The problem is that Season 2's writers are mean-spirited enough to endorse this kind of behavior, which casts dark aspirations over the enti… morere season as a whole. I reject the idea that we should only empathize with cold-blooded assholes who whine and moan about how hard it is to have compassion i.e. Jane. I reject the premise that kindness is wasted on the deserving.
And the irony is that a lot of gamers, just like me, know what it's like to be mistreated and bullied. Yet it's somehow okay when 'cool' people do it?
Sarah was hurt by the only two people(Carlos & Clementine) who had the biggest chance of bringing her back and both times was to 'protect' her.
Nick was killed and his best friend(Luke) didn't show allot of signs for caring other than cursing.
Really, Rebecca and Sarita were probably the ones that cared for these characters the most(well Sarita at least showed some care for Sarah) but they both ended up dying in the same episode.
To be brutally honest, it's the people who carry a disability that I find the most interesting of characters. I recently came across a gem of a game "katawa shoujo" which perfectly explains that sometimes it's people living with disabilities are the most interesting people of all. Take for example a blind person, will they develop a prejudice towards race if they cannot distinguish color of skin, or think of the cripple who develops strength in their hands.... What I'm trying to point out is.... people focus too much on the disability of a person without looking at where their strengths lie.
For one point in the game, I believed that Sarah would become the next Clementine.... Because of her immense internal struggle I believed she would turn out for the better; when Clementine showed Sarah how to shoot, I felt a deep connection between the two of them and really hoped that Clementine would show Sarah 'the way the real world works.' But in this case... Telltale tears that away from us by getting rid of her; as if to say "those who have deep internal struggles" have no place in society. I'm not sure if there's a deeper meaning that they want to portray in this series or if they're simply ignorant towards disabilities. Nether less... I felt that Season 2 was rushed and not though-roughly thought out.
Well he doesn't technically "do" anything after the shootout in ep. 2, but you can have a nice little conversation with Nick in Carver's camp where he expresses his full acceptance of Clem into their group. I felt it was a nice little piece of his story arc (for my first playthrough at least). I just wish it wasn't the end of his arc.
Yup. Telling Walter that Nick is a good guy will make Walter shoot the walker Nick is struggling with. Of course, this has little impact as Nick does nothing for the rest of his lifespan.
Yeah, plus, I saw that fall and immediately thought "yep, she's twisted her ankle for sure, maybe even broken a leg depending on how badly she landed." The same thing could have happened then; Sarah would have needed help to get out in time, and the rest could have happened as it did. Not saying it should have, but it could have. Just having her land on top of the debris but scream "my leg!" or something like that.
Let me show you something odd about Sarah's death that @nadir-of-humanity pointed out a while ago.
Ok so this has probably been pointe… mored out before, but I just noticed:
okay yeah the deck hits the ground before Sarah so she should land on top of it, cool cool
Um, what? I guess Telltale wanted to get rid of Sarah so badly that they had debris magically appear on top of her. Wow, this whole scenario just gets more and more stupid.
Yeah, see, there. Alvin. There's a character that shows the S2 creative team at TT can write two meaningful death scenes for one character, which makes Nick and Sarah's second death scenes that much worse.
Someone may have mentioned something like this, but here's my suggestion:
Sarah's death scene if you save her in the trailer is largely determined by the "will you teach me to shoot?" scene:
Teach Sarah to shoot: When Sarah falls off the deck, Clem can throw her a pistol. Sarah manages to grab it and shoot enough walkers, even one or two, to give Jane or someone else, maybe even Clem, enough time to get down and haul her up. However, Sarah is now more confident with a gun because of this, and when the Russians show up, she decides to pull out her gun and help defend AJ and the group. She is seen as a threat and is shot in the gunfight. Emotional death scene and choice whether or not to keep her from coming back at the beginning of episode 5.
Don't teach Sarah to shoot: Well, more or less what already happens. Clem can throw her the gun, but Sarah has never practiced even a little bit with it and doesn't know how to shoot. She is eaten.
And I did say "can" throw Sarah the gun. It's a choice; if you for whatever reason feel you need it more up top or try to cover Sarah from the deck, you fail and Sarah gets eaten. In the end, it's a choice Clem made back in ep. 2 that had a clear effect on Sarah's fate. It's not perfect, but I would have preferred something like that at least.
