Season 3: Plausible storylines
Assuming we stay with Clem (for argument's sake), what do people expect to happen? Just for those who might have missed it, there are 5 possible outcomes:
You stay at Wellington with AJ (on your own)
You reach Wellington, refuse to leave Kenny, so you and Kenny (and AJ) walk off 'into the sunset' together
You go back to Howe's Hardware with Jane and invite family in
You go back to Howe's Hardware with Jane and send family away
You go it alone with AJ into a herd
Now, legitimately, as Jane and Kenny are determinate characters, there's only one possible outcome for them both. Options 1 and 5 have reached that conclusion already, whereas 2, 3 and 4 have not. In order to carry on Season 3 with Clementine, at some point, both are going to have to kick the bucket (as they have already done so in some peoples' play-throughs). I would love to see telltale design at least part of an episode that brings these 5 entirely distinct outcomes together into one. It would certainly require some creativity, but the pertinent issue here is: how? I think there's some who would feel slightly cheated if, as some have suggested, the Season were to start with a "x days/months/years later" message, and the fate of Kenny and Jane was explained away in a passive conversation. On the other hand, I don't think it is reasonable to expect (although some people may disagree) the beginning of the Season to have 5 entirely different arcs, all well-scripted and thoroughly thought out. Indeed, the gap between 1 and 5 might not be so difficult to bridge, but between 1 and any of 2, 3 or 4 is going to require a lot of story-telling and action to explain the events that led to Jane/Kenny/the family being killed off and Clem reaching a situation where she is completely by herself.
This leaves us with somewhat of a conundrum - I cannot see any way in which there won't be large sections of the fanbase dissatisfied. Legitimate questions about "what happened to my favourite character?", or objections about the emotional energy that went into a choice being completely wasted because you find Jane/Kenny has been killed off without so much as an explanation.
I would be really interested to hear how people think this can be resolved (or if it can be at all). For me, though people might not like to hear it (and this stands opposed to the original assumption I made at the start of the post), the variety of outcomes and their distinctiveness would suggest this might be the end of Clem as the playable character, or at least the beginning of the end. Would be interested to hear your thoughts!
Comments
I agree. They're gonna have to kill off Kenny & Jane & possibly the family.
A lot of talk on here has been they should do a DLC depending on your ending, which I like, but it doesn't make sense to me. They have two options, create 5 different beginnings that merge into one, one with Kenny, and then show how he dies, one with Jane and family, show how they die and one with Jane alone, and show how she dies.
Basically do what they did at the start of season two. Pull of the same escape act from Christa. It would be cool if they didn't die Omid like, but bring the five beginnings to one common location to begin again at. That may be the most fan satisfied answer. The other one is that they just do the time skip, ad you say, which is legit but not as exciting.
I don't see them letting go of Clem anytime soon. They've already talked about furthering her development to make the choice to abandon the baby, which would suggest they want to carry on with her, see what other crazy choices they can make us pick. I mean, would season one's Clem had the guts to shoot Kenny in the fight? Hell no. And they somehow brought us to the point where it was natural. I think there's more to go with her.