The Walking Dead - TV Series on AMC ( Comic and Un-aired Spoilers unwelcome!)

[Mad Old Lu]

I’m with Khev, Jokes&Bats and EndoSickness. Khev nailed it right off the bat (pun intended). It’s not about the actual violence or gore, or who was at the receiving end of Lucille. It’s about the nihilism and sadism. It’s about how drawn out the deaths were and the mocking and cruelty. It truly felt like there was pleasure being derived from the violence and torture, especially since it was all drawn out. They were relishing in the horror.

I’m not going to quit the show, but I’ve now disconnected with it. That level of sadism turned me completely off and it made me not care who died. I probably wouldn’t have cared anyway, but I might have connected with the character during their deaths if the scenes were handled in a more “traditional” way, meaning no lingering and not making it feel endless. Think about the scene is Saving Private Ryan where the Nazi slowly stabs Adam Goldberg’s character. That was slow and drawn out and it was brutal. But even that wasn’t as brutal as this episode. At least the Nazi wasn’t mocking and belittling and it didn’t continue on from one character to the next.

The Red Wedding was more about shock value because it was killing off the lead protagonists of the show that you had been rooting for for the season. This wasn’t about the shock of who died, at least not to me. And not the gore either. We’ve all seen deaths and gore on this show all along. This was just so gratuitous. It’s hard to “enjoy” that kind of spectacle.

I know the people who are on the other side of this argument see a difference between what we saw in this episode and what we’ve been seeing for the past 6 seasons, because most seem to think it was “finally” a good episode and Negan’s cruelty was what the show needed. So it’s puzzling to see so many acting obtuse about why a few of us feel so repulsed by this episode. Thank you to the few who at least acknowledged how some could feel turned off by this.

Anyway, I had to read comic book spoilers to find out what happens to Negan. Otherwise I think I too would have had to give up on the show.

 

[EndoSickness]

It's not about censoring something.
It's about empathy.
Just ACCEPT that some people can't cope with that the way you maybe can.
The problem is NOT the violence, I say this one final time.
The problem for me, was Glenn, having brain damage, trying to talk to he mother of his unborn child one final time.
THAT was the horrible thing.

 

[hoodonit00]

Naive? Well at least I´m not impudent and call a person I don´t know naive, how bout that?

Clearly you haven´t been reading my posts correctly, otherwise you would´ve seen and accepted that I ave nothing against the violence.
It´s the walking dead, for ****´s sake, but it´s getting into people´s heads.
What´s so hard about it?
You just stand perfectly in line with the un-empathetic.
And I use caps to give more weight the words, same way as one want´s to express something and turns louder at particular words.
Where´s your problem with that?

And why do I label people as un-empathetic?
Because otherwise people here would understand how traumatic it can be and not say:
"Oh, come on. A little blood and guts don´t hurt nobody" while ommitig the fact the scene channels psychological stuff.

If you are able to watch that and not twitch with even ONE fibre of your face, then...

complete the sentence yourself.

I can understand things being traumatic for someone. But why watch it then? My wife tried to watch The Walking Dead. She started having nightmares and would be depressed the next day. Guess what she did?

 

[pixletwin]

The problem is NOT the violence, I say this one final time.

Do you promise?

 

[ali032373]

I understand ppl take things differently. But 1. Many of us knew it was coming; and 2. It's a dystopic zombie show. Theyve shown all sorts of deaths on this show (zombies and ppl) that have been pretty gruesome; 3. There were purposes for the gratuitous violence (same as the comic)- to show how brutal negan is, to make us shed a tear for beloved characters, to shatter their hopes of good future, to introduce them to their new reality. It wasnt just violence for its own sake.

 

[hoodonit00]

It's not the gore and violence, it's the sum total of that episode. It came down to an hour of psychologically and physically torturing people, and it didn't sit well with me.

