Ranch flashback
I'm curious, what did people want for the ranch flashback? What were you expecting? What should they have done instead of what we have now?
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
I'm curious, what did people want for the ranch flashback? What were you expecting? What should they have done instead of what we have now?
Comments
There was too much build up for how little it mattered. It brings up a weird question of "Clem killed innocent people" but its moved on about really quickly and not dwelled on at all. Not to mention at this point in the story Clem is "dead" so its not like the player really cares about this question right now.
Personally would have had this be in episode 3 and the Lee dream in episode 4 after Clem's death. Its biggest issue is probably that it does not feel like its in the correct place in the story. If they didnt want to swap it with the Lee dream, then it should have at least been at the start of episode 4 so we can be thinking that in the back of our minds the whole episode.
I think if Clem got to McCarroll Ranch before the attack it would've added more to her character. Having her see AJ happy and safe could make her question If it was the right thing to let him go. Instead, it cuts right to the chase where the whole place is overrun and somehow AJ is still alive by the time Clem get's there. It loses the uncertainty of whether Clem is doing things for the right reasons, which is a bit of a waste. They tried to tack it on by shooting the Lady who was protecting AJ but it was pretty rushed. The moment was over before you could realize what it meant, which was confusing as to why Clem had so much guilt over what happened.
If she was convinced that it was the best place for AJ when the Ranch was overrun then I could've seen how she could feel guilty since she wasn't able to protect the home AJ had, his only chance at living a normal life. But the way it went didn't feel like it was the cause for what Clem was feeling.
You know, I'm a sucker for everything that has to do with messing with time in a narrative. Flashbacks, flashforwards, love them! I also enjoy this flashback as an isolated scene. It's atmospheric, dark and gritty.
The problem is that it's completely pointless. Clementine stepped into the middle of someone else's conflict and killed without asking any questions in order to get AJ under her wing again, that's arguably very harrowing and traumatic (at least that's how they portrayed it), but did it affect her? Did this information make us go "oh, so that's why she acts this way now!" or "I get why she did x that one time and not y!"? Did this flashback give us anything new, did it explain anything we didn't already know about the characters or the plot? I just don't think it did.
Throughout Season 4 Clementine doesn't seem affected or phased by this outside of her one nightmare about it. This doesn't drive her actions in any way, none of the Season's events really parallel this event or get her to revisit what she had done.
To fix this I just wouldn't have it in the season at all. Having a traumatic, mysterious event hiden from the player is an exciting concept, but it shouldn't be there just for the sake of it.
Also did they really need to bring back Eddie just to kill him? It's kind of a bummer in hindsight.
Yeah true it's a bit hard to feel like Clem was wrong in that situation as she's always getting gunned down. I'm sure she would have tried to negotiate if that were possible.
That's also very true. Having this scene in the game just caused so many problems. If they wrote it so that Clem got back AJ safely and had no trauma from the experience, it wouldn't have any significant effect on the story. It also would mean Telltale can't complain about the budget machine breaking, this scene did look like it took a while to make.
They brought him back just to shut everyone, who complained about Eddie's absence in Season 2, up. Just like how AMC did with Morales in the TV show.
I always thought it was (in their minds) a funny reference. Obviously we saw it as stupid. Didn't Eddie look like a Telltale employee or something?
I doubt there was any narrative reason behind it. Someone at Telltale was probably going through the files and thought "Hey wouldn't it be cool to have Eddie appear here? Just as a reference for fans?"
EDIT: Oops yup Ghetsis and Aron mentioned it. Never mind.
Oh I know why Eddie was added and the story of the look-alike and everything, I just really hated it!
Eddie was part of our The Walking Dead Game journey, I don't think that he should've been treated as this throw-away Easter Egg.
Doesnt feel that great knowing how he was suppose to appear in Season 2 as well as a pretty important role in the original story but it was cut, and then when he finally shows up again we just kill him.
I expected more than the ranch being under attack when we arrive at the very least. I was hoping to get atleast a small hub and one or two Characters to interact with before reuniting with AJ. They could still have done the whole scenario they did in ep 4 i just wish we got to actually truly see the ranch and atleast some of its group and interact with them before the attack happened.