Be Excellent To Each Other

Goddammit, Doug Kenny is such an obnoxious fucking asshole. He's an aggressive, moaning, self-centred, cowardly cunt and the only reason I've kept the relationship with him sweet is because he's really the only original character left and I might need him. At almost every turn I've gone along with his plans and often been the one solving our problems to make sure we survive only to get, at best, slight temporary reductions in bullshit hostility from him. So the one time I need him to help me look for Clem and all I get is him casting up the few occasions I remained on the fence rather than backing his bullshit to the hilt. Not only that but he hysterically over-exaggerated it as if I'd somehow massively betrayed him multiple times in the past when really that's nothing like what happened. Given that I'm soon to be dead anyway it was satisfying as hell to chew him out in front of everyone else and I'm actually glad he fucked off in the huff. Hopefully I'll get a chance later on to make sure he gets fucking eaten by a zombie, the prick. It's a compliment to Teltalle's writing that I've managed to build up such resentment for a fictional character, though I think they have often over-egged his behaviour the point where it seemed unlikely he'd actually be such a dick if he was a real person.

Chose her to do what? She gets shot pretty early on no matter what you do.

So, yeah, Kenny. What a dick. He'd get some attitude on him and, yes, he was overly aggressive towards people in the group and threatened to tear up the goodwill you strive for throughout and, yes again, the whole reason for the cross country trip is so we can "live on a boat" with him at the helm. He was instrumental in pushing his own agenda onto you. Yet, I could never bring myself to be too hard on him since he lost his boy and his wife in fairly quick succession. He always seemed to calm down if you reasoned with him with a sympathetic ear. What really wound me up though was the beef between him and the teenager you save in episode 2. This kid lost everything so you'd think Kenny would emphasise with him the most but Kenny is constantly chewing him out which put me in a strange predicament as I want to protect the kid from Kenny but I want Kenny onside as he was my closest friend from the start of the outbreak. Kenny smashed a brick on that blokes head when I couldn't do it.

But I had mixed feelings about Kenny cause he was either an alcoholic before the outbreak or had struggled with booze as it was too easy for him to turn to the bottle after losing everything, which I couldn't condone; which I saw as a weakness in him that I couldn't control.

He had his problems but I always knew he'd be alright in the end if I just nudged him here and there in the right direction.

Funny thing is, I can read all that into my playthrough. I agree the writing was occasionally heavy handed but I can care so much to even form that opinion over the character is pretty awesome to me.

The only time i remember Kenny the videogame character feeling like a videogame character was when he was sat on that pissing train but wouldn't move to the side so I could read the fucking map he was sat in front of. That was ridiculous.

I'd probably have been more sympathetic to Kenny if he hadn't been an utter fucking arsehole from well before the point he lost his family. Even at the motel camp his constant fighting with what's her name and angry threats to leave if everyone didn't do what he wanted really undermined any attempt to not think he was a dick. In any given situation if there was a compromise to consider or a group decision to be made you could guarantee Kenny would be there angrily demanding that everyone do what he want and calling anyone who disagreed a bunch of idiots no matter how many times you sided with him or treated him kindly. Even after you killed his kid to spare him the ordeal--and then did it again with the kid walker in the attic--he was always just surly, aggressive and insulting. Hell, the one thing he ever did that I agreed with was to treat the teenage kid badly because he was a useless prick as well. He'd continually whine about being left out but every time you did give him a job to do he'd fuck it up then avoid taking responsibility. And that's not even considering the fact that his being a lying prick was a massive factor in the death of the one decent character in the whole game (i.e Carley). When the time came to save or drop him I didn't hesitate to drop him even though I wouldn't do that to any of the other characters. An act that, despite Kenny urging me to do it, he still used as a stick to beat me with in a later conversation because even doing what he wants doesn't save you from his bullshit. The cunt.