Character Development
Alyssa_TTG
Former Telltale Staff
Hi, friends!
I'd like to hear your take on successful/meaningful character development! Which characters you felt had a meaningful arc of development, and what you thought was well handled about that development. Obviously I'm asking about characters in S1/S2/ANF, but feel free to bring in show/comic characters or other TTG characters as well.
Thanks for your thoughts, as always!
Tagged:
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
Lee, Clem, Kenny (S1 and 2), Javier, Ben and Lilly are the best developed characters.
Javier javier javier!
decent backstory, and he has enough time to be improved upon too 
When the launch trailer was released I thought I wouldn't like him, then Ingrew to love him after the end because of his charm and past and how he changed from never being there to going through huge lengths to rescue his family. I also liked lee because of his past and how he found redemption in the most inconvenient of times. But javier mainly, seeing as he can be literally any one we want him to be ;3 but we can't forget about clem and how much being a survivor and alone has hardened her in the past 4 years.
Lee... he's a great character and you killed them off...
as also what you did to kenny and other bunch of characters that actually has a good potential in the game series.
Clementine is a good character anyway-- it's her story
Javier, this character just jump in out of nowhere to twd story, he has a good arc of development as long as you keep him alive
I think what's best in this series, you should be keeping characters alive more often because fans need a character that they could hold onto, not that they die in any minute or in any episode. I really think you should keep characters alive(2)..d-don't kill them unless we want to.
oh!- almost forgot... please don't screw up season 4 for us... maybe.. better writers next time?
Easily the only likable character of ANF excluding Clementine.
lack of hubs have led to characters being extremely bland and underdeveloped. i feel like characters such as gabe, kate, and david could have been more understandable if we had opportunities to communicate with them and learn their motives when they did something we didn't necessarily like. for example, kenny was extremely reckless at times, but many people understood him because he expressed his emotions in hubs. i would just suggest more hubs overall in order to prevent characters from being one-dimensional. in addition, you should refrain from utilizing too much action.
Lee was amazing a character with a troubled past but was seeking redemption and he showed that he is a good guy.
Javier was a great character for me he was like able with a good backstory focused on protecting and keeping together his family and at often times could be funny
Tripp was hilarious and a good friend to Javi overall a good guy to have on your side
Conrad also was likeable besides that one encounter on the train he learns from his mistakes and I loved him.
I can’t make a list without including Clem she was defenseless before now she is completely independent and I love it.
likable doesn't necessarily mean he was developed and had an ideal amount of depth. he was incredibly bland and underdeveloped. also, how exactly is clem likable in anf? she was horrible for many players that previously enjoyed her character.
Kenny had good development too, especially in S2 towards his end in NF.
I thought Ben has good character development IF you didn't drop him off the bell tower. He went from a screwup to a helpful individual: helping Lee from falling off the tower, almost cutting off his arm to save his life, and sacrificing himself to save the group.
Lee's development was amazing, transforming from simply a babysitter for Clementine to a full fledged parent to her.
Sam had pretty good development from the mini-series. She went from being another complaining teen to a hardened survivor thanks to Michonne. I'm surprised she doesn't get much attention.
Are you also like me and hold onto that piece of hope that Tripp survived the fall? I even broke character just to keep him alive, as he was originally killed at the deal for me but after episode 5 was released and I found out he forgave javier I went back to save him
also his "episode 5 death" could have a small chance or actually just being a... Tripp 
I'm sooo punny. But yeah, 1 million likes for Tripp and his character.
Hmm let's see from some of the characters of ANF...
Javier- Goes from a wisecracking baseball player to a wisecracking baseball player in the apocalypse.
Clementine- the only sort of arc she had was trying to find AJ, but that was given no resolution whatsoever, and it was there just to shoehorn Clem into the game.
Tripp- goes from a dude who has a crush on Eleanor to a dude who has a crush on Eleanor.
Max- had some sort of potential, but then he disappeared from the game from some reason.
