Which Season Had the Strongest First Episode?
I'll rate them
New Frontier
For the "worst" season, its opening hook is seriously underrated. Especially the first person view of the beginning of the apocalypse. It's amazing how cinematic they make it, with the fade to black and the credits, even the tracking camera movements, almost making it look like you're watching a blockbuster horror film. And it all starts when Mariana walks into the room with a cup and innocently informs her "Yaya" that her previously deceased grandfather is in fact awake. Still remains one of the best "wham" lines in the series in my opinion and my most intense "Oh shit." moment. It doesn't hurt that by this point, the acting has seriously improved, selling it even more as a believable crisis that a hapless family have found themselves in with everything suddenly spiraling out of control.Walking Dead: Season Two
I'd say the strongest part of Episode 1 was oddly enough, Clementine. For the most part, her character is handled well. She actually gets Omid killed for starters, which is a pretty ballsy writing move for a series mascot. And even though Lee assured her she "could do anything", we see realistically that she most certainly cannot, especially when separated from important people like Christa. She barely fights off bandits, gets bitten by a wild dog when she tries to share food, and later locked in a shed when she runs into a group, trying to get help for said bite. They also do an interesting job with Clementine's social networking. She's capable of being manipulative now, either using her status as little girl to cloying effect or outright blackmailing to get what she wants.Walking Dead: Final Season
This one might be close to perfection. Everything comes around full circle here as we start in a car, on the road, adjusting a mirror to look at the passenger in the back, just as it was in Season One, with the police officer and Lee. Only this time, instead of following a convict to jail, we meet AJ, no longer a helpless toddler but a budding young survivor, already playing with a gun, "pretending they still have bullets". Clementine is now in Lee's role, only this time, she's parenting a child in a world that scarcely resembles the old one. Everything MUST be about survival and AJ is so drilled that he doesn't even recognize a swing as a tool for playing. He questions if it's a monster trap instead. Then we have the boarding school, Marlon's descent into madness, AJ's struggle to fit in with the rest of the kids, Brody's death, the revelation about the twins, and then the absolute perfect cliffhanger of Marlon getting his brains blown clean out. "What? I aimed for the head!"
Comments
S1's intro is good at setting the stage and showing you how the game mechanics work. It more gameplay oriented as opposed to focusing solely on being cinematic but it works.
S2 is good at setting the pervasively hopeless and depressing tone of the first episode and arguably the entire season.
I really didn't like ANF's opener because I wanted it to be more interactive. Garcia household could have been a hub area and I wish there was dialogue during the parts where the dad turned and the family leaves the house. Would have been cool to be able to choose our last words to David before parting ways for 4 years.
TFS's intro is incredibly well-made and I love the environmental storytelling that is done with train station. Lots of great interactions between AJ and Clem, and the story generator is cool. I just wish that I hadn't watched it ahead of time when they showed it off at comic con or wherever it was.
Uh...I guess it's a top off between All That Remains and Done Running..
Ties That Bind Part 1 was very flawed as an introduction and as it turns, somewhat mangled. While A New Day is the very first episode and GOTDANG does it show that.
Best is easily Season 1, it is clean and simple and sets the tone up right away. Convicted convict, giving a second chance in a new world. It already feels like theres more meaning for whats to come.
Second I would probably give Final Season, good start and set up for events to unfold.
Season 2 had a good shock of Omid being taken out, but not as well for setting up future events unfolding.
ANF's intro is probably the only good part of the game. That being said, its pretty much irrelevant for the rest of the game as its essentially just a flashback. Also the fact theres been no real change since then to where the story picks up, just being Hector is gone, but it was revealed he was bit in the flashback so big whoop that he isnt there. Its cinematically really good, but story wise its really not connected to the rest of the story or sets up events that will matter or give that tone of what the rest of the game will be. The tone is that the game will actually be good, which is probably why they used most of it for the marketing material lmao
Actually, it does set up the complicated relationships each of the Garcias that matter have or will have with David.
Not really, episode 2 is what really starts the whole problem with David Kate and Javi. Also because its such a large flashback it almost feels irrelevant, especially seeing how javi kate and the kids have literally done nothing in the last 4 years but drive. Also unlike Lee in season 1 where his past is important, no one seems to talk about Javiers gambling problems in the present, seems like they could have done something even just a bit interesting with that whole "Baseball player kicked out for gambling" but instead its just "he has a baseball bat cuz he played baseball lol watch him swing lmao"
Oh, you mean the one that's rather stupid in hindsight and literally had to bullshit a way to have any degree of unsatisfying payoff?
