Yeah I can totally see why some people would want to check out of a story that takes on such a nihilistic repeating cycle of survival: group finds safe haven, group selfdestructs due to being unable to take back their former pre-apocalypse lives despite forcing themselves to, outside force takes out haven, the dead end up taking it back, the group is shattered and moves on. I think a lot of people coming into watching the show or even when they started reading the comics when they started expected an ongoing series about a zombie apocalypse to... resolve, I guess is the word. Like, zombie movies are snippets, little stories about survival that either end badly or don't, and sometimes it's about finding out why there's zombies and then finding a cure and taking back the world. The latter kind is a more traditional story idea. The Walking Dead's prolly not gonna end up on that path.

I think, in the end, like 300 issues of the comics or seven seasons of the TV show will be like a chronicled history. How one human survived being thrown into the fray, literally waking up in the changed world, and then his adapting to that world, along with his group. And like all history one event would inform another in some way; Franz Ferdinand gets whacked and WW1 happens and WW2 happens after that and then the Cold War blah blah. In this, Rick finds his family and takes charge of a group and individual actions all link together in a chain and one day in the future there's only two or three people left from that first group, but we've also got people they met two weeks later, then eight months later, then six months later, and so on.

It does interest me a bunch on how the show or the comic or the game would end, like if they'd flashforward in the future and we'd get to know the effects Rick Grimes's journey has had. Like, will Carl end up being post-apocalyptic president or someshit? Will Rick leading a group to a safe haven for the last time end up being the safe haven that makes it through? Who knows. But the things that lead 'em to that end place are things like losing Amy, Dale, Shane, Lori, T-Dog, Merle, Andrea, and now Hershel, and everyone else in between. If it goes on a bit too long it might just be a case of "everyone in the old days died and the newbies are only alive because duh we needed more characters", but eh, still tragic!

Does it suck to lose 'em? Oh yeah. But I personally love a good tragedy. And I think it's a little difference between the comic and the show is that the latter's more about tragedy when it comes to killing off people while the former's an "anyone can die nobody's safe" place, to the point where it takes on some "this guy died for shock value". Don't get me wrong: the show has its shock value deaths and the comic's got its tragic stories. And the game has a TV-like structure, individual episodes in a whole story, and it tells a whole story because they had no way of knowing if there'd be a Season 2, much like TV shows don't know if they'll get picked up. Also, remember that it's also easy to say that hindsight certain people were safe, because duh they're still around now; it's that history effect again.

Losing Hershel sucks. Like, really really. And there was more story there with him potentially; folk say that characters die when they've got nothing left to offer, but the fact is that there's always something more. The reluctance to kill people in other stories is what makes folk complacent, makes them not expecting deaths like Hershel's, even though he had the trifecta of a great showcase episode beforehand, was a mentor figure, and can help facilitate at least four characters's further development. But yes, there was more he could've had: Beth or Maggie could've died and we could see that toll on him, he could've truly lost his faith, we could see him react to becoming a grandpa, hell he could've found love again and had some hot oldie sex down the track. And it's that potential combined with the fact that you just were genuinely attached to the guy that will make the death painful, much like any real life death.

Yes, this show is depressing. Depressing gets to some people. But it's also the factor that keeps people watching, seeing the characters just bounce back from it. Humanity is nothing if not made up of resilient little bastards, both in-show and those watching it. That resilience may take many forms, but the one that involves the survivors being willing to be the better people and retaining the humanity... It may be repressed sometimes, left in the corner for darker paths, but it'll rise back up. Or it won't.

The final moment of the series will say it all, really, and I think that's another big thing that I'm looking forward to, and viewers/readers/players who are actually paying attention somewhat too. Will the characters earn their happy ending or will it all be for nothing? Shit son, I'm rooting for the happy ending with Rick banging someone hot for the rest of his days (Andrea in comics, Maggie in show cough cough), and Clementine growing up to be a badass queen, but who knows. Apocalypse stories go either way, and the fact The Walking Dead's such a long-lasting one only delays it.

Man I gotta stop with the getting talky about this series eventually. Still riding that midseason finale high, baby. Pew pew pew.

 

I like your talky posts.

