The Cabin Group or ANF's Cast...
So, as most know, throughout the last two seasons, Telltale have struggled to create compelling and engaging characters like those once seen in season 1 (Kenny, Lilly, Lee), as noted with the additions of the likes of Carlos, Rebecca and Alvin in the second game and now, Gabe, Eleanor and Tripp in A New Frontier. None of these characters have been shown to have much to their personalities, outside of just being very basic archetypes, such as Gabe being the overused cliché of a whining teenager who despite clear undeniable evidence to the contrary, constantly tries to proclaim himself a "man", and Carlos being the over-protective daddy, who while having good intentions, only ends up fucking up his own daughter's chance at surviving in the world due to his sheltering. Now, even if you do find these clichéd characters somewhat interesting based on your own personal preferences, there's no denying that, as a whole, they've left very little impact on the story, and usually die without leaving any emotional response from the player. I genuinely believe Telltale are pure clueless nowadays how to create interesting characters, due to how most of those just go nowhere, outside of being used to build up the body count.
Oh, and don't mistake me for criticising you if you like these characters. I'm only pointing out that, as opposed to someone like Lilly, there's not as many layers or complexities to them. And that's not to say there was nothing to explore with them either, really. Like, Carlos' character could've been explored more had the writing been good. We could've seen how being thrust into a situation like Carver remerging would force him to let Sarah lose her innocence and learn the ways of survival, and how that would've effected him. And that's the point of this thread, I suppose. I'm basically asking how do you think these characters could've been improved, and whether you believe the Cabin Group or ANF's cast had/have more chance at this improvement.
Which actual characters, out of the Cabin Group of Season 2 and the cast of A New Frontier, do you think had or have more potential to be interesting characters? Who do you think could've or can be improved had they been written in a certain way? What qualities of their characters would you have liked to seen delved into a bit more? So, yeah, whatever you think, be sure to leave a comment and leave your views down below. Oh, and if you so desire and you disagreed with anything I said, by all means do so and explain it, and I'll be sure to discuss it with you.
To make it easier, I'll list the main cast members of both seasons:
Season 2 (Luke, Sarah, Carlos, Rebecca, Alvin, Nick, Pete)
A New Frontier (Kate, Marianna, Gabe, Tripp, Eleanor, Conrad)
Comments
Cabin Group, no contest. Luke, Sarah, and for some reason Nick had way more potential just by virtue of their very existence(Though I'd objectively and subjectively say that Sarah was easily the best even with her terrible "closure") and I genuinely think Carlos and especially Rebecca could've been almost as great if they stood out a little more than they did. And while Alvin and to a lesser degree Pete were more or less satellite characters, they also had elements of worthwhile characterization that contributed something towards Rebecca and Nick's characters.
With the ANF cast, there's not really anything there beyond basic archetypes with a few hints of potential to get invested in. Even with my expectations being set low to near non-existant, there are only four(not a very low number considering the cast, I know) characters I'd say I like on some level: Kate, Gabe, Max, and Ava. Kate is going down the road of Carlos/Rebecca in terms of informed relevance, Mariana is still pretty low on my list despite not being irritating, Gabe has the most potential for an arc/purpose despite everyone's constant shit, Tripp and Eleanor give me very little to work with, and I'm hoping Conrad can join the very short list of new characters worth noting.
EDIT: Sorry, I know I should talk more about this like I normally would but I not really in the mood at the moment and the fact that it means talking about characters from two hour long episodes doesn't help. I can properly answer the other questions later on when I get in the mood...or at least if someone asks me to elaborate on any of my points in case I forget. Toodles!
Sarah and Mariana.
Nick and Pete
I think the Cabin Group is the one who had a lot of potential to be well-developed. I'm still not forgiving Telltale for killing everyone in Season 2. They should have done the same things as AMC and Skybound.
Oh, no, it's fine. It's still a more detailed answer than what you'd generally get in a thread.
Yeah cabin crew had some real characters and really nice people (Pete, Luke and nick), so far this season we haven't been given many characters so I feel as the question has an obvious answer at this moment, we need to wait to see how the people we've met will turn out later on
Okay, I got a little bit of time to spare, so let's do this.
