#scumbag michonne

[realbluejg]

Walking Dead:Michonne sings!

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Arc Predictions, Part 2: Other Stuff This Season

I said I’d talk about where we think other arcs might be leading. As with yesterday’s post, keep in mind that this is just conjecture and where we THINK these might be heading. They’re possibilities that in all likelihood will change as the season progresses.

***I will be mentioning spoilers for later in the season further down. I’ll warn you first, but just know I will be talking about them in this post.***

Michonne’s Arc:

Remember we saw the toilet paper around her in 9x06, which might lead to a long journey for her.

In this last episode, we saw her cut the violin in half, and I’ve already said I think, because it’s a musical instrument that was “injured,” it could be a symbol for Beth. Michonne ended up damaging the instrument specifically because of her close-mindedness, refusal to trust anyone, and how quickly she jumps to violence when she perceives a possible threat. @thegloriouscollectorlady even made the very good point that, if the violin represents Beth, then Michonne just took on Dawn’s role as the person who damages the songbird.

Now, obviously Michonne is not nearly as evil or scumbag-ish as Dawn was, but we also saw her being compared to Negan before Rick blew the bridge. That was because she was being so brutal. Even now her negative mindset is leading to negative things.

So we’re kind of wondering if Michonne might end up taking off for a while. For me, that thought came mostly because of the toilet paper. Others are looking at other things. But if Beth ends up being Judith’s mentor, it would make sense for Michonne not to be there for a while.

So where would she go? Obviously she's not gonna leave Judith and RJ easily. I wouldn't expect her to. But there are a few possibilities we’re thinking about. It could be a matter of her going to find Maggie in the Commonwealth. If that's the case, it would be merely a journey and she would probably just leave the kids in Daryl or Carol's care. (Understand that I’m not predicting Michonne’s death here, but possibly her absence for a time.) But of course a trip like that could be stretched over several seasons if they want it to be.

A Nonny sent me an Ask on Sunday saying that IMDB lists Pollyanna McIntosh for the MSF. Now, we don't know for sure that this will be the case. IMDB isn’t always reliable and if Anne/Jadis doesn't return in the MSF, then this theory will be void. (There's also the possibility that she will be in it, but it will be a flashback or something, in which case this won't work either.) But if Anne comes back for real, I think she would have to tell them Rick is alive. And if Michonne learns that he's alive, chances are she's going to go look for him. So that could be another reason she leaves. Again, this is all very much conjecture.

The other thing to note is that Michonne does leave for several years in the comic books. In the CBs, she's with Ezekiel rather than Rick, and after Ezekiel is killed by the Whisperers, she takes off on her own for a while. So, it's the right time (Whisperers) for her long journey arc, and they might just substitute Rick's death (”death”) because he’s her lover on the show, rather than Ezekiel's, as her reason to leave. It would be a twist on what happens in the books, but the show is notorious for doing that.

Henry and Daryl:

So I talked yesterday how Henry equals Beth in many ways, right? 

***If you don’t want spoilers for later in the season, don't read past this part. You’ve been warned.***

Spoiler say that Henry is going to be kidnapped by the Whisperers and Daryl will look for him. What does that sound like to you? Yes, Beth. But we can take it even further back than that. It sounds like Sophia.

Sophia wasn't kidnapped, but she was Carol's child, and when she went missing, Daryl went looking for her. Guys, this is super-interesting when it comes to Carol and Daryl's twin arcs. Neither of them found Sophia in S2. She died. They couldn't save her. And it messed both of them up. 

Carol already had her redemption of Sophia’s arc back in S8 when she went and found Henry. Now she gets to be happy. Because she found and saved him, she gets to raise him. She didn't get that with Sophia because she was too weak to keep her daughter safe. She has gotten it with Henry and we see how happy and fulfilled she is. This is Carol’s second chance or do-over.

Daryl, on the other hand, has never gotten any kind of redemption. Unfortunately for him, he went through this twice. Once with Sophia, and again with Beth. Both were missing girls that he searched for, but ultimately couldn't save. So now, Henry will go missing and Daryl will look for him. So this is the third time he’ll search for a missing person (rule of threes) and possibly will lead to redemption for him.

This does actually have stronger ties the Beth’s arc because Sophia wasn't kidnapped. She merely wandered off and was bitten. In both Henry’s and Beth’s cases, they’re kidnapped by a bad group of people, and Daryl then goes looking for them.

