I've got to wait until tomorrow to see it. I'm seriously thinking about reading the reviews with all the spoilers before I watch it so I can be prepared for exactly what will happen.
TV & Film The Walking Dead
- Thread starter thefadedone
- Start date
I've got to wait until tomorrow to see it. I'm seriously thinking about reading the reviews with all the spoilers before I watch it so I can be prepared for exactly what will happen.
I've already spoiled pretty much everything that happens in the episode a few posts back lol
I don't think I could watch at all if I didn't have spoilers LOLI've got to wait until tomorrow to see it. I'm seriously thinking about reading the reviews with all the spoilers before I watch it so I can be prepared for exactly what will happen.
hungryraccoon
Forum Legend
We can't watch it until Tuesday as we're busy Monday evening 
If I see any spoilers I'll be so ******* mad. Gonna have to stay off the Internet?!
If I see any spoilers I'll be so ******* mad. Gonna have to stay off the Internet?!
We can't watch it until Tuesday as we're busy Monday evening
If I see any spoilers I'll be so ****ing mad. Gonna have to stay off the Internet?!
We are careful to use spoiler tags in this thread at least.
hungryraccoon
Forum Legend
FortyTwo
Custom Title
So exactly what was supposed to happen, happened, and it was still really effed up and upsetting.
Only big gripe with the episode is that they took so long to just tell us who died. The kind of weaving and winding storytelling they were doing with Rick and Negan in the RV is dishonest and kind of insulting to the viewers IMO. Luckily I was so invested that I wasn't particularly put off.
Negan and Rick in the RV itself though was SO well done. That's a moment not from the comics that feels like it could be. They wrote a totally new Negan scene and they pulled it off spectacularly, which gives me a lot of hope for the rest of this season.
Overall statement on the impact of this episode: My mom started the night excited and wearing her Negan shirt. Now she's on and off crying and I have a new Negan shirt.
Only big gripe with the episode is that they took so long to just tell us who died. The kind of weaving and winding storytelling they were doing with Rick and Negan in the RV is dishonest and kind of insulting to the viewers IMO. Luckily I was so invested that I wasn't particularly put off.
Negan and Rick in the RV itself though was SO well done. That's a moment not from the comics that feels like it could be. They wrote a totally new Negan scene and they pulled it off spectacularly, which gives me a lot of hope for the rest of this season.
Overall statement on the impact of this episode: My mom started the night excited and wearing her Negan shirt. Now she's on and off crying and I have a new Negan shirt.
I honestly didn't mind them putting off the reveal a little bit into the episode. I was fully expecting that they won't show it in the opener though.
I think Abraham was spared his comic death, and went out the way he did as a fake out to all of us comic readers to think "Oh my god, it's not Glenn!". But as you said, what happened is exactly what was supposed to happen to move the comic scenarios forward. Now Maggie can grow into what she's supposed to be now that she has truly lost EVERYTHING.
But yeah... Let the picture do the talking... How ******* awesome!
I think Abraham was spared his comic death, and went out the way he did as a fake out to all of us comic readers to think "Oh my god, it's not Glenn!". But as you said, what happened is exactly what was supposed to happen to move the comic scenarios forward. Now Maggie can grow into what she's supposed to be now that she has truly lost EVERYTHING.
But yeah... Let the picture do the talking... How ******* awesome!
FortyTwo
Custom Title
Now that I've had a bit of time to think...
So the more I think about it the more annoyed I get with the writing of this (and many other) episodes.
Instead of trying to tell the story, they structure events around what they think the audience is going to expect. It is very self-aware writing that I don't think holds up too well without context. You see the same thing in a lot of other forms of media, too - this isn't a sin that TWD bears alone. For instance, as much as I loved The Force Awakens, it relied VERY heavily on the viewer being acquainted with not just the original films (which makes sense as it is part of a series), but the cultural details surrounding the original films. I can't fault the film for this, as Star Wars is kind of an incomparable phenomenon that any human being watching The Force Awakens is going to have a working knowledge of, but it does make me wonder if there might not have been a better way to do it that relied less on ideas created outside of the universe of the films.
That being said... as a human in 2016, with a working knowledge of Walking Dead lore, it works. It really works. I was on the edge of my seat this whole episode, not just because of some of the very legitimately well-written parts of this episode (pretty much everything involving Negan is amazing) but because of this very clear manipulative tactic.
And I mean, on some level every narrative, fictional or non-fictional, is manipulative. It's constructed in a way that tries to get you to feel a certain way or receive a certain message. But when a narrative relies on hype built around previous parts of the same narrative I have to wonder whether or not it should be applauded as self-referential dramatic gold, or called out for being kind of lazy.
So I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think this episode, or even this show really, is particularly well-written. But I still immensely enjoy it and I still understand exactly what it's going for.
These are incomplete thoughts written late at night - I absolutely love the show and this episode was heart-wrenching, for the record. I'm not going to deny that. But I think it's important to be critical even of the things we love. I'll probably have more (and better) thoughts when I'm more awake and have had more time to stew on this.
Instead of trying to tell the story, they structure events around what they think the audience is going to expect. It is very self-aware writing that I don't think holds up too well without context. You see the same thing in a lot of other forms of media, too - this isn't a sin that TWD bears alone. For instance, as much as I loved The Force Awakens, it relied VERY heavily on the viewer being acquainted with not just the original films (which makes sense as it is part of a series), but the cultural details surrounding the original films. I can't fault the film for this, as Star Wars is kind of an incomparable phenomenon that any human being watching The Force Awakens is going to have a working knowledge of, but it does make me wonder if there might not have been a better way to do it that relied less on ideas created outside of the universe of the films.
That being said... as a human in 2016, with a working knowledge of Walking Dead lore, it works. It really works. I was on the edge of my seat this whole episode, not just because of some of the very legitimately well-written parts of this episode (pretty much everything involving Negan is amazing) but because of this very clear manipulative tactic.
And I mean, on some level every narrative, fictional or non-fictional, is manipulative. It's constructed in a way that tries to get you to feel a certain way or receive a certain message. But when a narrative relies on hype built around previous parts of the same narrative I have to wonder whether or not it should be applauded as self-referential dramatic gold, or called out for being kind of lazy.
So I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think this episode, or even this show really, is particularly well-written. But I still immensely enjoy it and I still understand exactly what it's going for.
These are incomplete thoughts written late at night - I absolutely love the show and this episode was heart-wrenching, for the record. I'm not going to deny that. But I think it's important to be critical even of the things we love. I'll probably have more (and better) thoughts when I'm more awake and have had more time to stew on this.
I avoided reading it yet, although I'm pretty sure that I read the spoilers ages ago somewhere else.
ETA - F*ck it, I think I will just read what happens before I watch it today.
OMG.
Spoilers did not help me much. At one point, I stopped watching because I started to have an actual panic attack. I don't get many of those. I should have stuck with my first plan to wait and watch it at a later date. I'm not cut out for real time where this show is concerned, lol. And I'm not talking gore...it's the emotional side of it.
You're the ideal candidate to read the comic book to be honest. When you follow the comic you know a great many things about where this TV show is going... The only thing you don't know is how they will remix or add to the story and that's what you're focused on finding out... Hard to get too upset when you've known something was going to happen for going on 4 years now lol.
The Glenn getting shot thing was from a so called "leaked script" that was proven fake a long time ago, not sure why that kept going.... I knew Glenn was getting the bat, and I said as much here in my spoilers. I'll give you a little hint about spoilers though. Follow "The Spoiling Dead Fans" on Facebook. The Spoiling Dead Fans are NEVER wrong, they always get it right!
It went perfectly for my daughters and son. I'm not allowed to even bring up the subject of TWD between episodes, for fear that I might elicit the smallest emotion, good or bad, or a look, that would give them the tiniest hint, lol. So Abe being first threw them off and was somewhat disappointing, not having a big enough impact for them. Glenn was then a shocker, as was Carl. I would have been traumatized for life if Rick had to go through with that...no joke. That would have been the worst for me. And I was surprised at how affected I was by Glenn...probably because I expected him to get shot and they lingered too long, for my liking, on finishing him off. I was so nervous throughout the entire episode, I never even cried tears...only at the very end when they were finally left alone, did the sadness sink in. Most of it was horror, disgust and anger.
They went to great lengths to visually make Glenn's face look the way it did in the comic book.. I loved it, I would have been extremely ****** off had they not done it the way they did. It was the death that Glenn was meant to have... Abraham was a sacrifice made as a fake out, that I'm convinced of. Glenn's beating was the real deal meant to emotionally slam us. It completely justified why they have Denise take Abraham's comic death a couple episodes back.
I'm about to watch it now! 
I'm going to have to cover my eyes (and ears) through some of this ordeal.
I'm going to have to cover my eyes (and ears) through some of this ordeal.I started crying at one bit.I hope the rest of the season isn't that gory, not that I even saw what happened at the horrible bits as I had a cushion to cover my eyes. I could still hear it though, ugh.
It is so disconcerting to have the character Negan played by such an attractive actor!
I hope the rest of the season isn't that gory, not that I even saw what happened at the horrible bits as I had a cushion to cover my eyes. I could still hear it though, ugh.It is so disconcerting to have the character Negan played by such an attractive actor!
I started crying at one bit.
It is so disconcerting to have the character Negan played by such an attractive actor!
Here on out, the great success of the show has to be to make you seriously LOVE Negan. He will become the new Daryl, no one will want Negan killed off. That is going to be the biggest part of their job for the possibly indefinite future... He won't get old like the governor, and eventually you'll be seeing stuff like "If Negan dies we riot!"... Many many great one-liners to come that will make you chuckle and cringe in the same moment... In a way he reminds me of a much more uncouth version of characters Bruce Campbell plays
Dedalus
Mercurial and fleeting
Interesting read, whether or not you agree with it.
The Walking Dead Quitter’s Club: goodbye for real
The Walking Dead Quitter’s Club: goodbye for real
I avoided all the hidden spoilers in this thread, but was still able to piece quite a bit together. I asked myself: 'Who could they kill off that would really **** me off?' That was Daryl for me. I felt better about that after reading Jeremy's posts. Still - I knew this episode was going to be brutal and a literal, emotional blood bath. So I did what I could to disconnect myself and just prepare for the worse. It wasn't until 5 minutes prior to the show that I surmised that they would kill Abraham and then sneak Glenn's death in. I saw this for what it was - a kind of sadistic plot line to really wring the most emotion out of the fans as possible. From a television business perspective - it is a sound tactic. (We're all talking about this, and will be for some time.) In terms of building the show for the future - I'm not sure this sort of thing works in the long run. The article above makes some salient points in regards to TWD being 'Torture Porn.' Now that fans have seen a beloved, strong character that they've followed for years, die a horrible, gory death - which was drawn out and slow...where is the line? I see some fans (I myself may fall into this category, not sure yet) disconnecting themselves from the story-line because they don't want to have to endure this kind of thing again. Is the eventual revenge Rick will serve Negan worth what we just saw? Will it be satisfying enough to erase Glenn's gurgling last words to Maggie while we gazed upon his misshapen head and face?