Kate- goes from horny woman who wants Javi's babies and nothing else to wanting to save a community that she had just got done saying how much she wanted to leave. Her change made no sense.
Gabe- goes from whiny brat to whiny brat.
David- goes from army soldier who gets into little fights with his brother to army soldier who gets into little fights with his brother in the apocalypse.
Kenny, who had gave the player from the start the impression that he was very protective and supporting of his family. He felt like a real person with feelings of regret (inability to save Shawn Greene, that permeated into the length of 2 episodes where it lead to the amazing 'stop the train' sequence. The sympathy he felt for Ben after hearing his outburst after having a justifiable reason to hate him, the guilt and eventual sacrifice to save him (determinant) flowing through the rest of the episode leading to that point, and wasn't brushed off in a few minutes, again made me feel that he was harbouring real feelings and felt relatable as a character. Finally the biggest arc that was prevalent through the whole of Season 1 being that Kenny was ultimately a coward and mostly never fought under pressure through until the fourth episode, where he had the arc fulfilled in Episode 5 and had redeemed himself by bravely sacrificing himself in a justifiable cause, not having a meaningless going out. Season 2 also had improved his development by him constantly becoming selfless in the most harsh of moments.
(P.S I believe any good character development must start with a few frames which tell you the essentials of all you need to know about a character upon first meeting them).
I didn't care much for Clem in Season 2 but I liked Clem in ANF.
id say Lee, Kenny , Ben ((Althought i think Ben should have gotten redeemed tho)) and Clem.
javier is NOT how to do character development.
Without doubt the main character of the first 2 seasons. How he started off as a guy on the farm that no one paid much attention to, to developing into the biggest, badass character in the series was amazing. As i'm sure you already know, a lot of people didn't like how he was killed in a car crash in season 3.
Lee, Clementine, Lilly and Jane were developed really well too I thought.
Leave javier out of this! He never hurt anyone ._. Close your eyes, and testify to your new lord and saviour my son. Time for a list of javi development
and a few more things that I cba'd listing. See? Development
First, the obvious choices are Lee and Kenny. I would say Clem too, but only for S1 and S2, as her character seemed a bit "artificial" in ANF. These 3 are for me the peak of TTG TWD character development, but if I had to mention others it would be Ben (if you don't drop him), Lilly, Javier and David.
I feel as if the development of various characters could've been a lot better in ANF if there had been Optional Dialogues like there were in Season 1. It could've given the writers a means to explain certain things that SHOULD'VE been explained in order to at least PATCH any inconsistencies that may have occurred throughout the Season by giving Javi the option to ask various Characters WHY they do the things they do so that the specified Characters can explain themselves in a way that makes sense.
EXAMPLE: Javi asks Clem WHY she is RELATIVELY okay with Gabe after the Determinant SNITCHING that happened. To THAT, Clem explains that, First of All, she KNEW people who acted similar to Gabe in past Seasons; and Second of All, Clem was in Gabe's position once before. She wanted to go after HER family in Season 1, but the adults wouldn't let her. Because of THAT, Clem doesn't really BLAME Gabe for being upset.
What was really the most defining moment and added so much to their development for javier and David was their fight. Choosing to fight back made it even better, even though I like David. It showed that David was willing to kill ANYONE if they messed with his family in ANYWAY. Even his own brother. Dude has a cold heart if he wants to choke his own brother to death with a wrench but at least it shows he cares.
many of the things you stated aren't even character development. character development is when basically depth and development are given to a character. he's basically just the "cool baseball uncle." nobody wants another javier, and it's time for you to just accept it.
Season 1 charcaters had great character development, example: Carley, Lilly, ect! But ANF failed, with most of the characters having no charcater development. If there is another WD episode coming out anytime soon, try and relate character development towards Season 1 characters please.
Yeah I’m definitely hoping although very unlikely especially since he died at the deal in my game. I felt he deserved a much more emotional death.
