Very true Syd.

It was understandable. Cold, but understandable. It's not like they can take POWs. Still, he should have been way more conflicted about it afterward.

And yay, that failed character Andrea is dead!

Syd Lexia wrote:

What exactly is a "failed character"? I don't really understand what that means.

To me, it means her story arc and everything the writers were trying to do with her character didn't work out, and actually backfired in this case, resulting in failure. This season, they used her in trying to push the potential for good that Woodbury represented as a safe haven from the apocalypse and to sell the sane facade that the Governor was projecting before his insanity manifested itself. With Michonne seeing that there was something going on underneath immediately, and Tyreese & Sasha determining it within two episodes, Andrea just came off as stupid and naive, while "selling out her friend for a warm bed," which is seemingly the opposite of how the writers were trying to present Andrea. Add to that, that the only other character that was introduced to Woodbury around the same time (and had lines), and who also bought into Woodbury was Allen, who in every scene was shown as a self-centered asshole, it didn't do Andrea any favors. As a result, the viewers vocally disliked her.

Then there's her arc before S3, where she shat on Dale for cornering her into abandoning her desire to commit suicide, and then aided Beth in trying to commit suicide, and her character had already come off as unlikeable. Sure, it's understandable to be mad at Dale for what he did, but the way the writers made her react to it made her seem like a spoiled bitch. And actually enabling a confused teenager into committing suicide, even in this world was beyond shitty, especially when she had no solid connection to Beth. That was something that would have been between family or friends and Beth, not a relative stranger. If Andrea had a connection to Beth, the writers would be doing something interesting with that, like when Worf asked Riker to help him commit suicide in order to die honorably in an episode of TNG. Instead, Andrea came off as someone who was trying to help anyone else commit suicide because she was blocked when she attempted it herself, resulting in a negative reaction by the audience, which was not the writers' intent, in my opinion.

Andrea simply came off as annoying as Lori with her bipolar bitching at Rick and Lady MacBeth routine. I think the writers killed both those characters out of fan service, even though Kirkman and others have already said otherwise.

It's really the writers failing to get the audience to buy what they were doing with the character, not just that many of the viewers, including myself, didn't like Andrea. They wanted us to like her, not call her stupid all the time.

Syd Lexia wrote:

Also, why didn't Martinez or that other guy shoot the governor? Like, if I just watched a guy gun down people for no reason, I would put a bullet in him the second his back was turned.

It certainly seemed that they were shocked and scared when it occurred - Martinez at least, judging by his mouth-agape reaction. My only possible explanation is that they're soldiers & followers, and in their mind, don't have any agency of their own, and were too scared to act. I can't imagine them having any loyalty to the Guv next season. I would think they would want to disconnect from him as soon as possible, but these writers have done inexplicable things in the past.

The bottom line is probably that it's just the demands of the plot again, as the writers want the Guv around for S4.

That's the problem with the show, it has some potential that keeps me watching, but the writers fuck up a lot of the time. The show has progressively gotten better, however, keeping my hope stringing along.

Syd Lexia wrote:

And it was annoying that they tried to redeem both characters in their final moments. Those scenes were more eyerolling than sad.

Totally agreed. A laughable disconnect of logic. Didn't buy it at all for either.

Man, on a similar note, Dale was such a waste of potential, too. The show needs a voice of morality in it, but Dale just came off annoying as it. That effect seems to be a theme for these writers.

Valdronius wrote:

Let us not forget that Andrea also shot Daryl in the head.

Such a dumbass!

I liked Dale in Season 1, but, to agree with Josh, his heavy-handed moralizing in S2 got annoying. As I said, that moral voice needs to be there, but the writers presented it poorly coming out of Dale's mouth to the point where I was mostly glad he got killed off so that he would shutup.

Syd Lexia wrote:

Also, Hershel is pretty much the voice of the morality now.

True. I've grown to like him now, and he doesn't seem to do it in an annoying way anymore. Perhaps the writers are learning. I hope so.