trickymoo: Mentat: I for one am glad to see that even after the fall of civilization, Glenn and Maggie still support the right to bear arms.

Jesus tap-dancing christ that was farking incredibly bad-ass. Glenn has been holding back. I have been keeping up with the comics, which make the show seem like kiddie time. Honestly, last night I was expecting the govenor to lose an arm.


Putting an eye patch on is easier than a fake missing arm. :)

someonelse: frepnog: It is hard to argue that with over 8 million viewers on any given episode that The Walking Dead does not deserve every dime AMC can push its way, while Mad Men at its PEAK hit 3.5 million viewers. Mad Men SHOULD be bottled and the fools that funneled money to it instead of TWD should be left in the red zone. Then we would likely have 3 great seasons instead of 1 good, one sort of good and one incredible (half season).

That depends on what kind of ad sponsors each show draws, which in turn depends on what kind of market demographic each show's audience represents.

when you are dealing with equitable shows, sure, but when one show is pulling three times the viewers.... it turns less into "will women aged 18-34 see this" and more into "TEN MILLION PEOPLE SAW THAT AD". Walking Dead is the #1 drama series in basic cable history for adults and men 18-34, adults and men 18-49, and adults and men 25-54. That means lots of wives and girlfriends are watching too (I know my wife just LOVES it).

kumanoki
Look, I appreciate the monumental job it must be to write a character from episode to episode, and i appreciate also that there are people just like us, out there, on the web, who are going to nitpick every nuance of the show until it's bones are gleaming in the sun, but...I still have a problem with Andrea softening and turning into a patsy for the Governor this season. It's frankly unlike anything we've seen from her character in the past. Even when she went *ahem* "target practicing" with Shane, she initiated that nastiness. Lately she's almost been relegated to handmaid.

Thing is I would have been fine with it had they played up her illness more. Have the Governor pamper her while she's recovering, let the audience know that she feels safe and just wants some normalcy(or as close as she can get to it) after almost a year of running and hiding, give her night terrors and such to reinforce it. You can empathize with that and understand if she's willing to walk into the grey areas of morality just so she can have something concrete in her life again. Unfortunately we didn't get that and I think it was a huge wasted opportunity for the show.

R.A.Danny: The Banana Thug: I don't know if it's just the budget. I think Frank Darabount leaving the show had a lot to do with the increase in quality. He was partly responsible for the very slooow build-up in the first half of season 2, with the Zombie Sophia reveal the big payoff. His involvement ended there, and then the other writers took up the slack in his absence and really took things up a couple notches since then. Anyway, for all the naysayings about Darabount leaving would hurt TWD, I'm glad the exact opposite thing happened.

It was a great story... that should have been wrapped up in two episodes.


That plot line dragged forever, but the scene where Sophia is revealed and killed is probably the one that tears at my emotions/senses the most. (As much as I loathed Lori's character, her death scene is also right up there.)

If you are a black guy on The Walking Dead, you shoot every other black guy you see. Its the only way to stay safe.

Cyno01: I gotta ask what in the fark this is for exactly.


It's a hatchet for splitting wood, with nail pullers of various sizes included so you can remove those pesky nails before you chop up the wood. For example, if you were cutting up old fence posting or pallets for firewood.

Ctrl-Alt-Del: A crowbar typically weighs 15-20 pounds and is unwieldy as hell. Someone with a modicum of skill could get in 3 shots with a sword before you were even finished recovering from your first strike with the crowbar

Where the hell are you buying your crowbars?

Stanley 36 in. wrecking bar, the prototypical "crowbar" and it weighs 5.3 lbs.

Hell, even a 42 in. DeWalt is only 7.2 lbs

Yes, a sword is better as a combat weapon, but try popping a padlock off of a shed with it. Or opening a locked front door. Or any of the 27,000 other things you'll need to do to survive that don't involve killing zombies. By contrast the wrecking bar has the heft and reach to be effective as a close combat weapon, while being more utilitarian, not requiring sharpening, and far less likely to break if used improperly. You trade a small amount of reach (but still greater reach than say, a hammer or hatchet) for equivalent weight, greater utility, and less maintenance.

