Kenny Nostalgia?
So I came across this article on TWD season 2 the other day. I know there's plenty of critics out there, but I found this one rather interesting. Here's the link if you want to see it: http://www.popmatters.com/post/180536-telltales-nostalgia-abuse/
Basically, the article talks about how bringing Kenny back in season 2 probably wasn't the best idea because of the lack of a connection between him an Clem and the needlessness of his character in the rest of the series. It sounds outrageous, but I can't help to agree somewhat...
Hang on. Before you downvote the living daylights out of this discussion, just hear me out for a minute. Don't get me wrong, I like Kenny for the most part and definitely was excited to see his appearance in episode 2, but was it really necessary? If you watch the TV series on the Walking Dead, you'll notice that the characters are always in the midst of a character change, and there's usually a few phases to their change. Kenny, for example, was all about protecting his family and was willing to do the worst possible things to keep them out of harm's way, but when Katjaa and Duck died, he really had no purpose in his life anymore except to just stay alive. What's admirable about him is that he didn't take the easy way out and commit suicide; he refused to give up. And in that respect, I found his death quite honorable when he attempted to save the guy he hated the most at the end of season 1 (unless you killed Ben earlier. I don't know what happens then). His character developed in some of the coolest ways ever, but I felt that was ruined when he returned to season 2.
I may be completely wrong and Kenny will end up being a very unique character in the rest of season 2, but I just don't see why Telltale had to "reward" us with his return.
Any other thoughts? Agreements? Disagreements? What do you guys think?
By the way, I read the guidelines several times before posting, but if that link is against any rules, please take it down 
Comments
I actually think it was for the best , we needed some conflict inside the group which is going to force us make difficult choices and pick sides .
You might want to put the name Kenny out of the title due to spoilers.
I don't know whether I agree or disagree with this article, but I'll reserve my judgement until I see the next episode and see how it handles Kenny.
It seems that they are still going with his character being affected by grief form the death of Katjaa and Duck, the fact that he seems to have tried to "replace" Katjaa with Sarita, called Clem Duck, etc. He seems to have something similar to PTSD, so that could be an interesting story line.
I'm going to be frustrated if season 2 comes down to picking sides between Kenny and someone else. I like Kenny but seriously, enough with the childish schoolyard bullshit, grow the fuck up mate.
Well, say what you have to say, but the scene that you meet Kenny again was one of the best scenes in this series.
After reading that article I have to agree and disagree in a sense. In a sense yes Telltale could have been using gaming nostalgia, which I have always said is the most powerful bias in gaming and is generally what makes people hate newer games, but that aside nostalgia is a powerful tool, and I can see how telltale could use it. (Warning Incoming cheesy analogy) For example let's say telltale is a restaurant and They serve breakfast(Sam and Max), Lunch(TWAU), Dinner(TWD), and Desert (Monkey Island), so using Dinner let's say they revised there dinner menu to take off an item people really liked, like Chicken nuggets(Kenny), but could easily get back compared to a food item that would be a lot harder to get back like Lion steaks(Lee). So people ask them a lot to bring back the food item, so they do and people are happy. So in this sense one can see why they would do it.
Now onto some points of the article which I'll be quoting.First and foremost " Kenny has started a relationship with a woman named Sarita, a clear stand-in for his dead wife, and he accidentally called Clementine “Duck,” his son’s nickname. Kenny is set up to repeat his tragic cycle with no new twist." Afterwards he states that if they do, do something different with Kenny he would change his opinion. I think the main flaw here is that if Kenny were to repeat the same cycle it would involve Clem dying, just like Duck, which I just don't feel will happen unless Kenny dies first. As well disliking an entire episode based on a prediction on things to happen without actually seeing the actions happen yet, seems kind of brash if you ask me, and not whole-heatedly deserved. As well yes Kenny seems to be replacing his old family, but if you want to tell me Kenny's character is the same I would probably laugh because he's shown himself as a different person.
