So, am I alone in disliking Deryl after the most recent update? He's a guy who already had everything (handsome, athletic, Batman-tier genius and willpower, hung like a horse) and the moment it turns out that he has access to powers he reveals that he straight up thinks he's better than the MC. And, in universe, he's basically right.
Before the game starts, Deryl is constantly taller and stronger and more attractive and more popular and more intelligent (etc.) than the MC. And the flashback reveals that when Deryl was much bigger than MC, he used to kick the shit out of MC on the regular. Sure, he has home issues, but so does MC. And, at that time, MC is short as shit, has fucked up eyes, no friends, Deryl is fucking everything that moves, and Deryl won't leave it alone. Sure, MC also engages. But this is totally asymmetric. The game and narrative treat this like the two characters, Deryl and MC, deciding to stop fighting is a symmetric decision. It isn't, though. Deryl choosing for a year to not be the figuratively bigger kid despite being the literally bigger kid is fucked. And, after finding out how much Deryl thinks of himself it doesn't seem like he keeps MC around as a friend. It seems like he keeps MC around to make himself look better in comparison.
And then, in the story he just gets access to Batman-tier planning and foresight. Everything that happens to him he's already planned for. He has whatever traps he needs on hand to win any encounter, and MC isn't allowed to be smart in order to make Deryl look better. He thinks he can just willpower his way out of being mindcontrolled and I guess he's right. And after the mind control is lifted, Deryl takes back control and instead of defusing the fight he just wants to fight MC, again to prove he's better than MC (which, naturally, he is). Again, I guess I'm supposed to think this is cute or something, but I've seen enough bad ends in this game to know that either character could have accidentally died in a super fight at any time, and the MC still gets burned and stabbed many, many times in the fight and that still hurts him. Deryl is a fucking prick.
In the end, I didn't want to know how to save Deryl. I just wanted him dead or at least out of my life. I stopped playing for several days despite loving the game overall because I realized you weren't going to be given any real options for dealing with Deryl, probably ever. Based on what others are saying, I guess my options are going to be saving Deryl and sacrificing someone else or Deryl just magically saves himself because, again, he's comically super intelligent and capable and doesn't even need help.