I agree with everything you've said I just wish that they would at least let one ray of sunshine filter through the darkness and not just get swallowed up, that way no matter how depressing it might get we can know that there's a chance for this people. Unfortunately the show just seems to go out of its way to show us that nope if you wanna survive do it just to survive and not to live or maybe they're just showing us that's its still to early to rebuild themselves(especially if they are planning on being on for a long time).

Ah well I was less upset about Herschel's death and more upset with the message behind it.

 

Yeah, the message sucks, and it's not even the first time we've seen it. Dale tried the moral stance, got eviscerated. T-Dog wanted the prisoners brought in the fold, got eaten. Andrea wanted nobody to die, got bitten by her last friend. Hershel was willing to coexist, had mentored Rick to the point where he wanted it to, and then Rick had to see Hershel get beheaded. Yeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh. I'm willing to chalk Dale's and T-Dog's up to more "they're dying this episode let's give them a tragic outing", because Dale only died because the actor wanted to leave and T-Dog only died because they decided to spare Carol (Thanks to her actress fighting for it, and we don't know if Carol would've taken his role completely if the ep had written her out instead). Andrea's hurt but it did lead to part of Rick's decision to accept Hershel's ideals, but now that Hershel's out... Yeaaaaaaaaah x1 million.

As for rays of light and sunshine, I do feel ya there, haha. I wish I could say that enjoying the little things when you have 'em, like the Glenn/Maggie scene talking about their anniversary, isn't all there's gonna be, and the temporary victory of at least Rick, Carl, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, Daryl, Beth, Bob, Sasha, Tyreese and the kids all made it out okay is reason for hoping that in reuniting down the track they could all move on to a hopefully happier place waaaaaay down the track... but different people take stories differently. I know some folk who don't believe it's a good story if it has anything less than a happy ending, others that feel a depressing mire isn't just entertaining or lends enough escapism like other stories, and some are just eating popcorn and passing the time watching a thing or reading a thing that their buddy said was cool because they occasionally kill zombies and "omg Daryl Dixon should have my babies".

My recommendation? First, you eat a burger made entirely out of bacon. Then, you take in a very happy story, or a happy thing in the real world, and spend what free time you can have being completely immersed in it. Then you eat a second burger made entirely out of cheese. When you wake up from the coma triggered by the heart attack, you'll completely forget the pain because you have bigger concerns buddy. You gotta pay those medical bills. Start making meth. Or become Hand Of The King. I think they end up ending well.

 

I dont see how it can end happy, either it ends with them all dying or on the run. Or it finished with them in a safe camp... but no camps are fully safe. What if someone has aheart attack by themselves and then bites a few people. The long term prospects for humanity are pretty shit. They will linger on for a bit. But thats pretty much all they can hope for. As Lori said, miscarriages are now a terrifying thing.

 

Implement the buddy system.

 

Sleep in shifts with one person watching the other? Always be in pairs... it would work, if people could maintain it over long stretches of peace. And if they manage not to kill each other through being annoyed.

 

Childs: The explosions set the temperatures up all over the camp. But it won't last long though.
MacReady: When these fires go out, neither will we.
Childs: How will we make it?
MacReady: Maybe we shouldn't.
Childs: If you're worried about me...
MacReady: If we've got any surprises for each other, I don't think either one of us is in much shape to do anything about it.
Childs: Well... what do we do?
MacReady: [slumping back] Why don't we just wait here a little while? See what happens.

 

Has anyone seen the mid-season premiere? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khl6LpE9_mM

It looks like Rick will go catatonic with the shock, which might mean that we'll be seeing more of Carl. I'm hoping for that, because so far he's been nothing but badass. Also, did they say in the episode that the bus was going to a specific location? Or was it just all panic-mode escaping? I can't see the show splitting perspectives to so many different groups of survivors for very long like GOT...

 

The Bus only had one major character on it, Glenn. I can see Daryl and Beth making their way to the pre designated meet up (They seemed to have a escape plan) and finding everyone on the bus slaughtered and chewed up and Glenn up a tree with a gun about to pass out.

 

Yeah I think that they had the bus plan in place meant there's a place for them to meet up, and the bus will get there first before anyone being on foot. Also, in one of the promos for the midseason premiere you see a bunch of folk leaving the back of the bus aka the emergency exit, and since there's a bunch of sick people on it... Twenty bucks on someone turning, starting the biting parade, and Glenn fights his way off with one or two more folk. One of whom I'm putting money on as being Tara. And then while they're off running in the woods, then Daryl and Beth will probably show up, realise that they've all been scattered, and hilarity ensues.

