Could Clementine Be Normal?
Let's say that a cure for the zombie epidemic is found, soon decades from now society has rebuilt itself, the zombie cure is mass produced as the last of their kind dwindle with the cure being a mandatory shot (kind of like a flu shot) in this new society. Bandits are gone, power is back up, there is a new era for humanity as the world gets together, the UN is called in, resources are back, homes and economy, jobs, police, the army, nations are soon back together over decades. And even still, now there is a "normal society", with the threat of a person possibly dying (who has not received their shot) and becoming a walker before being killed now just a somewhat far-fetched anxiety decades from the apocalyptic world, there is a troubling question. After everything Clementine has endured (and I mean specifically Your Clementine, the one that was guided by Lee's own choices and her own in Season 2), and probably will endure in Season 3, do you think she could ever go back to just having a "normal" life?
Of course, I imagine she is going to have to come to terms with what she did, she has potentially murdered people, survived horrors, seen torture, seen people killed in front of her, seen her dead parents, indirectly cause the deaths of others, etc. But do your own choices has led Clementine to be able to move past that and actually feel happy and even safe in a normal society (should it ever rebuild, however, unlikely that may be)? Or do you think Clementine is condemned to a harsh life where survival is everything, even if that has to be expressed through a psychological toll in a "normal" society?
Comments
I don't think anyone could ever go back to being "normal" after a four year apocalypse imo.
Dude, it's a hipotetical situation.
I think given how strong she is, she would bounce back quickly and recover I don't think she would suffer any long term ill effects. But will she ever forget those events, no I think she will still have memories of it in the back of her mind.
I like to think that my Clementine would hope for a future like that. Humanity coming back and returning to a sense of normal. I recall the conversation with Lee sharing hope that the world would return to the state it was in ep. 2 and in S2 ep. 5, my Clem wanting to go to college one day. With all she's been through I can imagine some issues adjusting, but I'm sure she'd be happy.
I thought about this myself a few times before actually, not just with Clem but with other characters as well. I've bounced back on both sides actually, at one point I did think that she'd be able to live a normal life and another time I simply thought that with everything she's went through all of these years it'd be even more difficult for her, she's now lived in the apocolypse a large portion of her short life.
I think she could. Honestly, I think most people could, once all of the threats of the apocolypse were removed. There might need to be some heavy therapy sessions going around for people who had endured as much as Clementine has, but I think most would be able to return into a fairly normal state of society after enough time passed. I think about Rick and his group having a hard time readjusting to normal life in Alexandria when they were first accepted in. Most had a very hard time, but I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that they knew nowhere was 100% safe as long as there were still bandits and zombies outside the walls, and they thought the people to be ignorant and weak for living as they did. But if a government really did do a sweep and fixed all of those problems and installed a justice system, as hard as it would still be, I think they would eventually settle down and accept it.
The only people I don't think could assimilate back into society would be the people who gained a massive amount of power and freedom in the apocolypse. This would include people like Carver and Nate. Carver I think would be too deadset that his ways were the only ones that should be followed, and I don't see him coordinating with a competing official government structure. Nate, and other bandit types as well, would probably refuse to give up the unregulated freedom they had to murder and steal as they pleased, and they would be treated as criminals and outlaws or be put to death to preserve the peace. People who were too far gone down dark paths, like the St. Johns and the Stranger, would also probably have an impossible time readjusting. Though, I imagine the St. Johns would probably have to go through a trial and answer for all of the atrocities they did if they were still alive.
I agree with you, @LoseMyHome . I would like to add that I think readjustment would be most difficult for those who were children during the outbreak though. Yes, people like Clementine. The adults would have strong memories of an orderly society, modern conveniences, and "the way things were before", and therefore would re-assimilate more easily. Children, whose brains are not fully developed, and who are more malleable and impressionable, would no doubt be traumatised and their post-apocalyptic memories would be much more vivid.
