Head of red with an occasional pissy fit, it's Ruby! Ruby's Repercussion
Ruby is a Southern girl with a fiery temper, a big heart, and a strong sense of dignity. The first aspect is obvious in how it often shows a mean streak a mile wide when she is provoked and the third trait shows in just sensistive she is to being offended. But it is the second attribute that drives both deep down and thus can easily be seen as the real gemstone. Indeed, Ruby puts a lot of value in one's ability to mind their manners and is easily won over by seeing one return such in kind. Thus, it should come as little surprise that she is the acting Medic of Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth, among other talents. Though in spite of how relatively wellrounded she can be, it seems like she doesn't get much exercise compared to the others.
Indeed, just as her fat appearance suggests she doesn't do much for the group, Ruby doesn't really factor into the actual narrative very much. Compared to main leads like Violet, notable supports like Aasim, or even different minor parts like Omar, her characterization is one that primarily has ancillary moments that are memorable and hint at a greater potential beyond her nebulous importance. Perhaps as a natural extension of that, Ruby would go on to have quite a number of further moments on the side throughout the rest of the Season, with a considerable amount of backstory being given in the second. Having hunted wild boars and tended to horses alongside her father in her youth, Ruby would eventually be enlisted into the school for severe and near uncontrollable anger issues. After a considerable tenure of terrorizing the faculty with her explosive aggression, it was the school's nurse Ms. Martin who rehabilited her in addition to sharing both her craft and her love for horticulture in the Greenhouse. It was her close friendship that made Ruby the asset she is today and showed her the power of reformation through structure.
When Clementeen first meets Ruby outside of the piano room, she comes to face her incidentally coarse yet well-known temper. The chubby redhead was in a right tizzy over AJ biting her palm, having approached the "little motherfucker" from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. If eanerstly told that he's been through a lot and tends to act out, she retorts that all of the students have and yet none of them tries to sink their teeth into either of the two--commenting that the boy needs learn some respect. However, if Clementeen tries to not believe it or accuses her of provoking him, Ruby views her as having some nerve to deflect blame(ignoring the bite mark on her own palm in the former instance) and tells her to screw off. Or in the event she doesn't respond one way or the other, Ruby proclaims to see where AJ learned it from and assumes she'll have something to say when she's the one getting bit. Still upset with the two visitors about her stinging hand, Ruby continues to storm her way out of the building.
Later that evening, after Brody's Hunting Party returns with hares for Omar to cook into a stew, Ruby stands off to herself around a campfire, unlike the other delinquents. Seemingly unbeknowst to her, she becomes the subject of a talk between Clementeen and AJ. Describes her scary and always seeming so mad, the latter is afraid to attempt an apology for biting her earlier. However, after receiving the encouragement for being able to do it, AJ leads into a talk with her using his attained advice:
if told to lay it on thick, he cheekingly hands out a shit load of compliments about her appearance that confuse and increasingly annoy her
if suggested to lead with a joke, he delivers a [butchered] knock-knock one that leave her in stern silence
if advised tell her the truth that he was scared, he earnestly does so while clarifying that he doesn't mean to react that way and stating that he hopes her finger(?) is okay
if not given any advice whatsoever, he simply decides to improvise by offering to let her bite him back
Either way, she hesitates before agreeing to forgive him--appropriately thanking him for the compliments, charmingly calling him a little weirdo, notably assuring his honesty by admitting that they all get a little crazy when scared, or simply responding that they're good. This acceptance of his apology smooths over AJ's anxiousness around her, which in turn sees him hang around for a bit to give her some company and gives him the courage to apologize to Marlon.
While their little makeup assures that she doesn't bare him any hard feelings for their introduction, the events of the next couple of days would see the boy and his guardian continue to cause Ruby some discomfort or even horror. Once Louis signals everyone that the food is ready, he joins her, Marlon, Clementeen, and AJ at a dinner table. Seeing AJ slurping down his stew and Louis start a burping match, she starts to get disgusted at their lack of table manners. If Clementeen(and/or Marlon) joins in, she get fed up and walks away, flipping them off as she does. If she tells him to eat slowly, however, Ruby approvingly informs him that just because everything else died doesn't mean manners did and says goodnight. The following night, when AJ confronts Marlon at gunpoint during a thunderstorm, Ruby bears witness to the latter's breaking down claims against Clementeen and vice versa. Hearing Marlon's accusation that she killed Brody and his recounting of everything he's done for them compared to her, Ruby questions why she would do that to her and reluctantly starts to side with him on the grounds that they don't know her. However, she is horrified once the latter reveals his explotative actions towards not only Brody, but for giving away Sophie and Minerva as well; she is also first to take on offended outrage when he proclaims that he'd trade away any of them to raiders again. But ultimately, she would be one of the many who is at a loss for words when AJ shoots Marlon in the back of the head.
As a result of the developments that ended in her and her fellow peers witnessing Marlon being murder, it comes with little surprise that Ruby would panic at the sight, tearfully try to deal with the body, and later becomes uncomfortable with AJ's presence. Particularly predisposed to mad concern given what she's seen of him at that point, it was safe to assume that she would take serious issue with AJ's overall behavior. She could have coordinated the backlash in deciding how to handle him for the time being, acting as a third overall movement within their small, now splitting community. As a unofficial director of the faction, she could potentially have Mitch and Willy serving as her main muscle, while Louis and Omar are more on the fence--all due to conflicting feelings regarding both the shooter and his targer.
Leaving the matter of the bigger issues and repercussions of the reveals to Violet and Aasim, Ruby would essentially put the precocious Alvie on probation, if not outright locking him up altogether, while she deals with the source of the problem. Not that she overly dislikes AJ himself, but she does see the necessitity of figuring out a way to deal with what he did. Thus, she could begin by addressing what motivated him to go that far and perhaps even deconstruct the way he had to be to raised. After all, his biting actions towards both her and Marlon has to essentially be a reflex, possibly a more hostile form of PTSD.
Well Mitch was kinda random he wasnt super wasted but i felt they could've done more with him,made him determinant.
Things like the choice of burning or burying the nurse's body didnt matter because he just dies later,it makes you wonder why that choice even exist.
Things like the choice of burning or burying the nurse's body didnt matter because he just dies later,it makes you wonder why that choice even exist.
Choices like that feel like they're just as much about demonstrating the player's approach as they are siding/appealing with another character. It's particularly notable in that case consider how inherently callous and wasteful siding with him there is.
Well Mitch was kinda random he wasnt super wasted but i felt they could've done more with him,made him determinant.
Things like the choice … moreof burning or burying the nurse's body didnt matter because he just dies later,it makes you wonder why that choice even exist.
The Cabin Group is the 400 Days Cast
Gonna do something a little different here for variety. During my first year here, I pitched a Cabin Group version of 400 Days with general suggestions of how to set up and flesh out their backstories. Here are each of the excerpts:
Nick/Pete- Admittedly, this is more fanservice for his fans than any real inspiration on my part. Carrying similar implications to Vince's story, we have Nick's mom around during some vague time frame. I guess for the sake of capturing his character, we can do a bit of time skipping like in Shel's scenario to show a strained but still loving relationship with Pete and how their travels put a bit of stress on him. Have some interaction between the two and his mom leading up to the appearance of the bitten woman at the Cabin. Whether you want to actually show how this goes down or not is up to personal opinion but I think having an aftermath of this entire event instead with Nick being noticeably withdrawn would act as a tease for his heart to heart in Season 2.
Reggie\Bonnie- What can I say, I ran out of characters. If we go with Reggie, we can focus on the days leading up to the Cabin group's escape from Howe's Hardware. Tonally a flip of Wyatt's story, Reggie's story would have a humorous presentation with numerous bursts of drama. The purpose of this is to demonstrate what a friendly yet selfless man he used to be so that when he gets introduced in Season 2, people would have a degraded comparison of just how much being left behind changed him. However, I'd actually kind of prefer we leave in Bonnie's story since I feel we kinda deserve to see an example of how often her relationships never seem to work out first hand. Otherwise, people would show a lot of spite due to the fact that you learn this in the same episode that has her turn on Clementine. Actually, I think having Reggie replace Taavia would work wonders, since it would basically end the dlc on a hope spot that the Cabin Group may be able to escape with his help.
