Characters who could have been more interesting?
In both S1 and S2 there were characters that I think could have been more interesting, a prime example is Katjaa from S1, for me she was a bland character as she was never outspoken about anything and was always on the perifery of the group. Another that comes to mind in season 2 is Reggie, he only seemed to be a plot device to tell us what we already know, that the removal of bitten bodily limbs can prevent infection. As you may well know we already know this a Pete said in E1 "We could take her arm off. I know that worked for a cousin down in Ainsworth."
Please comment which characters you think could have been more interesting.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
I'm not saying I dislike him. Hell, he's my third favorite character from Season 2. But considering the fact that he's meant to be a major character, pretty much all we know about him is that he's a generic, mid-20's nice guy with a degree in art history.
He's my favourite character in season 2. Would also have liked to know more about him.
I think Alvin could have used more development. What do we know about him beside him being a nice guy and looks after Rebecca?
I agree. He started off as a decent deuteragonist, but slowly started to lose relevance per episode starting from Episode 3 until his anti-climatic death in Episode 5.
It's almost as if he was meant to appeal to the young audience with his good looks and had little to nothing to offer to the story.
Virtually everyone.
Whatever transpired between Alvin and George was never made clear, which is a shame because I liked the idea that a seemingly nice guy was capable of violence.
Carlos, similarly, has a couple of hints about having done violent things that have traumatized his daughter. This is never explored.
We don't know Sarita as anything more than Kenny's trophy, an excuse for him to retread his angsty character arc from Season 1.
Troy could have been more than a one-dimensional jackass.
Carver could have shown a glimmer of humanity, rather than remaining a Terminator from start to finish.
Mike has zero backstory.
We never get to have a conversation with Arvo and understand WTF his deal was.
So basically the only character in Season 2 to have any kind of lasting development and relevance in the story is Jane, and she's just one person out of at least more than ten new characters.
And since AJ is a baby and doesn't behave like a real new-born baby, he doesn't count.
This is probably a first but Buricko looked interesting seeing as he isn't some average dude you would see on the street.
He had his reasons. why show your "fuck-me-in-the-ass" face in public when you can be a terminator who simply doesn't give a fuck about anyone's opinions. Carver was carver, his humanity was lost a long while ago.
yeah just assume that. we just didn't got to know about him just yet. We had a chance to kill him in episode 5 which was later on patched. His character wasn't just to fill in space.
Well his sister and "friends" were his fucking deal. and Kenny beating his ass, Clementine shooting his sister, which was in his "denial" eyes straight up murder. he might've not realised / noticed that his sister was already dead. He wanted to help her when she "came back". he thought she was still alive and needed help. (because she was crawling, and from the angle Arvo was looking at it might give someone the impression that she was still alive.) even though, many people didn't understand why Arvo lead his group to Clementine's group even if you didn't rob him. (his gun was missing whatsoever)
Then he's just another boring 100% evil bad guy. The problem is that Jane and Bonnie talk like he was once as human as Kenny, but you never SEE him act like a human being. He's just a macho asshole and for this series that's a boring villain.
How are you contradicting me about Mike? "We just didn't got to know about him" is a pretty bad excuse for not really developing a character for an entire season.
And I'm saying that the developers never allowed Clem to have a conversation with Arvo because they didn't know how else to make him not forgive her. That lack of compassion is pretty out of character for Clementine, to be honest.
Yeah, he's just some generic Russian gangster you see in a corny crime flick.
He doesn't look generic. Maybe if they developed him more he could have been an antagonist
Carlos is definitely a top contender here for me. I would've liked to see more 'doctor' stuff from him.
For example; I always imagined that he was that cool of a doctor that he set and splinted his broken fingers himself.
Otherwise, basically all of the characters from 400 Days and Season 2, and a select few from Season 1 (Vernon, Chuck, Brie, and Mark to name a few)
So yeah. Pretty much all of them. I'm going to elaborate, but I haven't the time to go through the entire season and really dig deep so I'm just going to have to go off of my memory, so I may get some details wrong. Here we go.
