Why is Jane (Or New Molly as I like to call her) The only fully competent character apart from Clem
I can't be the only one who notices this, Luke was pretty competent in the first 2 episodes and Kenny was good till episode 4, But everyone else relies on a 13 year old to do the hard stuff. It really hurts the story for me. Anyone else feel like this?
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Because the plot.
I think the responsibility is lower for Clementine in episode 4. If we didn't have any responsibility then we'd just sit there and that would be boring.
She's a survivalist alright, but not a perfect one. For one thing, her social skills have gone down the toilet because of all the time she's spent alone.
She messes up by telling a woman about to give birth if she wanted to abort the baby. She writes off Sarah as a lost cause even without giving her a chance. She fucks up by pissing off Arvo and letting his folks know Clem's group could be a threat. She makes a mistake by forgetting her own philosophy in order to have sex with Luke. She did the wrong thing by not letting Clem leave with her all because she was still too emotional to deal with the possibility of a surrogate sister dying.
I like her character because it shows the flaws of the 'strong, silent loner' type. I can understand that she's a rather sensitive individual who's suppressed her feelings to survive, and I like that she represents a possible prototype for an adult Clem. But from a moral level, she disgusts me because she caused problems for Clem's group and then leaves to avoid dealing with the consequences. She worries me because what she did to Arvo is all too reminiscent of what Michelle did to young Clem. She disappoints me with her fatalistic attitude towards children.
And I don't like how a lot of players seem to ignore those moral flaws in favor of gushing over how "strong" she is simply because she's callous. It's apparent that the path of independence may seem appealing, but even Jane herself is too in need of companionship to sustain it indefinitely.
And she didn't kill Arvo when she had the chance.
I think it's because Telltale tried to give Clementine as much to do as necessary per episode so she would appear just as reliable as the adults and not have her age matter anymore, just as Chuck would say: "She's not a little girl anymore, she's alive, and that's what matters [paraphrase]". Also, she's the player character, and sitting around letting the adults do all the work would turn off players.
However I can see your point, Clementine is given way too much responsibility to the point where it almost appears comical, especially in Episode 3. I was half expecting Clementine to deliver the baby in Episode 4 considering how many people rely on her, and was thankful that she had a more reasonable job instead.
It is pretty ridiculous how essentially no one acts except upon Clementine's say-so. I'd really like to know whose idea it was to put the 11-year-old in charge.
The whole theme is that children are capable of learning and adjusting to trauma, given the right teacher. The adults don't have anyone to look up to and break down when the person or dream they depend on is lost.
But Clementine had Lee, and he comes across as the best possible mentor she could have had. Which is what makes his loss so effective.
People may or may not like the guy, but Kenny is perfectly competent.
When do they ever act upon Clem's say so?
"I'm gonna punch the first sonuvabitch I see, then I'm gonna take his gun and use it to shoot the NEXT sonuvabitch I see!"
Yeah...perfectly competent.
Nice job, you brought up one line where he wasn't really thinking things through as well as he should have been (his plan actually COULD have worked though). Typically, Kenny is a very competent character who gets things done. I guess he isn't really "perfectly" competent, but he is still a very competent character.
The amount of narrow minded Kenny haters on these forums just blows my mind. Its to the point where the Kenny haters are worse than the Kenny fanatics ever were.
Clementine is 11 years old dumbass..
At the very minimum, when Kenny goes to fight off the walkers, Mike waits for Clementine's direction about what to do. And this is right after Clementine had to be the one to suggest going into a building with a door that Mike was capable of kicking open -- and this is after Mike and Bonnie had been looking around in that area for several minutes.
Then, Kenny and Luke get into an argument about whether to leave in the morning or wait a few days. Clementine gets to decide. Sure, she gets a vote. But people shouldn't just look to her to decide a question before having a legitimate discussion about the pros and cons with the whole group. And once Clem speaks, Rebecca votes however Clem votes. Mike and Bonnie don't even bother giving opinions. So, it's "Hey, Kenny and Luke disagree, so let's just all go along with what Clementine wants to do."
You're taking what I'm saying way too seriously, and assuming that my one rebuttal to your statement makes me a Kenny hater.
I guess my response was a little mean spirited, but I never intended any malice.
Wow, I accidentally got a characters age which adds nothing to the story wrong, I must be sooo stupid
Then what was the point of your post?
Well, the point of my post was to provide evidence that Kenny is not perfectly competent as you had said originally by quoting one of his lines in EP3.
Because at the end of the day their just regular people. Their whole lives weren't spent in the Zombie apocalypse. Some handle it better than others and we don't know her backstory. Maybe she was in the military and trained as a doomsday prepper... Who knows
Alright, let me reword my original statement then. Kenny is "very" competent.
I agree. Some people are just...better. It's hard to describe. I've watched people do certain tasks their whole lives, and they never get that much better at it, but another person does it, and they master it almost immediately, like it's something they have done their whole lives.
For what it's worth, some people seem to have better affinity for living in ZA. Lee, Christa, Chuck, Jane, and Clementine seem to be extremely aware of their situation, while remaining calm and rational as possible, under the circumstances.
It doesn't mean they will survive in cases. But people like them, they are made for the hardship of the Zombie Apocalypse.