Luke- Tbh, Luke is so at the forefront yet so basic that you have to give him an origin story. Like Russell's story, we have him hanging around Howe's Hardware alongside Nick and Bonnie. Have him show disapproval of how Carver is running things and perhaps attempt interfere with some of Carver's more extreme treatment towards the citizens. Have him get to know the other members of the community at sparse intervals and offscreen so that the ending in Nick and/or Reggie's stories helps to foreshadow his role as leader.
Rebecca/Alvin- A similar conflict to Bonnie's story: Rebecca has been touched by Carver after a tease of her job making speaker announcements(which could act to tie in with all the other stories with her tone changing as time goes on) and is beginning to notice the scarce signs of his villainy. Vaguely showcase why she was so vindictive about him that she would immediately try to take the gun from a pausing Nick and shoot a little girl herself. Maybe have George put in an appearance and hint that his abetting interference with Alvin's love life is making his days numbered.
Carlos- The same basic idea as Shel's story, he wants to make sure Sarah doesn't have to be exposed to how terrible the world is becoming. We could have an actual encounter with walkers to justify where these fears are coming from. Luke and/or Nick's family can make an appearance as well as maybe Reggie, since Sarah seemed to be slightly familiar with him.
Pragmatic in long-term strategizing and setting up traps, it's Aasim!
Pragmatic Alliance
Aasim was something of a breakout character when Done Running premiered, having a definite voice and getting the most development of the delinquents outside of the Ericson Quartet; one might even be surprised by how less involved he was in the third act. Levelheaded, pragmatic, and forward thinking, he often looked for ways to ensure the group's continued survival. As such, he was the only one who recognized how bad they were actually doing in the longrun and found himself annoyed by their lack of improvement. Thus, he wasn't afraid to question Marlon's leadership choices and recommended scouting outside the increasingly shrinking safezone.
He is a relatively proactive survivor when it comes to his mindset, even keeping a diary that he prefers to think of as a history book preserving the mistakes of the past. He also generally prefers practical methods of accomplishing tasks, believing in mundane solutions to any given problem. And despite his grumpy demeanor at times, he can also be fairly patient about actually meeting their daily survival quota by not sweating letting any rabbits escape due to personally feeling they can be hard to hit and seeing higher gains from letting them continue to grow. As a consistent part of Brody's Hunting Party, he primarily uses bows and the tie-marked snare traps Louis made to hunt rabbits or the occasional deadhead in the forest. Speaking of Louis, Aasim often clashes with him due to their contrasting personalities and philosophies.
Flippant, upbeat, and extroverted in his performance, Louis is essentially the opposite of the self-serious, sometimes intolerant and private technician. Aasim prefers to play the long game with a variety of contingency plans for the future, whereas Louis prefers to live in the moment out of feeling secure in the short term. As such, Aasim is often annoyed with the merry jokester that easily rebutts his criticisms. To say nothing of inherently disapproving of Louis's longtime friendship with Marlon, referring to him as a lapdog. Given the clear distinction between the two in the as well as their view of Marlon, combined with how two-sided many conflicts and choices tend to be, there might be an odd thought as to why he didn't have Violet's position in the narrative--or rather vice versa, during the Hunting scenario.
Well apparently someone brandishing a pen thought the same because Violet ended up taking the head role over both opposing Marlon&Louis on top of the entire group--Aasim just dropped outta prominence in the following episode. Aasim was previously the most likely to become the new leader(or at least the closest thing to one) and direct the group into improving their survival plans by sprucing thing up and preparing for potential attacks now that the biggest obstacle to that had been then-externally dealt with. Instead, he would spend it indirectly supporting her by disagreeing with Mitch's excessive judgment and alternately being humanized--which usually isn't a bad thing, mind, but it would perhaps be more accurate for one to deem his scenes as taking the piss out of him. This includes, but isn't limited to getting into arguments with Willy, getting punched in the stomach for belittling him, being teased about his crush on Ruby, and even being dared to kiss either her or a literal deadhead on a pike. He also has his identity as the third vote in favor of letting AJ stay left up in the air and is unceremoniously captured by the Deltas offscreen--honestly, it's easy he think he died until the results screen. At the very least, fellow supporting cast members Ruby, Mitch, and to an extent Willy were able to get some development, but it's unfortunate how what screentime he got underlined how shunted he was into the background. Poor guy got demoted pretty noticeably when the stage seemed set for him make an official transition into office.
And then there's the conduct or rather conducting of the actual seatholder, who despite her role had her own bit of trouble. Skimming over much of the other aspects that can make her weird to actually talk about in a resourceful/critical manner, Violet was just kinda on the side for most of the episode. Despite having her supposed position essentially given to her, she does very little..., well, leading beyond forcing Mitch to help retrieve barbed wire from the greenhouse, telling Louis to block off a hallway, and determinantly settling his argument with Willy. And outside of occasionally being the character who supports Clementeen & opposing concern for the person who sorta put them in their discoursed conditions in the first place, she otherwise sees minimal focus despite being a main character. This is also keeping in mind that she's acting as the counterpart to Louis, who goes through his own layered character arc of dealing with his feelings regarding his lost best friend. As a result, it's not hard to conclude that her becoming the new leader was basically just a way to make her standout nominally as important.
Collectively, there is in fact a pragmatic method of helping both characters see sufficient screentime--a joint effort! In previous Seasons, it has been somewhat customary for the story to have the leadership of the main group divided and/or vied between two top members--one who is more personable and another who is strict, with either one being some variant of rash and/or prudent. Another benefit from this setup would be actually having time to focus on Violet as a character/person as the two get more involved with directing the Boarding School in preparing for the Delta's upcoming raid. Even with the fact that Violet and Aasim are both relatively introverted and practical individuals, there are still some key differences between the two that would allow such a duumverate to cater to their strengths and weaknesses. For his part, Aasim often encourages others think rationally, even managing to soothe Willy so he could attend Brody and Marlon's funeral, and thus doesn't like acknowledging his own feelings. However, he tends to be irritated when they let their emotions or whims drive them, which means he has trouble dealing with Louis and Willy--ironically proving to still be a bit naturally immature himself. He also isn't not too big a fan of direct confrontation, disliking having to deal with walkers or perhaps physical work in general: as such, he is more suited for an advisory take on the role. By contrast, Violet is ironically recognized as being capable of handling those sorts of things head on and has zero problem calling out the imperfections of pretty much anything, which makes her something of a disciplinarian. Thus, Aasim could handle overall strategies and reinforcements to the school, while Violet manages the group members themselves by making sure they actually get stuff done.
Disclaimer -- I went into the final season absolutely apathetic toward him. After his handling in A New Frontier, and the odd choice of reinforcing Clementine having to care for him prior to the departure of capable adults in Season 2, he was a really strange driving force for the narrative.
The Final Season had a draw that AJ would be shaped by your choices throughout the story. After playing through to the end, I'm left questioning in what way? Whether or not he uses bad words?
From the moment he's introduced in the backseat of the car, I started looking for something to bond me to him. I haven't been able to for two seasons. This season seemed to depend on that bond. I thought we'd see some of Clementine's influences on him thus far, but if it were there I clearly missed it. It seemed to me like AJ paid no mind to Clementine in anything other than in regards to survival.
A great example from Season One comes from Kenny after Clementine is taken by the Stranger. Unknown to players at that time, Kenny had a tally keeping tabs on whether or not the player backed him up when he felt he needed it. If the player didn't, he might not go along to rescue Clementine or might need convincing to risk his life for someone that didn't seem to have his well being in mind at all.
I was really hoping they might do something like that with AJ.
