7x06 Swear

@irene_k Just cause you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.

@trakt29384728 listen, i'm not a stubborn asshole and actually want the show to be good, so if you can tell me what the main goal that the show is pursuing is, i'll be happy to listen.

@irene_k Sure me neither. Good and great are very subjective. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I can't help to see many analogies in this show, which makes one think about our societies in general. To me the real meat is behind the blood and gore, which was shocking when the show started out, but has obviously lost much of its effect after 7 seasons. But that doesn't make the subjects the writers are exploring less interesting.

It is about human connection and behavior in situations where society is overrun by braindead zombies, literally and figuratively. The Walkers could represent many things. For me they represent the braindead sheep in society. From the start of the series I can't help to think of Walkers when I see a horde of mobile phone zombies walking down the street. But you could find many analogies.

Negan and his army are very similar to the taxman. He has recognized that his "subjects" will be most productive if he lets them live "free" and regularly comes to take half of what they produce by force.

In the last episode we see a group of frightened women who teach their children to shoot anything that moves. In other words they have completely abandoned the golden rule, that Ricks group has always tried to live by. We learn through the conversations with Tara how they came to be like this and how they try to rectify their behavior in their own minds. Tara and the girl who helps her have a problem with this and are seen as a threat to the group. I see parallels to the fear based societies of today, where people are made to believe they have to support the war against terrorism and the killing of innocent strangers.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

@trakt29384728 i never saw walking dead as a metaphor, but i like your interpretation. personally i always thought the show was build on exploration of human nature set in extreme circumstances, and that it was much more literal than figurative. for me it's about how fear and basic survival instincts can lead to questionable choices and bad deeds (rick's group) as well as how the loss of order and control in society, the so called freedom of the world that went to shit and doesn't have a strong benevolent power to reign it, how those things not just cripple morality and principles but uncover them being malformed in the first place (the show's antagonists). it's all about varying between adapting to anarchy and adapting to the rules of the new world, but also realizing that in the end it all comes down to survival of the fittest.

that being said, that is not the concept i meant in my original comment. i didn't make it clear enough, so it's my bad. i meant that there's no central plot line that the seasons have been following all this time. there's no goal that the characters are trying to achieve. you can say it's survival. but it's not something that can be completed and done with. it's a work in progress, a long painful quest till the inevitable failure. so we will never get any victorious gratification from watching the show. there will be no satisfaction of getting closer to resolution, because there's no resolution at all. the show's not moving towards anything, it's running in circles, like a headless chicken, recycling the same good old philosophical themes about human nature that people are either aware of or aren't bright enough to understand and are watching just for the sake of gore and action. for me it's clearly become stagnant. the characters's development, which when done right can forgive the plot problems, at least in my opinion, has been pretty weak too. slow paced episodes rotating around secondary characters are clearly there to take screen time and stretch out the season. and i heard that the creator has literally said that they put some work into the characters when they prepare to kill them off, so you'd invest in them first. which both makes sense and sounds like lazy robotic writing, turning exploration of a character into means to an end instead of making it flow naturally. characters should be built and developed because people that are in charge of them are genuinely interested in doing that and have interesting stories to tell, not because they can't wait to smash their heads in and then piggyback on the shock value so clearly popular among walking dead's braindead audience.

but i respect your opinion. if that metaphorical look on the show is enough to keep you invested and satisfied, good for you man.

@irene_k Agree, there seems to be no goal anymore, I also noticed that, but didn't have as much a problem with it as you do, because other stuff has kept me interested. It is an ongoing struggle for survival. While Ricks group keeps trying to make a safe homestead for themselves, they keep failing. So maybe safety and building a home are the ultimate goal.

Apart from the metaphorical elements, what I also find interesting is the exploration of how anarchy evolves into the various basic types/organisations of societies. The main society is based on a voluntaryist model (Ricks group) while most others choose or are forced into different authoritarian models, ruled by governors, "kings", psychopaths. We see competition of ideas, collaboration between societies and now a new evil force, the beginnings of an overarching parasitic ruling and taxing class which uses fear and violence to steal from the productive people. It is the real world but in a miniature version.

@trakt29384728 oh, the ongoing struggle for survival kept me interested for quite awhile too. but it started dying out after the governor arc. now it's impossible to ignore that the show is running in circles, rehashing the same formula over and over again. you say rick's group keep failing. they do because they show needs to keep going. it's always the same scenario - they get brought down by a bigger villain, so they can build themselves back up and eventually prevail. and to create an illusion of moving the creators keep coming up with reasons why they can't stay in one place. which makes sense, but i wish the structure wasn't that obvious.

let's be honest, in real world people like rick's group get brought down by higher authorities and don't get back up after. but i agree that there's a clear hierarchy of power that's been progressing from the beginning, though i'm not sure if it's more possible that it's been inspired by our social pyramid or by video games and their strings of growing in strength bosses. i guess the show in my eyes is significantly more primitive than it is for you. which in a way would mean that it recognises its target audience and their expectations and decides to play it safe instead of challenging its viewers. which would be good from marketing standpoint but pretty bad on the creative side of things.