Season Two Finale: My Take: The Good & The Bad
So, at this point a good lot of us have finished The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale and, well… not to be picky, but there’s a lot that I thought went wrong with it. It just wasn’t nearly as impactful or gripping as Season One had been to me—and that’s because there was a lot with the story line that was just… eh. So, let’s get the negative out of the way first.
THINGS THAT I ACTIVELY HATED ABOUT IT.
The Shootout:
Okay, no. You were all standing within a foot of each other. The Russian with the AK would have mowed you all down in two seconds, fuck this ‘magically ran for cover’ business.
It Could Have Been Finished In Half the Time:
So, we’re talking a little over a minute and a half. Kenny could have killed Buricko in the first two seconds at angle he had—but, no, we gotta have that suspense.
What Was The Point:
There was absolutely no point to the ‘climactic’ shoot out that TTG was building up to. Seriously. No one on our side died—despite how that would be literally impossible given the positions of everyone at the end of Amid The Ruins. Yes, Luke sustains a bullet in the leg that ultimately kept him from reacting as fast to the cracking ice—but it could have happened either way with as stupid as they were on the ice.
Treatment of Arvo:
Arvo was only a threat because he was hiding behind people who were larger than him and were actually armed. Screw the ”he’s still dangerous” bull. He’s an unarmed teenager who can barely communicate with his captors, with a shoddy leg and probably weights 110-120 at most. Kick him once in his bad shin and you will drop him in .25, don’t even pretend he’s some sort of threat.
Don’t Even Try To Fool Me:
Saw it from a mile away when Luke suddenly got some character development. Like, honestly, it’s what they do. They make you care about something, because if they take it away and it screw you up emotionally, you’re more inclined to talk about it as opposed to not caring at all that the character died.
Ultimately, It Was Everyone’s Fault:
There was barely any ”spreading out” on that ice, there—who cares if it was Arvo’s ”evil plan” or not? It was ultimately them who took no precautions whatsoever. I live in South Florida—far removed from any cold weather or ice—and even I know from just movies that you’re supposed to distribute your weight by getting on your hands and knees or your stomach and crawling. Even if you don’t know that, it’s simple to figure out! Standing up straight is concentrating all your weight onto a specific area while crawling divides it up evenly on different points. Simple.
Arvo, Plot Device:
Now that, essentially, his entire family is dead and he is taken prisoner, the only purpose that Telltale had planned for Arvo was to just be a visual of how paranoid and bat-shit Kenny was becoming. You want to know why I know this? Because they intentionally keep you from having any real dialogue. For serious. You can talk to him once when you stay the night at the power station—and he doesn’t even respond. If you try to talk to him again after that, he just tells you ”Leave me alone, please”. I was looking forward to see him having some sort of a role in the finale, considering how the built up the Stranger in Season One—finally being confronted in the finale.
"Fuck You For Thinking That” - Telltale Games:
The entire episode they painted Arvo as a child prisoner of Clem’s group—ultimately and justly paying for his mistakes—but a kid, no less. He was broken up and defenseless without the support network he had known for years, and was being beaten and mentally abused by a madman. At a certain point, regardless if you believed it to be his group’s fault or his fault entirely, you start to get tired of Kenny doing what he did to the kid, and out of the ”treat others nicer then they treated you” third-grade mentality, tried to be nicer to Arvo. Who knows? Maybe since he’s not influenced by his group any longer, he’ll turn out to be an ally?
Nope. Nevermind. He just shoots an eleven year old. Yeah. GG Telltale GG.
I could understand Arvo eventually trying to take revenge—as a matter of fact, I was half expecting it from the beginning from the look he gave her—but just… not after they paint him like a wounded puppy for the almost two hours it took to complete the game. They wrote him off as a villain and a plot device. That’s literally it.
"What Can We Do To Get Them Out of the Plot?":
"Oh, I know! How about we just have them try and take the car and escape? But let’s not have them leave empty handed! Let’s have Mike and Bonnie—characters who we’ve written and established to care for Clementine and the group—let’s just have them take everything! Yeah! Plot twists, right? Leaving an eleven year old with a baby and no food—I bet that’ll give them something!"
**THINGS I ACTUALLY THOUGHT WERE PRETTY COOL.**
Pizza & Ice Cream:
The Luke vs Kenny angle had been pushed on us ever since Episode Two of the season. It’s what I thought it was all leading up to—then they just throw Jane at him, whom only started to really get on his case in the episode beforehand. Even thought it wasn’t what I was expecting, I still thought it was a satisfying conclusion.
Choosing Your Ending:
The choice itself was a nerve wracking on—but then to find out that the choice you make actually does matter for once and decides the ending you get? Satisfying. Perfect.
The Wellington Ending:
I stopped getting teary-eyed and sad over books/movies/television a long time ago—-with the exception of the Walking Dead. Season One got me, and Season Two… oh, man, Season Two. As much as I have problems with it, that ending made it all worth it for me. I didn’t regret it, I didn’t think it was a waste—it paid off. The tears started and didn’t stop for a good while.
So, there you go. My two cents with the Finale, problems and all.
Comments
I'm really upset about season 2.
Everything was just about KENNYKENNYKENNY since S2E2 and I couldn't give two fucks about that stupid redhead since S1E1. I think he was a waste of time and potential of this season, plus, if he weren't in the group, Jane,Bonnie,Luke and Mike would be the perfect group for Clem.
People keep defending him but he was this season's disgrace, and TellTale just forces us to like him. I was glad when we were given the option to shoot him, have been waiting for that since he killed Lilly's father without anybody's consent.
If i realized I got tricked into into picking the non-canon ending I would probably be as mad as you are right now.
Unless you have proof that Telltale has a preferred ending, thats BS.
You just wait
If there was a preferred ending then why give us the choice?
Oh, wait. Amid The Ruins did that.
If TT wanted Kenny surviving and taking Clem to Wellington as canon, why provide a choice at all? The first season ended with the choice to shot Lee or not, and I don't remember anyone from TT saying that one way was canon and the other was not. As a matter of fact, I remember an episode of Playing Dead (for the first season) they had a Q&A. Some poster asked which lines were the canon ones for Lee. A writer from TT responded that all the choices we had with Lee were all things he could say. It was then up to us to decide, thus the "tailored to how you play". Therefore, there are no canon choices, just what an individual player would prefer. Every choice is as valid as any other. It all boils down to what you think is right and what you are willing to live with.
Besides, if you are confident in your choices, why do you need validation from TT or anyone?