#TF COMIC 7 SPOILERS KIND OF YEAH SURE

[desktop-plane]

i'm litte rallt crrying rightt now. because. For some ereason heee looks sso sad sin thrhsi mpanel. Llike he looiks so deptessed. (mmaaybe im a li ttle crazg for seeing s sadness inn his facer here idk) he r eeminddss me of mysel.f. ........ineeed a fdrrinnk ☹️☹️☹️☹️

[kosmicdream]

The FATE of FEAST FOR A KING

.. and Nasty Red Dogs… 

And some other miscellaneous thoughts about comics, writing, and time.... AND ENDINGS...

============= 

As I’m approaching 10 years on FFAK and NRD is currently 5, I’ve been reflecting a lot on How far this journey with comics has taken me and how far I still have yet to go. For those unaware, my first webcomic was actually Eggshells, which started in 2011, but i only started posting pages publicly in 2013. It too is unfinished, but its planned for 7 chapters. (I’m currently working on chapter 5, which probably will come out early next year.) I have 9 ongoing comics I’m working on. NINE!! 3 of those are FFAK related. (FFAK, After Dinner Treat, and the prequel series “Help.”) It is so many comics though. And beyond that! I have two other stories I’ve been working on for the past few years in secret, one being Nice Blue Cats, which I might still draw as a comic someday.. As well as a series of “one shots” that is meant to be its own collection. Slugmom and “The Teacher & The Fairy” are part of these one shot collections. Which, uh, it was designed to help me practice writing short stories. Which TT&TF is now going to be three parts long, and roughly 300 pages. So I guess that’s short enough…? Ha.. laughs… Anyway, as I was saying.. Sometimes I’m sure, readers might wonder. “Do you ever feel overwhelmed, with so many projects Kosmic?” Yeah dude. I sure fucking do. I got 9 of them! That’s more than a full pokemon team of projects that are potentially a decade + of work. A couple of them already are a decade old/older at this point. (Praeymoon is actually one of my oldest-lasting projects, even tho its first chapter only finally released in 2023.. I first attempted to draw ch1 back in 2016, but was unable to finish it and scrapped the “full color” angle i was trying then. ) All my current ongoing comic projects are as follows: Feast for a King, Nasty Red Dogs, Eggshells, The Teacher & the Fairy, Replacer, The Eyes of Miasma, FFAK: After Dinner Treat, FFAK: Help, are all written. The only one which isnt fully written is Praeymoon, which I don’t mind because the way that story is organized is almost more of a sandbox-fantasy world of mini stories. I’ll be honest, if you havent heard of Replacer or The Eyes of Miasma, I don’t blame you- its not that i don’t like those stories. They just kind of are the “most neglected” comics yet I’m also kind of amazed they exist at all, like I DONT know how I found the time to draw over 100 pages for both of them. They also have fully written outlines and all things considered, are probably only going to be under 400-500 pages in length. But that’s still a decent amount of work there. Its been ten years since I more or less started making webcomics… and as I plan, and try to calculate all my projects for the next 10 years, my main priority at the moment is well.. Finishing all of these fucking stories one way or another. Its hard! I don’t know if I can as I put way too much on my plate. But at the same time like.. Whatever. I could easily drop most of them, if I felt inclined to - but I don’t. They are my library of work, and I’ve sort of made an artist oath to myself that I will see as many of them to the end as I can. I’m excited that three are very close to its end. (Nasty Red Dogs, The Teacher & the Fairy, and Eggshells.) After that well.. I’ll see what I can cross off my list next once I get there.. That’s still going to take years to get those done. But hopefully not too many. 

[Spoilers for potential LENGTHS of FFAK/NRD.. And other things.. I speak very transparently about writing and working on comics here AND including my thoughts on ENDINGS.. You’ve been warned]

I’m comfortable enough sharing that the fairy comic is 3 parts, Eggshells is 7 chapters, but when it comes to FFAK/NRD.. Its much harder to give an estimate, or if sharing those things will only be disappointing or annoying to hear about.. If you have ever been around me for more than 10 minutes, i am constantly talk about the “length left” on these projects a lot anyway. At night, i count them in my head. In the day, I write little lists as if I’ve forgotten the names of them.. They are MY LIST.