So the directors accomplished their jobs. I remember when Saving Private Ryan was in the theaters. When I left the theater you could have heard a pin drop. There were reports of veterans tearing up. Reports of veterans having flash backs. If that's not good movie making I don't know what is. Same with this. It affected people so deeply because it was so well presented. My daughter cried.

 

[pixletwin]

I understand ppl take things differently. But 1. Many of us knew it was coming; and 2. It's a dystopic zombie show. Theyve shown all sorts of deaths on this show (zombies and ppl) that have been pretty gruesome; 3. There were purposes for the gratuitous violence (same as the comic)- to show how brutal negan is, to make us shed a tear for beloved characters, to shatter their hopes of good future, to introduce them to their new reality. It wasnt just violence for its own sake.

Bingo. It was an artistic choice by the show runners. I look at Daryl's reaction to when Glenn gets the bat. That was my reaction. That is what the showrunners were trying to do.

 

[crows]

It's not about censoring something.
It's about empathy.
Just ACCEPT that some people can't cope with that the way you maybe can.
The problem is NOT the violence, I say this one final time.
The problem for me, was Glenn, having brain damage, trying to talk to he mother of his unborn child one final time.
THAT was the horrible thing.

The talking part with glenn was pretty messed up. I kind of hate it now. It didnt click with me until someone mentioned their family member not being able to talk in here.

But that has nothing to do with the gore or the torture porn.
Im not saying u are wrong but a lot of people are specifically complaining about the gore.

Google walking dead and most articles are talking about the gore and the brutality...
Go to imdb and people are talking about getting nausea from the episode

I think people complaining about the episode online arent expressing their problems correctly.

The sadism of negan is something we all can agree on

The depression and anxiety over seeing glenn die is something we all can agree on

The shock of expecting only one death ( abraham) and getting two deaths is something we all can agree on. It was shocking, everyone expected only one death.

All of these are like emotion things. We felt shocked, scared, anxious, depressed.

The gore and "torture porn" is whats dividing everyone.
The stuff most people are focusing on. The controversy in opinions.

It seems to me that people online arent expressing the anxiety they got or dont realize how much they love glenn and instead are blaming the gore

 

[greygoose]

Everyone knew it was coming though so why watch? Even someone watching the show for the first time at season 7 had a good 15 minutes of the show preparing them for what was to come.

 

[Devil_666]

R.I.P GLENN

 

[rushmore223]

Is it weird that I agree with both sides?

 

[screamingmetal]

You know whats funny about all of this?
The biggest irony?

That we already saw people getting their head bashed with a bat in the past. .... with terminus....
Not only were people hit in the head brutally but their throats were slit.... blood pouring on that metal container....
The group was in a hopeless situation as well.
They didnt know carol was coming to save them. They had no idea....
They were about to die before carol came like rambo and blew up the fences.

The only difference is that in this episode there was no hero to save them. They could have easily die in terminus the exact same way as negan' s death...

So endo talks about the reality of this episode and the reality of the kill and how it was different because it was like real life


But so was terminus. None of the main characters die but 3 or 4 extras DID get their head bashed and throat cut.
How come the parent counsel group was not angry at that?
Im just saying, those terminus kills were just as horrible. Yet no outrage
The terminus kills did resemble isis videos..

Since you included my post I guess I have to respond even though I just have to reiterate what I've already said.
The gore and violence is only a part of what I really didn't like about the ep. The whole episode came down to be entirely about torturing these people, that's it.
When Carol came in to save the day, there was a catharsis about it. Yeah it's cliched and not reality, but this is an entertainment show that I watch to escape reality. I personally didn't find the torture episode entertaining.
Me giving up on the show is more about the entire show not going anywhere, it's just repetitious and I find this long soap opera no longer entertaining.

 

[pixletwin]

When Carol came in to save the day, there was a catharsis about it. Yeah it's cliched and not reality, but this is an entertainment show that I watch to escape reality. I personally didn't find the torture episode entertaining.

Spoiler

You honestly don't think the same thing will happen again? It will. It's just a longer game. Think of Carol and Terminus as foreshadowing.

