Missed opportunity for another branch ending *Major Spoilers*
Looking back now, there should have been an option to have a Mike and Bonnie group ending, since Telltale was going for multiple endings for No Going Back that allowed us for a Kenny ending or a Jane ending.
Now before anyone jumps on the Mike and Bonnie hate bandwagon, hear me out.
I believe that there was no reason not to have Clementine make her choice and go with Mike and Bonnie when they decided that they had enough of Kenny and wanted out. Having Arvo shoot Clementine regardless of your choices felt lazy and a cop out for an alternate path that didn't involve Kenny and Jane, as well as the baby.
Of course at the time, Mike and Bonnie decided to steal all of the supplies as well as the car, and Bonnie and Mike's behaviour towards Clementine depends on whether Clementine tried to save Luke or not, so obviously many players were disgusted by their betrayal and wanted nothing to do with them, hence why the ending would not work.
But then that only brings up my problem with Mike and Bonnie. Their characterisations done a complete 180 degrees for the sake of making us hate them, and their actions in No Going Back contradicted their behaviour in the past episodes. There was no reason why Bonnie would suddenly turn into a complete jerkass and give Clementine hell for not choosing to save Luke. There's no reason why they would take all of the supplies in the night, steal the car, and leave behind two adults and a baby in the cold going hungry. Arvo himself is a more reasonable character to demonize, but even then Telltale had him shoot Clementine to make him, Mike, and Bonnie look bad for sympathising with him after Kenny's cruel treatment of him.
Since Telltale had multiple endings, surely a Mike and Bonnie ending would have worked if they had made some adjustments in the story without feeling that they had to demonize characters out of the blue to continue the Kenny and Jane storyline in the finale.
Make it so that Bonnie become distant and heartbroken with Luke's death instead of angry and hypocritically pinning the blame on Clementine if Clementine covers for Luke instead of risking her life trying to save him. Make it so that they don't try to steal the car, take a small amount of supplies while leaving the majority with Kenny and Jane, and inform them that they're leaving the group.
Finally, Clementine can then make the decision to either go with Kenny and Jane, or Mike, Bonnie, and Arvo. No cop outs, no false choices, the player can see two alternate paths with Kenny, Jane, and the baby (and the conflict with the two can continue) or go with Mike, Bonnie, and Arvo, and watch how they plan out their journey on their own with Clementine.
What are your thoughts?
Comments
But telltale wanted to keep the baby around for a reason. They need the baby on S3.
We don't know for sure if Clementine is actually going to be a part of Season 3 at this point, let alone the baby. They've only just recently announced the confirmation of Season 3, after all.
I probably would have gone with them to be honest, though if you did it would have been nice to insist on whether or not you bring the baby or make them bring back some of the supplies so Kenny, Jane and potentially the baby would have a chance.
The situation was pretty damn desperate in episode 5. Nothing was going right for them. They were just scared and wanted to escape from Kenny, and they knew they couldn't take Clem with them because she was all Kenny was fighting for at that point
That could still be a possibility in this ending:
C:"Please take me with you."
M:"Sure, but, we can't leave a baby alone with those two."
C:"I can get him. Just wait for me."
A;"I think is bad idea."
M:"Be quick, if you can. I don't think we have much time."
Short game sequence where you sneak in and steal the baby. If you fail, Kenny yells "What the hell are you doing? And Clementine runs out with the baby and Arvo shoots her, leading to the endings that already exist. If you succeed, Jane notices the truck leaving and calls out. Kenny runs out and fires a shot at the truck, hitting Clementine unintentionally. Dream sequence then becomes about Lee dropping Ben or choosing to save Shawn/Duck.
Now the final conflict scene would be Arvo trying to kill Clementine on the busy highway and rest stop while Mike tries to keep walkers away from both of them. I'm not sure what the final choice could be. Kill Arvo vs save Mike is about the best I could come up with for this scenario, unless it would play out that Kenny and/or Jane tracked the group down at the rest stop/howe's depending on where they went ... now that I think of it, these scenarios all seem to be leading to the same endings that already exist.
Opinions? Criticisms? Catcalls?
as stupid as mike and co. were, they would never risk taking the baby and kenny going all carver on them.
the fear of kenny was the entire point why they where leaving.
Problem is, Kenny was never going to give up the baby. If Clementine wanted to bring along AJ that badly when opting to go with Mike and the others, she would have to steal AJ while Kenny and Jane was asleep, which would have been a little messed up even for Clementine to do that.
I do agree with the supplies theft though, they didn't have to do that. Have no-one heard of splitting the supplies?