That’s the one thing that pissed me off about season 1, the Kenny tally. I sided with him throughout the entire season, made sure I racked up all of his points, but when it came to killing Larry or Ben, that’s what makes him go with you either way, as long as you sided with him on all other occasions. Like wtf, I saved your son and you won’t come with me unless I helped drop a kid from a bell tower and took your side instead of Lilly’s?
“There’ve been plenty of times when you ain’t been” like wtf was he talking about? I took his side on literally every occasion aside from those two.
The most missed opportunity for me was AJ.
Disclaimer -- I went into the final season absolutely apathetic toward him. After his handling… more in A New Frontier, and the odd choice of reinforcing Clementine having to care for him prior to the departure of capable adults in Season 2, he was a really strange driving force for the narrative.
The Final Season had a draw that AJ would be shaped by your choices throughout the story. After playing through to the end, I'm left questioning in what way? Whether or not he uses bad words?
From the moment he's introduced in the backseat of the car, I started looking for something to bond me to him. I haven't been able to for two seasons. This season seemed to depend on that bond. I thought we'd see some of Clementine's influences on him thus far, but if it were there I clearly missed it. It seemed to me like AJ paid no mind to Clementine in anything other than in regards to survival.
A great exampl… [view original content]
That’s the one thing that pissed me off about season 1, the Kenny tally. I sided with him throughout the entire season, made sure I racked u… morep all of his points, but when it came to killing Larry or Ben, that’s what makes him go with you either way, as long as you sided with him on all other occasions. Like wtf, I saved your son and you won’t come with me unless I helped drop a kid from a bell tower and took your side instead of Lilly’s?
“There’ve been plenty of times when you ain’t been” like wtf was he talking about? I took his side on literally every occasion aside from those two.
That’s the one thing that pissed me off about season 1, the Kenny tally. I sided with him throughout the entire season, made sure I racked u… morep all of his points, but when it came to killing Larry or Ben, that’s what makes him go with you either way, as long as you sided with him on all other occasions. Like wtf, I saved your son and you won’t come with me unless I helped drop a kid from a bell tower and took your side instead of Lilly’s?
“There’ve been plenty of times when you ain’t been” like wtf was he talking about? I took his side on literally every occasion aside from those two.
That’s the one thing that pissed me off about season 1, the Kenny tally. I sided with him throughout the entire season, made sure I racked u… morep all of his points, but when it came to killing Larry or Ben, that’s what makes him go with you either way, as long as you sided with him on all other occasions. Like wtf, I saved your son and you won’t come with me unless I helped drop a kid from a bell tower and took your side instead of Lilly’s?
“There’ve been plenty of times when you ain’t been” like wtf was he talking about? I took his side on literally every occasion aside from those two.
Nah, I’ve went through multiple playthroughs making sure that I side with Kenny on every choice, aside from whether I should kill Ben or Larry, and he was still conflicted. After doing a google search, it turns out that to get him to come with you 100% you need to side with him over Lilly, defend Duck in the drugstore, save Duck, shoot duck, feed duck and Clementine at the motor inn and don’t shoot the girl outside of the drugstore in ep 3. Now I chose all of those choices, but Kenny still wasn’t on my good side for some reason, so that left the last two: kill Larry and/or Ben.
Nah, I’ve went through multiple playthroughs making sure that I side with Kenny on every choice, aside from whether I should kill Ben or Lar… morery, and he was still conflicted. After doing a google search, it turns out that to get him to come with you 100% you need to side with him over Lilly, defend Duck in the drugstore, save Duck, shoot duck, feed duck and Clementine at the motor inn and don’t shoot the girl outside of the drugstore in ep 3. Now I chose all of those choices, but Kenny still wasn’t on my good side for some reason, so that left the last two: kill Larry and/or Ben.
Oooooh. Yeah, I had to say that to him so that he’d come. But there’s a way where he’ll come with you either way, depending on if lee wants him to or not
Oooooh. Yeah, I had to say that to him so that he’d come. But there’s a way where he’ll come with you either way, depending on if lee wants him to or not
You know, when I saw there were a lucky seven number of comments here in one day, I was kinda hoping one of them would be an idea. Instead, it's Kenny talk.
Yeah... Kenny never comes with me for that exact reason. I can understand Larry's death, as surviving a full blown heart attack with no hospital is impossible, but Ben? Nah man, I ain't killing a teen.
Neither did I on my 'good' playhthrough, but because I hoped for all characters helping me find Clementine, I especially chose the line 'Clementine is like family' for Kenny.
Yeah... Kenny never comes with me for that exact reason. I can understand Larry's death, as surviving a full blown heart attack with no hospital is impossible, but Ben? Nah man, I ain't killing a teen.
Okay, so I’m gonna do something a little different here, so if you wanna count it, it sorta is.
Fun fact: When I was working out some of the important details of what Ruby’s Repercussion was gonna involve, I at one point and another intended to set aside some flavor text on Mitch & Willy and their respective takes on what Ruby was trying to do with AJ. But of course, as you could see, that ended up not happening. The background information on her characterization that I’ve been using to set the tone for what I intended to do with her in the actual material ended up being far more cumbersome than I had intended. Combine that with the actual process and the circumstances involved that I talked about an hour or two before posting it and that additional aspect ended up being left out.
After a fair bit of debating how I could go about making up for that, as well as what character/plot idea I should eventually focus on writing about next, I finally decided late this afternoon to just do a straightforward post that follows up on the idea. No extraneous background information, no fancifully meaningful title(that I could come up with), no mixing it in with a different potential topic or two—just a fairly to the point, off the cuff little exposition, kinda like I used to do from time to time.
So consider this an FA about Mitch if you want, who I had practically no intentions of doing one of these on. _______________________________________________ Tough and Rumble
Upon hearing that Brody had apparently been murdered by Clementeen and noticing her blood on Marlon’s face, Willy and Mitch were right mad and suspicious. As their leader had his battle accounts with her and she revealed his dark secret regarding the twins, the duo were among those confused as to whom they should believe on the matter—their friend or the older newcomer. They, Ruby, and AJ all stood back as the others began to move in on him once Louis/Violet stepped in from of Clementeen, likely still unsure as to how to respond to the situation outside of not wanting any of their friends to be hurt. The turning point came once Marlon proclaimed that he made the right call before and would do it again, upon which Mitch joined the others by calling him a dick. And, once Marlon had been disarmed by either himself or by Clementeen and was willing to give up his place among them, the two waited with the others as she mulled over his punishment. Then AJ blew his brains out.
Shocked with a compound of conflicted emotions, the two were both horrified, angry, and yet grievous regarding their fallen leader and friend. What he did with Sophie & Minerva was betrayal and what he did to Brody after the fact was even worse—he needed to answer for what he had done. While Ruby might’ve wanted to kick him out and Violet might’ve wanted to do something worse, they had different sorts of punishment in mind. Mitch would first and foremost say he can't be leader anymore after what he did, while Willy would probably be upset enough to agree to lock him in basement, especially once he realized Brody turned. One thing was for sure though—Marlon was dead alongside Brody and AJ needed to answer for what HE did now.
Thus the two were willing to side with Ruby in her Anti-AJ Movement and put their frustrations to use. Being rowdy enough to act as her orderly, Mitch would handle the less than mannerly legwork if it meant dealing with Marlon’s murder. Personally, he just wants AJ gone, but he’ll let Ruby do whatever it is she’s gonna do to him--long as something is being done. Willy, on the other hand, could probably be found as bashing up alongside his gruff friend for the “wrong” and/or somewhat shallow reason. He might taking AJ in and keeping him sequestered from everyone without red hair, but he’s actually in it simply because Mitch is and if actually asked about his allegiance within the faction, he’d be unsure. From a motivation angle, he misses Marlon for keeping them protected as leader, but also upset about Brody and what she had to bear because of his cowardice. And on an action-based level, which he tends to favor, he can’t decide how mad he should be towards AJ and also still has a liking to Clementeen.
Either way, while neither of the two have that much of a love for Ruby and her meanderingly pokey methods, they do agree that something needs to be done about him before someone else is blown away by deadly in-fighting.
