What's the deal with Rochelle?

What's the deal with Rochelle? Why was she hated on by the community for so long? Did anything about her change?

✧ Guide Introduction ✧

Hello! My name is Nicole. I originally wanted to make this a video rather than a Steam guide with the help of my friend Dead Shidai. In this guide I'll be explaining in detail everything you should know about Rochelle as a character.
She's a much better character than what a big part of the community believes, however due to the game being released only one year after Left 4 Dead 1, Rochelle missed out on unique animations, having Bill's animations be scaled down to fit her model, and a lot of her voicelines weren't added or wouldn't trigger for one reason or another in game.


If you are not a fan of hearing her snort in public games, this might make her just a tad bit more likeable to you!

✧ Beta Release ✧

Chet Faliszek, a former writer and L4D2 Dev made his own Youtube shorts talking about Rochelle's development! Give it a watch!.

During the Alpha stages of Left 4 Dead 2, Rochelle had undergone throught a lot of design changes compared to the other survivors, being the reason why her art is very inconsistent in posters and panels. She was given 2 design concept art we can find in the Valve Left 4 Dead archive, and 2 final designs: E3 Rochelle and Retail Rochelle



Here we can observe these 2 concept arts of Rochelle's early stages, it seems as if they were planning on having her be a middle aged woman, as both designs look like one. But her final character ended up being a 29 year old woman.

Rochelle's is voiced by Rochelle Aytes (You can see her in Where are the Blondes!) and she's is modeled after actress Shanola Hampton, the only change they made to her face in her final design changes were the size of her lips, and I'm unsure as to why they chose to do that.
There's a mod that gives you an idea of how they should've looked, made by author Cuba.



One of Rochelle's designs despict her without her strands of hair and jewelry.


Her current in game portrait seems to have been made while the design above was what they were aiming for initially.


There's another concept art of Rochelle in the archives that despict her with an Afro and black bracelets!

✧ Over the few couple years ✧

As the years went by, the community's opinion on Rochelle was very harsh compared to the rest of the survivors, People even began making videos, gifs, or images, that involved Rochelle being hurt, killed, overshadowed, or being treated harshly by her friends



Some people blamed it on racism despite Coach being one of the top tier characters, and Louis having a very good position himself despite having half the voicelines as his L4D2 counterparts. The real reason why Rochelle was very disliked by the grand majority was because of the way the talker was made during the game's development, many voicelines wouldn't execute, not just for Rochelle but for the rest of the characters as well, however we know Rochelle got the worst part of it, even to the point where the TLS trailer had to specify Rochelle had a personality now, and because Pre-TLS Rochelle (Before The Last Stand update) would only say the typical "Axe me a question" or "Blarg" she quickly became an underdog. As of The Last Stand update, a big part of her personality is finally available for everyone to see without the need of digging through the files.

✧ Rochelle's Golden Era ✧

When the The Last Stand update finally came out on September 24 2020, people were very and eager to listen to all the voicelines that were restored to the game thanks to Xanaguy <3




To this day, you'll still find people who still doesn't like Rochelle, for a variety of reasons. It could be racism or mysoginism. Other reasons could be that people don't want to bother to get to know Rochelle as a character, and prefer focusing on the gameplay, and other people have and still find her uninteresting and that's okay. Even if the majority of the community might prefer other survivors in comparison to Rochelle, that doesn't mean that they don't respect her.

✧ Rochelle's Hate ✧

There are 4 reasons as to why people dislike Rochelle.

✎ The way that she looks
✎ Her AI
✎ Her voicelines
✎ Comparisons

As for her design, I like it but I'm not the biggest fan of it, Rochelle is the only character out of all 8 survivors (or 12 if you may... <3 ) who doesn't seem to follow a code design pattern like the rest, except for Zoey who is only a "Teen", Coach very clearly looks like a Coach, Bill like a Namvet, Francis like a Biker, but Rochelle only looks casual. Which is not unnatural for a producer, especially one who was called at the last second to record CEDA segments, but for a videogame character I feel like you would grow to appreciate her character better if she looked unique and memorable.

