Sarah Amid The Ruins

With the release date of TWDG Amid the Ruins set for this Tuesday, I might as well get some theories in before they're proven wrong by the release as usual. Hey, we've all got our way of coping with unavoidable disaster. And from episode 4's trailer, disaster is surely coming.

Warning: This post contains spoilers discusses suicide. Proceed with caution.

Telltale's The Walking Dead Game, a popular adaption of AMC's The Walking Dead, left players speechless at end of the third installment, "In Harm's Way", for a number of unsettling reasons. These range from Carlos's piggyback death to Sarita's arm dilemma. Nothing unusual in that regard, seeing as Telltale has developed a surefire strategy in pumping players' hearts before dramatically ripping them out in a sea of feels.

Perhaps the most foreboding aspect of this episode's conclusion is that Sarah, a fourteen-year old, and possibly autistic girl, has just witnessed her father's death. In her panic, she becomes separated from the group in the horde of walkers.

The preview for episode 4 briefly shows Clementine and Jane searching for Sarah. They come across her broken glasses. It's a scene that stirs the darkest corners of our minds when realizing the amount of dangers a child like Sarah could face while alone and unguarded in a post-apocalyptic world.

Sarah In Harm's Way

Sarah has become a controversial character over the first three episodes of The Walking Dead Game. Most fans either love her, hate her, or at least find her exceptionally annoying. Although a gentle character who claims she would never want to hurt anybody, Sarah's naivety of the world often places herself, and the people protecting her, in danger.

She's definitely the chatty type, and it lands her in a heap of trouble when she tries to whisper to Clementine when big-boss Carver is trying to talk. Her father shelters her to the point where players have to wonder if she even understands what the apocalypse is or means. Sarah is also prone to panic attacks that make it difficult for her to breathe, shown when she realizes Carver has come looking for her group. Carlos, her father, also mentions that if Sarah found out what the world was really like, she would cease to function.

These weaknesses, added to the fact that Sarah has not been shown how to defend herself in any way, leads to a character that has little to no chance in surviving outside group protection for very long. If she does not reunite with her group again in "Amid the Ruins", it is doubtless that Sarah will return to the screen as a walker.

Theme Talk: Missing Children

A similar set of circumstances was explored in The Walking Dead when Sophia became separated from her mother. Her fate is particularly gruesome, and it is because she is not found in time.

So what's to say the same couldn't happen to Sarah?

The theme of missing children in the game seems to echo the importance of finding a missing child within the first 48 hours of their disappearance, because the chances of finding them alive again diminish significantly over time. Add that rule to the apocalypse, and you have even less time.

In the trailer, Clementine is attacked by a walker on a play-ground like setting, complete with a sandbox. It is a scene that portrays the innocence of childhood, but also the dangers lurking in these areas of supposed safety. Unsupervised children going missing during a romp at the park is not an uncommon occurance, and that makes it all the more terrifying. When the walker attacks Clementine in a place meant for a child, it signifies a collection of fears that lurks through the minds of all parents when their child goes missing.

Foreshadowing: Suicide

Players are given the choice to teach Sarah how to defend herself with a gun. But even then, what's to say that teaching her how to shoot it is the right choice, seeing as she has shown several suicidal tendencies throughout the game so far?

When Sarah plays with the gun before Clementine can teach her, she jokingly points the gun at her own head and shouts "bang!". Later, "In Harm's Way," she moves to the edge of the roof, prompting Clementine to approach fearfully and call for her as if she fears that Sarah is planning to jump.

If this much is true, the choice to teach Sarah how to shoot could actually backfire on players aiming to keep her safe. This would not be the first time a seemingly good decision turns out to be the wrong one; the choice to steal a watch in the cabin turned out to be a good decision, because it was the only memento a clearly upset Nick had of his uncle.

In games like The Walking Dead Game and even The Last of Us, child characters are given weapons to protect themselves and often prove their capability in wielding guns. Clementine is obviously an example of a gun capable child character. Even though she is several years younger than Sarah, she is able to shoot the Stranger in order to protect Lee.

It is also possible that Sarah does not fit into this niche of child warriors, and by teaching her to shoot, players expect her to "toughen up" and become something she is not ready to become.

During the trailer for "Amid the Ruins", Clementine finds Sarah's glasses under a dead walker that looks to have been shot through the head. It is possible Sarah could have found a weapon and saved herself, but highly unlikely. If she's running around without her glasses, she is not shooting at anything. That can only mean one thing: somebody else shot the walker.

Now the fear in whether or not Sarah is still alive is shifted to an even darker realization: somebody has her. And God only knows their intentions.

Fans speculate that the 400 Days character, Nate, will make a reappearance as Sarah's abductor, because a truck, much like Nate's, is seen in the trailer for Episode 4. However, it clearly lacks the same spotlights and coloration of Nate's truck last seen in the 400 days DLC, which of course had its tires popped anyway. However, the red car Nate and Russell take shelter behind is missing later in Shel's story, and could have ferried Nate across state lines to the cabin group's location in Tennessee if it belonged to the old couple he shot, and they still had their keys on them.

Regardless of how Nate could appear, players fear the worse when confronted with the truck, and fear it as a symbol of Nate's return. After all, Nate does show considerable interest in Russell's story when Russell mentions that he used to be in a group with a dad and a "daughter". This mention could be Telltale's way of foreshadowing a run-in between both Sarah and Nate in "Amid the Ruins."

A Pinky Promise is Forever

Who knows if a simple, childish promise that players can choose to make with Sarah in "All that Remains" will affect Clementine's choices and Sarah's fate in episode 4?

Prone to panic attacks, and brutally separated from her father and her group, Sarah must face not only the dead, and the darkness in strangers, but also the darkness within herself. A pinky promise may last forever to Sarah, but will Clementine deliver if the "choice" she must make is assisted suicide should players refrain from teaching Sarah how to help herself?