So, hopefully this will be Daryl's redemption. He  (hopefully) will be able to find Henry and save him, rather than lose him. 

We also think it will probably lead to him finding Beth in some way. We’re not sure how, but we also know that she doesn't actually need to be saved. (”She saved herself.”) But Daryl finally finding someone and perhaps reaching a more positive mindset, as Carol has done, may end up leading him to Beth in some way. 

Think of it this way: Carol found Ezekiel and Henry at roughly the same time, since both were at the Kingdom. She didn’t accept Ezekiel’s love until after she’d saved Henry, because it was something she needed to do to heal and redeem herself. But they did sort of happen concurrently. So perhaps Daryl searching for Henry and finding Beth will happen concurrently as well.

I also think it’s significant, not only that the guy playing Henry is Madison Lintz’s (Sophia’s) brother, but both of them were on TTD last week. Almost like the show is hinting that Henry’s arc is linked to Sophia’s in some way.

Unfortunately, we must also acknowledge the other possibility: that Daryl won’t find Henry and he’ll die. Based on spoilers, that doesn't seem likely, but it's always a possibility. If it does happen, it won’t worry me overly much where Beth is concerned. At that point, we’ll still have a rule of threes. It could be that after Daryl’s third search for somebody, if he loses them again, he’ll truly be at rock bottom. And maybe that would be when Beth shows up. It works for me either way, but I think it's more likely that he'll be able to help Henry. At least, I hope he does can, both for his sake and Carzekiel’s.

Strawberry Theory

This is kinda random and doesn’t have much to do with last week’s episode. It’s something a follower pointed out to me. So, remember after 9x06, when we saw Father Gabriel working on the radio/relay, I said I thought his radio system would have something to do with how Beth and TF reconnected?

Okay, so way back in June 2015, I did a “Strawberry Theory 2.0” which was based around the fact that we saw strawberries around FG in 5b. The gist of it was that I thought FG would have something to do with Beth’s return. 

I’d kind of moved away from this idea in the past few years. Especially as we’ve seen Gabriel be a proxy for Beth a few times, I thought maybe the strawberries were just about that.

I confess, I wasn’t even thinking about the strawberries when I made the claim about his relay leading to Beth. I’d totally forgotten that aspect of the strawberry theory. But if his radio relay DOES do something to bring her back, then my thoughts on the strawberries three years ago will turn out to be true. Just saying.

*clears throat* Moving on...

Traps (and more of Daryl/Henry):

I was going to include this in my Details post the other day, but then I ran it past @thegloriouscollectorlady (we bounce ideas off one another often) and her response made me think of something huge, and I knew it would need to go in a different post.

So she and I often discuss how we think that when Beth shows up, she’ll save Daryl in some way. It’s something TD in general has believed for many years, and we still think it will happen. We just don’t know what form it will take.

So I was intrigued by Daryl’s talk of traps. He told Henry the traps weren’t for animals. Just walkers. He said that was no way to die, slow and miserable like that. 

First of all, it felt like a foreshadow, and an ominous one at that. But more to the point, I also felt the traps in this episode were a callback, and I don’t just mean to Alone.

Remember in 4x16 (yes, the same episode with the flashback where Rick put the sheriff’s hat on Beth’s head) Rick showed Michonne and Carl how to make small game traps. 

He made them out of a rope, using a slip knot, so that when the animal got caught in it, it would tighten around the animal and catch them. He even showed them how to make little trails in the dirt that lead to the trap, because animals tend to blindly follow the path of least resistance. 

Now, on the one hand, this was an obvious foreshadow of Terminus. Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl walked into a trap, and then went exactly where the Termites directed them with bullets aimed at their feet.

But what struck me is that the traps Daryl uses around his campsite, such as the one we see here:

And also the one Dog got caught in, are the same kind of trap Rick showed Carl and Michonne in 4x16. So you could argue it’s a major callback to S4/Terminus/when Beth went missing. But I also don’t believe that they do callbacks on the show JUST for the sake of doing the callback. That would be wasteful. They do them to show that something is still relevant or about to come back around. Therefore, every callback doubles as a foreshadow.

