#and andrew lincoln's appearance just makes rick perfect

[bunnihearted]

sorry but like rick grimes drives me fucking insane like wtf ?????

[zoyaofthegardvn]

little known fact, i am a huge the walking dead fan. it's the first tv show i ever got into (i was 9 when it premiered!) and one of the very few shows i ever watched on a weekly release basis.

i remember, up until season 8 when i stopped watching, i literally had never once in over 8 years missed an episode. i was seated at 9pm every sunday evening when it released.

my whole family sat around to watch it together, but we all stopped when they killed carl because that was just unforgivable, atrocious writing that we could not look past.

we tuned in for rick grimes' last episode, and for michonne, but we never watched the show in earnest after season 8.

i did, however, tune in to the finale last night. it was a bit bittersweet, now that i have grown up so much, i had a watch party with a group of friends rather than my family being together (people have moved out, moved on).

while watching it, it was just a tad disappointing because it really wasn't the walking dead for me. the walking dead died with carl grimes.

the camera angles, the filter, the camera quality, the characters, they just aren't what i fell in love with. i miss the grain, the hazy look, the lowkey-ness of it, the tight knit cast of characters. i miss the original opening credits. i miss rick grimes more than anything.

but, nevertheless, i was actually really impressed with the series finale. i cried. A LOT. the performances, specifically from connie, kelly, magna, yumiko, and luke in that first act of the episode... wow. i was a puddle of tears. i hardly knew those characters, but the walking dead has a phenomenal, talented cast.

and rosita, my love :( full on sobbing mess. she deserved better. she deserved to live forever with her baby girl that she fought so hard for. she deserved to go swimming, in the summer, with her bestie, eugene. a beautiful, powerful performance from christian serratos. rosita espinosa is a walking dead icon, one of its best characters. she deserved to make it to the end. that was a raw, heartbreaking end to her story.

and i dont know if i can put my love and emotions during that very final scene into words. rick grimes, my beloved. one of my all time favorite characters, the first character i ever stanned, a character i will always hold so close to my heart. you cannot have the walking dead without rick grimes.

i was convinced that neither rick or michonne would make an appearance. i should have known that andrew and danai wouldn't let the show end without one more epic scene.

i screamed, burst into even more tears, and had the body high of a lifetime when i got to see rick grimes on my screen again.

perfect ending to the finale, perfect final monologue, pitched in from the entire cast, finished by michonne and rick. the beautiful montage of all the past, iconic characters. the nods to all who built the walking dead and made it as incredible as it was. seeing glenn, carl, beth, hershel, and tara grace my screen again... it was a beautiful final few minutes to a show i will always, always, always love.

rick grimes has, what i consider to be, the most epic, intense, profound character arc of all time. i've loved him since season 1, and i'll follow his path through the walking dead universe with no hesitation.

rick grimes went from believing "we are the walking dead" to believing "we're the ones who live."

rick grimes, there is no character quite like you!

thank you to andrew lincoln for his flawless portrayal of one of the most badass main characters to ever exist in television history.

the walking dead changed, for the worse. but, that finale was truly a love letter to what it used to be. it was incredible. im so sad it's over, that it couldn't end during its peak, but i cannot wait to see rick grimes and michonne grimes back on my screen, next year.

[edourado]

Beautiful @carry-the-sky tagged me to list my 10 favorite male characters. 

Now, I’ve been giving this way more thought than necessary, but it’s a pandemic, okay? I have nothing better to do she says as she ignores the to do list

Also: Do I need to elaborate my choices? No, but I will. Thank you for understanding. Just be glad I restrained myself and didn’t add gifs.

In no particular order:

Frank Castle (Daredevil/The Punisher): Do I need to explain this? I don’t think I do. My man is one complicated guy, layers like the world’s biggest onion. Trigger finger happy heart of gold, stole my heart the moment they got Jonnie to play him;

Rick Grimes (TWD): Probably my ride or die. I love this guy from day one, and I pretty much walked out on TWD when (SPOILER ALERT) he flew off on that chopper (I haven’t watched season 10 yet, so no spoilers. I will, though). It does help that Andy Lincoln is one fantastic actor, and I don’t think anyone could have played him better;

Wolfgang Bogdanow (Sense8): Will ALL my men have a gun glued to their hands? Idk, but HE certainly does, and HE certainly makes my heart skip a beat. Is it the eyes? is it his troubled past? Is it the melting when a wild Kala appears? Is it the instinctive need to protect his loved ones? Is it the leather? What IS IT about this guy, people, that just makes me want to cry and undress?;

Dumbledore (HP): Probably the one man on the list I would like to be. The brilliance, the kindness, the courage, the foresight, the calm, the coldness, the willingness to sacrifice - and the understanding of what sacrifice means, while we’re at it. I admire Albus Dumbledore and look for his wisdom in real life people. One could say he is my Jesus. It’s funny how he is a charachter that has no author. No one knows who wrote him, he was just there one day. Isn’t that funny?;

Mr Knightly (Emma): If I ever find myself inclined to give my hand away in marriage, you can bet the man will have a strong resemblance to Mr. Knightly. What a good example of masculinity. The one literary crush that I never grew out of (looking at you, Mr. Darcy);

Rio (Good Girls): Is he a gangster? Yes. Is he a straight up criminal who kills people and spreads terror wherever he goes? Yup. Is he the owner of the world’s best smile? Oh, you betcha. Can he melt you just by looking at you? Ask Beth. Makes me understand the pull of the thug life, as the youths would say;

Moriarty (Sherlock): He is only on the list because Andrew Scott played him so well, I don’t even have words for it. Perfection. I don’t even remember this guy’s motivations on the show, but I just loved him so much, random lines of his are forever embeded in my mind. The type of villain I would like to write. Just *chef’s kiss*

Aidan (SATC): The perfect boyfriend. Carry has a permanent “STUPID” brand on her forehead in my mind, because she let this one go. For Big. To each their own I guess;

Tony Stark (You know who he is): This one is 20% because of the character, 80% because of RDJ. The arc. The journey. So so good. I love him. 3000.

