What Will You Do if Telltale Pulls a Omid on Rodrik/Asher?
I know there's already a thread about whether if Telltale will kill off Asher/Rodrik in the debut episode of Season 2, but I want to examine this from another perspective.
Considering Telltale's unpredictable and extremely secretive nature, there's really no telling what they'll do for Season 2, though the way Season 1 ended seems to guarantee a continuation of the House Forrester saga. I'm sure it was a surprise to everyone when Telltale decided not to kill off the determinant Asher/Rodrik in the Season 1 finale, but we don't know if this was a sign that they were moving towards a new direction regarding their determinant characters or if it was just there to leave us hanging with shock and surprise as bait for Season 2.
Has Telltale bitten off more than they can chew if they plan to keep Asher/Rodrik alive in Season 2, to give meaning to the determinant Sentinel's last words in Ironrath: ''You must survive, for all of us...'' Asher and Rodrik had so much development, the final choice in Episode 5 determined whose story was truly being told, the exiled second son, or the broken lord. These are great characters whom I doubt Telltale can replace with Gregor's bastards or Torrhen Whitehill.
But then again, Omid was also a great and awesome character whom almost everyone loved, and he got killed off quite unceremoniously at the very start of TWD Season 2.
So if Telltale repeats what they did to Omid and apply it to Asher/Rodrik, would you have contently expected such a move on their part, realizing that the alternative of keeping them alive was too much work for Telltale, or would you feel as if such a decision betrayed what the Ice Dragon finale was building up towards - that the surviving brother would continue to maintain a central role in the story of saving House Forrester?
Comments
Telltale's writing has become much better since. TWD Season 2 was pure shock value, not only this scene, but literally 90% of deaths. Game of Thrones was much more unpredictable and better written, and I doubt they'd pull the same shit again. To me it looks like Asher/Rodrik will live for now, but it's unsure wether as a NPC or a PC.
While I wouldn't put it past them, I don't think they would immediately kill off Rodrik/Asher. The thing is they have killed of that many characters in season 1, that the killing off of characters will most likely now be cheapened.
It is like when GRRM killed off Lord Eddard Stark....that was a shock! Then he began killing off other characters left right and centre, some of these were shocking too. Then people got that used to him killing off his characters that they came to expect it. Now it seems that instead of focusing on the direction the story might take, some people are trying to guess who is going to die next. It has got to the stage where it would be more shocking if characters actually continued to live!
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Even though GRRM has a penchant for killing off his characters, normally there was a plot reason to do so. Whereas Telltale and nearly all other fan fiction writers seem to think that to emulate GRRM's work you have to kill off characters, even though most of these killings were not absolutely essential to the direction they wanted to take the plot, there are other methods that they could've used to reach the same result.
If Telltale plans to keep their fans emotionally invested in the story, they won't kill off the surviving brother, at least not in the first episode. When people made that choice of who stayed behind and who lived, I believe that every single player had chosen who lived with at least some bias as to who they liked more as a character, even if they won't admit it. Rodrik and Asher's story were the two main plot lines of Season 1, and the surviving brother's story was the main part of Episode 6. If they were to pull an Omid on the surviving brother, it would foolish of them. Like I said earlier, the brother you chose to survive was most likely the brother you favored, so if they were to be killed off right away, that would leave people very pissed and it would probably stop buy rates for Season 2. It would take mostly everyone out of the story emotionally, since whoever lived was the main focus of Season 1, and there's no one to even come close to the amount of fan support that the surviving brother did, not Gared, not Mira, not Elsera or Josera, ad not Tohrenn Whitehill. It would be foolish to do.
Like Ethan's death, for example. It was Ramsay Snow, sure, but that surprised the fuck out of me.
@CunningFox what you say makes complete sense. Unfortunately the people running the show at Telltale are not as smart as you.
Sadly I think Telltale will most like kill off the surviving brother, maybe not in the first episode of season 2 but in a later one. No doubt they will try to dress it up as a noble sacrifice, in which they had to die to save Talia. Then we will be left with Talia, Ryon and Gared as POVs. They will then claim that they are doing us a favour as by only having 3 POVs they can focus on delivering us a much richer and in depth story. Aren't we the lucky ones.
It would be interesting to see, if they actually made it a choice between saving Talia = Rodrik/Asher dies or leaving Talia to die = Rodrik/Asher lives. NOW THAT....THAT would reaaallly give the Talia/Rodrik/Asher fans something to cry out about. Even better if it is Ramsay Snow who does the killing.
I'll do what I always do with Telltale games.
Ignore canon for my own ideas.
Scream and cry.
Then never touch game of thrones again.
But in all seriousness though, their writting has improved -I mean check out Tales From The Borderlands, do you know how much of a success that was- so I highly doubt they'd try and pull that shit off again.
If Telltale pulls an Omid, I am going to forgive them. I will invite them into my halls as my guests, serve them purple wines and sing the song of The Rains of Castamere.
In all seriousness, I don't think they would kill off Rodrik/Asher so soon. I certainly hope that they won't be killed off at all, but that is just the hopeful me who is constantly getting my hope crushed. I just can't see how killing Rodrik/Asher would serve the plot. A heroic sacrifice to save Talia, maybe. But I just feel that they are too connected with a lot of people to be killed off. They are the Lord of House Forrester, they are the leader and they are the character who has the most internal point-of-view of the Forrester's structure and history.
It is not always a good thing to kill characters off, especially characters that the story is depended upon to work. And we also have to consider the medium. In the books, it is different. You can have a wide range of characters and killing important characters isn't as risky since there are countless other characters that the readers might be interested in. The same with the Tv-show, where there are a large cast of characters too. It isn't that easy with games, because there are limits too. And because we players react differently. We are playing these characters, we decide their actions and how they treat other people around them, rather than watching or reading about them. If Telltale decides to kill off Rodrik/Asher they are also killing off a connection to their players.
What I am saying is that just because it works in the books or Tv-show, it doesn't necessarily mean it will work on a video game.
If this series goes on multiple seasons, then Asher/Rodrik will have to very likely be killed off at some point. Telltale won't have a determinant character span multiple seasons.
il ask for a fucking refund.
Marcus from Borderlands: NO REFUNDS!
No Asher no play.
Do as the Boltons, Freys, and The Nights Watch Does. But in all seriousness, Rodrik/Asher should live until either midway/end of Season 2 unless there is more for them to do then Maybe a season 3 may be needed but that is unlikely. Killing the brother off that early will be pointless as they still have a journey ahead of them.
I think they will keep Asher/Rodrik alive but they will be relegated to a background character. I mean look what they went through in that last episode. Even if they don't die they wont be up and about for a while. So we will get new characters to play as and that will let Telltale limit the amount of impact and dialogue they need to use for Asher/Rodrik.
@DaveTheArakin. Let's hope that Telltale realise this before it is too late. I won't hold my breath though.
@RKOLegend1 I think they will most likely kill Asher/Rodrik at the end of season 2, because I think they will bank on us being quite attached to Ryon, Talia and Gared.