Did anyone else...
Want to side with Carver in Episode 3?
Now let me explain this here, whenever I play a narrative choice-based game I always do so from a roleplaying perspective, doing things as I believe the character that I am portraying would naturally do them. This is partly because I am an actor, so perhaps it is merely instinctual, but it leads to some interesting situations in that I don't always choose the things that I personally would do.
Playing as Lee Everett in Season One, I saw him as a genuinely good person who had made some bad choices. He wasn't surviving for himself, he was doing it for Clementine. He saw the darkness of the world and generally found his way to remain redeemable despite all that he had done, and in the end it was these traits that defined him in my playthrough. He tried so hard to teach Clementine how dangerous the world was, and yet still keep her humanity intact... But he died.
From the moment that Clementine took that shot and ended Lee's life, she was on her own. Even after meeting up with Omid and Christa, everything that she had clung to was gone, all the lessons shared with Lee, all the moments that she had asked if things would go back to normal one day. I came to realize that my perception of Clementine would be a very much scarred individual, being forced to come to terms with the world as she saw it. Lee wanted her to survive, but he couldn't survive himself because to love her so much was in the end his greatest weakness. Throughout my Season Two, Clementine quickly slipped into a pattern of isolation from her old self. Becoming a cold and effective survivor as she needed to be. She harbors no love for the cabin survivors and even upon meeting with Kenny, she is not at all beholden to him. She knows that the sentiments of the past mean nothing anymore, all that matters is survival.
Thusly, when it came to seeing the way that Carver ran his group. Under a martial law that had carried them as far as it had, Clementine was not directly opposed to working with him and becoming a part of that kind of community. This was a survivor. This was the person that Clementine saw she needed to become, someone who was willing to be harsh in order to get the job done. But she also saw that Carver was uncontrolled, risky, and in the end this is what made him weak. While she eventually had to turn against him, she could just as easily turned upon the group. In fact, there was a point in the episode (the conversation where you tell Carver that you understand what he is saying), where I would have taken a betrayal option to the group if it existed. Simply because that is the kind of person my Clementine is becoming. I don't know what she will turn into come Episode Four, but it can be certain that she will be angry that things turned out the way they did. The people she's known have ruined every opportunity of survival at every chance she has gotten, they don't realize their own weaknesses and this has begun to infuriate her. I expect that my version of Clementine will align herself with the ideas of someone like Jane: Survive. At any cost. And while she may attempt to protect people like Kenny and Sarita, she is not going to risk everything for them. If they can keep up, good. If not, too bad.
Does anyone else have a similar Clementine situation? Or is my Clementine just an evil psychopath?
Comments
Your Clementine is very different from mine. I play her with a little sass from time to time (depending on who she's talking to) but mine is very dedicated to the group that she's in and wants to retain her humanity as much as possible. I wouldn't let someone die if there was still a good chance that I could save them.
I would never side with Carver. Do you know why he died? Because he was evil. Him being a bad person caused his downfall. I don't want to become evil, as it will not only cause my downfall, but the downfall of innocent people.
Both Lee and Clem (specially Clem) have a certain basic traits that can't be changed through dialogue. Unlike the mute RPG character with no personality that we've all seen at least once during our childhood, they do have a certain personality of their own. So there are things that all Clems, from bitch Clem to good Clem, would never do (same applies to Lee).
I think siding with Carver is one of those things, not just for the story's sake, but because Clem really feared Carver or simply hated his guts. Even when I told him I agreed with him in my second playthrough, she seemed to do it more out of fear than actual conviction. In my opinion, this is because Carver showed there was more to his action than just survivalism. Not to mention that Clem eventually needs to choose between him and the group. So, even if you wanted to side with Carver, Clem didn't.
If they had carried on the whole story of the cabin group not being completely trustworthy and Carver being a clever leader then maybe. But seeing that they just turned carver into a complete psychopath in episode 3 then no.
My Clementine is the opposite of yours, and I try to play her as sweet with a bit of sass
I don't know why people are disliking your post. Even if I don't personally agree, you articulated your thoughts very well and made some interesting points.
My Clementine is based off of what I think Clementine would do, not really what I would do. Therefore I remain pretty nice and every now and then i'll be a bit sassy, like a normal 11 year old girl.
I upvoted him 'cause I saw 3 downvotes and 0 upvotes and I thought it was a little too much, even if I disagreed with the OP.
i only believe that the one major thing that u are wrong about with ur version of clementine is that she would betray her friends for carver, i think that after being with lee for all that time she'd know that u should stick with nice people, and she would obviously like the cabin group because they saved her, at least luke and pete did in the beginning, luke was all ways nice to her and the same goes for pete and alvin, the others were hasty aat first but they came around which i believe clementine would understand given their explanations. also seeing kenny i think would make her happy because he was with her group for quite a while and it would be good for her to see an old friend. and throughout her time with lee and everyone else she would know that carver is dangerous and that he shouldnt be trusted, after all he is a murderer, a liar and he captured everyone for a baby that might not be his and to make them all slaves, even the woman carrying his child! lee's lessons that he taught her wouldnt have been perceived like this at all in my opinion
yeah i agree
Even as regards self-interest, you don't want to solely to look out only after yourself. People will see you as selfish, traitorous, and will not be willing to help you; there needs to be a certain element of forgiveness and cooperation and general caring or at least pretending to generally care: