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Okay, so who's watching The Walking Dead and is all caught up, because this show is making me thinky and I want to discuss.
Especially where Rick and Shane are concerned. Apologies to Shane fan but that dude is scaring me, and poor Rick is breaking my heart. But I find what the show is doing with them to be interesting. I mean, for one, here we have Shane going on about how Rick won't be able to survive this world but so far it seems to be Shane the one who's falling apart. Although, granted, Shane has been in this "world" longer than Rick. On the other hand, Shane was eased into it, while Rick woke up to it, and wouldn't the latter be a lot more jarring to the psyche? You wake up from a coma, discover that not only is most of the population dead but zombies, you have no idea if your family is stumbling around looking to eat your flesh - yeah, I'd say Rick is holding it together pretty well. But how long that will last is also a good question.
I find the growing contrast between Rick and Shane fascinating. They're like two sides of the same coin, an opposition that, in a way, creates a balance. You have Rick's humanity and hope on the one side, then Shane's dark realism on the other (I also find it funny that they're opposite right down to Shane being bigger than skinny little Rick). But being the messy, volatile balance that it is, you know that when it finally tips it's going to tip bad. Normally, I hate stuff like that - exploding emotions, things coming to head, and the chaos that ensues - and yet I find myself completely enthralled by Shane and Rick, because there's so many possibilities, up to and including Shane going so far as to try and kill Rick for what Shane will think is "the greater good." Or vice versa - Rick killing Shane for the exact same reason... or in self defense. There's just so many directions the show can go with these characters (btw, I believe this show is based on a comic? Which I know nothing about, just so you know. If the show is following the comic to the letter, no spoilers, please). Then again, it might go the completely opposite direction: Shane finding hope and Rick going dark side. Or maybe the balance stabilizes and they find common ground.
I still don't like Shane, though. Apologies to Shane fans, because, yes, sometimes Shane does have a point on a few things, but overall that guy is scary and unstable.
Walker Sophia... wow, talk about a sucker punch. Obviously there was only going to be one of two outcomes - Sophia is found safe or she's a walker - but her being in the barn the whole time was just... again, wow. Saying it's screwed up doesn't even cover it. And Rick being the one to shoot her... This is why I have such mixed feelings about this show. It's not so much knowing that people are going to die, it's how they die, when they die and how dark the writers want things to get. Because just having characters turning into walkers forcing the other characters to shoot them isn't going to be enough. The writers will create more sucker punches, and I'll admit that I'm a bit of a wuss - too much bleak usually, eventually, gets on my nerves until I can't take it anymore. Really, I'm surprised I lasted this long. But I think that has to do with the show handling the bleak so well. As I said, you know people are going to die and I think, in a way, it helps prepare you. So when that sucker punch does come, it's sad, maybe annoying, but because you know what the show is, neither can you really stay permanently upset. Hope that makes sense. I'm mostly speaking for myself, here.
Especially where Rick and Shane are concerned. Apologies to Shane fan but that dude is scaring me, and poor Rick is breaking my heart. But I find what the show is doing with them to be interesting. I mean, for one, here we have Shane going on about how Rick won't be able to survive this world but so far it seems to be Shane the one who's falling apart. Although, granted, Shane has been in this "world" longer than Rick. On the other hand, Shane was eased into it, while Rick woke up to it, and wouldn't the latter be a lot more jarring to the psyche? You wake up from a coma, discover that not only is most of the population dead but zombies, you have no idea if your family is stumbling around looking to eat your flesh - yeah, I'd say Rick is holding it together pretty well. But how long that will last is also a good question.
I find the growing contrast between Rick and Shane fascinating. They're like two sides of the same coin, an opposition that, in a way, creates a balance. You have Rick's humanity and hope on the one side, then Shane's dark realism on the other (I also find it funny that they're opposite right down to Shane being bigger than skinny little Rick). But being the messy, volatile balance that it is, you know that when it finally tips it's going to tip bad. Normally, I hate stuff like that - exploding emotions, things coming to head, and the chaos that ensues - and yet I find myself completely enthralled by Shane and Rick, because there's so many possibilities, up to and including Shane going so far as to try and kill Rick for what Shane will think is "the greater good." Or vice versa - Rick killing Shane for the exact same reason... or in self defense. There's just so many directions the show can go with these characters (btw, I believe this show is based on a comic? Which I know nothing about, just so you know. If the show is following the comic to the letter, no spoilers, please). Then again, it might go the completely opposite direction: Shane finding hope and Rick going dark side. Or maybe the balance stabilizes and they find common ground.
