The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Crossing Lines
By Liam O'Leary
If you have to worry about The Walking Dead, what are you doing threatening people over words?
In this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, we saw Judith teaching her friends and her little brother how to use swords to defend themselves against walkers. Considering that the walls had been breached earlier in the day, that seems like a good idea.
During this training session, Judith spotted another group of kids messing around with the walkers on the other side of a recently replaced wall panel. One wall that was in such poor shape that there was a hole in the wall big enough for a walker to comfortably poke its head through. All in all, that seems like a stupid idea.
Judith, not being stupid, warned the other kids against their idiotic game of chicken, and threatened to tell Rosita if they didn’t stop. This prompted one of the kids, some squiggly-haired jerk named Vincent, to insult her and say that Michonne had abandoned her. This prompted Judith to threaten Vincent with her sword! Yikes.
Honestly, if Judith punched Vincent in his stupid face, I’d have been perfectly okay with it. In fact, I might even consider that the optimal thing to do with a bully in a zombie apocalypse, as it might serve to let them know that saying things like that is a line they shouldn’t cross. Of course…that’s not what Judith did. What she did came within inches of puncturing Vincent’s throat with her sword. To say that that was something of an overreaction would be an understatement.
While, sure, it made the little dirtbag shut up, it’s not something you want to do if you’re in a group in an apocalypse, because it makes you come off like a psychopath. Someone people don’t want around, maybe someone people would try to get rid of because they’re afraid you might kill them for something as ultimately harmless as an insult.
Think about it: If you said something to someone — Not a threat or something like that, just an insult or a disagreement — and their response was to threaten to kill you…what would you think? Would you want that person around? Would you trust them? NO! OF COURSE NOT! In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you, at best, suggested that the rest of the group abandon this unhinged person before they hurt someone!
I know it’s not quite this simple, but, short of someone making some kind of threat or seriously lying about you or someone you care about, no amount of words warrants lethal force, even in a zombie apocalypse, and if someone thinks they do…they are the ones who are the problem.