What Would Your Season Three Have Been?
Just hear me out - I know ANF's not finished yet, but I'm honestly curious... let's pretend for a sec that you guys have full control over the writing process. If you did, what would you have done differently, and where would you have wanted the story to go? If you wouldn't want to change anything at all or would only want to make some minor adjustments, that's perfectly fine, too. Feel free to say so 
Personally, I would've scrapped the multiple endings from a few years ago and had four remaining survivors - Clem, Kenny, Luke and Jane (five if you're counting AJ). It's been approximately a year and a half since season 2 (I'd change the ending somehow), and tensions would be mounting. The adults in the group would've been getting on each other's nerves, each with mostly differing opinions about where to go and how they were going to survive, and you as the player either can try to stay out of it for the most part, agree with one side wholeheartedly, or try to play peacemaker between the group; the latter of which would only appease them and not much else. With hunger and weariness eating at them, you're more likely than before to have some of the dialogue options really aggravating one or more of your fellow survivors, so you'd have to choose carefully.
I'd devote much of the first episode to this group, giving several hubs of various points of interest with small clues about some group that you haven't seen yet (New Frontier). You'd be able to have fleshed-out conversations with the characters, help the adults figure out puzzles around the environment and such until finally, you come across a band of the New Frontier. We'd be in the junkyard at this point, and it would play out in a similar manner as before, only this time you need to escape. Depending on who you end up being most close to by this point based on your actions, either Luke, Kenny or Jane hands you AJ and tells you to get out of here.
After hiding under the floorboards for a while, you pop your head out to find all three of them gone, with you not knowing if they're alive or dead until about episode 4 or 5. As you're leaving, fearful of what those guys might've done to your friends, you end up finding Javier, Kate, Gabe and Mariana, who have heard about a place called Prescott and were looking for some gas for their van parked near the entrance. I wouldn't have given any indication about who these people were initially, and left it a mystery as to whether they were bad or not. Coincidentally though, they don't seem to trust you initially either, though seem to pity you somewhat for having a baby in your care.
From here, I'd give Prescott more of a long-term stay as an actual hub area, similar to the motor-inn from season 1. Your new group (also now consisting of Tripp, Elanor, Conrad and Francine) would have to make a decision on some potential sites to investigate, having heard rumours of "bandit" activity (NF) and needing to send out a small party to investigate. The rest of the group puts in their input first, but it ends up becoming a tie - meaning you have the final say on where to go, and can rewind if you want to investigate the other area next time.
Your investigations will eventually point you towards Richmond, and you will have to explore multiple hub areas in order to find Kenny, Luke and Jane; who are all in separate locations. Based on your actions in essentially jailbreaking them, not only will David be arrested for helping his brother out, but there will also be a scenario in which one of your initial group members will die at the end of episode 4 (not entirely sure how I'd do this, so bare with me). Gabe, Mariana, Conrad and Francine would all be captured, and your only choice would be to regroup at Prescott.
For the finale episode, I'd take a Mass Effect type of approach and have nearly all of the characters on your side be determinant. I would essentially make this the last season of TWD, and go out with a bang by having a sort of head-to-head war between Prescott and the New Frontier. At the very end, even you as Clementine could be killed, and I'd end the season with those character tags they had at the end of No Time Left where it explained what happened to each important person, as well as your interactions and choices you made regarding them.
Oh, and I'd bring back the damn end credit songs!
So... what would you guys have done if you were to write season 3? Any ideas?
Comments
Good.
Person of few words, I see
Sometimes less is more.
I think it's kind of amazing you manage to write a better season 3 than the "real" writers in half an hour when it took them 2 years to come up with the garbage we have now, not to mention they rewrote it several times...
Huh, maybe that's where Telltale got the idea of shorter episodes
Hahaha aww, thanks pal
You know, when I started reading it, it sounded like a really cumbersome rehash of All That Remains and A House Divided--which isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you. However, as I read on, I released that were onto something that appeals to the "Your Choices Matter" Slogan that this series popularized. Great job!
Yeah, I was hoping that it wasn't going to end up just as a sort of remake in the beginning xD Thanks man, that means a lot
I would have had a s2 ending flashback during each episode. So you'd get a decent scene of Kenny/Jane/Wellington each episode leading up the finale where you find out what happened to them.