 But for those who do not know and wish to, NRD is likely going to end with 10 chapters. I have extended this in the past, so it could still change.. but it only really has gotten “longer” due to pacing of scenes rather than the actual content. And Honestly, it was paced out specifically to avoid this next chapter. Not that I didn’t want to draw it, its because i was Scared to do it.. Why? Because there’s cars I have to draw in it. And dogs. I have drawn those things before, at least once or twice. But I do not enjoy drawing cars or dogs. Dogs are okay now, but i hate that they have legs. Dont give me references, i have those. Its just how my brain is, with those fuckign legs and how there’s four of them. I know practice makes perfect. Or do-able. I have drawn amost 1000 pages of NRD, i dont remember how they bend and i’ve forgiven myself for knowing there’s just some things god cannot do, which is to give kosmic the ability to look at a dog leg and understand. Anyway. Because of this reason, somehow, finishing NRD with it only possibly being 4 more chapters, still feels harder than finishing ALL of FFAK - which (drumroll) might be .. only around 10 or 12 chapters left. Yes, you heard me- for the second AND third arc. 10 or 12 more. Will that also change? Probably!!!!!! Like, yes… its been 9 years and I’ve completed a lot more than just 10 chapters of comics in that time.. But wrapping up a story is way harder and I dont know what that’s like..yet! But i feel still confident that i will. I mean, i don’t really have any other choice than to experience it. I used to recoil and fall apart just emotionally contemplating finishing FFAK. my FUCKING baby. My joy. You mean that has to end?? NEVER. My attachment to it and the characters was incomparable to anything else I had done, and in my mind ever WILL make… (and that is still true.) But.. I’m okay with that now and I actually look forward to seeing how it could end up. Even if its bad! 

Its kind of weird to say, I just don’t really think it will be.. super good? Like.. it could be? I don’t know how readers will react. I dont even know how I feel about the whole thing.. I have felt so many feelings about this comic already, now I’m kind of.. Past it in a new stage. Zen like peace almost. There’s just.. so much that I wanted to PUT in FFAK and so much i could STILL put in. But I kind of just am okay with what i wrote, does that even make sense? The whole comic has felt like such a fluke to me, from the very start. And I managed to accidentally make so many great things in it I don’t actually understand sometimes. And my dreams for the comic has been nearly limitless. I couldn’t possibly contain all the feelings I’ve had over this story over the many years I have been making it, and all the incredible narrative outcomes I could see the characters going in.. the possibilities, the parallels.. The anime music videos..  I would NOT compare my writing style to GRRM, I haven’t read his books. but I can’t help but feel a bit like a weird baby version of him with the amount of cast members I have to push around and draw.. And I want to be clear. If FFAK was written as a book, it wouldn’t happen. I cannot write books. I do not think writing books is easier/faster than making comics, but sometimes it is hard to have to draw everyone. Point is, I understand the reality of a long-term comic project now, I have numbers and logs to prove it  and my range. And I’m fairly consistent, even in my low days. So.. in recent years my writing style has.. has changed to accommodate.. Those.. General Realities i’ve observed in myself. 

