Kenny is the new Carver
Greetings, fellow fans! I've been lurking the forums ever since the first episode of Season 2, and the chaos of Amid The Ruins has unleashed a flood of new discussion about the fates of upcoming characters. While Kenny is not my favorite character, I do find his character arc in Episode 4 to have parallels with what can be assumed about Carver.
First of all, Bonnie is the person who asks Clementine to console and bring Kenny back to a state of coherence. Remember that Bonnie was also the person who struggled to defend Carver's actions to Clem, describing him as "over-stressed" and claiming he used to be a better man who only wanted to protect his people. In Episode 4, Clem is now placed in Bonnie's position of struggling to bring an unstable man from despair while Jane, the outsider, writes him off as a lost cause. We won't ever know the truth about Carver, but a woman as kind-hearted as Bonnie probably first knew him as a strong and stable leader and clung onto it until he bragged about murdering Reggie. The fans, in a way, are still struggling to defend Kenny no matter how volatile or harsh he becomes.
During his office chat with Clementine, Carver says "It's all too easy in these times to slip into depression." Judging from dialogue by Tavia, Bonnie and Reggie, the first escape by the cabin survivors - which also coincided with a zombie horde - is the reason for why Carver's community became more fascist. He lost a personal friend, George, who was killed by Alvin. Just as Carver lost a man who may have been a calming influence, Kenny also loses Sarita during their escape and falls into despair.
However, they both find purpose in Rebecca's son. Carver claims him as his property and is willing enough to personally go on a killing spree in search of his child. He'll even kill his son rather than allow him to be born in the wilderness. In a similar way, Kenny imprints on Carver's son and becomes excessively possessive of him, even disregarding the health or wants of his own mother. It's also important to note that Kenny seemingly rises out of his depression once the opportunity to assert power and deliver a baby is revealed. Once Carver's son is born, Kenny starts bossing everyone around under the grounds of protecting "his" son and is called out on it by Luke.
Kenny turning his dark twin's son into "Duck II" is definitely not a good sign, considering how quickly he latches on Sarita and Clem and the disregard for their feelings when they assert their independence. He rages at Clementine if she treats Sarita the way he'd treated Lilly's father (hurting them for the sake of everyone), and was unwilling to amputate Sarita's arm even when they were at a safe distance out of the same delusion he had regarding his real son's bite. Kenny keeps regressing to the past, never realizing that it will only hurt him and everyone else in his wake.
This would also explain why Carver snapped and tried to beat Kenny to death - he saw a dangerous potential leader in him and wanted to break him down. Both of them acknowledge Clem's competence and potential, although Carver is willing to treat Clem as a young adult (perhaps a younger Rebecca) while Kenny still sees her as a little girl.
What do you guys think of this? Will Kenny live on to become the new Carver of Wellington? Will he become too unstable and be forced to be put down by Clementine? Or will he finally move on from his past and become a trustworthy guardian?
Comments
Kenny fanboy 'dowvote brigade' incoming in 5, 4, 3, 2...
EDIT: And here they are! Mazel Tov!
This is telltale we are dealing with, I love kenny and i don't want him to die, however i am not blind to the possibility he probably will, he will probably die from that eye wound.
I haven't seen a playthrough where someone looks at his eye, have you seen it? Does it look bad?
So far the season's been constantly pushing at us to see Kenny as someone on edge. His girlfriend asks Clem if he seems 'different', he butts head with Carver and is the one to kill him, and the song "Good King Winceslas" that Sarita sings in the ski-lodge is likely a hint at how Kenny's supposed good intentions may still bring his group to a cold, bitter fate.
Hell, that's why Carver died halfway through the Season - he's the catalyst for Kenny's descent. Now Kenny has an extra trauma to obsess over, what with bearing a "Governor" look and reliving his murder fantasies with random zombies.
As for the eye - the game teases you with Clem momentarily peeking into his eyepatch at an angle where the wound isn't visible. Judging from Carlos' comments about possible brain damage (Kenny's voice becomes much deeper and sinister following his beating) and Clem's comments about it being infected, I predict that Kenny will become steadily colder and more ruthless, disregarding even his own health all for the sake of Carver's son.
I like Kenny, but I wouldn't be surprised if Telltale kills him off in episode 5 or if they keep him alive.., but he better have a badass one liner if he dies, like Mike should....
Well in the tent, there is a huge bloodstain, when Kenny was alone. Which makes me think its not doing good.
You know that theory that Lilly is running Wellington? I hope it's true if Kenny lives to see it just for the melodramatic problems that will immediately go to.
You got that vibe too? I really get the feeling Carver was slowly turning what was once his ideal survival community towards his personal castle/harem/etc. Twas pretty frightening.
This is an interesting thing I had not even considered nor thought about at all. Makes you wonder if Carver was a lawful good who just got lost in his emotions and rage thus twisting him into this lawful/neutral evil patriarch. Hm. Would be a good character study is someone wrote him like that.
He didn't brag, he just didn't make excuses or lie about it.
If any of you have read The Rise of The Governor,
Meek Philip Blake assumes the identity of his ruthless brother, and obsesses over the niece he failed to protect. He becomes a sadistic brute with an incestuous love for his dead niece, likely from the stress of having to run a group while maintaining an image as the invincible leader.
And yeah, I definitely got the sense that Carver, a literal slave-master, had a 'taste' for black women. He made 'strong' Rebecca his secretary and likely coerced her into sex, put the less attractive (yet saner) Tavia in charge while he hunted Rebecca down, and probably hoped to groom Clem into his future wife.
Kenny has tons of great one liners.
Like what he says about politics, I LOL every time i hear it.
Oh dear
I'll make it my mission to find a playthrough where you see it
Looks like ken's gunna struggle
there might be a doctor at Wellington though, so it might be okay?
