I just finished up Episode 5, and was blown away. The story was fantastic, and those characters are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. Because of that, when any of them died it always felt like a punch to the gut.

I was thinking back, and for me, Carly's death was still the most profoundly affecting. I never saw it coming, immediately went "what the fuck," and had to pause the game to let it sink in.

Ben had a similar effect on me in Episode 5 with his redemptive arc (him telling Kenny off was one of my favorite scenes of the entire series). I really did want to save him; but am glad he went out without pain (seemingly, unless Kenny just offed himself instead).

I'm also curious how you guys felt if you chose to shoot Lee (I left him handcuffed)

Has to be Lee. Unfortunately Carley's death was spoiled for me so I saw it coming, and besides that... man, that ending scene is just so heartbreaking - I chose to have Clem shoot me btw. Every piece of dialogue between Lee and Clem chipped away at me and it's the one scene that finally broke me down and brought out a tear or two. Duck's was really rough as well and I, as many others did no doubt, just kinda stared at the screen for a little while when it came to me to pull the trigger.

Depends on what you mean by best. The one that affected me the most and left the biggest pit in my soul was definitely Duck. The whole fact that he kept wanting to help, and I let him be my sidekick in the investigation just made it a million times harder to kill him.

Carly is still the most shocking and was probably the biggest WTF moment of the series. Lee's death had me in tears though, that whole scene was heartbreaking.

Game of the fucking year.

Larry. Definitely. That was messed up.

Ben had the best death because I killed that clumsy fuck.

The guy on the barn I killed with the pitch fork infront of everyone was the most "FUCK YEAH IM THE BOSS"

Clementine getting crushed by the bookcase was the most shocking.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

Clementine getting crushed by the bookcase was the most shocking.

Wait, what, when was this?

My save file after the game crashed... Fuck.

Carley's was shocking, but Lee's fucking ruined me.

1. Lee, I think it's pretty obvious why.
2. Larry, because that shit came out of nowhere.
3. Doug getting shot by Lilly. Yeah, I saved Doug, deal with me.

Lee's was heartbreaking, probably one of the most emotional deaths I've seen in a game. I chose to cut off his arm too so he was a total wreck by the time Clementine pulled the trigger. Such a well put together ending, was worried if it would all tie together by the end of the 4th episode, but it pulled itself back really well. Interested to see what they do with a second season.

Also i agree with Larrys death, that whole episode was a what the fuck for me. Really dark thematically, but i think it worked well.

@BeachThunder said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

Clementine getting crushed by the bookcase was the most shocking.

Wait, what, when was this?

One of the fail states in the last scene

Carley had the biggest impact because It all happend so fast and I was like wait hold on a minute. But Lee's was the most heart wrenching, where Carleys made me feel angry Lee's just made me cry.

Kenny's was rough for me. I never liked him, and the last thing I chose was to call him a bastard. Then he died, and for how he sacrificed himself just hit me the most. I was like "I should have been nicer to Kenny, now he's gone. Damn." It kind of makes you think about how you perceive people.

@notdavid said:

Carley's was shocking, but Lee's fucking ruined me.

Pretty much this for me.

I was so pissed off and stunned by Carly's death, but Lee's death left me as an emotional fucking wreck. It's been a long time since I cried that much at anything. I also figure I should say that Lee's death was something I accepted at the end of Episode 4, but what really got me was Lee having to say goodbye.

Seeing Katjaa dead was a huge Holy F#$% moment. My jaw was wide open when that happened.

Lee, for the obvious reasons. 
 
Larry was really great due to the tension in that scene, and Carley's was great because it really makes it seem like your decision to save her would have a much larger effect than you thought.

1) Larry - I guess this only applies when you try to save him, camera zoomed in and out of nowhere splat. Obviously he was written as the character to dislike but really how different was his 'protect family' mindset than Kenny. It was the first verbal "What the fuck?!" the game got from me and turned me off Kenny almost instantly. It set up the heated interactions I had with him the rest of the game until...

2) Kenny - Again this only applies if you saved Ben in Ep4. Seeing Ben finally stand up for himself and having the group rally around what was left it was goddamn tragic see first Ben fall, then the sudden inevitability of what needed to be done. I honestly though Kenny would put one in Ben's head to spare him and leave it at that, him shutting the gate and standing against the whole hoard before offing himself was the only time I let the conversation timer run out cause I literally had no words. At the end of the day I still dislike Kenny but he really didn't give up on his family or friends in any situation.

