We dont care because they dont
Anyone else getting the impression TellTale cares less than it used to about the characters it creates? Firstly there's the lack of hub worlds which has been covered pretty well already. Furthermore Sarita, Nick and Sarah all had arguably pointless deaths having accomplished little and having told us nothing substantial about themselves. They felt shoe-horned in, like TellTale was just ticking boxes to fill up some episode time. "Ok, Kenny needs a girlfriend who we can kill off quickly and make it really dramatic." "Now, we need a little coddled girl we can keep around for a few episodes for dramas sake". "How about a new Ben, with an extra pinch of stupid, to create some more tension?"
In season 1 even minor characters like Mark who was around for one episode got more lines and more sympathy! Hell, I thought Larry was a dick but at least he had some interesting characteristics and redeeming features. Some argue that we dont care so much about their deaths because we have become used to it, and we don't get as attached. I disagree, and the fact that so many are eagerly jumping on the Mike bandwagon seems to prove that wrong. The fact that we cherish a character who had a handful of good lines, despite knowing very little about him, reflects poorly on the episodes. Its hard to imagine the writes from episode 1 nonchalantly killing off Ben and not bothering to give him a sendoff, as was done with Nick.
My overall point is TellTale seems to be going for the quick, easy drama and skipping what makes that drama and tension so meaningful:the characters. If we didnt know, love and hate complicated characters like Carley, Larry, etc, we wouldnt have cared about their deaths or the group as a whole. As it stands, Sarah, Nick, Saritas and Rebecca's deaths just leave me empty.
What d'you guys think?
Comments
I completely agree.
I actually liked Sarita's death because right then she started having some character, for me at least. If you cut her hand off she has a horrified look and seems to blame Clementine in her last moments, if you kill the zombie she just insists she's dead because she's bit, and her death had a pretty big effect on Kenny.
I also liked Rebecca's death, it literally fucked over the entire group and she'd had a decent amount of character building until then.
I hated Nick and Sarah's deaths though. Not just because they were absolutely pointless, but also because those were the two characters their previous guardians entrusted to Clementine. Telltale played it like we'd get a chance to help at least one of them in some meaningful way. I thought at least I'd get to have a talk with at least ONE of them as they died. But nope.
Isn't five minutes before her death a little late to start giving Sarita some character. Personally all I saw in her face was 'Holy fuck, I'm going to die'
I agree. I already saw this problem in episode 1 but I kept hoping it would get better. After episode 3 I've lost all hope. Ep 4 was better but it's already too late to save this season. Now we can only hope for a strong ending and better season 3...
The characters in S1 felt like people. Even the ones that didn't show up for long (Mark, Larry, Chuck) carried a definet weight about them. They were well characterised, you could tell just who they were, what they were like, you could build relationships with them remarkable quickly for an hour and a half episode.
The characters in S2 feel like walking plot devices. Carlos exists so that Sarah can go off the deep end when he dies, Rebecca exists so that we can have pregnancy drama and inevitably die so Clem has to look after it; Nick is the fuckup because the plot needs somebody to screw up. Yeah, Ben was a screw up, but you could have conversations with him that weren't related to that, he interacts with others in ways that aren't just "Holy shit Nick, you sure screwed up again!" Larry was a dick they dropped enough hints to humanise him at points such as being sweet on the Saint Jon matriarchy and being concerned for Clem because of Lee's past. Luke is the generic good-guy-trying-to-do-the-right-thing. Sarita exists entirely so Kenny can get upset about something.
Walter was probably the only half-interesting new character this season just because in that hour or so we met him we discovered his background, his relationship, his old profession, his views on the world, his humanity... but we also know just how long he lasted.
It is indeed late, but hey, at least her last moments of screentime were not spent hanging on a fence as a zombie and at least she wasn't a main character who died for literally no reason and gave nothing to the plot. I didn't really care too much if she died either because she had very little character, but Telltale gave Nick and Sarah plenty of reason to at least live until the end of the season and killed them off like filler characters.
Maybe they just wanted to shake things and bring so many major deaths to one episode, so "the feels"could hit us.
Would've worked better if other characters reacted little more realistically to the deaths.
) "What?! Jane LEFT?!! NOOOOOO!!!!! There goes my pussy 
("
For example, Luke: "What Nick died? Oh man that sucks" (best bros 4ever, for sure
And rebecca, if Sarah weren't saved in the trailer park, she cries like a bitch, but if Sarah were saved, she dies in the parker's house and Rebecca doesn't even fucking notice it..
Sarita was a plot device to make Kenny lose it. Again.
All we knew about her was that she was Kenny's girlfriend and she was foreign. Heck, we only find out she's Indian after Troy insults her.