How Clem's age could impact the story in season 2
First of all, it is obvious that we will be playing season 2 as Clem, who is still a child. From the trailer, I'm guessing she is probably 10, and definitely no older than 11. I have a feeling that Clementine's age will come into effect when other characters interact with you.
For example, people might assume that you aren't able to pull your weight/ be useful in a group because you are still just a kid. Even though she will have survived (partially on her own) probably over a year since the outbreak, most people might not see how useful she could be right away.
On the other hand, your age could be a benefit in some situations. Remember in episode 4 when Clem "puppy dog eyed" Molly into saving Lee, Kenny, and herself from walkers? Some people might just trust whatever she says/ be more inclined to help her because she is just a kid. After all, that's part of the reason why Lee decided to save her. On a darker note, you could use the sympathy some characters have for children and stab them in the back.
Lets get even darker. Some characters will probably see you as an easy target. I'm hoping that combat in this game is harder than in season one. While Clem is certainly a capable survivor at this point, she is going to have a hard time fighting grown men without weapons. On the plus side, at least you are a smaller target.
Clem, and by extension, the player is going to feel a lot more caution in regards to your safety. This is both due to the player's attachment to Clementine, and because Clem has probably figured out that just because she is little doesn't mean people will hesitate to hurt her.
How do you guys think Clem's age will impact the story?
EDIT:
This quote from Chuck sums up a lot of my thoughts about Clementine."
"She'll die a little girl if you treat her like one. You gotta consider her a living person. That's it. You're either living or you're not. You ain't little, you ain't a girl, you ain't a boy, you ain't strong or smart. You're alive."
Comments
I feel like she's going to be a prime target for attackers when she's alone. I don't know how far into the game the screenshots are taken from, but I sincerely hope she meets up with Omid and Christa so she at least has adult company. Shawn blatantly details a little kid being shot down in cold blood in the very first hour of the very first episode. I hope this doesn't happen to Clem.
I predict that she hid from the people on the hill in the stinger and spends the night alone, grieving for Lee. After that she is driven by the motivation of meeting up with Omid and Christa. I imagine at some point she has to put down a zombified Kenny, too.
Man, I can't wait for this game.
A lot. You're gonna have to make moral choices from a mindset which isn't fully developed. Unlike Lee (or any other adult), the choices she makes won't just affect her mental/physical state and personality, but also what sort of person she will grow into.
Maybe she already met up with Christa and Omid, but they died in between seasons 1 and 2? Also, Shawn mentioned that the boy might have been a walker, and I doubt telltale would just have somone come out of nowhere and kill Clem.
I honestly think what type of person she grows into will be affected mostly by the player, if only because if they make more seasons after this ( and I hope they do), they would have to either have Clem as the protagonist or shudder kill her off.
It would be a really risky move on their part to try the latter.
Another way Clem's age could effect the story. Anyone who treys to take care of Clem might assume automatically they can tell her what to do. I'm not talking about in a sense of her being used, but we played that role in season one as Lee Everett. A lot of the game was interacting/ instructing Clementine. She will probably get upset if people just expect her to follow orders because she is just a kid.
How? She will lick salt licks and say "manure" instead of "shit". Sorry, I'm sceptical.
I've expressed my concerns over how having a physically weaker character would be interesting, but we're talking about a little girl. She's not going to be able to have the same variety of "who to save" choices as a fully grown adult or even a teenager. There's also the fact that her age might lessen the impacts on other characters. It's easy to be mad at characters like Lee or Kenny or Lily, but a little girl?
And what about us? It's one thing to ask us to make choices as an adult male, but as a child? Most of us are not children.
Then there is survival in general. Reading this topic made me wonder how it will work. Clem is resourceful, but if she is grabbed by a zombie, the odds are against her. She's not going to be able to struggle the way Lee could or throw them off her.
I know, and that has me worried too, but I have some solutions.
In no particular order:
1. In regards to saving people, she could do that. If you took her to Crawford, she winds up saving Molly and making a really impressive shot (especially considering she just learned the day before). It's been a long time since then, it's safe to assume she is a more than decent shot. Give her a gun with one bullet, have two characters attacked by a walker. Choose.
2. In regards to her being a child, is it really okay to call her a kid anymore? After all the stuff she has gone through, she has probably lost a lot of her innocence, and we already know she is very smart from season 1. At this point, she might as well be treated as an adult in situations that matter, even if it takes some time for other characters to accept that.
