Shame On You, Telltale (SPOILERS)
edit: Yeahhh this keeps getting longer and longer but screw it. This needs to be at the top.
Telltale Games is constantly praised as being the front runners of the industry. They were known for their exceptional storytelling, a dedicated fanbase, and a hugely diverse and interesting range of characters. This was what Telltale's fans loves them for, expecting a groundbreaking and intelligent new story to play out this season.
Characters like Sarah and Nick were hated by a large number of people simply because they existed, but we recognized the value that they bring to a story, and were immensely grateful simply because they did exist. We were completely confident that these characters would continue to be important, and that even though the events may not be merciful to them, that the writers would continue to treat them respectfully and purposefully.
But instead, now, those very same people who were once the strongest defenders and biggest fans of Telltale, have been rewarded by being marginalized, mocked, and ignored. Now, those whose who once had the utmost confidence that Telltale was too good to play into lazy stereotypes are being laughed at, not only by other fans, but by Telltale themselves in that ridiculous new IGN "interview".
The Telltale employees, instead of defending this character or pointing out that her death was supposed to mean something to the story, nodded and laughed at the delight of a grown man who was happy to see a fifteen year old eaten alive, simply because "she wasn't normal".
So now where are all the people going on and on that Sarah's death did actually mean something? Now what about the people insisting that it wasn't just lazy and offensive writing? Is this really "what the Walking Dead is all about"? Mocking and laughing at how a character was not "normal", and that it was so funny that her fans had to slap her in order to save her, and it was so well written and thematic when Sarah conveniently died in that very same episode with no reaction, emotion, or effort?
This unprofessional and offensive new interview only confirms what so many people have been trying so hard to deny. The writing is not only weak, it is completely disgusting.
Shame on you, Telltale. I'm not taking it back anytime soon.
EDIT: This point keeps getting lost:
I'm not backtracking anything I've said here; I completely stand by the points I've been making. I am only trying to clarify.
Each episode is fairly successful as a self-contained story. The issue I am pointing out in this season is that plot points, characters, and themes are completely underutilized and inconsistent. And in relation to each other, the episodes have made less and less narrative sense as the season continues.
The fact that fans try to find ways to justify the storytelling themes and characters feels less intentional and more like a lucky coincidence. This is not just fan theory and speculation, this is the fan being forced to struggle in order to find a way for the story to possibly work. You shouldn't have to come up with long elaborate theories to explain away the writing. It's one thing if a story leaves something up to the imagination, and it's another thing for themes to not be built up enough, or in some cases, dropped for no reason. There's a difference between ambiguity, and lazy writing.
- In one episode, the characters are treated with respect and depth, while in the next they are thrown away and disrespected with no emotion, consequence, or purpose.
- The episodes do not carry any overarching themes from one to the next. Instead, each episode in itself briefly touches on something interesting but abandons it in consequent episodes.
- The choices make no difference in the plot, and we are often not even offered the illusion that anything makes a difference. They are not shown to make a difference in any way- not plot variation, not character development, and not even superficial changes. The most we usually get is an extra line or two, and sometimes not even that such as when stealing from Arvo results in exactly identical dialogue. Consequently these choices mean nothing and are completely wasted.
- Determinant characters hover in the background with minimal participation and are then killed off before they can do anything further, often for no purpose to the story. Characters that had previously been developed and nuanced are suddenly portrayed as one dimensional or OOC in what appears to be a forced attempt to make you feel a certain way about them instead of letting you make up your own mind.
Episode 1 started out pretty strong. It wasn't perfect, but there was plenty of room for potential. Then in episode 2, things are a little shaky on some points but it's still ok because there was still plenty of good things about the episode and there was plenty of hope that future episodes could be even better. Episode 3 is where it really starts to go downhill. Episode 4 is where the whole thing completely collapses, and nearly all prior development is dumped. To say nothing of how offensive and problematic things have actually turned out. You can see the discussion for more details on that.
EDIT 2:
Here are some examples to support my point more clearly.
I'm going to use the specific example of "themes in S2".
You could interpret that the episodes do have themes individually :
- Episode 1= the question about trusting people, establishing that Clem is "just a little girl"
- Episode 2= strength lies in the group, which group are you loyal to?
