Walking Dead: Shane vs. Rick

Hello All Zombie Lurkers and Watchers!

I think more than the sick mixture of thrill-anticipation-fear of a hungry zombie shambling in from an un-noticed corner and devouring one of our favourite characters, its the descent into the lows of madness and the heights of your everyday heroism, which really keeps me hooked onto the show. This despite the fact that the 2nd season has felt ponderously slow for me at times, compared to the 1st season.

This will not be a review of the episodes, since they have been done ad-nauseum all over the net. These are my thoughts on the characters, their mental descent or ascent as the everyday hum-drum-ness of living in a zombie apocalypse sets in, and predictions on what direction the rest of the 2nd season could take.

*Note Spoilers Ahead. Don't Read Further If You Have Not Seen Season 2*

1.) Rick-Lori-Shane

At the end of episode 2.7, we saw Shane completely lose control over his inhibitions and sanity and he is increasingly losing control over any internal social code or moral conventions that he used to have. By now it is obvious that in the decades long relationship between Rick and Shane, Rick had always been the more stable one, the all around good guy, the guy most comfortable with adhering to rules and social codes and norms, the guy stamping down his own desires for the greater good. On the other hand, Shane has always been the rebellious one, the one trying to break the rules and blaze his own way, and have full control over his own life at any cost, and to HELL with society!

In the comforts of civilization, Shane's real nature has been locked up like a caged beast, waiting to come out at the slight loosening of the dead-bolt on the cage. Which most fortunately for Shane now has, through this zombie apocalypse.

It also seems that Rick was Shane's much idolized mentor and Shane tried to fashion himself like Rick, in order to lock up his real nature and better fit into polite society (something which Rick has done so effortlessly in the past). After all if one is to have any sense of belonging in the societal structure, then they are required to adhere to society's rules and not just go off and do whatever they please. Therefore, Shane loved Rick's wife and son and emotionally invested to turn himself into another Rick, or in other words a conventional man in society (when everyone believed Rick was dead).

I would reckon that Shane even followed Rick into a policing career, alongside Rick, to further fit into society's expectation of a man having a steady job and income through a respected career.

While we do not know much of the characters' lives per-apocalypse, I wonder why Shane never married or even had a steady girlfriend? Granted that we have an idea of Shane being a womanizer, owing to his really good looks (I confess, I prefer bad boy Shane Walsh over the good boy Rick Grimes! How many of you ladies are with me???), but he does have the capacity of being in a committed, monogamous relationship, as seen by his relationship with Lori. So was it just a simple he-never-met-anyone-good-enough to marry? Or he was content on being single and having fun? Or did he idolize Rick and then his wife Lori SO much and viewed them as the perfect examples of people who fit in society, that he sub-consciously wanted to be someone just like Rick and wanted a wife just like Lori, if not Lori herself?

Shane shirt open, sweaty, beastly!

I guess Shane sub-consciously knew the capacity he had within him to turn into a wild, amoral, beast with killer instincts, and perhaps this had frightened him, back in the more civilized times? That is why he dedicated himself to allowing Rick to be his best friend and guide, investing himself emotionally within Rick's family unit and becoming like Rick. But when Rick reunited with his family in the survivor camp outside of Atlanta (in Season 1), Shane not only lost the surrogate wife and son/family that he dearly loved (Lori and Carl), he also lost his chance at redemption and for being able to live comfortably like a morally upright, mentally stable, family man; just like his idol Rick. I feel that it was this loss at this inner power struggle between his id and his super-ego, something which he may have been struggling with his whole life, it was this loss that Shane felt more keenly as time went along.

I was re-watching Season 1 and it was eerie to see how much more gentler with others and compliant Shane was in Season 1, compared to the nearly homicidal maniac that he is now becoming in Season 2! Good Job to the writers, actors and directors for bringing this out.

2.) Rick being a Real Man

A pre-apocalpyse Shane would have seen Rick as, forgive me... Da Maaan! But in the mid-season finale we saw that Shane is now viewing himself as again please forgive me....Da Maaan! Shane is now seeing himself as having what it takes to make the tough decisions based on primal and basic physical needs, such as the need for safety and not becoming food for the zombies. He no longer gives a damn for morality, building trusting relationships and good-will with others (such as Rick agreeing to Herschel's rules to be able to stay in the farm). As far as Shane is concerned, those things have no place in this new world of just day to day survival in a jungle-like environment; therefore, what he use to see as Rick's strength, he now sees Rick being a good guy as Rick's greatest weakness.

