Character development in S2
Who are the characters who got the most character development so far in this season? Well lets see:
1.Clementine(obviously)-She becomes a stronger survivor, and right now with the "Watch" or "Leave" choice in EP3, we can say that she might become a Carl(worst case scenario).
2.Kenny- He will lose his shit in EP4 and become a threat, mark my words.
3.Nick, who is determinant. This is a no-brainer for me, first you develop him and Pete, Pete gets killed of which develops Nick's character and then you make him determinant.
4.Sarah-She got slapped by the real world, her father is dead and now she's all alone.
5.Luke-Very minor development, but its still something. After Pete's death, he is the new leader and will have to live up to Pete. Its not much, but im sure he'll have more char-changing moments.
Characters who i think should've been developed more? Rebecca, even after she lost Alvin, doesnt seem to feel so bad about it, or at least we cant see that. She mentiones his death one or two times, and despite being a pregnant bitch in ep1 and then showing her better side in ep2, she is just meh in ep3. Nick is also neglected in ep3.
I blame the episode time. If i could roll time back, i would make longer episodes(maybe 10 minutes shorter compared to s1 episodes), with valuable development for the characters. By that i mean less "hmm" and "pointy" moments. Exploration would still have been there, because it can make you think that the story will go in another direction- the haypiles at the St. Johns Dairy, Lee commented on them by saying that they could become good defenses against crossbow arrows. That made me think we would take the place over. I miss those little things.
Comments
Right now, I feel like Nick had the best characterization and development despite being determinant. I could say Clementine but that development is up to the player so.
We know that he's struggling to cope with the apocalypse and the fact that this is their whole lives now: running and doing nothing but. He wanted to give up. He was ready to in those final moments. He's insecure and has the worst self-esteem of anybody in the cabin group, as evident by his admiration of Luke and his tendency to blame things on himself (his mom's death, Reggie not coming with them during the escape). He's traumatized by his mother's death and the fact that he was the one who had to end her life. He and the others made an awful mistake of believing they could treat a bite wound and his mother was the cost of that. His mom and Pete were all he had left since his father was never around and treated him like crap when he was, but by the end of episode one, he's lost both of them. Ever since then, Nick has been incredibly suspicious and wary of any newcomers, bitten or not. He doesn't want to attach himself to a lot of people so he doesn't have to feel the weight of his loss when they die.
However, Nick is still incredibly loyal to his loved ones and he's still a good person. He screwed up with the Matthew thing, but he was doing it out of fear that Matthew would kill Luke and Clementine. While Nick has depression and possible suicidal tendencies (Luke remarks that he's been like that before if you tell him Nick wanted to die in the shed), family is the one thing that brings him out of that funk and keeps him going. Instead of abandoning Clementine and making his own way to the cabin, especially when he had just lost Pete and hadn't even known her for two days, Nick made the sacrifice of distracting the walkers so she could live.
And yeah, since Nick's death is determinant, he's not really around much in episode three. There is this one moment, though, that actually warmed my heart and proved my point above about loyalty to family. When he's sleeping, Clementine can go up and talk to him. Nick will explain to Clem that despite Luke not being around, Nick still one hundred percent believes that his friend will help them eventually. When Clementine says "Yeah, He'd never leave you guys behind." Nick will smile and say, "Us guys, you mean".
tl;dr; Nick has many flaws but makes up for it with his loyalty. And I love Nick. A lot.
I think we all knew this was coming.
This, pretty much.