All shows do it, drag storylines out. The Walking Dead has been doing it since season 2 with the farm, and then later with the prison. And now, the war on Negan is getting dragged out. I’m sure most Walking Dead fans, whether they’ve read the novels or not, want the war to start already. While “The Other Side” did show us some good plot points, I felt it was a bit of a filler episode to delay what should be an epic battle.
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It’s Okay to Speed up Time
I don’t know about everyone else, but I have been waiting for the war on Negan to start since the beginning of season 7. I know it takes time to prepare for an epic battle. And it takes time for Rick to gain the trust of other communities to join the fight. And it takes time to train everyone, and even to mentally prepare for the possibility of not making it out alive. But, it is okay to speed up time in TV land. Shows do it all the time! It’s the only way to keep the stories moving.
I have enjoyed getting Carol and Morgan, and eventually Ezekiel, on board. But I really thought the fight would have started a few episodes back. As someone who has read the comics (and I know I advocate for them a lot), I am so eager to see how closely the writers stick to the novels. What happens after the battle is so, so good. And it really sheds a different light on Negan — whether he lives or dies.
It’s Also Okay to Build Characters Without Losing Focus
There is a way to build characters without taking away too much of the main storylines. We’ve known for a while that Gregory has no spine, so we didn’t really need to see him in cahoots with Simon in “The Other Side.”
We’ve also known for a while that Sasha and Rosita don’t like each other. And while I liked their bonding moment when Rosita revealed her past, this is something that could have happened much sooner. But this leads to my other point that The Walking Dead has a tendency to foreshadow deaths, so I can only assume Rosita is next. However, as much as an annoyance as she is, her story in the novels is pretty decent after the battle. So we shall see.
Building characters up is a good way to get fans invested in a show. But dragging out stories is also a way to lose fans’ interest. I really thought at this point, the battle would have begun. And I also thought that by the end of season 7, we’d find out who wins and a glimpse of what happens after. However, I don’t think that’s going to happen. In fact, I have a feeling we’ll be left with another big cliffhanger at the start of the battle.
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So What’s Next?
From previews for the next episode, it seems that Tara does tell Rick about the all-women’s camp she stumbled upon and its weapons. Things will probably go south before they get better.
As far as the finale, as I mentioned above, I can only hope that the battle at least gets started and we’re left with another cliffhanger of who will live and who will die. I just hope that fans will stick around in the hope that really fun, interesting stories are ahead.
What do you think? Should the war on Negan have started sooner? Or do you like seeing Rick convincing allies to join him and the other storylines leading up to the war? Let us know what you think in the comments!
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(Image courtesy of AMC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