- Episode 3= Carver's view, "morality = weakness"
- Episode 4= some people will not be saved, the group is fracturing, is it better to stay or leave?
Now for my point here: each of these themes exist in the episodes if you look hard. But the connection between them is not developed. The season contains no strong overarching themes. The themes only appear weaker and weaker as the season goes on because the foundation has been built but is not followed through.
Here's some specific examples:
Episode 2 nullifies the theme in episode 1 of trust when the cabin crew suddenly all like and depend on Clementine for no reason. We are not shown this development, or how anyone changed their mind about her, so the theme is invalidated and wasted.
When the group depends on Clem to do everything in episodes 2 and 3, the previous theme that Clem is "just" a little girl is erased. In episode 1, when she got things done (such as sewing up her arm), it was treated in such a way that pointed out "she is just a little girl, but she's tough." The purpose to this was to show that Clem had development since the time skip, so it made sense. The fact that she was "just a little girl" was not yet invalidated because some things continued to be a struggle, but her growth from the time skip enabled her to overcome it.
But then in episode 2, Clem is shown to be not only capable, but even DEPENDED on to do things for the adults. In itself this would not have been too huge of a mistake since it seemed to only be a case of "Clem is the PC so she has to do lots of things." The fanbase pointed out this mistake, but instead of fixing the issue, episode 3 only made it worse when Clementine continued to be depended on, not only because of her role as the PC but sometimes specifically BECAUSE she was a little girl.
There is nothing shown to emphasize that this was supposed to be logical character development. It simply "happens", and the narrative does nothing to justify it.
Of course a progression or change in themes/characters is not "bad", but there is no buildup to indicate that this was a deliberate storytelling decision. There is no acknowledged change or development to the theme/character, as a result it is unsatisfying and weak writing.
Here's another example.
The theme of "strength in numbers" that was touched on in episode 2 is skewed by Carver's view that "the strong stand together, and get rid of the weak parts."
In itself, this is not bad. It could have even been an interesting counterpoint to episode 2's point that it might be good to stick in a group and pull together.
But this is not how the writing turns out. Carver's view never emphasizes the necessity of not letting morality get in the way of survival. The only time Carver is actually shown to hold this view is when he gives the speech stating that they have to pull together as a group, and in his words to Clem about strength vs weakness. Everything else he does shows a complete lack of depth, his actions only serve to demonize him as a villain. He's just completely evil; there is no sense in his twisted moral code. He just goes around carelessly beating and killing everybody.
The issue is no longer treated with any development or subtlety, so as a result, the point is lost.
The foundation for these themes/developments is there, but they're not followed through or developed further. As a result, the entire season feels wasted and unsatisfying.
ORIGINAL POST:
I am so incredibly angry with Telltale this season. At the end of episode 3, I was disappointed with the sloppy writing, poor characterization, wasted potential, and lack of focus but I along with many fans were confident that Telltale could fix these mistakes in episode 4.
But now, they've proven us completely wrong. Season 2 has gone down the tubes. Telltale has not only thrown their story development out the window, they have completely disrespected their fans and butchered nearly all of their characterization this season.
Let's start with Sarah. In the previous three episodes, Sarah was an important character and many of the game's decision moments revolved around her. She was widely believed to have a mental condition going beyond just being sheltered, but this was not portrayed as a bad thing, instead she was portrayed with respect as a sweet and sympathetic character, who could also be brave and selfless such as when she defends Clem from Carver in episode 3. In many ways Sarah was even shown to be a parallel to season 1 Clem. Then episode 4 happens.
Sarah's portrayal goes from sympathetic innocent with her own inner strength to being seen as completely weak and irredeemable. No one in the game attempts to show any understanding toward her. Over and over again the plot pushes you to leave her behind. The game treats Sarah as nothing more than a liability who you obviously are supposed to abandon, and not a friend who you may have built mutual trust and affection with.
In the trailer the only way to get her to move was to smack her in the face? That was so disrespectful, to anyone who has ever had a panic attack or identified with Sarah's mental condition/s. Not only that, it was completely inconsistent: Sarah almost had a breakdown after what happened earlier with Carver forcing Carlos to slap her, but this time it worked. It didn't make sense. And Clementine actually looked ANGRY as she slapped Sarah. It wasn't "I'm sorry to do this but I don't know how else to get you to move." It was more like "Get up now you stupid little girl, your pain is pointless and it angers me."
