Luke was poorly written this episode
I feel like Luke's character was poorly written this episode. Everything we established about Luke in three episodes was completely altered in one. I would even go as far as to say that Luke did a complete 180. Here's some examples Luke being out of character:
1. "All I want to do is survive. That means picking the right sides."
- Wait what? What happened to the Luke in episode 2 where he tells Clementine that the group looks out for each other? Like a big happy family. Now suddenly Luke only cares about surviving and turned into a Jane after hardly knowing her.
2. "I just... think he's more eager than he has a right to be. Okay? He wants acceptance before he's earned it."
- That was what Luke said about Mike after Clementine was explaining how he saves her life and he's a good guy, but he thinks we don't like him. So what Luke is trying to say is that Mike needs to earn his way into the fold? You know who else says that? Carver. Someone who Luke inspires to be nothing like. Luke is actually frightened to be anything like Carver. This is out of character because Luke was one of the first members of the cabin group to accept Clementine into the group no problem. He actually convinced the group to accept Clementine and make her feel like she's apart of the group, but has a problem with Mike trying to be helpful? Sounds consistent.
3. Sleeping with Jane.
- What Luke did with Jane at the time that they did it was not only selfish, but out of character. Luke ran after the group who was captured by Carver by putting himself in danger by lack of sleep, food, and hydration with the chance of getting attacked by walkers at any moment to infiltrate a camp full of guards armed with AK-47s to save the group, but would risk the groups safety to have a one night stand with Jane? Even knowing that Rebecca was in labor? Really? So what you're trying to tell me Telltale is that Luke would rather deprive himself of sleep for days, starve himself, and be dehydrated to save the group, but would rather put his group and the baby in danger to get his dick wet when he could have waited a couple of hours to do it anyways? Why Telltale, why?
4. Luke consistently arguing with Kenny.
- Luke keeps arguing with Kenny more than Kenny argues with him which is a really strange. Are we in a parallel universe? It seems like Kenny is trying to keep a cool head and defuse the arguments while Luke is the instigator which is really out of character for both of them. That goes against everything we learned about Luke in previous episodes. Episode 2 when Nick and Kenny are arguing, Luke keeps his cool and even tries to calm Nick down at the end even though Kenny started it, asks Clementine to talk with Matthew on the bridge to avoid a fight and was actually nice to Matthew, etc. What I'm trying to say is that Luke has been shown to be a nonconfrontational person, but in episode 4 he continuously argues with Kenny arbitrarily and he was actually the first to draw his gun at Arvo instead of attempting to defuse the situation like he usually does.
All in all, I felt like Luke was poorly written this episode because his actions didn't fit his character at all. What do you think?
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
Luke is just stressed out and not acting normal, doesn't mean is writing was bad. Though I will say I wish he was different this episode.
I think he was written well..i like him more after this episode..i am not gonna elaborate because i am lazy.
That's because they got someone who doesn't even work at Telltale to write the episode (J.T Petty). You can't really expect consistency from that.
He also grieved his best friend for 20 years for 2 seconds.
And didn't respond at all to Sarah's death on the balcony despite being responsible.
He grieved losing Jane and future Sex, despite her disinterest, for much longer and much angrier than the death of Sarah who looked up to him and was the most vulnerable member of the group and his best friend Nick.
Luke started out interesting/nice. but now he's kind of a dufus. Maybe he was always a dufus, just hiding it in the beginning
Is all you do on here complain about the new writers?
He should have played the damn episodes or do a little research on the characters (wiki) before he even attempted to write the episode and its characters. Also, why is someone who doesn't even work at Telltale writing the story for a Telltale game?
No, i also complain about the drop in quality, the episode length and how they work on 4 games at once.
I liked Luke in this episode.. Showed his flaws.. but I liked the dialogue if you choose to pick "What Kenny did bothered me" he says then there is still hope for Clementine then.
People are dying left and right. Kenny's unhinged and could be a liability to the group. Like his best friend Nick was, and he and Carlos decided to talk about it? Sound familiar?
Clementine was an injured, potentially dying child. Luke probably thinks Mike's over eagerness is a little bit shady, and it clouds what Mike's true intents are. Sure it's obvious he really wants to be apart of the group and have them protect him. But does it work both ways? Would Mike stick his neck out for them? Although Mike saving Clem/Bonnie could change Luke's opinion in the long run.
Luke was thirsty, starved, sleep-deprived, survived an attack on Carver's very base and crawled through a horde, his first action was to literally chase after Sarah, and he feels extremely guilty over thinking of leaving Sarah behind, and may have at the time failed both Nick and Sarah. Things have been turning to shit for him, and expecting his weariness not have any effect on his decision-making is stupid. Jane comforted his choices, and told Luke her story about Jaime and conveyed how much hardship has tempered her, and Luke may have wanted some of that to rub off on him. Plus with the stressful Kenny, Rebecca, and possibly Sarah situations going on all simultaneously, he figured he might've deserved a reward.
Kenny had the upper hand at the Lodge, was welcoming them to his home and abode for free, their group couldn't avoid a firefight, and they were being chased by Carver. An argument at that time was counter-productive to the goal of survival, so he defused the situation with Nick and Kenny a bit, and he sought a more peaceful resolution with Matthew because it's obvious that pointing a gun at everything is more less comfortable than talking things over. And Luke is still concerned. He's concerned about Kenny's well-being, tries to justify his mistake, that's weighing hard on his consciousness, and finally argues in favor of Rebecca resting for two reasons. The first being he wants to keep the final and only member of his original group happy and alive, because Rebecca's all he has left right now. Second, he's tired as fuck and wants some time to rest after all the bullshit the group went through and Jane leaving. He's tense and on edge and wants to cool off.
Mainly Luke's more desperate and sleep-deprived so his rationality might differ. And people dying left and right doesn't help. Carlos, Sarita, (Nick potentially), Sarah, and finally Rebecca's poor condition doesn't really give you much hope.
Sarah didn't look up to Luke that was Nick, but you have a point. It would've been amazing if at the stairwell scene instead of talking about Jane, Luke talks to Clem about blaming himself for their deaths and never forgiving himself (just like how he was after the trailer scene when he said he was the first one on the roof) and Clem can talk to him about how she feels the same way about Lee. It could have been a heart to heart moment of them grieving and coping for their loved ones. It would've been just like the dinner scene from episode one, but now Luke is the Clementine of the scene and Clementine has to comfort him.
Looked up to him as the leader. If i recall she was the one in the cabin who said "Maybe it's Luke!" and in Episode 3. Nick also.
Everyone turned to Luke and saw him as the leader. Hur hur, shame he doesn't really treat them the same as much.
At least he was really upset about Sarah's death if she died in the trailer. He tried for hours to snap her out of it and blamed himself that he didn't save her.
Very different.
So has anyone here been on the Luke defensive master post?
What do you mean?
Its a thread. Someone put a link in there, about Luke. Its too long to explain everything in the link.
I've said before that we were always meant to be somewhat wary of Luke so these not so easily hand waved flaws don't surprise me.
However, I feel like people should remember that Luke likely hasn't eaten since the ski lodge (the observatory store would be the first time in a while). He got caught trying to steal food and Carver subsequently denied the group dinner. Then they broke out the same night. Not a huge leap to say that Luke might have reasons to not necessarily be in his right mind (outside of the other obvious things that would be bothering him, like the deaths of his friends).
It's not poor writing. It's character development.