Season one — Season two, 400 days and Michonne
Season three: A new frontier — Season four: The final season
YMMV tab for Season Three: A New Frontier. Beware of unmarked spoilers.
- Accidental Aesop: The choice between siding with Kenny or siding with Jane from Season 2 turns into a lesson in ''New Frontier", "Just because someone has a point, doesn't mean they have an actual solution to the problem" or "Better the devil you know than the one you don't". Although Jane was right about Kenny's anger making him a danger to others, she wasn't exactly the best alternative for Clementine because she committed suicide not long after finding out that she was pregnant. Kenny may have anger issues but he, at least, knows how to raise a baby and sticks with Clem and AJ until he reaches 2-5 years old when Kenny dies in a car accident.
- Alas, Poor Scrappy: Even people who have hated Gabe through the entirety of A New Frontier agree that his potential death in Episode 5 is utterly soul-crushing.
- Anti-Climax Boss: Potentially Joan. One of the ultimatum choices in Episode 4 allows you to effortlessly put a bullet into her eye.
- Base-Breaking Character: Kate has a fair share of detractors due to how hard the game pushes her and Javi together despite the fact that she's still technically married to David, especially since the flashback at the beginning of Episode 2 reveals that she was basically dying to get into Javi's pants even pre-apocalypse. Still, she never does anything explicitly worse than cheating from a moral perspective, and it's not like David was exactly the greatest guy to begin with.
- Catharsis Factor: Let's face it, after many, many moments of Gabe being a whiny teenager and David pushing Javier around and being just a Jerkass in general, it can be highly satisfying for Javier to finally snap at Gabe and tell him off while finally being able to fight David and even call him out for being a failure while he's dying.
- Character Perception Evolution: For the longest time, Javier was pretty divisive in the fandom for being seen as a Vanilla Protagonist who was nowhere near as interesting as Clementine or Lee. Nowadays however, Javier is widely praised for being a likable protagonist who gets way too much shit from his highly detested family and the people around him, having quite a few moments of badass, being Mr. Fanservice and the Only Sane Man of the season, and delivering quite a few moments of Take That, Scrappy! towards much of the detested cast. As such, he's not only considered one of, if not, the best character of the season, but one of the best characters of the franchise in general.
- Complete Monster:
- Joan is one of the leaders of the New Frontier, and despite her claims to be looking out for the city of Richmond, is just a sociopathic tyrant ordering raids on other settlements without the other leaders' knowledge. She would destroy these settlements by setting walkers on them and steal supplies that the New Frontier doesn't actually need; Prescott is one such example. Joan will have Javi and David arrested when they try to expose her raids, and if their only witness is killed, Joan will accuse David of said raids. When Joan prepares to forces him to choose who to spare, spitefully killing whomever Javi tries to save. When called out for her brutality, Joan declares she can do anything she wants, and only entertains the idea of exiling Javi and his group because of massive herds of walkers outside the city walls.
- Badger is a barbaric sadist gleefully raiding settlements for Joan, while hoarding the stolen supplies from the New Frontier. Encountering the Garcia family, Badger shoots at them, personally killing Javi's niece, Mariana, and demands the community Prescott hand over Javi by taking one of their women and cutting off her fingers one-by-one before killing her, regardless if Javi surrenders himself or not. Badger would then attempt to kill Javi despite his allies' protests and would drive a truck filled with walkers into Prescott, killing almost everyone there. Attempting to kill Javi and his group once more, Badger says he wished he knew Javi was David's brother so he could kill him in a more gruesome manner and shows no remorse for killing David's daughter, who Badger calls "a little bitch".
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Despite the game pushing for Javier/Kate, most fans prefer Javi with Jesus, whom he can flirt with in the final episode. Many believe the two have better chemistry together, and are more a more interesting (and perhaps healthier) couple than what's perceived as a forced relationship with Javi's brother's widow. The creators confirming Javi to be bisexual got the ship even more support.
- Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Early concept art, promotional images and animations left in the code of the game tell the story of a completely different start of the game that would in turn almost completely change the whole story of the season: Javier would get captured by The New Frontier, split from his family, branded on the neck against his will and thrown into a cell in an abandoned slaughterhouse that the group has repurposed into a prison (which also kept zombies). Javier's cellmate was Clementine, with The New Frontier taking away the boy she was looking after, AJ. After Tripp's group raids the prison for unrelated reasons, Clementine and Javier decide to work together to escape the slaughterhouse, now that they have a chance amid the chaos, and find their kidnapped loved ones. During the escape, they would be chased by Badger, one of The New Frontier members, who would get stuck in a turnstile with zombies getting closer and closer, with Javier having an option to mercy-kill him or leave him to be devoured alive. After Clem and Javi manage to escape, they would stay together to find a way to get their families out of The New Frontier camp. This intro and storyline was cut, with Word of God stating that it "Didn't feel like an authentic The Walking Dead story", but some fans think that the high-adrenaline slaugherhouse escape was a much better setup for the plot than the much more generic "group goes out to scavange gas in the junkyard and gets ambushed by bandits" scene present in the final game. This story draft also implied that the fan-favorite Clementine will be a proper Deuteragonist who will spend a majority of the game with Javier, unlike in the final product, where she is still an important character, but is frequently absent or has to take the back seat for the new characters (which majority of the fans found boring at best or annoying and downright detrimental to the group at worst, not really helping the case).
- Good Bad Bugs: In the final episode of The New Frontier, depending on your choices, Tripp will appear in the background for one scene right after the death of Ava. You know, despite the fact that he is supposed to be dead. This scene caused a lot of jokes and giggle-fits to be had in the wake of this.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Jeff Schine, Javi's VA, will later voice another Hispanic protagonist in the third installment to a franchise well-known for its take on the zombie-genre.
- Ho Yay: In the finale, Javier and Jesus can have a Ship Tease moment. However Javier treats it is up to the player's response.
- It's Short, So It Sucks!: Just like Michonne, A New Frontier caught this problem too, as many players complain how the story is sped through so fast that there isn't any time to get attached to the characters.
- It's the Same, So It Sucks: A major criticism of the plot as a whole is that it once again features a corrupt community of survivors led by an evil dictator that the main cast has to fight back against—an idea already focused on in the comics, the TV show, and other The Walking Dead media, without any significant changes.
- Jerkass Woobie: Hoo boy, David. On the one hand, he's a violent Jerkass who frequently uses the excuse of "protecting" his family to control them. This is best seen in the confrontation with Fern, in which, even after the situation has been defused, he'll still break her arm and callously kill her husband right in front of her, then react with shock and hurt when his family berate him for it. On the other hand, his control-freak tendencies clearly come from a lifetime of having to be the responsible older brother. The outbreak starts mere hours after his beloved father dies, and he's separated from the rest of his family shortly after, spending years beliving that his brother, wife, and children had all died.
- Just Here for Godzilla: Players are less intrigued with the Garcia family and more interested in continuing Clementine's story.
- Memetic Loser: Conrad can be like this due to the fact he can die in any episodes for the season. Unlike Ben though, Conrad can actually last the whole season without getting killed.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- Badger crosses this when he shoots Mariana in the head, killing her, and even going as far to say that he enjoyed it.
- The New Frontier as a whole crosses this when they attack the town of Prescott and kill most of its inhabitants in a violent way (which is putting it lightly). Later on, it is revealed that the New Frontier wasn't completely responsible for the attacks, being only a small group led by Max and ultimately commanded by Joan.
- The scavengers during the flashback can also cross this line earlier if Clementine and A.J ended up in Wellington, where they end up killing Edith and everyone else in a similar matter.
- Joan crosses it at the climax of Episode 4 when she forces Javi to choose to spare either Ava or Tripp.... and then proceeds to shoot whoever Javi had chosen.