No, he did come with me. I had to tell him that Clementine was my family though, but to get him to come with you either way, you have to either kill Larry and Ben as well as everything else in that list
No, he did come with me. I had to tell him that Clementine was my family though, but to get him to come with you either way, you have to either kill Larry and Ben as well as everything else in that list
I once did a play through just to try and get Ben and Kenny only to come with me. Now, I did absolutely everything other than killing Ben, yet he still said that there were plenty of times that I wasn't looking out for him. The only other thing that I could've thought that I had done wrong was not telling him about my past and that's because I saved Doug. So I replayed the entire season, saved Carley, told Kenny about my past, did everything to get Kenny on my side except killing Ben and I finally got Kenny to say his "I'm with you to the end" speech.
No, he did come with me. I had to tell him that Clementine was my family though, but to get him to come with you either way, you have to either kill Larry and Ben as well as everything else in that list
That's sorta bit of what happens when a big draw is partly based on it's correlation with a mascot whose own character integrity was more than definitely fickle.
Under Telltale's other problems when it comes to TWDG.
The most missed opportunity for me was AJ.
Disclaimer -- I went into the final season absolutely apathetic toward him. After his handling… more in A New Frontier, and the odd choice of reinforcing Clementine having to care for him prior to the departure of capable adults in Season 2, he was a really strange driving force for the narrative.
The Final Season had a draw that AJ would be shaped by your choices throughout the story. After playing through to the end, I'm left questioning in what way? Whether or not he uses bad words?
From the moment he's introduced in the backseat of the car, I started looking for something to bond me to him. I haven't been able to for two seasons. This season seemed to depend on that bond. I thought we'd see some of Clementine's influences on him thus far, but if it were there I clearly missed it. It seemed to me like AJ paid no mind to Clementine in anything other than in regards to survival.
A great exampl… [view original content]
Focusing her eyes as Queen gets a Grip, it's Violet!
Violet and the Bow of Leadership
As leader of Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth in the apocalypse, Marlon was in charge of keeping his fellow delinquents and Rosie safe. This involved a number of things, from taking down the road signs leading to the school, to assigning everyone their duties, to mapping out a safe zone. And, when circumstances required a more violent touch, he'd pull out his trademark gray and vermillion steel bow. It was with this bow that he defended the school from deadheads and very possibly have passed down some of his acquired skill to his ward on lookout Willy. Ironically, he would be without his trusting weapon over the course of the stormy evening that would prove to be his reveal and his last--though it's also worth noting another critical time where he failed to make use of it: during a hunting trip gone wrong, a group of raiders intercepted the party and were traded Tenn's twin sisters in exchange for letting the others be.
Thus one of the things that struck as something of a red flag in the trailer for Suffer the Children was the shot of Clementeen and AJ walking through the woods. Walking several steps behind them are Louis & Violet and whereas the former is armed with Charles as usual, the latter is carrying Marlon's bow. This is a bizarre detail because, as of the previous night, Violet officially had a very personal reason to hate it's original owner: Sophie and Minerva, were given away because she swapped out at the last minute and Marlon was too much of a coward to do anything about it. Instead, he choose to tell everyone that they were killed by walkers and made Brody to promise that they keep what really happened a secret for the sake of the group. This meant Tenn lost two sisters, Violet lost her girlfriend, and the group lost two of it's most beloved members.
With the episode's proper release date eventually arrived and full context on it's contents now accessible, the events that transpired during the entire scene became known: Louis and Violet were escorting Clementeen and AJ away from the school after a vote spearheaded by Mitch was slanted against them 5 to 3. After saying their goodbyes and heading back the way they came, the two would hear a commotion not very long afterwards. Turning around just to make sure their evictees weren't in trouble, they saw the two being held by the raider man who they encountered while retrieving food from the nearby train station and his partner Lilith. Having acompanied Abel with the intention of making another deal with the late Marlon, she decided to to force Clementeen to help them recruit all of the delinquent to their cause in exchange for being welcomed into their community. Deducing that the duo had a tough way of going about their practical mission, Violet readied the bow to arrow one of them at Clementeen's permission. Thus, it became clear that while there was indeed a reason for the bow to be there, there was however not a reason as to why Violet was carrying it in the first place.
It would have been a neater alternative if during this earlier sequence of events, Violet instead wielded her cleaver with Louis carrying the bow in memory of his fallen friend. But upon hearing their escorts scream for help, the two would reappear only for it to be seen that Louis passed it to her during their turnaround for reasons that would be revealed later in the episode. Or perhaps as an interesting workaround, the two could've at least be seen pausing on the way out to arm themselves for the walk of shame. And while Louis picks up Chairles with no hint of his usual joviality, Violet would opt reach for Marlon's bow for practicalties sake only to hesitate for a few seconds before picking up it in silent disillusion. Due to being crossed multiple times by his actions and supposedly sharing a bit of Aasim's pragmatic approach to things, it could have made for an interesting character arc if Violet was shown to struggle with stepping into the void left behind by Marlon. After [determinantly] being recommended for the recasted role due to sitting in the Headmaster's chair, Violet would gain some demonstrated development by stepping the fuck up and acting as the next leader of a politically and emotionally split group. And the unique bow represents how he was supposed to give his fellow students hope after being left behind by most of the adults and now she would claim it as a symbol of all of the desperate misleading and stressful responsibility the mantle had for over seven years. And if it continues to be an emotional discomfort, she could always pass on using that old quiver and create one of her own design--perhaps one that is violet with grey accents.
Been a little while since I did or consciously planned anything here--about ten days exactly, if I'm not mistaken. In this case, it's not due to any major business or writer's block; I just was spending time on other things and also happened to have burned through most of the major topics I had on recent priority with the last one. There are a few more on the list I posted or teased elsewhere that I could get to, as well as numerous others I have in an old(?) WordPad that I may finally do in the future, but it's not a conscious thing-to-do in the current agenda.
As a filler post if I see the need/want/whim for one, there is a slightly dummied out factoid with a previous post that would be really simple to talk about. I don't really have a envisioning scenario staged out for it, but I suppose I could either not bother for once in a great while, make up something inconsequential that might get the idea across, or more conveniently, just place it in the alternate continuity I kinda created in the last handful so it could actual have a meaningful application. Idk, just random not-so-random musing at this point.
Fun Fact: The Unbiased Vote, which was focused on Omar, had a couple of minor details that were taken advantage of in order to develop him. The post itself played up his reserved demeanor, hesitance to distrust Clementeen, and lack of a real opinion on AJ being dangerous in order to arrange a hub interaction that served to give his character some screentime, as well as parallel his condition at the end of the episode. There was another factoid that is alluded, but was originally intended to be one of the bigger connections for his character: his friendship with Louis. This, in the context of The Unbiased Vote, would have been suggested to be an extra motivator as to why he ultimately voted for Marlon's killer to leave. However, I ultimately decided to cut that element late in the writing process, though it technically ended up being severely downplayed.
So, as a neat little filler post, I decided to write about just the duo themselves. _______________________________________________
Omar and Louis
After helping the Ericson Quartet clear the road of deadheads for the Hunting Party, Clementeen decides to help AJ make some new friends while waiting for dinner to be ready. Upon first approaching Louis and the Chef himself during this hub, they are labeled as "Louis and friend" by the HUD. Interestingly enough, while this is a simple way of identifying a character that hadn't been introduced yet, this is also more or less the general theme of how the other delinquents are arranged. The stressed leaders Marlon & Brody are sitting on the front steps of the school talking with each other, the quietly coping Violet & Tenn are sadly paying their respects at the acting graves of the twins, and the rowdy weirdos Mitch & Willy are hanging out on some sofas while the former carves a knife; the only outliers are Ruby and Aasim, who relax off to themselves at a bonfire & desk seemingly by choice and even they seem to enter a relationship at the end of the season with Aasim making the first move. And given that Brody is also identified as "friend" despite her name being spoken(though Mitch's isn't, for some reason), one would think there is some connection/commonality between the Omar and his commentator counterpart.