Klaus Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy): Listen. I would like to be this chaotic. I would like to kiss all of my anxiety goodbye, let go of the chronic people-pleasing part of my personality, I would like to create a cult by accident. And I would like to look that good in a skirt. I love him. I will protect him. I will watch one thousand seasons of him. 

Bonus: Schmidt (New Girl): Everything about him. What is this man? Sweet and ridiculous and absurd and relatable. I love him. 

There you go folks. Way longer than it needed to be, but I like to explain myself for people on the internet because the people in my real life don’t care. 

I tag @ambrosiaswhispers (are you sick of me yet) @ejunkiet @evilbunnyking @tacohead13 @lpdwillwrite4coffee @redbelles @simplytherose @westonfollower @superrpowerlesshuman and honestly, anywone. If you do this because you saw this, please tag me, I’m genunely curious about these things. 

[phroyd]

President Trump is so fixated on finding a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that in meetings about the U.S. pandemic response, little else captures his attention, according to administration officials.

Trump has pressed health officials to speed up the vaccine timeline and urged them to deliver one by the end of the year. He has peppered them with questions about the development status and mass-distribution plans. And, in recent days, he has told some advisers and aides that a vaccine may arrive by Nov. 1, which just happens to be two days before the presidential election.

Trump’s desire to deliver a vaccine — or at least convince the public that one is very near — by the time voters decide whether to elect him to a second term is in part a campaign gambit to improve his standing with an electorate that overwhelmingly disapproves of his management of the pandemic.

“We remain on track to deliver a vaccine before the end of the year and maybe even before November 1st,” Trump told reporters at a Friday news conference. “We think we can probably have it some time during the month of October.”

Trump has repeatedly offered similar promises, adding to the pressure scientists and officials at the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health feel to develop, test and authorize a coronavirus vaccine on what some of the president’s aides refer to as “Trump time.”

Several Trump aides said one key to the president winning reelection is having a vaccine or demonstrating rapid progress toward one, as well as a robust economic turnaround, over the next two months.

Democratic strategists, too, said a vaccine announcement could play in Trump’s favor, but they cautioned that it is unlikely to significantly change the contours of the race.

“If they pull a vaccine out of their a-- it will be the October surprise of October surprises,” said Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster. “I think you’ll see some of the angst lifting off of the American electorate. But I think it will be difficult connecting the dots to Donald Trump given where public perception of him is on covid, and given that this is a guy who a couple months ago said people should try to get sunshine and disinfectants inside of themselves.”

There is intense disagreement over whether the FDA should use its emergency authority to clear a vaccine before it is formally approved, which some in the scientific community say could be dangerous.

Top health officials, including FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have said a vaccine could be available before the end of the year. But they have been careful to qualify their statements and, unlike the president, have stopped short of promising one by then. White House officials also have been careful not to project a specific date for a vaccine announcement.

Fauci said in an email that “the most likely timetable for a vaccine to be utilized by the public” is November or December of this year or the beginning of 2021. He said it is “unlikely, although possible” that the efficacy and safety of a vaccine could be determined in October.

Asked about an emergency use authorization by the FDA, Fauci wrote, “If an EUA was granted before we had established that the vaccine was truly safe and effective, I would be disappointed. An EUA for a vaccine should be based on a considerable degree of safety and efficacy. . . . I would be against an EUA if it were issued without sufficient data to establish a strong signal of efficacy and safety.”

Other experts said it was unlikely that a vaccine would be ready by Election Day, but that Trump could be able to tout progress on it before people vote.

“Everything would have to be unfolding according to perfection,” said Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner in the Trump administration. “The vaccine would need to be highly effective, and you’d need to have trials ahead of schedule.”

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has accused Trump of putting “political considerations ahead of the safety and well-being of the American people with tragic results” throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The former vice president said in remarks Friday, “My guess is he is going to announce a vaccine, he’s going to say it’s going to be available around Election Day, he’s going to hype it.”

Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden is eager for a swift vaccine, but not at the expense of safety.

“Joe Biden wants a safe vaccine ready yesterday,” Bates said in an email. “But there is no excuse for the wealthiest, most technologically advanced nation in the history of the world being the hardest-hit by this pandemic. The inescapable, tragic, infuriating reality is that Donald Trump has never taken the deadliest public health crisis in 100 years seriously.”

FDA officials both publicly and privately insisted that politics will not influence their decision on when to approve a vaccine. Current and former administration officials, as well as vaccine experts, said they were confident in the career regulators at FDA to make a science-based decision.

One former senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment, said the FDA’s leadership is “weak” and “fails to articulate that it’s going to stand for regulatory science.” But this official expressed confidence in the officials at the FDA’s office of vaccines.

“I know they take this responsibility very seriously and they understand what’s at stake,” this official said. “Without a clear blessing from this office, I don’t think Americans would be willing to be vaccinated.”

Underscoring the concerns about the vaccine process appearing political, the Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh was unwilling to discuss the politics of vaccine development or assess how a possible breakthrough could impact the campaign — even though Trump’s second-term agenda, distributed by the campaign, includes “Develop a Vaccine by The End of 2020.” Murtaugh deferred all questions on the matter to the White House.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said in an email, “The rapid research, development, trials, and eventual distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine is emblematic of President Trump’s highest priority: the health and safety of the American people — it has nothing to do with politics. This President understands that this vaccine cannot get bogged down in government bureaucracy, which is why he has cut through every piece of red tape to achieve the fastest-ever launch of a trial.”

Inside the West Wing, there is some concern and nervousness about “potential politicization” and people not trusting a vaccine if they believed it was produced in a “rushed process,” according to a senior administration official, who like some others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

The administration has developed Operation Warp Speed, a process to mass distribute an eventual vaccine, and is planning a $150 million public service announcement campaign to convince people that the vaccine is safe, effective and can be trusted, this senior official said.

The communications strategy developed at the White House would limit Trump’s personal messaging about a vaccine — other than to “spike the football,” as the senior official put it — and instead be led by experts, including Fauci, Hahn, White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, and Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed.

