Remember this: Sex is not the center of the Universe.
Last night I was watching The Walking Dead’s
episode, “Consumed”. I also watched the Talking Dead with Chris Hardwick.
The content on both shows was interesting and thoughtful.
I was impressed by the input of Yvette Nicole Brown. She is the kind of person you can have deep intellectual conversations with because she pays attention. Life is magic when you have a listener.
I have thoughtful perspectives on this and wanted to share for whoever watches the show. I wondered if anyone shared this particular thought.
If I were the character what would I be thinking, feeling, or remembering from history I didn’t know. I was an archeologist digging into the minds of strangers based on my experiences; making up my own tales.
The online fodder revolves around Daryl being gay or hooking up with Beth or Carol, or both. I don’t particular subscribe to this potential storyline. That is the writer’s path. I do find it fascinating the way in which the writers handled this episode.
When Carol and Daryl are on the bunk bed talking, I did not get the feel of any kind of sexual chemistry. Likewise, I don’t see this with Beth either. I was reading the content writ in online conversations and between Hardwick and his panel. The posture by Daryl is of an overly protective brother.
Fathers and brothers can surrogate for the female in a non-sexual way until the female finds a mate. This is why it is important for the male role not be a violent one. This helps the female determine if the potential mate is an asshole-to-be-avoided. She will compare non-relative men to this example. If it is a poor example, God help you man that you overcome her problems if you so desire to pursue a woman that you feel is worth it.
I wondered. Why it is so important for people to see something that is not necessarily there? The viewer wants the idea to be true because it is lacking in their life or they just want to see it to fulfill some fantasy. You must always ask in the back of your mind, is it true or distorted. Is the viewer happy to see traumatized people have a happy moment; a moment in a sea of dead zombie shells. This scenario only complicates the storyline and suffering of the characters. This is great material for the writer. At the basis of this show is literature, which the visual is built upon.
What I saw on the bunk bed was a platonic surrogacy. The universe is always delivering unto its life forces things they need to get them over the hump, if recognized.
In the Walking Dead Cosmos, surrogate benefactors nurture and move the characters on. The reality they knew before is now replaced by a bastardized version of what life is at present. No one is safe.
Carol, a domestic abuse survivor, probably has thoughts on life being more secure before the zombie apocalypse. Even if it is with an abuser.
Was it better to be a relationship victim where escape to a normal life was possible? Or is it worse to be stuck in a hell of zombies and good people turning into less-than-human killers? Or is that humanity at its basis form? Those good people you otherwise wouldn’t kill but now have to.
I could say animals but that’s derogatory because humans are animals. There was reference to Rick’s group now being animals. Why treat humans above reproach when humans are not?
This is how I saw Daryl. Daryl at that moment was the surrogate man Carol probably wanted or needed before the apocalypse; the man that would take care of distasteful things in times of emotional and physical lows without the abuse. He’s the guy you will sleep with but not love, have him fix your car but give no thanks as you ride off into the sunset with someone else, and call to whine about your problems while treating him like an emotional dumping ground. The silver lining in the surrogate’s cosmos is he may be used temporarily, but such good karma he has built could be repaid with some gift from the universe; thus rectifying karmic debt. We all want a person or group to alleviate the begrudged burdens that are forced upon us.
When Daryl tells Carol she doesn’t have to act or make a decision in the building with the child and adult zombie, Daryl realizes Carol’s affliction. At times we don’t want to admit our problems when the closest to us see them clearly. The only way the afflicted can come to terms and acknowledge these problems is self-realization. Being told you have a problem tends to flare up the denial in the person it is issued to.
Up to this point, even though Carol is with Daryl moving through a landscape as part of a unit, Carol seems to be thinking in terms of the individual separate from Daryl; making the decision to follow through with complicated problems, not because someone asked her to but because she takes it upon herself. This could speak to Carol’s inability or lack of education on interacting in relationships and distrust of significant others. She sees herself as being more capable to deal with the situation without realizing how it drains her and that someone more capable is standing right there. Carol carries this idea there is no other option but to carry burden, is implied.