Luke-Some actual non-story based interaction with him so we can actually learn who he is in the first couple of episodes. Make him more of a character, less of an icon.
Sarah-The foundation for her character was pretty dang solid from my perspective, which is a double-edged sword since there was a lot you could've done with her. Maybe give her a more concentrated focus, have her actually be available to talk to in between action sequences, go into deconstructing her place in the group compared to everyone else a little more, and further expand on her differences and similarities from Clementine and Jane. For the people who didn't get her, I think it wouldn't hurt to make her conflict a little clearer and something I recently realized that her later involvement definitely needed chances for her to have some degree of positive portrayal and treatment: I think it's safe to say she was one of the bigger reasons Season 2.5 was so fucking bleak, biased, mean-spirited, and cynical.
Carlos-Some time to learning about his(and Sarah's) backstory and more screentime that shows his redeeming qualities. Have his feelings toward Clementine in the later episodes be a little less jarring.
Rebecca-Make her change in attitude towards Clementine less sudden and more natural. Explain her relationship with Carver so that we have a better idea of what her dilemma was.
Alvin-Talk more about his relationship and history with Rebecca, Carver, and George. Make his role in the group more defined.
Nick-Honestly, I thought he was fine compared to most of the other characters, whether it was actually worth it or not. With that said, definitely give him more screentime in Episode 3 so that the events of the next episode means more. I personally gave him some screentime in my rewrite thread by having him talk with Clementine about his feelings concerning what happened with Walter and advising her to not fall into that problem herself.
Pete)-Go more into what he contributed to the team before his death and what his history with both the Cabin Group and Carver entails.
Kate-I actually kinda like her myself, but I will say that she would benefit from actually showing how strategic/orderly she can be more often and make her presence on the cover art more justified.
Marianna- I'll say my main problem with her in a sentence: make her stand out both as a character and from previous child/youth characters a little more so that she's not such a blatant plot device with such lazy/easy appeal.
Gabe- Personally, I think he's fine enough the way he is, especially considering he's one of the few characters with some direction and we still have his development in the rest of the season to look forward to to. Plus, people were bound to not like him anyway just because, so I honestly don't know what to say right now beyond make him less "annoying" or whatever.
Tripp-Oh boy, if Mariana and Badger weren't so much more painfully important to the plot, he'd probably be closer the bottom. So, basically part the same solution as with her except with Kenny and give us some degree of backstory/motivation for his presence in Prescott.
Eleanor-See, I wanna like her and absolutely do NOT want everyone's prediction about her to be true for a number of reasons
Conrad-Putting in a pin in this one cause I'm out of time. Just make the choice less biased and make it matter in the nextepisode.
I personally believe almost any character can work with enough thought and effort put into them. So, I wanna say any of them could'v been better.
I think all of the characters from Season 2 and 3 could've been a lot less bland, but among those left living ::
Tripp - He's oddly chill for a de facto leader that just had someone murdered by an unstable girl in his gated community. I think he and Eleanor have some history worth exploring, and he has that potential to be this game's 'Kenny' ( not a copy per say, but a male friend to Javi ). Friendships are unique, and through them I think there's a lot we could explore of Tripp's character as well as better develop Javi as a character. It's more likely he'll simply die, but of the group he has the best potential for a non-romantic glimpse into Javi's life.
Eleanor - Speak of the devil. She needs some work. Right now it's like she's been formulated out of some poorly worked walking dead fan fiction. Automatically hits on the new male in the camp because he's 'hot' after a highly questionable murder takes place in the camp? And offers to run away with him in the dead of night through a hoard on horseback.. Girl's got some issues. I'd love to find out exactly what those issues are.