Oh, and the slapping Sarah in the trailer? I'd be more okay with that if it was an optional, heat of the moment choice, especially since you can tell Clem is already getting through to Sarah depending on what you say. You can still complete the "quest" of saving Sarah regardless of slapping. Like you can still put down Clem's babysitter with four hammer hits, yet most people (me included) probably used the full five without realizing the difference. I know Sandra and Sarah are completely different situations, but the choice would have been nice. Clem's slap may be meant to show her gradual slide into darkness, but that's a problem if there's no choice. It loses much of its meaning that way.
ALVIN: Good determinant death scene.
NICK: Bad determinant death scene.
SARAH: This is a tricky one. While Telltale's treatment of the… more character is still up for debate, my version of Clem did everything in her power to save Sarah. If Telltale got a lot wrong with Sarah's final moment, you definitely can't deny the scene itself was pretty fucking awful - the worst in the series so far, IMO. The way she screams "daddy" while being eaten alive is the stuff of nightmares.
Unfortunately, it doesn't excuse the "well, that happened" attitude of the other characters immediately thereafter.
And let's not forget that Clem did pretty much freeze up when she saw her parents as walkers. Yeah, she didn't freak out, but she also didn't see them actually get eaten directly in front of her.
Man Sarah had a lot of potential to be a great character. I would have love to explore a character who's not as tough as Clem and is shelter… moreed but is also really kind and wants to learn how to survive. On a more personal note my father died very suddenly of a stroke while I was at home and during that time I was exactly like Sarah and I'm sure that if anyone had a loved one die in front of them they would panic and shut down as well. You really don't think rationally. I'm pretty sure that all of us behind our computer screens and tv screens (I'm talking to you Greg Miller) would like to pretend that we would be just like Clem but in reality we would be scared and we would probably be like Sarah or Ben if not worse, not only that but I find it really odd how people are cheering for the death of someone who has done nothing malicious to you and overall is a kind person.
I felt like replaying through some of the episodes today, but then I remembered the bullshit way they handled Sarah and Nick and lost all motivation.
"Yeah, I can't wait to either a) slap a traumatized girl or b) watch her get ripped to shreds for no good reason as a bunch of people stand there and say nothing when Jane says to abandon her."
"Looking forward to trying to help a troubled man through his struggles and then see him have one line per episode until he's killed off screen!"
.....said no one ever.
For a game that's meant to be all about the story and relationships, it really falls short.
I agrre with you: I want Sarah and Nick to be alive too, but the writters of this season really wanted to kill them, was we see when, even falling after the deck, she is stucked under it (it makes no sense, she should have fallen on the deck, not under it) , and it seens illogical sending a man who got shot to go outside with no weapons to look for help!
I just had a random thought... As we come closer to the end of the series the characters kinda turn into Carver and adopt Crawford mentalities (family comes first, weak should be killed etc...); think about it...
Nether-less, I hate the way this season was written, it felt rushed towards the end and characters were taken at face value instead of seeing their deeper character... Hopefully the next season will have better writers.
Comments
I was pretty angry about the repeating "Slap Sarah for her own good" theme too
I don't understand why TellTale wanted us to hate Sarah. I loved her character and wanted to protect her.
I liked her as much as I liked Clementine.
My disgust is that:
Sarah was hurt by the only two people(Carlos & Clementine) who had the biggest chance of bringing her back and both times was to 'protect' her.
Nick was killed and his best friend(Luke) didn't show allot of signs for caring other than cursing.
Really, Rebecca and Sarita were probably the ones that cared for these characters the most(well Sarita at least showed some care for Sarah) but they both ended up dying in the same episode.
To be brutally honest, it's the people who carry a disability that I find the most interesting of characters. I recently came across a gem of a game "katawa shoujo" which perfectly explains that sometimes it's people living with disabilities are the most interesting people of all. Take for example a blind person, will they develop a prejudice towards race if they cannot distinguish color of skin, or think of the cripple who develops strength in their hands.... What I'm trying to point out is.... people focus too much on the disability of a person without looking at where their strengths lie.