That’s why the second arc excites me. It has a lot of uhh, urgency that underlies it. You might have already noticed a change in the tone in chapter 16, which I’ve been working on for almost a year now. (I mean, I’ve been working on the written version for.. LOL.. much longer.) Maybe you haven’t! It could all just be from my own POV with how differently i feel that I delegate time to characters now. I did not start “writing” FFAK until chapter 10, and then i did not really start WRITING writing ffak until about.. Honestly, i want to say as late as 2019. It TOOK SO LONG you guys. I dont even know how many fucking thousands of pages of madness word documents I’ve got, with revision after revision and trying to list, contain, every possibly plotline… character backstory.. Blah blah blah.. Ive cut it down so much its impressive only to me. I don’t remember my lore anymore , and i love it. My readers probably know my lore better, and I don’t love it. Except when it benefits me. Then Its good. I would not describe myself as a RUTHLESS cut THROAT author, im actually too way sentimental to really let go of anyone. That’s why it took me so long to kill off Rock, but also because I wanted spoon to look really sexy and evil and that’s hard to do sometimes when I cant remember what half side he is. And when he was flipping around, I had to actually make a paper doll for him so i could TRY .. TRY to draw his arm on the correct side. Sometimes I didn’t. I just let it go if the drawing is good enough and i let it be a fun game for the readers to catch. But anyway, That’s why characters like Aeschylus are still around. Now that time has passed, I kind of regret it. Rome was right.. I dont need Aeschylus here and I’m mad he brought his friend Randall too. That being said, they’re some of my favorite characters in this arc even if they’re totally useless. In general, i have tried my best to not repeat all my writing sins and all my regrets of arc 1. I would not have been able to do this without the help of NRD to help get me to see that I can get attached and motivated to write new stories. When I hit my writing block in 2016/2017, it almost broke FFAK. FFAK still continued, but it also didn’t. But i was patient, and i worked through it.. And now I look forward to the ends of my comics, not because I want them to end but I’m very deeply excited for all the new opportunities my imagination to go to. I don’t know what that will be like. I don’t know how long it will still take me to get there, but I have it on [digital] paper and it does feel good to see that. Its affirming. I feel like i have a clear mission and I feel strong enough to really do it and commit to it. The second arc has barely started but in my heart I’ve made peace with the ending, whatever it might actually result as. 

Plus if I finish it and its so bad, I’m sure that will be inspiring in itself! People might actually write fanfics!! I think a lot of readers are NOT going to enjoy the ships, for one. The MEAN greedy part of me hopes they don’t. That’s the most ruthless part of my writing to me is the ship choices. Oh! My evil mind. I mean theres no possible way to please everyone, or even myself, but there is a possible way to displease a lot of people. Including myself. So that’s kind of the route I find myself drawn to. Why? Because it gets me out of the hole of like.. I dunno, being stuck. 

I used to write out a lot of big posts but over the years, I’ve kinda stopped. Mostly bc they were honestly really repetitive..or about lore that didn’t truly matter too much… That hasn’t really changed. This post is more or less “im still working on it, everyone! Just hang tight! Wow it’ll be a crazy wild ride” but it also is something I wanted to write to myself as words of encouragement. This has been a tough year. Like so tough that its hard to think about. But its very nice to feel like, i guess, my drive for my stories hasn’t gone anywhere. If anything, i really feel like i’ve gone through the mourning and ego death of “not being able to write a thing how you want” and now I’ve made total peace with it. Its just gonna be what it is, and I like that actually. When my life is tough, my comics at the moment serve as a place of hope for me - and assurance that I can survive through tough years. That’s the message they have ultimately given me, finished or not. And… I honestly don’t think of FFAK or NRD as my masterpieces or anything, but i know they might very well be the only stories people will know of when they think of me. If they think of me! So I wanna do a complete job with those. Rest assured, it’ll get there. I cant make big promises about all the comics I work on… even the bonus comics for FFAK, but at least those main two are my main priorities. That has not changed. THE FIRE is still in me. Even if FFAK took a like.. Mental.. 5 year hiatus its back baby. 