"Moving on from thematics to the practicality of the plot, his survival cheapens the stakes of the world. His death was presented in a way that made it abundantly clear he was dead, even if we didn’t see him die." Now this is a common complaint. First and foremost I don't see how one man's survival cheapens the stakes, when we quickly observed countless characters die in front of us, just to list a few "Ben, Chuck, Omid, Lee, ect." It would seem to me the stakes are still the same. As well him saying it is clear that Kenny is dead seems kind of ignorant to me, because perspective is everything, because even we may have seen it as a death-trap there could of been a whole used by Kenny to escape. As well clearly this writer never read the comics Cough Tyrese Cough and yes I would say Tyrese was in a worse situation as he was surrounded from all sides with the dead basically at touching point and not only did he survive but he cleared out the entire gym. Now yes the writers could have done more to explain how Kenny escapes which I think they will do slowly, but even if it he did "just get lucky" who's to say that it's impossible to have luck in the apocalypse anymore. Honestly I think it's refreshing to see character that lived based on luck rather than speed or strength, but that may just be me.
"* But in this episode, because of Kenny, the same can’t be said. At one point we have to choose who to sit with at dinner, Luke or Kenny. It’s a choice meant to test my loyalty to either group, but this moment of inner conflict assumes you had a close relationship with Kenny in in the dist season, and you did. Except “you” weren’t Clementine, you were Lee. Kenny and Clem didn’t have a particularly close relationship in the last season. They were a pair as much as anyone else.*" Now this area stuck out to me a lot because In a way I agree and disagree all at once. I agree that it is awkward because we are basing our relationship between Clem and Kenny generally based between our Lee's relationship, but that said it had been 2 years since Clem last saw Kenny a lot may have changed.. As well the entire point of Clem being the main character is so you can sort of see how the apocalypse and you morph her.Yes we have a pre-determined clem personality, but that doesn't mean we have to choose the options that would fit her, in fact me an Kenny were best buds in Season 1, but in season even though I was overjoyed to see Kenny and hugged him, I still sat with Luke, just to show Luke that even though me and Kenny are buds you are still a friend also, and I'm sure Kenny would understand, as well as I was hoping to tell them about Kenny and about how he is a good guy.
Sorry if some of this sounded strange I'm a bit out while writing this but was all together an interesting review and point of view to read.
The writer of the article seems to think Kenny fell off the railing instead of Ben? Maybe a mistake.
I actually felt like Kenny's sacrifice was a form of suicide, so I don't agree it was a proper ending for his character. I think the fact that he lost his family and has 'no reason to live' has much more story potential. Can he move past it? If so, how does he confront the issue? Will he have a mental breakdown? How will his relationship with Clem develop? Theres more to tell in the tale of Kenny, and that's Telltale's specialty.
About he and Clem not knowing each other, they spent months together. I'm sure they interacted a lot more than we saw, and from what we did see, he liked and respected her, praising her resilience and expecting Lee to do right by her. Even if she was indifferent to Kenny, she was close to his family. To me, when you survive together in the Zombie Apocalypse, you are family. For better or worse. I have no issue believing they bonded based on that alone.
Yus. So much emotion
Yeah you're probably right. I wonder if Telltale could have gone about it differently, though.
I believe that we'll be helping Kenny move past what happened to Kat and Duck this Season, and that will serve as the primary arc for his character. As Lee, we never really got to do much to help Kenny aside from the attic a few words here and there. As Clem, I think much of our interaction with Kenny will be helping him deal with what happened and move on, instead of trying to recreate the past.
In my humble opinion, this guy has no clue what he's talking about, and it just provides further evidence that it's absolutely impossible to make everyone happy. He's also making a full assessment on Kenny's character, stating his arc is "finished", without even knowing the full extent of his role in season 2. It's this kind of arrogant presumptuousness that I've heard from a LOT of fans who argued against the idea of Kenny's return. It reached the point where I actually wanted Kenny to come back, just to see them throw a hissy fit.
On top of that, the author of this article is either suffering from selective memory, or just intentionally being ignorant. "He fell from a multi-story building into a sealed off alleyway filled to the brim with zombies, and he didn’t have a weapon."? When did Kenny "fall into" a "sealed off" alleyway? And Kenny DID have a weapon; his gun, which could just as easily function as a club. Hell, depending on what Lee did, Kenny could even have a few extra bullets at his disposal. Kenny's chances of survival were slim, but NOT so astronomical that his return would have been flat-out ridiculous.
