This first bit is more Gimple's fault, but I really hate the trope that this show constantly uses that the wishes of the recently deceased instantly become the moral code of a large portion of the group. It's really dumb. Carl is a 15 year old, that just did a complete 180 in views regarding Negan and the saviors, and just because he died Rick and Michonne think it's best to abandon their own logic, experiences, and reason and just do things because it's what Carl would've wanted. That's just not very compelling writing in my personal opinion.
Anyhow, on to the main point of this post. Disregarding the fact that he's doing it for Carl, I think the rest of the logic Rick uses to justify saving Negan is extremely flimsy. His main argument(s) are basically related to his newfound belief that killing Negan would make them no better than the saviors and would be a step towards a less civilized and more savage society than that from which we came. Now, if Rick used this argument as a reason to spare the rest of the saviors, then I could get down with it, but that argument just doesn't work if we're just discussing Negan.
Negan is a tyrannical war criminal in the show, and he has very few redeeming qualities, if any at all. I'm also fairly certain that the saviors as a group have not aided any of the communities they steal from in any way at all and it's very obvious that Negan is not interested in returning to a mutually beneficial democratic society. The thing that bothers me about all of this is that we execute war criminals in our current society, and the death penalty exists a majority of U.S. states. We as a society determined that there are instances where an individual is said to have forfeited their right to live, and if anyone in TWD universe has done this, then it's Negan. He's done plenty that would have put him on death row in our current society and it really annoys me that Rick and Michonne pretend like sanctioned murder didn't exist prior to the apocalypse.
At the very least in my opinion, Rick should let it come to a popular vote amongst all the communities the saviors ruled, or at least have elected delegates from each community argue for or against the death of Negan. It wouldnt be inhumane or uncivilized to execute Negan and it wouldn't necessarily ruin the vision Carl had for the future. There's no reason Negan has to be alive to fulfill Carl's wish to create something better and something that lasts.
Following Negan's trial and more than likely execution, I think the same trial should be held for the higher ranking generals of the saviors, using testimony from Dwight to determine their loyalty to Negan and to evaluate the chance of them staging a future attack or something. The lower level soldiers and families of the sanctuary could be allowed to return to their home and establish trade routes with the other communities, or to assimilate into one of the other communities if that's what they'd prefer.
I just personally think that it's beyond wrong for Rick to decide Negan's fate on his own. Rick doesn't speak for the Kingdom or the hilltop or for Oceanside, who should have a say for providing weapons in my opinion. Even if it's necessary to keep Negan around due to real world contracts or whatever, I think an episode in season 9 that depicts a trial for Negan and his generals would be really interesting. The show needs more depth than it's had these past 2 seasons and a trial episode like this would be really interesting in my opinion. I'd love to hear how some of these no name residents feel about the saviors as opposed to just our main cast. It'd be an interesting way to characterize the different communities' moral tendencies. Maybe Hilltop could be a bit more extreme and violent due to Maggie's influence while the Kingdom pushes for prison and rehabilitation and display a fair bit of optimism due to their King's emotional tendencies.
Anyhow, I'm rambling and didn't mean to include most of this stuff Ive written. What do you guys think about any of it?
Submitted July 29, 2018 at 11:33PM by SylviaNorth https://ift.tt/2Otytpl
No comments:
Post a Comment