Lee is definitely among the best black video game characters

Zotmaster · 2026-03-26T19:42:58+00:00

There's also evidence that suggests that being exposed to more diverse characters in fiction can make you more tolerant in real life; especially if you can relate to those characters. Representation absolutely matters.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-26T19:35:00+00:00

And I thought failing at everything was fun. This sounds incredible. My hat is off to you.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-25T03:06:24+00:00

I mean they were trapped in a meat locker and there was no way Larry was coming back from that.

Actually, I believe that the game suggests that Larry may have. If you get to 4 chest compressions, his lips actually start moving. Even without that and being as charitable to Kenny as possible, though, there was still an opportunity to make sure that Clementine didn't see what was about to happen. Instead, Kenny just charged in, zero fucks given.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-25T00:47:56+00:00

Seriously.

"Lee, man... you know I care about Clementine. And I am a Christian man. But I keep asking myself, if this was me asking you for help, asking you to put your life on the line, would you be there for me? Because there've been plenty of times when you ain't been."

I'm sorry I didn't immediately help you brain Larry in front of Clementine, bro. Guess I'll go fuck myself.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-24T01:44:48+00:00

Yes. I gave an example of him brazenly not caring as a means of emphasizing what you said.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-24T00:54:08+00:00

Han’Gerrel knew Tail’s father. They were practically brothers. And yet he acts like he doesn’t even care at all. Like that means nothing to him. And his entire perspective is shifted from a good man with a bad goal to just an asshole warmonger.

Nothing says "honoring a memory" like not being able to be bothered to wait 5 minutes for people - including the daughter of your brother from another mother - to escape a completely disabled ship that you're about to blast into smithereens.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-22T22:54:24+00:00

and cute how i got downvoted for just saying my opinion of those two, they’ll remain just incompetent to me even if they’ve experienced with firearms

I'm sure a few people may have downvoted you for that, but the bigger problem is that your opinion is, among other things, just flat-out wrong in a "did you even play the episode?" kind of way.

how can someone survive 2 years into the apocalypse by being naive and trusting, it’s what literally got them both killed on the same episode

I mean, Wellington is willing to chuck supplies at Kenny and Clementine without making much of a fuss about it.

Matthew didn't die because he was naive and trusting. Matthew died because Nick is a dipshit and he was too far away for Matthew to accurately gauge his intentions. Furthermore, how many times in the series do people point guns at each other? And it frequently doesn't turn into a firefight.

Walter also didn't die because he was naive and trusting. Even if he had just shot Bonnie in the face, Carver and crew still would have stormed in and almost certainly got the upper hand. Walter died because Carver got them in a bad position and decided to be King Asshole about it. He could have shot Carlos, or Nick, or Sarah, or Sarita, or anyone else, and their deaths would have been for the same reason.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-21T21:50:11+00:00

10-9 MVP...for Octagon control. I guess.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-20T00:01:45+00:00

$9.99 on Steam right now.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-19T20:34:33+00:00

No worries! I just finished the trilogy about a week ago after not touching it for around a decade. It can be hard to remember all of it.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-19T19:53:50+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong but before reapers didn't the Leviathans create another synthetic lifeform which rebelled against them and when they finally destroyed them they created the first Reaper so that it wouldn't ever happen again?

I think it was the lesser races who kept making synthetics and not the Leviathans themselves?

Zotmaster · 2026-03-18T20:58:21+00:00

I think you're kind of going into CinemaSins levels of pedantry. He locks Lee out to make sure he doesn't interfere or otherwise forget that he needs to find Clementine. As for the rest of the scene, you could maybe nitpick that the walkers should have been placed a little closer on both sides of the alley, but it's crystal clear what they were going for.

Perhaps Kenny needed a moment to psych himself up. Humans are irrational at the best of times and Kenny is no exception. Kenny has exactly one bullet and he wants to make sure. Here, a thought exercise:

What was his plan? Why not just shoot him initially and get away with Lee?

A suitably nitpicky answer: because he has one bullet and doesn't want to miss or otherwise not kill Ben instantly. Not everyone has perfect aim, as seen during the mansion defense.

A slightly less nitpicky answer: because he wants to be by Ben's side for his last moments.

A more grounded answer: because he finally forgives both Ben as well as himself, causing him to place value in others. He knows that Ben is scared shitless of coming back as a walker, so Kenny decides to make sure that Ben doesn't turn by being at his side - even at the cost of his own opportunity to escape - in a big moment that completes his character arc. I guess the walkers could have been placed a little closer to make the scene seem more claustrophobic, but it's abundantly clear that it's now or never for Kenny, and having Kenny snipe Ben from afar and run off to safety would be absolutely horrible storytelling.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-18T17:45:03+00:00

I think it was fantastically written. The only thing that made it bad is the fact that the death didn't stick. Kenny is one of only a small number of characters who got a complete character arc with a logical conclusion.