If I were limited to what's available in the hardware store, these are appealing



But given my 'druthers, I'd go with something like this:


17-inch 2lbs. 4 oz. 5160 Spring Steel cleaver with a weighted chisel tip,



23-inch, 3lbs. 5160 spring steel shortsword with extended handle for 1 or 2 handed grip

R.A.Danny: I think we're on to something here

[i1231.photobucket.com image 300x233]

I was just about to say, I'd rather have a roofing hammer than a claw hammer.

fusillade762: A sword always seemed like overkill to me. You'd get tired pretty fast swinging one around for any length of time and I sure as hell wouldn't want to be standing next to you while you use it.

Wait, did you seriously suggest that your arms would get tired swinging a sword around and that you should carry a crowbar around instead?

Have you ever actually tried to swing a crowbar? A one- handed swords typically weighs less than 4 pounds and is designed to swung around. A crowbar typically weighs 15-20 pounds and is unwieldy as hell. Someone with a modicum of skill could get in 3 shots with a sword before you were even finished recovering from your first strike with the crowbar

fusillade762: Claw hammer, crowbar, ice axe, etc all seem like better options to me.

Ice Axes are designed to go in and stay in. A weapon that is hard to remove from your opponents skull is not optimal. Hammer seems OK, but I'd prefer a hatchet or small axe

But I would take a well made sword over pretty much any modern non-powered, non firearm tool, at least for roomy areas - it's a device that was designed to destroy human bodies, and centuries of refinement led to some pretty successful designs. A nice axe is a good choice, too. Just do a quick search on YouTube - there are plenty of videos of people using swords and other hand weapons to cut up animal carcasses.

Lacking a sword, or for indoor work, I dunno - a nice heavy machete, or a kukri style machete, a tomahawk or good claw hammer like you mentioned all seem like good options

Loomy: I got the impression that the risk of infection/gangrene from amputation was less than the risk (read: certainty) of death from the zombie bite, presumably because no medium (air, filthy pants, wiped-off hatchet, etc...) could be worse than zombie mouth. And maybe zombies have some kind of super-bacteria that (what remains of) modern antibiotics can't fight. Of course, that doesn't touch on why getting zombie guts in open wounds (cuts, scrapes) isn't a bad as getting scratched.... maybe zombie guts are sterile?

Way too much thinking going into this. But I'll bite.

Agreed that antibiotics shouldn't fight off the zombie super-bacteria. If the mouth is more contagious than the gut etc, it's probably because at the CDC it's been shown that the epicenter of zombification occurs in the brain in the temporal lobe region, so by proximity to that, the mouth would be more lethal than anything below the neck.

/TWD is turning me into an internet nerd

Crewmannumber6: You people have put WAAAAY too much thought into this

after i read world war z, for weeks afterwards i evaluated every building I spent any time in on its defensibility to zombie attack. It gets in your head. It really does. Typical american single family homes with their crappy windows and sliding doors are going tob e the first to go down.

fusillade762: About that piece of glass Michonne jammed into the Gov's eye: seems like you could get all sorts of nasty infections from Zombie Head Aquarium Juice.

You could probably get all kinds of nasty infections from zombie blood splashing into your eyes, or through an open wound, or in your mouth, or when you smear guts all over your body, but apparently not.

So, if it isn't bites that turn people, and everyone already has the zombie virus, why did they cut off Hershel's leg instead of giving him antibiotics? He wasn't any LESS likely to get an infection with his leg sawed off with an unsterile blade. If bites are only dangerous because of the bacterial load giving you "something", then risking gangrene wouldn't help (and would require antibiotics anyways). It's not like the zombie pathogen was like venom, traveling up his leg, or is it? Because he's already infected anyways.

/Still love the show
//That just bothers me

To be fair, I don't see why Andrea would get too freaked out by the head aquarium given that she's aware of the experimentations going on in town with the biters. In fact, finding out about Penny probably answers the whole "why bother with the experiments in the first place" issues she has.

tinfoil-hat maggie: Sorry, I disagree shes lured by the seeming normal life but has been getting more worried about things like the pit fights and shes not happy about not being able to help out. I'm sure she would have rationalized all that even the walker heads for the perceived safety of the town but seeing Daryl, I think she now knows her group is out there and they wouldn't have done the attack for now reason.