There again, another viewer may not see this because that is what I see. I am internalizing the scene in terms of my past experiences.
Daryl’s character punch comes in short bursts, which is more effective than other characters. To some degree, Daryl is unconsciously applying horse training techniques on Carol. He applies pressure on Carol as she moves away in denial. This tactic is implied with the conversation of who Carol is from Carol’s standard versus how Daryl knows her when they are looking at a painting. Carol moves away in denial because she claims Daryl doesn’t really know her. Daryl begs to differ. Then there is Noah under the bookcase, Daryl moves away to Carol’s panic. Carol goes in and acts to stop the zombie.
How do you get someone to make the right choices with the right pressure without traumatizing them further into mistrust or detachment?
I began to realize there was this pressure from the masses for Daryl to have sex with someone or something. I became aggravated that the character of Daryl couldn’t just develop at his own pace but now was being poked and prodded by unknown assailants that wanted him to bed the older woman, the younger woman, etc.
Carol is the semi-mature, older woman with what some would consider fading beauty or beauty with age and wisdom. Being close to his age would be more socially appropriate. She appears more of a motherly type.
Beth is the nubile youth growing into a woman through brutal acts and situations. On some level, Beth is mentored by Daryl but some viewers want this dynamic to turn into a sexual relationship. This is seen a lot in movies where older men are connected physically with younger women.
I am dwelling more on Daryl’s character here. He is the center of that particular universe through manipulation. He seems to be making or not making the decisions on his ethic where women, age, and who gives a shit comes into play. His character might feel he doesn’t have time for that or doesn’t need it. Beth and Carol are fruit on a tree and he just has to decide which one to eat. What if Daryl were picked by someone? Someone he wasn’t particularly enamored with immediately; maybe enamored but in denial or just doesn’t notice because anxiety, deranged people, his standing on a constant ledge of madness and mayhem daily leaves him with the decision to not go there. Should Daryl be suspended in emotional animation or moved along into some fate worse than death, love or hate of a particular nature? Why is this so important?
The reactions of the world made room for puzzling over this. Do people really want happy-endings for favorite characters? Are viewers more concerned with who is hooking up with who? Should this be denied to the public or handed over? When you spend time watching a show to see who hooks up, you don’t get the sublime messages that are more meaningful. It is overshadowed by the potential for sex.
Shifting your mentality to what really matters when dealing with people that is not sex driven is where you truly connect to people and yourself. Emotionally developed characters can exist even while occupying a tragic landscape.
Daryl, Carol, and Beth can separately develop while being together and not in a sexual way. The sexual component lessens the family dynamic being built yet chess pieces can move into positions previously not occupied, but at what cost?
Relationship changes are not always for the best on the board. Connecting on the familial level is more important because sex is not the glue to relationships. If it is, the glue can wear away and the relationship shows the hallow emptiness of what was only a voyeur’s desire to see sex. This sex could be a lowering of the character and the spirit surrounding them. The characters are not barflies, getting drunk, and looking for love in all the wrong places while stabbing zombies in the head. Relationships are important components because even the characters walk along stabbing zombies in the head with no second thought to it. Killing the zombies is white noise to the viewer. This hook-up attitude can indicate a degrading of the character.
Daryl is the male sacrificial virgin. He has wings on his back and people want to see the character that has been elevated to archangel status fall to Earth by the hand of a love interest. This only works when it is the right person. Anything less would not get the same effect. It has to be quietly epic. Maybe people want to vicariously experience a perceived supernatural biblical moment. The fallen angel has to burn or become the thing it was before the fall. Do viewers want to see a sullying of characters to make them more sinful, more human, or average in terms of human nature? Handled right it could be the most beautiful thing but always potentially tragic.
After watching so many shows where sex is carnal and debasing to the character but conveyed or interpreted as empowering, I would just like to see a character find their way without being molested for viewers satisfaction on the character’s terms via the writer; not always the helpless badass blowing in the breeze.