These are the interpretations that I imagine would have made Rochelle look much better, with some adjusments.
✎ Variant 1
✎ Variant 2

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The Director is the system that controls how the game works, the infected, the AI, the difficulty and item spawns. Some people believed that her AI in particular was much dumber than the rest of the survivors, screwing up the player from time to time even if all the Bots share the same code and CVARs. Besides different gun preferences there's no differences between them. For me, Nick is the "dumbest" AI compared to the rest, he's screwed me up and my team plenty of times but none of us dislike him because it's how everyone is coded to be, sometimes Coach might be the screw up, other times it could be Ellis. They're all the same.

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Rochelle's voicelines are an interesting topic since she was a victim of the original Talker not working as expected. So it's a fair reason to believe she's not a good character if you've been hearing the same 20 lines per campaign. Before TLS, people used this mod to counter this, even if 43 lines wouldn't make that big of a difference. Or did it?

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As for comparisons, Rochelle was compared to Zoey the most, since they're the only human women in the game. People would affirm that Zoey was the most attractive one, the funniest, the original, etc... while Rochelle did not have much to stand on prior to the TLS Update. People disliked her so much that they would replace her entire character with Zoey! (Credits for pointing out) In my opinion, comparing characters with each other is never a fair fight as they're all unique and fun. It's impossible to compare Nick to Francis or Bill to Ellis since they're polar opposite characters. Sometimes you need the dynamic that Valve has chosen to give to the survivors, and there's nothing wrong with Rochelle being a little dry from time to time. All of the characters have their own subjectively bad voicelines.... like Zoey's fart jokes!



Despite all the hate, she still remains a lovely L4D2 player

✧ Rochelle's Backstory ✧

Rochelle used to work as a desk manager in Cleveland Ohio, and she was promoted to a Producer and travelled to Savannah to make segments on the news about the Green Flu outbreak that was going on. We don't know how Rochelle ended up on the Savannah Hotel, and it doesn't even seem likely that she encountered any infecteds because of this very plausible theory of why the L4D2 survivors act like they have never seen an infected before in Dead Center's chapter 1. Rochelle's role in the beginning of the game is to assign an identity to the special infected to the survivors and the player, except for the Tank as she has never seen any footage of one until she encountered one herself in chapter 2 of Dead center.

Rochelle doesn't usually give details about her backstory unlike Nick who drops key aspects of himself from time to time, only mentioning her parents in lines such as "Momma always told me not to play with fire, but...." and "Gee my bedroom was painted like this when I was a kid, baby blue... I think my dad wanted a boy" but there is someone that she mentions once when she's on her third strike (One incap before death) and that is Jacob. As follows: "Girl... you should have stayed with Jacob."
It would have been nice if Rochelle mentioned him more than once but it's up to our interpretations to figure out who he was. Most likely one of her coworkers whom she had a close friendship with while she was working for WTTQ News Live in Savannah.



Some people made threads about this certain person but to this day we don't know any further other than she wished she would've stayed with him. Thank god she didn't!

TheApostle7 an SFM Artist made his own interpretation of Rochelle's perspective before she reached The Savannah Hotel and while it's very unlikely this is what happened, it's still fun to give it a watch, there's perspectives of the other 3 Survivors as well.

Not Woeful who is another SFM Artist made a great character introduction video on Rochelle!

Fun Fact: The Left 4 Dead 1 survivors can encounter the news station that Rochelle used to work for in Death Toll, Riverside, Chapter 4. More specifically a Van not far from the church.

✧ Connections ✧

Coach
✎ Rochelle and Coach have a relationship much like Zoey and Bill from Left 4 Dead at a smaller extent. Coach often calls her little sister and girl! She praises him when he comes up with plans during finales, ssuch as the Midnight Rider's concert to get the chopper's attention at the end of Dark Carnival.

Ellis
✎ Rochelle treats Ellis like a younger brother, just as Ellis treats Rochelle as if she were his elder sister. They joke around during the campaigns together constantly. She will always stand up for him and shut down his stories nicely and state that she would love to hear them at another time. She was also very supportive of Ellis crush on Zoey in the Passing.

