Clementine (The Walking Dead)

Clementine is a major character in the The Walking Dead episodic adventure video game series, a spin-off of the Robert Kirkman comic of the same name by Telltale Games. She is non-playable in the first season, and turned into the only playable protagonist in the second. She is voiced by Melissa Hutchison and was written by several people, including Gary Whitta. The second season of the game features Clementine as the lead character, though given her extensive role in both seasons Clementine is the assumed protagonist of the game series.

Clementine is a young 8-year-old girl living with her parents in an Atlanta suburb. While her parents were away, she was forced to join a group of survivors in an effort to find safety in midst of a zombie apocalypse. Through the plot, Clementine develops a strong bond with the player-protagonist Lee Everett, a former fugitive who becomes her new guardian, she also developed a bond with Kenny who later replaced Lee as her guardian. Being one of the first elements created for the game, Clementine was designed to act as a moral compass for the player in addition to an influence on the player's decisions, to which the player would have to reflect upon.

In series 2 Clementine becomes the central character, and the game follows her adventures with a new group of survivors. This series has several endings, some that include her ending up in a place called Wellington with Kenny and a young boy called Alvin Jr, to returning to Howe's Hardware with Jane and even leaving both behind to take care of AJ on her own.

Clementine was considered an emotional centerpiece of the The Walking Dead game, and several journalists expressed caring for her fate in a way that few other games have been able to capture.

Concept and creation

Clementine appeared in the 2012 episode video game The Walking Dead as a main character. According to the game's creative lead Sean Vanaman, Clementine was "literally the first idea" for developing the game, with her emotional climax at the finale of the fifth episode being established before any of the game's other dialogue was written.^[1] The development team had considered the including of a child in a dark storyline was similar to previous story elements from Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic, but still had a difficult time of selling the concept originally.^[1] They then set to use Clementine as the "moral compass" for the main player character, establishing her as a "smart, honest, and capable girl" that would reflect on choices made by the player.^[1] Telltale had considered other backgrounds for Clementine, such as being from a single-parent family, or being the younger sister of the player character, but found that the pre-established emotional bond between the characters did not fit well, and instead opted to make Lee Everett her father-figure. This led to changing Clementine's race from white to African-American, as to give her the appearance of possibly being Lee's daughter to other characters.^[1]

Clementine's design was based on art director Derek Sakai's own daughter. Sakai described her as having "a crazy sense of fashion", selecting beloved clothing items to wear regularly. As such, Clementine was given an iconic baseball hat that serves as her connection to her parents.^[1] Sakai provided Vanaman with other advice from his fatherhood, offering that Clementine would appear smarter if she did not say as much, while still pointing out character flaws should one get out of line.^[1] Much of the game focuses on changes to Clementine's appearances and personality as she comes to grips with the new reality of the zombie-infested world. At the start of the game, Clementine is wearing a clean white dress, but it becomes dirty and soiled throughout the game, "reflecting her loss of innocence", according to Sakai.^[1]

Melissa Hutchison, a voice actress that had previously worked on other Telltale games, was selected to be the voice for Clementine.^[1] Prior auditions were held, but Vanaman found that children could not grasp the emotion of the role while adults were not able to get the voice as they intended for the character; at one point, for lack of a suitable actress, Vanaman felt that "we were going to have to take Clementine out of the game".^[1] Hutchison was able to relate to the character of Clementine, as her life mirrored that of the character, and easily fell into the role of the character during auditions, securing her as the voice for Clementine.^[1]

The bond between Clementine and Lee was considered instrumental to the game by Telltale.^[1] Gary Whitta described Lee's and Clementine's relationship as "emotionally authentic".^[2] To build this relation, Clementine was introduced as early as possible within the first episode; the specific scene of Lee having to deal with Clementine's zombified babysitter was specifically to highlight Clementine's likability, resourcefulness, and vulnerability.^[1] The writers carefully had to balance elements in this scene, as if, for example, Clementine appeared to be annoying to the player, the emotional bond would be absent and the player would likely make choices without caring about Clementine's fate.^[1] Writer Jake Rodkin stated that the difficulties of writing a child character that the player wouldn't want to abandon led to serious discussion about dropping Clementine late in the development process, a week before voice recording was to start.^[3] The game designer and writer Harrison G. Pink commented that the in-game decisions were not meant to be good because there couldn't be an optimal play-through. Clementine made those decisions even more difficult, since her presence forces the player to consider protecting her on another level. "It gets way more blurred when you involve Clementine," Pink said. "You have these decisions that are probably the right decisions for the group--she's watching, but then maybe she needs to understand this, but I might scare her because she'll think I'm a crazy person. There's no wrong choice, if you can justify it and it feels properly motivated to you, it's a valid choice."^[4]