What a start!
Wait, how so?
Well aside from Conrad, but yeah, that is a problem.
Which I don't mind, but I've still agreed that there should've been more personal exploration for Javier(and Kate, for matter).
Season 1, Season 2 then Season 4 opening. Season 3 can fuck itself. “Ohhh this episode is going to be soooo big we had to split it into 2 parts”. I still can’t believe they even had the nerve to lie like that
For me both s1 and s4 get the best intro, both were greatly made, both set up the characters greatly, both had a good walking dead horror scene(Brody) then come all that remains which I liked a lot and had no problems with it tbh, I liked anf's first episode it had some sort of potential but it all began to fall once clem killed that fucking man no matter how u raised her....not my cup of fucking tea mate.
i have yet to replay s3. may never do it. First time ive never been hyped in between episodes. ive replayed s1 and s2 probably 8 times
Yeah same man! Replayed S1 and S2 many many times but i will never replay S3 ever again. I don’t think
I’ll play S4 again either tbh. They should have ended this series after Season 2
I think all the ANF hate comes from the fact that these are long time fans. I'm fairly new to the series. I didn't invest years into it or follow Clementine or the series in real time. The Telltale series was a recommendation, so I obliged in 2018. So I went through the seasons in one fell swoop and while the quality definitely took a nose dive, ANF just didn't outrage me in the same way. It was stupid, but it almost seemed harmlessly stupid because there's so little continuity for it in the Final Season.
I honestly hate Season Two because it's way too depressing. At least the other seasons are enjoyable because they're light and dark but the second season is pretty much misery porn and that gets old.
Yeah like the way it should be.
TWD isn't all sunshine and rainbows which is the main reason i'm not a huge fan of this season it's way too lighthearted compared to season 2,unpopular opinion i guess.
Done Running is my favorite season premiere and one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. My only issue is Marlon's sudden shift into a crazy nutball being kinda jarring. But aside from that, there isn't a single thing I would change about this episode.
When I say that, I mean POINTLESSLY.
Do you know the difference between good tragedy and bad tragedy? Walter was the super-nice guy in a sweater with a gay lover so of course he died in the next scene. Same thing with Reggie. Another super-nice funny guy with one arm. Yep, which scene is he gonna die in? Oh, the one at the outhouse where Carver flips his shit over berries. Fucking berries. Not even the St. Johns were that petty with their evilness and they were cannibals. Then there's Sarah, a 15 year old with the mental age of someone ten years younger, and only there to make Clementine look better by comparison. What happens to the sweet little sheltered girl? Oh, right! She dies too!
At least I had sad feelings about these characters dying though because they got decent development even if they could have been done better. ANF? I never laughed so hard to character deaths in my life. Especially this one:
I didn't have sad feelings. They tried really hard though. Bury Your Gays is such a prevalent trope, I get more surprised when it doesn't happen. Life is Strange has Chloe dying by fate itself, and of course, this is after plenty of scenes where it's heavily implied she's much more than a friend to Max. Riley also died in Last of Us, and it was after what? A gay kiss from Ellie. So of course Walter had to go when his feelings for Matthew were made abundantly clear. They were in a relationship. He even looks at the photo of them before he dies. How on the nose is that?
Then it's "Kill the Comedian". Omid, Reggie, and even though Louis wasn't killed, his tongue is determinately cut out, so no more jokes, permanently for him. And trust me, the only reason Javi didn't die from this is because he was the main protagonist.
After that, "Kill the Partner". Katjaa in Season One, Sarita (an Indian Katjaa clone) in Season Two, and Francine in Season Three. Tell me why she was even there other than to make Kenny repeat a character arc he already had in the first season and to make him feel worse when she died? Because of course she was gonna die.
"Kill Anyone Nice". And not just nice, but super nice. Hey, that guy at the bridge is actually being helpful with no ulterior motives. Oh, he's offering food - ah, of course Negligent Nick shoots him in the neck. Clementine can flat out call Alvin nice, specifically because he's nice to her (maybe not Georgie) so he's early episode 3 dead meat as well. Pete speaks for himself. Always on Clementine's side, always gives her the benefit of the doubt, and he's eaten alive an episode later.
The formula gets old after a while.
I didn't like how most Telltale gay characters died in these games it was weird but anyway depending on your choices Walter wasn't a "super nice guy" also,he died because Kenny decided to fucking shoot one of Carver's men,it made sense.
Now you're right on this one,Carver became way too violent in EP3 compared to EP2 where he was in a more "grey" area.
