My say on the whole Season 3 Protagonist thing...
Okay, so I've been a lurker on these forums for a while (not joining until earlier this year) and I've been seeing a lot of posts about season 3 and how people either want to keep playing as Clem or how much people want to play as another character that we already know (long-term or otherwise) and I just want to say what I think on this malarkey...
Okay, here we go:
I think using a character that the player is already familiar with as a playable protagonist is NOT a good idea, why? Well because they already have an established connection not just with the player but also with the other characters in their universe. A slight problem I had with TWAU was that Bigby already had relationships with the other fables, whereas in TWD, someone like Lee has NO prior connection to any of the characters we meet in the game, therefore making his bonds and feuds with said characters more personal. We met Clementine, Kenny, Carley, Lily, Larry etc. the same time as Lee and that gives us a ground to build relationships with these certain characters. An example being the whole Lily and Kenny thing (which ended up not really mattering as Lily leaves just halfway through season 1 
).
This is the reason I wasn't overly fond of playing Clementine for season 2, I like her character, I really do, but we've grown to know this character through their actions and not ours. We didn't make her stumble upon Lee all the way back in episode 1, we didn't choose for Clem to go to the bathroom in the drugstore, we didn't choose how she interacted with the stranger. Look I could go on for pages about how her character has already been established and how when we make the choices for her character, they can be considered uncharacteristic and what-not.
If and when season 3 comes around, I'd like to play as someone new, someone we've never met before, hell someone we know almost nothing about (and could discover their past through dialogue choices that WE make). I don't think a whole new story is necessary, we just need someone new to latch onto, to use as our window into this horrifying post-apocalyptic landscape.
Sorry if this was a bit of a rambly post, but I thought I should just say my piece, get it out there. Please feel free to disagree with me in the comments (I would love to hear other people's opinion on this subject) and I hope you can at least take something away from this 
EDIT: I'm not suggesting Clem is removed from the game, but that she is instead situated into a role more akin to a secondary protagonist, hell maybe the way she would interact with your character in Season 3 would depend on how you played her in Season 2.
Comments
I want Season 3 protagonist to be Rebecca's baby! Lets have a younger protagonist every season!
Maybe in Season 4 we could play as a fetus!
Seriously though, Clementine should be the protagonist. Shes only 11 and there is so many things that they could do with her, the whole point in the first 2 season was looking after Clementine, and keeping Clementine alive. That would all feel like a big waste if she was not in Season 3, we have watched her grow and hopefully in Season 3 we will see her grow some more. Clementine feels like like the base of the game, without her something would be missing.
And then for season 5 we could just play as the mindful consideration of having a child (Getting a bit abstract here :P), though I wasn't suggesting to have Clementine is kicked out of the story, you still prove a very good point my sir, and upvote to thee!
Well... I disagree, playing as Clementine made the most sense. We met her, the aim was to keep her alive, we taught her how to survive. How to use a gun, to keep her hair short, to stay in groups, to stay away from groups, gave her advice on fighting walkers. To make a completely new character for season 2 wouldn't make any sense. Why leave season 1 as it did and not even bother with Clementine anymore. It made sense to be her because we influenced her. Now we are her we can influence her even more and chose how she handles situations. Having a child in a zombie apocalypse game is a very difficult thing to pull off, and I think telltale are doing it rather well. Considering most children in zombie games/ movies become rather annoying and you hope they get their throat ripped out. They scream, they run off, they almost get people killed, but clementine is different. She was young when this all started so she's adapting to the situation better than other.
I hope to continue to play Clem, I don't think her character is done yet. Jane has taught her a new set of survival skills and has planted a seed in her head about going at it alone. I can't see them changing clementine for a new character. I think its all going to be about growing up in the apocalypse. I feel like that's the road they are going down and I like it, because there isn't really anything where the child is the main character in a zombie game/ TV show/ movie and isn't as annoying as hell. I like the dangers this little girls is in and how different it is now from just drawing in your tree house. You are now killing zombies, getting into dangerous situations just for food and making hard choices about saving people you may or may not care about.