3) Carley/Doug - The hasty back and forth shouting, desperately trying to diffuse the situation standing outside the RV. I guess I didn't see it coming since I'd mostly supported Lily and she seemed mostly with it despite what had happened. Again it flipped a switch instantly and although I didn't have the hate to leave her on the side of the road I did outright refuse her offer to drive away together.

Special Mention, Lee - Once he was bitten I knew exactly how it would turn out, but they really did an excellent job with the whole scene. When it came to it I really contemplated not having Clem shoot Lee but I stuck to it. Hopefully when the next season comes around (Ugh, those fuckers and that post-credit scene =P) some of the difficult decisions might have an effect.

I'm gonna go with Kenny because I fucking hate Kenny and was happy to know he died.

The stranger who kidnaps Clementine because he's the only one in the series I wanted to kill so bad, and his death is made even better when Clem kills him for me.

If we're talking crew members, it's definitely Carley. Not only did I like the character a lot, but her death came out of nowhere. I had to pause the game for a while to gather my thoughts when it happened.

I'm still reeling. I just finished up Ep. 5, and that was profound. There goes my entire day's happy thoughts.

Maybe it's because it's so fresh, but it has to be Lee's because of the giant, wider implications. Clem's on her own, knowing that all of the people she cared for, bar Christa and Omid, are dead; there's no-one around to protect her in the really bad situations; she's most likely traumatised, and will be shit-scared of everything; also, she's still only a kid, barely nine.

Fuck, man...

People have mentioned the obvious ones but I want to give a special mention to the finale of the farm. I chose to just walk away. I wanted to be the bigger person and not want Clem to see Lee act in such a way. The episode really showed you just how fucked up humanity can be but in the end karma came around and he ended up being attacked by the zombies and his family.

For me it was definitely Ben. Not because I was happy he died, but it hit the perfect emotional strings for me. He was so ready to redeem himself and prove himself to you and in the end he never got to do it. And regardless of how harsh a lot of people wanted to be on him, he was just a kid who never got to see his family again.

Larry's death, since it was before I realised that the game wasn't actually giving you any choices, so I honestly didn't see it coming, then squish :s

Kinda socks that most of the choices boil down to 'kill this person or let them live', and the only two times it doesn't have someone else kill them immediately after you pick 'live', they die in a following episode. Spoilt Doug and Bens death for me.

@project343 said:

@notdavid said:

Carley's was shocking, but Lee's fucking ruined me.

Pretty much this for me.

I was so pissed off and stunned by Carly's death, but Lee's death left me as an emotional fucking wreck. It's been a long time since I cried that much at anything. I also figure I should say that Lee's death was something I accepted at the end of Episode 4, but what really got me was Lee having to say goodbye.

This for me. I pretty much knew he was going to die, but it didn't make it any less goddamn heartbreaking. I chose to have Clem leave Lee, the last thing that girl needed was to shoot her 'guardian'

When I dropped Ben in the clock tower, straight after it was a 'SHIT SHIT NO WHY DID I DO THAT' moment.

Ben and Kenny dying together hit me the hardest. Doug hits a close second though.

I thought Chuck's death was the worst. I was all set to have Charlie the hobo on my zombie survival squad, then Lee found him in the sewers and was all "Well, I guess that happened". I kind of even forgot he was a character, what with the lack of importance they placed on his passing.

Carley's death was the biggest shock, and in a way upset me the most (I was prepared for Lee's). When Lily grabbed her gun I literally screamed "nooooooooooo!!" at the television.

Ben because I made my decision and now I regret that decision, no one deserves to die especially when it is my choice (don't regret the cannibals thought)

Kenny only because he redeemed himself in my eyes. Thought he was a fucking terrible character and hated how he was the one you are stuck with in every episode, but sacrificing himself was a brave move and I pour one out for him.

Lilli's dad and Carly were biggest shock deaths for me. Both were just out of nowhere. I guess it could depend on what way you were going about it for Lilli's dad, but I was trying to talk Kenny out of killing him. So Lilli and I were giving him CPR and after the 5th pump to his chest, his jaw moved a little bit, but before you could even process it... BAM. Cinderblock dropped on his head.

Lee. I feel like I went through a lot with him. And to have him go the way he did, protecting Clementine, was just heart swelling. That look in his eyes when Clementine has the gun in her hands, like he was relieved that it was all over... He deserved his rest.

R.I.P. Lee

Carly will remember that.

Carly will remember what you said.

Carly is fucking shot in the face what the fuck!?

Carley's really messed with me. One minute she's there giving advise, defending Ben, the next she's just fucking dead. Ugh.