What is peculiar about about this friendship is how the two involved are fairly different, unlike some of the other pairs. Now on a surface level, both are African-American, have a head full of dreads, are dressed in brown coats and boats. But when it comes to their temperaments and energies, Louis is outgoing, playful, and a general truant while Omar is soft-spoken, solemn, and a perfectionist when it comes to cooking. As such, it makes sense that when the two interact with each other, there's a deadpan bit of annoyance from how the other conducts themselves. But still, the two make an point to get along despite that because they care about each other.
It would have been nice to see more instances of their interactions and association throughout the story. For example, both seem to have an interest in the arts, so they may have bonded over discussions of the old world's culture and a desire to preserve it in decidedly uncivilized times. In the event Marlon's sentence was up to his fellow delinquents, it's possible that Omar would probably abstain from placing judgment, likely for Louis's sake. And once Omar was sniped in the leg by Dorian and thus a sitting duck for being captured by the Delta, it might've been interesting for Louis to explain why Omar decided to keep a lucky rabbit's foot if he was saved from capture himself. In the end, showcasing the connections between the delinquents could've lent to more background and the feeling that Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth is still a community.
Given the general recent times, I've got a few ideas and movements I'd like to do regarding threads like these. Back first, I'd like to dedicate this post to actually reposting someone else's idea since I happened upon it again and previously thought was an interesting idea.
Lack of Benumbing
(Contemplating not hesitating is Uncomfortable)
I think Carley should have had her own mini-arc the way Doug did rather than just being used to further Lee's development. One idea I threw around a few months back was an inner conflict taking root as the group begins to fight against human beings. I'd allude to the conflict at the end of Episode 2 where Carley would be more silent and contemplative as they trek back to the motor inn, and when Lee questions it, she mentions that she's never actually fired at a human before until Andy. She says that she feels a bit uncomfortable about her lack of hesitation in trying to shoot another person in the head, and wonders if killing so many zombies has her growing numb to killing itself, alluding to the theme of the dividing line between killing zombies and killing humans.
Then, in Episode 3, there would be a dialogue choice to ask her how she's holding up, like there was with Doug, and she would mention the fact that she's killed several bandits during the off-screen attacks between Episodes 2 and 3. Carley then tells Lee that she now has her answer to her question from Episode 2, and that no, she's not growing numb to killing, because each death at her hands takes its toll on her. She notes the power of a gun, in that it's quick and easy in the moment, but the memory doesn't go away, and thus it also leaves long-lasting consequences. This would be capped off by a brief shot of Carley looking sadly at what she's done after killing three bandits before the attack begins (replacing the rather pointless act of trying to shoot the escaping bandit).
This could potentially be significant in a number of ways from a narrative standpoint. In the short run, it would serve as a cold buildup to her being shot in such an abrupt manner with no hesitation from Lilly, much like how Doug's questioning of his abilities alluded to him changing and then dying like a hero. And in the long run, it could be the impetus for one of the final bits of advice Lee gives to Clementine about only using the gun when it's absolutely necessary should the final choice be leaving him behind rather than shooting him, with Lee repeating what Carley said about the memory never fading, and that he doesn't want Clementine to have to do that.
I mentioned this in the anything thread already, but I suppose it's appropriate to mention it here: I have been gradually moving my Failed Aspirations to Deviantart during the period when this community went out for a few days, though most of the recent ones were inaccessible through Wayback Machine and even Google Cache during that time.
Of course, I have some yet to be completed ones that I was intending on putting here as well, so I'll make a mental note of doing the same with them. I'll be generous this time and give away a bit on the next ones I had planned: one was an ANF topic I'd been sitting on for the longest time after an old conversation/tangent with @Louche and then there are a few Season 2 ones I wanna do and/or expand on--one of which I sorta promised to do on suggestion. Sorry to make you wait, Caba!
Comments
Head of red with an occasional pissy fit, it's Ruby!
Ruby's Repercussion
Ruby is a Southern girl with a fiery temper, a big heart, and a strong sense of dignity. The first aspect is obvious in how it often shows a mean streak a mile wide when she is provoked and the third trait shows in just sensistive she is to being offended. But it is the second attribute that drives both deep down and thus can easily be seen as the real gemstone. Indeed, Ruby puts a lot of value in one's ability to mind their manners and is easily won over by seeing one return such in kind. Thus, it should come as little surprise that she is the acting Medic of Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth, among other talents. Though in spite of how relatively wellrounded she can be, it seems like she doesn't get much exercise compared to the others.
Indeed, just as her fat appearance suggests she doesn't do much for the group, Ruby doesn't really factor into the actual narrative very much. Compared to main leads like Violet, notable supports like Aasim, or even different minor parts like Omar, her characterization is one that primarily has ancillary moments that are memorable and hint at a greater potential beyond her nebulous importance. Perhaps as a natural extension of that, Ruby would go on to have quite a number of further moments on the side throughout the rest of the Season, with a considerable amount of backstory being given in the second. Having hunted wild boars and tended to horses alongside her father in her youth, Ruby would eventually be enlisted into the school for severe and near uncontrollable anger issues. After a considerable tenure of terrorizing the faculty with her explosive aggression, it was the school's nurse Ms. Martin who rehabilited her in addition to sharing both her craft and her love for horticulture in the Greenhouse. It was her close friendship that made Ruby the asset she is today and showed her the power of reformation through structure.
When Clementeen first meets Ruby outside of the piano room, she comes to face her incidentally coarse yet well-known temper. The chubby redhead was in a right tizzy over AJ biting her palm, having approached the "little motherfucker" from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. If eanerstly told that he's been through a lot and tends to act out, she retorts that all of the students have and yet none of them tries to sink their teeth into either of the two--commenting that the boy needs learn some respect. However, if Clementeen tries to not believe it or accuses her of provoking him, Ruby views her as having some nerve to deflect blame(ignoring the bite mark on her own palm in the former instance) and tells her to screw off. Or in the event she doesn't respond one way or the other, Ruby proclaims to see where AJ learned it from and assumes she'll have something to say when she's the one getting bit. Still upset with the two visitors about her stinging hand, Ruby continues to storm her way out of the building.
Later that evening, after Brody's Hunting Party returns with hares for Omar to cook into a stew, Ruby stands off to herself around a campfire, unlike the other delinquents. Seemingly unbeknowst to her, she becomes the subject of a talk between Clementeen and AJ. Describes her scary and always seeming so mad, the latter is afraid to attempt an apology for biting her earlier. However, after receiving the encouragement for being able to do it, AJ leads into a talk with her using his attained advice:
Either way, she hesitates before agreeing to forgive him--appropriately thanking him for the compliments, charmingly calling him a little weirdo, notably assuring his honesty by admitting that they all get a little crazy when scared, or simply responding that they're good. This acceptance of his apology smooths over AJ's anxiousness around her, which in turn sees him hang around for a bit to give her some company and gives him the courage to apologize to Marlon.
While their little makeup assures that she doesn't bare him any hard feelings for their introduction, the events of the next couple of days would see the boy and his guardian continue to cause Ruby some discomfort or even horror. Once Louis signals everyone that the food is ready, he joins her, Marlon, Clementeen, and AJ at a dinner table. Seeing AJ slurping down his stew and Louis start a burping match, she starts to get disgusted at their lack of table manners. If Clementeen(and/or Marlon) joins in, she get fed up and walks away, flipping them off as she does. If she tells him to eat slowly, however, Ruby approvingly informs him that just because everything else died doesn't mean manners did and says goodnight. The following night, when AJ confronts Marlon at gunpoint during a thunderstorm, Ruby bears witness to the latter's breaking down claims against Clementeen and vice versa. Hearing Marlon's accusation that she killed Brody and his recounting of everything he's done for them compared to her, Ruby questions why she would do that to her and reluctantly starts to side with him on the grounds that they don't know her. However, she is horrified once the latter reveals his explotative actions towards not only Brody, but for giving away Sophie and Minerva as well; she is also first to take on offended outrage when he proclaims that he'd trade away any of them to raiders again. But ultimately, she would be one of the many who is at a loss for words when AJ shoots Marlon in the back of the head.