With the game's Season Two, Clementine becomes the main playable character, a choice that allowed them to continue the themes of the first season while introducing new characters and situations for the second.^{[5] [6]} Telltale was first challenged to try to make Clementine feel like the character that the player, through making decisions as Lee, had groomed. One method this was resolved by was to create the first scenario of the game to put the player in control of Clementine's actions that have disastrous results (the death of one character and being separated from another) as to make the player felt as if they had made those choices and separating them from familiar characters. Further, they had to consider how to present Clementine as a character that could make substantial changes on the world and characters around her despite being a child.^[7]

Appearances

The Walking Dead: Season One

Clementine is introduced in a post-apocalyptic world of zombies when the player-protagonist Lee Everett takes shelter in her suburban home in Georgia. She is revealed to be hiding from the zombies as her parents had left for Savannah some time before the spread of 'plague'. Recognizing that Clementine would remain in danger, Lee offers to take and protect her, hoping that they will be able to find her parents.

They eventually join a small group of survivors, which include Kenny, his wife Katjaa and his son Duck. Following several weeks struggling to survive, the survivors decide to head to Savannah, believing that if they can find a boat, they can find safety away from the mainland. En route, Kenny and Lee are forced to euthanize Duck after being bitten by a walker, and Katjaa takes her own life later. Lee spends time teaching Clementine how to survive on her own in this new world. As they near Savannah, Clementine's walkie-talkie goes off, and an unknown man tells her to come to meet him at the hotel downtown, the same hotel her parents would have been at, where she will be safe after he kills Lee.

The survivors find other people still alive in Savannah and eventually a boat. The group prepares to leave but Clementine and the boat go missing, and Lee in his haste to find her is bitten by a walker. Lee convinces the remaining survivors, including Kenny and friends Omid and Christa, to help locate Clementine. Kenny appears to sacrifice himself, while Lee ends up separated from Omid and Christa, and he tells them to wait for Clementine at the edge of the city. Lee goes to the hotel to find Clementine held by an insane man who blames Lee and Clementine for the death of his family. They work together to kill the man, and Lee helps Clementine mask her presence from the walkers, when they see Clementine's parents, both turned. Lee passes out and Clementine drags him into nearby shelter. Knowing he is about to turn to a walker, Lee gives Clementine some last pieces of advice and tells her to meet Omid and Christa, and then asks her to kill him (a choice left to the player). Later, Clementine has safely left the city, and raises her gun when she sees two figures approach her on the horizon.

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Season Two starts some months after the end of the first season. Clementine has been able to regroup with Omid and Christa, but her carelessness at a rest stop causes Omid to be killed by a scavenger. About eighteen months later, she and Christa are separated by another scavenger attack, and she eventually stumbles onto another group of survivors, demonstrating her value and ingenuity to them. She learns this group is being tracked by a man named Carver, who believes that one member of the group, Rebecca, is carrying his child, though Rebecca's husband Alvin denies his claim.

The group moves north, hoping to reach a rumored safe area near Wellington. They find a ski lodge in which another group has inhabited. After a brief run-in between the two groups, Clementine is surprised to find Kenny alive, his escape left unexplained. After their reunion, Clementine observes that while Kenny has grown close to Sarita, his attitude towards others has become hostile and distrustful. During a walker attack, the combined groups are saved by the sudden appearance of Carver and his men, who kill Walter before taking the survivors as his prisoners to a well-fortified department store. Clementine and the others are put to work in exchange for their safety, and when they try to escape, Carver bludgeons one of Kenny's eyes in punishment. Seeing Carver's ruthlessness leads two other survivors, Jane and Bonnie, to join their group in plotting an escape before the store is overrun by a mass of walkers. Clementine is instrumental in their escape, and Kenny and Rebecca kill Carver.

