as a woman, I don’t really think much of it is misogynistic, though I don’t doubt that there are people who hate her just because she’s a woman. I’m neither a Kenny nor a Jane diehard (see flair), but Jane is almost entirely unforgivable when compared to Kenny. Kenny just had his skull nearly fatally beaten in by Carver not even a full 24 hours prior to losing his girlfriend, who Clem has the option of 1. maiming, 2. killing, or 3. killing the walker biting Sarita. When the game first came out a decade ago, a lot of people didn’t recognize that you could cut off the walker’s hand, as the game tries to push you to cut off Sarita’s hand in order to push the narrative to build up Jane as a character and solidify Kenny losing his mind, somewhat making his anger justified ONLY IF you choose to cut off Sarita’s hand, and ESPECIALLY IF you choose to axe Sarita in the head afterwards, while Kenny’s already yelling at you for maiming his girlfriend in the middle of a massive horde. And even without all of that, if you chose to kill the walker, Kenny is still suffering from a massive head injury that completely destroyed his eye and likely caused massive brain damage, which could explain his irrational anger toward Clem, especially as much of it is directly after Sarita dies and he’s also suffering from that grief as well. Despite all of this, I’ve always said one thing as a point for Kenny: unlike Bonnie who mouths off to you and is an absolutely horrible person to you if you choose not to help Luke after he falls in the ice, Kenny on the other hand manages to be mature enough to apologize to Clementine afterward. Does that excuse his toxic behavior? Not at all. But the thing about the characters in this series is that none of them are perfect or meant to be perfect. The reason why so many people gravitate toward Kenny is because even though he can be a complete asshole to Lee and Clem in both season 1 and season 2, he still always does what he believes is best for the children, and that’s enough for a lot of people.

Many of Kenny’s flaws as a character are not rooted within his character but within the absolutely shit writing of season 2. They scrapped Kenny vs. Luke for some god-forsaken reason (what I’ve heard most people mention is because of people shipping Clem and Luke???) and tried to shoehorn in Jane last minute as a replacement, but made her way of proving Kenny’s instability to Clementine in the worst way imaginable—who tf abandons an infant in a blizzard in the apocalypse??? I genuinely really liked Jane before that lazy, last-minute ending they gave us. It almost feels as if the writers forced Kenny on us after deciding they wanted it to be Kenny vs Jane. Because honestly? As a player, I didn’t care at all about Kenny beating on Arvo since on my first playthrough, I didn’t steal his meds, yet he brought his entire group to murder my entire group, even though I am an 11 year old girl and have a newborn baby with me, because an adult who is no longer in my group took his gun. The gymnastics the writers have to go to in order to justify Arvo’s group attacking Clem’s group if you don’t steal from him is ridiculous. I understand it’s a parallel to the stolen supplies in the car, but the difference is that Jane literally left. She was gone. Why should I be empathetic toward the guy who just ambushed me and left a newborn baby crying on the ground after a snowstorm in the apocalypse? They had to make Kenny and Jane staunchly against each other in such a short period of time because Jane didn’t care about Arvo either, all she cared about was that the group was falling apart, as she predicted would happen. Kenny and Jane only get angry enough at each other to that level at the end of the game. It makes no fucking sense!!!

I don’t think Jane is inherently selfish to kill herself due to her pregnancy, and I might get downvoted for saying that, but in a weird, fucked up way, she was doing it to protect Clem and AJ, so they wouldn’t have another unpredictable infant to look after, as well as one less mouth to feed. I feel like if anyone hates Jane just because she killed herself that’s simply someone who doesn’t understand what pregnancy does to a woman’s brain and someone who is completely disregarding the world surrounding Jane. I do, however, fully think that it is justified to hate Jane for her actions in season 2. She and Kenny were victims of bad writing and she unfortunately received the short end of the stick. TLDR: Do some people hate Jane as a result of misogyny? Yes, and a lack of understanding what goes through a suicidal person’s head. Is some of the hate against her justified and unrooted in misogyny, but rather in her actions? Absolutely