I truly thought we would play the s2 endings via flashback throughout the season alongside Jack and his present day story. Would have worked out a lot better imho
I like that idea a lot actually - it would've given us an added incentive to keep going and kept us guessing as to where they ended up. Any ideas for how you'd want the flashbacks to go?
You sure you don't wanna be a writer for Telltale? Because you essentially put in more thought to those flashbacks than an entire team of writers did
That Kenny ending reminds me of the tv show a little bit, where one of the guys in season 1 (Jim, I think his name was?) is laid down beside a tree to live out his last moments due to a walker bite.
But anyways, powerful stuff you've got there, man.
If we were to get a "proper" Season 3, there are a number of different little elements I'd personally expect to see picked from to include. Obviously, some of it is unlikely and some requires certain things to play out differently. Here is a list of some of those things off the top of my head:
If I were doing S3...It would be a retelling of the first 4 years with Javier...to build up the characters. We are told that Kate was the smart one and that she kept things strait and logical...yet we never see that.
The kids...what was it like for them? We should be invested in their characters.
Episode 1: For All Seasons
We start as the beginning of ANF started.which I thought was extremely well done. The first episode would deal with Hector turning and the 3 Months staying in the house. Dealing with bandits that try to take their stuff who were friends of David and Kate...Kate would save Javi's life....end with them leaving the house
Episode 2: Time to Live
Would finish out the first year of the apocalypse the van gets a flat and Javi goes for set in an auto shop. Kate has her hands full with the kids as Gabe runs off because he sees a car that looks like the one his father left in. (You would play as Kate as you have to save Gabe...bonding moment for Kate and the Kids)
Episode 3: Time to Die
Year 2 of the apocalypse...the kids are growing and finding clothes is an adventure in itself as is teaching them how to survive when Kate and Javi themselves are just barely making it. They meet a man name Eric who is dying of cancer...he teaches Kate and Javi some survival tricks.(This is a character building episode) Eric asks only one thing...they watch over him and make sure he does not turn when he dies. We learn Kate's mother died of cancer. Javi and Kate share their feelings for each other.
Episode 4: Time to Laugh
Even in the apocalypse there are worse things than walkers....carnies. A community made up of people who are used to living on the road..this traveling group sets up for one hell of a carnival. But in the apocalypse nothing is as it seems...the bright lights and music draws the walkers to the carnies who try and thin out the herds so communities can grow. The entertainment gets deadly when a hurricane hits just as the largest herd ever seen descends on them. Purely an adventure episode giving the kids some time to enjoy the carnival atmosphere (stay away from the 100% all natural hot dogs). Year 3 ends
Episode 5: Time to Cry
The beginning of the 4th year of the apocalypse and we find Javi and Kate sleeping together in an abandoned hotel...outside of a Six Flags...the kids remember a time when their mother was alive and they stayed at the same hotel. Flashbacks to show a softer side of David. A gang of Bandits try to catch Kate and the Kids...The Hotel burns as the Garcia clan tries to escape the bandits and a herd of burning walkers....Final scene shows them on the road passing a sign that reads Prescott Airfield.
Start the game at Wellington. Have Clementine bored, depressed and missing her friends and missing the action. Going from constant fighting to being behind safe walls would have it's psychological effect on her. Have her interact with characters at Wellington that will form the core group. Introduce a younger rival to Clementine that would eventually become the next big villain. Wellington will eventually fall, AJ will die and the ending would be Clementine either joining the villain or trying to take them down.
And you've even got some new episode titles there, too! Awesome
This is just development city over here - now that you mention it, it was pretty odd how the whole Garcia family seemed to act almost the same way four years into the apocalypse. I mean, what were they doing the whole time? Hibernating?
This reminds me a lot of the slow-building, effective character development that we got in season one, and probably would've made them so much more likeable and relateable to the point of where we are now in the story. Do you think you'd have us switch back to Clem in season 4 and have her run into the family afterwards?
But damn... now I'm craving a carnival-kind of episode
I really like a lot of those ideas, particularly the Sarah, Lilly, Christa and 400 Days stuff you've got in there. A Sarah development arc would've been really cool, maybe having us show her how to actually shoot a gun and survive and things of that nature.
