If Telltale continues the Walking Dead with a New Character Season 4
If TellTale does decide to greenlight TWD Season 4, would you be interested and open to a new character? What would you like to see to keep the game and story fresh, original, and open to fans new and old alike?
We've spent a lot of The Walking Dead in the East, I'd like to see the franchise move West. While I'm not necessarily saying I'd like to see Hollywood celebrities attempt to survive the zombie outbreak, I'd like a new region. This offers new possibilities as far as survival depending on the starting location, as well as strategies for the survivors to attempt to reach ( the eternal boat quest might not be the first suggestion ). If we're placed in the north west, maybe we make a journey to attempt to reach Yellowstone in hopes a more isolated area with food sources might be available and attempt to fortify a lodge. If we're in the south west, perhaps we'll have to survive a desert region or cross the grand canyon. It doesn't have to be on an epic scale, but a new section would be welcome.
An entire new cast. I know the immediate reaction might be rejection, but hear me out. Part of what has really irked the fan base in Season 3 was having their version of Clem unrecognizable to our choices. I feel like the best story opportunity we have is to have a character we play have no interactions with previous characters. Allow the writers the opportunity to develop a new cast as diverse and interesting as Larry, Lily, Kenny ect were.
Surprise us with the villain. Don't necessarily make them jump out of the woodwork, but let's develop an antagonist that isn't so cookie cutter. Have a group vs group war over basic survival needs such as food, and water. Or have a safe house group reject the player's group, then have to assault it in order to have shelter against a herd. ( That would add an action element TellTale seems to like with Season 3 into it. ) In essence have our choices be more morally grey to bitterly dark. I'm not saying we should be evil, but we're not always going to be that squeaky clean in a desperate situation.
Add a few twists as far as slaughtering our cast. You can't save everyone. That's a fact of life before and after the outbreak. That doesn't necessarily mean they have to die brutally to some antagonist. I get it. It's an easy way to try to make the viewer hate someone, but if you want to hammer home just how badly the destruction of society leads to desperation give us some environmental deaths. ( This was done to some success with Larry's heart attack, and not so much success with Luke falling through ice. Would any single person have chosen to cross the ice if it were optional? ) There's falling, freezing, lightning, fire, heat stroke... it's ripe with opportunity with little to nothing a protagonist could do to avoid the situation ( lacking resources ). People are the biggest threat in today's society. Let the earth be a threat without society.
Vehicles shouldn't be an option. It's an easy transition device from plot area to plot area, but it's an inconvenience to the story. It limits where we start to truly remote rural areas as anywhere else would have roadways jammed with abandoned vehicles, and if they start years into the outbreak it's highly unrealistic that there'd still be gas available to run them.
What ideas do you have, and what would you choose for the next season if there is one?
Comments
I mean, I'm gonna have to stop at the first paragraph and say no. Plenty of other games continue with an ability to keep the story fresh without relying on changing the entire core cast with each new entry. It's a major reason a series develops and keeps followings. Why would I stick with a series because of its name if each entry is essentially going to be a reboot/new game? I'll just move onto a series capable of creating a narrative that isn't so limited in scope.
reads the title
To go through your points one by one:
I concur. One of the better parts of Season 2 in relation to TWD franchise as a whole was that we got to explore a new area of the world and see how they were adapting to the apocalypse - seeing and learning that large groups of people were migrating north in search of a better life was one such concepts of that area that I found interesting. At the same time, this is one of the things I detest about Season 3... We're conveniently in the same area where the comic characters operate. As If post-apocalypse Virginia is the last remaining hub for humanity. Didn't someone state/calculate that for every survivor alive at this point there were about 20,000 walkers or something? The high concentration of people and activity in Virginia is something that really annoys me. Plus the fact that we're treading comic territory itself and involving characters like Jesus undoubtedly impedes on TellTale's ability to create a story free of restrictions.
