THE WALKING DEAD
Negan's Days are Numbered
Season 8 Trailer

7/21/2017

"When I first met him, Jesus said my world was gonna get a whole lot bigger. We found that world. We found each other. That bigger world is ours by right. Those who use and take and kill, we end them!"
—Rick Grimes

I haven't posted anything in quite a while because I've been far too busy this year. Hopefully, that will change soon. Until then, I have to take a short break from everything to talk about this trailer for The Walking Dead that just showed at Comic-Con. After the inhuman brutality of last season, TWD looks to continue the new trajectory promised in the Rise Up poster, to fight back the hopelessness and terror. The time has come for these gritty survivors to channel everything they've been through, all that heartbreak, and rampage through Negan like a freight train.

I adored season 7, probably more than any other. I will always miss Glenn and Abraham, and will always be disturbed by their untimely deaths. But the emotion it brought out in this already highly emotive, experienced, talented cast was a privilege to watch. The performances, the oppressiveness, and the sheer horror of the situation weighed heavily on me, and I thank the cast and crew forever for that. Though, I can't wait to see what season 8 has in store to lift that weight.

"With everything we've beaten, everything we've endured, everything we've risen above, everything we've become, no matter what comes next, we've won. We've already won!"
—Rick Grimes

I could live on Rick's speeches alone.

"We need to keep our faith in each other. If we can hold onto that with everything we have then the future is ours. The world is ours!"
—Maggie Rhee

And Maggie's speeches.

"And on this day, we begin to reshape this world."
—King Ezekiel

And Ezekiel's speeches.

Besides my predictable awe at the rousing words, all my reactions were exactly the same: "Crap, they're going to die." Admittedly, that's my reaction every year and especially before season 7; I even felt sick to my stomach that entire summer whenever I thought of what was to come. But the longer we go, the more there is to lose.

Look at Aaron's face. Ross Marquand plays him beautifully and I've been terrified for him since he got pulled into the walker-infested lake.

Then Morgan said he doesn't die. Never say that! We've also got Jerry telling Ezekiel how cool he is, which sounds like a just in case this is goodbye type of situation. And Negan has Gabriel, who used to be a better than thou coward, but he's won me over. And "tomorrow." What's tomorrow, Dwight?

At the end of the video I was cheering.

I was also assuming, like I assume every year for good reason, that no one will make it out of this alive, even though there seems to be a hell of a lot more hope than last season. But what is up with the end? A glimpse of the future? Please don't let this all be a coma dream. Please let it be that Rick is dreaming of the past or is dreaming of what life could have been. Because if all the series is explained away as a dream then everyone Rick met who wasn't in his life already was made up; everything they went through, the family they made, was all imagined, which makes it feel all pointless. Fans are invested in these people, these relationships, and that would all be invalidated.

That dreamworld succeeds in something like Inception, where you know what it is going in, but not when it's thrust upon you out of the clear blue. I've seen the coma story before and done really well, but an end like that would be the only thing that could ruin the entire series for me. Yeah, I don't think they would do that, especially since there should be more seasons to come.

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