The White House plan would stress to the public that a vaccine went through the “traditional FDA rigor,” as well as seek validation from throughout the scientific community, in medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and from medical professionals with large media platforms, such as CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, according to the senior official.

The plan, according to a draft shared by the senior official, is to “replace distrust, disbelief, skepticism and cynicism with trust, credibility, confidence, certainty, transparency and optimism for COVID-19 medical countermeasures.”

Although the White House aims to depoliticize the vaccine rollout, the draft plan lists as one of its objective to “ensure the administration is able to receive due credit for undertaking this historic and unprecedented effort.”

Trump’s opponents are preparing for the president to try to mislead the public about the status of a vaccine in the run-up to the election, much as he has exaggerated many other aspects of his record over the years.

Rick Wilson, a strategist who helps run the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans airing advertisements aimed at defeating him, said the group’s internal polling data suggests that many voters would not trust whatever breakthroughs Trump proclaims.

“We think Trump’s lying is priced-in with a lot of people,” Wilson said. “So if he could say tomorrow, ‘We’ve cured it, it’s done,’ many people, even some of his supporters, will say, ‘That’s just Donald being Donald.’ ”

Officials on the administration’s coronavirus task force said that a vaccine was not on the agenda in the early months of the outbreak. Vaccine developments are discussed in smaller groups or among the principals directly involved.

“We should have been talking about a vaccine instead of having weeks of discussions on masks, but they have caught up well now, it seems,” said one official familiar with the task force.

As part of the administration’s communications push, Slaoui and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar wrote an op-ed published Wednesday in USA Today describing how the United States was developing a vaccine at record speed with safeguards in place.

“The strategy we devised for OWS will allow us to accomplish this goal while following all the same procedures for safety and efficacy, applied by the same apolitical FDA experts, that Americans expect with all vaccines,” Azar and Slaoui wrote.

Experts warned that Trump’s promises that a vaccine would end the pandemic are dangerous.

“There’s this general feeling that the vaccine is going to get us out of this. There are so many people hanging everything on the hopes of a vaccine starting in January,” said Rochelle Walensky, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Getting out of this pandemic has to be a multipronged approach and no single thing is going to get us out. Certainly I don’t think a vaccine in the short-term is going to get us out.”

Trump’s repeated pressure on the FDA not only to approve a vaccine, but also to advance coronavirus treatments has undermined public confidence in the FDA, as well as in other federal agencies, according to medical professionals.

The FDA approved an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine, an existing anti-malaria drug, to treat coronavirus, but had to eventually revoke the authorization because the drug was shown to be ineffective and cause heart problems in some patients.

Last month, Hahn and Azar appeared alongside Trump and hailed convalescent plasma as a “major therapeutic breakthrough” despite the treatment being around for more than 100 years and having only a modest effect.

“I’d like to think at this point in the administration, when people see Donald Trump hyperbolize, they see it as hyperbole,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “That’s the problem. If President Trump stands up and says, ‘This is a major breakthrough, this is going to save all our lives,’ people can’t necessarily believe that.”

Phroyd

[theprocrastinatingalien]

Who could/should take the lead when Rick Grimes leaves THE WALKING DEAD?

Well, that was a long title. 

The internet is still riled up with the news that Andrew Lincoln is leaving THE WALKING DEAD by the end of the upcoming ninth season... some fans calling for the show to end with his exit.

The show will likely carry on though, and this begs the question - who should take over as the lead character?

Well, firstly, I think there's quite a lot decent characters in the series, and the show doesn't need a 'lead' anymore. Make it an ensemble. But ignoring that idea, I'm now going to list TEN potential leads once Rick Grimes vacates the spot.

1. DARYL DIXON

This is obviously the basket AMC are putting all their eggs into.  News reports state that actor Norman Reedus is being officer $20m to stay on and become the show's next lead. In some respects, this makes sense.  Reedus IS the next billed actor behind Lincoln, so his name would naturally come next... and Daryl Dixon is easily one of the most popular characters on the show... but is Daryl really a 'leader'?  Not really.  He's a supporting character, and adds muscle, grit and attitude... but can you see him making rousing speeches to prep the communities?  Nope.   So far, I haven't seen a single person online that sees this move as a good one. Although (!) I will state that maybe, just maybe, if ALL the leaders are taken out (Rick, Maggie, Ezekiel) by, let's say, their heads on pikes(?) then non-leaders will have to step up... Maybe it *could* work.  Maybe.

2. MAGGIE RHEE

Since before the eighth season had finished airing, word had come that behind the scenes negotiations with Lauren Cohan had fallen apart somewhat. News travelled that the actress was after more money to match her up to Lincoln and Reedus.  She is the third billed star after all, and the highest billed female actor, having been with the series since the second season. AMC didn't seem thrilled by the idea though and things went silent.  Cohan even got herself cast in a pilot for THE WHISKEY CAVALIER, which has since been picked up for a series. Cohan WILL be back for season nine, but I think many fans are sure that it will be her last - and are just waiting for the character to be killed off.  This is bolstered by the fact we've been told she'll get less screen time.   The major blow here is, to me Maggie Rhee is absolutely the best character to lead the series after Rick's exit.  Since she lost her hubby Glenn at the start of the seventh season, she's taken leadership of the Hilltop community, and is more than capable of prepping her people.   Plus she's popular with audiences. I will remain hopeful that we're wrong, and Maggie will be sticking around... maybe with a new leading position?

3. MICHONNE

Danai Gurira' star is certainly on the rise.  Even if you ignore her theatre work, she's in BLACK PANTHER and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Now would certainly be time to raise her character up from support to lead.  Michonne's perhaps not the natural born leader that Maggie seems to be, but she's certainly more naturally capable of leadership than Daryl. There are a strain of fans that believe Gurira will also exit this season - meaning Rick, Michonne and Judith can all ride of into the sunset, with a happy ending, rather than death and destruction like normal.  Michonne will take Rick's death pretty bad, and let's not forget, they did just lose Carl.  How will Michonne act if Rick is killed? Let's also note, in the comics, Michonne takes over leadership of The Kingdom following Ezekiel's death, so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that she could become leader of the Alexandria Safe Zone.