So what does this mean? I honestly didn’t know. That’s why I asked @thegloriouscollectorlady’s opinion: because I didn’t know what to make of it other than being a callback to 4x16 (which again is where Beth was named the new sheriff).

She wasn’t sure either, but said she thought I was right about the foreshadow. Then she said something that gave me a serious light bulb moment.

Remember that Daryl = Dog, right? (Carol asked him when he’d last eaten, and he said Dog had eaten the day before, so Dog symbolically = Daryl). Well, @thegloriouscollectorlady made the observation that, we have Dog (symbolically Daryl) in a trap, with walkers (who at this point can really only represent the Whisperers) bearing down on him. So we may have a foreshadow of Daryl being trapped and the Whisperers coming to kill him.

In this episode, Henry saves Daryl (and by extension Dog) from the walkers trying to bite him And what have we already established about Henry in this episode with all the Still/Alone callbacks?

Henry = Beth!

So I think we have a foreshadow here of Daryl being trapped in some way and in danger from the Whisperers, and BETH will save him, as Henry saved Daryl.

Think about it. We’ve all compared Henry’s foot getting caught in the trap to when it happened to Beth in Alone, right? But there’s one major difference between this scene and that one. With Beth, Daryl wasn’t in danger. He was watching her and jumped in to help when she stepped in the trap, but he wasn’t in danger himself. 

In 9x07, he was. Henry jumped in specifically to save Daryl, and we didn’t see that with Beth in Alone. So I think the reason for all the callbacks, dialogue parallels, etc. was to establish that Henry = Beth. And we have a foreshadow that Daryl will be trapped and Beth will save him.

Incidentally, this goes hand in had with my post about Black/White Dog Symbolism and the foreshadows in the Alone sequence. This is a very similar situation, also having to do with dogs (Bethyl) and walkers (Whisperers).

Of course we have no idea when this will happen. Maybe next episode. Maybe next season. But it makes me super happy and excited. Okay, that’s all for today. Who’s excited for Sunday? ;D

[shimmershaewrites]

Waltzing's for Dreamers, Chapter 21 (a Walking Dead story, Caryl AU).

Title: Waltzing's for Dreamers

Rating:  PG, maybe. 

Warnings:  some angst. 

Characters/Pairings:  Carol/Daryl, Lori/Rick, Sophia Peletier, Carl Grimes, Glenn Rhee, mentions of Andrea Harrison, Philip Blake, Tara Chambler, T-Dog, Shane Walsh, Michonne, Ed Peletier, Merle Dixon. 

 Excuse any typos and the generalized suckiness of this chapter.  I kinda hate it, but maybe you'll find some redeeming qualities, lol.  This chapter brought to you by the power of insomnia. 

   Waltzing’s for Dreamers

    Seven years after Vegas.  Late May. 

      It’s muggy outside.  Downright sticky. 

  Nothing all that unusual for Georgia in the month of May and yet?  When Carol ducks into the quiet coolness of Rick and Lori’s half bath, she’s shocked at the state of her hair.  Frizzy and more than a little wild, it’s 90’s era Julia Roberts big, and there’s no taming it.  Not really.  So she doesn’t even bother.  Just tucks it behind her ears and wanders into the kitchen.  Looks for something to occupy her time, some small way she can help her friend.  Lori was kind enough to host this annual shindig, after all, and if it comes with the added bonus of shielding her from a certain impenetrable blue gaze?  Well, then.  All the better.   Unfortunately, her method of distraction is short-lived.  She stills her restless hands on the kitchen counter when she hears the telltale shuffle of tired feet and an unmistakable sigh.  The babbling apology that’s sincere, yes.  But not entirely true. 

  “Carol.  Sweetie, I’m so sorry.  Rick invited him.  I found out when you did.” 

  Lori’s all baby belly and quite possibly the only person more miserable today than Carol herself, so she lets the slight fudging of the truth slide.  For the time being anyway.  Offers her friend a thin flicker of a smile as she lets her off the hook.  Starts rearranging all the forks and spoons before her into neat rows.  “It’s okay.” 

  “Is it?  Really?”