Except the pit fights only worried her because she liked them too much herself. The head tank may have messed things up for her, but it seems like she's too quick to buy the gov's explanation. As far as she can tell, she has this idyllic existence in a place that seems completely safe to her. She may rationalize the attack as Rick not wanting to give up control of the group, so they went after Woodbury for supplies. This may make her have a difficult time believing the truth, because she appears nearly brainwashed by the gov at this point. Willing to believe anything that keeps her life as is(IE: in a safe place, shacking up with the man in charge, etc).

I understand your side of things, and it's certainly a possibility. But after everything she's been through, I think the illusion that is Woodbury is too much for her to let go of. Especially since she feels like the group abandoned her.

Possibility #3: She may think the group found out she was in Woodbury and came back for her, rather than the truth which is Maggie and Glen(since they don't know she's there). That could spin off into an interesting direction should that be the case.

Strategeryz0r: Andrea just wants the D. She'll be like "why would they attack such a peaceful community rather than come join us?" then the governor will play the oblivious card and continue with his "durr hurr turrurists herp." she'll believe him, cuz she loves the D.

Then when the truth finally comes out at the end of the season.

She'll be the one to off the governor. But whether they accept her back in the group will be up for debate.

I think the big problem is that the writers have no idea how to use Andrea this half of the season, but still need her character for later story arcs, so she's in this weird story limbo. They just think she would be useful as a way of showing how deceiving the governor is - that he is sick and twisted on the inside but puts on a nice guy facade for show, and instead of using random townspeople that we don't care about, they use Andrea instead to showcase this. Makes sense in the writers' room, but has been executed poorly on the set. Her whacking the governor or freeing Daryl somehow would be the character's saving grace.

tinfoil-hat maggie: quiotu: Strategeryz0r: bulok: Strategeryz0r: museamused: Christ on a pogo-stick, I'd forgotten most of these. This show is grosser than I thought.

/still think the annoying character quotient would drop to nil if Carl and Andrea took each other out

Silent badass Carl has been awesome this season. Right now we just need to off Andrea, or return her to badass season 2 Andrea rather than "She totally wants the D" Andrea.

Andrea's never been anything more than being an annoying biatch.

Never seen a character do a full 180 faster than Carl. Really liking him this season.

At least in season 2 she had somewhat of a purpose. She could shoot, was pretty badass, even if a little annoying.

Now she has no purpose other than taking care of the gov's wang. Which she seems to be enjoying all too much.

My money is on pregnant Andrea by the end of season 3. I just don't see the writers taking that much pity on all of us by offing her. Took too damn long for Lori.

Andrea is another one like Carl that is not even close to as interesting as she is in the comic. Andrea in the comic became a badass rather quick. Now she's definitely better than most, but she's less known for her fighting prowess in the show and more for her utter awful taste in men. Plus with Glenn now stepping up as a hardass and Carol surviving the prison alone for a few days, Andrea's quickly becoming the pussy of the group. Hopefully later on they'll work on her like they did Carl, and maybe Michonne will start to rub off on her. (giggity)

I think everyone seems to have missed the look on Andreas face when she sees Darell being brought in. I think now shes gonna realize that it was Ricks group doing the attack and is probably be the one to save Darell.

Andrea just wants the D. She'll be like "why would they attack such a peaceful community rather than come join us?" then the governor will play the oblivious card and continue with his "durr hurr turrurists herp." she'll believe him, cuz she loves the D.

Then when the truth finally comes out at the end of the season.

She'll be the one to off the governor. But whether they accept her back in the group will be up for debate.

It's good to see Cutty from The Wire survived the zombie apocalypse. He probably punched his way out of Baltimore.

QT_3.14159: frepnog: it seemed to be that she thought it was above level crazy but wanted to understand, cuz no one wants to lose that fine fine deep dickin'. I think she'll come around.

I think she was willing to come around until the Gov turned on Merle and dragged Daryl into the arena saying they were terrorists. She knows Daryl (and can assume he's still with the old group) well enough to know that he wouldn't have been attacking the town without reason. She can also probably read in their faces that they haven't actually seen each other since before the rooftop.

I think the current situation will finally turn on her "good judge of character" abilities which have been missing for so long...

If she could go ahead and save Daryl along with dying in the process a slow painful death, preferably by zmombies, that would be great.

frepnog: it seemed to be that she thought it was above level crazy but wanted to understand, cuz no one wants to lose that fine fine deep dickin'. I think she'll come around.