That'd definitely be cool. After all the hype surrounding Wellington in season 2, you'd think we'd have actually been able to check the place out and explore at least a little bit.
It's mostly the same if anyone has read my previous posts.
The anonymous writer of this was yours truly.
I want Clementine, Jane and the family to start off unsure of each other, but Clementine tells the truth of what happened and the history of the hardware store. Then the story will fast forward to Day 1000, Clementine awakens from a nightmare of the people she failed to protect. Jane and Clementine make supply runs while Randy and his family guard the store. And that's just Episode 1 Expect returns of determinant characters and a OC of mine whom I homage Burt Gummer from Tremors. Also, rival group wanting Howe's for their own. And a secret location somewhere in the region called Quivira (named after an ancient lost city of gold) where stored is a bountiful stash of weapons and food that can last many years. Quivira was established by a band of survivalists of many communities in case a situation when society collapses. All are dead and the stash became a legend. But my OC learns of it before he meets Clementine.
Also, I'm thinking of including the Fairbanks clan, my OC Eldon will find them on the run from Oceanside, by a group called the Ravagers. Eldon helps out this group consisting of four OC s, the Fairbanks family plus Paige, and Christa, whom Clementine and her have a tearful reunion. Also, I'm planning on the Ravagers attacking and nearly destroying Howes. They have access to military grade hardware. I'm careful with weapons from below 2003. And then, comes a thing I've wanted for a long while...Lilly's return and a redemption arc. Still alive and surviving but broken and haunted by the demons of Season 1 AKA her guilt in the form of a hallucination of the one she killed "Carley"
Ravagers are a group of ruthless survivors like the New Frontier, Saviors or Monroe. Lead by a man named Aurelio. Still working on him.
Skill set for the family (thanking Lilacsbloom for opinion) Gill could be good at sneaking around and fitting into small spaces, Randy could know first aid, Patricia archery.
Also, I hope I'm not making the Ravagers too much by giving them military weaponry (you know M16 variant rifles, submachine guns and even Milkor MGL grenade launchers. I try and keep the weapons within before 2003 since that's when the outbreak occurred. And thoughts on Howe's destruction and plan for Lilly's arc.
Also here's the locations: In the past, it was driving me crazy pinpointing Howe's real world location but after much research I placed it at a Lowe's (since Howe's you know) in Bristol, Tennessee. Weber City, VA - at the elementary school, the rendezvous of Eldon's group after Howe's decimation. Middlesboro, KY - the mall is a location of a settlement. Clem's group stays there for a while after being chased by a herd of lurkers and the Ravagers. Also, Lilly is second in command plus one of the advanced scouts while searching for supplies. The prison I've chosen to be the new settlement for Clem's group is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Penitentiary,_Big_Sandy. And bonus it openced in 2003 so the lurker population may be small, give or take. Huntington, WV - The location of the massive large industrial warehouse of Quivira. Still working on figuring out how the group will find it if it's faded into obscurity.
Then upon finding it, returning to Lochmere (Middlesboro settlement) and learn that the Ravagers do something drastic that will be a prelude to war for the next season.
Still working on putting it all together.
I would've had Wellington play a much bigger role since it was built up so much in Season 2 and then tossed to the side in ANF.
I would have loved two playable protagonists like in Tales, would have liked Clem to stick around for the majority of the episodes, her and Javi being close, risking each other's lives to save one another and together you would hunt down the NF (Javi to get his family back, which btw would not be in the game until maybe towards the end because they have been poorly developed as characters and Clem to get AJ back) and of course you would have to make hard choices along the way (Maybe murder / steal from other communities or ask for their help, having to do something for each one to gain their alliance) and at the end a big battle between you and your allies (If you have any) and the new frontier.
I mean at first when the game was revealed I thought it was gonna be something among the lines of what I said.
At the very least, toss the multiple endings of season 2, and then continue the story 2 or 3 months after season 2 ending, I am getting sick of these time skips, frankly I think playing shortly after a seasons ending would make it alot more interesting and feel like more of a continuation, while I have never completed Assassins Creed Brotherhood, I remember it started off right after Assassins Creed 2 ended, which made it interesting.
