Nick's crappy wordless death and Luke's stoic reaction to it, Sarah's death aftermatch, and the complete lack of any mention of Christa and … moreher baby, in an episode that's all about pregnancy.
We could have finally gotten some closure on what exactly happened to litte Omid, but nooo, overlooked!
I thought Amid the Ruins has been the best episode yet. End of the of the day IGN or any other gaming site which reviews game mean nothing. They are stil just gamers like us. Their opinion means no more then you and I.
While I really enjoyed the episode I still agree with everything you said. I was very disappointed with Nick and Sarah's deaths. I don't have a problem that they died but I do have a problem with how they died. There was absolutely no point in saving Nick in episode 2. He adds nothing to the story after that. When compared to, for example, Ben who still did something and had a great character moment with Kenny, Nick is just... there and then gets killed in a very shallow and heartless manner. The characters who were supposed to care about him, pretty much just shrug and say "Whatever."
And Sarah... sigh. She just became one of the most interesting characters. How was this troubled girl going to cope in this mad world without her father, without her guardian? And then they kill her off regardless of whether you decide to save her or not. The emotional speech Clementine gives her? No point. Teaching her to use a gun? No point. And then nobody lifts an eyebrow when she dies. It was all focused on Jane who then decides to leave anyways.
I especially like your notions of Kenny and Luke. I had been wondering why I had became so disinterested in Luke and I think you nailed it. It's because he doesn't really feel like a real character anymore. It's like all the stuff he pulls, is just to somehow disagree with Kenny. I noticed how in ep 2, Luke was all about Clementine being capable but then in ep 3 where Kenny is like that, he's suddenly opposing the plan of using Clem. It's like you said; that he makes choices just to oppose Kenny and is never allowed to agree with him, no matter if it contradicts his previous opinions. Even though I really like Kenny as a character, I sometimes think it was a bad choice to bring him back. It just seems everything is so focused on him which in turn hurts the characterization of others. Mainly Luke and Sarita.
I also really liked your point of how they have disregarded the themes introduced earlier. One of the most interesting things to me was to experience a ZA from a point of a child. I expected her to face different kind of problems than an adult. That she would more often need to flee and/or use other tactics. How other people would have different ways to treat her, etc. But nope. Somehow she's the most competent person in the group and the others have no problems in sending her to do all the work. She kills walkers very efficiently and kicks down doors like she learned from the master himself Bigby Wolf (from TWAU). (Yeah I know it might have been because the walkers had weaken the door earlier but still...). I was actually so very happy when Mike once stated "But she's just a kid!" THANK YOU! It seems all the others are forgetting that. I realize Clementine would need to grow up fast and get competent or die. I just don't feel there's been proper development for it and the way other characters treat her just feels unrealistic. Or did the cabin group think it was enough proof how she stitched her own wound up? Well, what about Carver? He just suddenly treats her like she would be in his level. Even if you played like a "wussy" in previous episode and immediately surrendered.
Of course, if she was made more childlike then some people would undoubtedly complain how they feel unimportant and are not allowed to do all the important stuff, but that shouldn't matter if the story is told well. We don't need to do everything in order to feel immersed in the game. Actually, IMO, the way the game works now is doing the opposite. By making us the most competent person in the group, it's sometimes challenging my suspension of disbelief and breaking my immersion. Not good.
* Nick and Sarah's deaths were woefully poor in execution, essentially wasting all prior development and amounting to little more than quick… more, easy ways to eliminate characters that Telltale didn't want to bother spending time on any longer.
* Bonnie and Mike continue to receive little to no development, with most of their dialogue essentially being a restatement of the "Kenny's a mess" and "Rebecca looks ill" story arcs that didn't really need any more attention; they would have been important focal points of the episode regardless. What would have been nicer is some backstory for Mike and more to Bonnie than simply "sorry for working with Carver before" again and again.
* The hub areas were essentially shallow window-dressing; they weren't by any means an opportunity to learn more about the other characters, as they were in Season 1, but rather insulting means of shutting up a select few vocal fans who wanted hubs to return, without having… [view original content]
Comments
Is Luke reacting to Nick's death this time?
Because Telltale done a stupid and fucked the episode up.
But what if it's a girl?
I thought Amid the Ruins has been the best episode yet. End of the of the day IGN or any other gaming site which reviews game mean nothing. They are stil just gamers like us. Their opinion means no more then you and I.
While I really enjoyed the episode I still agree with everything you said. I was very disappointed with Nick and Sarah's deaths. I don't have a problem that they died but I do have a problem with how they died. There was absolutely no point in saving Nick in episode 2. He adds nothing to the story after that. When compared to, for example, Ben who still did something and had a great character moment with Kenny, Nick is just... there and then gets killed in a very shallow and heartless manner. The characters who were supposed to care about him, pretty much just shrug and say "Whatever."
And Sarah... sigh. She just became one of the most interesting characters. How was this troubled girl going to cope in this mad world without her father, without her guardian? And then they kill her off regardless of whether you decide to save her or not. The emotional speech Clementine gives her? No point. Teaching her to use a gun? No point. And then nobody lifts an eyebrow when she dies. It was all focused on Jane who then decides to leave anyways.
I especially like your notions of Kenny and Luke. I had been wondering why I had became so disinterested in Luke and I think you nailed it. It's because he doesn't really feel like a real character anymore. It's like all the stuff he pulls, is just to somehow disagree with Kenny. I noticed how in ep 2, Luke was all about Clementine being capable but then in ep 3 where Kenny is like that, he's suddenly opposing the plan of using Clem. It's like you said; that he makes choices just to oppose Kenny and is never allowed to agree with him, no matter if it contradicts his previous opinions. Even though I really like Kenny as a character, I sometimes think it was a bad choice to bring him back. It just seems everything is so focused on him which in turn hurts the characterization of others. Mainly Luke and Sarita.
I also really liked your point of how they have disregarded the themes introduced earlier. One of the most interesting things to me was to experience a ZA from a point of a child. I expected her to face different kind of problems than an adult. That she would more often need to flee and/or use other tactics. How other people would have different ways to treat her, etc. But nope. Somehow she's the most competent person in the group and the others have no problems in sending her to do all the work. She kills walkers very efficiently and kicks down doors like she learned from the master himself Bigby Wolf (from TWAU). (Yeah I know it might have been because the walkers had weaken the door earlier but still...). I was actually so very happy when Mike once stated "But she's just a kid!" THANK YOU! It seems all the others are forgetting that. I realize Clementine would need to grow up fast and get competent or die. I just don't feel there's been proper development for it and the way other characters treat her just feels unrealistic. Or did the cabin group think it was enough proof how she stitched her own wound up? Well, what about Carver? He just suddenly treats her like she would be in his level. Even if you played like a "wussy" in previous episode and immediately surrendered.
Of course, if she was made more childlike then some people would undoubtedly complain how they feel unimportant and are not allowed to do all the important stuff, but that shouldn't matter if the story is told well. We don't need to do everything in order to feel immersed in the game. Actually, IMO, the way the game works now is doing the opposite. By making us the most competent person in the group, it's sometimes challenging my suspension of disbelief and breaking my immersion. Not good.