As they flee, Sarita is bit by a walker, and Clementine and Kenny are forced to euthanize her. When they regroup, Kenny is distraught and refuses to talk to anyone, but Clementine is able to break him out of his emotional depression, so as to help Rebecca give birth to her baby, which is later named Alvin Jr. or AJ. Jane takes interest in Clementine, and like Lee before, helps to teach her some survival skills including understanding that she cannot save everyone.

After another walker attack, the group continues northward despite Rebecca's worsening health. They are ambushed by a group of Russian immigrants led by Arvo, leading to a Mexican standoff. Clementine sees that Rebecca has succumbed to her wounds, has died but is now re-animating as a walker, and she is forced to shoot her to save AJ. This sets off the gunfight, but Jane manages to kill the other Russians, and the group forces Arvo to take them to shelter. As they are chased by walkers, they are forced to walk across a frozen lake, which with the added weight of the walkers, causes the ice to break and Clementine to fall in and others to drown. Once they are safe and Clementine is given time to warm up, Kenny threatens to beat up Arvo to death, but Clementine manages to stop him; Jane warns Clementine that Kenny may be beyond help.

Clementine discovers Arvo and others, fearing Kenny, are trying to sneak away, and Arvo shoots Clementine. While unconscious, Clementine has a lucid dream involving Lee. When she wakes she finds herself with Kenny, Jane, and AJ heading north in a truck. They are forced to stop as a snowstorm approaches with the road blocked ahead, and Kenny goes to look for a way around; while he is gone, Jane urges Clementine to leave Kenny behind. A walker horde appears, and Clementine is separated from Jane and AJ, but finds shelter in a nearby rest stop where Kenny waits. Jane appears, without AJ, and Kenny assumes the worst that AJ has been killed, and immediately attacks Jane. The two struggle, and Clementine is forced to have one of them die. After the fight, she finds AJ safely hidden in a nearby car as part of Jane's plan to expose Kenny's temperament. The player can opt for Clementine to join the survivor or go on her own with AJ at the end of the game.

The Walking Dead: Season Three

Clementine will be one of two playable characters in the third season of the series, to be released in late 2016. The game takes place a few years from Season 2, where several events have occurred to her, including the loss of one of her fingers.^[8] Although it's been revealed that the player will be given an option to save the finger.

Reception

The character was acclaimed by both critics and fans. Many journalists consider Clementine to be an emotional centerpoint of The Walking Dead game, an accomplishment that few other video game characters have made. Game Informer's Kimberley Wallace describes the character of Clementine as having "broken through the barrier [of the television screen], securing a place in the hearts of many".^[1] IGN's Colin Campbell said in his article that Clementine is designed to elicit "super-protective instincts" in the player. "Without Clementine, Lee is just some dude trying to stay alive, but she (a slightly over-cooked innocent) allows him to be sympathetic to us." commented Campbell.^[9] N.D. Mackay, writing in The Herald, described the relationship with Clementine as "the heart-breaking bedrock of the game."^[10] Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton writes that Clementine is a well-done, real-feeling character in the game. "...[she] is pretty great. She's cute and funny, smarter than she lets on, yet she still acts like a kid. She's one of the most realistically drawn kids I've encountered in a video game in some time." says Hamilton.^[11] GamesRadar's Hollander Cooper and Sterling McGarvey wrote that the hopelessness of the world would be infectious if not for her constant optimism, giving you something to fight for. "She’s slow to adapt to the fact that good and evil are now meaningless, and her innocence keeps the concept of hope alive in the survivors..." they stated.^[12] The Sunday Herald states that "Clementine is the real emotional heart of this game".^[13]

During the game's episodic release, players frequently used the Twitter hashtag "#forclementine" to reflect how much the character had influenced them. Vanaman was surprised but pleased with this response, stating that "the fact that people care about Clementine is invaluable".^[1]

Melissa Hutchinson as Clementine was nominated for and won the award for "Best Performance By a Human Female" at the 2012 Spike TV Video Game Awards.^[14] Hutchinson's performance has also been nominated in the "Performance" category for the 2013 British Academy Video Games Awards.^[15]

References