I thought about not posting this, but maybe someone out there will find it interesting. I mostly wrote it to get my own thoughts straight and have only seen each episode once, so sorry if I get any details wrong.
Say what you will about season 7 of the Walking Dead: it's had its pacing issues, some bad acting moments, and etc. But overall I've been noticing that Scott Gimple and the writers have been doing a lot of legwork laying down details that form a very unique yin-yang dynamic between the Saviors and Alexandria, and particularly between Negan and Rick. I've been thinking a lot about these details in the last few episodes, particularly in the latest one, S7E15 "What They Need." DON'T READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THAT EPISODE.
1) Villainous Negan believes that he is the hero of his own story and goes out of his way to place himself on a moral high ground, fully believing that he is the "good guy." Meanwhile, Rick, the actual hero of the story, slowly becomes more villainous and immoral.
The most controversial part of this post: let's talk about Negan and "Rapey Davey." I know a lot of people will argue about this, but it seems clear to me that this scene illustrates that Negan fully believes himself to be a good guy and heroic in his own way. Negan goes out of his way to punish rape, condoning it as evil ("I wouldn't want to live in a place where [no rape] wasn't a rule!") and demonstrating to Sasha that he is a reasonable guy who knows the difference between right and wrong. He clearly believes he is the hero of his own narrative trying to maintain order in the world: perhaps he does it through brutal means, but he is ultimately is not a villain (to himself). He goes out of his way to establish himself as a heroic figure, not even necessarily to "trick" to Sasha, but apparently because he really believes it himself.
The irony here is that the show has spent a lot of time and energy showing the situation with Negan's wives, and the coercion, misery, and pain involved with that dynamic. At the very least, in the case of Sherry's diabetic sister Tina, who was faced with the choice of either dying (through denial of insulin) or having sex with Negan, it would have been rape. Unwilling, reluctant, or non-consenting sex achieved through threat, coercion, or impending death is rape. So Negan places himself on a moral high ground over Davey, but in actuality participates in a very similar behavior, just through different means. Still, he fully believes he is the hero of his own story and is blind to his own villainous acts.
Similarly: the imagery and behavior displayed in this latest episode shows that Rick, the hero we're supposed to be rooting for, is becoming more Negan-like and villainous at the same time. I think it's undeniable that the imagery of forcing helpless, scared people to kneel in a forest while surrounded by a group of armed strangers is a pretty obvious callback to what happened in the very first episode of this season. "Your shit belongs to me now (but my reasons are justified, I need it for my people)" is pretty controversial and pretty Savior-like. The only difference is that Rick offers the choice for Oceanside to join his cause, whereas Negan simply forces others to join the Saviors as fact. But the parallels are pretty clear. You can argue that we know Rick's need for guns and his behavior is justified, but I'll argue that, (in Negan's own mind and from his own perspective), so are Negan's actions. We've just had the privilege of following Rick, not Negan, from the start. So this season has illustrated the slow converging and crossing of these two moral arcs.
2) Similarly: clean-shaven Rick -> bearded Rick. At the same time, bearded Negan -> clean-shaven Negan. There has been some screen time and dialogue devoted to this weird parallel, so I know I'm not reading into it (because why then would anyone devote that much time and dialogue to talking about it in the show when it didn't mean something)?
When we first saw Negan in his first appearance, he was bearded (and, if you're reading it as allegory, powerful, violent, and 'alpha'). After coming in contact with Rick's group, he then says a few different times that he really should "shave this shit," meaning his own beard. Then when he finds the video of Rick first arriving to Alexandria (back in season 5, fully-bearded Rick in savage throat-biting mode), Negan goes out of his way to say that Rick should have kept the beard, commenting that "even I wouldn't fuck around with that guy." Instead, clean-shaven Rick comes off as emasculated, humbled, and weak.
Soon after this, Negan takes Carl back to Alexandria and participates in a weird emulation of Rick. He makes himself at home in Rick's comfy suburban house, takes off his jacket so that he more heavily resembles Rick in his shirt, has dinner with the family, plays father figure to Carl, and essentially emulates Rick's role as the good guy-family man hero. (Again, taking steps to move towards the "good" end of the spectrum, even though we know he is actually villainous.) It is in this episode that he uses Rick's razor and bathroom to shave, perhaps unconsciously (or consciously!) mirroring Rick's clean-shaven state and perhaps his status as a leader.
In the very same episode that Negan does this, Rick finally decides to take up the fight against Negan and the Saviors. He essentially re-finds his masculinity, courage, strength, and power, and immediately stops shaving from this point forward. By the time we get to S7E15 and the invasion of Oceanside, we see Rick at his Negan-est--and with a fully-grown beard!, paralleling Negan's violent actions at the beginning of the season. We definitely know not to fuck around with that Rick. Meanwhile, clean-shaven Negan is saving Sasha from rape and playing at a Rick-like hero figure.
3) The interchanging of Eugene and Dwight.
I could be wrong about this because I don't know how it all ends (Dwight could be a sleeper agent, Eugene could be playing the long game), but it's interesting to me that in the very same episode that we "lose" Eugene and see him turn traitor against Rick's group for Negan, we also "gain" Dwight and see him turn traitor against Negan's group for Rick. "Hostiles and Calamities" especially devotes itself to Eugene's slow conversion to the Saviors and Dwight's slow defection, and again illustrates another parallel/convergence of two moral arcs.
I have more examples, but honestly I don't know who the fuck would want to read more of me rambling on about beards and whatnot, so I'll leave it at that. Say what you will about the show, but I personally think there is at least some skillful weaving of parallels and dynamics here. Would love to hear anyone's thoughts if they have any. Onward to the finale!
Submitted March 29, 2017 at 11:58AM by caryler http://ift.tt/2oh1TcZ
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