As a result of the developments that ended in her and her fellow peers witnessing Marlon being murder, it comes with little surprise that Ruby would panic at the sight, tearfully try to deal with the body, and later becomes uncomfortable with AJ's presence. Particularly predisposed to mad concern given what she's seen of him at that point, it was safe to assume that she would take serious issue with AJ's overall behavior. She could have coordinated the backlash in deciding how to handle him for the time being, acting as a third overall movement within their small, now splitting community. As a unofficial director of the faction, she could potentially have Mitch and Willy serving as her main muscle, while Louis and Omar are more on the fence--all due to conflicting feelings regarding both the shooter and his targer.
Leaving the matter of the bigger issues and repercussions of the reveals to Violet and Aasim, Ruby would essentially put the precocious Alvie on probation, if not outright locking him up altogether, while she deals with the source of the problem. Not that she overly dislikes AJ himself, but she does see the necessitity of figuring out a way to deal with what he did. Thus, she could begin by addressing what motivated him to go that far and perhaps even deconstruct the way he had to be to raised. After all, his biting actions towards both her and Marlon has to essentially be a reflex, possibly a more hostile form of PTSD.
Uh, define prominent?
Cause if you mean main or heavily featured, it doesn't have to be them. It can be whoever you want.
So certain at the end there.
Why Mitch?
Well Mitch was kinda random he wasnt super wasted but i felt they could've done more with him,made him determinant.
Things like the choice of burning or burying the nurse's body didnt matter because he just dies later,it makes you wonder why that choice even exist.
Hmph.
Choices like that feel like they're just as much about demonstrating the player's approach as they are siding/appealing with another character. It's particularly notable in that case consider how inherently callous and wasteful siding with him there is.
The Cabin Group is the 400 Days Cast
Gonna do something a little different here for variety. During my first year here, I pitched a Cabin Group version of 400 Days with general suggestions of how to set up and flesh out their backstories. Here are each of the excerpts:
Pragmatic in long-term strategizing and setting up traps, it's Aasim!
Pragmatic Alliance
Aasim was something of a breakout character when Done Running premiered, having a definite voice and getting the most development of the delinquents outside of the Ericson Quartet; one might even be surprised by how less involved he was in the third act. Levelheaded, pragmatic, and forward thinking, he often looked for ways to ensure the group's continued survival. As such, he was the only one who recognized how bad they were actually doing in the longrun and found himself annoyed by their lack of improvement. Thus, he wasn't afraid to question Marlon's leadership choices and recommended scouting outside the increasingly shrinking safezone.
He is a relatively proactive survivor when it comes to his mindset, even keeping a diary that he prefers to think of as a history book preserving the mistakes of the past. He also generally prefers practical methods of accomplishing tasks, believing in mundane solutions to any given problem. And despite his grumpy demeanor at times, he can also be fairly patient about actually meeting their daily survival quota by not sweating letting any rabbits escape due to personally feeling they can be hard to hit and seeing higher gains from letting them continue to grow. As a consistent part of Brody's Hunting Party, he primarily uses bows and the tie-marked snare traps Louis made to hunt rabbits or the occasional deadhead in the forest. Speaking of Louis, Aasim often clashes with him due to their contrasting personalities and philosophies.
Flippant, upbeat, and extroverted in his performance, Louis is essentially the opposite of the self-serious, sometimes intolerant and private technician. Aasim prefers to play the long game with a variety of contingency plans for the future, whereas Louis prefers to live in the moment out of feeling secure in the short term. As such, Aasim is often annoyed with the merry jokester that easily rebutts his criticisms. To say nothing of inherently disapproving of Louis's longtime friendship with Marlon, referring to him as a lapdog. Given the clear distinction between the two in the as well as their view of Marlon, combined with how two-sided many conflicts and choices tend to be, there might be an odd thought as to why he didn't have Violet's position in the narrative--or rather vice versa, during the Hunting scenario.
Well apparently someone brandishing a pen thought the same because Violet ended up taking the head role over both opposing Marlon&Louis on top of the entire group--Aasim just dropped outta prominence in the following episode. Aasim was previously the most likely to become the new leader(or at least the closest thing to one) and direct the group into improving their survival plans by sprucing thing up and preparing for potential attacks now that the biggest obstacle to that had been then-externally dealt with. Instead, he would spend it indirectly supporting her by disagreeing with Mitch's excessive judgment and alternately being humanized--which usually isn't a bad thing, mind, but it would perhaps be more accurate for one to deem his scenes as taking the piss out of him. This includes, but isn't limited to getting into arguments with Willy, getting punched in the stomach for belittling him, being teased about his crush on Ruby, and even being dared to kiss either her or a literal deadhead on a pike. He also has his identity as the third vote in favor of letting AJ stay left up in the air and is unceremoniously captured by the Deltas offscreen--honestly, it's easy he think he died until the results screen. At the very least, fellow supporting cast members Ruby, Mitch, and to an extent Willy were able to get some development, but it's unfortunate how what screentime he got underlined how shunted he was into the background. Poor guy got demoted pretty noticeably when the stage seemed set for him make an official transition into office.
And then there's the conduct or rather conducting of the actual seatholder, who despite her role had her own bit of trouble. Skimming over much of the other aspects that can make her weird to actually talk about in a resourceful/critical manner, Violet was just kinda on the side for most of the episode. Despite having her supposed position essentially given to her, she does very little..., well, leading beyond forcing Mitch to help retrieve barbed wire from the greenhouse, telling Louis to block off a hallway, and determinantly settling his argument with Willy. And outside of occasionally being the character who supports Clementeen & opposing concern for the person who sorta put them in their discoursed conditions in the first place, she otherwise sees minimal focus despite being a main character. This is also keeping in mind that she's acting as the counterpart to Louis, who goes through his own layered character arc of dealing with his feelings regarding his lost best friend. As a result, it's not hard to conclude that her becoming the new leader was basically just a way to make her standout nominally as important.
Collectively, there is in fact a pragmatic method of helping both characters see sufficient screentime--a joint effort! In previous Seasons, it has been somewhat customary for the story to have the leadership of the main group divided and/or vied between two top members--one who is more personable and another who is strict, with either one being some variant of rash and/or prudent. Another benefit from this setup would be actually having time to focus on Violet as a character/person as the two get more involved with directing the Boarding School in preparing for the Delta's upcoming raid. Even with the fact that Violet and Aasim are both relatively introverted and practical individuals, there are still some key differences between the two that would allow such a duumverate to cater to their strengths and weaknesses. For his part, Aasim often encourages others think rationally, even managing to soothe Willy so he could attend Brody and Marlon's funeral, and thus doesn't like acknowledging his own feelings. However, he tends to be irritated when they let their emotions or whims drive them, which means he has trouble dealing with Louis and Willy--ironically proving to still be a bit naturally immature himself. He also isn't not too big a fan of direct confrontation, disliking having to deal with walkers or perhaps physical work in general: as such, he is more suited for an advisory take on the role. By contrast, Violet is ironically recognized as being capable of handling those sorts of things head on and has zero problem calling out the imperfections of pretty much anything, which makes her something of a disciplinarian. Thus, Aasim could handle overall strategies and reinforcements to the school, while Violet manages the group members themselves by making sure they actually get stuff done.
Well, this is kind of a broad thing to ask. Ripping Lilly's throat out it technically a missed opportunity.
The most missed opportunity for me was AJ.
Disclaimer -- I went into the final season absolutely apathetic toward him. After his handling in A New Frontier, and the odd choice of reinforcing Clementine having to care for him prior to the departure of capable adults in Season 2, he was a really strange driving force for the narrative.
The Final Season had a draw that AJ would be shaped by your choices throughout the story. After playing through to the end, I'm left questioning in what way? Whether or not he uses bad words?