I'm a bit confused as to what you're suggesting here. Are you suggesting that we cut off all aspects of previous elements of the series, including Clementine? In which case, it isn't a continuation or a "Season 4" at all - it's essentially a reboot as it has no connection to any of the previous works. If you're suggesting that we take said opportunity to meet a new cast of characters to relate to in a similar fashion to Season 1, that's what's being attempted in Season 3 with the new characters that are introduced. And the reactions of this are... Let's say "mixed." In this instance, the problem isn't that said characters are being dampened/overshadowed by Clementine but rather that said characters are receiving little development on their own. If Clementine wasn't even included in this season, would I be any more invested in characters like Kate, Gabe, Tripp and Eleanor? I doubt it. Unlike in Season 1 where we were introduced to a brand new cast and even to an extent in Season 2, the cast of Season 3 is not introduced in a similar way. Rather than actively working toward making a case for us to be invested in certain characters, Season 3 seems to expect us to automatically invest in these characters. We're told Gabe is our nephew which in reality would mean that we're supposed to have a long-standing, emotive bond with him. However, in the meta when we're looking at this from a 3rd person perspective Gabe's attitudes and mannerisms can be a massive turn off for some people in being invested in his character. So some people who can't properly 'role-play' in the position of Javier are forced into a path where they are supposed to care about a character, yet can't because of their unattractive traits. Similar cases can be made for other characters, like Kate whose incessant attraction and advances to Javier might be seen as frustrating by players or like Tripp, whose submission to the whims and wishes of Javier despite his partial responsibility in the fall of Prescott and his community can detract from a persons immersion in the story... And I'd be fine with a lot of this - if they were actually developed and allowed for a valid response from the player towards these characteristics. But as it stands, we're just supposed to accept the role and relationships of each character and try to adapt our own thoughts and feelings of characters as the story requires it.
Yeah... I'm going to be honest, I haven't found any of the villains in TWD appealing at all other than The Stranger from S1E5. Carver had potential, but was wasted. Even Norma from Michonne who is often well supported in the forums I had problems with. It's just a personal thing, but yeah. In the event of meeting future antagonists, I'd rather they not derive from community vs community conflicts. These relationships between groups and having fights arise from them is getting old fast in TWD as a franchise. I'd much rather have an individual antagonist like The Stranger who has his own personal issues for conflict with the protagonist. And obviously the more believable/multi-dimensional this conflict is the better. That's just me, though.
I suppose. Although I don't want a variety of deaths just to keep the way in which characters expire interesting. I mean, I'd be pretty pissed if a major character in the cast got struck by lightning and was removed from the plot in that way. But I know what you mean. Either way, I'd still prefer we keep deaths to a minimum. TellTale royally screwed up in this regard to the point where we only have one continuing character from the first season (Clementine) and one continuing character from the second season (AJ, puke). It's ridiculous and exhausting to become invested in characters over and over again only to watch them die. It'll be ironic if they start this tradition now, considering I'm even less invested in the cast of Season 3 than of Seasons 1 & 2, but the conveyer belt of characters needs to stop.
I can see why you would say that in terms of both realism and story, but I'd have to disagree. The use of vehicles despite the fact it would be impossible in a ZA at this stage is something I can suspend my disbelief over. It allows for a quicker acceleration of the plot and for access to more areas of the world. Plus if methods of travel are reduced exclusively to walking where transportation is slow, we end up with frustrating events like the 5 day timeskip in S2E2 where we miss out on potential development between characters that should have happened during that time.
As for my own two cents:
The carousal of main characters needs to stop. The fact that Javier, a character who isn't even involved in the plots of Seasons 1 & 2 and who likely wasn't even conceived as a character until two years ago is indicative that TellTale have no long term plan for the series and so are more than content to allow whoever is most convenient for the role of the protagonist and the story to take it. But it should really stop if we're getting more additions of the series. In this regard I don't mind if we stick with Javier (as long as he receives some much needed development this season) or if we go back to Clementine, but we need some stability. I've heard it been suggested that Gabe could be the main character for a potential Season 4 as a mirror to the transition of the main characters role from Lee to Clementine between Seasons 1 & 2, but I don't know how well that would go over considering his debatable popularity and honestly I'd prefer for either Javier and/or Clementine to maintain that position... Preferably Clementine though.
Keep us in one place. At this point of time in the comics and the show, hundreds of people are firmly established in their community of choice. If in Season 3 Richmond doesn't turn out to be that place, then Season 4 desperately needs one. It's strange that the game seems to defy this element of the franchise while the comic and show make community living a big aspect at this time.
PLEASE no. Javier is some baseball dude I give no shit about. What's worse is characters aren't even getting much development! I just want Clementine back as the protagonist.