The dialogue of comforting Sarah with telling her about Lee and how he wanted Clem to keep safe was great, but what was the point? We only pay lip service to what Lee taught us in Season 1, and Sarah barely acknowledges it. It makes no difference in motivating her, and just like her death, it means absolutely nothing.
Over and over again we keep getting hit over the head with these references to Season One. And for what? Everything that Lee did is being made pointless. Telltale keeps reminding us of his fight to protect Clem and his struggle to teach her to be strong and brave but also to preserve her hope and morality, then Telltale takes that and shits all over it. Apparently unless you are completely independent and strong and selfish you aren't worthy of living, and it’s no longer a choice or moral debate. You can only weakly disagree with what Jane says, and meanwhile the entire narrative is actively working to prove her right, without question, with no other side to the issue.
What was the point of that tweet from Telltale "Teaching her how to shoot a gun is going to save your life"? It's set up to make you think this line is about Sarah... I mean Clem hasn't had any trouble shooting a gun before in the episode and she doesn't have any trouble in this episode either. Instead, it's like the whole thing was a huge bait-and-switch, a giant middle finger to all Sarah fans who thought that this episode is where Sarah will shine. All the parallels between Sarah and s1 Clem, all the focus on their friendship and all the decisions that revolved around her amount to absolutely nothing.
Regardless of whether or not you previously made friends with her, when Sarah falls off the observation deck and eaten alive, no one -not even Clem- expresses sadness at her death. Every response after Jane fails to save her is focused on Jane, and not the person who just died. You can say "I know you tried," or "It was hopeless", or "You didn't try hard enough."
There is no "Sarah was my friend", no option to give a shit. Nobody cares, and then it's never mentioned again. So in the end Sarah’s death isn’t even about this survivalist theme that they kept alluding to anyway, it's in development to Jane's character, and is then wasted anyway when she disappears with no consequence to the story in the very next scene. Telltale has just completely wasted Sarah's development and potential not even for the sake of some nihilistic theme, it was just completely pointless.
Jane gets nearly more development and focus in a single episode than any of the previous characters, and it's all for nothing. Her disappearance being consistent with her character doesn't excuse it, there are already so similarities between her and Molly it just feels completely predictable and cheap.
And why would Jane of all people proposition Luke in a time like that? I wasn't even bothered so much as I was confused. It was a big WTF towards both of their characters.
Luke, whose primary concern has always been the safety of the group, who chased after a truck on foot for days in order to save his friends decides a quickie is more important than getting ready for Rebecca to deliver her baby? If Rebecca hadn't been in labor I would easily have been able to accept this as a lapse of judgment but the timing just makes no sense at all.
Jane is even more OOC. Jane, clever and pragmatic, shown to be levelheaded and responsible suddenly decides she needs to get some instead of watching out for walkers or getting ready for the dangerous situation ahead? They both KNEW that Rebecca was about to give birth. The whole thing just came out of nowhere, and for what? Contrived soap opera drama? Another reason for Luke to argue with Kenny? A way to make Luke look like a selfish jerk?
Luke, who was first shown as a lovable goof who wants to be the hero & whose primary concern is the safety of the group as he attempts to be its leader, suddenly shifts into a completely different character. Up to this point he has been shown to be sympathetic but now he looks more like a sociopathic douche.
His response to Sarah’s shutting down in the trailer is to stand there and shout in her face. He knows walkers are right outside and he obviously also knows that he isn't helping, yet he continues to shout anyway. "Snap out of it, Sarah, I don’t know what’s wrong with you!" he shouts. Really Luke? I would've thought you'd have some idea by now. He knew that Sarah depended on her dad, and yet here it's like he doesn't even understand why she's shutting down.
What makes this even worse is that this is going on and on in the background while Clem and Jane are all smiling and "oh look this is how you be cool at killing walkers" while we can HEAR Luke in the background and Sarah screaming in fear, and we can't even care. We have no opportunity to call him out on it or even acknowledge that it happened. The writing treats it as if, Oh well that's what it takes. And then his response to the reveal that Nick is dead is momentary shock, then he goes to "have a talk" with Rebecca as if SHE is the one who just lost their best friend of 20 years. And then hours later he’s more visibly upset at Jane leaving than he was at Nick’s death.