From the moment he's introduced in the backseat of the car, I started looking for something to bond me to him. I haven't been able to for two seasons. This season seemed to depend on that bond. I thought we'd see some of Clementine's influences on him thus far, but if it were there I clearly missed it. It seemed to me like AJ paid no mind to Clementine in anything other than in regards to survival.
A great example from Season One comes from Kenny after Clementine is taken by the Stranger. Unknown to players at that time, Kenny had a tally keeping tabs on whether or not the player backed him up when he felt he needed it. If the player didn't, he might not go along to rescue Clementine or might need convincing to risk his life for someone that didn't seem to have his well being in mind at all.
I was really hoping they might do something like that with AJ.
That’s the one thing that pissed me off about season 1, the Kenny tally. I sided with him throughout the entire season, made sure I racked up all of his points, but when it came to killing Larry or Ben, that’s what makes him go with you either way, as long as you sided with him on all other occasions. Like wtf, I saved your son and you won’t come with me unless I helped drop a kid from a bell tower and took your side instead of Lilly’s?
“There’ve been plenty of times when you ain’t been” like wtf was he talking about? I took his side on literally every occasion aside from those two.
I never killed Ben and Kenny still came for me.
I like to think that's not a developer mishap.
That was to show how much of a megalomanaical asshole Kenny was.
In real life there's people that exist like Kenny.
Actually, I'm pretty sure you can get him to come along while saving both Larry and Ben.
You must have helped with Larry’s death then
Nah, I’ve went through multiple playthroughs making sure that I side with Kenny on every choice, aside from whether I should kill Ben or Larry, and he was still conflicted. After doing a google search, it turns out that to get him to come with you 100% you need to side with him over Lilly, defend Duck in the drugstore, save Duck, shoot duck, feed duck and Clementine at the motor inn and don’t shoot the girl outside of the drugstore in ep 3. Now I chose all of those choices, but Kenny still wasn’t on my good side for some reason, so that left the last two: kill Larry and/or Ben.
Did you say that Lee views Clementine as family to Kenny?
No, I said that Kenny likes it if you feed both Clementine and Duck at the motor inn
No, if you say that dialogue option, Kenny will come with you.
Oooooh. Yeah, I had to say that to him so that he’d come. But there’s a way where he’ll come with you either way, depending on if lee wants him to or not
Does this help?
https://telltale.com/community/discussion/98035/walking-dead-how-to-get-kenny-to-come-with-you-in-around-every-corner
You know, when I saw there were a lucky seven number of comments here in one day, I was kinda hoping one of them would be an idea. Instead, it's Kenny talk.
Tch, ah well.
Nah. I definitely did all of that aside from killing Ben/Larry
You're not the only person to make that complaint and I'm wondering if it's a glitch or vice versa.
If you killed Ben and Larry, then he would have come with you. You have not fulfilled the criterion.
Yeah... Kenny never comes with me for that exact reason. I can understand Larry's death, as surviving a full blown heart attack with no hospital is impossible, but Ben? Nah man, I ain't killing a teen.
I didn't kill Ben and didn't even rob the stuff from the station wagon. Yet he still came
Yes I did kill Larry. Still not regretting it.
Neither did I on my 'good' playhthrough, but because I hoped for all characters helping me find Clementine, I especially chose the line 'Clementine is like family' for Kenny.
Okay, so I’m gonna do something a little different here, so if you wanna count it, it sorta is.
Fun fact: When I was working out some of the important details of what Ruby’s Repercussion was gonna involve, I at one point and another intended to set aside some flavor text on Mitch & Willy and their respective takes on what Ruby was trying to do with AJ. But of course, as you could see, that ended up not happening. The background information on her characterization that I’ve been using to set the tone for what I intended to do with her in the actual material ended up being far more cumbersome than I had intended. Combine that with the actual process and the circumstances involved that I talked about an hour or two before posting it and that additional aspect ended up being left out.
After a fair bit of debating how I could go about making up for that, as well as what character/plot idea I should eventually focus on writing about next, I finally decided late this afternoon to just do a straightforward post that follows up on the idea. No extraneous background information, no fancifully meaningful title(that I could come up with), no mixing it in with a different potential topic or two—just a fairly to the point, off the cuff little exposition, kinda like I used to do from time to time.
So consider this an FA about Mitch if you want, who I had practically no intentions of doing one of these on.
_______________________________________________
Tough and Rumble
Upon hearing that Brody had apparently been murdered by Clementeen and noticing her blood on Marlon’s face, Willy and Mitch were right mad and suspicious. As their leader had his battle accounts with her and she revealed his dark secret regarding the twins, the duo were among those confused as to whom they should believe on the matter—their friend or the older newcomer. They, Ruby, and AJ all stood back as the others began to move in on him once Louis/Violet stepped in from of Clementeen, likely still unsure as to how to respond to the situation outside of not wanting any of their friends to be hurt. The turning point came once Marlon proclaimed that he made the right call before and would do it again, upon which Mitch joined the others by calling him a dick. And, once Marlon had been disarmed by either himself or by Clementeen and was willing to give up his place among them, the two waited with the others as she mulled over his punishment. Then AJ blew his brains out.
Shocked with a compound of conflicted emotions, the two were both horrified, angry, and yet grievous regarding their fallen leader and friend. What he did with Sophie & Minerva was betrayal and what he did to Brody after the fact was even worse—he needed to answer for what he had done. While Ruby might’ve wanted to kick him out and Violet might’ve wanted to do something worse, they had different sorts of punishment in mind. Mitch would first and foremost say he can't be leader anymore after what he did, while Willy would probably be upset enough to agree to lock him in basement, especially once he realized Brody turned. One thing was for sure though—Marlon was dead alongside Brody and AJ needed to answer for what HE did now.
Thus the two were willing to side with Ruby in her Anti-AJ Movement and put their frustrations to use. Being rowdy enough to act as her orderly, Mitch would handle the less than mannerly legwork if it meant dealing with Marlon’s murder. Personally, he just wants AJ gone, but he’ll let Ruby do whatever it is she’s gonna do to him--long as something is being done. Willy, on the other hand, could probably be found as bashing up alongside his gruff friend for the “wrong” and/or somewhat shallow reason. He might taking AJ in and keeping him sequestered from everyone without red hair, but he’s actually in it simply because Mitch is and if actually asked about his allegiance within the faction, he’d be unsure. From a motivation angle, he misses Marlon for keeping them protected as leader, but also upset about Brody and what she had to bear because of his cowardice. And on an action-based level, which he tends to favor, he can’t decide how mad he should be towards AJ and also still has a liking to Clementeen.
Either way, while neither of the two have that much of a love for Ruby and her meanderingly pokey methods, they do agree that something needs to be done about him before someone else is blown away by deadly in-fighting.
No, he did come with me. I had to tell him that Clementine was my family though, but to get him to come with you either way, you have to either kill Larry and Ben as well as everything else in that list
The station wagon doesn’t count towards it so that must be why he came with you then
Oh, I see. My apologies.
No worries
I once did a play through just to try and get Ben and Kenny only to come with me. Now, I did absolutely everything other than killing Ben, yet he still said that there were plenty of times that I wasn't looking out for him. The only other thing that I could've thought that I had done wrong was not telling him about my past and that's because I saved Doug. So I replayed the entire season, saved Carley, told Kenny about my past, did everything to get Kenny on my side except killing Ben and I finally got Kenny to say his "I'm with you to the end" speech.
That's sorta bit of what happens when a big draw is partly based on it's correlation with a mascot whose own character integrity was more than definitely fickle.
Under Telltale's other problems when it comes to TWDG.
Focusing her eyes as Queen gets a Grip, it's Violet!
