That's so easy even *I* can answer that one.

The Saviors are thugs who use extortion and murder to get what they want. (Leave us not forget that Rick and co. gained entrance into their compound using a fake version of the head of the Hilltop community.)

Jesus was a thief only. That is not the same thing as a terrorist.

 

If you're starving and someone steals your food, that's a little bit more than being a "thief only".

It used to be a hanging offense to steal someone's horse because to leave someone stranded in the wilderness could be a death sentence. Jesus stealing their transportation and leaving them stranded in the middle of the ZA is also a little more than being a "thief only."

Even if you push the point and say HE is just a thief, you don't know who he works for, but you do know that their gropu is OK with having people go out and steal from others who might be more in more desperate straits than you. Does Rick's group do that? No. Rick's group should have assumed he's part of a group of "bad people" based on his actions. And you give this person knowledge of where your compound is, and let him look around inside to get an idea of what your numbers are and how you're armed? And you don't think that's different behavior than going in and killing 20+ people in their sleep?

Easy indeed.

 

You're making Rick sound more like the saviors all the time.

So the Saviors show up, they don't get their food, and beat some kid to death, or maybe beat some kid to death to get their food.

Rick shows up, says they came for food, they're going to get it. Taking his tough talk as intent, that means they'll offer to trade first, but if Gregory still says "no", at some point they're going to start being violent.

Rick's intent was the same when he got to Alexandria.

Sure the Saviors are probably nutjobs, but the point is for all practical purposes both Rick and the Saviors are willing to kill anyone who doesn't give them what they want at this point, based on your assertion that tough talk is intent.

 

Why, yes, I do think that taking in Jesus and working with him is different than invading a compound and killing 20+ people in their sleep.

 

Well, that's a start.

 

Pretty sure the gang ran into the saviors before they ran into Jesus. It would only be a matter of time, before they came knocking on the door.

 

Jesus tried to sneakily steal their truck full of food...he didn't wave guns around and threaten to kill, even admitting that he "normally kills one right off the bat" like the Saviors on Bikes did. So there's difference number one, and the reason Daryl killed the bikers yet spared Jesus.

Jesus was able to maneuver his way out of his captivity at Alexandria, and yet he did no harm to anyone...at all. Everyone was sleeping, and he could have easily hurt them, robbed them, or at the very least just ran off never to be seen again. Instead, he chose to stay and talk to them and even lead them directly to his safe zone.

So...given the fact that Alexandria is in dire need of food, and the Hilltop was in dire need of help freeing themselves from the grips of the Saviors, Rick and co. decided to trust what they were told by the folks at Hilltop (which was a lot of very disturbing facts about what the Saviors had done up until this point). It wasn't an easy decision, and many of them struggled with killing people they didn't know in their sleep, but it was a decision that was made with a conscience and for the "greater good" in mind.

Once that decision was made, even more evidence came to light: they accepted a severed head and even laughed about it for god's sake. We've already talked about allllllll of the other evidence that these are not good people.

 

I am pretty sure you are the only person who needed that extra clarification.

 

I'm not sure I agree.

It's reasonable to assume though that the only reason the Saviors and Daryl met up is because of Dwight, both in the woods and on the road. We found out that Dwight stole their insulin and they put out a manhunt for him. I'd bet the road bikers were part of the same posse, the alternative being the Saviors have SO many people they can afford to have a groups of 10 well armed bikers camped out in the middle of random roads throughout the State.

Couple that with the fact that in the first couple of years since the ZA *no one* has found Alexandria, not even the Wolves who lived nearby (and whose mission it was to find and kill others). They didn't learn of its existence until they found Aaron's backpack.

Add to the fact that we don't even know if the Saviors going to be around next year. Their people might revolt, a ZA horde might destroy them, or some group like Rick's might. Who knows? It just doesn't make sense to me to say that they are going to be on your doorstep next week when they might never cross paths with you at all.

 

Again, I'm not sure I agree.

Remember the difference in the situation. Jesus was alone and without even a firearm. He didn't have a gun to wave around. If he took Rick and Daryl by surprise like he did, but had 10 of his companions at his back all armed with machine guns, do you think he might have approached the situation differently?
Like maybe saying, "ok you two, drop your guns and leave or you're both dead. We're taking this truck?" He might even threaten to kill them to get them to comply.

By the time he got to Alexandria the time had already passed on whether to kill him or not. He tried to steal from them. He left them to die without food, water, or transportation. When caught, he tried to steal the truck with your town's food AGAIN. They should have killed him then as a bad person before he ever got to Alexandria to show his true colors.

So, my point is with Jesus, they give him another chance, let him talk, and find out he's not such a bad guy. With the Saviors they never got a chance to go to Alexandria and say their piece, they were murdered in their sleep. Same situation, different treatment.

The laughing at the head doesn't bother me. I'd imagine living in that environment you could get a pretty morbid sense of humor and still be sane.


I guess my main point is that people don't seem to see what a major change it is to Rick's group to start preemptively murdering people in their sleep. For example, say the situation with Jesus was slightly different and Daryl killed him in the truck when they were fighting over the gun. In the old days, nothing would go further, but NOW, if they found Hilltop, Rick might say, "look, when we were starving they tried to take our truck of food, they left us to die, and then they tried to kill Daryl with his own gun. We should go and kill them all before they come after us. Remember how peaceful Woodbury looked on the surface, and Terminus. We were naive and only by a miracle walked out of that alive, we can't afford to take that chance again, we have to kill them before they kill us."

The group as it's portrayed now would probably go along with that.

 

Oh god, Morgotha not again.A

Are you really this slow that we need to go over Jesus and the truck...AGAIN?

 

No, you don't have to do anything. For me it's like showing two photographs to a blind person and telling them they're different, and having them say, "I'm holding them in my hands, they're exactly the same."

 

So you're being stupid on purpose then?

 

You tell me. You're obviously much smarter than I am.

 

Most. Ironic. Post. Ever.

 

You're right I am.

 

Don't let the childish name calling, bully tactics and put downs get to you, [MENTION=3655]Morgotha[/MENTION]. You're a valuable contributor to the board, and I enjoy your posts.

 

You forgot the comma.

 

Yes but that's the entire point - he didn't have a weapon and he didn't have a gang like the saviors did. So Jesus was treated differently...

 

Exactly. Different responses to different situations. We can imagine all the scenarios we want, but our group has responded appropriately to each different scenario that was actually presented to them. Jesus was a thief. The saviors are a terrorist group that controls using fear, murdering at will to keep that control. Our group is just very lucky to have been put in a couple situations where they saw them coming, before they discovered Alexandria, so we were able to eliminate some of the threat before it reached us. Although we all know we didn't get THAT lucky.