Determinant Relationships That Really Didn't Matter.
InGen_Nate_Kenny
Moderator
First Time Poster, Long Time Reader here. Long post here. Hold Onto Your Butts.
So I noticed something throughout Season 1 and Season 2. Most of your relationships with characters didn't have any major effect on the story with a few exceptions.
I take Lilly for example. You can be really friendly to her and be a friend, try to save Larry, but ultimately all your interactions with her mean nothing compared to Kenny, who by siding with throughout Season 1, changes events in Episode 5 and Season 2. Lilly just flat out leaves in Long Road Ahead, leaving no influence on the story except Carley's or Doug's death, which is forced in the episode.
Another example of a big character having little to no impact on the story is Luke. Now Luke granted is better than Lilly, because some of your interactions affect the story every so slightly. You can sit with him in A House Divided and won't affect your interactions, but if you sit with Kenny, it does affect Kenny by changing some of No Going Back's dialogue.
Plenty of characters that only exist for one to two episodes suffer this. You treat Reggie anyway you want, and he leaves no influence on the story other than the fact that he's dead. Sarita, like Reggie, isn't affected by any of your decisions, from putting a star on the Christmas tree to chopping her arm off, leads nothing but the same fate.
How you treat Carlos and Rebbeca in All That Remains doesn't matter either because next episode they trust you fully and everything in All That Remains.....doesn't remain.
Some characters like Troy and Kenny, do act differently by acting different. If you listen to Troy he'll hit you less or not at all I forgot. Kenny has the whole going with you or not in No Time Left, helping kill or try to save Larry in Starved For Help, sitting with him in A House Divided, and watching him best Carver all change the story which is what this game needs.
What's Your Opinion On This? Who do you think was a plot device and who was a fully fledged character?
Comments
Sarita and Reggie were 100% plot devices.
(?) Lilly will remember this
(?) Clementine will remember this
(?) Kenny will remember this
(?) Christa will remember this
(?) Omid will remember this
(?) Carlos will remember this
(?) Luke will remember this
(?) Sarah will remember this
(?) Nick will remember this
(?) Pete will remember this
(?) Bonnie will remember this
(?) Mike will remember this
(?) Jane will remember this
(?) Arvo will remember this
(?) Duck will remember this
(?) Rebecca will remember this
(?) Alvin will remember this
(?) Troy might remember this
(?) Walter will remember this
(?) Sarita will remember this
(?) Molly will remember this
(?) Ben will remember this
(?) Charles will remember this
(?) Doug will remember this
(?) Carley will remember this
(?) Larry will remember this
(?) Lee will remember this
What about the others? No.
Well, if you're going by the standard of people who change directly as a result of Lee/Clem's actions long term, then Kenny is the only one that matters haha since he's the only one that sticks around for an extended amount of time and is heavily influenced by what Lee does to him and his family in Season 1. Siding with Lilly makes Kenny be a dick to you because you didn't agree with him, but yeah Lilly leaves. (Writers thought she was Lilly Caul from the Wooddbury comic storyline but Kirkman said she wasn't and TT already had the story developed).
In season 2, there is no one like that. Everyone has this idea of Clementine already set and we can do little to influence things that will have a lasting impact to the finale.
If we're going by characterization then, I'd say well developed characters were people like Kenny (season 1), Clem (season 1) Lilly, Larry, Katjaa, Duck, Molly, Omid, Chuck, Christa, Ben, Carley, Doug, Molly, The St. Johns, The Stranger, Nick, Sarah, Pete, Luke, Jane, Rebecca.
Minor characters who had little or nothing significant besides being a plot device are people like, Sarita, Walter, Matthew, Alvin, Carlos, Carver, Troy, Reggie, Chuck, Mark, AJ, Mike, Bonnie, Arvo.
I was trying to decipher the combination of the bold letters. You tricked me.
Chet. Brb people going to come kill me for insulting hot dish god.
Rebecca, Alvin, and Troy says rat. Maybe that means something?
Life is not simple.
Encryptions are not supposed to be simple.
Detective Green, I think we need to follow that trail. Look at Doug, Carley and Larry - and put those scoundrels in right order. DLC confirmed. Baloons for everyone!
In the DLC you play as Carley trying to use batteries, Doug trying to stuff biscuits into his mouth, and Larry licking a salt lick.
11/10 would play.
What about Lord Andre, our warrior of the night?
After watching A New Day again, I remembered Glenn and Herschel
Did Glenn or Herschel have any (?) Glenn or Herschel will remeber this?
Carley putting batteries reversed in a charger , not that that matters because she doesn't plug it in.
Larry "lick lick" Mama St John"that aint a salt lick... "butt" continue"
Doug dying from crackers beeing the cracker he is
Yeah both deserved more, ESPECIALLY Sarita.
He's unknown no matter what. Not determinant. And it's Officer Mitchell. Get it right.
Sadly, that's always been a problen with TWD: The illusion of choice.
You will notice not only that the relationships didn't really matter, but neither did your choices.
Well...the story is still great. You basically pay 25$ for a 12 hour movie (Season 1) that has a great story and great characters, aswell being emotional as hell.
Good deal after all.
And btw I like your username
InGen, hell yeah JP!
Nate, yusss!
Kenny, yay!
I think they should learn from TWAU where while we still had the illusion of choice, if we interact with characters multiple times and they go act differently more often and some of their opinions change like Gren and the Woodsman (kinda I don't remember that well). But that being said, TWAU didn't have characters dying every episode so we got better character development.
And thank you for the compliment about my username. JP:TG started it all here for me and became my favorite TellTale game. And I love Nate and Kenny:
I've got to say that most of the relationships in season 2 don't change at all. The only ones I know are, Nick and Walter (you can get Walter angry enough at Nick to kill him or get Walter to save him) Sarah and Clem (to an extent, all it really does is change or adds dialog), Bonnie and Clem (if you cover Luke instead of going over to him, Bonnie will resent Clem, you can also get her killed if you don't break the ice). That's all I can really see.
She should have survived if you cut her arm off, and then change Kenny in Amid The Ruins, then die in the gunfight in No Going Back, same with Nick.
The reason relationships don't matter in the long run is because Telltale insists on slaying the entire cast by the end of the season. Really, these choices you make and connections you build are all about making your own unique path throughout the story even if you end up at the same destination as every other player regardless.
I understand that its The Walking Dead, and I understand the whole "nobody is safe" thing, but Telltale honestly takes it a bit TOO seriously.
Its like they've made a death quota where 3/4 of the cast needs to be dead by the end of the season or its a bust.