- Some consider David having crossed this in Episode 5 when he finds out about Kate's feelings for his little brother over him, attacks Javier with a wrench even if the player as Javier do not return Kate's feelings while also not scolding Kate for showing feelings to Javi despite being his wife, and even hits Gabe (albeit unintentionally) when his own son tries to stop him from fighting his uncle. It gets worse if the player chooses to fight him off instead of trying to calm him down, as failing the QTE afterwards results in David essentially murdering his own brother.
- Narm:
- Many fans found Kenny's and Jane's flashback deaths to be hard to take seriously for how rushed and unceremonious they are, particularly Kenny's. After being a pivotal character who has survived for two seasons, he is suddenly killed off as he falls out of a car that Clementine crashes and stays behind to be eaten while she escapes. Even people who didn't like Kenny thought it was a poorly-executed sendoff to a major character.
- In Season 3 Episode 4, there's a part where Javier and Gabriel can be spotted by a bearded guy in a baseball cap who doesn't say anything, but completely nonchalantly shoots them down with a tiny smile and even raising his eyebrows as he does so. It's so random and bizarre that it becomes outright hilarious. The pair from Video Games Awesome! for instance completely cracked up at said part.
- In Season 3, Episode 5, the group will eventually meet a woman named Fern who is mourning either her dead child or her husband, depending on choices you made beforehand. However, the animation on Fern's face is nonexistent, as she switches from heavy crying to shouting profanities to screaming in pain when David breaks her arm, all with a completely indifferent expression.
- If she's still alive, Ava's death in Season 3 Episode 5 happens so random and quickly that it's laughable. Immediately after telling Javi to be careful, she's grabbed by a zombie crawling out a car behind her, causing her to fall down a cliff, and the characters mourn for five seconds before moving on. Even funnier as one of Javi's dialogue options about two seconds after she falls is "She died a hero." The whole thing reads more like Black Comedy than an actual tragic scene.
- The fight between David and Javi in Episode 5 has been considered this for many people for how melodramatic it is, particularly if the player chooses "love." This will result in Javi screaming "I love you!" over and over while David beats him to a pulp.
- Upon being told of Javi's brother David, Tripp exclaims, offended, "I didn't even know you had a brother, Javi!" This is despite only knowing Javi for about a day at this point, and already being aware that he had a niece and nephew.
- Replacement Scrappy: The main reason why Javier Garcia became a divisive character with him replacing Clementine as the main character with fans believing that he is a less interesting character than her. It does not help much that fans were hoping that Season 3 would focused more on the multiple endings for the second season only for them to be addressed in one flashback cutscene where they Dropped A Bridge On Kenny/Jane/Edith/Insert Any Character Other Than Alvin Jr. That You Ended Up With By Season Two with the main story focusing more on Javi's story.
- Romantic Plot Tumor: Javier and Kate's relationship takes up a lot of screen time whether it's pursued or not. Even if the player chooses to turn Kate down at every opportunity, the game continues to pack sexual tension into their every scene together—even in the flashbacks before the zombie outbreak and David's disappearance. Many players were left annoyed at being pressured to romance Kate, whether for a perceived lack of chemistry, or for the moral implications of pursuing your brother's widow during a time of desperation.
- The Scrappy: A New Frontier might be infamous just for having the most amount of hated characters in comparison to the other seasons, who at least had some notable likeable or sympathetic traits.
- Most of the Season 3 cast (aside from Jesus and Conrad) either for being dull and underdeveloped or for being outright jerkasses or both. As of the finale's release pretty much every lets play on YouTube will have several top comments confessing that they only care about Clementine and none of the new cast.
- Kate for being an annoying Flat Character who only seems to be around to be one half of a Romantic Plot Tumor with Javi. The fact that she has smoked marijuana in front of her kids when she thought they weren't looking (even once in the same vehicle as them!) and is heavily implied to be pursuing a romance with Javi before the zombie outbreak and while married to David makes it worse. Furthermore, she never gets in trouble for romantically having feelings for Javi while Javi does even if he doesn't return her feelings. Many lost all sympathy for her when she potentially kisses Javi right in front of David, while the latter is clearly on the verge of a breakdown.
