The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: We all need heroes
By Liam O'Leary
While King Ezekiel is a fictional character on The Walking Dead, what he represents is something rather universal: In desperate times, people need heroes.
I honestly feel like the better part of the last couple of months, I’ve been rather negative, so, I’ve decided to change that this week. If you saw Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead, you know how bad things got. Lots of people dying, lots of people turning, one person losing faith in himself.
Yet, there’s good to be found in this week’s episode, too. While Ezekiel may not have been able to save his people from the meat grinder that awaited them, the mere fact they were so willing to follow him into the lion’s den showed he did do something for them: He gave them a hero.
While the cynics in us might scoff, heroes are not simply fantasies we see in movies or comics, but, people we look to give us hope and inspire us to be more than what we might otherwise think we can be. I think heroes represent our collective idealism; That, while society or the world may suck, there are those out there willing and able to make the sacrifices necessary to help others, maybe even humanity at large, when they need it most.
If you think about it, Ezekiel had been a hero to The Kingdom even before leading them into battle. Half the reason The Kingdom held together the way it had been through Ezekiel’s leadership.
He was the one who helped rally and united them together for a common cause. Had it not been for him, who’s to say The Kingdom would have lasted for as long as it has? By giving them a charismatic (albeit over-the-top) leader, Ezekiel gave The Kingdom a unifying symbol they could all get behind.
By being that symbol, Ezekiel (With help from Carol, of course) was able to lead The Kingdom to nearly route The Saviors at Gavin’s outpost; A ragtag group of civilians and would-be farmers were one massive machine gun away from annihilating a battalion of mostly ruthless killers.
Ezekiel gave them the courage to believe that they could do it. A hero doesn’t necessarily have to fly in and save the day to be one, just giving people the courage to realize their own potential can sometimes be enough, even the person you give courage to…is yourself.
In a strange way, part of what makes Ezekiel a hero is the fact that he (That is the persona of King Ezekiel), essentially, made himself into a hero.
Though he chose to be courageous even before The Kingdom (By saving Shiva, for example), the fact he had become a symbol to The Kingdom made Ezekiel strive to live up to the symbol he became. In spite of the fact he was, as he put it, “Just some guy” and hadn’t fought in wars or against violent criminals, Ezekiel put aside his fears and doubts and (nearly) led his people to victory.
Cliche though it might be, a true hero is someone who is afraid of the danger, yet, meets that danger all the same.
That said, we’re all still human, even our heroes. We can’t expect them to be superheroes and be impervious to pain or death or failure. That expectation is unfair, and, frankly, dangerous.
The fact is, even our heroes need help sometimes. When Ezekiel was losing hope in the toxic swamp and the walkers were encroaching, he needed help from Carol, Jerry, and Shiva to escape. When he returned without the knights, you could see how much it crushed him.
More from Undead Walking
- Walking Dead alum Jayson Warner Smith promotes new film, Chipper, watch it now
- Walking Dead actor Chandler Riggs filming new movie in Tampa Bay
- Why is there no season 12 of The Walking Dead?
- Will Morgan Jones find Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live spinoff?
- Watch Tales of TWD actress Jillian Bell in Prime Video’s Candy Cane Lane
If you want your heroes to remain your heroes, and not to break, you need to remember that they’re not superheroes, and, every so often, need help just as badly as the rest of us do.
In a zombie apocalypse, people will become desperate: Death will stalk them at every turn, and evil will go unchecked. To return to something resembling what we’ll have lost, humanity will need strong people to do the hard things, to fight hostiles, brave the dead, and lead people forward. People will need heroes, even if those heroes have to be us.
And that’s our survival rule of the week!! Hopefully, it will help you should you ever need it and give you that mental edge that will prove so crucial once the dead start eating everyone.
Next: TWD, Survival Rule Of The Week: Remember your humanity
If you like this and want to find out more rules to survive the zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can get it on Kindle here and on iTunes here!