4.  CAROL PELETIER

Carol, and actress Melissa McBride, are fan favourites, and also another original cast member. She may not have been promoted to the title credits until season four, she got there in the end, and it seemed that she'd been adopting Michonne's comic storyline - partnering her with Ezekiel, and then maybe taking on leadership of the Kingdom following his Alpha death. TWD creator Robert Kirkman has stated there's one character in the show he wouldn't kill, and that would be Carol.  Would it not make sense to make her the show lead?  I'm not sure tbh. I'm not sure Carol is the right character to lead the show, but I'm throwing her into the mix as (next to Daryl) she's the only other character from season one left standing!

5.  NEGAN

I think Jeffrey Dean Morgan is great.   I think he owns every scene he's in, and I think JDM would make for a brilliant lead.  However, Negan is not in a place where he could be the show's lead.  When we last saw him, he'd had his throat cut, and strapped to a bed, and was being given his orders by Rick, that he'd spend the rest of his days in jail. Maybe if this was season twelve... but right now is too soon. Whoever does take leadership will have to deal with Rick's decision to keep Negan alive.

6. KING EZEKIEL

Fans of the comics will know that we're fast approaching Ezekiel's comic book death. However, with Rick definitely on the way out, and Maggie possibly/probably on the way out, maybe - just maybe - the King of the Kingdom will get to survive? If he does, then I have to throw his name into the leadership ring.  Whilst he's relatively new, having only been introduced in the seventh season, the guy is already a leader of a community, and (despite a bit of a breakdown this last season) he's no stranger to a rousing speech. Actor Khary Payton was a brilliant addition to the cast, and whilst his name sits in the 'also stars' territory, I think a lot of fans may accept a quick promotion to the top end of the credits.

7. MAGNA

Season Nine will introduce a few new characters, one particular one being Magna, the leader of a small group that we'll come across .  At the time of writing we don't know who's been cast in the role yet, but with knowledge that they're losing Rick (and possibly some other big names) the showrunners might cast someone with a view of potentially making them a new lead.  Focussing on someone we haven't met yet could help with the next chapter of the show.

8. HEATH

Okay, stick with me and listen this one out.  Back in the show's sixth season, the writers introduced Heath, a fan favourite from the comics.  He only appeared in a handful of episodes and it's believed actor Corey Hawkins would've received a promotion to the regular line-up in season seven.  Hawkins then got himself cast as the lead in 24: LEGACY, taking over star status from Kiefer Sutherland.  Whilst he did return for a one-off episode in season seven, he's been AWOL ever since, quite likely because Hawkins is now a bigger star than the role of Heath would allow. Unless he returns now. With Rick going out, showrunners could bring Heath and Hawkins back with a new upgraded status. No, forget that idea, it was a bit of longshot, I just wanted to throw the idea out there.

9.  SOMEONE COMPLETELY NEW

When other TV series have lost their lead actor, most choose to bring in a completely new character rather than upgrade an existing one.  TWD could do that, and create another exclusive-to-the-series character.  It's worth mentioning that if seems actor Zach McGowan may have joined the cast.  He's a known actor, and it's possibly may have been brought up in add some clout in seeing out Lincoln. He may not be the only one either, so it's something to consider.

IN CONCLUSION...

It seems Andrew Lincoln may be leaving because of the show's decision to kill off Carl, his onscreen son. Ironically, I think most can agree, that Carl would be best character to have taken the lead of the show.  From a narrative point of view, it's have been perfect, but it wasn't meant to be. Ultimately, as much as I'd rather have Lauren Cohan step up to lead as Maggie, AMC will force Daryl Dixon into the leadership role.  With the right story, it could work, or it could end up being a piece in the puzzle that just won't fit.

[larbyamiroucheblog]

Why Rick Grimes Is A Good Leader

They say that television and film often mirror real life. Now, Larby Amirouche, CEO and Founder of Ironbelly Tech will look into another good leader, however, he is a fictional character.

Larby Amirouche will share some of his insights on the role of Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead as a good leader.

Who is Rick Grimes?

Rick Grimes is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the comic book series The Walking Dead. It also has a popular television series of the same name which was portrayed by Andrew Lincoln.

Rick Grimes is a small town sheriff’s deputy who has a son and a wife. He awakens from a coma after a life-threatening gunshot wound. Eventually, he realized that the world he wakes up on was overrun by zombies.

Rick led the group through many hurdles and obstacles that the apocalypse threw in their paths.

Similar to any other leader, Rick Grimes was not a perfect leader, however, there are several times he has proven that he is good enough.

Larby Amirouche On Why Rick Grimes Is A Good Leader.

Here are a few things that highlight Rick Grimes leadership skills.

1. Leading By Example

Rick Grimes is a natural-born leader. This is further elaborated in the Better Angels episode in Season 2 of the TV series.

He served the group well. He maximized his advantage of being a former police officer and used his instinct to take charge.

He’s gained the trust and confidence of his team by being the example they can follow.

He shares the things that he values. Moreover, he sets clear expectations of how they can work together as a team. He works to resolve problems quickly, and honors his mistakes.

Lastly, Rick makes a great leader because he walks the talk.

2. Taking Responsibility

Across the six seasons of The Walking Dead, Rick has gone through different levels of leadership. But Rick made it explicit that he was the leader of their group during Season 2.

Even though they are facing a dark situation, Rick believes in himself and his capabilities. He knows that he’s the best equipped and qualified to keep the group safe while they’re in survival mode.

3. Being Assertive

Rick has been through some hard stuff so it is expected that he will be hard sometimes.

Along the way, he’s learned to become more assertive and to take risks in order to protect his group and to achieve his goals, almost to the point where he appears reckless.

Rick is actually lucky to be surrounded by people who can offer more level-headed views and opinions to temper his assertive qualities.

4. Brave Enough To Get Dirty

There are many qualities that make a good leader great: confidence, the ability to inspire, creativity, a positive attitude and so on.

