Romance in TFS?
Okay this is the second time I've ever made a discussion, so idk how to start this, but I feel like there's one thing that needs to be adressed before TFS comes out, and that thing is... Romance. Or specifically - any romance that involves Clementine. There is going to be a lot of teenagers in this season and I already see people shipping Clem with Louis and Marlon so I just wanted to say... it's not a good idea. Really, it's not. This game is not a dating sim and I doubt anyone actually wants to see some forced teenage romance drama in a game about zombies. It already didn't work with that cringy, awkward 'Gabe x Clementine' thing in ANF (They had basically no chemistry and/or interactions together lmao.) and I seriously doubt it's going to work now. Of course if they actually prove me wrong and take the time to properly develop their relationship in a realistic way - I don't mind. Though for now if there really needs to be romance in this season - make it optional. I feel like in other TellTale games some ships were kinda forced onto you (For example: Sasha x Rhys, Selina x Bruce) and it overall made the game a little less enjoyable if you shipped something else/didn't ship anything, and I really don't want the last season to be ruined by something like that. People should be able to choose if they want their Clementine to be with someone or not. So, yeah, that's all I wanted to say, feel free to disagree.
Edit: I forgot to mention the whole love triangle between Javi, Kate and David. Jesus christ, that was terrible. And Kate acting like a desperate thot and asking Javi if he loves her every 5 seconds even though I rejected her at every opportunity was simply obnoxious.
Comments
I'm personally fine with an optional romance but I know people are pretty touchy about that subject regarding Clementine.
I'm honestly fine with it too if it's optional, but as you said - some people don't like the idea of Clem being in a relationship and I don't want that to ruin their opinion of the game. I'm also worried that it might start some shipping wars and I don't think anyone wants that.
Romance didn't do shit in anf but to make retarded shippings and jokes...it won't work so abandon it or give us a true man this time.
Definitely agree. The more impact we have on characters' relationships, the better. Don't want it? Not a problem. Works out fairly.
I don't mind it being an optional inclusion. Lee and Carley was something you could brush off, or miss entirely, the game didn't focus too much on it and it worked well the way it was implemented. Kate asking me if I'm sure I don't like her while acting like I do in every episode? Not so much.
Honestly the hole Kate and Javi situation left me uncomfortable, she was constantly trying t cheat on her husband, my brother, and I always felt in a very odd situation trying to brush her off every 10 minutes because I'd never want to do that to my brother (I also have an IRL brother), so it kind of annoyed me that Telltale was constantly forcing Kate on me.
Seriously, at one point it was so forced on me that I just said yes; let's be together, and later on; yes, lets have kids. But I seriously didn't like Kate constantly trying to make me backstab my brother.
I actually wanted to be left alone or perhaps flirt with Eleanor, maybe not even that because of Trip (or whatever her ex's name was) turning out to be a good friend.
I agree that Clem's + Gabe's 'romance' was cringe-worthy as I see Clem very well grounded and with more important things on her mind than flirt with some brat that messes up everything he touched or did.
If we do get some ridiculous teenage romance option (what is this, Mass Effect?) I hope I can at least brush off and dismiss every single horny teenage boy and not be forced by game dialog into liking someone. Clem is fine by her own, she don't need no man.
It should be optional. The ones who want a romance will get it, and the ones who dont will not. Everyone will be happy.
Until someone starts posting pictures, gifs, and videos of the Clem romances to piss off the people who didn't want to see it.
I agree with everything especially with the Kate thing. She was annoying as fuck. I rejected her all the way to the end in which she ended up dieing in.
Clem and Gabe things was stupid aswell.
Absolutely not.
"Romance" has generally been informed & underdeveloped at best and tacked on & adding little of substance at worst. That unfortunately applies to ANF the most, which only seemed to
further cheapen the characters and often made discussion in this community unbearingly fickle.
Optional romance...I like the idea.
As long as it's handled better than Gabentine
Ive said this many times...so imma say it again: I’m fine with optional romances.
Gabentine never worked because Clem and Gabe rarely had scenes together in the game. A majority of episode 5 has scenes with them, but it was too cringey. There was no chemistry between them and no build up whatsoever. Seriously, the “relationship” came out of nowhere. It was forced af as well. Javier pretty much wants them to get together, but we the players, had no say in the matter.
