Why I Love Clementine from The Walking Dead

Clementine from The Walking Dead by Telltale is one of my favorite characters of all time. I came to this realization as I was playing the penultimate fourth episode of The Walking Dead Season Two, specifically when I was given a choice between stealing medicine from a defenseless man or giving it back and sending him on his way. At this point in the game's story, medicine would have been a godsend, as one of the members of our group, Rebecca, was pregnant and would soon give birth while many others were injured or in pain. The stranger carried a bag bursting at the seams with various kinds of painkillers and other goodies that would immensely help us. He was babbling unconvincingly about a sick sister that really needed it, and was in no position to do anything if we wanted to take the bag by force. The obvious decision was to simply take it. I didn't. Why?

Well, this situation took me back to a similar choice in the original game, where the protagonist Lee and his group discovered an abandoned car, packed with supplies, of which food was the most important, seeing as how the group was starving. The car was still running though, so there was a good chance that these supplies belonged to someone nearby. Stealing or not, the group really needed those supplies. As Lee, you can choose whether or not to join them in their looting of the car, but perhaps more importantly, you choose for Clementine as well. If you refuse, so will Clementine - and refuse I did. I almost never leave the high ground whenever I'm playing any game with a morality system. My characters are typically paragons of virtue and restraint - they never steal or bribe, threaten or intimidate, pray on the weak or kill the defenseless. So when I made the choice not to steal from that car, I made it because I always make that choice when faced with it. I'm kind of boring and predictable in that sense. 

Here's the thing, though. When I made the choice to return the bag of medicine to its owner, not taking any of it for myself or the group, I did for an entirely different reason. I did it because I felt it's what Clementine would have done. 

Anyone who's played The Walking Dead by Telltale is familiar with the "[insert character name] will remember that." It's a tooltip that pops up whenever you do or say something significant in the course of the story and it's meant to indicate that this choice of words or actions will somehow affect something down the line. Throughout most of the the first game, or first season, I was told many times that "Clementine will remember that." and out of all the characters, it seemed to matter the least with her. Other characters lived or died because of your choices, grew to love or hate you because of your actions, but Clementine stayed an adorable, innocent little girl throughout all five episodes, regardless of how you treated her - or so it seemed.

In The Walking Dead Season Two, you play as Clementine directly and it didn't take me long to realize that with her as the protagonist, I approached each decision in a very different way. Every thing I said or did as Clementine was directly influenced by my perception of her as a character. I know what she's been through in the first game, I know what she remembers and now I get to decide what's she learned. Choices were no longer "right" and "wrong". They were much more than that. It's the first time I ever felt I was a part of a truly interactive character study. I didn't take from the bag of medicine, not because it was the right thing to do, but because Lee had taught Clementine not to steal, no matter what the circumstances. A seemingly small, yet infinitely large distinction.

Earlier one of the members of the group was attacked and bitten by a walker. A bite is a death sentence waiting to happen and I, as Clementine, had to decide right then and there - do I cut off the arm that was bitten, or do I strike the walker that did it, allowing the victim to escape? As someone who watches the show and reads the comics, I know that removing a bitten limb, if done immediately after the bite, works. It prevents the person from turning into a walker. But Clementine doesn't know that. In fact, in her bitter experience (at least in my playthrough of the first season) removing someone's limb after a bite does nothing at all. I knew that cutting off that arm was the right thing to do, but I also knew it would be out of character for Clementine to do it - and that's why I love Clementine so much. It's the only character in a video game that I can think of that's both under my control and fully independent in her own right. I can't wait to see what's in store for her next in the final chapter of The Walking Dead Season Two.