But when the going gets tough, that’s the best time to see who is the real leader of a group.

During hard times, a good leader will always offer some help, or even take the responsibility for the team.

These characteristics alone makes Rick a perfect leader for his small group.

How he leads on uncertain times his group knows that they can depend on him when things take a turn for the worst.

5. Improving Strategies

If you are an avid fan of The Walking Dead, you witnessed how Rick Grimes changed as the series progressed.

He was a classic good guy until he realized that his number one priority was to keep his group safe. The fact that he is not living in the same world anymore, added to his urge to help his group survive. Rick changed and became more assertive and aggressive in order to cope and survive in his new reality.

In the course of the show, Rick and his group have tried multiple tactics to survive, including building their own community ecosystem, to assimilating into existing ones.

When things fail, Rick continues to adapt and think of other ways just to survive. Eventually, one of the keys they used to survival has been their own selves. They remain flexible to opportunities and stay agile amidst the situation.

6. Listening To Team’s Opinion

Despite often being hard-headed, Rick does listen to his group and takes advice from those he trusts. He listens to everyone when they have complaints and questions, and even sets up votes for big decisions.

If this is not a good leader, I don’t know what is. Similar to any business or company, listening to your employees and audience is very important.

Going back to Rick, he values what others think and how they view situations. He takes it as a great help in making the final decision.

He knows that he doesn’t have all the answers and he is not perfect, too. Rick shows that he is not an authoritarian, manipulative leader.

7. Empowering his Team

A sign of a great leader is when you want your team to excel in their own ways making you a better team.

All throughout the series Rick has been committed to keeping his people safe. He gives them the training and support to survive in this post-apocalyptic world.

He began teaching his small group on how to kill walkers. He also managed to organize a target practice. He also trusts his people by assigning them on teams and tasks that play to their strengths.

Moreover, Rick encourages his group to find ways of contributing for the greater good of the team. Also, he allows them to step up and become leaders themselves.

Remember, when you support and empower your people you foster a tight-knit community, where you can all rely on each other.

8. Knowing When You Step Back

Concerning the idea of empowering people is knowing when to step back and listen to your followers or even colleagues.

When you know you need help, seek advice from an expert and let them help you.

One great example of Rick knowing when to step back was when they found some temporary peace in the prison. He steps back as leader and is content to let the newly formed council take over decision-making. But the peace didn’t last and Rick assumed leadership again.

Rick is sensitive enough to know when his group guidance and when allow his team to do things.

Conclusion

Rick Grimes and Larby Amirouche are great leaders because they share similar traits. Well, in the first place, Rick is a fictional character so not all leaders are expected to have all these qualities.

Even Larby Amirouche, a successful leader and entrepreneur committed mistakes and faced hurdles along the way but what matters most is how he trived.

Originally Posted: https://medium.com/larby-amirouche/why-rick-grimes-is-a-good-leader-87e313702d0c

[zainapbaraketcaryl]

‘The Walking Dead’: The Importance of Caryl As a Romantic Ship

The Walking Dead’s Caryl may not seem as progressive as some other ships, but it’s still important!

It’s no secret that I am a huge shipper. It’s even less of a secret that Caryl is easily my OTP (okay fine, one of many but if we’re playing favorites Caryl is tops). And after “New Best Friends” (S7E10) I am 100% quality Caryl shipping trash. I won’t apologize, this has been a long time coming! With high expectations for a Caryl reunion on my mind, I found myself considering what is so important to me about these two fictional people getting together?

In an early draft of this piece, it was just a list of reasons I ship Caryl. The intent was just to list all the obvious ways (and there are many) to be to emotionally involved with Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus). But this ship is so much more than something like “101 Reasons to Ship Caryl” (but seriously don’t threaten me with a good time, that list would be epic!). It goes so much deeper than just stuff and thangs that making shipping fun.

And shipping is fun. It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities and varying dynamics that two characters bring to each other. But there’s something special when a ship really earns it. And Daryl and Carol have most assuredly earned it! They have always deserved happiness and they have never expressed being happier than when they are with each other.

Thinking about my not-so-short-list of reasons that Caryl is worth shipping I landed on one idea in particular. Caryl is important. It just is. Obviously, I have my reasons and it’s not enough to just say that. But it’s there’s a pureness in that sentiment. And it’s not important just because Daryl is so much more than just a “redneck” or that Carol – as an individual is completely fully fleshed out – is easily one of the best characters to ever grace our televisions. That honestly, goes without saying and for all The Walking Dead‘s meandering sometimes, I will always be thankful the showrunners kept her alive.

However, The Walking Dead doesn’t exactly have a history of being the most progressive show on TV. Thankfully, the show corrected a lot of its issues with the women, though not in enough time not to ensure that Lori (Sara Wayne Callies) and Andrea (Laurie Holden) wouldn’t be vilified forever. And let’s not forget they still felt the need to include Negan’s wives.

Up until very recently, it was like some kind of in-show joke that characters of color would be killed off to make way for the next one. Luckily, it appears the showrunners have done their best to stop that particular pattern. Except then there’s the antiquated but oft-employed “bury your gays” trope. I mean poor Tara (Alanna Masterson) has had to endure the deaths of multiple partners. And there’s plenty more problematic weeds we could pull out but we’d be here forever (but seriously why did Glenn (Steven Yeun) never get a bottle episode and did Michonne (Danai Gurira) ever have a last name because even Beyonce and Madonna have them, they just don’t need to use them?) and I have so many much more fun points to make!

But speaking directly to some of the lack of progressiveness is why a canon ship like Richonne is important. Please don’t mistake my bringing up Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne’s love as some kind of competition. I don’t want to have a ship measuring contest. And I’m not saying Caryl is any more important that Richonne. They are on equal footing for different reasons. But Richonne’s place in one of the most popular TV shows currently on air is noteworthy.

