Ben's Point Is That He Has No Point
As others have observed, Ben is a puzzling character. He's the classic underdog, a well-meaning but incompetent loser who's used to being overlooked and under-rated. I, like a lot of players, disliked him and wished quite often that he had died where Mark did and found him useless but I kept him alive in episode 4 because I knew that in episode 5 he would do something awesome to redeem himself and reward you for sticking with him.
Yet of course, he not only dies anyway, but dies in a trivial way and takes Kenny, who was relatively useful, with him. His moment never comes.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but is Ben's role to teach us a lesson about the world of The Walking Dead, that people can live short and painful lives without hokey Hollywood moments? Is the point of Ben's life that in Kirkman's world, characters don't necessarily have a point or grand destiny, they just live and die however the dice land?
Yet of course, he not only dies anyway, but dies in a trivial way and takes Kenny, who was relatively useful, with him. His moment never comes.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but is Ben's role to teach us a lesson about the world of The Walking Dead, that people can live short and painful lives without hokey Hollywood moments? Is the point of Ben's life that in Kirkman's world, characters don't necessarily have a point or grand destiny, they just live and die however the dice land?
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Comments
pretty much. Ben wasn't meant to ever have a redeeming moment, just to show that sometimes you just die because the ZA is just that unforgiving.
i think most people's issue with him however is that you can see that reality in pretty much most characters already. making a whipping boy wasn't really necessary
There's still the possibility he has a moment of redemption if Kenny isn't in your party. I heard Kenny saves Christa if Ben isn't there, maybe Ben saves Christa if there's no Kenny. And maybe Ben does something if it's just you and him. Can anyone confirm?
Ben saving somebody? Hahahaha.....
Fate has a funny way of getting what it wants, when it wants it. And fate wanted Ben and his decisions to be pointless. Such is life.
Replace the word "fate" by "Telltale Games".
Unfortunately, by that point, everyone is back together (Kenny cannot not be in your party at that point, only Ben is a variable.)
I get it, but why making him do such stupids things? I understand about the deal with the bandits, but what about the hatchet in Crawford?
Two things:
i) He's in a hostile environment which has been strategically blocked off to contain zombies. Nobody would casually open doorways that have been deliberately sealed by others.
ii) Even worse, the zombie crowd that pursued Kenny and Brie, which stays there after they've gone, magically disappears while Ben makes his move.
It really was quite a transparent attempt at forcing a zombie chase and thus some cheap drama.
+1.
Because him being a complete average joe that doesn't do anything extraordinary and at the same time doesn't make any mistakes is completely boring. There would actually be no point to his character, and no point focusing on him, let alone bringing him into the story at all. The only way to show his humanity is to show him making the mistakes of an idiot.
The deal with the bandits and leaving Clem in the streets were realistic mistakes, but the hatchet was far fetched.
You go to the morgue to find Vernon and his group with the people following you at the end of episode 4; then you get back to the mansion and rejoin the group (or just get to there, if everyone came with you)
I was hoping he wouldn't be heroic on purpose. I thought he might just accidentally get a horde's attention (Specifically one chasing Lee and his group), and get chased off into the unknown.
Ok, I just thought the last episode was different... because it was the last episode so they could do things differently.
I didn't want Ben to do something heroic. I wanted him to survive.
I expected my decision to save him to bite me in the arse, but never really did.
It did if we remove meta-knowledge from the equation. If you didn't know Kenny was doomed either way, then it looks like bringing Ben doomed Kenny.