My thoughts on Kenny and Luke
I will start off by saying I've always been a fan of Kenny and Luke, they've been some of my favorite characters. I would like to point out some things with both of them i'll start with Kenny
Kenny: He's been a bro to my Lee and has been great to Clem, In Episode 3 he takes a lethal beating for Clem and protects her before that as well and comes up with the plan that helps them escape. During episode 4 of season 2 he was furious with her, but I don't feel I can blame him for being mad, he's lost all of his family and he lost his girlfriend while trying to escape a place he was forced into because of the cabin group. I will say if you picked some dialogue options with him he could be worse but people will say things they don't mean when they lose somebody they love, I can see why he's being protective over the baby as well, He finds a reason to live he already knows Clem doesn't need him so this is his new reason, and because no one else seemed to care about the baby like he did besides Rebecca (but Rebecca's out of the picture so...).
Luke: When he saved Clem in the woods and dropped her I understood why he was scared and thought she was bitten, when Clem was locked in the shed he didn't want to lock her in there and convinced them to check on her earlier than the morning, he fed Clem and went looking for her when Pete, Nick, and Clem were missing, On the bridge when he wanted Clem to go I was skeptical but agreed to it. When he said that she should do the talking as he didn't want to get into a fight and be shot and brought up that he might not shoot a little girl, When shots were fired Luke protected Clem when they were at the Ski Resort and he left I got annoyed and had no idea why but soon thought that he would formulate a plan. When he was at Carvers camp I was relieved as we might have an escape the plan was fine but he was caught trying to get food I can't blame him after all he went through I'd be hungry too. In Episode 4 he made me mad when he said that Mike was just sucking up and needed to prove his worth what has Luke done to prove his worth to the group? (Determinant) He also doesn't care too much when Nick his best friend of 20 years dies and all he says is "Fuck...". When he was supposed to be keeping the group safe he decided to bump uglies with Jane and it nearly cost the group their lives. He got mad at Kenny for getting mad at him but he failed to realize that when he was having fun with Jane everyone else was fighting the walkers off and helping Rebecca get to safety.
I've liked both of the characters since I met them i've noticed that Kenny may not be as mentally stable as he once was but he wasn't screwing over the group for his own desires. Personally I like Kenny over Luke right now but who knows things could change.
Comments
I was really annoyed at Luke, but I don't agree that he's irredeemable as many others have been saying. This episode purposely showed both of our potential "leaders" in a bad light: Kenny with how easy it is to lose his head and how unstable he can be after losing so much, and Luke with how even he is buckling under the pressure and is a little reckless. Personally, I thought the Luke thing was out of character but again, they needed to show us the risks of both of these guys before choosing between them.
I can possibly understand if Luke was upset about Jane leaving because of the whole "always moving" mechanism he has going on. Luke admits that he's cracking under the stress and he was looking for an escape when he took her offer. They've all had to witness and experience a lot of death, and Luke found what he had going with Jane as relief. Saying that, I think that could be why he reacted so strongly to Jane's departure. It had less to do with her and more to do with, "something that may have actually made me happy was just taken away with no warning or explanation". I don't know, just a theory based off what I know of him. I do think his lack of reaction to Nick's death was an inconsistency to his character, and he screwed up majorly this episode, so I'm just trying to understand it from a different perspective. Let's hope he mentions Nick next episode? There's no reason not to since Nick is dead in every game now. Nick, as one of the most developed characters this season, deserves more than what he got this episode.
Kenny's presence brings me nostalgia for S1, so regardless of what happens, I will always feel a little attached to him. He's a great, complex character. He is hotheaded though, and his reaction afterwards scared me. The ominous music playing when Clem tried to talk to him just proved that we were intended to. He's losing it, but I think just as Luke is trying to deal with pain through sex, Kenny is throwing himself into being the baby's new protector to deal with his.
tl;dr : I love both Luke and Kenny still, but we were meant to find it harder to like them this episode.
He could have "Dealt with the Pain" after they were safe instead of putting all of the group at risk and I agree Kenny was kind of scary to talk to after that but anyone would be unstable after losing someone they're really close to piled on with the fact he already lost his wife and son previously and god knows what happened to him during those 16 months, but I do respect your opinion.
Oh, I completely agree that what Luke did was idiotic and reckless. It was just an analysis of his thoughts behind it, and why I don't think Luke is as bad of a person as a lot of people are now saying.
I sympathize with Kenny's situation! We know why he said what he said, but Telltale did these things on purpose to highlight their flaws as people. Luke can be irresponsible while Kenny pretty much lives on extremes (either very happy with you, or just about wants to toss you off a bridge) and is unstable.
I've never been a fan of Kenny to be honest. All of his plans are essentially "let's rush in there!" Gung ho kinda let's roll sorta stuff. I feel for him as a character and all he's gone through but in terms of the game he could have stayed dead in season 1.
Luke... yeah he did something stupid but I can also understand his reasoning too. Trying to put myself in his shoes- it's the end of the world and tomorrow might never come- why not have a bit of fun while you can. Granted it was a bad time and all but I think a lot of us might have gone that route if given the chance.
I agree that there is a possibility that something could happen to you and he wanted to get some but they would have been able to help secure the place a lot better and faster than how it happened and I personally would have told Jane "I need to look out for walkers, but when we're all safe I'll gladly get it on." (Kind of different than how I would say it but you get the point.) I'm having fun discussing this I like to see everyone's different views
I mean I'm not excusing him at all for doing it when he did it- pretty bad timing obviously but I just don't think it's unrealistic. In that time and place, with all that's happened, and a good looking woman's all "hey Luke, quickie?" lol I'd like to think I'd have more sense but hey... it's the apocalypse baby.