OK I'm mostly with you here. I'm putting my foot down on The Walking Dead Telltale game being included in this! Clementine isn't sexualized in the slightest, not a teenager, and is a well developed character with her own agency. And the relationship between her and Lee is sweet, not weird. I know your focus is the narrative device in general but I feel icky putting Clem in the same category as Elizabeth lol.
It also helps that Clem becomes the player character in the sequels.
Also I havent played the Witcher games but from what I know of them I think Ciri deserves a bit more credit than that as well, even if I can see how it fits into the general category of the plot device.
ETA: No arguments about the prevalence of fridging though.
Full confession, I only saw the Walking Dead series from afar and the moment I heard about daughters in peril this and dead wives that I just shoved it in my "not interested at all" bin. The worker abuse at Telltale because of "grind culture" was the only interest I had in reading about the series.
Maybe I should mostly emphasize the fridging of dead wives as a plot cliche over the less directly common but still terrible escort/rescue-oogled-daughter-figure cliche, though I could do an entire side rant about what a creep David Cage is and the kind of slime he oozes as a glaring example of the latter part of that comment I made.
The Walking Dead Telltale game tells its own story separate from the comics/show, which contain a lot more shitty fridging and disposable women (though too be fair, its a anyone can die type of story so there's plenty of men dying too lol, the show has a bad habit of killing of its black and gay characters though regardless of gender and there is definitly elements of fridging women). I still personally enjoy it but it has a lot of problems. But the first Telltale Walking Dead is to me a masterpiece of emotional storytelling and the Lee/Clem relationship doesnt really follow the same tropes you're talking about. I think someone's wife does die in that one but its not the player character's wife and like... lots of people die in that lol. In fact thinking of it of the two charachters other than Clem who survive one has a dead wife and kid and one is a woman with a dead boyfriend so yeah its pretty equal opportunity. Oh wait I forgot the one with a dead racist dad lol. But anyway I'm info dumping.
Obviously the worker abuse shit was terrible lol but while the rest of the company's output is mixed bag the first Walking Dead game is very, very good and I wouldn't put Clem in that category even if there might be some appeal for gamers who want to PROTECC DAUGHTER for chuddy reasons.
the show has a bad habit of killing of its black and gay characters
That's been a time honored lazy writing tradition going back decades.
Obviously the worker abuse shit was terrible lol but while the rest of the company's output is mixed bag the first Walking Dead game is very, very good and I wouldn't put Clem in that category even if there might be some appeal for gamers who want to PROTECC DAUGHTER for chuddy reasons.
OK I'm mostly with you here. I'm putting my foot down on The Walking Dead Telltale game being included in this! Clementine isn't sexualized in the slightest, not a teenager, and is a well developed character with her own agency. And the relationship between her and Lee is sweet, not weird. I know your focus is the narrative device in general but I feel icky putting Clem in the same category as Elizabeth lol.
It also helps that Clem becomes the player character in the sequels.
Also I havent played the Witcher games but from what I know of them I think Ciri deserves a bit more credit than that as well, even if I can see how it fits into the general category of the plot device.
ETA: No arguments about the prevalence of fridging though.
Full confession, I only saw the Walking Dead series from afar and the moment I heard about daughters in peril this and dead wives that I just shoved it in my "not interested at all" bin. The worker abuse at Telltale because of "grind culture" was the only interest I had in reading about the series.
Maybe I should mostly emphasize the fridging of dead wives as a plot cliche over the less directly common but still terrible escort/rescue-oogled-daughter-figure cliche, though I could do an entire side rant about what a creep David Cage is and the kind of slime he oozes as a glaring example of the latter part of that comment I made.
The Walking Dead Telltale game tells its own story separate from the comics/show, which contain a lot more shitty fridging and disposable women (though too be fair, its a anyone can die type of story so there's plenty of men dying too lol, the show has a bad habit of killing of its black and gay characters though regardless of gender and there is definitly elements of fridging women). I still personally enjoy it but it has a lot of problems. But the first Telltale Walking Dead is to me a masterpiece of emotional storytelling and the Lee/Clem relationship doesnt really follow the same tropes you're talking about. I think someone's wife does die in that one but its not the player character's wife and like... lots of people die in that lol. In fact thinking of it of the two charachters other than Clem who survive one has a dead wife and kid and one is a woman with a dead boyfriend so yeah its pretty equal opportunity. Oh wait I forgot the one with a dead racist dad lol. But anyway I'm info dumping.
Obviously the worker abuse shit was terrible lol but while the rest of the company's output is mixed bag the first Walking Dead game is very, very good and I wouldn't put Clem in that category even if there might be some appeal for gamers who want to PROTECC DAUGHTER for chuddy reasons.
That's been a time honored lazy writing tradition going back decades.