The Walking Dead Season 3

[Usagi Pilgrim]

Not really posted in this thread alot, but just wanted to weigh in with my experience, for what it's worth.

When the show first started & didn't have amc, so I figured I'd wait for the DVDs & start reading the comic to prepare myself. I've gotta tell you, I was NOT a fan of the comic. So much so that It was half way through the second season before I ever even gave it a chance, but when I did, I preferred the show by leaps & bounds. After reading others reactions on here & thinking about it, there are two ways that I approach the show that helps.

First, they are completely different animals in my book. IMO that's the ONLY way to really enjoy the show for what it is. The comic is these characters in that world & the show is the same folks in this world. Different experiences in different worlds will fundamentally change the character. For example, I don't know if Maggie is in the comics, but, in that world, had the Governor had raped her, I would expect the Maggie in the comics to be different in the show. When we talk about Mischonne, just because we know the backstory there, we can't make assumptions on how the show's version of her developed.

I could see alot of outrage if amc had just bought the rights & went their own way & betrayed what Kirkman had intended, but from what I've seen & read, he's very involved in story development. He, as the creator, is just telling a different version of the same survival story. I think we as fans tend to lose sight of the fact that art, in its purest form, is the outlet in which an artist expresses themselves. Then we take ownership of the art & feel that we have the right to dictate our expectations of how we want to be entertained. As I've said before, whenever a creator ends their vision as they see fit,(LOST, The Matrix, Fringe, Star Wars) fans feel betrayed or that it 'sucks', because it wasn't what they wanted. That's what I see over & over & I just don't look at this show that way.

Second, The title of the show is about the survivors, not the walkers themselves. I know we all want to see the best 'zombie kill of the week', & we sometimes get that particular itch scratched, but ultimately, the show is about the living & that's why I keep tuning in. I personally would question the collective intelligence of any group of survivors who were putting them selves in a position to fight off hordes of walkers week after week.

 

[Riceball]

I don't know, this episode was very good for character development, but was on the more "quieter" side. I like the way Michonne's opening up. Maybe I gotta watch a second time to appreciate it… But they could have taken more guns, especially the autos…

The thing is, we really don't know how many guns they took, everything was in a couple of bags so there's no real way of telling just how many they did or didn't take. Granted Morgan seemed to have way more weapons than they possibly could have carried off in two bags but they still could have hauled off a good number of the weapons. Besides, they really don't need that many more weapons, just a few more & ammo for them and the ones they already have.

 

[Shendorion]

I don't know, this episode was very good for character development, but was on the more "quieter" side. I like the way Michonne's opening up. Maybe I gotta watch a second time to appreciate it… But they could have taken more guns, especially the autos…

My wife said the same thing. I think they have about as many guns as they can wield and then some, so I would guess that the ammo was far more precious. They might also be more interested in range and accuracy than rate of fire - their combat experience is mostly against enemies that only go down from headshots, and they've been spending a lot of ammo lately.

The hitchhiker was also a talking point for us. It's horrible that they leave the guy behind, but given what's been going on it was a good rational decision. Live humans in the area are very likely to be affiliated with Woodbury, and very unlikely to have survived this long on the run behaving as he was. Yes, the evidence suggests that a caravan got mobbed and he's the only survivor. That's the Governor's favorite play, and they've got Merle and Michonne and Andrea to testify to that.

All it would take to finish them all off is one person with a key, so the risk (that he's a plant from Woodbury) is greater than the reward (an unarmed, unvetted new recruit of uncertain loyalty and the majority sex in good physical condition). That's cold and ugly, but it's also where Rick is at the time. The other two aren't likely to challenge Rick's decision to leave the guy for their own various reasons. In fact, I think he probably won some esteem from Michonne for it.

 

[crabra comander]

Michonne...how will you continue to bring a knife to a gunfight and still win? And if Michonne is going to start getting frisky, who would it be with? I vote Daryl gets manhandled...

 

[Monkey67]

I Think T-dog got busy with her in the comic. After he saw who got cast her in the show. He told the writers to kill him off..ha jk.

Daryl is Carols one winged angel..so gonna have to be someone else. Maybe his Brother, now that woul be crazy.

 

[Sir Angus]

I really liked this episode. Hopefully, Michonne's character will continue down this path so I won't need to dislike her, and just when I was thinking Carl had matured enough to take this situation seriously ... He runs off again.

So glad to see Morgan. It'd be awesome for him to become part of Rick's group. He may be tweaked in the head, but he's got great survival skills now.