Also, dont introduce so many new characters all the time, keep some of the characters around for more development, while we get some new characters.
I would also have preferred to meet Javier as Clementine, rather than the other way around
This is hard for me because I don't know if anything would work out as good as it appears in my head.
So I went with Kenny at the end of S2.
S3 would pick up a while after S2 ended. Kenny and Clem have created a safe place for them and AJ. They also take in people, which Kenny wasn't too happy about at first. Not sure how big/small it would be. But it would be big enough that they can continue taking people in on a case by case basis. Kenny is very cautious about who they take in. He wants to keep Clem, AJ and the others safe. Clem is trying to be as cautious, but sometimes she's a bit too soft.
I have no issue with Javi being in the game. He can even be the playable character if it's needed, or we could have two. Instead of being with Kate and the kids, he's with David and the kids. They've been on the road since it started, after their parents and David's wife died. Everyone's grieving, but David and Javi are close. They fight sometimes, like brothers do, but they're family and they would do anything for each other.
I could see something happening maybe in the first or second episode and characters get separated. And we could flash between the two as they struggle to stay alive and do whatever it is they have to do. Kenny and Clem worry about each other, as do Javi and David.
We also get to know some of Clem and Kenny's group over the first episode or two. Develop them so you will either love or hate them, but they all make an impact on the series. Maybe even give Clem a friend around her age, someone who Kenny pushes her to spend time with so she can experience being a kid for a while.
Introduce more than one villain. Have one of the two enemies last to continue into another season. Maybe even end the season where the group has to move because they're no longer safe where they were. Or maybe it shows them having to rebuild at the end and coming together more than before.
That's just one idea I think would have been interesting to see play out. But like I said, maybe it would be crap or wouldn't work.
I tell you....with ANF...I would handle the first 3 episodes sorta how they are...except have them larger and give Eleanor Tripp and Conrad and Francine some character work. David would get a flashback at the beginning of ep3 to show how he was routed out of the city and the death of the mom. I would play up the Clem mystery of how she got there...no Kenny or Jane Flashbacks until Ep 4 which would shift into Clementine looking for AJ and helping Javi...Clementine would be the playable character for ep4 and Ep5 would be split 50/50.
The biggest sin I point to Telltale is the lack of character building...why should we care about anyone except Clem?
Your ideas are pretty good and i think it would have been a pretty fun game if it was that way althought i do think that there should atleast be some characters you could find from past seasons in the early episodes like for example:
In episode 2 after you enter prescott and meet all the characters ((Conrad , Francine and Tripp))
the argument would be about whether to investigate a house filled with supplies which is very far from prescott ((The one from a new frontier episode 3)) or go back to the Junkyard to look for Clementine s friends again.
either way no matter what choice you pick afterwards i would have Javier be the one to have the flashback scenes instead of clementine for example in episode 2 you get the flashback from javier where the dad dies and david takes the mother to the hospital and stuff .
so here s how i think the scenes would play out:
the house:You re going in Tripp s car with him , Javier , francine and Gabe.
they would find the door closed and force it open you would get a hub to explore it and see supplies from several different places and have different talk options to the other characters which would give you more on their background.
eventually someone would knock a box down and they would hear someone saying: ´´What was that noise?´´ and everyone would hide somewhere and then Clementine would Tripp... i mean she would trip and when the person who has that voice is almost turning around the corner you would be grabbed by someone and hide behind one of the shelves crouched and the person who grabbed you would have been revealed to be Jane who had ran away after the shootout and found that bunker the person who was shouting is Max who s with Lonnie and a couple of other nameless guys .
Clem would tell jane that she found other people and then they would have to find the others without allerting Max and Lonnie after you find all of them you would sneak up on Max , Lonnie and the other guys and get the jump on them and kill most of them but Take Max prisoner and Lonnie would escape to tell the New frontier.
you would then get a choice to either stay a little longer to grab some supplies or leave before he can alert more people.
They would go back to Prescott and the screen would fade to black and shown one last scene before ending of Luke being knocked out at the junkyard and Badger standing above him .
