What was the message of Season 2?
In Season 1, the message was quite clear. It was about a man who made a very serious mistake, and who got a shot at Redemption, while taking care of a little girl.
In Season 2, which I recently replayed, and I don't know about you, but I was scratching my head, trying to figure out what was the point of it?
Does anyone know what the point of Season 2 was?
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
you can't trust everyone.
Family and trust seemed to be the main theme to me.
Eleven Year old girls are safer companions in an Apocalypse than adults.
Sticking by your family no matter what.
Fuck everyone And Fuck Kenny in Particular.
Clementine is a badass, don't mess with her.
The point is the conflict between killing or not Kenny is the right choise. I had to replay the game to figure it out. You know the part when you see Lee in your dreams? Well, watch it again and listen to Lee very carefully. He starts to talk about people's problems and the way they handle it, about right choises, about Lilly, and so.
While I'm not sure about the exact message, and I am pretty sure about the intended themes: trust for episodes 1 and 2, loyalty for episodes 4 and 5. As for epsiode 3... I'm not that sure. Brutality and vengeance, and whether they're worth it or not?
To elaborate on the loyalty one in particular:
Epsiode 4 is all about the concept of loyalty, and whether or not you stick by and help the people around you, even if they could potentially drag you down with them, or if you cut your losses and just let them go, figuratively and potentially literally. Sarah, Kenny, Rebecca, and Jane's inner conflict and struggle with what happened to Jaime, and so forth. Episode 5 deals with loyalty across the entire group. Everyone's convinced that Kenny is cracking, that he's like a sinking ship. But the question is, do you jump overboard with the rest of them or do you stay behind and take the risk of going down with the ship, in an attempt to fix it? Then you have the characters of Mike and Bonnie, who are conflicted about staying with the group or not, which culminates in their betrayal. And then finally, the Kenny and Jane choice boils down to loyalty as well; who is worth sticking by until the bitter end? Kenny, Jane, or neither of them? Is Kenny too far gone? Is Jane too far gone? Are they both? Are you willing to sever ties with two of the only people you have left, people that for better or worse have tried to look out for you?
I think Episode 3 is about Carver's pragmatism, and his worldview about killing those who don't lift their weight so that the hard-working members of the community can continue to be safe. We also see this theme vaguely present itself when we have to decide whether leaving behind an uncounscious—and possibly dead—Kenny, a grieving Sarita, a pregnant Rebecca and wounded Alvin would be right.
As weird as it sounds, I completely understand it. Kids can't process their surrounding as well as adults do.
Inconsistent Writing
I thought the message was family and trust, but towards the end the message seemed to be more about how the adults are incompetent morons and finding weak validations for an 11 year old to be better off alone not trusting anybody in a ZA, while left playing Unrealistic Baby Simulator with A.J. Or the message was survival, you know, the default message of every Walking Dead Game.
I think, at least earlier on, they were pushing the importance of family (there was a line from Luke in Episode 202 making it very evident to players as he talked to Clementine), but I don't feel the overall Season had much of a goal, as they spent a lot of time changing character motivations and goals in-between episodes, and they didn't seemingly have an overall end game planned for the Season (I'm not counting "protect AJ" as a Season goal).
No matter how you plan, or how catious you are, or how strong you are, you are going to fall under a sheet of ice and drown.
It's as simple as that.
I don't think they have messages, but rather themes. Like what was the message behind S1(TV)? I couldn't answer that question; other than Shane cannot, and should not be trusted. But I think the theme behind the season was to show exactly how big this apocalypse is. I remember Rick telling Dr. Jenner that he believes over half the population's been wiped out. Also, both episodes 1 and 6 really show you how big this apocalypse is.
That being said, I think the theme of S1(game) was for a man to protect a little girl beyond all odds. Hence why Clem is in so much danger throughout. And I think S2 was about #MyClementine. Killing Omid, and making Christa disappear, made Clementine completely independent, mature, and confident. The conflicts between Kenny and Luke were pretty much over her. Kenny wants old Clementine back, because he thinks her growing up too fast wouldn't be good for her.(also, I think he's trapped in the past, but that's neither here, nor there) Luke likes Clementine because of how smart and capable she is(who doesnt? cough Jane! cough cough Carver!), and wants her to excel, rather than being like Sarah. Clem had a ton happen to her this past season, which, at that age, should have a hefty effect on her. Your ending, and all the choices made, formed your Clementine.
IMO
For me, Season One was mostly about Lee's redemption from his past mistake(killing the Senator) and Lee redeems his mistake by ensuring the survival of Clementine. But for me, it was also about how when the world changes, people can change with it, for better or for worse, you see the different sides of people when they experience the harshness of a post-apocalyptic world. I think it may have been more so the latter as we see allot of that.
With Season Two, I kind of felt like there was kind of a lack for an overall obvious theme but I felt like each character was kind of symbolic of a different 'theme' per say.
I thought it was about how Clem changes through the ZA
Loyalty, and trust.
How far you are willing to go for these things, and that no matter how much you believe you know and trust somebody, they can fuck you over at the drop of a hat.
Take Bonnie. She always was a flake. People were shocked that she and Mike ditched you with Arvo, complaining about bad writing, but what did she ever do to earn your trust in the first place? If all it took to trust her was that crummy coat then that says something about your Clementine. She flaked out on leaving with the group originally, she lied to you when you first meet her, and she bailed with Mike when things got tough, and she asked you to go through the shutters rather than putting herself in danger, I really did want to like Bonnie but there was something off about her, as a result I never truly trusted her with anything when she offered and wasn't shocked when she got cold feet.
Jane. She was always telling you to trust her but she never earned that loyalty for me, she was always one foot in, one foot out of the group. She abandoned you when you were all trapped in the shack and earlier when leaving Carvers, both times coming back out of guilt, she never attempted to help save Sarah either when it came to it, all she did was convince YOU to leave her behind, I regret letting her get in my head because that was not how Lee taught me to be. She also left her god damn sister for the walkers too. So when it came to her asking me to trust her, she never got it, I knew she was bullshitting about the baby and that's just not on.
Luke. He's harder to pin down. He does a lot of good for you really, he saves you from a walker in death and he comes back to try and save you all at Carvers. Which is great, but he's also easily distracted. He left you to fend for yourselves so he could go roll around with Jane and he also leaves you at the top of the lookout tower just so he can go see what argument is going on somewhere else. It depends on how you weigh up his pros and cons and whether his constant asking you to do shit with or for him was too much to put on an 11-year-old in a zombie apocalypse.
Kenny might be an idiot and act rashly but he NEVER lies, is ALWAYS upfront with you, and will die for you if you have his back. If you've got his back 100%, he will never ever let you down. But no matter how much you back up Mike, Jane, or Bonnie, they always leave, even for a little bit and that to me shows a weak spine. It all comes down to what you define as loyalty, for me it's simply having my back when shit gets serious and the only person I ever truly trusted to fight for me no matter what was Kenny. And he did.
So for me, this season was about a true test of loyalty and kindness in the face of adversity. I've seen some people say they shot Kenny out of kindness, which I can sort of understand, the man had nothing left if you didn't guess that Jane hadn't killed AJ. He was a broken man, so I understand killing him to give him some peace. But never out of hate and siding with Jane.