The handling of Sarah's character...
Don't worry! This isn't another negative thread about how the writers (and by extension, Telltale) handled Sarah's character poorly, in fact it's almost the complete opposite...
Now most are under the impression that Sarah had potential to become a badass survivalist and was going to see through the entirety of season 2, well, I thought I'd share my thoughts on this subject:
I think the whole point of Sarah was to exist as a contrast to Clem. If Lee (and Christa) didn't teach Clem how to survive, and was instead completely sheltered from all the chaos around her, she probably would have ended up just like Sarah.
I can't help but be slightly irritated when people complain that Sarah had potential to be a sort of 'sidekick' to Clementine and that they wanted to teach Sarah how to be a survivalist (ala: teaching her "how to use" a gun) but the entire point of teaching her how to use a gun, and telling her how to survive was just to show that she was too far gone. She was beyond help, she'd already been damaged/broken by the apocalypse (just in a considerably different way than most people), the whole point of her not taking anything seriously just shows that she isn't and never will be fit for survival. And the fact she shuts down because of the death of her dad, just further illustrates this point.
I hope you were able to gauge something from this, and I'd like to hear your feedback and opinions on this subject (preferably more 'open-minded' feedback), feel free to dislike, but at least justify that decision in the comments below. Thank You.
Comments
If her dad hadn't sheltered and isolated her since the start of the apocalypse , she could have indeed become a capable survivor. Her issues are treatable. The one with the real problem here was Carlos. Two years into the apocalypse was more than enough time for Carlos to have helped her settle, but he chose to keep her as "his little girl",assuming nothing would ever happen to him.
Sarah was perfectly aware of she needed to become in order to survive as she shows when talking to Clem in EP2 about the gun,despite her dad saying she had no idea what the world was like outside. "Everything is dangerous now. I have to learn how to do it someday. Just don't tell my dad.", she told Clem. She knew she had to take it seriously, but her dad wouldn't let her. In addition to hindering her survival, his isolation of Sarah only worsened her condition.
I made a thread on Sarah around here not long ago, I explain why she was so shaken up about Carlos' death there. She was starting to get over it before she died, though.
The most upsetting part about Sarah's second death was because it was a freak accident. She didn't because she screwed up or anything. It doesn't prove that she was not fit for the world.
No offense, but obvious trope is obvious.
Yeah, everyone knows what her death was supposed to signify. We are angry partly because if she had survived it would have contradicted Jane and Carver's cynical, bitter, nazi-like claims that only the "strong" can survive and the survivors shouldn't coddle the "weak." Telltale basically nodded at them.
Also, we understand the cheap, paint-by-numbers contrast to Clementine's character-- there is nothing profound there.
I loved Sarah's character precisely because she was like an untouched dinosaur fossil from the pre-apocolypse days-- someone whose soul remained intact. Her death was cartoonish (Jane hit on the head by a board), lazy, cynical and stupid. It validated the game's loners' and psychopaths' philosophy.