I think she was willing to come around until the Gov turned on Merle and dragged Daryl into the arena saying they were terrorists. She knows Daryl (and can assume he's still with the old group) well enough to know that he wouldn't have been attacking the town without reason. She can also probably read in their faces that they haven't actually seen each other since before the rooftop.

I think the current situation will finally turn on her "good judge of character" abilities which have been missing for so long...

someonelse: kumanoki: I still have a problem with Andrea softening and turning into a patsy for the Governor this season. It's frankly unlike anything we've seen from her character in the past.

It doesn't seem all that unlikely to me, particularly if you look at what Andrea knows (as opposed to what we the viewer know). Of course, Andrea *could* know a lot more if Michonne had any communication skills whatsoever, but that's another issue. Still, I can imagine just about anybody would be enthusiastic about settling down in Woodbury after months of being on the road, nearly starving, and constantly fighting/running from walkers. Most people would be inclined not to look to critically at any situation that offered them protection and a little earthly comfort. I'm pretty sure I would. And up until yesterday's episode, Andrea hadn't really overlooked much other than Michonne's plea to leave. And in fairness, Michonne didn't really offer any logical reason why they should leave immediately. She was pretty much, "either you're with me or you're not." I don't think we know yet what Andrea's reaction is to Penny and the head aquariums. Sh*t went down too quickly for her to process that.

it seemed to be that she thought it was above level crazy but wanted to understand, cuz no one wants to lose that fine fine deep dickin'. I think she'll come around.

Carl is stepping up big time looked like he was ready to cap Axel for talking to his woman and he was smart enough to lock the new people up. Andrea looked like at the end she was finally starting to put shiat together. Guess we will find out Feb 10th.

quiotu: Strategeryz0r: bulok: Strategeryz0r: museamused: Christ on a pogo-stick, I'd forgotten most of these. This show is grosser than I thought.

/still think the annoying character quotient would drop to nil if Carl and Andrea took each other out

Silent badass Carl has been awesome this season. Right now we just need to off Andrea, or return her to badass season 2 Andrea rather than "She totally wants the D" Andrea.

Andrea's never been anything more than being an annoying biatch.

Never seen a character do a full 180 faster than Carl. Really liking him this season.

At least in season 2 she had somewhat of a purpose. She could shoot, was pretty badass, even if a little annoying.

Now she has no purpose other than taking care of the gov's wang. Which she seems to be enjoying all too much.

My money is on pregnant Andrea by the end of season 3. I just don't see the writers taking that much pity on all of us by offing her. Took too damn long for Lori.

Andrea is another one like Carl that is not even close to as interesting as she is in the comic. Andrea in the comic became a badass rather quick. Now she's definitely better than most, but she's less known for her fighting prowess in the show and more for her utter awful taste in men. Plus with Glenn now stepping up as a hardass and Carol surviving the prison alone for a few days, Andrea's quickly becoming the pussy of the group. Hopefully later on they'll work on her like they did Carl, and maybe Michonne will start to rub off on her. (giggity)

This. In the comic Andrea has finally taken her rightful place as Rick's lover.... while there is no farking way in hell that the "Andrea" of the show will ever get to be that person. They are two completely different people. Andrea of the comic is a bad ass. Andrea of the show is a worthless idiot whose only value is "sperm repository for lunatics".

OtherLittleGuy: scottydoesntknow: The Banana Thug:
The writers this season have definitely been paying attention to angry Internet message boards: killing off Lori earlier than in comics, Carl, more zombies and gore, better plot pacing, avoiding Michonne's/Maggie's rape scene, etc...

Makes you wonder if AMC upped their budget for this season, or if they just had a huge surplus of funds since they spent around all of $500 on Season 2.

Most of that went to Mad Men, with Megan singing in French, dancing around in her underwear, and royalties to the most obscure Beatles song from the 60s.

I expect there'll be a budgetary turnaround, and most of next year's Mad Men will be bottled in Henry Francis' home.

It is hard to argue that with over 8 million viewers on any given episode that The Walking Dead does not deserve every dime AMC can push its way, while Mad Men at its PEAK hit 3.5 million viewers. Mad Men SHOULD be bottled and the fools that funneled money to it instead of TWD should be left in the red zone. Then we would likely have 3 great seasons instead of 1 good, one sort of good and one incredible (half season).

scottydoesntknow: The Banana Thug:
The writers this season have definitely been paying attention to angry Internet message boards: killing off Lori earlier than in comics, Carl, more zombies and gore, better plot pacing, avoiding Michonne's/Maggie's rape scene, etc...

