My View on the Ranch and What I Would Have Done (Spoilers)
So I know some people we're not overly thrilled with the Ranch flashback, so I kind of wanted to give my own thoughts on it. And as a side note, I still loved Take Us Back as a whole, but that doesn't mean I can't, rationally, offer my own criticisms about it, so here goes.
The actual content of the flashback is fine, I liked that part. It gives reasonable explanations as to why Clem didn't return to Richmond, why Clem has nightmares, and why AJ has his trauma. Could we have seen a bit more, yeah, but I'm fully satisfied with what was given. There's even a theory, that I find pretty plausible, that the people that attacked them was the Delta. The people, like Eddie (it was confirmed that it was him, same voice actor and all), tried to prevent Clem from getting to the nursery and even tried to hide AJ from her, assuming she was one of the raiders. What group do we know was targeting communities and going after children to have them fight? Certainly sounds like Lily and the Delta. This theory, as well as the idea that the community the Delta is at war with is actually Richmond, when in Episode 3, Abel discusses the war and name drops Richmond. All I'm saying is that it's a possible theory, one I think has merit, but I don't even know if the writers meant for that to be the case.
My contention with the flashback, however, is not from the content given, but a few other things:
1. This is technically the last time we play as Clementine in the game. Honestly, as much as it shouldn't, it actually lowkey pisses me off. It's not game breaking or really impacts the episode as a whole, but it grinds my gears that the last time we play as Clementine in the entire game, is in a flashback that probably shouldn't have been where it was in the season structure (more on that later). I would have been happy with the last choice we made as Clem being an almost mirror choice as one of Lee's final decisions in S1 to really draw the parallel between her death and Lee's. Playing as her in the flashback, in a way, wrecks the heftiness of playing as her one last time. Ending our time as her with a death (even if it's revealed later that she lived) and then assuming control of AJ in the immediate aftermath works better to me than doing that, cutting to a 5-10 minute flashback where we play as Clem, and then taking over as AJ.
2. It's placement in the story is wrong. For one, they put it after the emotionally tumultuous Clem death scene. For the most part, players think she's dead, so what's the point in paying attention to all of this if it doesn't mean anything. Even I was saying during my play through stuff like "I don't even care anymore," after I just went through seeing her die. It does, in a way, feel out of place, and as a result, doesn't have the impact the writers were looking for because we're too distracted by what just happened.
3. It didn't need to be in the final episode. This kind of plays into #2, in that it doesn't work in regards to the episode and story structure, but that point is more so because of what happened prior and in the short term. In the long term, it still doesn't really fit well. They did kind of build this place up and what happened as important, and like I said, the reasons for why Clem and AJ are both affected are completely reasonable, but it didn't need to be saved for a shocking reveal in the final episode. This feels more like a Episode 1, or at latest 2, reveal, and it would have worked so much better. It's not much time, but hell, 10 more minutes in the final episode dedicated to the Lily/James scenes (I had no problem with the James scene, but Lily's is pretty weak), the aftermath of AJ's decision with Clem, more time with the person who you didn't save to see how they're dealing with their trauma and their ultimate forgiveness towards Clem, or even just a couple of more minutes with Clem's romance interest if you went that way. There's a few different things you could have done with that extra time instead of the flashback.
If you want my opinion on what should have happened, and this isn't necessarily itself a solid solution as I'm sure some wouldn't like it because some fans just seem to not like everything, but the Ranch should have been the entire, or 90%, of the first episode, making the whole season 5 episodes. Episode 1 would be Clem finding the Ranch and reuniting with AJ, staying for a while before she heads back to Richmond where she learns about the place, interacts with the people there (like Eddie or young AJ), and even learns about this group posing a threat to them. Towards the end, you'd have the group attack them, Clem and AJ barely escape, decide not to go back to Richmond for the same reason as was given in the game, and go off on their own. Either the episode would end there, or jump a couple of years to the first 10-15 minutes of Done Running. If the latter, the episode would end with Clem blacking out after the car crash and seeing people grabbing AJ, and Episode 2 would open up with Clem waking up at Ericson's. A pretty good cliffhanger to end the first episode, and a revealing opening for the second. Then, as the season unfolds and what Marlon did is revealed, Clem realizes that the people who attacked the Ranch are the same people Marlon traded Sophie and Minnie to and her connecting the dots between what happened in the beginning of the game to now, and it strengthens her resolve to not let her new friends at the school get the same fate as the Ranch. The rest of the season would play out normally from that point on.
Like I said, this isn't a perfect solution and probably not feasible. Some fans wouldn't like the one off idea for the Ranch, connecting with characters that ultimately wouldn't matter and would just die later on, making most of the first episode feel pointless. From a development standpoint, it would take a lot of resources to make a whole community out of the Ranch, only for it to fall after this episode, and those resources are better used later in the story for other elements. Ideally though, I think this would have been a better way to do it, but I still like what we got for the most part.
Comments
Also, this might very well be the last discussion I ever post on the forums. I still remember my first ever discussion from a few years ago, good times.
Goodness, what a wall.
I'll have to come back and read more than three paragraphs.
It makes sense and much better I'll give you that. As you said it won't matter as ultimately everyone dies.
The problems it faces is that for one this would make the Delt alook evil. Ideally, the Delta should have been made more gray. Them attacking a commmunity(for one kid no less unless that's their "War") kind of negates that. They're practically Nazis the way they're built.
Fact is the whole thing is a cluster and fitting in is tough as it is with the time jump. Thanks ANF.
In my defense, it's hard to make a community that kidnaps children and brainwashes, or even tortures, them come out as gray. TFS doesn't try to hide that the Delta is ruthless and willing to go to extreme lengths in this war of theirs.
Like I said before, The Delta seem like they were supposed to be assholes who we're trying to stand a chance against even bigger assholes and were just resigned to it at this point.
Godbless you for wherever you move on next.??
Thank you, same to you.
Agree. The scene would have worked after the 'death' if it were AJ who died. Then you just feel sorry for what he and Clem went through. The ranch scene should be at the start of the episode, and after Clem 'dies' 5 minutes could be spent on her teachings either throughout the season or before the events of TFS. Kinda like The Last Bullet.
That's why some of the things they did should have been scrapped.
Oh I don't blame you it's pretty much a challenge to make a sort of convincing rope to tie the Ranch to the story.
I feel like it should have been at the VERY start of episode 4 at the very least. Things like this don’t really bother me, but I’d consider it as a silver lining
my main complaint about the ranch flashback is they don't give people an option to talk to Eddie and the other people who attacked her. if we were able to talk to them we'd be able to explain why we were there and that we weren't there to hurt or take the children. we were just there to rescue AJ. if they had talked to us they would realize that we're on the same side as them.
Only problem I had with it is that it should have been at the start of the episode, not immediately after Clem “died”.
Coming from you?? ???
Hey, I try to space out my shit!
Although Ruby was definitely taking it too far.
I’m mean it was ok but not what I expected.
I kind of agree with you.
Considering that this game suffered from severe budget and deadline constraints, I don't think they could've made this scene much longer than it is, so I think it would work better if they had put it at the very beginning of the season instead of building it up as some sort of big mystery.
place it at the beggining then cut to Clem opening her eyes on the boat and its easily alot better than right after Clem s ´´death.´´
This flashback actually made me sympathize with AJ a lot, I wouldn't change anything in its content, but I do agree that its placing was a bad choice.
It would've been more fitting if it was placed before clems death barn scene, seeing her protect and get him back from death is poetic especially when AJ saves clementine in return with her bite.
I don’t see anything wrong with it.