Earlier I might have been able to accept that all this is just supposed to be part of his character, but this is not the first time characters have behaved completely inconsistently in the season.
In episode 1, nearly everyone at the cabin treats Clementine with distrust, and the theme is constantly being emphasized (both by the narrative and by Telltale staff) that this is going to be all about earning trust, and just because you're a little girl doesn't mean you will be treated like one. Then suddenly in episode 2, everyone suddenly treats Clementine as if they skipped all that, calling her "Clem" and completely erasing the struggle to earn trust which had previously been a big theme of the season. Carlos actually ASKS her to watch Sarah, while before he had been completely against any interaction between them. Rebecca suddenly changes her mind and forgets that she "knew Clementine was going to be a problem", and completely forgets that she could have been BLACKMAILED earlier by Clementine. Everyone treats Clem like a harmless little girl, acting as if none of this happened when they had been completely hostile only a few days before. It's fine that the cabin group changes their minds, but we are never shown what made that change, so it loses all effectiveness.
Then in episode 3, Nick changes from being completely depressed to being Luke's cheerleader. In episode 2 he received strong character focus and more backstory than arguably anyone else in the cabin group at that point. He was shown to be unable to let past mistakes go, and to constantly blame himself for things (how many times does he say "it's my fault"?), but then in episode 3 he completely forgets the past and the people he got killed, and suddenly is Mr Reassuring-and-Optimistic. The characterization is completely lazy, Rebecca is shown to be regretful about Pete's death when Reggie asks about it, and meanwhile Nick who had earlier been suicidal over it doesn't even get a reaction shot.
With all this sloppiness, I can’t accept episode 4's Luke as a logical progression of his development. Luke goes from telling Clem in episode 2- "Stick with us, we look out for each other" to "I just want to survive and that means picking the right sides." ????? wut? Yeah people change, but there is nothing to indicate that this is supposed to be a visible turn in his character, and at this point it's clear that it's just lazy writing. This wasn't character development. This was "Whoops, the new writers forgot to read the wiki."
Then he and Kenny keep bickering over and over, at this point it's just irritating. Why are they even fighting? More "drama"? Because Telltale needs to make the inevitable choice between them harder? Umm yeah ok Telltale, you can do that, OR you could make these two be sympathetic and likable characters who happen to be ideologically opposed instead of trying to turn them both into d-bags.
After episode 3 and getting hardly any development already, Sarita gets no further involvement whatsoever. I guess people who were confident that Telltale wouldn't stoop to fridging a woman for the sake of Kenny's development for the second time in the series have now been proven wrong.
No matter what you choose to do she immediately dies and nobody gives a crap but Kenny. It’s understandable that she dies in the herd if you chop off her arm, and I actually like this idea, but instead of being tragic and awful, it just falls completely flat and ends up feeling lazy instead.
Nobody cares except Kenny, and the only reason Clem cares is because Kenny yells at her about it. As a character Sarita was just completely wasted, her death wasn't even made to be sad, it was just there made things hard for Kenny. Completely cheap and wasteful.
And while we're on the subject of Kenny, why did the writing keep pushing for him to be the only one who knows anything about babies while the fact that Clementine has traveled for months with a pregnant woman was completely ignored? I mean I understand that he used to be a dad, but this was the perfect opportunity to finally reveal what happened to Christa's baby, and for the writers to prove that they haven't just completely forgotten about her & Omid. Why would we constantly be forced to talk about how Kenny knows all about babies, when we have no reason to even know that beyond the fact that he used to be a father? It was just such a complete waste of opportunity. Now if they ever want Christa to show up again it's going to look like a complete asspull, since they've apparently completely forgotten about her up to this point.
As for Nick's death "scene", I was fuming. I was prepared for him to die but I was so sure that Telltale was going to.. hell i don't know, maybe actually do something with him?!! Or give him an actual death scene? Nick was one of episode 1 and 2's most developed characters, several major decisions revolved around him, the majority of fans saved him, and he was one of the most talked-about characters in the fanbase. In response to this, Telltale thinks it's a good idea to give him no further involvement and then kill him offscreen and leave him stuck on a fence? What purpose does this serve? "LOL look guys, Nick is such a fuckup, LOL." Thanks, Telltale, you're so deep.