Same goes for Javi and Kate. You can Friendzone Kate the whole game but in the end, David still fights you and Kate thought “you and her had something”.
At least with this season, it looks like Clementine will be with the kids at the boarding school today the whole season. And, I hope, each episode is focused on Clem and one of the more important kids (ie Marlon, Louis, and Violet). Only a trailer and gameplay footage has been out and already people are shipping Clementine & Marlon and Clementine & Louis (which I think will be the most popular ship in the community).
Romance with Clementine is kinda risky and easy to fuck up, so unless it's optional and with an actually fleshed out character, I would say no. But I wouldn't mind if some of the boarding school kids romanced each other, though.
Finally. It's like no one else thinks it's weird that the ex of your brother constantly coming on to you is suspect hoe activity. Not to mention, the incessant nudging at it endlessly and it's build up isn't even really all that interesting just overbearing and annoying.
Definitely optional. The forced romance thing really annoyed me and never want to see it be made a serious focus in one of these games ever again. The "romance" between Clementine and Gabe was even more cringey.. ugh... better just to assume the entirety of ANF as non canon and start calling TFS Season 3.
Um why? It'll only be forced. Who builds an actual relationship in a matter of 4 episodes? We have no time for that. Fanfiction is your best bet. Clem's on a mission not "Single and ready to mingle" guys.
It was a dumb idea to implement it into s3, but I think it can be done in s4. As a main character, this should be much easier, think Lee and Carley. At least Marlon and Louis won't be thots asking if you like them or not every 10 minutes and then slapping you if you reject them. They might be awkward around it, but ultimately they'd understand. Still, I think they'd both die in the end, and that makes me think - what will happen at the end with all the remaining characters in s4? If they all die then I would lose all my respect for telltale, and it'd probably make me hate Clem as a character, strange as it sounds. Hope some are still alive, but they have no home or anything, nothing left.
they can leave a few subtle options in if they want but i don't want them to invest heavily in anything. invest those resources in something other than "walk through meadow + kiss boy or dont"
Killing all of the new characters AGAIN is just stupid and I'd honestly be just really pissed if they did that. This game is a chance for TellTale to redeem themselves in the eyes of a lot of people and I think that since this is the last season they should make all of the character either determinant or just let them survive until the very end. Also Louis and Marlon probably will be my favourites so if they die I will throw hands, mark my words
Since it's the last in the series/"Clems arc", they probably won't hit the extreme they did in previous games and leave more fates open. Don't throw hands though, you don't want it
I'm fine with romance as long as it is completely up to the player and not forced at all. I actually expect romance/flirting options with Marlon, Louis, and Violet. I also would love it if you try romancing more than one of them then there is a fight about it or something.
Totally agreed. Optional is the better way to develope a romance in this season.
But with that...Gabes/Clem and Kate/Javier was 'optiona' too but even then we still had to sit through the romance options and the awkward half flirty dialogue. Even if they hated the ship, they still had to sit through it. I say no romance, period
Optional or not, do it well or don't do it at all. Like, I'd like seeing Clem in a happy ship with the boarding schoolers, but not if, like, she hates them one minute and acts like she's been pining for them for a while the next.
On the Kate cheating on David thing, she: thought he was dead (and so did Javi), only knew one person she could hook up with in the ZA, and was last in an abusive relationship.
Go for it. But don't force it down my throat. I remember telling Trip nothing is between me and Kate, yet the game insisted I had feelings for her by having Javi cut the convocation short and having Tripp call out my "lie". Basically telling me I'm lying to myself. Do it if you want. But it should be up to me. I'm all for Clem's romance routes especially if I like the character. But if I don't want to pursue it, don't act as if I'm trying to avoid the truth. In telltale games the main character almost always has a predetermined romance option and if you don't pursue it, you're basically lying to yourself. I remember not pursuing Sasha as Rhys and you still have Fiona having a discussion about her at the end of the game, even if I gave NO indication that I felt something for her. It's gotta stop.
Optional would be best. The anf "romance" was forced, cringe, and badly written. I'd prefer if the romance wasn't like the approach in beyond two souls where you could only choose between two guys. A mass effect approach is the best option if romance is involved.