Survival of the Fittest?

Thus, Shane believes that his real nature will see him survive for the long-term, be able to protect himself and protect those that he still cares about, such as Lori and Carl. Shane is now very keen on proving to himself that HE is the one that deserves the loyalty of the group and to be seen as the strong guy. He feels that Rick still holding onto the old world values will get Rick eaten and throw others into danger, something which Shane secretly hopes for, I bet.

Courtesy of RollingStones Magazine

But ironically, it was Rick who once again proved to Shane and to the group why his nature will still see him survive this new world and why the group should still put their faith in Rick, not Shane. What should have been Shane's moment of triumph, when he led the attack on the barn full of zombified Herschel family's friends and relatives, Rick, once again, stole his thunder in the closing moments of the mid-season finale. Its funny that for Shane to prove to himself and others that he is the real man, he had to shoot up a whole bunch of zombies and get all veins popping angry just like a steroid-charged WWE wrestler before a WWE match! But Rick, with his quiet and sad dignity, shot the single little girl zombie Sophia, and spared the group (especially Sophia's tragic mother, Carol) further trauma at seeing zombie Sophia feeding on a human.He did this for the group.

It seems to me that Shane only shot up those zombies to prove that he was a strong man; the ideal leader; the right protector for Lori, Carl and Lori's unborn baby. He cared less about the safety of the group and more about his own needs for glory and celebrating his new-found id. He scared and bullied others into following him. But, Rick with that single kill that mattered, showed that things like emotions; attachments; duty and loyalty, still matter in this new world. He felt responsible for Sophia getting lost in the woods in the first place; he led the planned group search for Sophia; and by killing the zombie Sophia, he apologized to Sophia for his failure and put his responsibility to rest. By doing that, Rick gained the viewer's trust and respect and also the trust and respect of the survivor group. 

Courtesy of ScreenRant.com

I feel that Rick will become more depressed, more unsure of himself, and maybe even more of a ruthless killer, doing whatever it takes to protect the group; as a result of beating himself up over failing to save Sophia. He could take on some of Shane's characteristics, ironically, as a result of failing in his capabilities! 

I bet that Shane losing his opportunity to prove his alpha-male characteristics, by hesitating to kill zombie Sophia, will see him becoming more jealous of Rick; will see Shane trying to further subvert Rick's natural authority within the group; and will see him becoming more reckless in showing off his tough-guy survivor skills. Watch out for more emotionally intense, adrenal charged, encounters between the zombies vs. survivors AND even survivors vs. survivors, led by Shane. 

3.) One for All, All for One. 

Courtesy of tvovermind.com

Shane and the pretentious trigger happy bimbo Andrea aside, the rest of the group really believe that there is safety in numbers, rather than believing that being a bad-ass=survival. The rest of the group, surprisingly Darryl even (I increasingly love Darryl), still want to hold onto their old human selves in this wild, survival of the fittest environment. The rest of the group seem to have realized (except for Shane & Andrea) that day to day survival isn't assured by simply being able to wield a gun (although gun-wielding is high up on useful skill sets in a zombie-ruled world), but it is assured by human, old-world qualities, such as relationship building; generosity; love; caring and sharing; trust and cooperation.

I mean how much more human and different will we be from zombies, if all we care about is physical survival, without giving one thought to the things which make us intelligent, higher beings and human? Shane is becoming just a walking being that only cares about his physical survival (with Andrea now following his philosophy), just like the zombies are! Just like the zombies who are insane and single-minded in their blood-lust, Shane too has become insane and single-minded in his need for survival and power! Its the other survivors: Dale, Darryl, Carol, Glen, Maggie, T-Dog, Rick, Carl, Lori, who have retained some measure of sanity and humanity and their old personalities, as a result of being emotionally supported within a group.

So definitely in the second half of the season and in the upcoming seasons, there are going to be open conflicts between Shane and all individual members of the group (there is already now a: Shane vs. Rick; Shane vs. Lori; Shane vs. Dale; Shane vs. Lori's bun in the oven). Shane is going to become increasingly isolated and a handful of members will decide to ally themselves with Shane, such as Andrea.

Twilight Saga Ruins Womens' Rights & The Allure of Vampires!

