Did Ben ever kill any zombies?
This is something I was just thinking lately, the only time I think he may have killed one is in episode 5 when the house gets over run and everyone goes upstairs to shoot at them, Ben has a pistol but I can't remember if he actually kills any of them. If he never does then he truly is the most useless character in the game to last so long!
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
He's never seen killing any on screen, but it seems to be implied that he has.
Oddly enough, I never gave any thought to this. I always just expected Lee to kill every damn zombie that crossed our paths and the group to just sit back and watch, in awe, of the main character doing all the work.
He is determinantly seen making a last stand in the mansion with the others and he's seen shooting, but it's unknown if he really did hit any of them in their heads. Clem with her two zombie kills in Season 1 probably killed more zombies than Ben did. XD
Did Ben ever do anything that benefited our group?
Besides begging to be dropped from that tower.
I think the better question is did Ben ever kill anything?
He made a deal with a group of bandits, which caused them to stop attacking the Motor Inn and bought our own crew time. I am pretty sure that this counts as a positive.
I don't exactly think having supplies sneakily taken and stashed for a group of psycho's and marauder's as a "truce" in exchange for being their indentured bitches without telling anyone is really doing the group any good in the long term.
It caused Lilly to go on a paranoid fueled rage fit, the group getting ran out of their home, and was a long running domino effect in which the results were a dead mother and child and a very noble woman/man.
I don't think it was beneficial in the slightest. Give the boy props, he certainly tried but was way too naïve about the whole thing for me to view it as anything other than stupidity.
Which he didn't tell anyone about so they could discuss how to deal with the bandits as a group. He also let everyone think that someone was stealing from the group, lied to Lee when questioned about it, which led to Lee continuing his investigation which Ben could have ended at anytime by explaining what happened. I thought Ben was a good character but he takes a lot of the blame for this.
To be fair, the group would not have had to flee the motel if Lilly hadn't understandably sent Lee to investigate and Lee hadn't accepted. Although looking for the responsible person was the sensible step to take, that is what set the rest of events in motion, which doesn't mean that Lee and Lilly were in the wrong. I sense you know how complex this is to discuss.
Of course, it's true that Ben should've told them everything beforehand so that this didn't happen, and maybe they would've been able to sort out their minds. It's even possible that Lilly would've acceded to go to Savannah if she had known that they only were under a time of peace because of the trade. That's an interesting thought.
So, technically, I believe that his plan benefited the group momentarily, but it would've failed nonetheless after days passed. There's only so much that he could've slipped down to the bandits before they were in need themselves.
The ants on the ground when he fell off the balcony.
The ground on the balcony when he fell off the ants.
It's true that the bandits were a threat and the fact they were only right at the door so to speak since the beginning doesn't make what Ben initially did bad at all in order to buy the group time.
However, Lee and group were constantly risking their necks in order to bring back supplies in order to stay afloat and I could only imaging it'd be frustrating in order to risk peoples' lives for necessities just to have it slyly stashed without the groups' knowledge for a threat they didn't even fully know had the knife to their necks.
Honestly, I would've been just as furious with Ben had he told me that after the fact as Lilly was during the RV scenes. And that's not even acknowledging she suspected it rather than having any proof.
Didn't he kill some when the group was cornered upstairs in the mansion in Episode 5?
If Ben is alive during episode 5 then, yeah, he has. You see him shoot some when Lee and co. had been cornered upstairs.
However before then, it's really just been presumed he has.
"The plan had holes!"
Personally, I think the biggest problem Ben had and the theme of his character development in general was that he wasn't really a part of the team.
Sure, he lived with them, he agreed with their decisions, he even took some responsibility upon himself when they asked them to, but he was never really a team player in spirit. However, at the same time, you can't really blame him alone for this mindset: Kenny a (Knight Templar Family Man who holds a grudge), Lilly(a pragmatic leader that keeps things strictly organized who he admits to being afraid of), and Larry(a hardassed piledriver who gets into confrontations with nearly everyone) all badmouthed him, wanted him gone, and doubted the effectiveness his contributions to the group at some point from the very beginning.
Ben is a nervous teenager who admits that he desperately wanted to go looking for his family but was too afraid to do it alone, that he's happy that Lee allowed him to tag along even though he personally believes he should've just hit the road when the time came, and that he has always felt like his very presence would cause someone to get killed; he's not the strongest of will, bravery, or body. Having them unknowingly agree with this sentiment and constantly state this regardless of how he might feel about it only extenuated this mindset.
Honestly, the only members of the group who even wanted him around were Clementine, Carley/Doug, and determinately Lee and they're the nicest members of the group. So, since he didn't really consider himself to be a member of the group and he witnessed firsthand just what sort of terrorism the Savelot Bandits are capable of, he decided that making a deal with them to keep them off the groups' backs would be the best course of action. If he was really a team player, he would've gone to Lee, Clementine, and Carley about this plan of his and gotten their advice on what they, as a group, should do for the best outcome. Assuming you saved him from the clock tower, Ben's character development completes itself when he has had enough and finally tells Kenny to fuck off: this has him admit what the source of his problems came from, agrees/disagrees to go along with Lee depending on if he believes his help/absence will ensure that she is safely rescued, and give his two cents on what the others as individuals debate is the best course of action once they get Clementine back.
I remember him saying that he has no problems shooting walkers in a pretty bold response. I think this dialogue is shown in Episode 4 if you trust Ben to look after Clementine. This might imply he has done it in the past.
Also, after playing episode 1, when it shows "next time on the Walking dead" Ben can be seen with a rifle shooting at something (presumably walkers). In the game this isn't the case though.
It's Ben, so...probably not.
Am I the only one that likes Ben?
The balcony on the ants when he fell off the ground
Hey, Ben's my favorite Character.
"Lee: Ben...kill anything that gets in.
Ben: You know your talking to ME right?"
I think Ben has killed walkers before. He wouldn't have lived as long as he had otherwise. He was seen shooting at walkers in the ep2 trailer but never occurred in the game.
Kenny's family.
Nooo... that one walker, Katjaa's hidden gun/survivor's guilt, and Clementine/[spoiler] killed Kenny's family.
The ants on the ants when he fell off the ant-infested antfarm.
Agreed. No way he could've lived this long without offing at least ONE.
raises hand
I wish it was Ben who managed to get out of the alleyway and not Kenny. Like if Kenny managed to get him patched up, but was bitten in the process by a walker when escaping, so Ben was left alone. Or honestly just have Ben reunite with Christa, Omid, and Clementine after the events of Season 1 before Season 2 and have us play as Ben. You can't say it's the same as "looking after Clementine" like before, you can just say that since Clementine is hardened and Ben must be at this point, the two work together as partners or something.
Sounds better than season 2
Ben didn't kill zombies but zombies killed Ben.
You know what, that would've been a neat alternative. If you drop Ben, Kenny disappears saving Christa; in Season 2, he turns up at the Ski Lodge. If you saved Ben, Kenny helps him get up so he can limp to safety while Kenny shoots himself; at the end of the game, he and Omid were the ones Clementine sees walking down the road and he turns up briefly in Season 2 trying to help Clementine escape by fighting Winston, only to turn up later at the Lodge.
Ben only had 2 bullets so who knows if he hit any or even shot his gun.
He's constantly on watch with a rifle, so probably yes?
Never on screen.
I meant to bring this up myself, thank you.
Yeah, I think the reason they decided to not have Ben use a gun at first as advertised was to help solidify his character.