I still don't like Shane, though. Apologies to Shane fans, because, yes, sometimes Shane does have a point on a few things, but overall that guy is scary and unstable.
Walker Sophia... wow, talk about a sucker punch. Obviously there was only going to be one of two outcomes - Sophia is found safe or she's a walker - but her being in the barn the whole time was just... again, wow. Saying it's screwed up doesn't even cover it. And Rick being the one to shoot her... This is why I have such mixed feelings about this show. It's not so much knowing that people are going to die, it's how they die, when they die and how dark the writers want things to get. Because just having characters turning into walkers forcing the other characters to shoot them isn't going to be enough. The writers will create more sucker punches, and I'll admit that I'm a bit of a wuss - too much bleak usually, eventually, gets on my nerves until I can't take it anymore. Really, I'm surprised I lasted this long. But I think that has to do with the show handling the bleak so well. As I said, you know people are going to die and I think, in a way, it helps prepare you. So when that sucker punch does come, it's sad, maybe annoying, but because you know what the show is, neither can you really stay permanently upset. Hope that makes sense. I'm mostly speaking for myself, here.
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Date: 2011-12-01 09:44 pm (UTC)From:Oh, man, I freaked a little when Daryl - Dale? I think it's Dale - was shot. I really like Dale. I think he's the most balanced out of all of them, or was until that little moment by the river with the arrow in his side. But I love that he never wanted to give up on Sophia and wouldn't let her mom give up, either. I'm seriously hoping that Dale becomes the support Sophia's mom needs, though I'm not going to cross my fingers because this is going to mess their group up, bad, emotionally speaking (that scene where Sophia's mom and Carl are on the ground sobbing and being held, and the look on Rick's face...*wibble* broke my heart to pieces).
Andrea... I fluctuate with her but I think she's starting to come into her own, more, coming to handle herself better and get a little more grip on reality. Well, okay, maybe not a total grip, but she seems to becoming a little more stable while Shane is becoming less stable.
Something I forgot to mention is that a part of me kind of wants Shane to die, or at least to leave. Not out of malice or anything, but because... well... for obvious reasons, which is what got me to posting all this in the first place. I think he's bad for the group on an emotional level but on a protective level they need him, and Rick needs him (or thinks he does) to have his back and help him with the hard decisions (or to acknowledge the hard decisions, if nothing else), and I can totally see his death - or his leaving - possibly being bad for the group as well. I doubt he will be killed of, of course, but that stills leaves him leaving.
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Date: 2011-12-01 09:54 pm (UTC)From:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0218810/
Daryl is the young guy who rides the bike, had the brother who was left on top of a building in Atlanta. And it was Daryl who was in her line of sight......also on the horse and rolled down into the river.
"...a part of me kind of wants Shane to die, or at least to leave..."
I think Dale would like to see Shane leave too.........or die
There is no love lost between Shane and Dale and I thought Shane was a loose canon before he dispatched Otis but even worse now
"...that scene where Sophia's mom and Carl are on the ground sobbing and being held..."
I cannot describe the word that adequately describes the look on Rick's face..........
I fear the if the dam breaks for him, it might not be easy to put all the water back in place........
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Date: 2011-12-01 10:26 pm (UTC)From:I'm so worried about Shane doing something to Dale. I really like Dale, too (and come to think of it he, too, is pretty together. In fact probably more so than all the others. But, well, we're kind of reaching this point where everyone is falling apart, aren't we?)
See? This is why I have such mixed feelings, because this is a show where we know people are going to die, so we're getting invested in them even knowing we're probably going to lose them.
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Date: 2011-12-01 10:30 pm (UTC)From:"I'm so worried about Shane doing something to Dale. I really like Dale, too"
**NODS** when Shane demands the guns I was worried then........once Dale gave them to him even more.
"we know people are going to die, so we're getting invested in them even knowing we're probably going to lose them."
(((((((NODS)))))))))
It feels somewhat like I am standing on a bluff overlooking a railroad track and there are trains coming from both directions...........no pull over site.
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now nothing more till mid February........