Are you watching the new season of The Walking Dead? Opinion?

I am indeed! My overall general opinion? Even thought it’s only two episodes in, this season so far is six BILLION times better than last season. 

Pros

-THE TREATMENT OF LADY CHARACTERS. This show has never been great at portraying their female characters as anything other than gross stereotypes, so the change this season is REFRESHING. Maggie is both a badass zombie killer yet still vulnerable and in tune with her emotions, and isn’t shamed for it. Carol is exhibiting more agency, and her exchange with Daryl in the first episode had me DYING, it was awesome. The writers have even wised up with Lori; instead of trying to tell the audience that she’s one thing where her actions on screen say another, they’re embracing the huge mistakes they made with her and framing it for her characterization. It’s totally working. 

-The pace is so much better. Let’s be honest, the characterization of their characters has never really been their strong suit. It’s only because of the actors (i.e. Norman Reedus especially) that the characters are memorable. This show is, above everything, about the atmosphere of their enviroment. The show’s best moments are always the action scenes, and they haven’t failed to deliver so far. And with the Governor looming on the horizon, those action scenes are going to be great.

-That being said, even though the show’s strong suit isn’t the characters, they’ve done a MUCH better job with portraying the core group. The characters are not only much more cohesive and know how to work together, the toll that their existence is wearing on them is so much more apparent. I think the time jump has worked wonders and has revitalized the show, giving the audience more layered and complex characters to root for.

Cons

-The framing of the Andrea/Michonne angle. I understand that they’re trying to keep Michonne a mystery for the audience who’s never read the comics, but at the same time, I feel like they could have shown more of her while still keeping that mystery. I know we’re only two episodes in, so this is really just a slight nit-pick on my part. But I don’t think they’ve even revealed what her name is yet? What’s the harm in telling the audience her name so they don’t have to refer to her as the black woman with the sword?

-Again, this is slightly nitpicky, but I’m a little miffed that they gave Hershel Dale’s storyline. But that’s because I’m a canon elitist.

-While the show has been doing better with the characterization of the core group, they still failed with the prisoners in last week’s episode. Especially with the leader of the prisoners, he was really stereotypical. 

-The logistics of the virus spreading within the prison. Obviously we know that everyone is a carrier of the virus; however, one has to die in order for that virus to be enacted, so to speak. So how did the virus take over the prison? Did a prisoner die of some sort of natural cause, like a heart attack, then reanimate? Was a prisoner somehow bitten? There were civilian zombies in the yard, so I’m guessing that the prison was being used as a safe shelter. Did civilians that were bitten go to the prison, looking for shelter, and died? That would explain how the virus spread so quickly in the prison, since typically, the virus is spread through bites, but if you look closely, the prison guards in riot gear did not have any bite marks. How did they die, and then reanimate? It’s just really confusing, and it’s bothering me that the group didn’t question the surviving prisoners about it.

Possible concerns going forward

-The Woodbury storyline. For those who haven’t read the comics, I’m not going to spoil it for you. But really, I am most concerned with how this is going to play out as a whole.

• The Governor is one of the most monstrous villains I’ve ever seen. I don’t even find anything redeeming about him, and I have a history of loving monsters. The actions he commits are horrific, gory, and sadistic, more so than anything we’ve seen on the show so far. I don’t know how AMC is going to be able to pull that off. 
• From what it looks like, it appears that Andrea and Michonne will run into the Governor next week. This is not how it happened at all in the comics, and I’m worried about how they’re going to get the major players involved this story to the community. Again, I’m a canon elitist, and while I’m willing to give this show some leeway with foregoing canon (i.e. Daryl’s entire wonderful existence), I will not be okay with them changing the characters that are involved in this. 

-While the show has been better with their characterization, I’m still terrified that they’re going to backslide and the lady characters are going to be one-dimensional offensive stereotypes again. What can I say, I suffer from TV Show PTSD, I’m always waiting for everything to become horrible.

Superhero Boyfranz and OT3 of History and Legacy, because this week has sucked and you feel my happy place.

I’m going to save the Superhero Boyfranz for a ship manifesto that can be rebloggable. Because it is time that I write it, and my feels are so frenzied that it needs its own post. For now, I’ll just say that the lines of shipping are so blurred with them that I ship them both in kayfabe and “real life” too.