Is that a spoiler? I don't think so but I'll tag it just in case someone thinks it is.

 

[hoodonit00]

It's not about censoring something.
It's about empathy.
Just ACCEPT that some people can't cope with that the way you maybe can.
The problem is NOT the violence, I say this one final time.
The problem for me, was Glenn, having brain damage, trying to talk to he mother of his unborn child one final time.
THAT was the horrible thing.

That's fine and dandy. If you can't handle the show then just don't watch it. No one is going to think you're a sissy because you don't watch it. But don't come into the thread and insinuate that people who thought the episode was good are psychotic.

 

[pixletwin]

Steven Yeon has an interesting perspective on the our discussion.

 

[crows]

Since you included my post I guess I have to respond even though I just have to reiterate what I've already said.
The gore and violence is only a part of what I really didn't like about the ep. The whole episode came down to be entirely about torturing these people, that's it.
When Carol came in to save the day, there was a catharsis about it. Yeah it's cliched and not reality, but this is an entertainment show that I watch to escape reality. I personally didn't find the torture episode entertaining.
Me giving up on the show is more about the entire show not going anywhere, it's just repetitious and I find this long soap opera no longer entertaining.

The show is definitely repeating itself.
How many times has carol leave a community? 3 times already?
How many times has carol gotten hurt and rescued by a new community?
This carol story line is playing exactly like the hospital storyline.
Replace beth with morgan and it is exactly the same

Carols arc and new storyline is almost like a remake of itself.
And like i said the group being on their knees about to die, it is like the 3rd time it happens. Terminus was almost the same. Negan wanting their s--- t is the same as the governor wanting the prison.
Rick goes crazy and quits being the leader at the prison and NOW he will stop being the leader of alexandria.

They were walking aimlessly and hungry before the prison and were walking aimlessly AFTER the prison. They spent 8 episodes walking in the woods to get to terminus.

The nature of the show is repetitive and willl always be.
Storylines will be recycled over and over

I just think is funny that it took glenn dying for people to be like, " this is going nowhere" lol

 

[NAZGUL-KING]

I don't think I have a problem that I was able to separate this show from reality.

 

[Victοr]

I'm not gonna comment on all that but I'm gonna say two things:

1) That was some Red Skull level ****. If they make an R-Rated WW2 Cap film, I need such a scene where Red Skull gathers the Invaders and Howling Commandos and taunts them sadistically until he brutally kills one or two of them. Fury can be the Daryl of the situation, with his punishment being that his eye is taken out:

2) Did anyone else find Negan... kinda funny? Maybe it's because I've read the issue, or because I'd known the spoilers for a long time, but I found myself chukling throughout the scene. Which is weird, since I'm not a horror guy, so logically, the gore and atmosphere should have affected me. But... nope. Again, maybe it's just JDM, or the fact that I always enjoy the villains more in fiction, but the whole thing had the opposite effect for me.

 

[screamingmetal]

So the directors accomplished their jobs. I remember when Saving Private Ryan was in the theaters. When I left the theater you could have heard a pin drop. There were reports of veterans tearing up. Reports of veterans having flash backs. If that's not good movie making I don't know what is. Same with this. It affected people so deeply because it was so well presented. My daughter cried.

Saving Private Ryan, the story itself is fictional but it's connecting with the reality of what truly did happen. I cried too at the end, it was effectual. But SPR didn't come across to me as sadistic pleasure as this episode felt to me. If the producers of TWD wanted to repulse the audience with this episode they truly accomplished their job. If the producers wanted to turn away viewers from the series entirely with a repetitious storyline that doesn't seem to go anywhere and relishes in brutality, then they also accomplished their job at least with me.

 

[greygoose]

Spoiler

You honestly don't think the same thing will happen again? It will. It's just a longer game. Think of Carol and Terminus as foreshadowing.

Is that a spoiler? I don't think so but I'll tag it just in case someone thinks it is.

Spoiler

All Out War.