I felt a little sad about the backpacker. Everyone's focus really needs to be about saving as many of the living as possible. This is why the Gov has 70+ and Rick's got eight and a baby. Each person makes you stronger and brings a unique skill set even if its just labor.

She has been seriously injured more than once.

I've yet to see Michonne seriously injured. Unless my memory is failing, she was only grazed by Merle's bullet so far. Not even close to life threatening.

You dont need to know everything she is thinking or for her to say everything that is on her mind.

I find most often a facial expression can say more than words. Id rather have that than characters giving monologues about themselves. How realistic is that?

I agree, I don't want to know everything about her nor everything she's thinking. I despise character monologues. I find it unrealistic and a childish writing style. That being said, she doesn't seem to speak up even in the most desperate situations, and doesn't divulge anything to allow other people to trust her. That's a flaw few people in the real world would do especially if their life depended it (as hers often does in the zombie world).

I don't think she is that great with her sword. She chops multiple slow moving zombies, but when she goes against people, she doesn't always come out on top. Certainly not making anyone run away from her. As far as her experience with the sword, well the zombie apocalypse didn't start last week. You would be surprised how good you can get at something when its all you do all the time and your life depends on it!

There's a major diference between weapon proficiency and hand to hand combat skills. On my TV, she doesn't come accross as intimidating; it's more like brooding and anti-social. Which I find annoying given the environment.

We've discussed to exhaustion that swinging a bat often doesn't make you Babe Ruth anymore than swinging a katana makes you Kusunoki Masashige. One doesn't simply gain mastery of a weapon by using it a lot.

Daryl's crossbow as a main weapon is fairly unrealistic as well, but at least they constantly show him getting into trouble with it and being forced to bash zombies with it or stab them, by hand with the arrows, instead of cutting through hordes of them like they weren't even a danger or threat the way Michonne does.

I find Daryl's crossbow a great primary range weapon to be an excellent zombie killing choice. It has all the benefits of a rifle with none of the failings. It's compact, quiet, accurate, and has recoverable munitions. I certainly would have one in my SHTF kit.

I've never actually read the comics. I was just looking at the subtext and drawing from my on experience with "BFFs". Which is pretty much the only way to watch this show: draw your own conclusions based on your own interactions. I've had several instances of my best friend not reading my body language or the subtext of my actions, and as a result have gone silent for weeks until she finally gets the hint that she screwed up. Is that the wrong way to behave? Yes, and I've tried to change that about myself. But the fact of the matter is, it's something that's realistic for a person to do, even in a life or death situation, and I'm glad they wrote Michonne that way, despite how terrible she seems to other people.

Playing the "I'm ignoring you because you know what you did" card would get you left for zombie food in this world. If you've never been in a combat environment, I can assure you that pettiness has no place and won't be tolerated by most people.

Also, I think the swordplay wouldn't be a problem if the people setting up the stunts were ... b) knowledgeable of how swords actually work. You cannot stab with a katana. Period. Wanna do that? Get an arming sword with a diamond cross section.

You absolutely can thrust a katana and it is one of the traditional movements within the swords kata.

My real issue with Michonne's sword is that the likelyhood that she managed to steal a quality handforged high carbon steel bladed katana from her neighbor is almost incalculable. Those weapons cost multiple thousands of dollars. The garbage SS swords will not hold up to multiple strikes against the human body. Even the chinese "damascus" blades aren't high enough quality to be used long term. As in, you might get a few months out of it before the poorly bonded layers begin to peel away. That's assuming the tang didn't break.

 

[PAPA PRUT]

In the comic Michonne practiced fencing. So that's where here skill with a sword would come into play. Maybe where she practiced there was access to other types of blades.

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[astroboy]

Well, that was probably the best episode since the pilot.

Not because crazy stuff happened, but because it was well written, acted and directed. the actions of the characters all made sense. And there was also a style to the episode

 

[Sir Angus]

In the comic Michonne practiced fencing. So that's where here skill with a sword would come into play. Maybe where she practiced there was access to other types of blades.

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If you've ever taken a traditional fencing class that's highly unlikely.


I take the same opinion of the comic vs series as Usagi Pilgrim. The series should be able to stand on its own. Having never read the comics, in a lot of ways they've done exactly that, and as some have commented, the series doesn't always follow the same plot nor character development.

If they ever find a reasonable way to explain her sword and skill on the series, it'll help ground the character.

