#i've held he'd be an antagonist not a villain this whole time

[thebookworm0001]

just gonna say there's a reason solas is described as an antagonist and not a villain in the new post

there's an important distinction there

and my dumbass is holding onto it

[twdsunshine]

This is related to the previous ask, but I agree with you on liking the bond shared between characters as opposed to liking one of those characters. My favorite Carol was Season 5-6 Carol. Pre-Alexandria era Carol, especially right after Beth's death was her best moments as a character. I grew to like her a lot when I saw how she was comforting Daryl after he was going through that massive depressive state about the loss of Beth and encouraged him to live through his emotions rather than pushing them down and tormenting himself even more than he already was. And Alexandria era Carol? She was the definition of a sweet and caring mother figure who bakes the neighborhood cookies but won't hesitate to slice a man if he crosses a line. Her banter with Daryl and teasing him and how their friendship was displayed solidified the audience's love for them. But as the seasons went on and the writing of the show diverged from what the show is truly about, I felt that a lot of characters were killed off, completely changed, and simply character assasinated. Carol being one of them, and to some extent Daryl too. I'm all for everybody's favorite shows having multiple seasons, but only if the content has the same quality as earlier seasons. Feel free to disagree, but I feel like TWD should have ended after the introduction of Negan as the main antagonist or the fall of Negan. The rest of the seasons stretched and dragged on to the point where I would read/watch something from the show and wonder if the people writing these episodes are the same people who gave us the fantastic moments from earlier seasons.

Uck, yes, I agree with you about characters being killed off or changed or whatever, and the quality dropping off. My honest belief with TWD is that it was far, faaaaar better when it had a smaller cast. The writers really had the time to focus in on the characters and develop them and their relationships in an organic and believable way. That, for me, is why the early seasons are the best. Farm-era and then the prison... Even when they brought the Woodbury residents into the prison, we only really got to know a few of them - the focus was still very much on our core group.

It seems to me that, when they reached Alexandria, and then we had the introduction of Hilltop and Kingdom and Oceanside and The Heaps and the Sanctuary... They just had so many people that they wanted to include in the story that they literally didn't have the screentime available to develop any of them properly. Look at what they did with Jesus - I've never read the comics, but from what I understand he played a much bigger part in the story, and I really believe they did Tom Payne dirty with what a shallow, pointless character he ultimately became in the show. And, I mean, Daryl literally stopped talking completely for episodes on end. Yes, he'd been tortured and gone through something horrific, but they didn't really address him dealing with that. Or not as much as I would have liked. I would've loved a scene where we actually saw him talk about his time held captive with Rick or Carol or, hell, anyone really. Like the sweet moments we had after he lost Beth that you mentioned. But we didn't get any of that which was a real shame.

I wouldn't have wanted the show to end with the introduction of Negan. I love him as a villain. But I definitely think that the whole Saviors storyline could have been wrapped up in a season, rather than spreading out over 2 or 3. Also, there seem to be all these little tangents that never really go anywhere and seem to be a waste of time... The Wolves, for example, and, more recently, the Reapers. Like, what was the point? What did they add to the plot at all? I don't see it! And all the kinda... back-story episodes that catch us up on some minor character: Morgan and how he got his staff from the weird goat man; the Governor's journey where he met Tara and found Martinez again. I don't really know anybody that rates those episodes, and I kinda feel like those moments could just be short flashbacks rather than taking up soooo much time.

So, yeah, if you ask me they kind of wrote themselves into a corner where they had soooo many characters and they wanted us to care about all of them, but they literally got like 30 seconds of screentime per episode each, so then they started killing them off, and we just don't give a single damn because we don't really know them. And then, as the actors have had their successes and other projects have come up, they come up with these half-assed ways for them to leave the show... I'm sorry, but Michonne would not have left her kids in middle of a goddamn war. No way, no how. Didn't make any sense. So, then we kinda stop caring about those characters too, I guess like I have with Carol. And it stops being hard-hitting and shocking and just becomes a bit blah. If we'd literally just stayed focus on a smaller core group still, and dedicated more time to them and their relationships and their growth, it would have been a much more enjoyable show to watch.

Speaking of tangents, I feel like I went off on one there (this post was really supposed to be about Carol, right? 😂), but I feel pretty strongly about this! I do think that the writing has got better again in season 11 (and, actually, season 10 too, to some extent) but, once again, there are all these new characters and I'm not gonna have time to give a shit about them before the show ends. So, really, why bother? I feel like the Commonwealth storyline is gonna be super rushed, but I'm in it till the end now, and I'm intrigued to see if/how they manage to wrap it all up.

My hope is that, with the spin-offs, they'll focus on the characters we know, at least to begin with - Negan, Maggie, Daryl - rather than stretching themselves too thin again. If they do, they could be absolute magic. But I guess we'll see.