  Carol stops fiddling with the plastic silverware and meets her friend’s earnest brown eyes.  Releases a sigh of her own then half-mumbles a response that’s entirely unconvincing.  “Gotta be.”  She’s not lying, even if her delivery is somewhat lacking.  Couldn’t even if she wanted to, not to Lori.  Everything has to be okay.  She has to be okay because Daryl’s decided to stay.  Replant some roots and get to know the beautiful little soul he helped create.  It’s what she’d wanted when she had Michonne draw up those papers for her, the ones that offered him a place in their son’s life if he desired it.  Sophia’s too, if that’s what her sensitive, headstrong little girl wished.  Free and clear of any restrictions.  It’s what she’d hoped for.  Still.  Wanting something and actually being prepared for the reality of it?  Two different animals altogether.  Surviving the rest of the school year had been nothing compared to this.  All of the stress and second guessing must show on her face because Lori’s crossing the room and opening her arms, cooing sympathetically, and Carol’s all but crumpling at the gesture of sisterly concern. 

  “Oh, Honey.  Come here.” 

  Her friend’s hug is awkward but heartfelt and Carol laughs, gathering tears be damned, when the baby trapped between them kicks on cue, doing wonders for her mood and reminding her to get over mopey self.  Pulling back, she places her palms over Lori’s swollen belly and smiles.  “Hi, Sweetheart.  Nap-time over?” 

  “Nap-time?” Lori rolls her eyes with a grin.  “What is this nap-time you speak of?  This little one,” she says, pausing to direct Carol’s hand to the insistent press of a little foot before continuing, “she never sleeps.” 

  “She?  I thought you and Rick wanted to be surprised.” 

  “Carl,” Lori corrects her.  “Carl wants to be surprised.  Rick and I, well.  We’re humoring him.  Besides.  What’s one more surprise?  Right?” she quips, absently following the movements of her child with her hand still covering Carol’s hand before eventually letting it go.   

  “She, though?”  Pulling out the nearest barstool, she nudges her friend until she takes a seat.  Encourages her to kick off her sandals before doing the same.  She drops into the seat next to her and curls her pink-tipped toes around the rung of the stool, props her chin in her hand as her gaze flits back to Lori.  Smirks before allowing another question to tumble free.  “You sure you haven’t peeked?”   

  “I hope that’s not an accusation.” 

  “Sheesh.  Guilty much?”  Giddy, girlish laughter peels from Carol’s lips at the wide eyed, open mouthed expression that accompanies that statement.  “Relax.  I’m just kidding.  Mostly.”  When Lori snorts at that little addendum, she loses all composure again.  They both do.  Especially when Rick walks into the kitchen and promptly backpedals, his hands held up signaling his ultimate surrender to his wife’s current mood, whatever that may be.  They’re so unpredictable these days.  “Poor Rick,” she muses. 

  “Listen to you.  Poor Rick.  Mostly.  Some friend you are.” 

  The words are meant to tease, but Carol takes them to heart.  Sobers.  Thinks about how much she’s relied on the two of them, Lori and Rick.  Oh, Michonne was there.  Andrea, too, to a lesser extent.  But Lori and Rick?  She’s leaned hard on them.  The last few years especially, finding herself right back in a position she never thought she’d be in again:  single parenthood.  Rearing a helpless baby boy and trying her best to put a heartbroken little girl back together.  And it feels selfish, to keep dumping her wonders and woes on them when Daryl’s back in the picture.  Because Carl’s birth had been a difficult one and this pregnancy hasn’t exactly been a cakewalk.  They have their own worries that they hide behind braves faces and here she is.  Letting herself drown without even attempting to save herself and swim toward the shore.  “Yeah.  Some friend.” 

  “Hey,” Lori softly entreats.  “You know I’m kidding, right?” 

  “And I’m just being melodramatic.” 

  “Seriously?  Is your name Andrea?  Because her life is a complete soap opera.” 

  Carol looks up in surprise.  It’s the first time in more than a month that anybody has been bold enough to even utter Andrea’s name in her presence and Lori does it so casually she almost forgets the residual anger that makes her clench her hands into tight fists.  Makes her gut churn and her heart beat hot and heavy behind her breastbone.  Makes her throat go dry and her tongue feel too thick in her mouth and she’s reminded anew of the faces that are missing from the day’s backyard celebration.  “Lori.” 

  “She didn’t have the right to do what she did.  You and Daryl…” 

  “Might have still ended up apart.  We might have,” she insists.  “Merle is his brother and Daryl loves him.  More than anything in this world.” 