- Gabriel García, also known as Gabe is hated by the players due to his moody teenage personality that makes fans think he's unoriginal and annoying, his tendency to not listen and complain all the time, his extremely disliked Ship Tease with Clementine and probably worst of all: determinately snitching on Javier by revealing to Tripp and Eleanor that Javier shot Conrad, all without remorse or restraint, and just watches in spiteful sadism as this fact is causing a rift in the group.
- David Garcia eventually fell to this territory in the later episodes due to his uncaring, hypocritical, and downright irrational behavior, with him just coming off as more abrasive and falling heavily into the Too Dumb to Live territory, the fact that the game tries to make you empathize with him while he treats you horrifically regardless of your actions just made it even worse. Then there are those who hated him for his Insane Troll Logic for separating Clementine from AJ, also regardless of your actions.
- Eleanor, for telling Joan about Javi's plan which lead to the deaths of either Ava or Tripp, even if most of the players are trying to be as nice as possible to her and didn't kill Conrad (though in that case Eleanor will accidentally reveal your intentions). What makes it even worst is that not only does she never receive any punishment in the end for betraying Javi's friends while getting away with it scot-free, but she also has the gall to blame Javier for everything she had caused in the first place. And keep in mind this is even if the player followed Joan's order to leave Richmond and let Tripp live for another episode. Oh, and Eleanor is still gonna lash out at Javi if you followed Joan's order to leave on peaceful terms, even though it was David who started the riot.
- Special Effects Failure: If Tripp dies in Episode 4, he reappears in the background anyway in Episode 5 shortly after Ava dies. Apparently, the animators forgot to edit him out.
- Squick: Depending on the player's choices, Clementine can kiss a dying and bloodied Gabe before he dies.
- Strangled by the Red String:
- Javi and Kate from Season 3. From the start, it's fairly obvious the story wants the two paired off. The only issues being the fanbase doesn't exactly like either one of them, and their romantic chemistry is minimal to nil at best (not to mention that Kate is still married to David).
- Clementine and Gabe is probably just as bad (if not worse) than Javi/Kate as Gabe's role to cause more problems every time he helped and poor character made him an unsuitable love interest for Clementine, whom the fans come to love over the years. Fans are even more angry when Clem also shows feelings for him and can kiss a dying and bleeding Gabe in one of the endings.
- Take That, Scrappy!:
- In A New Frontier Episode 4, Javi can give several "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Gabe, telling him that he's tired of Gabe trying to be a lone warrior or martyr when he's actually a boy trying to prove himself a man, and tells him to grow up.
- Episode 5 of A New Frontier also gives you the option to blame Eleanor for getting Ava or Tripp killed, and refusing to forgive her, although it would still be majorly unsatisfying as she responds in a cold, slightly smug, "I'm sorry you feel that way."
- You can also have Tripp killed by choosing to save him instead of Ava, in which case Joan will have him shot dead on the spot.
- Considering that Kate, David, and Gabe are all very divisive, it isn't surprising that some fans feel indifferent, if not blatant joy, when one or even two of them dies at the end of Episode 5.
- Alongside that, you can choose to fight David to get payback for all the terrible ways he’s treated you throughout the season and if you go after him alone, you can tell him how much of a failure he was and how he isn’t a hero.
- They Changed It, So It Sucks: While A New Frontier comes in for its fair share of legitimate criticism, there's a vocal part of the fanbase that seem to dislike it simply for not being as heavily focused on Clementine as the other three seasons. While most players agree that Kate and Gabe fairly earned their status as The Scrappy, many will admit that Javier would probably have been much better received as a character if Clementine (and Lee to a lesser extent) hadn't been such a Tough Act to Follow as a central protagonist.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Many players have wondered if the season wouldn't have been all-round improved by reversing Gabe and Mariana's roles, with Gabe locked in to dying at the end of the first episode, and Mariana getting the rest of the season to grow as a character and (determinantly) survive.