Lee's wasn't particularly sad. The sad part there was Clementine being sad. :(

@mrcraggle said:

People have mentioned the obvious ones but I want to give a special mention to the finale of the farm. I chose to just walk away. I wanted to be the bigger person and not want Clem to see Lee act in such a way. The episode really showed you just how fucked up humanity can be but in the end karma came around and he ended up being attacked by the zombies and his family.

There's that one line at the end of episode 2, where one of the brothers says "what the FUCK did you do LEE?!" and the delivery on it is perfect. For a moment it made me think I was somehow the bad guy for coming in and fucking with these people's lives.

I did shoot him though. Figured I'd end it all rather than let him suffer at the hands of the horde. But man, that episode was the one that made me realize this shit wasn't going to be like anything else.

@IAmADwagon said:

1. Lee, I think it's pretty obvious why.
2. Larry, because that shit came out of nowhere.
3. Doug getting shot by Lilly. Yeah, I saved Doug, deal with me.

I saved Doug in Ep.1 too man... and the people who didn't will never understand our pain when he was so tragically ripped away from us :'(

RIP Doug, your weirdness will forever live on.

The zombie in episode 4 after who pops up when you go back to get the tape from the doctor. The sound the TV made when it hit him was hilarious.

I think in the realm of who's death was the most fucked up- Mark's has to be pretty high up on that list (for me anyways). Dude got his damn legs chopped off, was left on the bathroom floor to bleed to death, and then have his friend eat him unknowingly...Like lets be honest- freaking mortifying...

@Velamo05: Maybe people blocked Mark out of their minds, because that was so damn terrible. Mark - always remember!

Also, you guys are crazy. Clearly Ben and Kenny lived.

Lee definitely. There were others that were more shocking, more animated, or more cleverly devised. But Lee's is the most important for sure, caps the whole thing off perfectly and sends the story to its wrenching conclusion. Got to be Lee.

I'm going to have to go with both Larry and Carley. Both those deaths were so sudden and ruined both Kenny and Lily for me. To the point where I don't think I could even replay the game because they don't have the option to answer "Fuck You!" to the both of them for the entire game.

With Lee you got a whole episode and a whole month to deal with his death plus I feel like he did his job by the end. So he's third.

I dont see Chuck getting a lot of love which is a damn shame because he could have been an awesome character and is just completly forgotten by everybody else.Maybe im looking too much into this,but is it Telltale telling us tha tno one gives a damn sbout the homeless even in the zombie apocalypse.

Carley's death sort of came out of nowhere and mind went completely blank, I felt so terrible.

Games are supposed to be fun, these past few days have felt like hell to me, going through all the episodes in under 4 days. Probably GOTY none the less.

Probably Carley's, just due to the fact that my whole thought process in my decisions changed after this death. Before that, I was always trying to be a mediator between Kenny and Lilly, and never really taking sides, which somewhat bites me in the ass with Kenny in the later episodes, and after Lilly killed Carley, my whole thought dynamic changed immediately. I didn't let Lilly in the RV right off the bat without second thinking about it, and spent the rest of my time trying to get on Kenny's good side, especially later when Duck and Katya die.

I know it seems like forever ago, but I haven't seen it mentioned yet....

When Lee has to kill his brother, that was a really early moment in the series that set a precedent about how emotionally attached to his game I would become, and how well it writes its characters.

It wasn't the best (Carly or Ben), but it deserves to be mentioned in this thread.

Like a lot of people, I was blown away by Carley's death. (No pun intended). Before that, the Larry thing really shocked me as well, but not nearly the level of Carly.

I'm also surprised how many people hated Kenny. The guy could be a hard ass, and the Larry situation was messed up, but he was there for you more often than not.

Lee's affected me the most, but Carly's death was the most shocking.

Probably Lee's. It was clear he wasn't going to make at the end of episode 4, but I didn't expect it to be so affecting.

I agree that Carley's death was the most shocking though. Especially after it looked like there was something cooking between her and Lee.

@notdavid said:

Carley's was shocking, but Lee's fucking ruined me.

I liked Ben's death. It meant a lot for him and Kenny.

@Viking_Funeral said:

… I'm also surprised how many people hated Kenny. The guy could be a hard ass, and the Larry situation was messed up, but he was there for you more often than not.

I agree so much! Kenny gets so much shit, but I always stuck by him. He's not the sort of person I would like much in real life, but in a survival situation I looked at Kenny as exactly the sort of person that you need on your side. Despite the pragmatic reasons I sided with him in the beginning, by the early-middle of the game I was totally on Team Kenny. I even held Lily back while he killed Larry. I killed Ben, primarily to protect Clem, but also to protect my relationship with Kenny. I understand why people wouldn't like him, but we were pretty tight right through to the end.