Sarita. She basically existed as the nice girl, replacement goldfish for Katjaa, there were plenty of interesting ways to expand on her character. I think we got to have a total of one conversation with her, and surprise surprise, it's all about Kenny. It would have been great to see a Sarita introduced without having anything to do with Kenny at all, but even with Kenny there was potential for...something that was cut short in favor of her being shoved in the fridge, specifically when she asks Clementine if Kenny seemed 'different' and when Sarita starts carrying the box and Kenny just grabs it from her. There was potential for conflict between the both of them I thought. She didn't even get to have any last words even if she doesn't get killed in the herd, and I felt pretty cheated by that to be honest. Kenny took over the conversation we should have gotten to have with Sarita. Also her interactions with Sarah were pretty adorable, I often think about the possible interactions between the two if Sarita had survived the herd, perhaps Sarita could have helped Sarah after the trauma of losing Carlos, I don't know. It could have been cool to see more between them.
Nick. I wanted to see his relationships with pretty much everyone in the cabin group shown more, especially with Sarah, Carlos, Rebecca, and Luke. He just fades to the background if he is saved in the second episode and there was much more they could have done with him. His fourth episode death was so pathetic too it feels like they just literally forgot he was there. Like, "Oh, what do we do with this guy, let's just give him an offscreen death and let that have no real effect on the story or anything"
Sarah. On my long list of 'characters who deserved better' she's probably at the very top. She gave Clementine disinfectant for her arm, a girl she literally just met, even though she knew her father would be disappointed. I find the fact that she's stated that her dad being unhappy with her is 'the worst' and she still does it anyway to be pretty touching. She can ask to learn how to use a gun because she knows that she needs to be able to protect herself, showing that she's not all that oblivious to what is going on. She will defend Clementine if Carver hits her, even if Clem isn't nice to her. And she'll alert the group that walkers are coming. Yet the writers still pushed the idea of her being a liability instead of someone with potential who could have learned to become stronger. I was really looking forward to what paths this character could have took, I wish the writers would have realized her potential too instead of opting to make fun of her at every turn and by extension, those of us who liked her. (The whole slapping her in the face to save her deal was apparently meant to spit at the players who wanted her to survive.) Her death at the deck was the stupidest thing too. Sarah being out there in the first place made no sense, why did debris fall on top of her when she was standing on the deck, and why the hell did everyone just stand there watching? I wanted to go down there and pull her back up to safety because nobody else would. I mean, I know why it was so illogical, they just wanted to get rid of her. And the aftermath of her death, where everyone just forgot about her because the baby was cute or whatever was...insulting.
Carver. He showed promise of being a greater antagonist than he was and I though his role wasn't big enough. Should have lasted the whole season with a death in the finale. I liked him alright, especially in the second episode, but I feel like they could have done a better job with him. I wanted to see more of how he related to the cabin group, there were so many things I wanted to know. Like, what did he say to Rebecca to make her cry? And what did he say to Sarah right after Reggie was killed? Who was George? His death felt way too early to me for such a big antagonist.
Troy. He was a generic sadist bully. The one moment that stood out to me was the look on his face when Carver continued to beat Kenny, he seemed...uncomfortable with the way Carver kept attacking him, maybe he had more depth than just constantly being an ass. But that felt sorta cheapened considering that a moment before he determinantly smashed Clementine in the face with his gun, so he was still a bland jerkass who could have been more sympathetic but...he was a bland jerkass and I wish he wasn't. That's it. I honestly don't know how to drag this out any longer. Moving on.
