Season 2: My Thoughts
The general consensus on Season 2 seems to be: "It's good, but not as good as the first one." While I disagree, and actually prefer the Second Season, there is one thing I need to talk about: Expectations.
There have been numerous posts lately about the original season 2 story before they changed it. Since "All That Remains", people were extatic about "Amid the Ruins" saying: "Oh my god! Clem's gonna join some cult and Eddies gonna be there and it's going to be the creepiest thing ever and the best thing since sliced bread!" When I first saw the Thumbnail for Episode 4, my thought was that it was symbolic of something, not literal. I think people took the thumbnail as a literal event that was going to happen and told everyone like it was a fact. Than, when ATR came out, everyone was pissed because the story they've been promised by people for over a year never happened. A story that was never going to happen.
Now, I realize that some things were changed. I'm confident that Rebecca was supposed to give birth in Episode 3 and Gavin himself confirmed that Kenny was supposed to be the Carver character(still curious about the Eddie thing). However, lately people have been posting theories about Wellington, Sarah, Nick and Luke. About how Wellington was supposed to be abandoned, and a bunch of characters could have survived and all that. Maybe the story didn't change as much as people have been saying, and people have blown it out of proportion.
Many of these theories I've heard sound a little to dark, even for The Walking Dead. Kenny being Carver, Wellington being abandoned. Season 2 had its flaws, and maybe some things that were changed shouldn't have been, but we have little to no proof of any of these alternate Season 2 theories being true.
Season 3 is being announced today! I know Telltale has listened, and Season 3 is going to be the best one yet.
Comments
I think it's symbolic but most people were not pissed at Amid The Ruins (which is actually an episode I love) for not living up to that.
People were pissed because:
And more.
Now look, I love Season 2 and I love Season 1. However, I will say this, my theory on The Walking Dead (because I know you're hinting at it), is just that, a theory. It's not something that I'm saying "Telltale definitely did this" or "had this in mind", but it is extremely obvious that there was some original story that was going on, but it was abandoned or changed for one reason or another. And this is not the first time Telltale has done this, they did in The Wolf Among Us too. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing because, hey, we never knew the original story, maybe it was terrible and so Telltale scrapped it. I just made my theory because it's fun to investigate and do a little digging, and imagine what Season 2 could have been like. That's all.
I do enjoy reading theories about this subject, and yours was by far the best I've ever read. I'm mainly talking about many people on the forums who have been talking about such theories as absolute fact.
Yeah, that is fair, we know Telltale obviously had an original story but guess what? Every single thing written has an original story. Nothing is as the same as the first draft, and minor/major changes do happen. Thank you very much, that's very kind of you to say! I don't think it's absolute fact what I've written or what we saw (like the idea of a cult seems to come almost out of nowhere if it were to happen in Amid The Ruins), but hey - it's fun to fantasize and wonder what Telltale had up their sleeve, and how dark the story could go. I can't wait to see what they do for Season Three.
They're theories for a reason. Some things that happened in S2 didn't really add up. That's when the theories come into play. As for what you said about Amid The Ruins, the issue is that the slide literally had nothing to do with the overall episode. It's not symbolic for anything, it doesn't literally happen, it's just sort of there. That goes for every slide this season tbh. That's why people come up with these theories to match what each slide represents. They're theories, they aren't supposed to necessarily be true, I think everyone knows that.
Well at the very least, Episode 1 and 2 had slides that were matching (though it looks like originally Clementine made her way to the cabin at night and was found by Luke?)
Even though A House Divided's slide doesn't literally happen, I do agree it was probably the most accurate one.
Maybe everywhere else but on the forums the usual verdict is "OMG ITS THE WORST THING EVER MADE!!!! FUCK TELLTALE!!!".
True but let's remember not all slides do literally happen. Like for example, the slide for Episode 3 of Season One, with the train hitting a walker, Duck driving the train and Ben at the front was done to remind of these characters and kind of lie to us about Duck's fate.
I always half-considered the bloody-faced Clementine on the slide being symbolic until the end of In Harm's Way (by which point, she does have blood on her face, though more practical in looks than cool). What tipped me off that Amid the Ruins wasn't supposed to be what it was was that the slide itself changes depending on the choice logged by the save file being used.
Even with the general outline for what S2 ended up being, I expected more of those same situations and characters presented to us. I was not hyped up unreasonably for any episode except for In Harm's Way, which had a lot of potential and I believed could have been the turnig point for the season and I just set myself up for dissappointment, even though it more or less was that.
Hah, I wrote mini essays back in the day. Off the top of my head I remember stating the potential of Nick as a more prominent cast member and one of the more rounded developed characters had his determinant status not made him irrelevant; the way TT could have implemented a more human bond between Clementine and her new group mechanically into the game in slower-paced, open areas... which felt neat in No Going Back even though everything (understandsably) went to hell in the next scenes. There were also Carlos and Sarah, one who we never really knew to give two f's about and the second who became a determinant walking plot device for Jane to make a point. Rebeca's 180 from Ep1 to Ep2 bothers me slightly to this day, but that is a minor gripe, she was a moody nearly Clem-murdering preggo lady and that was that. She had a bad day. And there are also the subtelties of Clementine's agency as a protagonist balanced with the idea she is just a child, but that was better expressed and discussed by more eloquent members from the community back then. And interactivity, but I can't speak of how TT has handled that lately, I have not played any of their games in a while.
Plenty of things. Not too keen on replaying it as with S1, which I'm sure will get some eyes rolling around here, but it is still an entry in the series and there are moments to look back and enjoy even if, for me, they are the least.
I understand that slides aren't supposed to be accurate, but atleast with the S1 slides we got some sort of hint what the episode is about. Let's use E3, we see a train hitting a walker. Sure we never actually hit a walker but from just looking at the slide we know that a train is part of the episode.
Just a few more hours until the S3 reveal!