 

[Riceball]

In the comic Michonne practiced fencing. So that's where here skill with a sword would come into play. Maybe where she practiced there was access to other types of blades.

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The problem with that is that fencing is far different any school of Japanese swordsmanship, not only are the weapons different so are the techniques for using them. Fencing would (kind of) teach you how to use a rapier and a cavalry saber but only in theory since fencing is a sport and far removed from actual sword fighting techniques though they'd suffice against a zombie that's not wielding another sword or is going to try to block or dodge your attacks. It would be more believable if she practiced kendo which is the Japanese equivalent to Western fencing, though it's a sport too it would at least give her some familiarity with handling a katana and some of the strikes but she would still likely lose against an opponent actually trained in real Japanese swordsmanship.

 

[PAPA PRUT]

There was a new writer for the last episode. And he took over for the rest of season 3. And you are right, it was an awesome episode.

Sent from my Galaxy S2

 

[PAPA PRUT]

I completely agree with what your saying. And who knows, maybe since she started talking more lol she will explain how she is so good with it. I was just tossing that little piece of info out there to show that she Atleast had experience with some type of sword in her hands, despite the differences.

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[Kerr Avon]

but she would still likely lose against an opponent actually trained in real Japanese swordsmanship.

Thankfully there hasn't been a glut of Samurai zombies! :lol

Seriously though, I'm okay with her sword use because this is many months, almost a year after the dead started eating people. She'd either have figured it herself, maybe even snatched a few DVDs of sword techniques, or she'd be dead. She's alive, so clearly she figured it out somehow. We don't have to see her entire life story here. We don't question where Darryl learned to use his crossbow every time he uses it. We don't ask just where Glenn learned his awesome mac ability on Maggie. We don't even ask where Carl learned his ability to sneak out of houses when no one is looking.

It's all good.

 

[PAPA PRUT]

Yeah i just always assume there is a reason for it. I have no complaints about this show. I absolutely love it.

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[Riceball]

I find Daryl's crossbow a great primary range weapon to be an excellent zombie killing choice. It has all the benefits of a rifle with none of the failings. It's compact, quiet, accurate, and has recoverable munitions. I certainly would have one in my SHTF kit.

A crossbow is good but it has one distinct drawback and that it's slow to reload. So it's good when you only have to deal with one or two walkers that are a good distance away but if you're dealing with many more and are closing in on you that slow reload rate could cost you your life.

You absolutely can thrust a katana and it is one of the traditional movements within the sword's kata.

That's what I always thought too, the katana is a cut and thrust sword. I could be wrong but isn't the tip designed the way it is specifically for thrusting and against an armored opponent to be exact?

 

[decaturvader]

Having Rick reunite with Morgan saved the show for me...felt it has been disappointing this season and Daryl screentime has been pretty thin...told myself if Sunday night's episode was more personal drama, I was done...
I really hope to see Morgan join em at the prison.

 

[YenChih Lin]

Don't forget it's just a universe, created by Robert Kirkman and he can do what he pleases. If Michonne can wield a katana, she can, periode. Maybe she's generally interested into sword and fencing and had aquired some knowledge about using a katana. But that's not important, nor are the zombies - it's the interactions between people from different backgrounds and character trades what's making the show interesting. Who is a strong person, who is a weak one - and how a strong becomes weak and a weak person becomes a strong one overcoming their personal demons. Definitely interesting in case of a survival theme.

 

[Husker75]

Thanks for your great response, Art! I won't copy and past to respond to that beast we both created.. haha.. but I really appreciate more insite into where you were coming from, and I agree with a lot of your points now! And yeah, it's nice that this show makes us all talk about it with our different opinions and such!

Oh, and to the person who posted about needing to save more people.. I think it was sir angus? sorry.. lots of posts! I wanted to comment on that. I think that is a HORRIBLE idea.. in the comics, woodbury isn't all nice and shiny and happy. Having more people meant the governor had to be crueler to keep control. He had a mix of good apples and bad apples. And to keep the bad apples in line, he came up with the gladiator games, which were also a lot more vicious in the comics. Those are things that made him much more of a "super-villian" type guy that we were discussing earlier. You will have merle's, and *****'s, and all the jerks that survive to take care of. They create a liability, and a weakness for your group. The more of them there are, the less predictable and less reliable they are. For the most part, none of them were trained, and none of them had to experience as much combat either. Sure, it's good for the short run, but as far as their survival chances? slim.

