Lee Everett

Lee Everett
The Walking Dead character
Lee Everett, as depicted in The Walking Dead
First game	"A New Day"
Voiced by	Dave Fennoy

Lee Everett is a video game character whose first and only role has been as the main character in the 2012 video game The Walking Dead. He is voiced by Dave Fennoy, and is written by several people, including Gary Whitta. He is tasked with protecting a girl named Clementine in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, and groups with several other characters, including Kenny, Lilly, and Ben. He was created with the purpose of making him feel like a real person, and with a strong emphasis on him being a parental figure to Clementine. He received positive reception for his role in the game, specifically Fennoy's voice work and the writing. Fennoy was nominated for "best performance by a human male" by Spike TV.

Concept and creation

Lee appeared in the 2012 episodic video game The Walking Dead as the protagonist and playable character. He is voiced by Dave Fennoy, and was written by multiple people, including Gary Whitta in the fourth episode.^[1] Fennoy received an audition in the email, and after completing it, he received a call confirming that he got the role. The audition asked for actors to portray him in a "very real" fashion, which is a part of Lee's design that attracted Fennoy. He called Lee "complicated", due to his criminal history, his concern for keeping Clementine safe, and the fact that he associates with people that he may not have had it not been for the zombie outbreak. He added that him having a child of his own helped him relate to Lee and Clementine's relationship.^[2] Whitta described their relationship as "emotionally authentic".^[1] Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale Games, compared Lee to Rick Grimes, the protagonist of The Walking Dead comics and TV series. He called him both tough and smart, while also caring. He also called him a "reflection of the player's choices".^[3] Telltale designer and writer Harrison G. Pink commented that it was important to make everything Lee would say believable, and that Lee is a "human being" with "real needs and real fears and real desires". While they wanted to allow players to choose what Lee says, all options are things that Lee would realistically say.^[4]

Appearances

The Walking Dead video game

Lee is introduced as the player-protagonist of The Walking Dead video game. Through the game, the player learns that he was a professor of history at the University of Georgia, but one day came home to find his wife sleeping with another man, a state senator, and in a fit of rage, killed him; he is subsequently tried and sentenced to prison for murder, long since coming to regret his actions.

The onset of the zombie apocalypse occurs as Lee is being taken to prison; a car accident allows him to escape but quickly realizes the dire situation. He takes shelter in a nearby suburban home, where he finds young Clementine who has been hiding from the zombies as her parents had left for Savannah some time before the apocalypse. Recognizing that Clementine would remain in danger, he offers to take and protect her, hoping that they will be able to find her parents. Lee and Clementine eventually meet with other survivors, and form a small group, though Lee remains subdued about his history. After discovering the fate of his own family in Macon, Lee takes on more of a role of a father-figure to Clementine.

After having holed up in a motel for three months with dwindling supplies, the group meet the St. John family who run a local dairy. Lee and a few others go to inspect the dairy and try to decide whether they can trust the St. Johns, however conflict arises and the dairy is rendered useless when the electric fence protecting it loses power and the place is overrun.

Soon after, the group is forced to flee and eventually start heading to Savannah via a train. En route, Lee starts to help Clementine learn survival skills such as how to use a gun. As they near the city, Clementine's walkie-talkie goes off, revealing a man that knows of Lee's actions to this point and promises Clementine that she will be safe once he deals with Lee.

In Savannah, the survivors look for a boat and supplies to flee the mainland. They encounter another group of survivors led by Vernon, a doctor. With Vernon's help, they are able to prepare the boat for their journey; before Vernon leaves them, he warns Lee that he does not think he is a fit person to be Clementine's guardian, and offers to take the child, but this doesn't take place. The next morning, Lee wakes to find Clementine gone, and while searching nearby, is bitten by a zombie. With what little time he has, Lee and the other survivors agree to look for Clementine, at first believing her to have been taken by Vernon. Instead, the man on the walkie-talkie reveals he has taken Clementine, and tells her she will be safe at the hotel that her parents would have been at. After briefly passing out in the now-abandoned safehouse of Vernon's group, Lee is given the option of amputating his bitten arm. Either way, Lee and the group are able to escape from the hospital where they make their way back to the house, but find that the boat has been stolen by Vernon's group. Shortly after the house is overrun with walkers but the group escape into the attic, where they eventually find a way out. While making their way to the hotel, Lee is separated from the others and promises to meet them later on with Clementine. Barely hanging onto consciousness, Lee makes it to the hotel, and finds the man; the man explains that Lee's group had previously taken provisions from his family's car, and ultimately leading to the death of his wife and children, and goes to question Lee's other decisions and, regardless of whether or not Lee had helped in taking the provisions from the car, ultimately berates him and plans to punish him and look after Clementine as his own. When the man is shown as insane, talking to his wife's severed head in a bag, Lee gets Clementine's help to subdue the man and either kills him by choking him to death or being shot in the head by Clementine afer Lee is almost killed. They make it out of the hotel where they see Clementine's parents as zombies before Lee passes out.

When Lee wakes, he is out of strength and barely able to keep conscious, but finds Clementine has dragged him to safety. With his time short, Lee helps Clementine secure keys and a gun to escape to the rooftops, and instructs her to find the other survivors. The player has the option of having Lee ask Clementine to shoot and kill him before he turns, or to flee before his transformation.

Reception

IGN's Colin Campbell wrote an article detailing why Lee "really matters". He explains that the reason why the game is so good is because Lee has a lot of great qualities, such as being nice and modest about his abilities. He goes on to describe him as an "everyman".^[5] Fellow IGN writer Greg Miller also cited Lee for why he enjoys the game; he wrote that he felt he was actually involved in Lee's development.^[6] Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton writes that he is more interested in seeing Lee grow than Rick Grimes, the protagonist of The Walking Dead comics and TV series.^[7] Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker wrote that Lee was a standard character in zombie fiction, but that it was unusual for that kind of character to be the protagonist. He went on to say that it was unfortunate that a black protagonist in a video game had to be a convicted felon.^[8] The Daily Telegraph's Emily Richardson praised the characters in the game; she wrote that they drove the story, and cited Lee and his "mysterious and complex" character design as a notable example.^[9] GamesRadar's Hollander Cooper and Sterling McGarvey wrote that the game makes it feel like players are controlling Lee. They added that his "unorthodox" method of fighting zombies makes Lee feel like a regular person.^[10] GamesRadar staff also named Lee as the 84th-best video game hero. They cited his bravery and devotion to Clementine for why he is considered one of the best.^[11] Dave Fennoy received praise for his portrayal of Lee, such as by Alan Danzis of the New York Post.^[1] Fennoy was nominated for the "Best Performance by a Human Male" award at the 2012 Spike TV Video Game Awards,^[12] and for the "Performance" category at the 2013 British Academy Video Games Awards.^[13] Lee's character won the "Outstanding Character Performance" at the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit.^[14]

References