Nick ♡
✎ Rochelle is the only survivor of the cast who doesn't seem to be bothered by Nick as she's shown to have a lot of patience. Despite some indifferences, they seem to have a special dynamic that goes beyond what Ro has with Ellis and Coach. They're both grounded in reality and seem to share thoughts in common when it comes to the outbreak. There are some hints they might have some attraction between each other but that's fan theory! And during one of their conversations with Ellis about Zoey, she might say..."Nick, being one of the last two women in the world alive. I can safely say, at least half of the women in this world hate you."








Francis ♡
✎ There's definitely attraction between each other, at least surely from Francis, and they seem to have a fun dynamic! He will compliment her Depeche Mode shirt just like she will compliment his vest, even if The Passing's trailer might say otherwise!
Official Steam summer sale promo!











Zoey
✎ Zoey and Rochelle will say to each other how they are relieved to find another woman still alive. And seem to be very mindful of one another! I would have loved to see them interact more.

Louis
✎ Louis and Rochelle will get along perfectly from the get go! She's considerate enough to offer the L4D1 Survivors to not lower the bridge once she sees his wounds. Coach and Rochelle will be the two survivors to offer the L4D1 Survivors to join them on their travel to New Orleans but Louis will kindly reject it as they've had enough of the Military (The Sacrifice comic) and that they will be fine on their own

Bill
✎ He's dead <3!

Jacob
✎ Rotting out there, probably.

✧ Voicelines ✧

Chet Faliszek talked about Rochelle's cut dialogue in Youtube shorts!

Rochelle has great voicelines you can encounter playing through L4D2, if you don't want to spend hours just listening to conversations, you can check out this list with lines I've attached, with time I'll be adding more. Definitely play her if you're solo as there's bigger chances of her participating in relevant conversations!

Dead center :

* Streets : Find the Whitaker gunshop and start picking up a variety of guns slowly. Rochelle will express how she can't decide what gun she should take. After the cola has been retrieved, target special infecteds and she will rejoice.

* Mall : Rochelle and Ellis will say Amen to Coach's food prayers in the Liberty Mall's saferoom.

Swamp Fever :

* Plank country : Get near the "Don't swim" signs as Rochelle and she will remark the fact that the swamp people need signs to avoid the swamp water crocodiles.

Smack dab in the middle of the bayou. You can get a line if you run to the other side of the ferry and look across said bayou.

* Swamp : After the fallen plane crescendo you'll find a bathtub, there's a chance a conversation between Rochelle and Ellis happens, she teases him about if he's ever seen a bathtub because of his smell.

Lines list :