What about his character development and buildup in previous episodes? What about the players who promised Uncle Pete they'd look out for him? What about that time in episode 2 when he was SHOWN fighting off walkers with his bare hands and survived? There is no emotional payoff to seeing his growth and his struggles, instead he is suddenly just dead. Clem barely has the option to express any sadness, it was barely treated as a sad moment, or given any gravity at all.
So saving Nick results in one or two OOC lines, a two-second scene of him running after Luke as he gets shot, and then that's that. They just swap his corpse in and have one or two extra lines about it. Then immediately afterward Clem is all "Cool! Now for fun zombie slaying time with Jane!" This does not come across as "people die and the world doesn't care." This comes across as "people die and you care, but Telltale sure doesn't. They're too busy counting their money and the undeserved five star reviews."
And let's talk about that conversation between Luke and Clem.
Luke: "Hey are you ok?"
Clem: "No I am not ok."
Luke "Same. Anyway I can't wait to bang Jane again."
....
Really? Excuse me but I thought maybe we were going to have some kind of tiny conversation? Telltale baits the fans putting that line in the trailer and then smacks you in the face for falling for it. This is the perfect time to talk, maybe reveal some Luke backstory, or to show at last his reaction to events so far, such as Nick's death -which if he died in episode 2 fans were confused as to why he didn't react, and thought that at last they would get to talk about it. But NOPE. Telltale tweets: "You're going to hate us for that last line in the trailer." Hmm I wonder why. Telltale: GOTCHA LOLZ !
I am not sad about this anymore. I am angry. What about the fans who watched the trailer and overanalyzed every teaser and screenshot? It was all proven completely pointless and irrelevant. I didn't even watch the trailer, I avoided all information possible prior to the episode, and I felt completely cheated and let down. I can't imagine how those who speculated and conjectured for months beforehand felt.
TLDR; Everyone is doing constant 180's for plot convenience or contrived drama and the characters have just been completely wasted. They build up characters like Sarah and Nick to be complex and interesting, only to flush them down the toilet, while being completely inconsistent and disregarding to the story and the characters.
I honestly don't understand how people are excusing this. They defend Telltale’s writing by saying "Death happens and we're powerless, no one is safe, that's what the Walking Dead is all about." Ok, if that's true, if your characters are just randomly being struck by lightning one after the other as some sort of deep statement about the futility of life, then why doesn't Joe Shmoe have heaps of riches and praise for a story where all the characters are set up to be fascinating and complex but are then unceremoniously dumped before they even do anything?
Instead, Telltale is constantly hitting us over the head with heavyhanded references to Season 1 while they completely contradict what Lee was all about. They build up great characters and interesting themes only to flush them all down the toilet in the very next episodes.
Telltale continues to pat themselves on the back and act like they are being all deep with themes and drama and choices and then they just completely let us down. Here Telltale goes, tweeting that statue screenshot, and zooming dramatically in on the sign constantly "Gone but not forsaken" while they completely butcher, disrespect, and FORGET about all the prior development to the story and characters. They have completely alienated and marginalized their most loyal fans. It's a huge slap in the face and a complete mess. I no longer feel the urge to go back and replay the episodes. I am no longer moved to tears and emotional on the edge of my seat while playing the game.
I'm so angry about this, but considering the way it's gone so far, it's probably not even worth it to care anymore.
Shame on you, Telltale. Shame on you.
Comments
Sorry. I just can't read this much
100% this!
Theres a TLDR...
I simply prefer the image.
All I have to say is this:
Nick.
I just Read the first line and Skipped the Rest. ANd Hey, If you Don't Like this Walking Dead, Then Don't play it or COmplain about it, Telltale Did their best. Episode was still Good, No matter how bad it was.
Eventually everyone's luck runs out.
But Telltale didn't do their best. I've read multiple ways from FANS that could have handled any of the character's deaths better and would have required almost zero extra effort on Telltale's part. Nick's death is the worst offender here. That was just unacceptable.
I agree completely. The quality of writing went way down from season 1.
tl;as
But I read it!