Violet and the Bow of Leadership
As leader of Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth in the apocalypse, Marlon was in charge of keeping his fellow delinquents and Rosie safe. This involved a number of things, from taking down the road signs leading to the school, to assigning everyone their duties, to mapping out a safe zone. And, when circumstances required a more violent touch, he'd pull out his trademark gray and vermillion steel bow. It was with this bow that he defended the school from deadheads and very possibly have passed down some of his acquired skill to his ward on lookout Willy. Ironically, he would be without his trusting weapon over the course of the stormy evening that would prove to be his reveal and his last--though it's also worth noting another critical time where he failed to make use of it: during a hunting trip gone wrong, a group of raiders intercepted the party and were traded Tenn's twin sisters in exchange for letting the others be.
Thus one of the things that struck as something of a red flag in the trailer for Suffer the Children was the shot of Clementeen and AJ walking through the woods. Walking several steps behind them are Louis & Violet and whereas the former is armed with Charles as usual, the latter is carrying Marlon's bow. This is a bizarre detail because, as of the previous night, Violet officially had a very personal reason to hate it's original owner: Sophie and Minerva, were given away because she swapped out at the last minute and Marlon was too much of a coward to do anything about it. Instead, he choose to tell everyone that they were killed by walkers and made Brody to promise that they keep what really happened a secret for the sake of the group. This meant Tenn lost two sisters, Violet lost her girlfriend, and the group lost two of it's most beloved members.
With the episode's proper release date eventually arrived and full context on it's contents now accessible, the events that transpired during the entire scene became known: Louis and Violet were escorting Clementeen and AJ away from the school after a vote spearheaded by Mitch was slanted against them 5 to 3. After saying their goodbyes and heading back the way they came, the two would hear a commotion not very long afterwards. Turning around just to make sure their evictees weren't in trouble, they saw the two being held by the raider man who they encountered while retrieving food from the nearby train station and his partner Lilith. Having acompanied Abel with the intention of making another deal with the late Marlon, she decided to to force Clementeen to help them recruit all of the delinquent to their cause in exchange for being welcomed into their community. Deducing that the duo had a tough way of going about their practical mission, Violet readied the bow to arrow one of them at Clementeen's permission. Thus, it became clear that while there was indeed a reason for the bow to be there, there was however not a reason as to why Violet was carrying it in the first place.
It would have been a neater alternative if during this earlier sequence of events, Violet instead wielded her cleaver with Louis carrying the bow in memory of his fallen friend. But upon hearing their escorts scream for help, the two would reappear only for it to be seen that Louis passed it to her during their turnaround for reasons that would be revealed later in the episode. Or perhaps as an interesting workaround, the two could've at least be seen pausing on the way out to arm themselves for the walk of shame. And while Louis picks up Chairles with no hint of his usual joviality, Violet would opt reach for Marlon's bow for practicalties sake only to hesitate for a few seconds before picking up it in silent disillusion. Due to being crossed multiple times by his actions and supposedly sharing a bit of Aasim's pragmatic approach to things, it could have made for an interesting character arc if Violet was shown to struggle with stepping into the void left behind by Marlon. After [determinantly] being recommended for the recasted role due to sitting in the Headmaster's chair, Violet would gain some demonstrated development by stepping the fuck up and acting as the next leader of a politically and emotionally split group. And the unique bow represents how he was supposed to give his fellow students hope after being left behind by most of the adults and now she would claim it as a symbol of all of the desperate misleading and stressful responsibility the mantle had for over seven years. And if it continues to be an emotional discomfort, she could always pass on using that old quiver and create one of her own design--perhaps one that is violet with grey accents.
Been a little while since I did or consciously planned anything here--about ten days exactly, if I'm not mistaken. In this case, it's not due to any major business or writer's block; I just was spending time on other things and also happened to have burned through most of the major topics I had on recent priority with the last one. There are a few more on the list I posted or teased elsewhere that I could get to, as well as numerous others I have in an old(?) WordPad that I may finally do in the future, but it's not a conscious thing-to-do in the current agenda.
As a filler post if I see the need/want/whim for one, there is a slightly dummied out factoid with a previous post that would be really simple to talk about. I don't really have a envisioning scenario staged out for it, but I suppose I could either not bother for once in a great while, make up something inconsequential that might get the idea across, or more conveniently, just place it in the alternate continuity I kinda created in the last handful so it could actual have a meaningful application. Idk, just random not-so-random musing at this point.
Fun Fact: The Unbiased Vote, which was focused on Omar, had a couple of minor details that were taken advantage of in order to develop him. The post itself played up his reserved demeanor, hesitance to distrust Clementeen, and lack of a real opinion on AJ being dangerous in order to arrange a hub interaction that served to give his character some screentime, as well as parallel his condition at the end of the episode. There was another factoid that is alluded, but was originally intended to be one of the bigger connections for his character: his friendship with Louis. This, in the context of The Unbiased Vote, would have been suggested to be an extra motivator as to why he ultimately voted for Marlon's killer to leave. However, I ultimately decided to cut that element late in the writing process, though it technically ended up being severely downplayed.
So, as a neat little filler post, I decided to write about just the duo themselves.
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Omar and Louis
After helping the Ericson Quartet clear the road of deadheads for the Hunting Party, Clementeen decides to help AJ make some new friends while waiting for dinner to be ready. Upon first approaching Louis and the Chef himself during this hub, they are labeled as "Louis and friend" by the HUD. Interestingly enough, while this is a simple way of identifying a character that hadn't been introduced yet, this is also more or less the general theme of how the other delinquents are arranged. The stressed leaders Marlon & Brody are sitting on the front steps of the school talking with each other, the quietly coping Violet & Tenn are sadly paying their respects at the acting graves of the twins, and the rowdy weirdos Mitch & Willy are hanging out on some sofas while the former carves a knife; the only outliers are Ruby and Aasim, who relax off to themselves at a bonfire & desk seemingly by choice and even they seem to enter a relationship at the end of the season with Aasim making the first move. And given that Brody is also identified as "friend" despite her name being spoken(though Mitch's isn't, for some reason), one would think there is some connection/commonality between the Omar and his commentator counterpart.
What is peculiar about about this friendship is how the two involved are fairly different, unlike some of the other pairs. Now on a surface level, both are African-American, have a head full of dreads, are dressed in brown coats and boats. But when it comes to their temperaments and energies, Louis is outgoing, playful, and a general truant while Omar is soft-spoken, solemn, and a perfectionist when it comes to cooking. As such, it makes sense that when the two interact with each other, there's a deadpan bit of annoyance from how the other conducts themselves. But still, the two make an point to get along despite that because they care about each other.
It would have been nice to see more instances of their interactions and association throughout the story. For example, both seem to have an interest in the arts, so they may have bonded over discussions of the old world's culture and a desire to preserve it in decidedly uncivilized times. In the event Marlon's sentence was up to his fellow delinquents, it's possible that Omar would probably abstain from placing judgment, likely for Louis's sake. And once Omar was sniped in the leg by Dorian and thus a sitting duck for being captured by the Delta, it might've been interesting for Louis to explain why Omar decided to keep a lucky rabbit's foot if he was saved from capture himself. In the end, showcasing the connections between the delinquents could've lent to more background and the feeling that Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth is still a community.
Given the general recent times, I've got a few ideas and movements I'd like to do regarding threads like these. Back first, I'd like to dedicate this post to actually reposting someone else's idea since I happened upon it again and previously thought was an interesting idea.
Lack of Benumbing
(Contemplating not hesitating is Uncomfortable)
Credit to @damkylan
I mentioned this in the anything thread already, but I suppose it's appropriate to mention it here: I have been gradually moving my Failed Aspirations to Deviantart during the period when this community went out for a few days, though most of the recent ones were inaccessible through Wayback Machine and even Google Cache during that time.
Of course, I have some yet to be completed ones that I was intending on putting here as well, so I'll make a mental note of doing the same with them. I'll be generous this time and give away a bit on the next ones I had planned: one was an ANF topic I'd been sitting on for the longest time after an old conversation/tangent with @Louche and then there are a few Season 2 ones I wanna do and/or expand on--one of which I sorta promised to do on suggestion. Sorry to make you wait, Caba!