usual, they show it in a much more tragic and subdued way through his choice with Sarita. On the outside, it's a horrible thing to do, and you're right in that he's condemning her to a terrible death, but the tragic part is that in his fractured psyche and mental state, he doesn't even fully realize that he's hurting her in the first place, or that he's simply incapable of comprehending it any more
TT missed an opportunity to call on Kenny's shit and not being up the Larry situation.
Meh it's how you see it.
In my first experience he never expressed any blame onto Clementine, but that's just because I stayed silent.
Well, you can have the determinant (but ultimately useless) choice of calling him an "asshole". But that doesn't actually affect your relationship with him in any way, and you can't remain defiant and hostile towards him in subsequent interactions.
the problem with this scene for me is that Clementine isn't given the option to really defend herself. She can say the lines Jane tells her to say about doing what you think is right in that moment, but I wish it could've been more than that. Sarita chose to put her life on the line to help Clementine and Sarah (before she ran)....she took it upon herself...Clementine is not at fault for Sarita's demise. Sarita got herself bit, the best option would've been to chop the arm off nice and cleanly, not hack it off with a wee hatchet...or wait until there far away enough from the heard to chop sarita's arm off...but the fact that no matter what Kenny is livid makes the choice useless.