Protagonist Solution?
Hello everyone. I have noticed some concern over who will be the protagonist in the new season, and was hoping to offer my insight and a possible resolution. Now there is a division in what people want, so I'll just make a list.
1) People who want Clementine to continue as the protagonist.
Supporting Thoughts: People want Clementine to comeback as there is still more development that can be done with her. She has been with us since the beginning and it wouldn't make sense to end her story but continue with more seasons.
Opposing Thoughts: Some people are against this because the multiple endings this season would make it hard for the writers to reach a unifying point that would make sense to work with. Other people feel that the endings this season provided adequate closure as to end her story arc.
2) People who want a new protagonist
Supporting Thoughts: Some people want a new adult protagonist to be playable in the next season. The majority who want this option say it is a good idea because playing as an adult would give your choices more meaning. Aside from this, it would allow for many more new options, settings, and characters to be explored.
Opposing thoughts: Others are against this idea because Telltale's The Walking Dead is the stroy of Clementine's survival in the zombie apocalypse, just like how the comics/show are about Rick and his survival in the Zombie apocalypse. More over, people believe that excluding Clementine next season would be a big mistake, as there would be no way that the decisions we made in the first two seasons would affect us in season 3.
3) People who want Clementine as a secondary character
Supporting Thoughts: This would make a good compromise, letting us play as a new character but still have Clementine in the picture.
Opposing Thoughts: With Clementine in the background, she would not really develop as much. It would also be hard to establish a new relationship with someone completely new, especially if she is alone.
My Take: Now, I loved playing as Clementine and I really loved the way her character has developed, but I do believe that Telltale was planning on finishing her story this season. Thus, the reason behind multiple endings. Normally, they try to keep things as linear as possible, with few variations here and there. Now, Telltale might change their minds about this and possibly find a way to bring her back, and I for one would be on board with that. I would not mind if Clementine came back for another season. I, for one, would like to play as an older character like Lee. I feel that decisions would hold more weight and the story would flow better without it loosing realism (I think Clementine's strength and the groups dependability on her did not make sense at times due to her age). I would love for the protagonist to be an older Clementine, but due to the restrictions in time on account of the comics, Clementine would only be 13 in the next season.
With that being said, I had an idea. What if we played as a new character who would eventually find his/her way to Clementine. Lets say that season 3 starts with someone who met/ will meet either Lilly and/or Christa (as to keep the season 1 choices relavent) and Mike, Arvo, and Bonnie (as to keep the season 2 choices relavent). It would be realistic because they could very much all be alive, and just happened to meet up like in 400 days. Plus, with the exception of Mike and Bonnie/Arvo, no one knows each other. Then around mid season we can finally reunite with Clementine and whoever is still alive. This would also resolve the multiple endings because by then enough time would have passed in the story for the writers to explain how Clementine ended up where she is.
My personal idea was to play as a bandit or some survivor of a fallen community. The character's personality would be tough and a bit hard to get along with, kind of like Bigby Wolf, and the player would be able to determine if we as a character are feared for our past, or reedemed as a good honorable person throughout the season. Now, Clementine would play an important role in our development and it would also add to her development as well. I could see this type of character start off as very antagonistic, but Clementine could help him/her become a good person. This would mostly depend on character actions, but depending on how YOUR Clementine was in season 2, her influence would have a different outcome. An example of this would be as follows:
If your Clementine was a good person, she would oppose your character if you choose to go down a bad path, but support you if you wish to redeem yourself.
However, if your Clementine was all about survival and looking out for yourself, throughout the season, Clementine would support you if your actions are queationable or bad and criticize you if you choose to try to be a good person. I think this would be interesting, because we have so far played as normal "good" people, and it would be an interesting change if we play as someone who would be considered an antagonist or anti-hero. All feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
Comments
CLEMENTINE CONFIRMED FOR SEASON 3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
i like your idea, personally i would go with option 2) but if we could only choose an option with clementine in it, i would definitely be option 3) and i like the idea of a tougher person that may have questionable morals, because it would open up possibilities of doing anything. i think season two was a bit to mid tone grey when it came to moral choices, there was not really any big moral choices with totally different approaches, the biggest one was leaving or saving sarah, but other than that the choices didn't really have much moral weight or contrasting approaches, so a person who may just be full crazy or totally friendly would be a fun and dynamic player character
Why not make a DLC that takes all the endings and ties them together.
Clementine should be a deuteragonist in s3 but have your past actions influence what she says/does, etc.
not everybody buys DLC also it would kinda suck to have them all tied up into the same outcome after such different endings
well if you dont buy it then Clem in season 3 could say a bit of what happened to her in the dlc
The problem with a new character who meets up with people from other seasons is that you are predisposed to these characters. Most people would probably want to kill Arvo, and treat Mike and Bonnie terribly at every opportunity even if it does not make sense for a character who does not know them.
KennytheGod brought up a good point. The reason they got rid of Christa and Omid was to free people up from the relationships from Season 1. They wanted it to be Clementine's decisions and impressions of people, not your feelings that carried over from Season 1.
I think if people want a character that's already established in the universe, Christa would probably work best. She's from the first season and you know her, but all her past connections are gone. She'd be surviving alone as a woman, something we haven't had an actual perspective of playing as (we had Lee, a man, and Clementine, a child). Some point near the end of the Season you could even have her finally meet or find some sign of Clementine, if people were that disposed to seeing her again. I think if the focus was Christa's story, then they could handle Clementine in a vague enough way that they wouldn't have to destroy the way Season 2 ended.
I mean, Clementine could still ask for Christa in Wellington. If not as a new protagonist I'd like to receive some closure on Christa in DLC.
I'm 99% sure we will continue s3 as Clem after a 1-2 year time skip. We've seen her adapting, learning, surviving in a ZA from the age of 8 through 10 episodes and after all that let's just dump everything and go for a new protagonist? In my opinion we should see her develop as a teenager and maybe an adult in the future seasons.
Starting a new protagonist and leaving Clem's story on hold seems like a very risky move from telltale. And seeing her as a secondary character would seem odd.
I'm not saying TWD can't work without Clem, but she's playing a huge role in the game and has sort of reached that iconic status where if she suddenly were to never appear again, TWD would not be the same.
I really hope we get to play as Clem again, she was a fantastic protagonist. So option 1 it is for me.
Definitely option one.