Killing off clementine is just going to be too much like the first season ending. Season 2 ending is going to something unexpected. Otherwise if this does happen and we become someone new, then clementine and friends story will feel unfinished. It'll feel like a typical bad ending killing everyone off or having a happy ending, either the Russians kill them all there and then or everyone will be happy drinking tea in Wellington. No, to me that's a cop out ending for some very in depth characters that many fans have grown to love.
I wouldn't mind an extra episode or a spin off series to play new characters, like 400 days but longer. Maybe have 5 episodes as a spin off or an extra, where each episode is based off a new place other than America, England, Japan, China, Germany, Australia, to show how the rest of the world is coping. But to do this for season 3 seems too wrong. I don't mind the idea for a bonus episode or a spin off, but they have a story with clementine and I can see them sticking to it.
It would be cool if we play as Christa (if she survived) and follow her after the separation with Clem in episode 1 of season 2. See some things Clem did/saw/kill in season 2, maybe see Carvers place overrun by walkers or the cabin or parker's run, meet the 400 days people...I dunno...and then in episode 5 of season 3 Christa goes to Wellington and sees Clem and whoever else is alive. It would be very cool...
Clementine has had the most development they aren't going to get rid of her.
That would work better as a dlc like 400 days imo.
Yeah, but first we should see the end of season 2...I hope for tears of joy, not sad tears...The thing is that in Season 1 we knew what was going to happen in ep 5, kinda. We already knew Lee was bitten and wasn't gonna make it, try save Clem, find the guy who kidnapped her...etc, but now I don't have any idea what's gonna happen...We don't know if Clem's gonna survive, if we'll go to Wellington...so we can't be sure who'll be the protag without seeing the end of season 2, but we'll see veery soon.
Why wouldn't they? This story is getting stale. You can't even say for certain she is going to live next episode.
Telltale would be pretty much pressing the "Kill franchise" button if they done that, it would be really fucking stupid.
you mean how they killed Lee off? Who was better than Clementine every possible way as a protagonist?
CrazyGeorge is right IMO. The franchise is a whole lot bigger than just one character.
Lee's death was brilliantly done BECAUSE of that. Lee's purpose was actually fulfilled since he managed to redeem himself as a person by being able to protect Clem from the harsh world. Let's not forget to mention the subtle foreshadowing Season One actually had with Lee training her and his final speech towards her right when he died.
I do agree on one thing though, Lee was the better protagonist. But I'm very confident that Clem (and the baby) will survive the season. Killing her off at this point now is too much of a risk. I always see people moaning about not wanting her to die AS WELL as complain about her not appearing in other media (400 Days). She's also very popular too, I wouldn't have been interested in Season Two if she wasn't in it. Heck I became more emotionally invested in the franchise than ever before when she took over as the lead character.
a lot of people seem to forget this game is made of many people, not just Clementine. I don't want her to die, i just don't want to play as her anymore. She is unemotional , uninteresting, and the situations they put her in are completely unrealistic. For example i use the wind turbine as my example. None of the adults could figure out how to turn it off, so they needed Clementine to do it?
OK!
One of the reasons why I praised the video game over the comics is that it took the risk of giving us different protagonists. Say what you will about the comics, but following the same people for god knows how long gets stale after a while. Variety is the spice of life, and I like to play as different characters from time to time as it offers different perspectives.
