Improving ANF

Points for trying. Worth taking a shot, especially since S4 is going to be last. Maybe it'll generate more discussion than ANF did...



I always said that AJ was removed because TT had no idea how to use him in the story, and with Clem essentially becoming a bitch in ANF and 5 endings in S2, it would've been a lot better to leave that story behind. Now we're in a weird place where S4 concludes the series - which, supposedly, is Clem's story - but in ANF her presence is tacked on. That makes ANF something in a vein of a spinoff than a proper season.


Given that TT tried so hard to make Kenny unlikable in the latter half of S2 to make him fight Jane no matter what, I knew that David will turn out to be a sort-of antagonist in the end, but I won't lie - it would've been a ton better for TT to branch out the brother vs. brother scenario to include a peaceful resolution. The one they presented - David eventually surviving over Kate (determinant) - is awful, because I don't think David even has speaking lines in that scenario...


I am absolutely sure that, with question marks on Joan's/Clint's status pages at the end of ANF, they'll likely resurface as villains in S4.



Agreed.

Disagreed. Mariana's death is, essentially, the driving force to fight TNF. She was a completely different character from the rest of the cast (i.e. likable and innocent), so if she was supposed to survive then the whole story would have to be rewritten.

Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea, given what we ended up with...

Based on what people have been able to piece together of the original plan for Season Three, they should've just gone with that.

I mean, my understanding is:

The original 3 episode miniseries slot was supposed to introduce the Garcia family - at the time consisting of Javier, Kate, and Gabe(I think they were all supposed to be siblings with Javier as an older brother?). Okay, great, great idea. Doesn't seem like they got much further than that before it became TWD: Michonne, but they still could've worked it out.

Season Three was originally about The New Frontier, a group of cannibalistic slavers operating out of a slaughterhouse called Capricorn Farms(hence the Capricorn symbol being their logo), capturing Kate, Gabe, AJ, and whoever was Clem's companion at the end of S2(Kenny, Jane, or Edith). Clem and Javier meet up, and decide to team up to rescue their families from Capricorn Farms. Alright, awesome setup. Great opportunity for a good, unique villain, you can still introduce Tripp and Eleanor and some of the other new cast members in some way. Based on the E3 trailer, it looks like Javier was captured and escaped at some point based on his mark(back when it was to mark slaves, which makes far more sense them marking themselves), so that could've been done in the miniseries or early in the season. Prescott could've stayed only to be destroyed in a later episode, say episode 4, kind of a raising the stakes moments... I see little problems with this plot.

It even makes sense thematically. Walking Dead is not a thematically heavy story, they focus far more on characters, but the Telltale series has been surprisingly heavy on themes, mainly the theme of family. In Season One this is explored through Kenny's family, as well as Lee and Clem's relationships, Christa and Omid, Molly and her sister, etc. The idea of family is established and broken down and built up, and through all the ups and downs, Season One is ultimately a story of family coming together.

Season Two is similarly focused on family, but it's focused mainly on tearing it apart. On how much it really matters, how far you'd be willing to go, and if family can be more harmful than good. Season Two was such a directionless, nihilistic mess precisely because the themes of the story they were telling were reflected in the structure of the plot, that is to say, the plot became bleak, hopeless, and ultimately pointless, because that's the approach they took to examining the theme of family.

This lays the groundwork for Season Three to be a redemption. You tell the darkest possible story - a group of cannibal slavers capture Clem(and Javier)'s family. But, they persevere, and are eventually reunited. It's a story of familial bonds surviving and overcoming the darkest and bleakest odds imaginable. (this is still the basic idea behind ANF as it exists, except it's executed so fucking poorly).


But for some reason, they fuck it up. This was clearly still their plan right up until E3. Writers like Nick Breckon were credited on the first two episodes at some point before Brad fucking Kane came in a long wth a bunch of other newbies hired by meddling middle managers, and they just... they fucked it. Hell, there were screenshots of a version of the season that were didn't see coming out as close to the release as November. Somewhere along the line, the plot just... broke. Not only did it break that first time when they inexplicably decided to rewrite everything, it broke again when they rewrote everything AGAIN after the first two episodes were received so poorly, and then AGAIN when they cut half of episode 5 for some stupid fucking reason.

I really don't understand. Like, the original plot really could've worked. It could've been great! With a focused narrative tying together structure and themes, a good balance between Javier and Clementine, and hopefully more time spent with characters progressing through a simple yet menaingful and emotional plot, the original plan for Season Three was shaping up to be great.

But they... fucked it up. I really don't know why. Hopefully in that big purge a while ago, they managed to fire whoever was responsible for them fucking it up. But... yeah.

As far as a fixable version of what we got?

Don't kill Kenny/Jane. Obviously, they can't be major players, but take them out of the story with only occasionally scenes. Or if you gotta kill them, don't do it in flashbacs. Do it early, and do it well. Hell, even if you gotta do it in a flashback, at least make it good. Jake's version of Kenny's death makes far more sense than a car crash. And Jane... I really don't know. Have her abandon Clem? Die trying to abort the baby? Just, she wouldn't just give up, jfc did anyone who wrote that shit even play the previous seaosn or understand the characters at all?

Keep Marianna alive. I don't think the original version of the story would need Marianna, but the one we got did. Gabe and Kate are really annoying and unlikeable. So... either keep Maranna alive, or don't write annoying unlikeable characters.