- Conrad is a character that unlike Ben Paul, Tripp or Ava can actually live in all 5 episodes. While he has moments in the third episode if the player allows him to kill Badger, he doesn't do much in the fourth episode aside helping Javi at the end (if the player manages to duck to let him live). And while Conrad has a peaceful ending, we don't get his reactions on either Joan's betrayal or Tripp's deaths. Considering Eleanor said after Tripp's death on how she'll tell Conrad about it, this feels like a missed opportunity on the only two members of Prescott to reconcile. It doesn't help that, if the choice stats are any indication, most players never even got to see what Conrad gets up to after Episode 2 because they put a cap in his dome for pulling a gun on a beloved character (Clementine, of course) and taking Gabe hostage.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Some fans didn't feel sad about David's death since many felt he was an irrational jerkass whose own stupidity eventually caused his own death. This isn't helped that his relationship with Javier comes across as abusive and he actually considered abandoning his own family a long time before the apocalypse. While a good majority chose to say I love you to David instead of fighting, most of them have said they only did out of their fathers promise rather than actually caring about David, many of them even stating they would’ve fought him otherwise. In the ending where Kate and Gabe live, but he dies, both Kate and Javier seem to agree that his death was his own fault.
- Out of all the leaders of the New Frontier, Clint is hit with this the worst. While he is trying to keep his community in order, he actively does everything he can to make the situation harder. When Javi reveals Badger and Max’s actions he still kicks Javi out for either killing Rufus or associating with Clementine even though his own people murdered an entire town. Later on, when Javi and David reveal Joan’s actions, Clint still sides with her and removes David from power while justifying the action with a flimsy claim that David put himself before the group. In "From The Gallows" he does nothing to stop Joan’s insane actions and only gives the protagonists the option to leave instead of helping them. And even that deal does not help since Joan, Gabe and Clementine all note that Richmond is surrounded by a giant walker herd so the heroes would be sent to their deaths. And the game is constantly trying to make him look like a Reasonable Authority Figure. All these traits almost make David killing him if the deal is taken seem justified.
- The scene where Ava gives Clem a bag of supplies. The game attempts to paint her as a Reasonable Authority Figure despite the fact that she still sides with David in taking AJ away from Clementine. She then proceeds to tell Clem that she needs to "keep a level head" after essentially having kidnapped AJ and that she should just move on. It serves to make Ava, and by association the group she was with, sound absolutely crazy.
- Come Episode 5, Kate begins insisting that Javi and the group step up to protect Richmond from the walker invasion, and Javi is guilt-tripped for trying to save his family even though every person in the city seems to be either a corrupt, violent scumbag or a feckless, underdeveloped moron. It gets worse when the entire episode begins brow-beating Javi (and by extension the player) for things The New Frontier caused like blowing a hole in the wall (they threw the molitov cocktail that caused the crash), as if the player is supposed to care that this band of bloodthirsty child-murdering settlement-destroying raiders is now suffering as a direct consequence of their own stupid actions. This especially applies to named characters like Fern, who almost shoots Javi and Kate for (quite justifiably) fighting back against Joan's tyranny and causing casualties among her family, when she and her husband participated in the New Frontier's raids against other settlements in the first place. When David steps in to disable Fern by breaking her arm, he's treated as though he's overreacting when Fern's lucky he didn't kill her, and his decision to abandon Richmond to its fate comes across as entirely reasonable considering how the New Frontier betrayed him (his only mistake is doing so while the walker herd is still rampaging outside the walls). In the ending, Jesus suggests out of the blue that Javi lead Richmond himself, as though he owes it any loyalty whatsoever.
- Wangst: Gabe's Emo Teen attitude all throughout New Frontier is a big reason why he's considered The Scrappy.
- The Woobie: Javier without a doubt. Aside from watching his niece die and dealing with a Jerkass brother in David, almost everything that goes wrong is almost entirely blamed on him, whether or not he had any choice in the decision or not. What makes it even worse is that even if he tries to stand up for himself, he will more often than not come out looking worse than if he doesn't say a word.