The idea there is that while he may have chosen not to act on it at all, Javi himself does have feelings for her but decided not to do anything about it for whatever reason(s). I personally don't mind that ironclad aspect since it gives him some more actual character traits and beliefs beyond what the player does that most previous PCs had.
The main problem people have with that instance(as well as one beforehand) in particular is that the characters(or really, just Eleanor and Tripp) seem to be under the impression that Javier has been acting on it before and something really is going on beyond UST. As if players have chosen to flirt with Kate when they quite possibly haven't, much less around either of them. And on that much, I do feel it was a mistake to make that the reception regardless of what the player did, since it did indeed make the story arc(hur hur hur) feel more predetermined than it really needed to be and/or just came off as lazy.
The closest to a proper compromise and/or reflective to the player's actions vs. Javi's underlying feelings that I know of actually comes from Kate herself: when the ride or die moment comes up near the end of Thicker than Water, not returnng her feelins will have her either comment that he's always said no even when she put som pressure on him, say that she's really thought there was something going on between them and that she wasn't just imagining it (not sure what causes this beyond general light flirting here and there), or outright slap him for actively leading her on and being a coward(mainly the kiss in the junkyard, but there might be another mixture). Of course, consider this comes after the above....
I would definitely be fine with romance being an optional route, provided that it was totally optional, done properly (and I do emphasis the two words) and being able to decide between Marlon, Louis, or Violet.
Bi Clem following Javi's footsteps
If it were just Javi, I could respect that aspect, since it would be a trait all his own. But it's basically the same with Rhys with Sasha, Bigby with Snow, etc, which is where my problem lies. Since most romances are predetermined, the future dialogue choices/results mostly align with that idea, at least it does with TFTB and TWAU. A scene like the one with Tripp and Javi discussing their feelings would have made more sense to have the player pursue Kate, THEN lie to Tripp to trigger that perceptive response, and that's actually what happens when you reject Kate despite pursuing her, which you concluded with. But if I personally gave no impression that things were more than family-friendly, I don't expect Tripp, after first impressions, to believe there's something more when I say there isn't. If their first impression was we were a couple, fine, I understand that. That's probably the easiest conclusion to jump to. Until I clear that up that misunderstanding that is.
Makes sense. At the end of the day, these games and their stories are written with certain core portrayals and connections in mind.
Pretty much.
This season is shorter than the others, so I don't know. Is there really that much time to be wasting on romances? Telltale isn't known for their knack with romance either and if ANF is anything to go by, they should avoid it like the plague. But at the same time, romance is a thing a lot of people seem to want and its not entirely something I'd hate to see as well. If it's optional and not forced upon the player, and doesn't randomly appear right out of nowhere without even the vaguest hints of development (Gabe and all that rubbish), it could work. Maybe.
Yet, at the same time, it could be something that distracts from the more essential elements of this game- the actual story and the stakes that should be in it. For me, I'd prefer if Telltale focussed as much as they could on creating a good story and memorable characters rather than trying to implement something I've never seen them do well before. And not to mention, the main cast are all teenagers and Telltale + Teenagers + Romance is a sketchy equation.
In episode amount, yes but the overall run time can be longer if all episodes are atleast 2h long
I agree with the majority here. I'm okay with romance as long as it's optional, and not something the player is forced into.
I think there should be a romance, but not in the way people are saying of using a Mass Effect way of choosing and progressing through it, neither I think they should give us the option between Louis or Marlon (Even though they did something like that in Tales from the Borderland), they should put the romance there but wasting the least amount of resources possible, and just with Marlon since he seems like the most prominent character of the Season and the "leader" of the Community.
I like romances in games and wouldnt mind one in this season so long as its optional (in the sense that if you say "no" the game doesn't keep trying to push it).
I think there's potential for Marlon, Louis or Violet so long as they are treated as their own characters and work well with Clem herself. You know, actual relationship development and not out of the blue.
I have noticed that Telltale's tumblr account liked a post a few days ago mentioning that Louis would be nice as a potential romance interest. I dont know if that actually means something though or it's just telltale being a tease.
Optional would be fine, but it's going to take a lot of talent for it not to detract from the season. Clementine's relationship with AJ is non-existent coming into this Season. I understand that she's had quite some time with him to develop that bond, but we haven't. Who's going to watch over AJ while Clem's dating?