Make at least some of your choices actually matter? Like, hey, maybe if your Clem trusted strangers, she isn't as hostile to Javier, but if she was hostile in previous seasons, it's the same. Nothing really changes, but Clem feels like she's acting differently. If you're feeling spicy, maybe even let us avoid some choices or offer alternatives choices. I know you can do it, Telltale, you've been doing it really well in Batman Season Two. Why can you do it for Batman, but not The Walking Dead(bc you had to rewrite the entire fucing plot maybe as close as a month before release but if you had to really do that massive rewrite for some reason... delay the game. The episodic models means that your sales are tied to quality more so than with other games. A better overall quality is worth bad press over a delay you fucking idiots).

Hey, here's an idea: If you have Nice Clem, then she doesn't threaten Eli or whatever the fuck his name was. If you have Bad Clem, she does. If she doesn't threaten Eli, maybe add another choice in that ultimately equates to "Clem trusts you/doesn't trust you", or maybe don't, it's not like it matters much. Bam, you've made people feel like their choices mattered. Even if you only ever have two options for Clem based on previous choices, "Nice Clem"/"Bad Clem", that'll be enough to make people feel like their choices matter, and it doesn't even have to affect other choices throughout the story that much if you don't want, just give her some alternate dialogue or make he act differently in different scenes. It's really the least you could fucking do to show you actually care.

Unfortunately, you had a dumbass CEO named Kevin Bruner who, working for a company centered all around creating quality interactive stories, decided to give more power to a bunch of inexperienced middle managers to push out as many products as possible, instead of giving power to writers and creative directors so they can manage their own projects and produce quality stories.

Let's see, what else... Oh, make sure your rewrites make sense. So, Joan was originally Elanor's mom? Okay... Why is she the villain now? Just... why?

Jesus is pointless. Get rid of him. If you need a comic cameo... Let's see... Well, Kirkman has straight up admitted one of his biggest flaws with the the A New Beginning arc was not giving enough time to flesh out Magna and her crew, so... maybe fit her in? I doubt Jesus was a huge draw, so why not make a meaningful crossover with the comics that actually manages to fix some things? It wouldn't even be that hard, just have Magna and her crew have some kinda beef with the New Frontier so they join up, and then get rid of some of the more pointless/boring characters like Ava or whatever her name was.

If you need Jesus, how about killing two birds with one stone and maing Javier being bi not just a little joke in the last ten minutes of the finale. Make Jesus and Javi bros. Jesus still brings little to the story, but if you make him important as a character and add some flirting options, hey presto, he feels more meaningful to the story and you've got some actually good bi representation instead of a joke in the last ten minutes of the finale.

Focus on the David/Javi thing more. You've added David, you're doing this whole thing... okay, make it work. Whoever's responsible for the Javi flashbacks is the one ray of good writing and directing in this mess of a season, so, I'm willing to say this could've worked as an emotional core to the story. Just flesh out out more. Don't railroad Javi into a romance with Kate or a conflict with his brother. At this point, Joan isn't the villain bc that was fucking stupid, so how about David is the villain and he's so far gone that he's the one responsible for the raids and shit, but, there's a shot at redemption. This either ends in Javi killing David, or Javi managing to make David see the error of his ways and giving himself up. David is a big personality, he's better suited for a villain/anti-hero role.



So what've we got... Well, we've stripped some of the bullshit away so we can focus on making Tripp and Elanor, and possibly Magna and her crew/Jesus likable good characters. Clem acts differently based on you choices, not much but a bit, and Javi.. well, don't touch Javi. He's... he's fine, actually. So, this is our main cast. Marianna is killed/injured(I think injured works best, esp if we're going with David as the villain), and Prescott is destroyed(fuck it, blow it up, but make sure Conrad doesn't hate you no matter what, that's fucking stupid). We make it to Richmond, and find that David is the leader of the New Frontier. We don't get kicked out immediatly. But, we find that David is hiding something, he was the one behind Prescott being destroyed(maybe they don't fucking mark themselves bc that's stupid, so we don't know that Badger is working for the New Frontier when he blows up Prescott. He hides his face, too). At the end of Episode 3, we fnd that David ordered the raid on Prescott. Maybe there's a choice to leave or stay and fight or talk to David, who knows, but this situation builds into a conflict somehow by the end of Episode 4(there are little modal differences, but a conflict nonetheless). Fighting breaks out, and by Episode 5, we got walkers. David is missing, Javi and his crew are scattered. We pull it all in for a satisfying conclusion, and Javi either convinces David to give himself up, or he kills him in an emotional climax. This works with the theme of family, Javi having to confront his flesh and blood family in order to protect his new family.

By Episode 5, Jesus/Magna leaves, Clem know where AJ and possibly Kenny/Jane is, and she goes to find them. Maybe there was a choice between Tripp/Elanor, and bc Richmond holds so many bad memories, the surviving character goes with Clem(along with maybe some other people so that Season Three/ANF isn't just a spinoff and has actual weight on the plot of Season 4).

And.... bam. I think you've got a weaker than originally planned, but ultimately still enjoyable version of Season Three.

But they didn't go with that either, so, we're left with a mess. A flaming garbage pile.


Last suggestion, ANF, even with all the structural, character, and thematic problems, might've still been enjoyable if it was well written, or even competently written.

It is not.

As always, Clem is the root of all the problems. Again. She wasn't necessary from the start. Remove her, and remove the whole Kenny/Jane fiasco. Just focus on the Garcias and their story. Also, Telltale needed to quit juggling 7-8 writers between each episode who wanted their own ideas on how they wanted ANF and Clem's character to be, resulting in a complete shitfest by the ending. 

My heart would've melted if Mariana survived and we saw some father/daughter moments with her and David. There was so much potential in this season and it was just squandered. 

Triggered?

And probably, but tbh I can't be bothered enough to figure it out. I think they fired like, what, 90 people? Of about 300? It was something like that I think, anyway.