✎ My aunt lived here with the swam- the people (Swamp Fever)
✎ All bark no bite! (Tank's death)
✎ Ahah! Who's barking now? (Tank's death)
✎ Don't make me get ugly with you! (Friendly Fire)
✎ Give it to me straight Doc, am I gonna make it? (Standing up)
✎ Blah blah blah, just get me up (Standing up)
✎ Does my hair look good? (Standing up)
✎ Son of a Beasting this hurts!
✎ By the beards of Zeus this hurts! } Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy References
✎ Nights of kolombus this hurts
✎ One of you fellas wanna carry the cute girl? (Injured)
✎ Hey guys! Unlike Ellis, I'm not a complainer. But I'm about to die. (Third strike - Sarcasm!)
✎ (Giggles) Mhm! I'm with Coach, I hate Smokers. (Heard a Smoker too)
✎ I'm going to give that Witch something to cry about! (Heard a Witch)
✎ (If Coach calls the Witch a b1tch)) - Coach be nice! Witch.. we call her.. a Witch!
✎ Ellis, that was me! (Ellis thinks he got the kill)
✎ Well I am the best looking girl hanging on this ledge! I wish I wasn't... hanging.. on the ledge.. I mean! (Ledge hanging)
✎ Damsel on distress over here! (Down)
✎You want us to cover you from zombie attacks while you wash your hands Nick? (The Passing saferoom convo)
✎ Sweet Lincolns mullet! (Movie reference)
✎ If I didn't knew any better I would have thought you were trying to kill yourself, damn now. (Helping somebody up)
✎ Look! The big guy from upstairs isn't ready to take you yet! Let's get you up on your feet! (Reviving)
✎ Do you think Coach was his first or last name? (Mourning Coach)
✎ Thanks m' brotha! (Thanking Coach)
✎ Look at you Nick you do have a heart, a heart of gold! (Thanking Nick)
✎ Yeah with our luck that's just a bridge monster (The Parish Waterfront convo)
✎ We're here! Crescent city. I'll tell you now.. I'm not showing anyone my tits! (The Parish Waterfront intro convo)
✎ Does anyone know how to make a Hurricane? A zombie? They're drinks seriously! (The Parish - You can trigger this near the jukebox bar in Waterfront)
✎ Zombies! Holy sh1t, they're real... (Dead Center Hotel line)
✎ I want them all! Seriously, I want every gun in this store! (Whitaker shop)
✎ Jeez, Ellis, is it supposed to feel this good to see this many guns? (Whitaker shop)
✎ Okay I regret EVERY joke I made about gun owners (Whitaker shop)
✎ I don't know if it's the feel or the weight or the thousand Zombies trying to kill me but I'm really starting to like these guns (After the cola has been retrieved)
✎ Boom! Headshot! ( Headshotting a Special infected after retreving cola )
✎ You people eat the strangest sh1t.. (Whitaker cola talk)
✎ Sh1t! I think I accidentally grabbed diet cola, we should go.. Hey thanks Whitaker! (After the barrier is explodes)
✎ Dang! That mans knows how to clear a path (After the barrier explodes)
✎ Jimmy... Gibbs... Junior? Southeners make the strangest people famous ( Jimmy Gibbs poster at the Atrium's saferoom)
✎Take that Jimmy gibbs! (Rochelle kills JG)
✎Hey I had that idea first! (After Ellis talks about filling up Jimmy gibb's car)
✎ Dibs on Gibbs! (Rochelle finds JG)
✎ Stock cars can't drive over traffic right? (Dark carnival intro)
✎You do realize that if this Jimmy Gibb's guy has driven a monster truck, we'd be home free right now.. (Dark Carnival intro)
✎ Wow look at all these cars, poor dumb bastards, they thought they could escape on foot.. Wait. That's what we're doing? (Dark carnival's Highway)
✎ The Midnight riders, yeah I think my dad liked them back in the 18th century (Fairgrounds second chapter convo)
✎ The Midnight riders, so they ride midnight or ride at midnight? I'm not sure.. I hate classic rock (Dark carnival's Fairgrounds second chapter convo)
✎ Every lady present is getting a headache... (Dark carnival Fairgrounds chapter 2 convo)
✎ Midnight Riders? Yeah they gotta be a big deal if they're playing at a fairgrounds. (Dark carnival chapter 2 beginning)
✎ Look at that, his eyes follow you... (Points out the carnival's Lil' Peanut)
✎ "Coach if we make it to new orleans, I'm buying everyone a fully automatic sniper rifle with a laser scope and a whole box of piercing ammo (The Passing Convo)
✎ Coach you're making me hungry just listening to you.. (Coach talking about food)
✎ Ah, the hell with it. Woooh Kiddie Land!
✎ Gee my bedroom was painted like this when I was a kid, baby blue, I think my dad wanted a boy (Tunnel of love convo)
✎ Dang Coach sounds like you used to be in a diet of Cheerleaders! (Reference: Nick, I was on the football team. Coach did just fine…)
✎ I never liked the tunnel of love, sitting in a big plastic Swan and half foot of water, that ain't romantic, that's just stupid (Tunnel of love)
✎ So when you came here Nick, did they gave you the smallest Swan to ride on by yourself? (Tunnel of love)
✎ Coach's crazy idea worked! (Pilot arrives at the Concert)
✎ It worked! God bless your bad taste in music Coach! (Pilot arrives at the Concert)
✎ Ya think the Zombies left the lights on for us? (Dark carnival's Motel voiceline)
✎ I sure as hell ain't going into a Haunted house (Made for custom campaigns)
✎ Oh! Popcorn, popcorn! I LOVE popcorn, you Coach? (Fairgrounds voiceline)
✎ Ellis, are you even tall enough to get into these rides? (Despite Ellis being taller than her)
✎ Climbing back up this hill is not near as fun as sliding down.. (Climbing the hill to the fairgrounds entrance)
✎ Ellis, I bet you won all the girl's teddybears (Fairgrounds)
✎ They actually have to put a sign to stop people from swimming in the gator park? Alright..(Swamp Fever, ferry)
✎ Yeah let's just the cut trought the gator park, and visit the crazy militants in the swamp! Sound good? (Swamp fever)
✎ Agh, the swamp's buggy, who would've guessed that? (Swamp Fever)
✎ So what do you think is gonna kill us? Zombies, gators, snakes, bugs, or swamp people? (Ferry conversation)
* Hey Ellis, that's a bathtub.. you've ever seen one before?
Ellis : Have you smelled yourself recently?
Rochelle : Fair Enough (Full convo)
✎ I am SICK to death of this mud (Swamp Fever)
✎ I've always wanted to do this.. (Opening the fallen plane's door in Swamp fever)
✎ This place makes Cleveland look nice.. (Swamp fever, probably the shacks)
✎ Oh I still wanted to make friends with the swamp people.. (Swamp fever)
✎ I never thought I'd miss a gun so much (Hard rain intro, she picks a weapon on the table of Burgertank)
Ellis : I almost wanna cry with all of these Witches
✎ Hah you wanna cry? Let's give these b1tches something to cry about (Hard rain, Sugar Mill)