  “Not anything.  Not you and Sophia and…” 

  Pushing back from the bar, Carol stands up.  Cuts her off before she can say anything more.  Paces around the kitchen that suddenly feels less like a safe haven and more like a trap.  Its walls closing in and the oxygen growing thin because it would seem that pregnancy has obliterated whatever semblance of a filter Lori might have claimed in the past.  She’s stubbornly determined to lance all of Carol’s festering wounds.  Expose them and let them breathe.  Force them to heal when she would be just as content to keep the band-aids on a little while longer.  “Daryl has his code.  Merle needed him.  He nearly died in that wreck.” 

  “And whose fault is that?” Lori mutters.  More to herself than anything. 

  Carol answers her anyway.  Wearily but with conviction.  “I’m not arguing culpability with you.  I’m not.  What happened?  Happened.  Daryl chose his brother.  And, he chose him before Andrea ever put those divorce papers in his hands.”     

  “Divorce papers that he never finished signing.  Divorce papers that were never filed.” 

  The pointed reminder does what it’s designed to do.  It renders Carol temporarily mute as her friend launches into a passionate dissertation of the so-called facts as she sees them and to be honest?  Her viewpoint strikes an uncomfortable chord. 

  “Merle needed him, but you needed him more.  Only he didn’t know that, did he?  He thought you wanted nothing to do with him because Andrea saw her chance and she seized it.  Anything to assuage her guilt.  Think about it, Carol.  Who pushed the hardest for you and Daryl to stay married in the first place?  Andrea.  She thought it would get Ed off your back and for the most part?  It did.  For a while anyway.  But we all knew he was a cockroach so that’s beside the point.  The point being she felt responsible, even before she got mixed up with that scumbag Blake.  The good and the bad.  She felt like it was her doing.” 

  “Lori.” 

  “No,” Lori shakes her head.  “Let me finish.  Sweetie, you need to hear this, whether you want to or not.”    

  Carol doesn’t tell her she’s rehashing old news.  That would take more energy than she possesses, at least in that exact moment.  So she just stands there and takes it.  Listens in the hopes that this is it.  The last time she’s confronted with the mistakes of her past.  She relents.  “Fine.”    

  “Merle did nearly die in that wreck.  And it was awful and scary and you were a basket case, remember?” 

  She merely nods.  Of course, she remembers.  She couldn’t forget if she wanted to because the unrelenting worry she’d felt for her husband and her troubled brother-in-law had landed her in a hospital bed just two floors removed, with monitors hooked up to her and alarms shrieking and keeping her on constant edge.  It’d been one of the scariest experiences she’d ever endured and she’d endured it largely alone.  Only in the last couple of months had she found out why and it had been worse than her desperate imaginings. 

  “You were a basket case.  Worried sick for Merle and for Daryl and then you ended up in the hospital yourself.  That was Andrea’s tipping point.” 

  “I don’t…” 

  “She suspected Blake had played a part in Merle’s accident even then and she felt guilty.  Irrationally guilty.  So irrationally guilty, she decided to make things right.  Only she went about it completely the wrong way because all she managed to do was screw things up even more.  I’m still fuzzy on the details, but somehow, when Daryl finally surfaced from Merle’s bedside and was told what had happened with you and the baby, he assumed the worst.  He assumed…” 

  “I know what he assumed.  I know what Andrea let him assume.  What she told him in some misguided effort to protect me and the kids and I don’t want to talk about it anymore, Lori.  The past is in the past.  It can’t be changed and I’m tired of dwelling on it.” 

  “But don’t you want to make sense of it?” 

  “Sense of it?  Lori, Andrea said so herself.  She was clear on one thing and one thing only.”   

  “Ain’t no makin’ sense of it.” 

  Carol’s agitated steps stutter to a stop and her eyes lock with those of the man who, for all intents and purposes, is still her husband because there’s another set of divorce papers out there that he’s holding onto.  A set she’d had drawn up and left for him, along with a simple band of gold.  Irony of all ironies, history is repeating itself.  Only this time, her signature’s lacking and she hasn’t stopped running long enough to do anything about it.  She’s afraid of what will happen if she does.  Doesn’t know if she has it in herself to be brave enough to find out.  She’s done that once before, gone against her own nature.  Walked the safe route and tried for a while to pretend she had what she wanted and needed in her ill-fated relationship with Tobin, but the truth was?  It’d always had an expiration date and deep down?  She’d known it.  That said, she’s going to need a helluva lot more convincing to take that kind of risk with her heart again and one of the most important reasons for her reticence is standing less than five feet away.   But maybe it’s time to take a chance. 

