mfirefly10 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mfirefly10) wrote2013-04-02 04:56 pm
mfirefly10) wrote2013-04-02 04:56 pm
Entry tags:
26. Walking Dead finale thoughts (cont'd)
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+ So I haven't been able to ~process my feelings over the finale through vidding because Sony Vegas is being a dick and I can't bring myself to watch certain scenes from that episode yet. Because of this, I shall express my thoughts through actual words :)
+ I am no stranger to character death. I watch far too many bleak/dark/apocalypse-type shows for character death not to be a bit old-hat by now. That being said, there are some character deaths that stick with you. Maybe because it was your favorite character, maybe because the death was particularly moving, maybe because it was a show-changer or you felt it happened at the wrong time/in the wrong way...I went into this finale with 6 favorite characters, dreading that any one of them could be killed. My fear came true.
(A warning in advance: this is quite lengthy)
For me, Andrea's death is going to be one that sticks with me for a while. She was my favorite character. Her last moments were unbelievably tragic and moving. But mostly, it'll stick with me because it just didn't feel right.
To me, Andrea’s death felt like an after-thought. Like something the writers decided to do at the last moment because the finale needed to have a major death and why not kill off the chick 3/4 of your fans claimed to hate? (This seems even more likely given Laurie Holden’s comments about not learning Andrea’s fate until a few days before they shot the finale. I also think the fact that her death is a huge deviation from the comics played a part in this decision.) This is a show where characters die left and right but Andrea’s death is only the second major character death that felt unnecessary to me. (I say major because characters like Oscar and Axel and the Woodbury folks were clearly just killed for the shock factor.) Every other major death mattered, either from a narrative POV (Amy, Jim, Sophia, Milton), a character POV (Jacqui, Dale, Merle), or both (Shane, Lori). Andrea’s (and T-Dog’s, though that poor dude was so under-developed, he might as well have been a minor character) just didn’t. Her death wasn’t necessary to drive the story forward. It wasn’t the natural end-point of her arc (can you imagine how many things they could’ve done with her in season 4?) It wasn’t even all-that shocking, given how much focus was placed on those Milton-Andrea scenes. And that’s why her death is really bothering me. Obviously I would’ve been upset regardless because she’s my favorite but at least they could’ve killed her in a way that mattered to the story or had some pay-off for her arc this season.
Also, I’m really annoyed by the nature of her death. Andrea has too much experience with watching people turn to just sit there and talk with Milton while he dies when she could be using the time to escape. She could’ve easily been chatting with him while using the pliers to cut herself loose. And the pliers...so convenient that she kept dropping them, wasn’t it? Not to mention that Andrea is a survivor and we’ve seen her take on several Walkers at once, so I find it extremely hard to believe that she could be bested by just one.
Don't get me wrong, her final scene was amazing. Actually, I think her last moments were exactly what I would’ve wanted for her death scene (albeit much further down the line.) I’m glad she found a certain peace at the end and died with people she loved by her side. I loved that she didn’t turn, I loved that her body wasn’t destroyed and I LOVED that she got to have some control over her death like she always wanted. I also loved the call-backs to earlier episodes with both Rick and Michonne: Andrea telling Rick that she knew how the safety works as an echo of the first time they met and Michonne refusing to leave Andrea’s side like in that first scene we had with them in 3x01. I loved that Andrea and Michonne made up in those final moments, that everything that had happened between them was forgiven and that Andrea knew Michonne still loved her. I’d love to believe that she will be remembered by the people she left behind and that she’s reunited with Amy and Dale in the afterlife...
...But I still hate that she died. I hate that the show lost one of the few characters who still really gave a crap about human life and argued for peace whenever possible. I hate that the show got rid of someone who could’ve been the perfect contrast to Carl’s new-found ‘let’s kill anyone who poses a threat’ sentiment. I hate that the show never truly explored her relationship with Michonne and the impact they had on one another. I hate that Andrea didn’t get to see that she actually managed to accomplish what she wanted in saving both the prison group and the people in Woodbury. I hate that the writers stuck her in a romance with the worst fictional person EVER and that they did her such a disservice by showing the audience how awful the Governor was while keeping Andrea in the dark. I hate that the writers did a terrible job in explaining Andrea’s decisions this season and that her motivations weren’t really clear unless you read into them. (The finale changed that but at what cost? Most fans already hated her by then and didn’t care why she did what she did.) Mostly I hate the wasted potential and that the series has lost a truly talented actress who had tons of chemistry with everyone she worked with.
I was always going to hate her death, no matter when or how it happened, but I really think the show made a mistake in killing her off this early. And I haven’t felt that way about any of the previous deaths.
All that being said, I’m sure by the time October rolls around, I’ll be ready to dive back into this show. I'll probably even be excited about it. But I don’t know that my attachment to the show will ever be quite the same. Because while I still love so many of the characters -- Daryl, Michonne, Maggie, Carol, Glenn -- I don’t really trust the writers to do right by them anymore. And I fear getting attached to any new characters for the same reason. So while I probably will still watch the show, IDK that it'll be MY show anymore.
