Pick Your "The Walking Left 4 Dead" Team

We’ve made it through a season and a half of The Walking Dead, and quite a number of the characters seem to be pretty much useless. Combined with the discussion about Shane in the mid-season finale, I thought this would be the perfect time to pick your team.

Two possibilities: Three characters plus yourself or four characters. Either way, it’s a team of four against the zombies.

Personally, I think the best combo is probably Daryl, Shane, Rick, and Glenn. Sure, there are some risks, but I think the other three could keep Shane in line.

Carl, Carol, Maggie and Hershel.

It would be fun to watch.

Well, part of the problem is that we don’t know what good the Farm people are if they aren’t under Hershel’s control (for lack of a better way to say it).
Maggie might might prove to be the most level headed of the bunch once she has some real world experience under her belt. Hell, if Hershel would stop trying to save the zombies, it might be good to have a doctor with you.

Also, is our team going to be going back out on the road or staying put like they have been? I think that might make a big difference.

Having said that…
I’d get rid of Shane, he seems about one loose screw away from going Lord of the Flies on the rest of the bunch and picking off his own crew. At the very least I don’t think there’s any way I would want Shane in my crew if Rick was there as well…one or the other.

Daryl for sure, I think that’s a given. I’m not sure about Glenn, I think the only thing he brings to the group is that fact that he’s small, quick and quiet, I guess we can take him along.
I’m not really sure who that leaves. Lori is pregnant and is going to very soon be out of commission. Andrea, in theory, could off herself at any point, but I think that’s just Dale blowing things out of proportion. I don’t think she’d really do that. I have no interest in Dale, Carol or Carl and I’m not really sure about T-Dog one way or the other.

So, I’ve got Rick and Daryl, Shane is out on principle. I’m going to add in Andrea. I think Andrea is picking up on this whole Zombie killing thing really quickly and I think she’ll do okay.
That’s Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Andrea

But I want to add in a caveat that if in the second part S2 the Greenes have a change of heart and are willing to join in on the quest I’d like to be able to take another look at the list. I might be willing to get rid of Glenn to have a doctor on board or swap Andrea for Maggie if Maggie is more competent. But we won’t know those answers for a few months yet.

Watch them what…make it to the end of the driveway and start arguing? I don’t think that group would make it far at all.
ETA, yes, I know it was a joke.

Well, since we haven’t specified the whole “no comics” thing for this thread: Rick, Andrea, Glenn and Maggie.

If we’re going show-only, then Shane, Daryl, Glenn and Andrea. I want people who are more interested in survival than whether or not everyone’s being nice.

Joey
Chandler
Phoebe
and Rachel

Yeah, I just made a better show.

“Herschel, could they be anymore dead!?”
– from “The One with the Barn”

I’m not sure how Zombie Phoebe and her “no food with a face” philosophy would reconcile should she ever be bitten.

No Shane on my team. I don’t want to be traveling with a guy who’s liable to shoot me if it will get him out of a jam.

I’ll take Rick (firearms training), Andrea (has proven herself a firearms prodigy), Glenn (gotta have a scrounger) and Daryl (no justification needed).

That’s pretty much my roster too, with the caveat that I might swap T-Dog for Andrea; less angst, and still handy in a fight.

Lori: it’s my impression the she can’t seem to get over the fact that the middle-class, white suburban homemaker is a demographic as dead as the walkers.

Dale: probably full of good info, and hidden/as-yet-untapped skill sets, but too likely to navel-gaze and philosophize/moralize when action is required.

Carol: nice lady, I feel for her losing Sophia, but brings little to the table, skills-wise.

Carl: nice kid, probably has potential, with Rick as a dad, but like Carol, no useful skills.

Shane, Otis, Otis and Otis.

Four men enter, one man leaves. :smiley:

If I’m going to realistically assess each character’s utility as a potential team member, I better go deeper than a first pass selection and look at group dynamic variables that would affect the willingness of my preferred members to join such a team, and the ability of the completed team to work effectively. We have to be a travelling, scavenging and fighting band that can stay together while making use of found materials and remaining flexible in evaluating and adopting or rejecting “found” companions.

In light of that, I think I’d have to reject several individuals who, through virtue of demonstrated skills, resourcefulness or clear thinking I’d otherwise want with me. So, choosing the me + three others option, my eliminations are as follows:

Shane - I’ll assume I know everything shown so far in the series at this point, so I have to reject the murderer. It boggles me a bit how many commenters in the other thread believe Shane’s sacrifice of Otis was a ‘tough but smart decision’ given the situation. I think they’re not looking at the story universe as realistically as they think they are. Putting ethics and morality aside for the moment (something I’m doing only for argument’s sake), betraying a comrade in order to avoid failure of the mission just isn’t a successful option for survival as part of a group.

Shane (who let’s not forget failed to plan any type of exit from the FEMA supply trailer in the first place) had time to argue with Otis over going on without him, time to shoot Otis when he refused to leave him, and time to wrestle him for the pack containing the respirator… but he didn’t think he had any time to limp away arm in arm with Otis to escape the shambling z horde.

Given the fact that every mission in this brave new world o’ shit is going to be critical, I don’t want this backstabbing scumbag practicing his idea of flexible thinking anywhere near my group. If I thought like Shane did, I’d put a bullet through his brain at the earliest opportunity, but fortunately for him (in this hypothetical) I ain’t like he is.

Rick - No way I’m getting Rick without taking Lori and Carl as well. Even if I weren’t arbitrarily limited to three selections (more on this later), I wouldn’t want to take a pregnant woman and her adolescent child away from the more stable and defensible farm we’re currently at. Plus, Rick owns the Shane problem. I need to leave him to see that one through.

In addition, although I’m alternately puzzled and appalled at Rick’s major strategy and tactical decisions, I’ve agreed with every one of his eventual moral and ethical choices. (Including going back to try and retrieve redneck drug dealer Merle.) But if I’m with the group already, I don’t really need Rick’s moral compass. And I sure don’t want to have to constantly argue against his need to find a surviving governmental authority from which to take direction. The most we’re likely to find is a strong arm proxy, and I want no part of that either.

So with Rick and Shane eliminated, my strongest choices are Glen, Daryl and either Andrea, T-Dog or Dale.

Taking those in reverse order, Dale has that unfortunate tendency of the experienced and wise to extrapolate his general case of “knowing best” into a universal assumption of correctness for each specific case. He sometimes assumes more ownership of events than he’s warranted. I’d like his auto repair skills and no doubt plentiful wealth of life experience, but I don’t want his tendency towards unilateral action. Dale’s out.

T-Dog seems resourceful and tough, but he’s still carrying some sort of baggage from the pre-zombiepocalypse. I’ll keep him as an alternate, but he’s not one of my first picks.

That leaves Daryl, Glen and Andrea. Daryl is a hunter-tracker and a tough survivor. He’s adapted to the group pretty well and seems OK with not leading the group as long as he has a specific goal he can work toward. But he’s also capable of decisive independent action. All of this makes Daryl part of my “A” team.

Glen is fast, light, quiet and quick thinking in a stress situation. He’s in, but I don’t think he’ll want to leave Maggie, nor will she want him to go without her. This is fine with me. I need Glen, so I’ll let Maggie choose to join on her own, and I get two quick and able bodied team members for the price of one.

Andrea will either get completely over her existential angst or eventually kill herself, but it’s not likely she’d do that at the expense of the group. And she’ll see crisis situations through without flinching. She’s also shown herself to be a scrappy survivor. She’ll do just fine.

But we ain’t heading towards Ft. Benning.

I’m treating this as a real life issue, and basing my post on that.

Daryl definitely, Shane definitely, and the young asian bloke who steals cars.

I’d like to take Rick, as someone else said, firearms training, but without the kid and a pregnant wife, and I don’t think that he’d leave them behind as he’s very goody goody.

You’ve got to think," will we survive with the team you’ve chosen ?"

Its all very well making your judgement on ethics and principles, but if you all end up dead in a short while it doesn’t really matter that your team consists of Mother Theresa, Ghandi and the Pope/Archbishop of Canterbury, because they’ll never have a chance to do good anyway.

Mostly on the acount of you all being dead.

Guess I’ll take my chances without Shane’s masterful ability to get himself surrounded by zeds.

By the way, where’s this idea come from that ethics and principles have no relationship to survival? Just curious. The notion seems more than a little naive or juvenile to me. It’s like people instinctively understand the utility of being part of a group in a lawless post-apocalyptic scenario, but they disregard the consequences of tribal existence.

So you think that if you’re a nice guy then you’ll survive to pass on your "niceness"to society ?

I’ve actually been in life or death situations and because we were well trained we stayed alive.

Some of us literally hated each others guts, but because we were good at what we did we stayed alive.

Your opinion comes from watching a t.v. programme.

My opinion comes from actual experience and real life.

Me, Andrea, Maggie, and the yet-to-be-introduced blonde background character from the season finale.

I’m a forward thinker.

Why do I get the feeling that your post=apocalyptic community would look a lot like the second half of 28 Days Later?

Andrea’s not blonde enough for you? Sounds like what you need is a redhead or a hipster or something.

Golly, what else do you know about me, Mr. Wizard? How many fingers am I holding up right now?

(You’re right, it was just one.)

meeeow!

Rick, Daryl, Shane and Glen.

Shane doesn’t really bother me. He does what he has to do. And without any women in the mix, you eliminate that element of competition among the men.