I’m about 30 pages in to my 50 page script for chapter 16, so I guess it’ll be around 300-400 pages more before its done. Things are picking up speed! So it could be less. I am also preparing for the monster that is the 7th nasty red dogs chapter. I cannot stress ENOUGH that this next chapter, I have put off since chapter 4. Yes, I’ve actually buffed the story out to be longer than it intended, just to avoid drawing it. I even put a horse guy in there, I never draw horses because those ALSO have legs but they’re worse than dog legs. And, its not that i didn’t want to draw this part of the comic! But I didn’t think i could do it. It intimidated me. It still does, but, I’m gonna do it already. I know chapters 8-10 will be hard too but like…eh… I know in my heart its gonna really be about 7 for me. It always has been about 7 to me.. 2024 will be a big year for my comics for sure, just because of that alone I think. Not only will I have chapter 16 done, as the first step of the 2nd arc and a new adventure of my apocalyptic wormy drama, I’ll be facing my fears of the dog variety. Its TIME. 

I’m so happy people have stuck around for my work, or shared it with others, even if they’re a strange mess. Its interesting to see, who comes and goes. I still enjoy refreshing my comments every morning when I wake up, and right before I go to bed. Its comforting.

My closing thoughts on this. I don’t HATE the ending of FFAK. I… like it! Its an ending. But I LOVE the ending to NRD. i think that ones legit good, i hope. With FFAK, part of me kinda hopes that turning up the pressure on myself of proceeding anyway will help the story. I don’t really know, or expect the ending to change though LOL…. Maybe i’ll come up with something better, but it will be too late so I cant do it or something, and then we can ALL write fanfics together of something else. Then sometimes I think about GUNNM and how the first ending was retconned but then last order was like? Basically the first ending again? I dont know actually, its hard to remember. THATS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN BTW. Also the ending is not everyone dies, even though that ending is fun and tempting. I didn’t do it, because end of evangelion already exists and its got a great song to go along with it too. YES it is also tempting to have someone go “WELL That was A FEAST.. For a KING” as the like final line, but I.. it wont wont. I prommy i take the ending seriously.

The reason I wanted to write all this, with webcomics, I think in general too people are so scared about writing their big comics that take 328523895235 years and the ending being bad. I see so many webcomics just, kinda die before the finale.. Which I totally understand, But I just.. Wanna show everyone that its much better and much more satisfying to just write the ending even if its a fucking disaster LOL. Because ultimately, its a webcomic. I don’t even know how to spell but people read mine! And so.. If theres anything I feel like i can promise and deliver to the world of the internet/my readers, is this big fucking disaster mess.. But it will end someday! And I’ll miss it. I hope readers will too, when that day comes (?) in probably another… 10 years…. idk.... BUT UNTIL THEN.. I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of chapter 16!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Kosmic Dream

[violent-optimism]

A (somewhat organized) collection of thoughts/things I noticed from the new TF #7 Comic (Spoilers!) - Part 2

The Administrator's Death and Everyone's Reaction

Yeah, I think we all knew this was coming too. But I don't think we were prepared for just how it would happen. We knew from the end of the last comic that Admin only had 1 hour left to live. And what did she do with it?

She completely wasted it. And as anti-climactic as that might seem I think that's exactly the point. She wasted her whole unnatural life in fact, and for what? Just to wither away and fade to dust with nothing and no one.

I freaking loved seeing the merc's individual reactions and seeing everyone walk away one by one as the panels progressed. Soldier and Sniper taking their hats off in respect. Spy, Scout and Miss Pauling frozen in shock. Medic and Heavy trying to comfort each other. Even Pyro looks visibly disturbed. (Demo's the only one we can't see which is too bad).

There's no words said. Because really, what CAN they say?

Miss Pauling's Choice

Kind of tying into what I said in my last post. I LOVE the way this is drawn alongside Engie's words. You get a real sense that she's being actively tempted by the Australium, but at the same time she's completely horrified by it because now she TRULY understands the devastation its capable of.

To be clear, I don't think Engie is trying to tempt her here. I think he's just trying to show her what her choices are. And perhaps, for the first time in her life, she actually COULD do anything she wanted. Not just second in command, but FULLY in command in the seat of power.

But she passes the test of course, and realizes she wants nothing to do with it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she quit her job right after the scene where she asks Engie if he knows any "deep trenches".