Yeah, he also has great one liners about BOATS and Urbans.... and Saltlicks...
or maybe we're reading too much into it and Carver literally was just grooming Clementine as to replace him (as leader) when he dies; perhaps noticing his age or something.
Both Kenny and Carver both show no fear of death, remaining defiant even in certain doom. I wonder if the meaning behind Carver keeping a tiny pistol in his desk was to indicate a suicidal attitude. After all, it was wholly unnecessary for him to abandon his community and enter bandit-riddled, zombie-infested territory just to personally pursue Rebecca.
The camera actually pans to it for like a second when their walking out i think, so that made me think it was important, because you know how Telltale is with their subtle hints.
I doubt it, they're somewhere i think in Virginia and they got a long way to travel to get to Wellington. I live in Ohio, and i know from experience the winters here are extreme. They're worse than Michigan. The roads would be full of snow, so driving would be out of the question. I don't think they will get there next episode without some sort of Deus ex Machina help.
The bloodstain is if Sarita is still with you and he has to kill her there. She's laying on that exact spot that's why the camera kinda pans on it. It doesn't make sense if she isn't there. Should have been edited out but ah well.
Yeah i cut her arm off so she died in the zombie heard. DANG YOU TELLTALE FOR CONFUZIN ME!
Your winters are not worse than ours lol. In fact, being quite familiar with both states I'd say they are about the same depending on how far up you are going in Michigan. The UP is terrible with winter far more than where I live that much is for sure.
Carver most certainly wanted to mold Clem into his protege.
Quite contrary. If you don't agree with him then it's "fuck you, fuck off, have a nice life" with him. Not like Carver at all.
You can actually see Kenny's eye for a split second if you catch it at the right time. From what I could tell it's bruised all over and the eye is stuck shut.
I have a feeling that Carver's talk about the 'next generation' would've ended with his son replacing him and someone like Clem replacing Tavia.
Come to think of it, that would be more logical and appropriate for a narcissist. Carver would only accept his son as the new leader, with Clem remaining the second-in-command.
This entire theory made sense until this right here.
Also
I have a taste for black women too... I don't see where you're going with this?
lol your winters arn't bad
To be fair, we didn't know Carver long enough to understand what his long-term plans were for Clementine. But I'd point out that he was attracted to Rebecca specifically for being "a strong woman among weak men", and praises Clem for her strength and potential as well. It's ambiguous what he really intended for Clem - maybe he really did just want to make her a supplement to Tavia. Or maybe he wanted to groom her through his rhetoric about strength and 'the good of the community', hoping a child would be more impressionable than a married woman.
Historically, men in power have taken advantage of their female subordinates and used their status to claim ownership of their children. Many slave-owners were able to rape their slaves and decide whether or not the resulting children were worth claiming as heirs, without any say from the mother or her family. Black women were seen as 'strong', able to take any punishment without faltering. While slavery is never outright mentioned in Season 2, the fact that Carver uses slave labor and obsesses over the child he fathered with a black woman is likely meant to evoke that as a theme. It's also interesting to note that his 'slaves' would escape to a civil war museum, and that Rebecca was too pragmatic to care about wearing a Confederate/slave-owner coat.
I'm not saying that Kenny sees Clem in a sexual way as well. I'm also not saying that Kenny will become an evil villain. It's just that they're both broken leaders who want to make her part of the 'family' unit; whether it's as second-in-command of Carver's community, or as the big sister of Kenny/Carver's son. And I'm sure these parallels are deliberate, not accidental.
Ohio winters are like winters in the Ukraine, harsh and unforgiving. Clementine's group should avoid ohio, for it will be a death trap. Its not the heart of it all anymore.
Is that why Russians appeared in Episode 4? A community of survivors with generations of experience with harsh winters could probably help Clem survive.
That is, if Kenny doesn't try to kill them all.
Well in Ohio, where i grew up there are small communities of Italian, German, Polish of people. They spoke their native languages, but also knew English as well. I wouldn't be surprised if their are communities of Russian immigrants in Ohio, its the heart of it all.
Interesting...it'd be quite a twist if the Russian survivors in the town end up helping Clem's group make it to Wellington. The language barrier would be another source of conflict.
I just doubt from the achievements that Kenny will last to the end of the final episode. Whether it's a slow death caused by his brain damage and natural stubbornness, or him getting gunned down on camera, I think (and hope) episode 5 will be a firm send-off to the character. The penultimate achievement "Kindly Stop for Me", with a rest-stop sign filled with bullet holes, implies that either Kenny, Luke or the baby will die.
The "Luke vs. Kenny" conflict that's been built up since episode 2 will see its end here. I think that while Luke and Carver were unwilling to kill each other, Kenny and Luke may not have the same compunctions. Luke's lost his 'family' and is likely to be gravely injured, Kenny has an immediate threat in the form of angry Russians to keep him going, and Clem may ultimately have to decide whether to leave them or put them out of their misery.
Perhaps it all goes down to what happens to Carver's son
Only two out of the four are dangerous. Tattoo guy is armed with a rifle, and the other guy is armed with a shotgun. Arvo and his sister i think want to put their guns down. We do know tatoo guy shoots first, but at who we don't know.
Tatoo guy is probably going to die, because he shot first, everyone in Clem's group is going to send one his way, i think Arvo will drop his gun because he is a coward and the woman won't want to fight because of the baby.
I don't think that'd matter to Kenny - he'd probably execute Arvo and the woman even if they surrendered, perhaps because Bonnie and Mike were shot dead.
Which could mark the point where he becomes the same type of man who killed Walter. Maybe it's up to Clem whether to stop him or not.
i don't think anyone will die in the shootout, other than the Russians. Russians are notoriously bad shots, i would know i watched every Rambo movie.