House Forrester is too similar to House Stark...
I am aware that House Forrester is not an entirely made up house for the game but existed in the 5th book briefly, but not much details were given in terms of members of the house, which means the family size, set up and such are from Telltale and I gotta say, the similarities to Starks are just a bit too on the nose for my liking.
A honorable father who dies from duty. (Ned/Gregor)
A firm mother who sees family first. (Caitlyn/Elissa)
An eldest son who died at the Red Wedding. (Rodrik/Robb)
A 2nd son exiled and sent somewhere far away. (Asher/Jon)
A 3rd son who became the unwilling little lord. (Ethan/Bran)
An eldest daughter in Kings Landing held hostage by Cersei (Mira/Sansa)
A young almost toddler age brother whos a bit dark (Ryon/Rickon)
The only character with actual different in personality is Talia vs Arya, one being gentle lady like the other unruly and wild.
It's just.. too similar for my liking. It makes sense that they need to established a good solid host of characters so theres various stories to progress, and I like the fact that we're jumping back and forth between 3 places rather than following Lee/Bigby all day long, but it seems like they could've made the family a bit more different.
I think I know what they are trying to do, it felt amazing when the game STARTS at the Red Wedding and the eldest son just dies. It reminded me of the Starks, but by the time we got to Mira and Ethan, i couldnt help but roll my eyes and think okay this is just too much.
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I agree to a point, however the layout is already pretty different. With ethan gone.
Talia isnt arya
Also Mira suprised me as she is clearly more sneakey than sansa ever was in kings landing
Also Asher being an outcast is different to jon
I agree. While it isn't annoying to the point where I can't enjoy the game, the setting is all too similar. Only I'm reminded of Jon by Gared, the honorable youth of low birth, who is sort of a member of the House, but isn't and goes to the Wall largely because of it. Asher to me seems like a younger version of Jorah from his story.
Granted, the stories might yet diverge. Gregor and Rodrik are dead, so their similarities to established characters bear no weight anymore. Ethan looked like a promising character, reminded me of Bran at first, but he seemed like a flexible character that could become into what we made him become. But that went to shit when he died, of course. Mira is so much like Sansa that it made me cringe at first, but the difference there is that Sansa is a figure of major importance, while Mira, being a handmaiden from one of the lesser Houses, could fly under the radar and have way more freedom to act than Sansa. I guess we'll see their stories diverge in further episodes. As for Gared, he was the least interesting character for me, giving off the typical underdog-turned-hero vibe. Kinda like Jon. But he too may yet develop into something else, we shall see.
It's probably too early to judge. But yes, the initial setting is extremely similar to House Stark. Does it make the game worse, though? Not for me.
Yeah actually now that you mention it, Gared is more Snow what with the wall and aiming to be a Ranger and all.
Of course there is only 1 episode and we have to see where it goes, Ethans death does mark things a lot more different which is nice.. unless they rez him and he gets all magical.
I do feel that Mira is basically Sansa, yes shes a lesser character in the world but that applies to the whole house, but shes only feels a bit smarter than Sansa because the player has the choice, if you look at the dialogues choices there were some fairly teenage girl answers. I mean, if your Mira stayed silent for most parts or apologizes alot, shes Sansa. That being said, Sansa does get smarter when she becomes Elaine, which is kind of where Mira is at right now.
In any case, I just felt like it could be a bit more different.
Well I agree but at this point most of those similar characters are gone, I guess next time we will play as Talia or Asher, Mira is completely different than Sansa (she is kinda like Sansa when she leaves Kings Landing, manipulative and sneaky). Gared is my least favorite character because he just really seems too similar to Jon Snow, I guess there might be some romance subplot with him and Talia, that could make his story more interesting and different than Jons.
hes gone to the wall so i dont think he can have a romance with a high born girl in a dress.
5 bucks he will meet a wildling girl and so on.
Aye, the characters are a little dissapointing. I can understand why they did it, though.
Do you really see his story completely detached from Forresters like Jon Snows and Stark one? Im pretty sure he will still play a major role.
I agree to an extent, but I also think it is too early to tell.
However, something that really made me cringe was while playing as Ethan you can talk to Ryon while he is carving a wooden sword:
Ethan: Careful, Ryon. Pick at it too much and it'll only be something you can pick your teeth with.
Ryon: Every sword needs a name! Its name is Two Brothers!
I mean... I just... That's almost identical to what Arya and Jon said in Ep 1 Season 1 of GOT...
(Sorry, those aren't the exact lines but they are as close as I remember.)
Wasn't Jon the one that suggested that swords need names? Its a recurring theme in GoT so I had no problem there, show mentions sword naming many times, Joffrey does it, Brianne and Jaimie had talk about it where she named his gift - oath keeper and so on.
While it's pretty obvious they're replicating the Starks in places, I'd like to remind you the Red Wedding decapitated a lot of Northern Houses.
So the patriarch and heirs of a Northern House dying is pretty normal.
So is the fact they have similar values to the Starks since they live in the same area and culture with probable blood-ties too.
I only really thought Lady Forrester was a dead-ringer for Catelyn in almost every way except the fact that she's not an ice queen.
I think Malcolm is similar to Benjen Stark,I mean.. looks like.( and they are both uncle)
Well, I hope at least Malcolm won't be like Benjen and just up and dissappear.
Two swords is the name of the episode 1 in season 4 where tywin lannister melts ned stark's sword ice into two swords for himself and jaime lannister
I agree. I even referred (subconsciously) to Ryon as Rickon. Still loved the episode though, and there's so much time for the characters to develop.
You may say that the youngest daughter of the Forresters doesn't looks like Arya but you will see that even there are similitudes. Arya loved Jon Snow to the point that she finds herself thinking on Jon´s smile from time to time (She loves him like a brother don´t get me wrong) Well, the little one of the Forresters is attached in some way to Gared, she actually looked concerned about him, what´s more, she gifts him a necklace.
I would say that Gared is the Forrester version of Jon and not Asher. He is not a Forrester (Jon is not a Stark), he is a squire (Jon is a bastard), Gared ends in the Wall (Jon ends in the Wall).
They are in similar positions but their characters are actually fairly different. Gregor is friendly and talkative whereas Ned is quiet, Gared is dumb but freindly whereas Jon is thoughtful and solemn, Mira is cunning whereas Sansa fearful and transparent Ethan is responsible as a lord whereas Bran was just childish. I feel like they are in similar scenarios in order to try and recreate the feel of the show but their characters a definitely not the same.