Rick in the show and comic both decides to focus on HIS group. Tight, skilled, deadly, and loyal. They have weaknesses still, of course. The baby for instance HAS to die soon. It just does. Useless. I kinda hope rick smothers it if the gov doesn't kill it. And as sad as it makes me to say that as a human? It wouldn't make me that sad in that situation. She's a baby, and there is no chance in hell she will survive long. And by surviving longer than she needs to? She only puts the entire group at risk. Maybe in alexandria (comic) she could survive.. and maybe they will go that route.. but it just seems so unrealistic for that kid to live in any sort of way right now. It's a trap!

Back to the backpacker.. Rick had his son in the car, and a woman he was not sure if he could trust driving. There was NO WAY he was going to put a stranger into that situation after how screwed they have been lately. Not to mention the guy was making a ton of noise, and was clearly a fool. Then you top it off with the fact that they were going back to rick's home town to get weapons and ammo! Was he gonna show the guy where all the stashes were, just so the guy could ambush them with a hidden weapon, or steal one from a stash, and kill carl, michonne, or rick? or take the car, the guns, the supplies, and just vanish? SCREW THAT! No way. No chance in hell would I have stopped for that hitchhiker! Total death trap.

What's easy for a lot of you to do is make judgements based on your morals and your feelings as they are now. But your morals and your decisions change with your environment. In the post-apoc world they are depicting, people are not "humans" to reach out a hand to, and care for. The longer the time goes with this situation, the worse it gets. Rape, torture, cannibalism(please let us see that soon in the show), etc are all gonna start showing up in HUGE amounts, not just the passing fear that we consider them as today. Most "good" people will die, early and violently. And those that are left will be the worst. You'll have the survivors, who have compromised some of their morals and ethics in order to survive. And you'll also have the monsters, that have shut everything off, and just become pure animals. They will eat your baby while you sleep, and slowly amputate your limbs so that they can keep your meat fresh! And there is no telling who is who from a glance.

I was helping a cute old lady once.. and she stabbed me in the hand with a pen! I was working at a bank, and she struggled for 5 minutes to open an envelope, but couldn't get it open. I offered to help her, because she was taking forever, and I truly felt bad for her. She motioned like she was gonna give me the envelope, and I extended my hand, and she grabbed the pen attached to the counter and stabbed me with it! Sweet little 80 year old turned out to be a crazy biotch! So if you encounter crazies now, just imagine how crazy a situation like the dead coming to life makes some people?

I despise a great deal of the people on this planet already. I don't even want to try to think of surviving in a world where mostly those people survive, and i'm stuck in some sort of battle royale/hunger games with them and zombies! Screw that!

Rick is just being careful, and if I had been him in that situation, I would have let the guy die too. And yet from time to time, I am more than happy to give a few friendly looking hitchers a ride. But I only do it when I have my pocket knife sitting between my legs, ready to go in an instant.

One of my favorite movies/books is The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, anyone else like that? I kind of relate it to rick and carl.. and I like to think of it as rick and carl on their own, without the rest of the group, and zombies. Because after all, the walking dead is a reference to the human survivors, not the zombies. And while the road has no zombies, it features the exact same horror and desperation that TWD has. Highly recommend if you have not read the book or seen the movie!

 

[Astrokid248]

I'm gonna have to disagree on the baby issue...one way or another the human species is going to have to recover from the hit it took. Babies kind of make the world go round, and are pretty much the only way to accomplish the reconstruction of the species. You can delay the inevitable all you want, but you're never going to be safe and you're always going to need to make babies. So take care of the one you have, and reshape the human race.

On the katanas: yes, they are a cut-and-thrust blade. But katanas are not the best for thrusting because of the curvature of the blade (okay for punching through a little bit of armor into armpits and things, not so great for punching all the way through the thickest part of the skull and deep through the brain to the brain stem) and are certainly not what you want to use for thrusting if you're an amateur. So I stand by my earlier statement. If you have no experience with a bladed weapon and plan on stabbing things, do not use a katana. They suck. Use an arming sword made for thrusting. Or better yet, realize that stabbing things is a bad idea and use the katana for slashing only until you find a grandmaster or an instructional DVD that tells you how to stab properly otherwise. Besides, this show doesn't even bother keeping to its own continuity: the part of the brain that needs to be destroyed is at the back of the head. Damaging only the frontal lobes is not gonna stop a zombie.

 

[PAPA PRUT]

We were talking about this at work, and thinking that the governor might kidnap judith and try to keep her for his own, seeing as how he lost his daughter. Its just a theory, but ya never know.

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