Playing "Darker" characters.
Just to clarify, by "darker I don't mean skin colour, I mean a darker personality.
I'm planning on replaying the whole series, but I'm not sure how I want to go about it. I want Lee to do things like threaten Vernon in S1 EO4, Clementine to watch Kenny kill Carver, and Javier to kill the man that captured him, but I don't want them to not have emotional attachments to people. I don't want them to be like Carver, more like Kenny in S2. The greatest thing about this series is the emotional attachments you have for the characters, you care about them so when they do die it hurts. I want the protagonists to be realistically affected by their loss. So my issue is that I don't know whether or not to play the characters with trust issues or not. Like do I have Clementine not trust the cabin group at first and be distrustful of Bonnie? I just don't know. What do you think? If you play them as darker characters should they have trust issues?
Comments
If by having trust issues, you mean that your character shouldn't trust people that easily, then of course. It wouldn't be realistic to trust everyone you came across in a time like this. People in TWD fuck each other over left and right and in real life trusting people like that in an apocalypse like this would get you killed one way or another. Also, not trusting people right off the bat doesn't make you dark, it makes you smart. Obviously Bonnie can't be trusted as she is scouting for Carver when she first meets you, and then the plans to leave you, Kenny, Jane and AJ alone with no supplies and no truck. Vernon can't be trusted either since he fucking nicks your boat from under your nose too, and the guy that's in the truck with Javi, fuck him, he's part of the big problem.
For a more personal gaming experience, why not ask yourself if you'd kill the St. Johns after what they did to Mark so they can't come after you again or harm anyone else. Or if you'd trust a group of strangers who think you're bit by a walker and want you locked in a shed over night. Would you be so trusting if you met Bonnie creeping where you're staying? When I'm not playing a playthrough where I'm in the character's mindset, I like to put my thoughts into the character.
Well, I threatened Vernon and all the characters still loved Lee.
I watched Kenny kill Carver and no one turned their back on me.
I egged Kenny on when he was being abusive to Arvo on the way to the shelter (although once we arrived in thought he started to become too violent)
I had Javi shoot the guy who captured him
I didn't think I was playing a darker character.
Well, I usually play the "do what has to be done" type of character or things I would do, I've done "dark" things such as watching Kenny murder Carver, but it's not that they're evil, it's just something personal. If you really want to play dark, trusting people isn't a bad thing, but you shouldn't have any morales if you truly play like it, instantly kill Larry, etc (I did this regardless being pragmatic that Larry was dead).
The main thing is that I see trust as a hopeful character trait and that's not what I'm aiming for. Another I'd like to clarify is that I wouldn't play them as "evil" more like vengeful.
Why would you be vengeful to those who haven't wrong you; sounds a bit weird. I mean, if you're aiming to play as edgy Lee/Clem, I guess you could not trust people and play like an asshole, but I don't really know what's exactly aimed at anymore in your playstyle you want to accomplish.