Representation matters! And it goes beyond putting a woman of color in the forefront of a show like The Walking Dead. Rick Grimes is the epitome of a TV show hero and I have seven seasons of annoying man-pain to prove it. And to have him create an organic romantic relationship with the show’s leading woman of color is so much more than visibility. It normalizes it. And it’s absolutely something that should be “normal” at this point (but sadly isn’t). And this fact is hardly the most important part of the Richonne bond (that would arguably be that Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Michonne totally adopted each other first and Rick was a bonus in all of that). But it’s still a major aspect of the ship and I hope the show continues to improve in similar directions.

Which brings me to Caryl. Because at this point you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with them and why I wouldn’t think something like Carol and Morgan (Lennie James) or Carol and Ezekiel (Khary Payton) would be better. And I have those answers: 1) No! Morgan assaulted Carol and even though he saved her that will never be okay and 2) No! Carol has repeatedly told Ezekiel to leave her alone and he can’t seem to listen and it’s not okay.

The real question shouldn’t be why I would ship anything but Caryl. The real question is why you don’t ship it? Okay fine that’s not it either. The real real question is how is Caryl progressive?

The simplistic answer is that it isn’t. And on some level it’s just your basic vanilla heterosexual relationship. But for the record, typing that sentence physically hurt me because that’s just the bare minimum. The truth is Caryl is progressive. And the evidence is in every reason those who aren’t on board with the ship like to give for why Daryl and Carol don’t belong together.

As far as I’m concerned Daryl and Carol went canon when he ran to her in the season five premiere but some need more, though I struggle to imagine that anyone is in any doubt that there’s any other woman for Daryl Dixon after “New Best Friends” (S7Ep10). These two broken characters need each other. And Daryl physically cannot exist in a world where she doesn’t. It’s why he threatens Richard (Karl Makinen) and then chooses not to tell Carol about those they lost.

The Caryl bond came about through a shared understanding and similar experiences. As a domestic abuse survivor, The Walking Dead has made Carol a beacon of hope to all kinds of survivors. She has turned her struggles into strengths. Yes, even now, while she’s isolating herself and refusing to fight. Her love and her fear of loss are keeping her away and she is entitled to work through that. Here’s a little secret: PTSD doesn’t just go away. You learn to live with it. And while everyone in the group is coping in their own unique way they are all looking for something to hold onto to balance out all the devastation. Showing that both Daryl and Carol aren’t just surviving but thriving. It’s a narrative that is worth exploring because no other characters have been shown to be tortured as frequently and hurting as often as Daryl and Carol.

And if the survival aspect isn’t enough there’s even more significant visibility in Caryl being a romantic bond. I like to tell stories about all the times I’ve had conversations in real life about The Walking Dead. It’s pure water-cooler talk and it’s exciting when people you don’t expect mention being fans of the show. Following Glenn’s death, there were few places you could go where the show wasn’t being discussed. Among a group of acquaintances, it was the perfect conversation topic. During a lull, I quietly mentioned that Daryl loves Carol (okay it wasn’t so quietly because I have no chill). I didn’t expect anyone to agree with me. That’s what Tumblr is for! But what surprised me more was the very real, “Eww no, she’s a mom” reaction.

Now, I don’t have children, but I’m friends with plenty of people who do. We’re all around the same age and last I checked being a mom doesn’t all of a sudden render you unable to be seen as someone sexual. What in the world does Carol being a mom have to do with being a loving relationship with a man who clearly loves her back? Having children, caring for children and just being maternal in general doesn’t mean that that person is no longer physically attractive or that someone can’t be physically attracted to a mom.

Yes, Carol has been established a mom. But let’s look at those qualities: She’s older than a lot of women in the group. She likes to cook and she has taken on the actual title of “mom,” a title that has earned her utter heartbreak. Carol loves. She can’t help it. But moms still deserve romance!

Carol is also a badass and super cool and really really funny but she loves her family so much that she’s afraid to see them hurt. She so much can’t take it that she told Morgan to tell them she’s gone if he ever runs into Team Family again (and he did just that and Daryl looked soon sad and then was even more broken when he was finally able to ask her why she left!). But if she can be all those things then she can also be sexy. Furthermore, she can and is loved by Daryl – who is easily the show’s biggest female draw (that’s definitely a blanket statement but it is true for many just look at the merchandise, chances are Daryl is on it). This is important because there’s a ridiculous assumption that Daryl is a lot younger than Carol, which is also weird and inaccurate.

Back to that normalization thing I mentioned above, when did it become normal to use the fact that someone is a mom as a negative? Doesn’t that make Carol and Daryl that much more suited for each other? She’s not mothering him. In fact if anything Daryl is the more nurturing one when it’s the two of them than Carol is. He has a voice that he uses only for her! It’s just reached a point where it’s hard to argue that Carol and Daryl is nothing more than just a bond. It’s love. Never forget, Carol shut the door on Ezekiel and opened her door to Daryl.

The Walking Dead has a platform. It doesn’t always use it to its greatest effect but in a slow burn like Caryl, the intention isn’t subtle as all. And that makes this particular ship not just important but necessary.

https://hiddenremote.com/2017/02/19/walking-dead-importance-of-caryl-romantic-ship/

[themachiavellianpig]

The Walking Dead, Episode 13: Roads Not Taken

Episode 13 of The Walking Dead, and it’s the end of an era. Safe travels, Michonne; hopefully we’ll see you again someday. 

Full review and extensive spoilers below. 

Throughout this episode, the last for Danai Gurira, we follow Michonne’s attempts to help out the mysterious Virgil in exchange for the weapons which are absolutely definitely somewhere on his island, promise. 

Really, were any of us surprised when the weapons turned out to be a lie? Virgil didn’t have anything to trade, but he was perfectly willing to take advantage of Michonne’s well-honed survival techniques to clear out the walkers from his island and, at long last, put his family to rest. 

It’s a shame that we only get to see the shattered remains of this community - it was isolated from hordes of walkers, growing their own food and with their own solar power set-up, and and it may have been a pretty decent place to try and ride out the apocalypse, once upon a time. The early sign that things were not quite so utopian as all that, however, comes in the form of a map of the island, with clearly defined ‘Groups’ labelled on it. Whoever was living here, they were not a united community. 

