# The Walking Dead; 6.11 "Knots Untie" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451 "2016-02-28T23:25:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/61 "2016-03-02T20:38:16Z")
That’s a more realistic portrayal, but since the group has been moving around quite a bit trying to secure immediate safety concerns, I can give some of that a pass. Plus, The Walking Dead: Agrarian Edition probably doesn’t have as much punch! ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/62 "2016-03-02T22:25:56Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > That’s all well and good and I don’t necessarily disagree…but it’s been weeks since they knew about Neegan’s group. Just from the little interaction that Daryl had, they should have known there was a local hostile group but they did shit about it. I mentioned that in last week’s thread too, it just seems pretty clueless to go about your business when you know this other hostile group is out there. They should have been on the offensive before meeting the Hilltop group. Shit the Hilltop group could have been Neegan’s group for how trusting they were. Months, not weeks. (Two months according to Talking Dead last week.) The difference is that now they know where the camp is and also some of the layout. That’s pretty crucial intel. They could easily have been sending out scouts every day and never found it in the past two months. Consider that if the Saviors and Alexandria were close / easily accessible to each other, the Saviors would have already found them first. (Alexandria has been there for years, since the start of the apocalypse, remember.) Unless you want to murder all of Hilltop in cold blood, there are now people that know where Alexandria is and who are currently at the mercy of the saviors. The time to strike is now. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/63 "2016-03-03T04:04:25Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The thing is, the show would be much more interesting if they were more realistic about this. It would give them ways to create drama without having to come up with an enemy of the week and without having to make the characters behave in incredibly stupid ways just to put them into dramatic situations. Your post makes a lot of very valid points, but you are so, so wrong about this that it’s painful. Nobody wants to watch the Subsistence Farming Hour where Glenn and Maggie hoe radishes all day, occasionally dispatch a few walkers that get stuck on the fencing around the chicken coop, then come home and complain about how much their backs hurt. The imperative of this (indeed, any) show is to create compelling drama first and foremost. _To the extent_ that they can work in some of the realistic concerns of the situation being presented, and explore how people might deal with such situations in the real world, they try to include that. But it’s a very distant concern compared with the primary concern of telling an entertaining story. The reality of life is that most of it’s incredibly boring. That’s why we created fiction to entertain us in the first place. Like you observe, even during something as crazy and upsetting to our social order as a zombie apocalypse, the realities of life and rebuilding society would _still_ be incredibly boring (in fact, it would be especially so, since it would basically revert hundreds of years of technological progress). Liberal poetic license is not only acceptable but indeed necessary to make an interesting story out of that. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/64 "2016-03-03T06:08:15Z")
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the drama stemming from actual problems they would actually face. So instead of contriving to put them in danger, how about having them try to figure out how to walker-proof an acre of farmland, and then have it go horribly wrong? Or building an aquaduct from a reservoir to Alexandria, and having walkers attack them there. How about scavenging for things that they’ll actually need, and showing them planning for the future? You can amp up the drama with the ticking clock aspect - the cars are starting to misfire, so you know your gas is going bad. More and more scavenged food turned out to be spoiled. That sort of thing. You can have just as much zombie-stabbing action, but with smarter reasons for putting the group in danger. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/65 "2016-03-03T13:16:54Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > You can have just as much zombie-stabbing action, but with smarter reasons for putting the group in danger. They are, after all, somewhat following the comic books. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/66 "2016-03-03T15:41:36Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the drama stemming from actual problems they would actually face. So instead of contriving to put them in danger… (post shortened) “Actual problems”? You do realize you’re talking about a TV show where the dead come back to life and attack the living, don’t cha? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/67 "2016-03-03T16:15:30Z")
So far, the Hilltop settlement seems to be staffed mostly by beaten serfs. Negan’s group demands half of their stuff and, in exchange, they say they’ll leave them alone (or only kill a few on occasion). The Hilltop group says, “It’s a deal”. Rick’s group comes along and demands the stuff earmarked for Negan’s group and, in exchange, offer to defeat Negan’s group. The Hilltop group says, “It’s a deal”. That Hilltop group certainly drives a hard bargain. :rolleyes: The Hilltop group doesn’t seem to care who is king as long as they keep the damage to the Hillside residence to a minimum. Such is the life of a serf. Hopefully, the Hilltop group will surprise me. Hopefully, they won’t take as long as the residents of Alexandria, or Woodbury, did to figure out what actions are in their best interests. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/68 "2016-03-03T19:10:10Z")
A lot of their issues could be greatly simplified by finding a good sniper rifle and having someone practice with it an hour a day. Then they go to Neegan’s camp with telescopes and from a concealed position half a mile out, ask a Hilltop resident to identify Neegan. One bullet later, the magnitude of their problem is cut by 50% or more. Instead, they’ll just walk into Neegan’s camp, yadda-yadda-yadda, somebody on Rick’s team will get pointlessly killed or injured, it’ll all be so tragic and unfair, etc. but at the end Rick will make a speech about how the world is. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/69 "2016-03-04T14:34:41Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Instead, they’ll just walk into Neegan’s camp, yadda-yadda-yadda, somebody on Rick’s team will get pointlessly killed or injured, it’ll all be so tragic and unfair, etc. but at the end Rick will make a speech about how the world is. You forget that something will catch afire. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/70 "2016-03-04T20:19:08Z")
…and then the walkers _(surprise!)_ show up. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/71 "2016-03-05T17:46:51Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the drama stemming from actual problems they would actually face. So instead of contriving to put them in danger, how about having them try to figure out how to walker-proof an acre of farmland, and then have it go horribly wrong? Uhm… isn’t that pretty much what happened to Alexandria? But remember, it’s a comic book. About the Zombie Apocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451/72 "2016-04-01T03:05:37Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > That’s a more realistic portrayal, but since the group has been moving around quite a bit trying to secure immediate safety concerns, I can give some of that a pass. Plus, The Walking Dead: Agrarian Edition probably doesn’t have as much punch! There’s probably a happy compromise between The Walking Dead: Agrarian Edition, the actual Walking Dead, and John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising series. I’d just be happy if the people on this show were actually competent. Sam may be right, but it could make for boring TV if badly written. And let’s face it, this show has really lousy writers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-6-11-knots-untie-open-spoilers/747451.md?page=3)