True, but I also think Clementine had a decent upbringing in the apocolypse despite everything she has seen and been through. Lee, Omid, and Christa had strong morals and I think they had been the best possible influential figures in her life for her to be able to endure both the good and the bad. Kenny or Jane as influential figures, I can't be so sure about.
As for children like, say, Becca, I agree with you. Becca most likely hasn't gone through what Clem has been through, but she's still been hardened by everything. Shel is a good influence to an extent, but I have a feeling she's too passive to really guide Becca in a major way. Living under Carver must have had an influence on her views on life too. She certainly didn't have any sympathy for the weaker characters like Sarah.
Normality is for the weak of mind that can't see the illusion the sistem puts in front of their eyes to hide the horrible reality. But odd people can see past that mist and see truth and fight the goverment.
JOIN THE ANARCHIST
(translation: normality is bad and anybody that can see past the illusion just shouldn't want the protagonist of any story to be normal, unless the sistem already broke their free spirit)
Yeah? The whole point of hypothetical situations is that you use logic to come up with a solution/answer. That's what TWD_stan did.
She's not a liability and yeah she got traumatized and her families, friends were killed but not only she's mentally normal but also had a balls to survive in zombie apocalypse , so i would say she's pretty badass to me
And his answer is clearly hypothetical as well.
He answered completely and precisely.
His answer is "No" because he doesn't think that "anybody" including Clementine could be "normal" after four years in an apocalypse.
She'd still have to make plenty of tough choices!
Her hat should stay the same, plum purple with white.
Short answer, Nope.
In all honesty i dont think society could ever go back to what it was before, so IMO it would never be an issue. There just aren't enough people left to rebuild to the level that society functioned at before. Even if there was a comeback, it would be more of a gather/hunter/barter type society, rather than the political marketplace type we have now. I'm sure she would cope well with that, but at the 8yrs old she was when the world went to shit, how much did she really understand or comprehend about how society worked in the first place?
Well, Clementine is sane so she'll be back to normal almost. She has to keep up her education XD
Of course she would be able to fit in and even to be happy. But she would never be able to overcome everything she is been through, no survivor would, these people are marked forever.
......it's blue
No. She's a young girl that's grown up most of her years through this new world that's basically survival of the fittest, and this can be her new definition of "normal".
You have to consider that she's going to live most of her childhood/teen years surviving an apocalypse where it's killed or be killed, and this can have a great influence on what she perceives as "normal". Right now, she's adapted to the worlds impediments and realises what she has to do in order to guarantee her survival as well as those around her. What you believe to be normal is dependent on society's influence and since she's growing up in a world filled with violence and death, she sees this as normal as it's her first primal socialisation/norm.
You're colorblind, though... and it's a faded purple.
I'll just let @JonGon explain lol.
Season 1 before we even meet Clem we see she decides to choose purple to stamp her hands on the paper. As a kid I would choose my favorite color so we can assume that Clem loves purple.
Why would someone choose so much purple items to wear? Damn, i'm stumped...
Purple shirt, purple backpack, even her long-sleeve undershirt has faded purple stripes.
Purplish lighter.
The hat was her dad's though.
it's blue
Yeah the first two pics the hat is purple. The one that Melissa is wearing is Blue. Even Clementine's "hair thingies" are purple.
it's her dad's hat, not her's. Get ur eyes checked.
Look how blue the hat is that Melissa is wearing. TTG should be ashamed for such inaccuracy. You're colorblind, you're the one that needs to get them checked lol.
Honestly, it's sad as shit, but no. I don't.
Everything everyone else has said about her adapting to the world around is true and all, but I can't even comprehend what the apocalypse did to her psyche. Psyche that was still developing. She saw her own parents doomed to roam the earth forever as rotting shells of nothing, had to shoot/leave the person that initially taught her the means to survive not even a year in, witnessed countless deaths of people dying in the most horrifying and excruciatingly painful ways imaginable, etc.
I think normality is out of the question.
His dad, Ed, wears a purple shirt in the family picture. Kind of. More like pink, but definitely not blue.
And he is wearing purple while on vacation.
It's sad but ... she feels like a women in this word ...