I don't hate, but I honestly despise everyone of "The Walking Dead" team, regardless of whether they were actors or production team, who were complicit in the emotional violence against their viewers when Neegan brutally murdered protagonists that the audience had grown attached to for seasons.
And I do not object to the killing of the protagonists, if that's what the writers wanted. I object to the way in which it was portrayed, breaking the rules of the genre and the unspoken agreement with an audience that there are different ways in which violence is portrayed depending on context:
The rule that was broken here is that the actual gore happens off-camera and is only implied, maybe the after-effects are shown. Gore on-camera in the zombie genre is only allowed between humans and zombies. Zombies are by definition subject to their instincts, whereas a human killing another human is cold-blooded murder in this scenario, and it is not needed for the story / suspense to show the actual gore - only the lead-up and an aftermath, or maybe an "artists depiction" - like "screen goes blurry" similar to the first murder (OTOH, I knew that one was coming and skipped a few seconds, so maybe I missed something similarly despicable).
The second murder in said scene caught me off-guard and made me (and a lot of other people) quit watching forever. Fuck AMC, fuck the producers, and fuck the cast for exposing me to that snuff shit.
yeah, as I argued, it wasn't the gore per se, but about the emotional violence and disrespect towards the viewers that made me despise the team of that series. Gore is shown in splatter movies (Halloween, Scream, ..), but in those you don't have an emotional build-up to like a character.
Protagonists are killed in thrillers / movies / series that build them up first, but then there's no direct gore. The crossover is what makes the director and everyone complicit a piece of shit.
an example of a extremely well done surprise/twist.
By committing a non-punishable act of abuse against the audience? I don't think so. What this was to the regular viewers was what it would be to expose kids to whatever PG-18 content in the middle of their favorite animated cartoon.
I think the connection to the cast that the viewers had at that point was exactly what made the scene so impactful. Many other deaths that seemed just as brutal didn't hit as hard, and aren't even mentioned whenever the topic comes up. The implied death before then with the "Never mind, he's still alive!" was really where I felt insulted, and might've been another reason for his death to feel more real when it actually happened so vulgarly.
Taking it out on the whole team seems a bit much, though.
I think the connection to the cast that the viewers had at that point was exactly what made the scene so impactful.
It would have had the exact same type of storytelling impact (obviously not that of disgust) to show the bat swing, show the shocked looks, but cut away for the gore.
Taking it out on the whole team seems a bit much, though.
It's not like I can do anything about it. They're not likely to care that I consider them despicable human beings.
Not necessarily, since we'd already thought he died once before, so it might've even been confusing and some people would've been saying he might still be alive and might come back again. The gore of it drives it home in the most unmistakeable way, which is what really makes all the risks realistic from then on.
Remember, the whole point is the real monsters are the people, not the zombies.
I disagree. I despise everyone involved for not distancing themselves in public from that torture porn. If they didn't know it before, they did afterwards & chose to roll with it.
Get over yourself dude. You can argue over whether it not a piece of media is bad or unwarranted or not, but to feel such hatred for an entire crew of people for just doing their job is a really out of touch response. I personally think Goblin Slayer is a fucked up piece of media that should never have been released as a normal piece of anime, but I'm not going to hold a vendetta against the animators for earning a paycheque
My biggest issue was the fake-out death just before the actual death. The show had been going downhill for a while, and it just felt like they were going for shock instead of storytelling at that point. Fake a characters death, then suddenly they're alive, and then they're murdered. It just feels like they ran out of good ways to make the show interesting.
There was no way in hell Glen should have survived his fakeout death, and then it didnt even matter because they fucking brutally killed him off at the end of the season anyways.... and then waited until the very next season to confirm it... ALL WHILE THE SHOWRUNNER WAS SAYING THE SHOW WAS GOING TO TAKE A HARD LEFT FROM THE COMICS AS OF THIS SEASON, WHEN THE KILL WAS AS LITERAL SHOT FOR SHOT AS YOU CAN GET FROM TRANSITIONING FROM COMIC TO TV SHOW