If you read all this, I appreciate it and I promise to stop blabbing about my ~feels over this...sometime in the near future :)
.
+ So I haven't been able to ~process my feelings over the finale through vidding because Sony Vegas is being a dick and I can't bring myself to watch certain scenes from that episode yet. Because of this, I shall express my thoughts through actual words :)
+ I am no stranger to character death. I watch far too many bleak/dark/apocalypse-type shows for character death not to be a bit old-hat by now. That being said, there are some character deaths that stick with you. Maybe because it was your favorite character, maybe because the death was particularly moving, maybe because it was a show-changer or you felt it happened at the wrong time/in the wrong way...I went into this finale with 6 favorite characters, dreading that any one of them could be killed. My fear came true.
(A warning in advance: this is quite lengthy)
For me, Andrea's death is going to be one that sticks with me for a while. She was my favorite character. Her last moments were unbelievably tragic and moving. But mostly, it'll stick with me because it just didn't feel right.
To me, Andrea’s death felt like an after-thought. Like something the writers decided to do at the last moment because the finale needed to have a major death and why not kill off the chick 3/4 of your fans claimed to hate? (This seems even more likely given Laurie Holden’s comments about not learning Andrea’s fate until a few days before they shot the finale. I also think the fact that her death is a huge deviation from the comics played a part in this decision.) This is a show where characters die left and right but Andrea’s death is only the second major character death that felt unnecessary to me. (I say major because characters like Oscar and Axel and the Woodbury folks were clearly just killed for the shock factor.) Every other major death mattered, either from a narrative POV (Amy, Jim, Sophia, Milton), a character POV (Jacqui, Dale, Merle), or both (Shane, Lori). Andrea’s (and T-Dog’s, though that poor dude was so under-developed, he might as well have been a minor character) just didn’t. Her death wasn’t necessary to drive the story forward. It wasn’t the natural end-point of her arc (can you imagine how many things they could’ve done with her in season 4?) It wasn’t even all-that shocking, given how much focus was placed on those Milton-Andrea scenes. And that’s why her death is really bothering me. Obviously I would’ve been upset regardless because she’s my favorite but at least they could’ve killed her in a way that mattered to the story or had some pay-off for her arc this season.
Also, I’m really annoyed by the nature of her death. Andrea has too much experience with watching people turn to just sit there and talk with Milton while he dies when she could be using the time to escape. She could’ve easily been chatting with him while using the pliers to cut herself loose. And the pliers...so convenient that she kept dropping them, wasn’t it? Not to mention that Andrea is a survivor and we’ve seen her take on several Walkers at once, so I find it extremely hard to believe that she could be bested by just one.
Don't get me wrong, her final scene was amazing. Actually, I think her last moments were exactly what I would’ve wanted for her death scene (albeit much further down the line.) I’m glad she found a certain peace at the end and died with people she loved by her side. I loved that she didn’t turn, I loved that her body wasn’t destroyed and I LOVED that she got to have some control over her death like she always wanted. I also loved the call-backs to earlier episodes with both Rick and Michonne: Andrea telling Rick that she knew how the safety works as an echo of the first time they met and Michonne refusing to leave Andrea’s side like in that first scene we had with them in 3x01. I loved that Andrea and Michonne made up in those final moments, that everything that had happened between them was forgiven and that Andrea knew Michonne still loved her. I’d love to believe that she will be remembered by the people she left behind and that she’s reunited with Amy and Dale in the afterlife...
...But I still hate that she died. I hate that the show lost one of the few characters who still really gave a crap about human life and argued for peace whenever possible. I hate that the show got rid of someone who could’ve been the perfect contrast to Carl’s new-found ‘let’s kill anyone who poses a threat’ sentiment. I hate that the show never truly explored her relationship with Michonne and the impact they had on one another. I hate that Andrea didn’t get to see that she actually managed to accomplish what she wanted in saving both the prison group and the people in Woodbury. I hate that the writers stuck her in a romance with the worst fictional person EVER and that they did her such a disservice by showing the audience how awful the Governor was while keeping Andrea in the dark. I hate that the writers did a terrible job in explaining Andrea’s decisions this season and that her motivations weren’t really clear unless you read into them. (The finale changed that but at what cost? Most fans already hated her by then and didn’t care why she did what she did.) Mostly I hate the wasted potential and that the series has lost a truly talented actress who had tons of chemistry with everyone she worked with.
I was always going to hate her death, no matter when or how it happened, but I really think the show made a mistake in killing her off this early. And I haven’t felt that way about any of the previous deaths.
All that being said, I’m sure by the time October rolls around, I’ll be ready to dive back into this show. I'll probably even be excited about it. But I don’t know that my attachment to the show will ever be quite the same. Because while I still love so many of the characters -- Daryl, Michonne, Maggie, Carol, Glenn -- I don’t really trust the writers to do right by them anymore. And I fear getting attached to any new characters for the same reason. So while I probably will still watch the show, IDK that it'll be MY show anymore.
If you read all this, I appreciate it and I promise to stop blabbing about my ~feels over this...sometime in the near future :)
.