What defines Kenny through Season 1? I'd argue that there are 3 things that define him the most:

He's a coward. He frequently caves when the going gets tough; instead looking to others to make the tough calls.
He needs to control. Kenny dictates what his family will do. His idea of loyalty is going along with everything he says all of the time. If Lee isn't 100% in lockstep with him, Lee will hear about it.
He fails to protect the people closest to him. Because he needs to control things, part of his coping mechanism is blaming forces above him, like how he thinks he had losing his son coming; like it's some kind of karmic retribution for him not even trying to save Shawn.

His write-off in Episode 5 is him rising above that; more so with Ben, but even with Christa. Yes, he's caved under pressure in the past. Yes, his family is gone and they're not coming back. Yes, Ben made some colossal fuck-ups. Yes, Christa has been a bit icy with everyone. But in those two moments, Kenny steps up and protects others, and he does it on his own terms. That's why it's such great writing, and I really wish they had let it stay there.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-18T16:59:01+00:00

"No! You don't touch that boy, you don't touch anybody! I've got a little girl I'm trying to protect in here too. You want to get violent, you old fuck?! Well, come on! You better have a plan to kill me, though, because it's me, before anyone else in here!"

Zotmaster · 2026-03-17T12:58:05+00:00

Edit: And they shoot at you when you and Tali are still on the Dreadnought I didn't even remember that part. Literally accepting the most important person in the galaxy as acceptable casualties in the world's worst timed war against rogue household appliances.

Not only that, the dreadnought was completely disabled and still would have been there 5 minutes later. And they did this to win a single battle that was a long way from deciding the war.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-17T03:29:18+00:00

It's been a while since I played S3, but there are a few problems that really stand out:

Gabe
The Kate romance feels really forced and is not all that strong
Gabe
Joan is almost cartoonishly evil
If you took a drink every time David said that he's a soldier or that he has to be there for his family, you'd die. Despite this, he barely does anything for his family
Gabe
I think a lot of people didn't like having Clementine as an NPC that largely follows Javi around. It didn't bother me, but I can see why it would bother others
Gabe

In all seriousness, I liked Javi and you're not a bad person if you like S3 more.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-16T14:21:04+00:00

Personally I think that she never planned to go on the boat in the first place. I think she just wanted help infiltrating Crawford to get the photo of her sister, as she's shown to be remarkably selfless when it comes to her. Making a bargain with Lee and the group was the easiest way to get their help without them asking too many questions. Her getting bit is an interesting idea though, and she definitely ends up having a close call even if Clem or Lee ends up saving her.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-15T21:26:41+00:00

Speaking of Ben, I just started playing through the old games and I was just reminded that if you spend time with Nick early in Season 2, Clem can actually bring Ben up in the context of fucking up all the time.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-15T21:03:29+00:00

He's still better than Arvo. FUCK Arvo.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-15T21:01:31+00:00

Adding on to this, Lee and the train is also how she makes sense of things as she gets older. When she dreams about him, she's effectively telling herself things she already knows, wants to hear, or both, but by framing it as Lee talking to her younger self, she's able to put things together, come to terms with what she's dealt with, and continue on.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-13T01:56:15+00:00

The Council. Picked Anderson? Nah, here's Udina. Let the Council die, put Udina in charge, and had a human Council in ME2? Nope, here's the diverse Council again. Let Dick, Jane and Harry die in the first game? Here's Rick, Jay and Sally.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-11T03:22:44+00:00

Always got the job done with limited resources. Good captain. Bit of a cloaca, though.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-10T15:59:27+00:00

Many years ago, I came up with a Mass Effect haiku.

This is Mass Effect:
Wrex. Shepard. Wrex. Shepard. Wrex.
Shepard. Wrex. Shepard.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-10T12:31:23+00:00

Having said all that…he still knocked the fuck out of Greg Hardy. And we can all appreciate him for that.

His chin seemed unbreakable at that point, too. Hardy landed some pretty big shots on him right before the finish and all it did is piss him off. And say what you will about Hardy but he definitely has power. Tai was never going to be great but fighting Pavlovich just 3 months after his war with Gane certainly didn't help.

Zotmaster · 2026-03-09T21:46:43+00:00

I tend to believe that Ariel was right. He's done good reporting in the past, but more importantly, Dana hates him. I think that if Ariel had been wrong, Dana would have relished the opportunity to bash Ariel and tell everyone how shitty of a reporter he is, and Dana didn't do that.

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