Makes you wonder if AMC upped their budget for this season, or if they just had a huge surplus of funds since they spent around all of $500 on Season 2.

Most of that went to Mad Men, with Megan singing in French, dancing around in her underwear, and royalties to the most obscure Beatles song from the 60s.

I expect there'll be a budgetary turnaround, and most of next year's Mad Men will be bottled in Henry Francis' home.

bulok: Strategeryz0r: museamused: Christ on a pogo-stick, I'd forgotten most of these. This show is grosser than I thought.

/still think the annoying character quotient would drop to nil if Carl and Andrea took each other out

Silent badass Carl has been awesome this season. Right now we just need to off Andrea, or return her to badass season 2 Andrea rather than "She totally wants the D" Andrea.

Andrea's never been anything more than being an annoying biatch.

Never seen a character do a full 180 faster than Carl. Really liking him this season.

At least in season 2 she had somewhat of a purpose. She could shoot, was pretty badass, even if a little annoying.

Now she has no purpose other than taking care of the gov's wang. Which she seems to be enjoying all too much.

My money is on pregnant Andrea by the end of season 3. I just don't see the writers taking that much pity on all of us by offing her. Took too damn long for Lori.

assjuice: Carl still totally sucks.

So did your mom...before Carl totally capped her.

museamused: Christ on a pogo-stick, I'd forgotten most of these. This show is grosser than I thought.

/still think the annoying character quotient would drop to nil if Carl and Andrea took each other out

Silent badass Carl has been awesome this season. Right now we just need to off Andrea, or return her to badass season 2 Andrea rather than "She totally wants the D" Andrea.

All things considered, compared to the comic, The Governor got off pretty easily with Michonne

Has anyone seen Carl?

scottydoesntknow: The Banana Thug:
The writers this season have definitely been paying attention to angry Internet message boards: killing off Lori earlier than in comics, Carl, more zombies and gore, better plot pacing, avoiding Michonne's/Maggie's rape scene, etc...

Makes you wonder if AMC upped their budget for this season, or if they just had a huge surplus of funds since they spent around all of $500 on Season 2.

I don't know if it's just the budget. I think Frank Darabount leaving the show had a lot to do with the increase in quality. He was partly responsible for the very slooow build-up in the first half of season 2, with the Zombie Sophia reveal the big payoff. His involvement ended there, and then the other writers took up the slack in his absence and really took things up a couple notches since then. Anyway, for all the naysayings about Darabount leaving would hurt TWD, I'm glad the exact opposite thing happened.

R.A.Danny: The KFC commercial after the zombie feeding was PERFECT!

Agreed, hilarious segue.

Vodka Zombie: My girlfriend (not Canadian) said this last night: "After all the hacking and slashing and guts flying out everywhere on this show, who knew that a little piece of glass would be the thing that makes me squirm?"

I know it's from Season 2, but the part where they pulled the fat zombie out of the watering hole on Herschel's farm and his body exploded into halves, THAT made me lose my lunch.

yeegrek: Fair is fair. Carl was easy to mock last season, but he's much better written this season.

The way he stormed through each prison room looking for the source of that scream, holding his gun over his flashlight like a commando, that was the apex of his badassery.

The writers this season have definitely been paying attention to angry Internet message boards: killing off Lori earlier than in comics, Carl, more zombies and gore, better plot pacing, avoiding Michonne's/Maggie's rape scene, etc...

Fair is fair. Carl was easy to mock last season, but he's much better written this season. His "Suck it up, princess, I just put a bullet in my mom's brain" put down to Daryl was awesome.

DNRTFA, was the mustachioed prisoner hitting on that 17 year old girl on the list? Because that was pretty gross.

Anybody else shocked at the TRex that ate Rick? That came outta no where.

*snicker* Where the fark is Car..*BANG*

Carl (standing over body): "I think I have earned the right to leave the farking house, now. Anybody got a problem with that?"

None of those were as bad as the zombie in Season 2 that tried to squeeze its face through the too-small hole in the car windshield.

TrainingWheelsNeeded: Watching new episode tonight! no spoilers for me thank you.

See you tommorow. Sticking around here would be silly with the spoiler warning and all.