But the OT3 of History and Legacy! Gurl you know they’re our babies. The three of them are so great in their own individual way, but put them together and it’s magic. Any combination of them, Shawn/Hunter, Taker/Shawn (which you know I’m partial to), Hunter/Taker, the three of them together…it’s not just magic, but it’s really just like a soap opera with Shawn in the center of it. The glue that holds the triangle together, the one that Taker and Hunter orbit around. I really don’t think you can have any of them without the other two at this point in their careers. Taker, in my opinion, began his path to greatness with his feud with Mick Foley, whereas Shawn obviously became a star thanks to Bret. Hunter’s ascent is very much different, whereas it was his marriage to Stephanie or Shawn’s retirement that gave him his chance. But at the end of the day, it is the three of them together that defined their individual legacies. 

Wrestlemania 28 was the cultivation of their history and their legacy. And it was one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever seen in all the years I’ve been watching wrestling. Our weekly gross sobbing about the match build-up was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had being a fan. In a nutshell, while the three of them achieved greatness on their own, they are immortal when they’re together. And legends, especially these three, will never die.

No idea if you're someone who gets excited about stuff like this, but what were your thoughts on the deleted Nagron scene? Because I thought it was awesome and perfect and insert a loooooot of feels and I love all the meta that is floating around about it, but I'm curious about your thoughts :)

I do get excited about deleted scenes! And I have to say that the deleted Nagron scene itself wasn’t incredibly significant and it makes sense why it was cut, what I absolutely love is the fandom’s response to said scene. Spartacus is one of the most intelligent TV shows I’ve ever watched, and the fandom follows in the same suit. Flyingthebanners’ meta is SPOT-ON and perfectly worded, but what REALLY amazes me is that I don’t think the writers intended this scene to be an example of character development, but the fandom TURNED it into an example of character development. Spartacus as a show has constantly delivered thought-provoking and incredibly deep scenes/writing throughout its entire run, and as such the fandom is almost conditioned in a way to examine each and every scene as if it is character development, even if it wasn’t what the show intended at the time. Does that make sense? Basically TL;DR the scene itself was cute but it was the fandom’s response to it that really makes me love it.

Ummmm Jon/Stannis? IDK WHAT YOUR OTPS ARE BESIDES THEM AND SCIENCE BROS

Ugh oh God there is such a lack of Jon/Stannis in A Feast of Crows and it is making me super sad I just want Team Honorable Sexually Repressed Warrior Kings is that too much to ask.

I also have a theory that Jon fascinates Stannis because Jon is everything that Stannis strived to be but he also envies him because people love Jon for the very thing that they despise in Stannis and you can’t tell me nothing.

AND IT’S OKAY, IT’S HARD TO KEEP TRACK OF MY OTPS BECAUSE I AM SUCH A MULTI-FANDOM SHIPPER IN GENERAL. A small portion includes

-Charles/Erik, X-Men: First Class
-Richard/Jimmy, Boardwalk Empire
-Agron/Nasir, Spartacus
-CM Punk/John Cena, WWE
-Simon/Alisha, Misfits
-Caroline/Tyler, The Vampire Diaries
- Buffy/Herself, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I don't actually KNOW what your BE otps are but please educate me!

RICHARD/JIMMY. ALWAYS AND FOREVER. THE BROS THAT SCALP RACISTS TOGETHER WILL ALWAYS BE TOGETHER IN MY HEART. Because they are the only ones who will ever understand a semblance of what the other went through. Because their kinship goes beyond an exchange of goods, whether those goods be currency or liquor or political power. Because even during his extreme downward spiral, Jimmy still saw Richard as his equal. Because Richard loved Jimmy enough to let him go, even though Jimmy was his only link in the world left. Because at the end of the day, they would have fought for each other right down to the last bullet.

In a very much platonic sense, I ship Chalky/Dunn, Gillian/Richard, and Nucky/AR.

I also ship Nelson/Freedom from his repressed childhood, Angela/Happiness/Agency, Gillian/Sound peace of mind, Margaret/Power, the Boardwalk Ladies/Freedom from the misogyny held by the man who created them (still side-eyeing you, Winter. Still side-eyeing you).