TWD we saw the adaptations of mostly ordinary, everyday benevolent people in the main group and their evolution into hardened survivors. We saw people like the Governor as well, but he also came from a background of an ordinary person and the apocalypse brought out both the best in him and more importantly - the worst in him.

The Governor to start with likely was likely holding onto the methods of the previous society, at least in the sense of the customs of where he sat in the middle class and was likely doing everything he could to both survive and help other survivors. The Terminus before they evolved into psycho cannibals were doing just that, but were given a hard lesson in reality.

Rick's group to start with the Randall thing and so on weeks into the Apocalypse were the biggest example of not facing the new reality and holding onto a shattered reality, which was shattered many times over the course of the show in seeing the new reality in it's most poetically brutal fashion. This is how a local sheriff with a good heart and honest intentions turns into a man who will kill any perceived threat at the drop of a pin.

These character transformations are the primary reasons most of us are so deeply interested in the Walking Dead Universe.

.......

Then we have Strand!

It's glorious! Even to a lesser extent - Salazar.

Characters that already have experienced the real deal ugliness of humanity and it's cut throat side and are therefore most mentally prepared for the collapse of law/order, walking corpses, mayhem, murdering mauraders and all of the goodies before even having to experience the stuff that ordinary people would need to adapt.

The truth is that the higher you go in society via money and power, especially if political power is involved, that the more you would be experiencing ruthlessness, stealing, lying, cheating, conniving and even killing or threat of... than the ordinary middle class person.

Strand is mysterious but we can surmise all sorts of things as to how he accrued his wealth. It could be either legitimate, or illegal. It could be political, it could be.... well, it's exciting to think about what they will reveal in this season and his cool and totally collected demeanor and lack of pathological altruism and compassion for anything not helpful to him were factors indented into his brain long, long before the apocalypse and factors that make him most equipped to survive.

Men of power do not attain it by being "nice". His advice to his current companions on the boat to not talk to people shows he's 100% correct in that they need to quietly get to where they are going and not stop, not talk to people and not open themselves up to risk.

Now, I am not praising those types in reflection to how they are in our world, but it is fact and is it amazing to get a character that is from the jump mentally where our Walking Dead characters years deep into their experiences.

People like Salazar and hardened military types are as well stuff we didn't see in TWD. I hope that they run into military remnants and show the apocalypse from their perspective.

Awesomeness. New stuff!

 

I have to praise the actor that portrays Strand - Colman Domingo - he has the calculating, calm and manipulative modern man of wealth & power nailed.

He was a bit cartoony in his appearance in the previous season, chalk that up to still working out the character.

This is excellent and exciting stuff after the dreadful finale we just experienced in Walking Dead.

Writers/Creators, please keep it interesting and do not make it gimmicky or sucky.

 

I have a feeling the mom will end up developing into a ruthless badass. Travis is already coming around. Travis' other son is a retard and won't last, Nick has some potential.

Indeed. But given some time real idiots in Walking Dead evolved into some awesome characters. It still is the early days of the global meltdown, earlier than the pilot of Walking Dead.

That is the thing - they would be dead. He made that clear.

In similar concept to many discussions involving Walking Dead scenarios, a ruthless attitude in anarchy is not negotiable if you want to survive - it is necessity. Likewise a ruthless attitude in high level business is necessity.

Morgan started out a normal man, not too bright, but normal and noble in Season 1. Strand starts out as already extremely cerebral and intelligent.

There's a massive difference in someone's origins between an ordinary middle class person and a person like Strand who rose from blue collar to high level(very difficult to do, which is why rags to riches is a very small percentage of people and only the talented and brilliant do so), so they may very well **** his character up, but it couldn't be anything like mental midget Morgan.

I have some faith in this show since it doesn't need to follow a comic arc, they have free will to do whatever. Some of the comic scenario's in Walking Dead don't transfer well to the small screen and that's been one factor that contributes to some of the problems, although smaller than incompetent writing itself.

They can go raw on this show.

After the end of Season 1 last year for FTWD which seemed rushed and wasn't without flaw, I said my biggest hopes were that they'd develop Season 2 very well and that we'd see a group that is starting out in a more ruthless way to see how that evolves over a timeline, rather than a group starting out "learning on the job".

I am pleased to see in Episode 1 that these may come true.

Additionally:

MTito94 - For the Morgan apologists and faux-compassion SJW/PC types especially, in their infinite delusion, it is pleasing to see FTWD start off with Alicia trying to do something "nice" for others against the clear warnings of Strand's much more knowledgeable position, only to draw in hostile pirates to herself.

Haha, and this isn't even a month into the global meltdown!

The most annoying point of view that plagues the human condition is that intentions are more important than the actual results. If someone means well(or rather pretends to mean well) then it was the right thing even if it causes destruction and if someone held a non-compassionate view(many times just simple misinterpreted by fools) point that saves your ass then it's still wrong because of it's non-compassionate source.

This is idiocy at it's finest.

 

Cheers. Always nice to exchange rational view points!

 

Agreed. Totally.

They've got a fresh slate and a very interesting back drop here on the West Coast and at sea to do some cool stuff. They've got several completely potentially amazing characters.

To me it would be harder to mess it up than make it good. It's a survival drama/action/horror show, it doesn't take Stanley Kubrick like multi dimension to make something exciting and good in this concept. Just no stupidity, like the season finale of TWD we just saw, haha.

 

Yes, I thought interrogating her further on what she told, especially understanding that these clowns wanted to help the stranded raft.

It should be automatically assumed she caused trouble and I'd shift my course to the destination.

 

In any societal meltdown scenario where I have something others want and I have no idea who or what they are, I can confidently say I'd act differently and not make the others aware to me. If I had a boat and saw a sinking raft full of additional "who knows what" people in it, I'd keep going.

Now, in the real world that we exist in that's different. A mayday call for help you'd respond to. People stranded on a raft you'd pick up. Someone wounded in the street, you'd call for help.... and so on.... there's little risk there and you'd be terrible to not help. You have a greater society and services to help you help them.

But societal meltdown and anarchy is an extreme situation. It's early on of course but they've seen cannibal walking corpses, the military slaughtering people and the military bombing everything with complete and total meltdown. Put 2+2 together = "I'm not going to draw attention to ourselves while we're escaping bombed LA and a horde of zombies".

So she is not only naive, she is lacking in grey matter between her head.