Yeah that's what happens when you shelter your daughter she dies.
The only thing that sucked about that was that Sarah died no matter even if you saved her,but her first death made sense to me.
Overall the only real problem with what you said was Reggie's death,all the other things you talked about were not "pointless" and made sense to me.
Season One;
Season Two;
‘A New Frontier’;
The final season.
Yeah, I'm sorry for spazzing out. I had a stressful day at work. But anyway, it's all just my opinion, but I won't bend on the characters basically being shitsauce for Season Two.
That only means Carver had to shoot someone. But why, specifically Walter? Because of Matthew. Because of Bury Your Gays. And I'm not even a Tumblrite or a Social Justice Warrior saying that. This keeps happening.
It makes sense for him to kill Alvin (determinately) because Alvin killed Georgie. Carver actually liked Georgie, enough to use his name when Clementine (determinately) asks him at the cabin. Sarita and Clementine make sense as well, the former because he's using Kenny's girlfriend as leverage to make him give up the fire fight. Same thing with Clementine.
But Walter's story ends just as it starts because his only purpose was to be a voice of hope, only for that hope to get its brains blown out. Once he started spouting pretentious one-liners about "all war being man's failure as a thinking animal", I knew he was going down pretty soon.
And why is that? Because Clementine always has to look better by comparison. It's the same reason why Duck is written in a more obnoxious manner compared to Clementine. When the two are together, Duck is blabbing a story to her in a way that makes even Lee say, "Duck, you mind cooling it?" Because get it? Duck is immature and hyperactive, whereas Clementine is sensible and understands the gravity of the situation, so isn't she obviously better?
Not to mention, they pulled the same "sweet girl who is totally gonna die" thing twice with Mariana. Sheltered or not, if your name's not Clementine and you're a "too good for this world" little girl, your ass is grass.
@iFoRias @RememberThat
Everything in moderation, essentially.
Though in Season 2's case, that was just as much on them being so hurky jerk and even hypocritical with what the collective direction and mentality would be on top of really looming and pretentious.
Yep! Biggest horseshit ever. I hate even looking at anything related to Season 3
Season 1, not just because it was first but because it was done so well. introducing Lee by having us answer questions we do not even know the answers to was genius. Basically having to find out about yourself while talking to others was a pretty nice note too.
God bless everyone.
S2 wasn't misery porn tf? TWD is very far from TFS, actually even S1 and S2 don't feel like TWD. Younger audiences can still enjoy those games and Telltale found a nice balance between Dark, Depressing and Lighthearted. I prefer their take on TWD much more than what Kirkman does, but at the end of the day you've got to admit TFS took it too far.
Truly, for almost all of writing is tropes and formulae. You don't always notice it and some fictional material is more obvious and less creative than others. Honestly, I wouldn't call it boring. The writing of Season 2 was quite bad when you look into it, but in the moment it is entertaining for most. You probably know all of this.
Oh boy my list is gonna be unpopular...
This episode is definitely a personal favorite of mine. Personally I think this episode and A House Divided have the best tone and atmosphere in the series. I love how the writers pulled of this downward spiral of “it can, and will, get worse” and it helps set up how the world has changed since S1 and how things have gotten pretty bad. It also constantly offsets the hopeful/happy moments with pessimistic/depressing moments almost directly after which perfectly represents the broken world of TWD.
For example: Clem found Omid and Christa but SIKE! Omid dies and Christa’s baby is dead, Clem’s all alone and hungry until she meets a friendly dog and finds some food but SIKE! Sam tries to fucking maul you and Clementine now has a huge cut on her arm, Clementine almost dies but thankfully is saved by some other friendly survivors, that’s good right? SIKE! They lock her in a shed.
This is a more recent episode and everyoneis mostly on the same page with this one so their is really no need to explain.
Ok let me explain. S1 is definitely my favorite season and I think this does an amazing job kickstarting the season. BUT I do think this episode has some problems and is personally my least favorite episode from S1. First of all I’m not a huge fan of the comic cameos, Hershel and his farm was done really well but I feel like Glenn’s inclusion was kinda unnecessary and I think it would’ve been cool he was replaced with the stranger (they would have to change up a few things but I think it would’ve been a bigger surprise). This episode also has that puzzle with Doug which I personally thought was kinda stupid and actually didn’t make that much sense (with the way the walkers acted). Ultimately I do love this episode I just think the other ones above stand out more to me.
Nothing needs to be said. Sucks.
I don't know how anyone can say anything but Done Running.
If all the seasons were judged by their debut episodes, TFS would be the greatest.