When you like characters equally in these potential hook-ups there is going to be a loser. People want connection but there isn’t thought put into the type of connection or where it is headed. Making sound decisions towards relationships tell you whether they will work out or not.
On-the-fly relationships could develop into meaningful things but only with work.
I began to think in terms of Carol, Beth, and Daryl as an outsider making decisions on what they needed, not what they wanted. Funny, how the outsider always sees something etched on the outer and inner shell of the person. Sometimes that interference from the outside world puts the character on the path or diverts the character off. It could also be a manifestation of the inner self’s development into the end product.
I wondered what kind of character, if any, would best be applied to the character of Daryl. I didn’t necessarily think it was Beth or Carol long term.
To best torture the character of Daryl the opposing character would have to be a sort of wild animal in the form of a devil combined with an angel, which is what Daryl is so the character would be reflective. The character would have to have the ability to kill, save, love, or hate Daryl, who would mutually be tortured by this dynamic yet not want to live with or without the other. Again, it could be as in real life; nothing, finding no one ever, and dying all alone wondering why you weren’t good enough or chosen.
I refer back to those famous wings. In the strata of God and the Devil, the ultimate reconciliation would be this particular relationship. God must merge with the Devil, as one. This function would be Daryl with Daryl; Daryl with another person(s). There would be no moving on into other relationships without the malice of disappointing failure. The common denominator is to be right with one's self before being right for another.
As humans we rush in blindly to complicated, torturous unmaintainable love-hate-sex-empty relationships. We even attach ourselves to people out of security and familiarity but does it ever make us feel the way we should? What exactly is that feeling and will we know it or do outside things distract us such as who Daryl will have sex with. Do we just want another image to add to the sex fantasy reel of Daryl doing it with someone regardless of the female face attached? Viewers can transpose their face onto Carol’s or Beth’s and be the one Daryl is with. What does Daryl represent as the male character?
I really enjoyed this episode and could talk on it more. I’ll just sit here on my perch and read online fodder which tickles me on occasion; people and their online comments.
People do watch the show loyally so it is not just Daryl getting laid. If that ever came out I am sure people would have Hurricane-type parties where they pile on a couch just to see poor Norman Reedus giving it all he’s got. The expectation has got to be either crushing him or challenging him. I would hide on the Mothership to if everyone was peer pressuring me to death with sex. Maybe he just wants a motorcycle ride and a cold Slurpee?
Sex is never the long-term answer. This little monster wears away and you start seeing the real person you are sleeping with. Some poor souls don’t get to sleep in the bed overnight. They get kicked out where the cat stares from the warm cozy window at them out in the snow.
Sex is a smaller facet of a bigger jewel. Feeding a voyeuristic need to spy on a character solely for the satisfaction of watching a character’s sex act seems to me a slap in the face to the character, especially when the character is being developed into a person with a life of its own. I asked myself this question: If it were my lover or husband would I want to share them, in that way, with the world? Or would I want to keep some things sacred? Would I want them to feel like I put them on the sacred pedestal, protected from grabbing, unloving hands?
It’s like saying to the character, “I don’t care about you. You are just here for my jollies.” I can warrant this attitude in people’s real lives as viewers.
I am not a prude but when did the happy ending stop at the moment two people have sex? Do people live for that magical moment solely and not the millions of moments thereafter with the person? Why in my mind do I feel this empty space of self-induced amnesia or dementia when I hear people talking about “the moment” and nothing of substance follows?
It’s bad enough when you are a teenager going through puberty that your friends pressure you into sex, your relatives constantly ask you if you’ve found someone, or you avoid going out because you don’t want to feel the rejection. The other side of this seedy coin is finding out the other person fragrantly lied to you thus making you a fool and they, a tart.
The ones you were interested in didn’t like you back, making you feel unsexy. Ergo I say this, but you aren’t psychic and maybe they did but your mind talked you out of it.
God help those unwed, deep in their thirties, forties and beyond. People eyeball and whisper they will never get married then give up on them; like you have to make those people with judgey eyes happy.
I am laughing at myself for saying that but oh well.
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