Two MONUMENTAL things occurred for women in the last week or two. Unfortunately, more people, even females, know of one of the monumental occurrence, rather than the other. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn has just come out, sending women into a blood-curdling and moist frenzy at the sight of their sparkly vampire, Edward Cullen. It made a mad killing (pardon the pun) at the box office; THE BELLA wedding dress, which is the most anticipated wedding dress of the year after the Duchess of Do-Little's wedding dress (aka Kate Middleton), has already inspired knock-offs which will be flooding the lucrative bridal market and filling the heads of starry eyed bride to be's with silky-lacy dreams. Need I continue on the number the Twilight books and movies have done to the collective romantic fantasies of women? They have turned sparkly vampires and muscly, stinking werewolves, into viable romantic partners for mortal females? I'm sure the release of this movie has not gone unnoticed.

Then the second event, which may have slipped the notice of many a woman: it was the day of November 25th, The International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women. Such an important day, yet it doesn't receive half as much media coverage or leave an impression on the collective conscience, as those mind-numbingly silly Twilight books and movies have (must be pretty obvious by now that I dislike those poor excuses of literature and cinema, immensely)!

We are in the 21st century, yet horrific violence towards women still continue. Be it a woman who is being abused every which way by her husband/spouse; women being killed by their partners or families; to cultural notions of men being superior; to women being seen as easy & being preyed upon by sexual predators; to women being displayed as sexually available, quiet & submissive beings (a la Bella in Twilight); to women not being believed by judicial authorities (run predominantly by men) when they report their sexual assaults; to global sex trafficking of women to available "buyers"; to female rape being used as a weapon meant to cower and defeat war opponents.

Social support services for women in Canada are facing downsizing and cutbacks by government, thus leading to another method of exploitation of women. One of the many cases in point is the funding that was stopped by the Conservatives for the Sisters in Spirit national database for murdered, missing & cold cases of hundreds of Aboriginal women (Read more here: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/02/03/conservative-mps-back-sisters-in-spirit-database-funding/).

These are the issues that the Nov 25th day is meant to raise awareness of; to keep fighting against the ignorance, which begets the violence, towards women; and fight towards the elimination of this kind of violence.

And then you have the Twilight books and movies, which promote the following, that takes the women rights movement back by 50 years:

1.) Revolve your entire life around getting the boy of your dreams, at the expense of having your own friends & social life, supports, paying attention to your family; developing a fulfilling career & gaining financial independence, instead of Bella depending on Edward to fill the emotional holes in her life & counting on him to always love her & take care of her.

2.) Constantly forgive & make excuses for a man who is emotionally abusing you & abandons you, by believing that he is doing this because he passionately loves you & doing it for your own good (just like Bella & Edward)!!! Kind of sounds like what a male spousal abuser will say to his wife, who he has gotten used to using as his door-mat.

3.) If the man is handsome enough, he can treat you however the hell he wants to, because hey....at least he is handsome and is a stallion in bed!

4.) Your boyfriend/partner watching you sleep & following you around, without your knowledge; should send tingles of lust up your spine, instead of tingling your fingers to dial the phone and call the police. 

And there are many more instances of how these Twilight books, which millions of young females are reading & developing their ideas of a romantic adult relationships, are giving females the wrong idea of what kind of treatment they should expect and demand from their partners. These Twilight books & movies, entrench ignorance about the presence of violence in relationships (such as justifying any psycho behaviour as love and possessiveness), and teaches women to not recognize signs of abuse being committed by their partners. Keeping females dumbed down through ignorance, breeds the prime ground for violence to occur and for a woman to continue being abused. It teaches women to accept that violence can and will happen in any romantic relationship, until the woman can change the man for the better! Which is what Bella Swan did, ladies. 

I'm not blaming the Twilight saga alone for promoting the idea of "abusive relationships are real relationships" myth & for all the other evils of the world. Nor am I saying that by engaging with this garbage literature and the far worse movies, all women will behave this way. 

What I'm trying to say is that global media phenomenon like The Twilight Saga, will be read by many women, through which many women will learn that the Bella-Edward relationship is a star-crossed, ideal, love story; the women's ideas about relationships could be influenced; or it could confirm many womens' insecurities about relationships, because they may say, "Hey Bella, the not-so-popular, not-so-hot girl got to marry and bang the totally hot vampire, by being willing to give up everything for him!" These media products and many others like it breeds women's ignorance; women's quiet acceptance of their victimization; and women confused ideas about their sexuality! 

These are what I feel takes the fight of elimination of violence against women, backwards! 