Arvo. I could write an entire essay twice the size of this post just on him. After witnessing all the disappointing deaths of characters I wanted more of in Amid the Ruins I was really excited about where they'd go with Arvo, my attitude was basically, "Yay new character look at this nerdy Russian fuck maybe he'll turn out to be awesome." I wanted to know what he was doing with the medicine, why he was with Buricko/Vitali, how he got to America, how he got the leg-brace, etc. There was hints of him being sympathetic too, it couldn't have been made anymore obvious that he clearly wanted no part in the shootout considering that he apologizes to Clementine for it even when she takes his pills, and before that he was only pointing a gun at her because she startled him and he was scared. "You were kind...that is not common." I was so ready to hear his back-story. So ready. In my opinion he was the best thing to come out of Amid the Ruins...and then the finale happened. There's one chance to have a conversation with him (Which ends up going nowhere anyway.) but if you talk to Jane and Kenny first and then try to go to Arvo the game literally skips right over him and onto the fire scene. That's pretty telling of how little thought they put into him. They couldn't find a way to make him into a believable antagonist without keeping him a plot device devoid of personality. Arvo's hatred of Clem was so flimsy it could have literally been solved by talking to him, but he needed to shoot her for the plot (And I suspect it also had the secondary purpose of proving Kenny as 'right about him all along' to justify Kenny's abusive behavior which is just plain bullshit.) so the game purposely wouldn't allow it. Everyone now hates his guts but I'm just irritated with how the writers handled him. What he did to Clem was just for shock value. I had more of a reaction to S1 Clem getting her finger cut than her getting shot, my response to what Arvo did was basically, "How stupid."
Mike. He was in the game for three episodes and remained a flat nobody with zero backstory. Three episodes and there's nothing memorable about him besides a couple of amusing one-liners. Then they have him act completely out of what little characterization he was given (I don't buy into the 'evil genius Arvo manipul8ted him into taking aaaaaaaall the stuff' interpretation.) by stealing all the supplies. He cared for Arvo enough to save him from Kenny but not enough for Clementine to leave her some things? But y'know, if he didn't try to steal every single thing then Clem wouldn't have had a reason to confront them in the first place so why not just erase his previous characterization for the sake of shoehorning drama into the finale.
Also all the 400 days characters deserved more.
And I don't feel real hate towards any of them, I hate what happened with them. They caught my interest, even more than some of S1's characters did but it feels like the writers didn't know what to do with them or didn't want to do anything with them and that's why I'm so pissed. I was excited to explore these characters and see them develop and that excitement was ripped to shreds before my very eyes. (Okay I'm getting real melodramatic but it's been four months since the season finale and I'm still complaining, I feel like everyone would laugh at me if I admit that I let my complaints of a video game effect me so much, but I'm a weenie so this was to be expected I guess.)
He deserves a Season just for him.
Nate is the greatest.
Telltale please bring him back.
Winston.
R.I.P Winston
"Jesus, Are you fucking kidding me?!"
Hail Nate, full of whiskey. The truck is with thee. Blessed are thou among junkies, and blessed is the fruit of thy loin Beak. Holy Nate, father of Rus, pray for us asswipes, now onto the hour of our drunkeness. Amen.
Sam.
Mike, fortunately it looks like we'll be seeing more of him
Eh, Nate's fine the way he is. Unlike the 400 Days protagonists he doesn't even have a lame cameo to ruin his characterization.
Who said a cameo? We all want him as a main character. Hopefully he meets Clem.
You have a funny definition of the word "We."
I don't. He's a psychotic asshat and this isn't the series where you play as a Villain. A character like him would be a great antagonist, though.
YOUR MOM! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I lost it at asshat. Like I've said multiple times turning him into a direct antagonist would be a dime a dozen move. I don't want a repeat of Carver. I'd rather him be a more psychotic Kenny.
I agree with all of them.
Did you know that line is repeated 3 times.
Well, Telltale did something right.
Everyone but Kenny.
[removed]
Sorry, I don't fuck Kenny fanboys.
[removed]
Lmao, I still wouldn't fuck your desperate ass.
Carlos
Good
Maybe because he looked like the next Lee since ep1?
Everyone saw it coming ,and thats why they didn't do it.
His death was still better than Nicks, that was a real BANG and there he was.
The asian dude on the bridge , he was in the "next time on the walking dead" at the ski lodge , but in the game he never was there.
The raccoon
Telltale failed to see the potential in the raccoon, Raccoon for S3 protaganist.