  “Mama?”  Sophia eyes them all with suspicion. 

  “Sophia?”  Lori attempts to divert the little girl’s attention.  “Where’s your brother?” 

  The forthcoming answer is polite and to the point.  Distracted as she zeroes in on Carol’s face.  “Outside.  With Tara and Uncle T.” 

  Mercifully oblivious, Carl is intent on seeking his mother out with a problem he claims is life and death.  As only an adolescent can. 

  Before Lori has a chance to excuse herself, Glenn arrives to save the day.  Reading the tension fraught room and taking the preoccupied boy by the shoulders.  Steering him back the way he’d come.    

  “Cool!  Really?  How’d you know what to do?” 

  “Sometimes, being a complete nerd comes in handy.” 

  “Mama,” Sophia persists.  “What’s going on?” 

  Barely a glance from Carol, and Lori’s sliding from her seat.  Forcing her swollen feet back into her sandals and grabbing a pitcher of lemonade from the counter, not even giving Sophia a chance to protest before all but pushing it into her small, fidgeting hands.  “How are those burgers coming?  Shane and Rick fighting over the grill again?” 

  “Yes, Ma’am.  But…” 

  “I bet everybody’s thirsty.” 

  “But…” 

  “Thank you so much for your help, Sweetie,” Lori declares with exaggerated cheerfulness as she nudges the child forward.  “Carl and the rest of the guys are just useless.”

  Finally, they hear the patio door shut, and it’s just the two of them and Carol has nowhere left to run.  At least that’s what she tells herself as she takes a deep, fortifying breath.  Straightens to her full height and meets Daryl’s narrowed blue gaze head on. 

  “What’s this all about?” 

  “You and me.”  She takes a step closer and another.  The distance between them makes her ache, makes it hard for her to expand her lungs and find her voice. 

  “Me and you?  You said…”

  She interrupts him because she doesn’t want to hear her own words echoed back to her.  They’d hurt plenty enough saying them.  Hearing them the first time.  “You were right.  Nobody knows me like you do.  Nobody has.  Nobody ever will.” 

  “Hell you playin’ at here?  Cruel to give a man hope where there ain’t none.” 

  This time, he takes a step closer and it’s all Carol can do to stand her ground.  Her heart’s in her throat and it feels like it’s grown wings.  Feels like it’s going to take flight without her consent and that’s a terrifying proposition because what if it falls again?  What if it plummets back to Earth and she shatters into a million tiny, unrecognizable pieces?  But oh.  What if it flies?  What if…

  “Carol.” 

  His hands are on her face and they’re so gentle, so careful, and shit.  She’s crying.  When did that happen? 

  “Just me.” 

  “I know.” 

  “Can tell me anything.  Anything.” 

  “You really mean that, don’t you?” 

  “Do.” 

  “Can tell me to crawl straight back to Hell, need be.  Be a short trip but I’ll take it if that’s what you’re askin’.  Just…” 

  His scruff is rough beneath the pads of her thumbs but his mouth is soft and it trembles when she silences him with her own careful touch.  “Daryl?” 

  “Yeah?” he rumbles.                                           

  “I never stopped.”  His eyes spark with a hope so pure it’s painful at those simple words, and she knows he knows what she’s talking about.  Knows he remembers that conversation on that crumbling porch.  Knows he recalls the sweet heavy mist of the falling rain as they made love, but she doesn’t want there to be any lingering doubts.  So she says it again.  Murmurs it as a promise.  “I never stopped and I never will.”

  “Me and you?” 

                                                                               “Trying.  That’s all I can promise.” 

  “All I want, Sweetheart.  All I need.” 