Gabe - I've already established I'm in the camp of disliking him as a character. His attitude and ineptitude just do not click with me four years into the walking dead. Far more badass characters have met their ends to allow for the idea that he somehow has gotten to this point without being entirely reliant on staying near a group of capable people, or being far more capable than he is. Whiny teenager? That's understandable. His life has been ruined by the end of the world. Whiny teenager that likes to run off into unexplored new territory on his own with no skills and doesn't get a scratch? Luckiest kid alive. He's low on the list simply because we've just encountered David. There's hope he can develop skills within the New Frontier camp, or perhaps pull an Anakin Skywalker and become a great villain.
Kate -- Appears to be getting some backstory through flashbacks. Stands to be among those most likely to be fleshed out in Episode 3 considering we've just encountered David.
Conrad -- He's gone in my playthrough. If his suggestion hadn't included a hostage situation, I would've found it more compelling. A lot of people just died because of the New Frontier. Him not wanting to deal with anyone marked by them was understandable. Believing some kind of trade might've been possible was a bit delusional.
Both groups are quite underwhelming with little development and depth which to be fair ANF has yet to finalize it's group. As of right now I'd say the cabin group.
Gonna go ahead and bump this since Above the Law is out, if you don't mind.
ANF. I disliked the cabin group very much. Only Pete and Luke were reasonable.
Cabin Group, hands down. They had their roles and played them perfectly, even though I would like to see them developed a little more... Too bad they all died.
It looks like Sarah is using Carlos as a human shield or as a distraction.
He kinda was her shield wasn't he? Then bullets went through that shield like a knife through butter.
I miss the Cabin group
I suppose. Though not always voluntarily on her end.
Bullet. And it was through the ear, of all places.
I disliked everyone of the Cabin-group except for Luke. So.. ANF, by far. Javier's family is great, except for crappy Gabe and David. Tripp, Eleanor are interesting and good people, Conrad is dead.
Alright alright, zombies' teeth then.
The Cabin Group seemed more fleshed out. A lot of characters in ANF are flat and one dimensional as most of them have no back story
ANF's Cast...
Well its too early to judge....
I am a Luke fan as any, but the factor of the matter is ANF's Cast had a much better way of finding their character through flashback or dealing with a dynamic problem (prescott overrun, richmond being taken over etc)
The Cabin group just...turned out to be placeholders for people to die....do you guys remember how we kept asking for hubs? we really wanted to know more about the cabin group. Their backstory etc.
To me, they just feel like cardboard cut out. Javier on the other hand imho being the main character is allowing us to throughly see his next of kin character and a pretty interesting hectic of drama (David being a jerk, the feeling between him and Kate, how it will affect it all in the future etc.)
Me too.
I miss Lee. He is secretly Flash Gordon in the afterlife but no one knows yet.
Cabin crew and my answer probably would not change after a new frontier ends since Luke, Sarah and Nick are some of my favorite characters in the series.
The only character i like better than them is Kenny . i actually even like Luke and Nick more than Clem ((Not sarah thought.))
Bumping this to get the final verdicts now that From the Gallows is out.
Cabin group, hands down (sans Carlos). Feel they deserved better.
Not a Carlos fan, huh?
Not really. He could've tried a little better at helping his daughter cope in the dead world. Or at least, give something supportive than just sheltering her.
And right when I thought Luke couldn't die because he was the last cabin group member, BAM, they killed him.
I cry everytiem
ANF since the characters were far more interesting and had high potential if given enough development and screentime.
Well, to be fair, he was the unofficial leader of the group, the adviser, and was in charge of managing Rebecca's pregnancy stages, so it's possible he just didn't have the time at first.
After the season has ended, I still think that the Cabin group was overall more interesting, their development is in question but that is largely due to the writing.
Yeah, but even so, if you can't find the time, MAKE the time.
Especially Marianna. Cheap shock death.
That was my thought while typing that. After all, he and Sarah apparently shared a bed, so I'd assume he'd be able to talk with her late/early.
Opportunity missed is an opportunity lost.
Agreed
To answer my own question, I'd have to say the cabin group, even though I'm not a massive fan of them. You got a better feel for them as people, as opposed to Tripp, Eleanor and Conrad, and while they weren't necessarily complex or even interesting in my view, they were at least a little bit more fleshed out than ANF's cast.