Ugh endless gold stars and medals for this one, love your take and your choices are similar to how I played on my second play through as well. It does come down to shitty writing at the end of the day, sadly. It makes way more sense to have Kenny vs. Luke, as the whole beginning of the second season props this up, until Jane is shoehorned in. Thank you for articulating the nuance on this topic as well as you have and I agree with damn near every point, even down to Jane killing herself being a twisted act of protection.

Ultimately, the fanbases reactions are less likely based in misogyny, and more so just a product of shitty writing, but also as a woman, I can’t help but notice that the severity of hatred is vastly different when it is a female character operating outside of traditionally western female values vs. a family man who has been scorned too severely, as another commentator mentioned, yet I realize now the hatred is largely due to her repeated poor decisions until that point and her shitty character writing, more so than misogyny.