For one point in the game, I believed that Sarah would become the next Clementine.... Because of her immense internal struggle I believed she would turn out for the better; when Clementine showed Sarah how to shoot, I felt a deep connection between the two of them and really hoped that Clementine would show Sarah 'the way the real world works.' But in this case... Telltale tears that away from us by getting rid of her; as if to say "those who have deep internal struggles" have no place in society. I'm not sure if there's a deeper meaning that they want to portray in this series or if they're simply ignorant towards disabilities. Nether less... I felt that Season 2 was rushed and not though-roughly thought out.
Well he doesn't technically "do" anything after the shootout in ep. 2, but you can have a nice little conversation with Nick in Carver's camp where he expresses his full acceptance of Clem into their group. I felt it was a nice little piece of his story arc (for my first playthrough at least). I just wish it wasn't the end of his arc.
Season 1 Kenny needed to use saltlicks to murder.
Season 2 Kenny uses his mere presence in the game to murder.
Yeah, plus, I saw that fall and immediately thought "yep, she's twisted her ankle for sure, maybe even broken a leg depending on how badly she landed." The same thing could have happened then; Sarah would have needed help to get out in time, and the rest could have happened as it did. Not saying it should have, but it could have. Just having her land on top of the debris but scream "my leg!" or something like that.
Yeah, see, there. Alvin. There's a character that shows the S2 creative team at TT can write two meaningful death scenes for one character, which makes Nick and Sarah's second death scenes that much worse.
Someone may have mentioned something like this, but here's my suggestion:
Sarah's death scene if you save her in the trailer is largely determined by the "will you teach me to shoot?" scene:
Teach Sarah to shoot: When Sarah falls off the deck, Clem can throw her a pistol. Sarah manages to grab it and shoot enough walkers, even one or two, to give Jane or someone else, maybe even Clem, enough time to get down and haul her up. However, Sarah is now more confident with a gun because of this, and when the Russians show up, she decides to pull out her gun and help defend AJ and the group. She is seen as a threat and is shot in the gunfight. Emotional death scene and choice whether or not to keep her from coming back at the beginning of episode 5.
Don't teach Sarah to shoot: Well, more or less what already happens. Clem can throw her the gun, but Sarah has never practiced even a little bit with it and doesn't know how to shoot. She is eaten.
And I did say "can" throw Sarah the gun. It's a choice; if you for whatever reason feel you need it more up top or try to cover Sarah from the deck, you fail and Sarah gets eaten. In the end, it's a choice Clem made back in ep. 2 that had a clear effect on Sarah's fate. It's not perfect, but I would have preferred something like that at least.
Oh, and the slapping Sarah in the trailer? I'd be more okay with that if it was an optional, heat of the moment choice, especially since you can tell Clem is already getting through to Sarah depending on what you say. You can still complete the "quest" of saving Sarah regardless of slapping. Like you can still put down Clem's babysitter with four hammer hits, yet most people (me included) probably used the full five without realizing the difference. I know Sandra and Sarah are completely different situations, but the choice would have been nice. Clem's slap may be meant to show her gradual slide into darkness, but that's a problem if there's no choice. It loses much of its meaning that way.
And let's not forget that Clem did pretty much freeze up when she saw her parents as walkers. Yeah, she didn't freak out, but she also didn't see them actually get eaten directly in front of her.
(?) Luke remembered that.
I felt like replaying through some of the episodes today, but then I remembered the bullshit way they handled Sarah and Nick and lost all motivation.
"Yeah, I can't wait to either a) slap a traumatized girl or b) watch her get ripped to shreds for no good reason as a bunch of people stand there and say nothing when Jane says to abandon her."
"Looking forward to trying to help a troubled man through his struggles and then see him have one line per episode until he's killed off screen!"
.....said no one ever.
For a game that's meant to be all about the story and relationships, it really falls short.
I agrre with you: I want Sarah and Nick to be alive too, but the writters of this season really wanted to kill them, was we see when, even falling after the deck, she is stucked under it (it makes no sense, she should have fallen on the deck, not under it) , and it seens illogical sending a man who got shot to go outside with no weapons to look for help!
If I had written the eoisode 4, Nick would've died for saving Sarah in the trailer park and Sarah would've be able to survive all the season 2.
I just had a random thought... As we come closer to the end of the series the characters kinda turn into Carver and adopt Crawford mentalities (family comes first, weak should be killed etc...); think about it...
Nether-less, I hate the way this season was written, it felt rushed towards the end and characters were taken at face value instead of seeing their deeper character... Hopefully the next season will have better writers.