Telltale's twd season 2, my experience, and Kenny.

Entry #1 26/09/2025

ATTENTION: SPOILERS. If you haven't played this game but you intend to, then I don't recommend that you read any further.

A couple of hours ago I finished playing the second season of Telltale's The walking dead games, and with a face full of tears, I stared thinking and going over my decsions and how the story unfolded, and many questions started growing on my mind, most of them surrounding Kenny's character, whom made me doubt what I was doing and if stadning by him was the right option.

I know that Kenny is a beloved character by the community, and I also really like him and enjoyed his character during season 1, I always supported him as Lee and trusted everything he said, he made me feel so much pain with his family history and everything that happened to them, and I felt deeply for him, even though he is a choleric man with plenty of anger issues, I could understand him, and somewhat feel comforted in his ways.

During this season, even from the first moment we see each other again, I could feel something was different, this Kenny was disturbed, lonely, but more importantly he had built a wall around him, a thick thick wall that no love or violence, not even Clementine, could get through. This is abosultely and completely understandeable, if we consider everything he went through, and it would be illogical for him to remain a caring guy after losing his family the way he did, and Sarita later on, so there's no way to blame him for his behaviour and how he changed. What I believe is a extremely important point of discussion is how did his change affect Clementine and the rest of the group.

First of all, I did not agree with most of Kenny's ideas and actions throughout my gameplay, he has become a dangerous individual, for others and for himself, he gets on fights with everyone who disagrees with him, he puts himself in charge of situations just because, and he believes he has the right to decide who lives or dies. And I agree with the feeling that "he has lost himself" as Clem, Sarita and others mention one way or another. I found Kenny disgusting and annoying since around the time they get to Carver's camp, and I felt like he was not looking towards the survivial of the group and mostly he was being driven by his thirst of vengeance. In season 1, every time we got irrational, Lee would fight him and make him find the way again, but in this season, there's no one who can get at the same level as him, everyone is scared of him, understandably I believe.

I still followed him and protected him when Mike or Jane would badmouth him, and tried to side with him in most fights, believeing that this would help break through the wall. After the baby is born, there is a change in him, the baby truly helped him see other than blood, and I liked that, how protective and sweet he was with the baby, it reminded me of the dad that he was, of the dad that he couldn't be anymore since Duck's death.

The moment were I hated Kenny the most was during episode 5, his violence against Arvo was horrible and I tried to stop him always, it was not necessary, and I do agree that the kid was a piece of shit, but seeing him beaating a child with such violence for mostly petty things (like not listening) was bad. I've also seen discussion online that "well but Arvo turned out to be a problem and he got people killed" or "well but Jane was a liar and a manipulator" and yes those statements are true, but we cannot analyze present situations with what happens in the future, in the moment when the decissions pop up on the screen we cannot see the bigger picture. That's stupid and is detrimental to the gameplay and story. IF I had known that the baby was hidden, IF I had known that Luke would sink on the lake, but we cannot know that, and in the moment given, Kenny was acting irrationally, violently and just being a disgusting guy.

During the last scene I decided to let him kill Jane. After the fact, I started thinking that maybe killing him was the better option seeing how I reacted to his behavior most of the story, but that nostalgia of the Kenny who was a dad, the Kenny who kept Clem and Lee safe, of a Kenny who was damaged and wasn't seeing clearly made me look away. That's how my gameplay ended, he took the kids to Wellington and walked away to God knows where (maybe I'll find out once I play the next season...) and I cried, and it was difficult, and extremely sentimental, and my heart was hurting and it was a beautifully sad scene, I am glad I watched it.

Kenny is a very complex character I think, and like him or not, I think that seeing how a character I did not enjoy most of the season still has such a grip on me says something on how good he is.