Shouldn't AJ die in Episode 2?
Am I the only one that finds him surviving that gunshot pretty unrealistic? Let's sum it up okay?
- ~Five years old boy gets shot in the stomach.
- He gets up and runs like nothing happened.
- Clementine gets the fragments of bullets from his body like she is some kind of a doctor.
- He doesn't even pass out while Clementine does that.
- He manages to spend a whole night outside in a cold forest without dying which is already unrealistic as shit.
- Ginger kid basically said that he has a fever and that's it.
I get that TWD isn't always realistic, but that's a bit too much don't you think? Let's even compare it to TV Series' similar case in which Carl Grimes also was shot from a shotgun.
- Carl was a lot older than AJ.
- He was shot in the stomach and he immedietaly passed out.
- Rick basically carried him to Hershel's farm in a few minutes to get a proffesional medical help.
- Hershel seems to be doing worse than Clementine with dealing with taking the fragments out of his body even though he is a doctor while Clementine sure as hell isn't.
- It still wasn't enough and Rick had to transfuse his blood to him like three times if I remember correctly.
- Still - it wasn't enough and they needed Shane and Otis to go on a run to find some medical equipment to make an operation that could save his life.
- During that he had bunch of epilepsy attacks and problems with breathing.
So is there anybody that can somehow explain how AJ was doing so great in shit circumstances without any proffesional medical help or we can officially call it a major bullshit?
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Two words : plot armor.
As IFoRias pointed out, it is plot armor for AJ's survival. From AJ's conception, his survival has purely been plot armor so it isn't a surprise to me.
He should've died when he was exposed to that harsh cold in s2.
AJ is J E S U S
Shouldn't Clementine die in Ep 5[ of Season 2]?
I'm still rolling with my theory that he wasn't directly shot; the blast hit the ground next to him, and some of the pellets bounced back up into him. It would have softened the impact enough so that while it'd do damage, it wouldn't immediately incapacitate him, hence being able to run for a fair distance before the adrenaline wears off. The buckshot wasn't embedded very deep, either.
Everything seems to point to the impact having been softened by some means. Given that you see a cloud of dust/dirt on the ground right next to AJ when he gets shot, coupled with the way he stumbles (he falls forward and clutches at his stomach), and the fact that he only has an entry wound in his stomach would seemingly reinforce that he didn't take the full force of the blast directly.
So, if it was indeed just shrapnel from a near miss, it'd explain why the shot didn't mortally wound him, as well as his seemingly 'miraculous' survival of it.
I suppose the easier explanation would simply be plot armor, but the more I look at the scene, the more likely this seems to be what they were going for with that sequence. I mean, to the scene's credit, if this is indeed what they were going for, it's not too far out of the realm of possibility. Abel was firing at them while sprinting after them, the chances of being able to accurately land such a shot- with a weapon that fires in a spray, nonetheless- are extremely slim. The chances of stray pellets bouncing off whatever's nearby and hitting you? That's much more likely.
And if you really wanted someone to argue against Carl's injury:
Beyond different people responding to physical trauma in different ways, Carl took a hunting rifle round through his torso. Even though the deer helped slow it down, that still went a fair distance into Carl.
The round embedded itself far further in Carl's body than the shotgun did with AJ. Furthermore, the bullet shattered/broke apart on impact IIRC, which left even more pieces that needed to be dug out, as well as more damage to surrounding tissue and whatsuch.
As a result of all the above, he was losing much more blood than AJ was. And back to the prior point, not everyone responds to physical trauma in the same way. Some people, regardless of age, can be more resilient to certain adverse effects, IE loss of consciousness, etc. But with the amount of blood Carl was losing, shock, the pain of digging into his torso to take the bullet fragments out, and whatever damage the concussive force of the rifle round hitting him in the first place did, it makes sense he'd have problems like breathing.
Of course, I imagine that if we had an actual doctor on these forums, they'd likely tell us that both cases are kind of BS, but I dunno...
Everyone potentially died in EP2.
It was buckshot at a long distance out of a sawed off shotgun, chill.
Carl was shot with a high caliber, bolt action rifle.
If it was a bullet that hit him and not a few pellets then yeah he could have died
See this is what pissed me off the most about the episode- and a lot of things pissed me off about the episode. From a combination of shredded organs + blood loss + going into shock AJ should have been dead before Clementine even met James.
But then that took me down the rabbit hole of how many times AJ should have died previously in the series. Kid's got some Telltale's Game of Thrones level plot armour.
As Deltino said, the pellets hit the ground before they ricocheted back to AJ. This is made evident by the fact that AJ wasn’t even facing Abel - he was running from him, his stomach wasn’t exposed to Abel - the only way it could’ve hit him would be through an undirect impact (if it had been direct AJ would’ve died on the spot).
cough
I have a post sitting in my drafts for that thread but the last time I expressed my dislike for Suffer the Children, people spazzed out about it. Maybe I'll finish the post later on but idk if I have to energy to have a full on rant about the game considering it's not like I loved the first episode either.
Ah.
Well, uh, there's a thread for that too if you want it.
If it was really a richochet then fair enough, makes sense.
Yeah there was no formula. He would've died before they went back to Howe's or whatever.
Wasn't a direct hit, it's whats called buck spray. Little pellet fragments from the buckshot. They missed him but he got hit with the spray. Easily survivable if not in an apocalypse. .
When a buckshot shell is shot, it blasts little balls outward in a giant burst. About 100 of them in an instant. In the center direct hit?...... instant death. No more stomach. 5 feet to the left with poor aim, just the outer spray and not the blast itself? Basically like getting shreded with a air soft gun. Little pellets stuck in you. Blood. Ect. .. its horrible and can kill you but AJ seemed to have gotten minor.
The scene was actually incredibly realistic. As someone who has not only seen it first hand but owns a shotgun similar. It's about how it'd go down if untreated with meds. Fever, infection, maybe death. You'd go about doing what Clem did. (It wasnt hard what she did btw. Dont have to be a doctor for common sense)
As for the TV show. Fuck the TV show. It's laughable. But I will say he was hit with a more direct shot and more damage was done. He was closer to fully getting hit if not did get fully hit with the blast.
The whole thing just doesn't really make sense considering he was shot from behind but the buckshot was in the front of his body without any entry/exit wounds in the back.
And that's exactly the point I was trying to make: the reason he has an entry wound in front is because the pellets/spray struck the ground next to him and bounced back up.
Just as quick visual reference for what I'm trying to get at:
I believe it went something like this. Forgive the crude 5 second drawings, but I think you get the general point.
He didnt die because the game demanded it
Buckshot pellets aren’t as deadly as a rifle bullet. Plus the adrenaline kicked in and gave him that boost. People can handle extra pain much better when they are in a life or death scenario. Carl was watching a deer, while AJ was already running away from child trafficking monsters. Plus he’s tougher than carl was, some are just born that way.