The Walking Dead: Are the communities prepared for a fight?

Now that The Walking Dead is firmly rooted in the post-time jump world, are the communities mentally prepared for another big battle?

The Walking Dead has covered a lot of ground in season 9, moving from 18 months post-All Out War to a six-year jump into the future. The years following All Out War seem to have been fairly peaceful, aside from the mysterious scars on Michonne and Daryl. With the threat of the Whisperers bearing down on the three communities, are they ready to take on another fight?

Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom have all turned into safe havens in the years following the fall of the Saviors. As far as fans can tell, there haven’t been any big battles or anything that has threatened their way of life. Michonne seems to be the only one focused on security, and at times it seemed like the people around her resented her tough stance.

While Michonne was away from home, someone left Negan’s cell open and the former Savior leader simply walked out. Not only did he leave the cell, but he took his sweet time leaving the community, stopping for a tomato, a change of clothes and a visit to Michonne’s house without being seen by anyone but Judith. This reflects very poorly upon the work Michonne has done to make the community safer. (Given Judith’s fighting lessons, it makes perfect sense that the youngster would be the one to find Negan, because she’s her mother’s daughter)

It’s not difficult to imagine that Carol has implemented some kind of training regime at the Kingdom, but at the same time the community has been plagued by problems with supplies and infrastructure, so it’s possible that the fighting skills have slipped while the focus has been elsewhere.

Jesus and Aaron were out practicing their fighting skills while Tara ran the show at Hilltop, and they definitely have a security system in place but the community doesn’t seem to have many people who are able to go out and fight. There are kids and families there, which means there might not be enough people around to fight.

Now that the threat has been revealed, the question turns to whether or not the three communities are ready to take on another battle. The fight against the Whisperers could be something unlike anything that has been seen before because of the group’s ability to manipulate the walker herds. The sheer number of walkers that could be involved will make for a very uneven playing field before the battle has even started.

On the positive side, though, all three communities are being led by people with lots of experience with battle. Michonne, Aaron, Daryl, Tara, Carol and Ezekiel have been through a lot, and if by some miracle Negan can be bothered to join in the fight it might make the fight easier to win.

The downside is that everyone is spread out, and there is no way that anyone will be able to leave the Hilltop. Alexandria and the Kingdom can send people to help Hilltop, but they also have to protect themselves, which offers a major tactical challenge because there are far more Whisperers and walkers than there are people in the communities. Finding a way to fight without leaving their homes vulnerable will be a major issue.

The advantage for the communities is that they have the leadership to put up a fight, but they certainly don’t have much by way of a tactical advantage. And without practice, it’s going to be difficult to rally the members of the community for a fight that pits them against the undead and people dressed as the undead.

For now, fans have to sit back and wait to see what happens, but it won’t be pretty. That’s for sure.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.