I think the writers are trying something new with our current nemesis, Negan. Instead of getting us to hate the character because of his reprehensible actions, like we did with the Claimers. We are motivated to hate the way Jeffery Dean Morgan’s screen charisma is being wasted on a poorly conceived character of comic book origins. We are not so much rooting for Negan to be killed as we are rooting for JDM to be released from his contract to pursue other acting roles. And it seems to be working quite well.
Yes, the biggest mystery about Negan is why somebody doesn’t kill him. Seriously;
Dude walks around armed with just a bat (when he doesn’t ask someone with lots of motivation to bash his skull in to hold it…while he antagonizes them) and continually rubs people’s faces in their shitty circumstances.
He has the last underling who he tortured with a hot iron to heat it up and hand it to him right after taking pains to play tonsil hockey with said underling’s wife.
Turns his back on Daryl to face the open door of a working furnace to get said iron, so that if Dwight doesn’t iron his face, Daryl could just push him into the flames.
Gives his henchmen “career opportunities” to be killed by hostile vassals and fails to snuff the guy who did it (Carl). Not to mention if I’m the guy that Negan hid behind while Carl was shooting folks, I’d be damned sure to be first in line for the next shift of hold-my-bat-while-I-monologue duty so I could beat his brains in myself.
There is zero reason why anyone doing the heavy lifting in the Saviors wouldn’t want to kill Negan themselves, let alone take a bullet for him.
Damn! Other than the season premiere the last few episode have been sleepy.
So many ridiculous behaviours, especially Cooooorlll. He’s obviously on a suicide mission, soooo… pull the trigger as soon as Negan appears and way before he opens his mouth. It looked like Negan was hiding behind a henchman but contrary to TV and the movies, a human shield will not stop a bullet, it would go right through both of them.
That, I found especially implausible. If Carl had shot at the group but not hit anyone, I could vaguely imagine them tolerating Negan sparing him, but Carl killed two guys. If there’s any degree of interpersonal friendship or loyalty among the henchmen, some of them would have to have noticed by now how Negan capriciously ignores or rewrites “the rules”. If it was an actual religious cult and Negan was seen as a holy figure (and had recruited and promoted cult members specifically for their vulnerability to such thinking) then maybe they’d put up with his sadism and tolerate him exclusively claiming the most attractive women for his personal harem and such, but if the organization is just basic fascism, well… even Hitler had constant (and justified) concerns about being assassinated by other Nazis. Sooner or later, two or three members of his inner circle start grumbling and on a supply run, they put a bullet in him and feed him to the walkers. “My, oh my, what a tragic loss. We’ll just have to muddle through somehow.”
The drama in Z Nation is starting to look genuinely superior, even it does get a bit comical at times.
Also, how does Negan just drop in on people in Alexandria? Do they really not have anyone watching the gate who’d signal to the community that a truck convoy was approaching?
Anyway, Michonne will get close, kill a few people, then not kill Negan, who will abruptly declare “You’ve got grit. I like you!”, and the plot armor shared by the major characters will remain unscratched until season ender, where I’ll wager someone gets wasted but it won’t be clear who, again.
A cool way to dispatch Negan would be for, say, Daryl, Rick, Michonne and Carl to all deal a simultaneous attack. Daryl darts him in the heart, Rick delivers the axe to his head, Michonne decapitates him and Carl shoots the loose head in the eye. Done and done.
From the threads on this season it certainly seems that the show is losing a lot of SDMB member’s and the criticism isn’t entirely unfair. However I thought this last episode was excellent, minus the “WTF WHY DID YOU STOP SHOOTING CARL?!?” moment with Negan. The tension seemed off the charts through-out most of the episode
I have a bad feeling that…
We are going to see another significant death by Negan and it’ll come in this mid-season finale. I think Negan is going to kill Carl in front of Rick. At minimum, Carl is going to lose that arm…
Actually, it’s not just the SDMB. Ratings for this season have dropped significantly.
I think the criticism is fair. It’s been slow and plodding for 5-6 episodes now.
The show has splintered in off too many directions with different timelines and they’re not effectively telling all the stories at the same time.
Secondly, the comic book Negan doesn’t really translate to the TV screen well.
As to it being slow and plodding, I agree to an extent but I don’t think the Negan storyline (per comics) can be told quickly. Additionally, I remember one of the biggest criticisms of season 2-3 (I think it was 2) at Hershel’s farm was how slow and plodding it was. People complained quite a bit about how long they spent searching for Sophie and how long they spent on life-on-the-farm. But the show always managed to pay-off with very significant moments that came out of that slow pace. I’m hoping we will be in for similar pay-off here.
I do agree that comic book Negan is not easy to translate to t.v. I understand the comics gives the show writers a lot of material and plot lines to bring to t.v. but sometimes it is just too comic-booky to work on t.v. I thought this was a problem with The Governor too.
Question – what is it that Daryl (and the others in his boat) does in that pen filled with walkers? It seems like they have some objective that they’re supposed to accomplish, rather than just stand around and avoid being eaten, but I can’t quite figure it out. Is it something productive for the saviors, or is it some busywork just for punishment and/or the entertainment of Negan?
I thought we saw in a past episode that basically they’re doing maintenance on the zombie barrier. Adding new zombies, removing dead-dead zombies, etc. So basically necessary security work that is also risky and a bit of a crap-job no one else would want to do.
I have a feeling that Spencer (Deanna’s son from Alexandria) is not long for this show…considering that next week is the mid-season finale, and for the past couple of weeks, he’s been getting more screen time…I see it as a set up for his demise.
I think every single person watching Carl take out two bad guys and not smoke Negan too collectively said “OH COME ON.”
Ohhhh. Could you imagine.
I hear ya. I really enjoyed The Walking Dead up until this season. Between Negan’s never-shutting-up and the plodding, erratic storyline pace and the CGI tiger (WTF), I’m over it. But still watching.
(bolding mine) Thank you for the laugh. I needed that.
Negan holding Judith in a fatherly manner - what are your guy’s thoughts on that?