In no particular order S1-
Is development not their backstory, how their character is portrayed and what they do? And I wouldn't exactly say nobody wants another javier because I do and more people on this thread say they would be tolerable of having him reappear than people who don't want him so please stop trying to troll and stop judging my opinion.
his backstory is literally like "cool bisexual uncle that was a baseball player and fucked his career." you brought up irrelevant, stupid shit like "minor game in arkansas, his whole family died, parkour school, likes arcade games." just face it, he was poorly developed. nobody should encourage the devs to make another character similar to javier.
I was waiting for Mariana to reveal what story her mother told her before bed but she died in episode 1. I think season 4 could improve by reintroducing javier as a side character/50% playable character like TFTBL and having a conversation with clem about David's former wife. Backstories ftw am I right? I think it would add more depth to their characters, and in turn clementine can mention lee, who taught her how to survive.
Why are you trying to convince me to dislike javier by saying he is an underdeveloped character? It is my opinion. And by saying that, you give telltale more reason to bring him back into season 4
[removed]
"javier is a well developed character"
javier: his motive throughout the entire season is to protect his family because he cares about them immensely.
javier: entire family dies in richmond
also javier: let's have kids lol. oh also three days later im perfectly fine, even flirting with jesus
javier: gabe and marianna die
also javier: let's bring more kids into this world lol
javier: caused the downfall of richmond, family dies in richmond
also javier: stays/leads richmond
[removed]
that edge
Not necessarily. That's just their backstory, but it can give some perspective about their character. Character development is when and how someone changes from the beginning of the story All the way until the end.
I like Javier's personality, but he doesn't really change by the end of the season. If you can tell, what or how does Javier change from the beginning of the season until the end? In the end, he's still the wisecracking Uncle from Ep.1. It's like as if Kate/Gabe/David's deaths didn't even affect him.
Jesus, making me go through these lengths just to prove my point. Javier has more fans than he has haters. I can look for more if you like. You have your opinion, and I have mine so do you mind backing off?
the feedback concering javier is very mixed. i am well aware that he has fans, but javier also being the pc was a major reason as to why the game sold shit and why it was perceieved so negatively. just because he is liked doesn't mean he is well developed, which was our arguement. we don't want future characters to be developed like javier.
But I've heard many people saying that javier is the only reason a New Frontier was tolerable, while it was lack of hubs, length, and the other goofs such as animation and dialogue errors that ruined it
In no particular order S2 -
Two similar kinda characters but:
Ben – A chicken-wuss who became more of a chicken-wuss as the situations got more shitty, that he made some really really bad calls, such as the bandit incident that resulted in deaths and the group being on the road. He showed acts of cowardice, even ditching poor Clem to the walkers, yet through every screw up, Ben kept trying to be more useful, only to fall into the mindset the group would be better off with him.
Instead of being more of a chicken-wuss at the bell tower incident, he can end up wanting to prove himself to follow in the rescue attempt for Clementine after Lee's motivational ‘she looks up to you boy, now grow a pair!’ speech. Following on from that, Ben finally standing up to Kenny after dealing with so much crap from him was a turning point in Ben’s character in gaining himself that bit of a backbone…you know, before the walkers ate it.
Nick – He got drunk and wanted give up and die after losing Pete, but Clementine optionally being able to reason him out of it made him want to save himself and push on. He could’ve easily devolved back into his state in the cellar [and it’s not to say he never wouldn’t of] but even though Nick didn’t always make the right calls like shooting Matthew, he still did what he did to protect his friends, even right until the end in Episode 4 where he left to go get help for Sarah and Luke, despite being injured by a gunshot wound. He might not have been the toughest cookie, but he found a reason to keep fighting.
...caaaan, we mention character development from other games, anime etc, or is this question strictly on TWD and other Telltale Games series? o.o
Edit: because if so I got reaaaaally good one...mostly because it's so damn cute T.T
I liked Gabe's arc this Season, but I kind of feel as if it got side-tracked whenever the SNITCHING happened. Other than THAT, I liked his Arc a lot this Season. My only other critique here is that I feel as though he should've lived Non-Determinantly, but that's just ME.