Why The Walking Dead is both the most awesome show ever, & should also come with a warning sticker!!
This post is mostly for florencia7, but also a place for me to expunge some feelings.
So, first of all, obviously a show about "The Walking Dead" is pretty gruesome. I cannot even sugarcoat it a little bit--the gore and violence with this show is still something that makes me cover my eyes, even three quarters of the way through the fourth season. It isn't as scary to me, anymore, however, and I have grown used to death. Because the hard reality is, no one is safe. I have always had a relatively short list of people who, if they died, it might be enough to make me quit watching. So far, one of those people died, and I kept watching, so, I'm not sure what would happen if others died. I guess as long as it felt right, even though all deaths on this show feel like real death--tragic, harrowing, pointless--the reality IS, death is part of life. And possibly, the fact that my other favorite show, The Vampire Diaries, can't manage to kill anyone of significance, might help me with that very thing.
Anyway, I digress. It will probably happen again.
The other thing, for me, is that when I love a show, I watch it obsessively, over and over and over again. I don't do that with The Walking Dead. I have watched some episodes twice because I was watching them with a friend, but for the most part, I watch it and never go back. Partly it's the gore, but partly it's just the dramatic wringer they put you through on a constant basis; it's not romantic angst like on TVD, it is flat out human tragedy, and you just can't sit through that again and again. I've cried very hard several times on this show, and it's never been about a romantic relationship. It's always been about loss and death.
So, fair warning, this show is not for the faint of heart.
And, in conclusion, now that I have an actual ship--I mean, now that I've ficced, and I'm super invested that way, and the show seems to be giving me all these delightful things to support my ship--I did go back to S2 to revisit the early days of these characters. Well, it's been a slow, slow build. I mean, the first like four episodes that Beth is in, she has maybe three lines. I've been watching the show so long, and I'm so used to the way the show goes, that I didn't even remember how much I didn't know Beth when she first showed up!
I have a good memory for details, but the nature of the show helps me hold on to what I need and toss out what I can't carry because of the sheer heaviness of it. And Beth and Daryl have happened slowly over this season, so if you don't want to get involved in the whole show, you could YouTube Beth and Daryl, particularly in episodes of 4x01, 4x08, 4x10 and 4x12. The thing that you're missing out the most on are their relationships with the other characters. For example, Carol, who a lot of people ship with Daryl, has been instrumental in shaping his character and helping assimilate him into the group, but also into a leader within it. Also, Daryl's relationship with Rick has been really important, too. Beth, when we meet her, is part of a family, she has her sister Maggie, her dad Hershel, but even though she has that stability and support when she first comes on the scene, she is still a young girl in a broken world and she's not sure if she can continue on it. Her struggle is not easy, but to someone like Daryl, who never had anything, she's this totally foreign creature, and that's what is so beautiful about their developing relationship now--they are completely different, and they KNOW it, and it really has nothing to do with their age gap, it's just about their life experiences.
So, that's my effort to entice you to watch it, or not, LOL. All the characters are so enthralling, in their own way. I just happen to be super enthralled with Beth and Daryl at this stage because they were given this amazing arc that brought them together. And magic happened.
Also, go to my tumblr: http://candyismyrealname.tumblr.com/ to see all the pictures! THE PICTURES, MAN, THE PICTURES!
So, first of all, obviously a show about "The Walking Dead" is pretty gruesome. I cannot even sugarcoat it a little bit--the gore and violence with this show is still something that makes me cover my eyes, even three quarters of the way through the fourth season. It isn't as scary to me, anymore, however, and I have grown used to death. Because the hard reality is, no one is safe. I have always had a relatively short list of people who, if they died, it might be enough to make me quit watching. So far, one of those people died, and I kept watching, so, I'm not sure what would happen if others died. I guess as long as it felt right, even though all deaths on this show feel like real death--tragic, harrowing, pointless--the reality IS, death is part of life. And possibly, the fact that my other favorite show, The Vampire Diaries, can't manage to kill anyone of significance, might help me with that very thing.
Anyway, I digress. It will probably happen again.
The other thing, for me, is that when I love a show, I watch it obsessively, over and over and over again. I don't do that with The Walking Dead. I have watched some episodes twice because I was watching them with a friend, but for the most part, I watch it and never go back. Partly it's the gore, but partly it's just the dramatic wringer they put you through on a constant basis; it's not romantic angst like on TVD, it is flat out human tragedy, and you just can't sit through that again and again. I've cried very hard several times on this show, and it's never been about a romantic relationship. It's always been about loss and death.
So, fair warning, this show is not for the faint of heart.
And, in conclusion, now that I have an actual ship--I mean, now that I've ficced, and I'm super invested that way, and the show seems to be giving me all these delightful things to support my ship--I did go back to S2 to revisit the early days of these characters. Well, it's been a slow, slow build. I mean, the first like four episodes that Beth is in, she has maybe three lines. I've been watching the show so long, and I'm so used to the way the show goes, that I didn't even remember how much I didn't know Beth when she first showed up!
I have a good memory for details, but the nature of the show helps me hold on to what I need and toss out what I can't carry because of the sheer heaviness of it. And Beth and Daryl have happened slowly over this season, so if you don't want to get involved in the whole show, you could YouTube Beth and Daryl, particularly in episodes of 4x01, 4x08, 4x10 and 4x12. The thing that you're missing out the most on are their relationships with the other characters. For example, Carol, who a lot of people ship with Daryl, has been instrumental in shaping his character and helping assimilate him into the group, but also into a leader within it. Also, Daryl's relationship with Rick has been really important, too. Beth, when we meet her, is part of a family, she has her sister Maggie, her dad Hershel, but even though she has that stability and support when she first comes on the scene, she is still a young girl in a broken world and she's not sure if she can continue on it. Her struggle is not easy, but to someone like Daryl, who never had anything, she's this totally foreign creature, and that's what is so beautiful about their developing relationship now--they are completely different, and they KNOW it, and it really has nothing to do with their age gap, it's just about their life experiences.
So, that's my effort to entice you to watch it, or not, LOL. All the characters are so enthralling, in their own way. I just happen to be super enthralled with Beth and Daryl at this stage because they were given this amazing arc that brought them together. And magic happened.
Also, go to my tumblr: http://candyismyrealname.tumblr.com/ to see all the pictures! THE PICTURES, MAN, THE PICTURES!