10 Reasons Why Rick Grimes is Better Than You
Or, 10 Reasons to Stop Bashing Other Characters Just Because You Like a Different One More
Word Count: ~4,200
Warnings: Strong language, discussion of death & murder, the morality of a post-apocalyptic world.
A/N: Many many thanks to twizzler, who edited this longer-than-necessary monster and provided continuous moral support, and avengersassemble ( Read more... )
Yeah, Kirkman's comment rubbed me the wrong way too, at first, until I sat down and thought about it. It is defeatist, extremely so--the whole concept of The Walking Dead is pretty defeatist--and it's hard to thing of the protagonist this way.
What I took out of it, though, is that compassion is Rick's tragic flaw. "Flaw" does not innately equal a bad thing. I don't believe that Rick's character is somehow defective or reduced in any way because he cares about people. In this sense, "flaw" means the cause of Rick's downfall, and I have no doubt that one day, it'll be his compassion that kills him. He'll let the wrong person get too close, or sacrifice himself, or do a hundred other kind things that, in a ZA, could get him killed.
Kirkman--and myself, in the meta--isn't saying that Rick is incompetent because he's kind, that everyone is destroyed because he's kind. (The environment in which they live is much, much more to blame than Rick.) Kirkman does say after all that Rick means well, and that's the pivotal point on which the whole series rests. Rick means well. Yes, that means that he's vulnerable and it'll probably kill him, but in no way is being a good man a "flaw" in the sense that Rick would be better off ruthless and heartless.
I hope that made sense?
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