Side note: We finally get a first name confirmation for Miss Pauling!! Engie calls her "Flo" a couple times, which I assume is short for "Florence" as I'm not sure what else it could be a nickname for. That's awesome!!

Heavy and Sniper rescuing Soldier

This is just me more or less fan-girling about Sniper any chance I get. But when I tell you I practically SCREAMED when I realized he was there, I ain't lying lol

The thing is, Heavy could have chosen ANYONE to help him rescue Soldier, and he chose Sniper. I just think that's fucking rad. And I actually kind of like the fact that he doesn't even take a shot the entire time. He just holds his laser on the guy menacingly lol

Kind of wish he would have at least gotten a line here but ah well.

Side note: Heavy rocks that beard, holy shit! It's like Captain America all over again.

Scout is now a DAD

There's SO much to unpack here but I'll try my best to make it short lol

I think it's obvious to state that Scout has been, um...very productive these last 7 years! Honestly he does strike me as the type to want a lot of kids. And he might not be a perfect dad but you just know he would try his best and he would be a FUN dad if nothing else.

I'm not the first one to point this out, but I think it's interesting how we see the single-parent cycle continue with Scout. Kind of an interesting subversion on a common trope to have the MOM be the one to disappear or be a "deadbeat". I kind of wished we could have seen Scout's Ma at the dinner, but that's okay.

Am I a fan of Scout's extremely 70s hairstyle? No, not really lol but goddamn if seeing him as a dad didn't make me at least a little bit emotional.

Also, I laughed WAY too hard at the "my boys can swim" joke. Gosh, that's funny. I need to make another post talking about all my favourite jokes in this new comic.

The final panel

Holy...fucking...shit if this didn't RUIN me.

I will admit it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that Scout was talking to the READER, and we hadn't just shifted to the first person of a different character. But when I did finally clue into it, wow...that hit somewhere deep in my soul.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the writers may have tweaked the ending. Not just to reflect the long hiatus between comic issues but how long we've been on this journey with the characters in general. Scout saying stuff like "We're glad you stuck around" and "we've been through a lot, you and us," like FUCK how does that not tug at your heartstrings??

I teared up. Not gonna lie. They're a family and WE are a part of it! Everyone is so HAPPY and got their ending and everyone's ALIVE!

I don't care what anyone says. THIS is the ending the mercs deserved. After all they've been through (especially Sniper, one of the few who no longer has a bio family of his own), they deserved to live and get their ending. And it just makes me so happy that even after 7 years being busy with their own lives they would still make time to get together like this?? WHOLESOME!!!

Yeah sure, maybe it's cheesy and a little rosy, but after all the shit that 2024 threw at us, honestly...I think we all needed this. It felt very therapeutic. And although a part of me is kind of sad that the comic is over, my gratitude for it FINALLY being completed far outweighs my grief. I look forward to people analyzing and picking this issue apart even further for months (or even years) to come!

Thank you for the lovely Christmas gift, Valve.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Dissecting the S8 Trailer

Okay. I promised I’d get this posted tonight and here it is! (Now I gotta go to bed bc I have an early morning.) 

Let's talk about this damn trailer because it was amazing! First off, thanks to all the members of my FB group. They know who they are. They helped hash out many of these insights.

***Also, I do mention minor spoilers in here. Just FYI.***

The Coda

I ought to talk about things in the right order. But yeah, really not going to. Let's dive right into the coda. It's what I was most looking for and it did not disappoint.

You all know what I mean by the coda, right? It's that extra little bit that comes after they give the premiere date. At that point, the commercial seems to be over, but no! There's more.

Beth was the coda of the S5 trailer. It showed her getting beaten by Dawn at Grady. They usually go for something shocking and/or mysterious. I don't think there's any way in hell that Beth was the coda of the S5 trailer, and then the episode where she was shot was called "coda." In S6, the coda was Daryl in the woods meeting Dwight and Sherry in 6x06. And we all know that episode had a crap-ton of Beth symbolism. For S7, it was Tara at Oceanside, and of course there's that pesky 7:30-clock in Slabtown. So basically the codas have been about Beth in some way for the past three seasons. Keep that in mind.

