Why Season 2 never lives up to Season 1,s excellence
Season 2 has characters with interesting tropes and conflicts but barely gives player time to empathize with them and their conflicts infact most of the conversations are used to push the plot forward not give character Development.This is in the case of practically everyone in the house in episode 1.Pete who had potential to be a great character just gives us a bit of interesting backstory before he dies (honorable mentions are for carlos and sarah)There were so many things that could have been explored about each characters but it simply doesnt happen instead more and more rushed characters.Season 1 gave us a mere handfull of characters and did absolute wonders with them i CARED of what they did ,what they have been through and in time their deaths.Not saying that it couldnt have been pulled of with all of them but all of season 2, characters are mostly wasted main characters are fillers and their deaths mean as much to me as mark,s death in s1 episode 2(they dont,).No surprise that only Kenny and clementine seemed to be the best characters.But i give this much credit saying they were excellent performances but telltale should remember performances dont substitute for real character development.
Cinematically and graphically yes season 2 is better than season 1.But the thing i thought that season 1 executed perfectly was its harsh and unforgiving tone .Deaths were handled much better in s1 which made deaths of lee and duck be apparent to the player way before they die and still you would feel very sad as they progressed towards them.Season 1 balanced the inevitable and shock value to deliver the tone masterfully.Season 2 goes all over the place with shock value so much that it doesnt "shock" that much any more.infact i dont even i know what the tone was in season 2(it goes from happy to sad like a see-saw)
3.Telltale,s death cliche" that felt unapparent in season 1 makes characters in season 2 feel even more useless i save nick from being killed by having blah blah .. then after an episode of not doing nothing he ends up exactly as he would have if i hadnt saved him.So basically save one guy who you didnt care about and prepare to see another guy who you didnt care about die.This was not the case in case of carley/doug in season 1.Their death meant something in regards whether they were eaten or killed(carley especially)
4.Clementine-summary of what she does in this season-saving idiotic and irresponsible adults while battling psychotic adults and walkers while dealing with a depressed broken yet functional kenny.Seriously i never felt her grow her as a character throughout the season as much in episode 1(when she patched herself up and everything before that)after that you stays the same and you dont feel grow until the very end (the loner ending ie )
5.Kenny-Kenny in season 1 was one of the most tragic characters i have ever seen -Selfish reckless but loyal to loved ones as a dog.One good note for this season is that by introducing a clear cut bad villian like carver (who anyone sane would never sympathise with and who i loved watching die)We witness one of the best hidden but definite character change in history.Kenny becomes an exact parallel of carver well not completely(hes not completely weak vs strong nonsense yet).Its amazing and astounding to see a complex character who no one expected to be anything like carver ( a default bad guy)changes realistically to such a exact parallel of what we never expected him to be.This proves there are no clear good guys and that people can break when pushed too far.BUT unfortunately telltale kinda went soft on his character in the end (when you shoot him he becomes angel kenny and if you let him live he becomes "I did for u clem"Kenny(ironic as he never listened to me for 2 episodes)).
6.The endings are an absolute mess(i mean looking at he overall thing).You get an option to save jane or let kenny live.If you let kenny live and go with him you get the Best" ending of the seasons(its emotional and you get closure and jane,s death means nothing).If you let jane live and go with her(you get closure and too not so emotional choices and kenny,s death which sucks) and if choose to get both killed or leave either you get....(.something).Seriously this destroys the meaning of lee,s throwback scene in which he says "this aint math there is no right answer".Not in case of this season endings can easily be ranked 1) kenny 2) jane 3)Loner (which is a shame considering most people would try the loner ending and end up replaying to get the right ending)
There are the things that stop s2 from being great season still kenny,s change was a little unusually shocking.Kenny.s death was not as tearful as it should have been(i felt sad only because of clem talking tearfully )not anyway near as emotional as lee,s death(easily because kenny,s and clems relationship had soured throughout the season but lee and clem,s had kept getting stronger).in the end season 2 is an exercise on season 1,s tropes and season 3 would be better not trying it again