From what the producers have been saying in interviews and stuff, it does seem like they'll all be split up for a bit. I imagine the first reunion will occur at the end of, like, Ep 10 at the latest, and all of them together excepting one party by Ep 13. Then final reunion in the finale maybe, whichever one causes the most drama (If the theory Tyreese has Judith is true and he runs into Carol, yes drama there). Should be fun. We haven't had much of the gang on the run for a while, and there's a massive herd, Abraham's group, and probably some cannibals out there... Is it February yet?!

 

Watching the new episode now, and Carl is getting a little mouth on him.

Use your inside voice boy, before I put your ass outside.

EDIT: CARL YOU ARE FUCKING DUMB. I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST THIS.

 

Am I the only one who found the new episode kind of... boring? I liked the scenes with Michonne, but it felt like a large chunk of the episode was just Carl walking around.

Also "Got shoe, didn't get me." :facepalm

Looks like the next episode is going to be pretty exciting, though, so I look forward to that.

 

Gah, Lizzie is so very unsettling. She was definitely the one feeding rats to the walkers earlier on.
Well, in other news, I'm glad Carol's back.

 

Yes, I was very afraid for Judith in this episode because of that Lizzie moment.

I can see what they were trying to do with narrative structure but it didn't work as well in terms of overall pacing.

There were some great suspense moments with the girls and with Glenn.

 

Walker Kill Of The Week goes to Tara. Dayum gurl I hope you stick around a bit. Last week's was Michonne's massacre.

Anyways, I'm in love with the split narratives, curious as fuck as to see how it pans out and who reunites with who first and who doesn't et cetera. The group set-ups have this feeling of uniqueness but at the same time make sense, and I think that'll lead to some awesomeness as time goes on.

Also Abraham. I mean, what's not to love about that guy showing up.

 

Looks like we found our hunters? I'm just happy to see various Band of Brothers cast members popping up again. Maybe they aren't hunters though, not exactly aggressive which is how I'd imagine a group called 'hunters' would act, though if they're all Governor 2.0 with acting nice then fuck that noise. Still, a new mystery's good even if you comic book readers are loving it for other reasons.

Pretty good restart to the season over the past 2 episodes, Lizzie's gonna get put down eventually but I don't remember Mika losing her shoe like the one that Daryl and Beth found by the tracks afterwards.

Also pretty poor attention span on Daryl - tracks some footprints, see's some walkers eating folks they used to know and then just straight up walks past the tracks that Tyreese and co no doubt left behind when they went down the tracks.

I'm also just going to assume Abraham and his little gang came from the opposite way that Maggie went seeing as it's impossible they just straight up drove past her.

 

Glenns story for me at the moment is the most interesting. He has been slipping slowly towards crazy town.

So I bet everyone wont make it back together until the end of this season, where the Hunters come across Rick and co.

I hope the next series of Webisodes is going to be on the fall of the Prison Bus... epic.

 

Ah Glen...squeezes out a few tears and then pulls himself the fuck together. Flashback to season 1 with saving Tara (?). Is next episode going to have the Hunters meet together with Rick's group?

 

I wonder who the people in the house were.

 

Bad guys. Not Hunters, I'm gonna call, but an adaptation of the bandits Rick, Carl and Abraham encounter, I bet. And next week's ep is all Daryl and Beth, so I'm putting twenty bucks on the attempted rape being on Beth and Daryl doing the throat ripping. No fuss from here really, given that Rick got his cool toilet kill and shit. Spread the cool murderage. Bandits could also encounter Glenn and Abraham's group, and Glenn does the throat ripping. Point is, there's opportunities everywhere for the bandits to get murdered. But yeah, calling them as not Hunters. Not subtle enough.

Also, this most recent ep, walker kill of the week to Abraham. All of them. Because Abraham. Dude's amazeballs. And Eugene's voice is fucking perfect to what you imagine when reading, man. And that little smirk after the group started going on foot? As much as I'm this tiniest bit sad we won't get many adventures in Abraham's Truck Of Dreams, Eugene doing some chessmaster shit to delay the Washington reveal is just plain fun. Also, Carl and Michonne bonding 4eva, those two rock.