I suspect Mr. Dinicola is a GAME OF THRONES fan, judging from how he thinks anything other than the absolute worst-case scenario is "wishful thinking". Well, he'll be in for a treat soon enough, as Telltale is making an official GOT video game. Until then, more than enough fans had their share of unpleasantness in episode 1 with Omid's death, Sam mauling Clementine, and the new cabin group being introduced as a bunch of paranoid assholes who would sooner throw a young girl into a cold shack than tell the difference between a human bite and a dog bite.
Besides, Telltale could easily have knock off Kenny (or force us to choose between him or Luke) in the next episode, so hopefully Mr. Dinicola will have more of what he considers to be "good storytelling", and what most people simply consider "misery porn".
(...and seriously, when did not deciding to let a character die a hideously gruesome death become "nostalgia?" There's something twisted about that.)
Did you pick Lee as lion steaks just because he was
I'm interested in knowing what happened to him between his supposed death and his current appearance. Ken's hiding something about that, and I got a feeling that it's going to give us a fresh look or further development to the character.
Thanks for sharing that article. I completely agree with the writer.
You know Kenny takes the littlest things to heart. He's had that personality since the outbreak, (hell, possibly years). That won't change... UNTIL Clem slaps him. (?)-You slapped some sense into Kenny.
Kenny's arc is finished. The only thing left for him is to die once and for all. And if he doesn't die this season it will be a joke.
-AusZombie Likes this.
I used to like him. Then I noticed some little things that made me hate him. I was willing to forgive him, had he died for Ben. Not only did he not die for him, but he also regretted it. Fuck Kenny. I want to get him killed in a gruesome way. They can't spin this one. They can't say, "Oh no, Sarita will see! oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh." I don't care about Sarita. Not one bit.
Again, making premature assumptions about a character's role when the season isn't even done.
(?) Kenny will remember that.
No I was trying to think of something that I assume is tasty but hard to get. Lol though looking back I can see how it can sound wrong.
i guess he not regret
But..'best' is a personal viewpoint, so stating that you can't deny it's one of the 'best' in response to an article critiquing the nature of the return seems rather redundant and non-sequential, does it not?
Since when is nostalgia a bad thing? And I'm a little confused, Kenny's death was left like that for the intent that Telltale WOULD bring him back. So I don't really understand his point on saying his story was finished. Gavin Hammon himself said that Kenny's death was originally more set-in-stone.
And I honestly have no idea how anyone can think this episode is worse than All That Remains. Some opinions. Man, they're just weird.
Uh... He regretted... Very clearly.
Highly debatable.
Yeah I'm reading this article and all I see is a bunch of frustrated whining.
The author somehow thinks that Kenny is going to experience "his tragic cycle with no new twist" with regard to Sarita and Clementine who will be serving the function of Katja and Duck, so I guess he's arguing Clementine is going to die to service a retread of Kenny's story which is lol as fuck.
He goes on to state that Kenny "fell" into an alley (wrong) with no weapon (again, wrong) with no disclaimer of this scenario being determinant, showcasing he's a huge moralistic shitbird who thinks everyone saved deadweight deadbeat Ben.
Then he somehow thinks that Kenny being alive is a "twist" that turns "the relationship between audience and author into an antagonistic one" and follows that horseshit up with "We ('We'? We're doing Royal We's now? What an asshole) become skeptical of the story we’re consuming, questioning the veracity of everything we see."
Let's break that down since it's a two-parter: First off, motherfucker, go through the LP reactions on Youtube to the moment Kenny shows up. Point out all the one's that you think convey that the audience is experiencing an "antagonistic relationship" with Telltale Games. I don't think Two Best Friends is up yet so I think your final tally will be 0. Secondly almost everybody knows: You don't show a death, they didn't die. The only thing people were "skeptical" of is the idea that Kenny ever died to begin with, especially considering his #1 trait is that he's an unyielding Determinator.
The rest of it is uninteresting projections about how he thinks Clem should feel about Kenny because although the two of them spent months surviving together in the zombie apocalypse the author argues they shouldn't have any kind of relationship whatsoever. This is because in TWD S1, which centered exclusively around Lee as the protagonist in small vignettes relevant to his central story, the game didn't break convention and show Clementine and Kenny hanging out where he tells her all about that one time on the high seas when he beat a wild marlin to death with a 24 pack of Busch.
I have my own opinions of what role Kenny can play in S2 but that's neither here nor there, the author's failure to theorize or guess what it could be is his own.
In summation: faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart.