I’m not sure why people keep saying Rick and his group are good with tactics but bad with strategy. They’re bad with both. In the past few episodes, they’ve had multiple small groups of their most experienced fighters leave a solid defensive position to go against an unknown and possibly superior force. Then, when they are outside they do nothing to hide themselves, driving around in a gigantic RV with no regard for possible ambushes, and they have no real alternative plan if they can’t get through to Hilltop using the RV.
I don’t think it even makes sense to try to evacuate Maggie given her vulnerability, particularly when you don’t have facts on the ground from the travel route(s) plus other valuable personnel have gone rogue.
There was a tank in Atlanta and the Governor used another at the prison. It would be nice to take those instead of a RV when moving through dangerous areas. They probably get the same gas mileage. Does diesel not deteriorate as gasoline does?
IIRC, the tank in Season 1 was an M1A1 Abrams. They use a turbine engine, so they can run on just about anything. Jet fuel is basically kerosene, which is similar to Diesel fuel. I’ve heard of people using gasoline or avgas to run turbines, but they have to be careful with it because gasoline is more volatile than jet fuel. I don’t know what kind of tank was at the prison, but it was almost certainly Diesel-powered. I don’t know about the stability of Diesel fuel.
We don’t know if the tank in Atlanta was operable. Even if it was just out of fuel, you’d have to get through a hoard of zombies to use it. The one at the prison got a grenade down the tube, and someone forgot to close the breech. So it was destroyed. IANA tanker, but I’ve heard that the treads can wear out pretty quickly. I don’t know if that’s true, but someone would have to know how to repair/replace the links. ISTM that tanks go long distances on the backs of trucks or train cars.
If Alexandria is six miles from Washington, DC, there might be some tanks nearby.
This series is based on a comic book and it’s fans. Middle-school seems about right.
Negan’s power doesn’t come from Lucille. One guy with a baseball bat isn’t that threatening or scary. It’s the fanatical dedication of his followers that provide the terror. The Saviors believe they are Negan. They live to serve Negan. They repeatedly quote Negan speak. They don’t care if other Saviors die carrying out Negan’s orders. People who chose to leave the Negan life are hunted down. Negan’s world is one great big groupthink commune.
IMHO, if Rick’s group hadn’t killed 50+ Saviors, there would have been no reason for Negan to participate in this final hunt/trap. Negan’s group leaders couldn’t get the job done. If you want something done right…
To me, Negan’s welcoming speech was a way to decide who was going to be killed. He wanted to identify who was related to whom (Rick and Carl, Maggie and Glenn), who would be willing to stand up to Negan’s henchmen (and possibly cause future problems) (Abe Ford and Carl), who would be useful to Negan’s way of life, who could be broken (anyone who didn’t/couldn’t look Negan in the eye), who was going to pee their pants, who was going to cry (not Carl), etc.
It’s Negan’s MO to kill one person in every group, take everyone’s shit, and let the others leave with the understanding that Negan owns everything. Anyone who disagrees now, or in the future, will be killed.
At Terminus, one termite’s job was to stun or kill the victim with a bat blow to the back of the head. A 2nd termite would then slit the throat in order to drain the blood from the carcass.
(Of course, blood-draining works better if the carcass is above the trough.)
When Our Heroes are Victorious, what should they do with Negan?
In the comics…
After an all-out war with the Saviors on one side and Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom on the other, Negan is confined to a cell for life so he can see how the new entity created by his allies and former minions – the Alexandria Free Zone – prospers without him.
Putting on my pretend-villain hat: Negan’s way of doing things is a bad idea. It’s a pyramid scheme. For it to work, he has to have more serfs than warriors, and his brutality and avarice will inevitably cause his a rebellion, whether among the serfs or by an ambitious lieutenant.
The Governor’s tank was one helluva alarm clock, blasting the towers of the prison first thing in the morning. And then killing Herschel in front of everyone- that wasn’t just insane, it spawned the brief career of…
Herschel Walker.
Still, I think Negan’s group is the biggest threat our group has faced so far. It isn’t about Negan Himself, but Negan & Co.
I have thought of various ways to torture Negan, amputation, crucifixion (Cool!) but it would be best to kill him immediately rather than risk escape or rescue.
It’s a visual communications thing.
If they had not used a POV shot until the end, then yes, it could be anyone that was killed.
But because they use a POV shot earlier in the episode, that characterization must be consistent.
If they simply wanted to show us that the four people were captured and in a box, they would have filmed that in the standard fashion. The producers didn’t - they made it a POV - so the POV shot has to be maintained.
It’s why you can dismiss the argument that it was Aaron or Eugene, or anyone who wasn’t already captured before the ep began.
I could probably write a thesis, or a least a chapter of a book, about TWD and visual comms tricks.
I think you are over-analyzing this, but I’l probably watch this episode again over the weekend and see if this makes any more sense. We already saw them do the switcher-oo on Glenn at the dumpster, so I’m not sure how much logic plays in here.
In the three final episodes of this season every character took stupid pills.
This is a sign of bad writing because they were aiming at a particular outcome and could not figure out how to do it.
That said, backing down from the first encounter was prudent. However that should have been a clue that the entire mission should have been abandoned.
But like I said earlier, everything done after wiping out the group on the Killing Floor violated the characters.
What switcheroo? Glenn could not have died at the dumpster because it would have violated a key tenet of the show: no adult human death goes unwitnessed.
TWD has been consistent about that rule since the first ep.
It’s why Rick survived in a coma.
It’s why Merle was safe on the rooftop.
It’s why Jim had that goodbye scene.
It’s why Sofia was dead (because she was not an adult).
It’s why Shane shot Otis.
It’s why the group had to find Andrea after she was bit.
It’s why Carol was safe when she was exiled.
It’s why Nicholas shot himself in the head.
It’s why Deanna had her goodbye scene.
The only way Glenn could have died after falling off the dumpster was if Enid had seen him fall. She only came along a day later.
On the Talking Dead, Robert Kirkman stated, “if we started this show with Negan waking up in the hospital and you followed him for six seasons until you got to this moment, you would be like oh yeah, that guy is the leader of the Saviors and they’re trying to do their thing and this group is really messing with them and you would see the exact same scene shot the exact same way shot in a different perspective.”
I have to disagree with Kirkman. Kirkman has been involved in his share of comic book hits and failures. It’s the nature of the beast. But I can’t imagine how a TV series following the Life and Times of Negan would survive one season. He’s a butcher, a psycho, and a mind-controlling dictator. And Negan’s just as bad. (just kidding)