The biggest problem for me aren't rly not epic deaths of characters, neither lack of story changing to your choices, but the connections from previous episodes not being that good. Like someone mentioned Bonnie was a drug addict, would be a great twist if she stole the meds if you didn't steal it, after she's so nice to Clem. I rly hope we'll see some twists and explanations or connections from previous episodes in the last episode. Also missing optional conversations to know more about the characters.
Season 1 was better, maybe except too long puzzles at time that slowed the game down a bit too much. No doubts about that.
Waoh, You Really Disliked the Episode, Man. Maybe they didn't have idea about what to do
Season 2 is almost better than Season 1 if you ask me. I like it better and it's not finished yet.
-14 downvotes, my downvote record!!! Let's get to 20.
I want to start off by saying that I agree with you on all of this; however, I would like to point out that perhaps everyone decided Kenny knows about babies is because Katja was a veterinarian and he might have possibly witnessed a birth or two while visiting her office. Then again, Katja is never mentioned so the only one who would know this information would be Clem and yet the group assumes he's the one even before Clem is given the option to say that "Kenny knows about babies" or whatever the dialogue is that you get to choose from; and yeah, this would have been a perfect opportunity to find out what happened with Christa, but I guess the writer's had never come up with a backstory for that since they chose to time skip the problem away. I guess they didn't give two shits about fixing that mistake since they did ignore the fact that Clem spent months traveling with a pregnant woman. Well anyway, I just wanted to point out the vet thing because we should try to give the benefit of the doubt when critiquing work.
Or it could've just been likely that kenny was there when Katjaa gave birth to duck
I read the entire article and I have this to say, what you're saying makes a lot of sense to me.
Perhaps it is due to holding Season 2 with the same standards as Season 1, but I get the feeling the writers weren't as passionate with the quality of the writing in Season 2 as they were in Season 1. Season 1 wasn't flawless, but it felt more closer to earth than Season 2 did and it had a lot of heart. Season 2 started off well in the first two episodes (even with some problems, they're still in good quality), but went downhill with Episode 3 and beyond to the point where I'm wondering if Telltale is starting to get bored with the story and just wants to kill off characters at random for shock value.
I don't see why you felt the need to comment at all if you didn't bother to read. That gigantic image is distracting and possibly taking attention away from the OP's issue, so why be disrespectful like that?
I agree with both of you, and don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with Kenny being the one to help Rebecca. But the thing is, we were just blatantly denied the perfect opportunity to find out about what happened to Christa's baby, for no reason at all. Kenny helping in the birth makes sense, but Clementine not mentioning or even looking like she remembers anything about Christa's baby does not.
They already know it'll be a fail because they have magical powers to conclude things that are not yet done.
IMO I think it was likely tha christa had a miscarriage
Thank you (and everyone else who reads this whole thing!).
Yes I agree, and earlier on I wasn't as harsh with this season because I played s1 long after it first came out all at the same time, so at first I thought that maybe season 2 felt weaker because of the long waits in between each episode. Or something.
But looking at the entire season as a whole, it just makes no narrative sense. It's not even about the comparison between s1 and s2, or liking one or the other better, season 2 is just not working as a story on its own. I mean, I even liked the supporting characters in season 2 BETTER than in season one, and yet the deaths of characters in season 1 hit me a million times more hard. In s2 I wasn't sad that they died, I was mad at Telltale for wasting their potential and not even trying to evoke any feelings when they did die.
I agree with op,i still like season 2
I was originally going to argue your points about each character, but I found myself agreeing with most of them save for Sarah. So let's just talk about Sarah.
There's a pretty damn good reason for this. Her dad, her sole emotional crutch was just eaten alive in front of her. Even a strong character like Kenny collapses into a shell of himself when his emotional crutches are taken away from him. Sarah becoming weak and irredeemable following Carlos's death seems perfectly natural for her character.
I completely disagree that Clem can't show any emotion towards Sarah. You even bring up a good example yourself. Back in the trailer, Clem can empathize with Sarah by recalling Lee, she can remind Sarah of all the people who love and care about her, and she can tell Sarah that she has the strength to move forward. That being said, Sarah is a liability that should be abandoned for the sake of survival. But Clem can reject that notion and do everything she can to save her friend up until the very end.
It was a panicked and frustrating situation. Using sweet and motivating words simply DID NOT work. So yes. The only way to get her to move was to slap some sense into her and bring her into the reality of the situation at hand. It was "Get up now or you WILL DIE." And it worked.