[sophygurl]

🌋 (for the unpopular opinion) walking dead

oooooo thank you. I could really re-write my previous unpopular opinion thing about villains and just put Negan’s name in there, but I’ll do something else lol

okay. I’m gonna make some enemies with this one but. I honestly believe that Daryl should have been one of the one’s Lucille’d in the season opener. 

not because I hate Daryl or Norman or white dudes or whatever.

but because it made the most amount of sense to me within the framework of the narrative. I feel like if the writers were not scared to kill off the most beloved character on the show, it’s the route they would have taken. And I get why they didn’t, but here’s why I wish they did:

Negan had clear goals in choosing who to kill in that moment. Despite the creepy af (not to mention amazingly intense cliffhanger that resulted - good job show runners on that one tbh) “eenie meenie minie moe” thing - he knew who he wanted to kill and why. And Abraham being the substitute for Daryl made the second amount of sense but still...

Negan leaves the leaders of communities in place as much as possible because his goal is not to lord over each community and micro-manage them but to allow each community to persist basically within their own sub-culture as-is while also toiling for him and his people. The best way to do that is to keep things mostly intact. So Rick and Michonne and even Maggie are out right off. They’d be needed, under Negan’s estimation, to keep the community functioning enough to serve him. 

He doesn’t hesitate, however, to threaten those closest to the leaders or those who the community holds dear - so going after Carl, as a child of the leader as well as being a child and therefore someone the community is likely to hold as precious to them, but not actually killing him. No, he makes it very clear that while he’d take his arm off, he is not to be killed.

(this is also why I don’t think Glenn made sense as a kill because he was so obviously the heart of the group - threatening him, torturing him, kidnapping him - yea, but not outright killing him. I think, a case can definitely be made for him being the second kill that night making sense because when he did THAT, he was trying to make a different point than with his first kill but that’s another meta)

So, while the main leaders and even the hearts of the community were out - secondary leaders are in. Specifically secondary leaders who are strong, willful, and who show signs of standing against Negan and the Saviors even once Negan got Rick good and subjugated. (what Negan didn’t know is that describes MOST of the group but that’s his flaw and not what went into his decision-making that night)

Sparing the leaders who can keep the group functional and the emotional centers who can keep them motivated is good. Killing other badasses in the community who might rise against him and/or urge others to do the same is also good. Hence, his choice of Abraham right? The way Abraham just juts his head forward like - do it you scumbag or you’ll have me to deal with later?? That’s what got him the first Lucille death of the group.

But that should have been Daryl. Everything we know about Daryl says he’d be the one to do this, and in fact he basically does when he later jumps out at Negan causing Glenn’s death and his own kidnapping and torture. Right? Daryl is someone who is not going to allow his people to be hurt or threatened. He’s super fucking protective of those he claims as his own. And he has a deep need to stand up against bullies and for those being hurt and tormented. This is essential to who Daryl is. 

So yea, I believe Negan would have seen that in Daryl and chosen him first. And the rallying cry that would have sounded through the community at both Daryl and Glenn’s deaths (in my pretend scenario here, probably someone else would have lashed out at what all was going on - maybe even Abraham and we’d then get to see Abe eating dog food sandwiches and saying something oddly both offensive and amusing about the song Easy Street as Dwight tried to torture him into saying he was Negan and OH! Can you imagine, because probably Abe wouldn’t have escaped the way Daryl did mirite? So he’d have been there when EUGENE got there and Eugene would not have tried to go with the flow and convince MFing Abe to join Negan - wow, that could have been an amazing story... okay sorry tangent moving on), 

but the rallying cry for Daryl - I’m sorry - would have been much bigger and deeper and truer than the one for Abe. Like, Abe had basically three people who were really close to him? And Daryl has more like eleventy? IDK. We can count that up later. 

But Alexandrians and Team Family alike would have been not just devastated but moved to ANGER in a way they weren’t for Abe. Glenn devastated everyone. Abe devastated a few. But Daryl would have just catapulted the group to new levels of motivation. 

hmmm, maybe that’s why he wasn’t picked? Because they wanted Rick to have half a season of dragging his heels not wanting to provoke Negan further when if he’d lost Daryl he would have been propelled into action much sooner? That’s a thought.

But I still think Daryl made more sense than Abe. And it’s not because I want Daryl gone more than I wanted Abe gone. I’m kinda meh on Abe and love Daryl to pieces. I just think his death would have made more sense both for Negan’s purposes of taking down someone who could stand against him and for the group’s purposes of how to organize to fight back after such a big blow. 

I’ve been thinking this ever since I got over season 6′s finale enough to think carefully about it vs. just FEELS-ing all over the place, but this is my first time writing it out so thanks for the opportunity!