This coda showed Rick waking up in a hospital as an old man. We see a cane and we see flowers, and Rick looks very old. I 100% believe this has everything to do with Beth's return. Let's go over a few things here:

Lots of people saying this mirrors the comic books. That it's what Rick will look like after All Out War. I'm not saying they're wrong. At the very least this is probably a foreshadow of that. But guys, keep in mind that the trailers generally take all of their scenes from the first 3-4 episodes of the season. There's absolutely no way they'll get through all of All Out War and a 2 year time jump in the first four episodes. It's ludicrous to think that. Besides, the lighting here is VERY reminiscent of the picnic scene in 7x01, and that wasn't a literal event either. It was Rick's bittersweet dream. I think this will be something similar. But again, that doesn’t mean it's not a foreshadow of something down the line.

That's what it's not. Let's talk about what it is. TD has spent 2+ years showing all the parallels between Beth and Rick. We've shown them, talked about them, over-analyzed them. Of all things, why would they pick the image of Rick waking up alone in the hospital? Probably to symbolize something else. Look at these flowers. (I don't mean that in a Carol way. ;D) In S1, his flowers are dead. 

That was most likely to symbolize that the world died while Rick slept. Now the dead are walking.

In this little coda, the flowers are alive. 

Someone is waking up alive in a hospital, and I don't think it will literally be Rick. It will be someone else. (Hmm. I wonder who! ;D) Besides as I said above, all the codas have related to Beth in some way. I think this is the same. It got me SO excited.

We also discussed in my FB group how the music sounds a LOT like the music that was played at the end of Coda. Not over the scene where Daryl carries Beth out, but just after that with Morgan. I haven't done a detailed comparison, but some who did say it's probably not the EXACT same music. There are some differences. But it's VERY similar. This kind of music is usually reserved in the show for big revelations. And the piano music is almost associated with Beth (because, you know, she played the piano). All of that is super significant.

The Trailer Overall

Remember that trailers in the past have proved very deceptive. Often they portray the opposite of what's actually happening in the season. (Looking at YOU, S4 and S5 trailers!) So keep in mind that whatever they're trying to make us believe (time jumps, etc.) is probably the opposite of what will actually happen.

The other thing I loved about the trailer (which has no bearing at all on the story, tbh) is how much action there is. This is EXTREMELY good for TD, guys. Go watch it again. Look at all those explosions, car chases, fighting, bullets flying. The spoiler site hasn't gotten ANY of this, and majority of it had to have been filmed over the past two months. This is what we've been saying all along. They have the ability to hide stuff when they want to.

The music over the main part of the commercial (not the coda) sounds a lot like Irish punk rock. That may or may not be significant, but we've had lots of Irish references before. (Patty Reilly, Tullamore Dew, etc.) Remember that in S2, Hershel told Glenn all about how his people were from Ireland. It's part of the Greene family legacy.

The spoiler site has several "main" locations they look at, and they're very good at getting shots of those sites. But all the show has to do is take the actors out to some remote site in the woods WITHOUT bringing them to base camp first and no one would ever be the wiser. Let's face it: Beth's first scene when she returns won't be her walking onto the middle of the Alexandria set and being like, "What's up guys?" It will probably be out in the woods somewhere. So no, just because we haven't (and they haven't) seen her filming doesn't mean diddly squat. And let's not forget Norman's tweet about Princess Pants.

Rick's Imprisonment

Everyone's talking about who's eye this is: 

If I had to guess, I'd say Rick's. Why? Because of this shot. 

Pretty sure this is Rick and he seems to be in a box car of some kind. It looks a whole lot like Terminus, actually, and remember in 5x16, Rick talked about having nightmares that he was still in the box car. So, especially as his clothes seem to have disappeared, it almost seems like a weird cross between Terminus and Daryl's imprisonment.