Yes, Sarah barely acknowledges it. That's why it was frustrating. And also why it felt genuine. Gentle words sometimes aren't enough to reach someone who's given up.
That's simply not true. You reject the notion that only the strong and independent deserve to survive every single time you try to save Sarah.
The fact that there are parallels between 2 people does not mean that they are the same person or will react the same way to similar circumstances. Sarah simply doesn't have the same fortitude that Clem does. We were all expecting Sarah to get better and to succeed because we wanted her to be like Clem. But she wasn't.
Not sure which dialogue option I picked, but I'm pretty sure my Clem said something along the lines of "I wish it didn't have to be like this." The lesson that Sarah is meant to teach is what Jane said. "There are some helpless things in this world and you can't always save them." Clem's actions throughout the episode toward Sarah can serve as a response to that. "Yes, but I will always try. "
to long didn't read lol
A fail? It'll not be a fail. The opposite if you ask me.
I really wish that people would stop saying stuff like this. "If you don't like it, don't play it."; "If you don't like it, don't eat it."; "If you don't like it, leave."; etc.
Whenever there are political issues and people complain about the unjust laws, there are always morons who simply tell people to move to another country if they don't like it here. Except the problem with that is that other countries have issues as well; so no matter where you go there will be problems. Thus, what needs to be done is that people actually stay to fix their problems at home.
If you go out to dinner to a restaurant and you get crappy service and food do you not have a right to complain? You've invested your time and money into this restaurant by driving there, waiting for the food, and paying for the food. So are you saying if the chef completely botches your meal that it's just tough luck for you and you can either suck it up or starve? No, you kindly ask them to fix your meal for the reason that you decided to grace that restaurant with your business.
The same goes for artists. If you invest money and time in a book, movie, tv show, game, etc. there is an invisible contract between the audience and the creators that the material that they put out will be not only satisfactory but great. Now whether or not a piece of work is great is open to interpretation; however, as TT247 has point out, the game is not even satisfactory due to the poor writing. The characters flip flop their morals when it's convenient for the writers and the entire thing is a mess because of it. Regardless, Telltale became famous because they created a great season 1 of TWD; because they became famous they acquired more fans; which in turn makes them more money; more money means more games; and more games means even more fans; however, their mistake this season is not giving as much thought into character development this season as they did the first season. Now it just seems like TTG is a spoiled artist who will put out crap and know that people will buy it because it has their name stamped on it. That is unacceptable and disrespectul to all the fans that raised TTG to it's throne. If their games rely heavily on stories then they should make every effort to stay flawless in that area. To say that a person has no right to complain about something that he/she paid for, that he/she had high hopes for is completely ridiculous and unwarrented. Can TTG return all the time that was wasted on their games? No. In that case, people have every right to critique away. We only have a limited number of hours on this earth so if a person chooses to spend precious hours of their life with a TTG game, don't tell them they have no right to complain.
The problem is, it's sort of a like a kickstarter game where you prepurchase things. The consumers are voicing their issues with the product.
Well, maybe. Even if that had happened, I'm sure that Clem would have learned a lot about pregnancy because Christa and Omid should have definitely discussed how to take care of a child, how to give birth, what a pregnant womans needs are, etc.
I find this situation a bit shady though. Even if Christa had a miscarriage, someone should have been there to help her take out the fetus. Unless, do you think she just squated down like she was going to do a #2 and just pulled it out with one hand? Seems highly unlikely. I suppose Clem could have helped somewhat but she's still a kid so it kind of seems like the logical backstory for this would be that they ran into another group who helped them out; however, when Christa gave birth and the baby died then maybe Christa became closed off and eventually the group didn't want to deal with her issues anymore so they split off once again.
Furthermore, how did Christa survive? After birth a mother is pretty susceptible to infection if she isn't taken well care of with clean things and people. This entire zombie apocalypse world seems like it'd be filthy. Rotten flesh, dust, dirt, etc. I would very much like to know how Christa managed to survive such a thing; especially since I'd say the situation is much worse than medieval times and woman died all the time during childbirth in those days.
You make is sound like I just don't like the fact that Sarah dies and there's nothing you can do about it, but that's not what I meant for it to sound like.