✧ Voicelines Part Two ✧

✎ Okay, we just ran up here covered in blood getting chased by Zombies, do you think we haven't encountered Infected? Let us trought the damn bridge! (The Parish bridge convo with the Military )
✎ Hey, kill all sons of b1tches right? (The Parish bridge line)
✎ I'm glad I can't Tweet, 'cause I could never fit today in a 140 characters.. (Dead center, chapter 2 intro, Twitter Reference)
✎ Dang a gun like this even if you miss, the Zombies die out of respect (Deagle voiceline)

The Passing DLC voicelines :

✎ If you lower the bridge I'll tell you how old I am! (Rochelle towards Francis, first chapter intro)
✎ If you lower the bridge.. I uh... I'll give you.. a kiss..! (Rochelle towards Francis, first chapter intro)
✎ Wow even the convinient stores in the south have guns. (The store you have to go trought in the first chapter)
✎(Giggles) They even had guns at weddings? (Wedding voiceline while checking the tents)
✎ I don't know what she's crying about, but atleast she got married. (Infected Bride)
✎ This is one time where I don't mind being the Bride's maid. (Wedding voiceline)
✎ Something old, something new, something about to rip your guts out.. (Wedding voiceline)
✎ Ahhhh! I pissed off ANOTHER bride! (She pisses off the Bride)
✎ That's a waste of a nice dress.. (Bride's death)
✎ Stay up the dirt, it's historical! (During The Passing's tour on the walkway)
✎ Hey Nick, splash fight? (During the tour after jumping down the stairs to the sewer water)
✎ Rochelle will always boost Ellis mood when he talks about Zoey, when Nick only
jokes around with it (In a good way)
✎ Nick, you have to find a woman who hates herself, and she'll love you! (Port saferoom convo)
✎ Nick, being one of the last two woman in the world alive I can safely say, atleast half of the women in this world hates you (Port saferoom convo)
✎ Ellis honey I've been thinking, somewhere down the road do you think we could trade it for a car with let's say, working doors in the back seat? (Saferoom convo chapter 2, Jimmy Gibbs's car)
✎ Hey, is this your suitcase Nick? (Suitcase with money in one of the bar's bedrooms)
✎ After a few hours in the car with you guys it's nice to hear some new voices ( Port elevator line)

* Special convo during the beginning of chapter 2 :

✎ We need to stay motivated... yeah, we need to stay motivated.
✎ Hey Coach, if we make it to New Orleans, there's a cheese burger museum!
✎ Hey Ellis, I heard there's a stock car museum in New orleans!
✎ Rochelle will attempt to boost Nick's mood but he will cut her off.