3. Your right, her youth probably will effect how other players treat her. Some will probably have a hard time getting mad at her. Others will have likely stopped caring about things like age (this is probably over a year into the apocalypse). Other characters might see her as a weak and easy target. Luckily for Clem, it doesn't take much strength to use a gun, and a bullet can stop/ kill a fully grown man in his prime no matter who fires it.
since i called clem being the lead/player controlled
i reckon we'll have to deal with adults thinking less of clem through out the season. some will try and take advantage, some will try and fool her/us some may just see her as a play thing.
since they are saying 'trust' we 're going to have to judge people quickly like in 400 days. in a matter of minutes we'll have to save someone we don't know/choose who lives/dies just like duck/shaun.
obviously they will have 'scripted' no matter what you do moments, but hopefully they will feel more like we actually chose unlike in season 1.
i'm going to finish this post by saying...pack you bags guys n gals we're going on a really long hard brutal feels trip by the end of this season.
she does look a little older imo,or it could just be a new top or something but all the lessons learned before she won't forget,this has made my day!!!
That last line goes without saying.
Swear.
Yes, she can fire a gun, but do we really want that to be every choice? She can't exactly pull someone up or attempt CPR.
And I know mentally she's not just a child, but she is still physically a child and a child in the eyes of others.
She probably look older due to her African heritage in her blood starting to show. And remember Telltale saying "months" have passed since the last season, not "years". So I guess Clementine is ten years old as she just turned Nine where we left off in Season One. To sync up time with 400 Days I think it has been around nine months. So, if my calculations are correct she's almost 11. Makes me feel sad knowing she has been all alone, and probably still is.
Get ready for a heart ripping introduction cinematic showing her surviving between the seasons.
well for those less informed people it had to be said..;)
just looking at the screens
i'd say the gun won't be a choice all the time..
just like in season 1 it was almost once or twice an episode.. the rest of the time it was melee weapons or just bare fists/hands/enviroment.
omid is allowed to swear actually...
it's just lee (for now) who can't.
it is written in the KIQCS doctrine..
Knights in queen clems service. are back !
In my eyes, we're taking the role of Carl in a way.
Will we continue to put hope into a dying world, or accept it and turn into what we have to: a killer?
I really hope we get the choice of deciding how we want Clementine to grow up. Either, like you said avoid being violent to strangers and put hope into a dying world, or be a trigger happy kid like Carl.
alot of people dont know clem have black dna
Ain't that pretty obvious in Episode One when we get to see her family picture?
Safe to guess that we won't be seeing the same melee style of combat that Lee faced.
It could be interesting if they take a page from The Wolf Among US, and have action scenes that focus on an interactive environment to use to your advantage, instead of just a series of quick-time-event grapples.
who gets his gun taken away for a while so he can do chores on a farm and be a 'kid again'.
What about a bit of both? That's probably how most playthroughs will end up, nobody should have a perfectly clean, guilt free, bloodless walkthrough. At the end of the day, Clem will probably have to kill other survivors.
When I play, I only kill people who are attacking me or deserve it (St. Johns excluded, but only because I wanted them to get eaten alive instead of a swift death.)
What about ben clem look up to him like he was her brother
good point
Ummm..
You got think If ben never die he would probably would die over her
she even look up to him if he never die and lee still die ben would die over her because lee even said to ben when clem went missing that she look up to u so u gotto come remmber
Ben put everyone in danger. I have mixed feelings about his death. In a way, we all wanted him gone but his character was interesting enough and most people felt sorry for him. Now come one, the only character we cared about that died because of Ben was Carley. I think i'm the only one that just saw her as "that dumb girl with a gun." Face it, any love story there is, TT burns it and stomps all over it.
Dude he was stuck at a camp he never got see is family before it all started oh and when someone wanted someone to watch clem who always was told to watch her ben
if ben never died he still would have ended up dead. he is what i call death prone. death follows him wherever he goes until it takes him out.
What does that have to do with my comment?
i'm just saying ben should last a bit longer
He dies either way. TTG confirmed it at the summary of S1 after you finish Episode 5. If he did survive longer i would want him as far away from Clem as possible. Can't have him around Clem or anyone.
he always had is eye on her
what i'm saying ben is not a bad charater
Like when he left her to die in Episode 4?
i give u that but that was one mistake
He's not a bad character, but his story is finished.