I've always had a slight disconnection with Clementine during season 3 myself, but I am much too invested in her character and story to throw it away because of it. First you make note of how she has pre-established relationships with characters we meet. This isn't true, she did with Kenny... which I view brining him back in the first place was a huge mistake and nothing more than fan service, but besides that we haven't seen these people before, so the relationships are completely new. As for her character being established before we play hey? Yes and no. This is where my slight problem comes in to play, but as I said I'm far too interested in her to let my peeves get the best of why I'm truly here, her story. She was an established NPC in season one with pre-determined choices, actions, and dialogue. She was completely on the outside of our personal choice (though our choices could and would affect who and how she was). Had we picked the story up directly up after we saw her on the log then yes, you would be completely correct on her being an already established character, but we didn't. We came in 16 months later (excluding an extremely short scene in the beginning of S2E1) so how does this make her not an established personality anymore? Simple. She changed. She had obviously seen a lot of shit in that 16 months and it affected her, molded her, changed her into what she was where we actually picked up. This explanation isn't perfect, as for me there will only be one "correct" dialogue choice/path for real Clementine (two at some points) but to reiterate -I love her character that much!
How did she know how to do that?
Oh and don't forget her reactions to almost everything is that same Sassy Look every time. It was funny the first 5 million times she did it, but now, it's just boring.
So you expect they'll rehash the same exact ending? Protagonist dies for the greater good? That's the only way I can see they could make her death, and therefore the game and the journey worth anything. And I highly doubt they're that stagnant in the creative department. If you could give another example or two of how she could die and not flop the entire story I would be much obliged.
Well i' m not saying she couldn't do it, i mean it was pretty simple a monkey could do it. It was just so unbelievable the adults couldn't do it.
Lee is a better Protagonist.
I expect pretty much the same ending, Everyone dies and clementine is going to be all alone again, such stagnation needs fixing.
Clementine may live, that baby isn't going to make it. They hinted on Clementine's demise in episode 4, we will just have to wait and see.
Sarita had been staying there for several weeks, you'd think Matthew or Walter would teach her.
I'm sure she could of figured it out, it wasn't rocket science its just putting a key in a button.
This is exactly why I want the new protagonist to be someone from 400 Days. We got a little taste of playing as each of them, I think it would be pretty interesting to see how they'd interact with whoever is left after season 2. It could be a character who left to go to Carver's camp, and then stumbles upon Clem's group. Maybe Clementine and her group would be the bad guys from the pov of the character, or maybe they will try to achieve forgiveness for their past mistakes. It'd be something new, we wouldn't be in the inner circle anymore. My personal choices if it were a 400 Days character would be Nate or Vince. If not a 400 Days character, then Kenny or Molly. I love Clem but there are so many more possibilities with having a new protagonist than there are with just repeating the same theme for season 3: being a child surviving the apocalypse.
I see your point. The types of situations the adults give Clem to take care of is kind of like having Carl calling the shots and taking care of business over Rick and isn't Carl older than Clementine? Comics version at least?. I did thoroughly enjoy playing her as the protagonist of season 2 but I feel each new season deserves a new protagonist for the chance to bask in the spotlight. People say killing the protagonist off again in the finale is too repetitive, but what about replaying the same protagonist for a whole season again being repetitive.If they rid themselves of Clementine it will not prevent me from checking out their season 3 nor ruin my enjoyment of it that is for sure. A lot of players didn't even like the idea of playing as Clementine before season 2 was released because of being a little girl instead of a strong grown man. Now they don't want to leave her alone to play as someone else, so you see how that works..
Perhaps.
I also doubt that. Telltale doesn't usually disappoint, especially on the epic endings. Even the cliff hangers episode to episode are exciting.
Fine ! Let's play as Clementine in season 3 ! Why not ?! But then, we'll also have to play as her in season 4 ! Why ? Because, as people says : "It would be such a waste to not see where she is going !" Right ? Oh, but that would mean we'd have to play as her in season 5 ! You know... Because... She'll be older... And... She'll do... Stuff... That uh... You know... Anyways ! #AdultClementine all the way ! But wouldn't it mean that we would, again, have to play as her in season 6 ? Because... Stuff happened and, we all want to know how Clementine will die at some point. Oh, I forgot, Clementine is actually a robot, she can't die, also, she has now superpowers, and she can fly. She also have to fight giant monsters in space. Why ? Because you've forced a franchise to end badly by wanting the same thing all over and over again.