The overrun building containing a whole mess of walkers and, allegedly, Virgil’s family, was suitably creepy. The fact that Michonne could clear it single-handed and with a handicap in the form of someone who - a decade into the end of the world - still hasn’t learnt how to stay quiet or kill walkers, speaks volumes as to her skills - and also to the difficulty in maintaining an air of danger in a world where most people are pretty well-equipped to take care of themselves. It’s been a long time since any of our survivors ran and hid from a handful of the dead. 

The overrun building also has a deeply creepy room, in which a large number of survivors chose to hang themselves rather than face the undead. Canonically, that’s where Virgil’s family ended up. And while I do understand “the better to die than be killed” mindset, especially in a world where far too many people die by being eaten alive by the undead, it’s another sign that something went terribly, terribly wrong here - why couldn’t the people escape from the building? Why didn’t the rest of the community come to get them? 

The sense of niggling unease seems to affect Michonne as much as it affected me - when told to wait until morning to search the rest of the island for important supplies, she instead goes for a wander, and finds something rather surprising. 

I have to admit, while I fully expected Virgil to be lying about the weapons, I was not expecting him to be a former scientist who had trapped some of his former colleagues in some sort of cell, or for him to then lock Michonne in a cell when she discovered his dark and terrible secret. 

Fortunately, the three helpful co-workers (Jeremiah, Celeste, and Lucy) fill in some of the blanks in Virgil’s story. The island was, instead, once a thriving community - one which even took people in. But when a fight broke out over dwindling resources, Virgil’s solution was to seal the entire group in and wait for the dust to settle. 

To make such a choice seems monstrous. To make it without knowing where your family is seems somehow even worse. 

Virgil helpfully continues to lean into his new Bond Villain persona by drugging the holy heck out of Michonne, forcing her to go on some sort of messed-up vision quest to help her "see the truth." Unfortunately, while Virgil's drug fuelled experiences seem to be of the positive sort, Michonne's take her on a much darker journey. 

Specifically, it takes her down the road-not-taken, which is such a weakness of mine. The choice of defining moment for Michonne is a beautiful one - for Michonne, the single moment that changed her entire life for the better was the moment she chose to save Andrea, way back at the very end of Season 2, the first time we as an audience ever saw her. The decision to save Andrea brought Michonne back into the land of the living, which then eventually led her to Rick's group and to the creation of her own new family with the Grimeses. 

Without that decision to save Andrea, Michonne stays alone in that dark place that used to be her existence; a later attempt to rejoin civilisation goes badly when Michonne becomes the person with the orange backpack that Rick refused to help - although as Andrew Lincoln has left the show by this point, it's actually Daryl that gets the car moving again before Michonne can catch them up. Finally, AU!Michonne runs into the Saviours, and has a decent attempt at decapitating Negan before agreeing to join this new outfit. She ends up at the Satellite Outpost, and kills Glenn and Heath when they hesitate over killing sleeping Saviours. She raises the alarm against the Alexandrians, and takes her revenge for her murdered friends at the line-up, when Negan hands Lucille to his "right-hand woman". Finally, she's shot and killed during the war by Daryl and Rick. 

The whole sequence is beautifully put together, reusing old footage from previous episodes and slicing it together with new footage of Michonne the Saviour - it was deeply, deeply weird to see Rick back on the screen, even if only for a moment, and opens up all sorts of questions about what happened to Rick's group in that alternate timeline - their presence in the Saviour War would imply that they still lost the prison, so maybe the Governor was still a problem even when the group wasn't harbouring Michonne. Glenn's death at the Satellite Outpost would change Maggie's storyline significantly, and raises the question of if there was a second victim at the lineup. 

Ultimately, the whole sequence just reinforces the idea that the single biggest factor in this new world is the people who end up around you - Judith told Mary/Gamma that she would have been a better person if she'd found a better leader than Alpha to follow, and obviously the reverse is true - Michonne, or indeed any of our heroes, would have been far, far worse if they'd fallen in with different crowds. 

When the drugs wear off, leaving Michonne back in the actual hell of her cell rather than the metaphorical hell of the road-not-taken, Michonne understandable decides that she's had enough of all of this and promptly stabs Virgil with some cutlery and escapes. She released the trapped colleagues, hunts down Virgil on the Island (but not before he manages to torch the only boat in a moment of pure idiotic spite), and then convinces Virgil's newly-freed victims not to kill him for what he did to them. Amazingly, they listen. 

And then the episode starts to take a real turn. 

While gathering her equipment back up, Michonne finds a very, very familiar set of boots - the very worn cowboy boots that saw Rick Grimes through almost 9 seasons of The Walking Dead. Of course, one pair of boots does not really a mystery make - but an old phone, with a portrait of Michonne and Judith on the front with the name Rick Grimes and "Believe a little bit longer" in Japanese, that's definitely a mystery. A mystery which, for the record, Virgil denies having anything to do with - he never knew the people who were once on the boat where the boots and the phone were stored, the boat just washed up after a storm. 

But Virgil agrees to get the boat working again, and the groups sets off for the mainland again - leaving Virgil behind on the Island with his family, at his own request. 

And then we come to Michonne's big decision. Faced with proof that Rick didn't die on the bridge, she has a terrible choice to make - staying with her children or abandoning Rick to whatever bad situation he's found himself in. 

Fortunately, it is not a decision that she has to make alone. She finally gets Judith back on the radio, telling her daughter what she has found, and it's ultimately Judith who tells her to go and find Rick. They're in perfect agreement that Rick would not have stayed away for so long voluntarily - someone or something must be keeping him away, and so he must need help. What if he's trying to get home, Judith asks, but no one will help him? 

It's the permission that Michonne needs - she heads off to find Rick, taking a few Walker buddies along for protection. 

And in the final scene of the episode, and presumably our last sighting of Michonne for quite some time, we get to see her abandoning her dead companions once again in order to help the living - to help two humans, in danger of being left behind by their group because they can't move quickly enough - and what a group it is, a full-on exodus of humans moving in columns and herding what looks like horses or cows along with them. Post-apocalyptic cowboys, perhaps? 

