And I thought I couldn't be surprised anymore...
So I'm playing through the first episode of season 2. I reach the campsite where I get to know an abandoned dog. Thinking I'm extremely clever, the thoughts going around in my head are something along the lines of:
"Oh, so this is my new 'Clementine', Telltale? Now I'm supposed to really bond with this thing and he's gonna be my trustworthy companion and all that. Yeah look, I'm even getting to play catch with him. I bet there's gonna be this part in a future episode where other people want to eat him or something like that and it's up to me to defend him. I should probably give him some food so that... HOLY WHAT THE NOPE I DON'T OH GOD WHY IS THIS I CAN'T EVEN OH F***ING HELL NO I JUST WHAT"
I'm surprised that I'm still being surprised. Big props to the writers for making cinematic media so void of cliches! Let's just hope this lasts throughout the season.
Comments
I played the episode late in the night and screamed when this, and the Omid thing happened. People got mad at me.
I know right!!?!! I thought "aww how cute. Clem has a little friend!" I thought we were going to get this cliche human and dog friendship and I thought that maybe he would be killed later or in another episode, but HOLY SHIT! That surprised the shit out of me. The episode felt extremely short though.
Yeah I figured the dog would be friendly then die in a later episode for CHEAP EMOTIONAL IMPACT. I'm glad we got that out of the way early.
Don't think the dog needed to die though. idk animal deaths like that feel so cheap. I figured you'd peak over the log, the dog is eating the beans, and you'd have the option to kill it or leave it alone. But nope nope nope
I'm sorry MegaMoto, they must not know your pain.
I wouldn't give them props for that to be honest. I thought the dog was gonna be a longstanding companion thingy too or at least for a longer part of Ep1, but that 180 turn when it bit Clem was so contrived and I thought it was bad writing. I don't know all that much about dog psychology but I'm pretty sure a starving dog would be so friendly and want to play frisbee or whatever one moment, and then go all-out agressive the next and starts biting because it sees food.
I don't know if it was because it was used to Zambies or what and was anxious around Clementine... whatever. I don't mean to sound all grumpy, but I didn't think it was a clever surprise with that dog but whatever. It got things going and worked as a good plot-device for Ep1's major goal.
The whole time I was with the dog, I kept hearing warnings in my head about "befriending strange animals" and I had a very uneasy feeling about Sam. Still, as things progressed and seemed okay, I let my guard down and sort of figured he would be a companion to me (as Clem was to Lee in Season 1).
I was even preparing myself for the inevitable time when Clem would have to kill Sam "Old Yeller" style, expecting it to come in a later episode (after the dog had proven its loyalty numerous times by saving Clem/etc.).
It was quite a shock to have to kill him so quickly, but it did reinforce my initial feelings of dread when I first encountered him.
I have to say, episode 1 was very bleak and left me feeling quite depressed. I know this is not a nice world to live in, but things are going much worse than I predicted for poor Clem.
I disagree, even if the dog wasn't starving he may had done that. I've personally been attacked by dogs for no reason other than them not liking my scent or maybe an odd movement and such. They can just snap for no reason, and when ones been starving for quite some time I don't think it's going to have any remorse hurting clementine, as the dog can easily eat the canned beans AND Clementine herself. Dogs have been known to attack their masters randomly as well, and have no trouble eating their remains. I think the attack scene was a good idea anyway as it circumvented a rather annoying Cliche, and as you said allowed the story to continue with tension towards other survivors regarding the bite
Well I wasn't gonna wait until the morning, I've waited a year already. In short, it was super worth it !
I felt pretty much the same and was taken totally offguard when Sam attacked. I've personally had dogs before(my last one died of cancer on christmas two years ago). I totally saw how wary Sam was towards Clem, but I was pretty sure TT was trying to build a relationship here... what a mistake.
When I was a kid, I used to "fight" with my dogs, having them jump me, and then trip them "judo style" and pinched their throat to keep them in control. They absolutely loved it, as did I. I called it Dog-Fu at that time. Then one day when I was ten years old I was walking on a beach in Thailand and a large dog, visually and buildwise not unlike Sam approached me, one of his eyes was blinded from a fight and he was marked with fighting scars all over his body. He stopped, growled, and immediately charged me. My "playing with my dogs" experience actually saved my life back then. Adrenalin rushed my body, I waited for him to jump, tripped him and squeezed his throat (this time seriously) until he gave up. Under normal circumstances though, I wouldn't have had a chance against that beast at that age(he weighed about 20-30 kg), he would have torn me apart.
A nice side notice was that I later found out that he was guarding his highly pregnant "wife" and when she delivered, that exact dog suddenly appeared at my bungalow, picked me up and brought me over to see his newly born puppies. that was an amazing experience, as he was letting no one else even close to her.
A story I almost forgot over the decades, this scene brought it back as if it had happened just now.
Thanks for that Telltale.
Why do they feel cheap though. If a wolf or mountain lion attacked you, you would kill it. Why not a dog? Not saying I didn't feel bad when I killed it, but it did try and kill you.
Think about it like this, maybe the dog's family wasn't dead (or so the dog may think), and it just sees this girl taking food from them, besides the fact it's starving, and freezing (you can see it's cold as expressed many times), I thought of that afterwards and killed the little fucker and then just went "shit, feels".
Always think of people (even if not human) as assholes in the zombie apocalypse, and if you see a direct asshole in a zombie apocalypse, think of them absolutely otherwise.
Yeah, Telltale got me. I never saw the dog attack coming. In fact I was so surprised I botched fighting him off and Clem died.
Typical Telltale taking my emotions of a possible companion for Clem to a sudden enemy. Then making me decide to kill the dog or not.
No that they did a bad thing here. Telltale just really knows how to keep me on my toes.
As soon as I pressed the Y button to pet that mutt I knew there was going to be trouble