Going to the junkyard:
The people who would go with you to the junkyard would be: Tripp , Eleanor, Javier , Gabe and Conrad who would be using the horses Eleanor uses in a new frontier episode 1.
you would also get the same option to talk with them and get more of their backstory then you would find the house where Clem was hiding in again .
Eleanor would go with Clem just in case they find someone there who s wounded and you would also be able to pick between Conrad or Gabe to search the house with you .
If you pick Conrad then gabe goes to where javier and is and they stand guard on the same spot while Tripp is taking care of the horses.
If you pick gabe Conrad heads off to a third spot and stays there.
inside the house you would find Luke who would be happy to have found you and he would tell her that after the shootout he got away and went back to look for the others to see if someone was still in the junkyard.
After you leave the house Clem and javier would spot someone aiming a gun at either Gabe or conrad:
Gabe: Javier would push gabe out of the way and a shootout would Begin ultimately ending with your victory but with a wounded Tripp who would have gotten hit by a bullet during the shootout . the one who started it would have been Badger and you would take him prisoner and find out about the new frontier like you do in the house and also one of the people that was with badger would escape ((The guy you can shoot in episode 1 of New frontier.))
They would head back to Prescott in the horses and you would have one last scene of Jane being taken Prisoner by Max who found her attempting to steal the supplies of the house.
I honestly can't wait for you to write this
It seems like you're really taking the Jane ending to a whole new level and tailoring season 3 to be heavily based on your choices.
Plus, you're including Lilly, too. I mean, you're hitting everything on my wish list right off the bat
Literally! It takes you out of the experience so quickly when you're not invested into any of the characters. And it's not even just the fact that most of them are gonna die this time around - it's that their deaths aren't actually going to have any emotional impact whatsoever.
Why thanks. I'm trying my own spin. I hope readers will understand, but I worry about ones who taken alternate choices: you know Kenny, Wellington, solo.
A lot of thought is going into this and I too can't wait to get started. I just hope I do the characters justice like with how I'm taking to this new level.
Plus I'm contemplating a Season 4. Not there yet but in pre concept planning stage.
One thing at a time.
How it is now, but with slightly longer episodes, and some more hubs.
My season 3 would have taken place in Texas, and would have been a revenge story. A group of Marauders would have crossed both Clem amd Javi separately and they both meet and team up to get revenge upon these Marauders. We would control both equally as they each learn to trust each other over the course of 5 episodes.
I know opinions vary, but personally if someone passed over this idea for what anf turned into, I would think that person was intentionally trying to screw up the series.
I would've preferred if the series had multiple antagonists, example; Carver, Lilly, random small enemy group leader like Nate, would made the story more intense.
And I would rather have character that actually survive through out the whole season; like Luke, Nick, Sarah, maybe even Molly or Ben's classmates/family we never saw then there being character that just have 1 or no roles during one season and just die later on.
As for the choices, this game should've had some permanent choices that were mainly focused on your influence on Clementine, still can't believe after that traumatizing experience at the St. Johns Farm she's happily drawing leaves, or like dropping Ben all for that to be justified was one sentence.
In my Walking Dead works, that will SO be true.
I'd have it be exactly as it is now except Clementine isn't in it at all. She leaves with Kenny/Jane/herself, etc, at the end of season 2 and that's the end of her story.
Oops, thought I hit add comment lol, mobiles not letting me delete. Disregard.
None of this Garcia familia crap, for starters. It would pick up shortly after the end of S2, with either Kenny arriving at Wellington, being allowed entrance and reunited with Clementine (Wellington ending), Clem and Kenny arriving and being admitted (Kenny ending), Clem and Jane arriving with a bit of exposition as to why they decided to see if it was real (Jane ending), or Clem arriving with AJ during the time period of S2s endings and a short jump to place the game in the time of the other two beginnings (alone). In the case of the latter, Edith or another character would fill the roles Kenny and Jane would have.
Rather than the small groups surviving we've played through in the previous seasons, we'd initially be seeing how a large group of people are bringing back some sense of normality and stability into their lives, how they become self sustained and and the struggle to do so rather than degrading into "big communities need evil people killing everyone to survive." Give them their own struggles and growth instead of hopping straight to the point or near the point the comics are at or having us explore another story of road weary survivors trying to make it by.