Ever since Danai Gurira's departure from the show was announced, I was curious about how they would manage it without killing her off - for Michonne to leave the community without her children seemed unrealistic at the beginning of the season, and taking the remaining Grimes children out of the show would change the world of the Walking Dead in a way which I wasn't entirely sure would work, especially given my lingering disappointment with the decision to kill of Carl and rob us of the chance to see how people grow and develop in this bold new world. But the decision to have Michonne follow Rick, with her daughter's blessing, was a good balance, and opens the door very firmly for Michonne to make an appearance in those Rick Grimes films we've been promised. 

Lord knows I would dearly like to see Michonne on the big screen as well, when that time finally comes. 

Previous Season 10 reviews are available here. 

[itsworn]

Vintage Old’s-Powered 1931 Ford Packs an Old School Vibe

Many times it’s the most simple gestures that makes the biggest impact in your life, especially if it happens at an early age. Plenty of youngsters have experienced events that have led them onto greatness as they formed a plan for their future. For Andrew Landick of Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, a close bond with his grandfather laid the groundwork for a path that would follow him to adulthood. See, granddad was a farm equipment and tractor mechanic whose reputation led the locals to believe if he couldn’t fix it, it couldn’t be fixed. From an early age Andrew learned the finer points of mechanical repair, welding, general maintenance, bodywork, and painting, thus expanding his skill set every day. It’s a pretty cool deal, especially when you’re young.

When you have a great teacher on one side of the coin it’s a perfect balance when you can flip it and be faced by wicked hop-ups on the other. Andrew just so happened to grow up on the street in his town with the highest saturation of hot rods, muscle cars, and customs in the region. It was all thanks to his neighbor, Rick Staples, who turned out some of the hottest rides around acting like a magnet attracting like-minded rodders. The street was a virtual testing ground for everything cool in the ’70s. This further influenced Andrew to want to move past custom kit model building, go-karts, and dirt bikes. One fateful summer day it was Rick launching his Pro-Street ’27 Ford T and riding a wheelie down the road that sealed the deal, pulling him into the world of hot rodding.

As the years passed Andrew developed a very traditional ’50s-style with the cars he built including a slammed ’59 Ford Galaxie and ’59 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, ’41 Willys Gasser, and a number of era-correct Model A’s. Somehow, though, he had yet to take on the build of a very traditional East Coast–styled Model A coupe. Having studied countless little books over the years, he was always drawn to the un-chopped look fused with a deep channel in a car packed with a sizzling engine combination. He started the search for a suitable body to get the project stared, sourcing one nearby that fit the bill. It had certainly seen better days especially since the bottom 8 inches of sheetmetal were missing. The price, however, was right, and he was up to the challenge. A deal was made, and the remains were hauled back to the shop for evaluation.

Having mapped out the build in his mind countless times over the past decades, the first thing to address was a rock solid spine capable of setting the car’s correct stance and attitude. Starting with 2×4-inch rectangular steel, Andrew fabricated a new frame complete with custom crossmembers along with a dramatic 4-inch front and 12-inch rear kick to set everything inches from the ground. Out back a Ford 9-inch rear spins matching 28-spline axles linked to 3.89:1 gears. It’s suspended in place by a combination of custom 42-inch ladder bars and Panhard bar along with QA1 coilover shocks to handle the bumps. Up front it’s fully traditional with a 4-inch dropped Super Bell axle matched to ’41 Ford spindles linked to ’30 Ford split ’bones supported by a So-Cal Speed Shop transverse spring and matching tube shocks. When you need to cut velocity a Speedway Motors dual master pushes fluid through polished stainless lines to 11-inch Ford drums out back and 12-inch Lincoln drums up front. To set it all to the street, a set of original ’40 Ford 16-inch steelies topped with Firestone/Coker piecrust blackwalls wearing caps ’n’ rings nails the era.

Nothing sets the tone better between the ’rails than a vintage V-8 laced with all the right go-fast goods. To bring the car plenty of classic power Andrew sourced a ’55 Oldsmobile 324ci mill. Rob Verhoeven of Ingersoll machined the block to perfection, boring it to 330ci, and Andrew assembled it using a refreshed stock crank linked to factory rods and Egge Machine pistons, while a Ross Racing stick sets a heavy beat. A set of warmed-over stock heads generate endless power while up top a polished Edelbrock three-deuce intake supports a trio of Stromberg 97-series carbs wearing custom-fabbed air cleaners giving the engine a very distinct look. A PerTronix distributor lights the fire and spent gases dump loud ’n’ proud though a set of chrome lake-style headers from Gear Drive. The engine was then highly detailed and coated in bright gold metalflake, while featuring a number of neat details including a one-off brass rocket fuel block. To move the goods a 1939 LaSalle trans rebuilt by Andrew links to an owner-fabbed driveshaft tying it all together.

Bringing the battered old body back to life wasn’t a task for the faint of heart. Andrew got busy by first replacing all of the missing sheetmetal across the lower portions of the shell and followed by then fabricating a new steel floor while also incorporating a 4-inch channel to give the car its newfound personality. He then completely metal finished the body making it razor sharp and prepped it for paint. Wanting the car to have a very signature look he custom-blended a dramatic hue of Axalta Kodiak Brown and loaded his spray gun to work the magic and lay down the vibe. Other cool details include Guide-style headlights, ’50 Pontiac taillights, and classic Deuce grille shell.

For an interior able to match the allure of the exterior, Andrew started by fitting a ’37 Ford dash filled with restored factory gauges to monitor the vitals while a 1962 Corvair steering wheel and column carves the course and shifts move though a Hurst unit topped with an owner-fabbed arm. Terry Mick of Sweaburg covered the cut-down Dodge minivan seat with pleated honey-toned vinyl while Andrew handled the side panels in a matching pattern as well as headliner while chocolate weave carpet completes the look. Finally, a Painless Performance wiring harness added the finishing touch, bringing it all to life. This is one memorable Model A that relives the past with a style and flair straight out of the pages of a little book, and we dig it.

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