I could be wrong about the eye, of course. No way to tell for sure. Just seems to me that these two scenes are related somehow.

I will also say that a situation like this might be a good time to do dream sequences, which is where the coda may come in. And while they're at it, they might as well include some flashbacks to the 17 missing days after Grady. ;D

Pretty sure this is Rick, too.

Oceanside:

There's been a lot of talk of Oceanside not being in the trailer. Even if it weren't, that would be interesting to me because they're definitely not focusing on Oceanside. (Again, the trailer tries to misdirect us.) But I think there's a good chance this could be a shot of Oceanside. 

Can't tell for sure, but it looks like it to me.

Also, there's this guy. 

From what I understand, this is Siddiq. New character from the comic book. And here's where this gets interesting. This guy is a minor character, even in the CBs, but his ties are to Oceanside. And what's weirder, there's a part in the commercial where it shows faces REALLY fast.

Here's the sequence: Tara, Morgan, Carol, Daryl, Rosita, Rick, Maggie, Michonne, Gregory, Aaron, Morgan, Carl, Tamiel, Jerry, Siddiq, Rosita, Enid, Jesus.

Notice all the rest are characters we know and love and who are going to be part of AOW. Why would they throw in a minor character that the audience hasn't even been introduced to yet? That's kind of weird.

I think it shows that Oceanside will definitely be a part of this season, but they're being very careful to be subtle about showing it.

Hospital Theme:

We see Carol and Tara sitting here. Tara is wearing her funky sunglasses (Beth's blindness) and there's a flower on the wall next to Carol. 

I doubt the flower will be part of the scene. It's background decoration/symbols. We've seen similar ones, though. Both in the chalk mural at the prison (x) and in the drawings at Eastman's cabin. But we see more of this scene here and I'm noticing something interesting. 

This looks a lot like it could be a hospital they're sitting on the roof of. Okay, I know you can't tell what kind of a building it is, but I guess what I mean is it reminds me of TF being on the roof in Coda when Rick went to approach the Grady officers about the prisoner exchange. It looks like it could be the same set. I almost wonder if in some way this could represent Carol and Beth (Tara as her proxy) at Grady. Just a random thought.

It also looks a lot like season 1 when Rick and everyone is on the roof of the building there.

Okay, so I looked through comments on various platforms (most of which are NOT TDers) and everyone is talking about a hospital theme. It's kind of funny because that wasn't actually my first thought. (Not that I'm complaining if they're going for the hospital theme, because that would mirror Grady.) If you look at this room, it's not a hospital. 

It's actually a chemistry lab. And the Saviors or whoever could definitely be used as a hospital, but that wouldn't have been it's original function.

The camera pans over to this hallway, and someone's head shows up from around the corner. Pretty sure it's Carol's. 

Well, the walls are ALL kinds of green. But I think this is part of this building: And this building looks EXACTLY like the Savior outpost TF invaded in S6. (The satellite station.) 

I don't know if it's the same place or another outpost with the exact same layout, but I'd say TF is invading outposts for the war, which is awesome, if you ask me. ;D

New TF Operation?

So at the beginning, we see a lot of the characters sitting around waiting for something. And this scene especially reminds me of Operation Lead the Walkers Away. 

They're obviously putting some big plan into motion, though it's hard to tell exactly what they're doing or why. (Yet another reason I think most of this is probably from episode 1 or 2.)

Later there's this. 

I can't tell if this is TF, but I assume it is. Once again, they're trying to manipulate a walker horde for some reason. The fence here also looks a LOT like the promo posters for S4, which symbolized the downfall of the prison.

Sunrise:

One of the first things I noticed is the sunrise before Rick in this shot. (I was originally going to post a different thing tomorrow that talks about sunrises, but naturally I have to dissect the trailer, so that post will come later. Not sure when. But the sunrises usually start new arcs and phases in the show. They're super important. And remember that the music box started playing again with the sunrise.)