Make both Javi and Clem the playable characters (flashbacks don't count) and make it where they don't meet until the end of the first episode. Things that could be done with this:
Now for tying in the S2 endings where the person you're with still dies, I think that could have been improved by a lot. Also I like the idea of tying in Clem with the New Frontier through the flashbacks, showing how she dislikes the kind of people there. Here's what I think could've been done to make these flashbacks better.
I...I.....I....m-my...
...
...
...
LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE!!!!!!!!!
Luuuuke....LukeyLukeLukadooLuke....
I think you might be his biggest fan
Just a tad T.T
If I were to write Season Three with just the Garcia family?
E1 - Penitent Sons :: Open in the van, heading to the hospital to meet up with David. As the road thickens with vehicles during the family's dialogue, we lose track of David and Mrs Garcia's vehicle. We stop in a traffic jam, blaring with horns, sirens in the distance. Hector is shown leaning back in his seat, sweating as Kate encourages Javier to see what's holding things up. Exit the vehicle, we get a real feel for having lived in a populated city. Free roam area where we can approach cars lined in the road. Some drivers are able to be spoken to, others just say lines as we pass.
While we never have the opportunity to reach the source of the traffic jam, we can see a large wreck involving several vehicles at the end of the cars. An ambulance and police presence there. Once we've walked a certain distance, we hear screams. Police yelling. Gunshots. The panic of a large crowd as several of the drivers/passengers have reanimated. The officers take body shots, and are overwhelmed by the walkers. This also triggers QTE's for Javier to make his way back to his own vehicle as he dodges through people fleeing their cars, has to narrowly escape being crushed between two cars as someone attempts to wedge their way out to turn around, and even a driving QTE when he reaches the vehicle to escape the madness.
Out of danger, there's a discussion/argument over what happened/what to do now. The group defaults to heading home as we're shown through the windows ( S1 Lee looking out of the cop car viewing device ) streams of smoke rising in the city. More sirens/emergency vehicles rushing back toward the direction the group had left. Hector is sluggish getting into the house as Kate ushers the kids inside. We're free to roam here. Gabe and Mariana are at the tv, looking for answers. We have a news broadcast in the cut scene discussion advising everyone to stay calm, remain in their homes, and lock the doors. There's little to no information as to what's happening. Hector is seated in one of the chairs. Javier can speak with him and mention he's not looking well. Hector will write it off how he feels, redirecting toward being worried about his mother and what might've happened to David when they lost track of the other vehicle.
We find Kate in the kitchen, stressed. She displays her insecurities as a step-mom, and frustration in being left alone with the children during the crisis/or inability to comfort them. She looks to Javier to step up. He'll agree, but the dialogue options vary giving the player the opportunity to be more or less romantically involved with Kate, concerned for his family, and/or seeking his own redemption for not being there for them sooner. Either way, upon exiting Javier returns to the children to provide comfort and direction with the options of reassuring them that everything will be alright, easing their worries about their father, cracking a joke, and we send them off to bed.
Day Two - The children are upset as their father hasn't returned. As Javier, we have a few options as we wander around to discover the phones are out. We find that the power is out also as the tv won't turn on. We can also explore and discover Hector still in bed, sick and feverish. He'll ask about his mother and David. We now have a small mission to look around for some medicine for him. It's in the bathroom medicine cabinet, but we can have dialogue with other characters to ask where it's kept.
We locate Kate in the kitchen ( this is not a recurring keep the woman in the kitchen meme ) trying to save what food she can since the power went out. Here, Kate has a chance to showcase her strengths as far as intelligence and keeping everyone on track. She suggests to Javier to fill the bathtub with water while she fills other containers, just in case the water goes out after the power. As Javier is filling up the bathtub as suggested, through the mirror we can see Hector entering the room vacantly. Here, we have the QTE struggle of Javier vs Hector in the tight confines of the bathroom. This is a grand opportunity to build up Javier's character early in a one-on-one fight.
I feel like this post is getting a little too long, but in general I would've broken the game up into a trilogy. Javier's story would've focused on the four years between. Clem's story would've been A New Frontier starting with how she joined, living with them, and ending with her forced out of it which would've also fleshed out David and the members of A New Frontier. The third story would've been bringing Javier, and the consequential betrayal all of them must face together.