I will FULLY blame the Twilight Saga for one thing though: they have turned vampires from the towering, sexy, mysterious and deliciously dangerous villains of literature, into puny, sparkly, whiny, brats with forever bed-head hair! I hate the Twilight Saga for this very reason too!

Manly Movember Moustahchio-ed Man

Courtesy of smartcanucks.ca

So my brother has decided to grow a moustache in honor of prostate cancer month in November. From what I "hair", growing a moustache raises awareness and money for prostate cancer research (through sponsors). And it does the added job of raising awareness and donations for a worthy cause, in such a fun and light-hearted manner.....completely unlike those World Vision adoption ads exploiting our eyes capacity to turn into instant lawn sprinklers...

You know what I'm talking about

To me, the movember moustache represents just one flared bell bottom away from a man looking like a 70's era porn star...but there has been increased media coverage and awareness of prostate cancer, new research being done for the cure and urging men of ALL ages (not just you oldies) to get a thorough annual physical, due to the Movember.

And I myself reiterate that message guys:  quit thinking there is nothing macho about a male doctor with latex gloves cupping and squeezing your nether regions in the name of health...and GO GET YOUR ANNUAL PHYSICALS!

Moving on from the public service announcement, all the power to the "Mo Bros", but being the dedicated "Pisser on the Parade", I have to wonder amongst all the hair-raising fun being had in the name of men's health awareness and charity, even donating money all the money that one can to Prostate Cancer Society, is there any real hope of these health challenges being cured? Is it even in the interest of these multi-million dollar Cancer Societies to help find a cure to cancer? If a cure to many forms of cancers are found, where will these cancer societies go? Who will employ these guys for awareness and outreach campaigns? Who will pay these societies' CEO's their handsome salaries and compensation packages? Would we need the existence of such societies to the extent we need them today? 

Is it even in the interests of these cancer societies to cure cancer at all, when it can potentially be so lucrative financially and positive media publicity-wise? The thought of that alone made me cough out a hairball (alas, the hairball looked suspiciously like the downy textured and tawny colored hair belonging to my cat! UGH!)

But Movember is still a worthwhile cause, it still raises money into research that makes new discoveries and new ways to fight this disease and can continue promoting the message that guys can still be macho and manly even during a wholly, thorough physical exam.

Btw, check out  http://flashyourstache.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/stache-styles/ (Flash your stache Blog) for different kind of moustache style ideas for Movember! There is even a fun one called the "Jihad Jack"...how politically correct :P

A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment- Jane Austen

But most unfortunately for our Ms. Kim Kardashian, her "love" never made the jump to matrimony; instead it made the huge leap from love to the other big "M" word...here are 2 clues as to what they can be:

1.) Rhymes with Honey and funny
2.) George Washington features very prominently on it.

I won't go into a whole diatribe upon the greedy, rhinoceros hided, paintgun face painted, evil Medusa-like monsters that are the Kardashian women! Nor will I go into how journalism has come into an all-time low by reporting on this so-called divorce ad nauseum, to the detriment of other personal victories and large-scale disasters that are happening all over the world; nor will I go into the whole "Boycott Kardashian" movement, because I trust that my readers have a lot more sense than to consume any sort of feces that are excreted by the Kardashians...

I will only say this much to those who are still adamantly opposed to a man making the jump from admiration to love to matrimony for the sake of another man...or a woman doing the same for another woman. That it is not same sex couples who will be spitting upon the sanctity of marriage; so-called straight people like, Kim Kardashian, have made a fine joke of marriage all by themselves, thank you very much! I'd say we continue making a farce of marriage, because we are greedily consuming the Kardashian divorce drama news (myself included, as I sit her idly during my reading week and find myself impossibly bored and rendered useless) & reading these divorce reports for sheer train-wreck style entertainment (or some may actually be shocked that this divorce actually happened).

I say let us bring equality to all the sexes and sexual orientations by giving same-sex couples the right to marry and not sniff up our noses at it, because it offends our delicate religious sensibilities. As a society, let us go further and give a celebrity gay couple the equal chance to have a 4hr wedding special on E! Channel; have a $10 million circus show of a wedding; make a gulp inducing $18 million in endorsements and free wedding products; and get divorced after 72 days of wedded bliss....just like the very straight Kim Kardashian did.

Somehow, we are very skewed in our sensibilities if we find ourselves disgusted or "wierded out" by 2 men or 2 women wanting to marry each other, but finding it to be a big laugh and a joke at this train wreck Kardashian wedding!