this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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I don't hate, but I honestly despise everyone of "The Walking Dead" team, regardless of whether they were actors or production team, who were complicit in the emotional violence against their viewers when Neegan brutally murdered protagonists that the audience had grown attached to for seasons.
And I do not object to the killing of the protagonists, if that's what the writers wanted. I object to the way in which it was portrayed, breaking the rules of the genre and the unspoken agreement with an audience that there are different ways in which violence is portrayed depending on context:
The rule that was broken here is that the actual gore happens off-camera and is only implied, maybe the after-effects are shown. Gore on-camera in the zombie genre is only allowed between humans and zombies. Zombies are by definition subject to their instincts, whereas a human killing another human is cold-blooded murder in this scenario, and it is not needed for the story / suspense to show the actual gore - only the lead-up and an aftermath, or maybe an "artists depiction" - like "screen goes blurry" similar to the first murder (OTOH, I knew that one was coming and skipped a few seconds, so maybe I missed something similarly despicable).
The second murder in said scene caught me off-guard and made me (and a lot of other people) quit watching forever. Fuck AMC, fuck the producers, and fuck the cast for exposing me to that snuff shit.
I think the connection to the cast that the viewers had at that point was exactly what made the scene so impactful. Many other deaths that seemed just as brutal didn't hit as hard, and aren't even mentioned whenever the topic comes up. The implied death before then with the "Never mind, he's still alive!" was really where I felt insulted, and might've been another reason for his death to feel more real when it actually happened so vulgarly.
Taking it out on the whole team seems a bit much, though.
It would have had the exact same type of storytelling impact (obviously not that of disgust) to show the bat swing, show the shocked looks, but cut away for the gore.
It's not like I can do anything about it. They're not likely to care that I consider them despicable human beings.
Not necessarily, since we'd already thought he died once before, so it might've even been confusing and some people would've been saying he might still be alive and might come back again. The gore of it drives it home in the most unmistakeable way, which is what really makes all the risks realistic from then on.
Remember, the whole point is the real monsters are the people, not the zombies.