I actually agree with you, in the past episodes, Sarah has been built up this way, and a breakdown was not out of character. I didn't expect Sarah to be able to turn into a zombie-killing badass, and I didn't want her to. And I realize that her character itself is consistent in episode 4. But her treatment is not.
Telltale is completely disrespectful to her character, there is nothing to indicate that you shouldn't just completely give up on her. Multiple characters are belittling and downright abusive to her and you are never given the opportunity to call them out, disagree, or even acknowledge that it happened. She is treated as hopeless from the beginning.
There was barely any acknowledgment that Clementine is friends with Sarah, that they've been through a lot and may have built mutual trust and affection. She is not treated like a major character who many decisions have revolved around.
Last night I replayed the part in the episode after Sarah finally dies specifically to see what Clem can say in regard to Sarah, or if anyone expresses anything at her death. The only thing Clem can say about it is the dialogue choice I described: and it's all about Jane, and not the girl who was just eaten alive.
That's just insulting.
It's not that they don't have the right to complain it's when the say stuff like his
For all we know they could've met some people but they probably either left or died (a small group nonetheless)
That's the thing right there. I keep seeing these long complicated theories on why this might have happened or why that character might have behaved this way etc etc.
This is not just fan theory and speculation, this is the fan being forced to struggle in order to find a way for the story to possibly work.
You shouldn't have to come up with long elaborate theories on what happened in order to explain away such ridiculous inconsistencies. It's one thing if a story leaves something up to the imagination, and it's another thing for stuff be built up and then dropped for no reason.
I agree with OP. I sure hope someone from Telltale will read what TT247 wrote - his points are 100% valid. I'm sad now, I honestly didn't expect I could be disappointed with TTG, but after e4 I definitely am.
This is one of the best threads I have ever seen I agree with everything you said thank you :'D
I'm not angry - I guess that, by that point, I'm not invested enough into second season to get pissed. After finishing Episode 4 I suddenly realised I don't care anymore about any of the group members. They die? Hard luck, let's move on. For the first time since TWD began, I'm not especially excited for new episode of Telltale game - and it's a season finale!
I agree with most of your points, so I will focus on areas where we differ. Let's begin with saying that I don't think that Telltale doesn't care, or tries to troll their players. I agree Season 2 isn't fully what I hoped for. But there is a big difference between failing to meet expactations, and not even trying to succed. I can agree, though, that Nick was handled VERY poorly. I kept waiting for longer conversation with him, there was a lot he could have to say. But nope, he was demoted to background decoration and then executed offscreen, To this day I have no clue what was the point of letting players save his life.
I partially disagree about Sarah. For me, she was always disaster waiting to happen. Not Clem ver 2.0, but even more hopeless Beny. I didn't see any strenght in her, just a lot of issues. She was a burden to the group - requiring resources and attention and giving nothing back. I can't recall a single time in whole season when she does anything remotly useful. She's not even especially likeable, though that's purely subjective. Now, you might say it is harsh and cold thing to say, and you will be right. But the truth is, by keeping her around you are actively lowering chances of survival for the whole group, and you can't just ignore that, or expect her to somehow overcome her probably life-long issues and do years worth growing up in few weeks. That said, her story ultimately led nowhere, and if I actually cared about her, I would probably be angry too. Nobody really talked about her situation - members of the group did best to ignore her, and then quickly moved forward after her death. She didn't even get a bloody burial, even if whole group was staying right next to her corpse for couple of days. Frankly I expected her to die, but even I was surprised how pointles and random her end was. I'm actually starting to suspect Telltale desperatly tried not to make her copy of Beny, while having her esencially play the same role in story, which led to very underwhelming end.
I also partially disagree about whole group being out of character. I think there is reason why they are becoming sloppy and annoyed at each other. They are hungry, exhausted, lost and desperate, and on top of that they lack clear leadership. People change their behaviour when they are under a lot of stress. This was the episode I kind of regreted that we are playing Clem now. I would love to be in control of Lee and try to keep the group together, but all we can do is watch as it falls apart. It makes sense storywise, but also makes you feel kind of irrevelant.
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Well, there is one point where she acknowledges your relationship with her.
"We're friends." Should be enough, I think ; ) Although I do agree with you on basically every other point, good thread.