Convo :

* Ellis, ask yourself, what would Keith do? (Saferoom convo chapter 2)
Coach : Girl what are you doing!?
Rochelle : Ahh, I wasn't thinking!

There's a convo between Francis & Rochelle in the game exactly like this one.

You can check Zack's (Wow Such Gaming) analysis on Rochelle's character to know more about her and other players perspectives.

✧ End ✧

End of the essay... for now.

As a summary of everything, what you should keep is that Rochelle is a very considerate and emphatetic survivor, she's grounded even under the circumstances that she's at and we hope that she hasn't died under military custody. ✨
So next time don't judge a book by it's cover! This doesn't apply just for Rochelle but for the other survivors, books, people, etc...

There's some Rochelle trivia you can also take a look at in the fandom website[left4dead.fandom.com]

If there's any details that you would like to have added to the guide, please comment down below in the thread! If this guide changed your perspective on Rochelle whatsoever, I'm glad! And if it hasn't, that's okay. Thank you so much for staying until the end.

XOXO

[Nicolette]

sweetheart, i don't think people like curvy ro mods because they make her look more "black woman" shaped

[Lil Nugget]

It's just my own opinion but i think rochelle is very pretty, Her default clothing wasn't the best. Rochelle is a pretty black woman and i really don't care what others opinions of her are. She's sweet and she treats everyone accordingly. Her voice lines never bothered me. I would prefer if rochelle did not have a white womans shape and was shaped like a black womans body shape. Im not saying black women aren't skinny like ro, but checking out her mods in shop a lot of people like a curvy ro with some nice clothing. I don't think zoey is ugly but she is mediocre and a CLICHÉ. and like @fya said there are alot of people who dont have a problem with women or black men but hate black women. this is true

[sadie! <3]

after hearing a lot of rochelles voicelines added in post TLS she's quickly become my favorite

[Nicolette]

Yeah you're definitely right. Also Sheva is such a queen we need her to come back, Capcom made her flop when they forced you to play Chris first therefore making people think her AI specifically was bad compared to his despite them having the same one

[fya]

(Not saying that everyone who hated/hates Rochelle is a racist) Coach and Louis being black men, doesn't mean that there weren't people who hated her because she was black. There are a lot of people who don't have problems with women, or black men but do with black women.

[Final Badguy]

the deal was that there wasn't an extremely rich selection of mods to replace rochelle with back when the game came out

[Nicolette]

Awe you’re so sweet thank you! Yeah I also agree a lot of hate towards her was definitely a hive mind, but keep in mind the people who started playing L4D2 were often teens so it’s no wonder that would happen. Rochelle isn’t the only character affected by hive minds, Zoey also

[Kris]

In my opinion Rochelle is a very cool character in general, just as the others. I think it was just a hive mentality or a very popular opinion about 'hating her' some years ago just because it was funny or because everyone else would say that a lot, rinse and repeat.
By the way, all survivors bots have the same awful AI.
Also as you pointed out, she has plenty of funny/interesting quotes just as Coach, Ellis or Nick, recently I have been playing as her more often and it's refreshing to see more quotes; maybe most people prefer the others than her, which is totally fine.
Each survivor has its own personality and uniqueness that makes them different from each other, that's why they are great and remarkable, and this is shown in game almost at any moment.
It could be worse but at least most or some of her current 'hate' is just for the meme. At this point people are more chill about Rochelle.
Great guide, I enjoyed reading this, you did a very nice investigation overall, keep it up.

[Lemmestrokeyoshit25]

try unlocking the battlepass

[Nicolette]

The line goes "Yeah you wanna cry? Let's give these bitches something to cry about!" and it's in the list, I forgot to add the aunt's one, thank you for helping <3