Carzekiel

Not much to say about this except that it still seems to be going strong, which makes me happy. We also do see Benjamin's little brother hanging around Carol a bit, which might prove my theory that he will be the next kid in Carol's arc. (Let's hope he doesn't die.)

Other Random Shots

No idea what's up with Negan and Gabriel, but the walkers against the window look a lot like Grady and Andrea and even Tara in 6x08. We've seen this theme before. Quite a lot, actually.

Carl looks hard at a blond walker in a car. 

If you look close, this walker has a forehead wound where Beth's was. And I can't help but wonder if this is from episode 1, where Carl and Rick were seen filming at a gas station. (We do see them making little gas bombs for Daryl to shoot, so that may be what Rick and Carl are doing at the gas station in ep 1. Which would be yet another mirror-and-yet-opposite to episode 1x01. In that episode, when Rick arrives at the gas station, all the pumps are dry. I'll do a more detailed post on this later.)

I'm curious as to why the crowds are parting for Ezekiel here. Later with Jerry we see him with a bloody face, so that could be why.

Dwight reads a note, but what's interesting about this shot is that it's shown through the spokes of a bike tire. No way that's his motorcycle. The wheels are too skinny.

Morgan definitely seems to be freaking out. He attacks Jesus more than once in the trailer, but it's hard to tell if they're just practicing together or if Morgan's gone back to his PTSD state. He certainly wasn't doing well last season after Benjamin's death.

Someone watches Aaron through binoculars. No way to tell who it is yet, but if it's Boots again, that's the Scavengers. As far as I can remember, the only time we've ever seen the shape of binoculars around the camera this way was from Boots in S7 and when Daryl and Aaron watched Red Poncho Guy in 5b.

Someone's tied up. Notice they give us no clues about what this is about in the trailer. Using wood to escape is a callback to Rick doing that at Terminus. Also notice the blue plaid. Just saying.

No idea what's going on here, but it reminds me of the balloon Enid and Carl found in S6, as well as the random guy/walker Spencer found with a map to supplies just before he died. Honestly don't know what that's about.

They show Gavin here. Obviously the douche-baggery is still strong with this one. But it's odd for them to focus on such a minor character. It's understandable why Jadis and Negan would have some focus, but Gavin? On the other hand, his name is Gavin. And Trevitt at Grady was named Gavin. I mean, there must be around a million names in the known world that the writers could use. Do we really think they're recycling names (and focusing on random, minor characters in the trailer) for no reason?

This scene reminded me a whole lot of Rick's escape from the Claimer house in 4b. The stance is almost identical, and that was a very Grady-like foreshadowing. The shelf they obliterate is full of boxes of matches, btw.

There's a Virgin Mary statue here, which we've seen before.

Behind Carol here we see big cargo boxes in cages, many of which are blue. Seems like an imprisonment theme to me.

I can't help but read into Maggie mentioning the farm. We can't tell who she's talking to there, but it must be someone who knows about the farm, and it doesn't get mentioned very often, does it. ;D

An example of how muddled things get in the trailer. There's a part where Aaron has a line and I listened like five times, trying to understand what he says. I think what we hear is, "We pin them in/it takes care of itself. That's the plan." Pretty sure they're running two sentences together there, and he probably doesn’t say anything remotely like that at that part. They've done this before where they change dialogue in the trailer from what it actually is in the episode. That's why you can't trust it.

And of course I'm still in love with Jerry:

I think that's all I have for now. I'll probably watch it a billion more times and may come up with more.

We didn't see Beth of course (which I really didn't think we would). We didn't see Grady either, and I thought that was way more likely. (Bummer)

Just don't forget that all the clocks in Slabtown except one (the 7:30 one) pointed to a time somewhere between 8:00 and 8:05. Can't wait to see what S8 brings us!

How did everyone else like the trailer?