The Walking Dead is struggling to stay fresh. Daryl Dixon has used the same villain formula seen in the original series and one of its other spinoffs.
SUMMARY
The Walking Dead franchise has used the same villain formula three times, which is becoming repetitive and predictable. The latest spin-off, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, has received praise for its setting and performance but has been criticized for copying elements from other series like The Last of Us. The recurring villain tropehighlights the expansion problem of the franchise, and the writers need to come up with new and fresh ideas instead of recycling the same tropes.
With the new baddies introduced in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead franchise has now used the same villain formula three times.
The Walking Dead shows all take place in a zombie-infested post-apocalyptic setting where the message is pretty straightforward: the real monsters aren’t the ravenous, bloodthirsty hordes of the undead; the real monsters are other human beings whose humanity has been chipped away in a lawless world.
This is a poignant message – and a common one in the zombie genre – but the problem with an expansive, interconnected zombie franchise like The Walking Dead is that there’s only so many ways to convey that message before getting repetitive.
The latest Walking Dead spin-off, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, has been praised for Norman Reedus’ typically fantastic performance and the show’s refreshing French setting, although it’s been criticized for its similarities with The Last of Us – particularly in its Lone Wolf and Cub storyline.
But The Last of Us isn’t the only series that Daryl Dixon has copied; it’s also copied The Walking Dead itself (two times over) with the villainous Genet and her group, the Cause. The Cause has a lot in common with similar antagonistic groups from past Walking Dead shows, including the flagship series that started it all.
Walking Dead, FTWD & Daryl Dixon All Copy The Same Villain Formula
The Civic Republic Military, better known as the CRM, was introduced in The Walking Dead and went on to appear in Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond. They’re an authoritarian military and police force who impose their rule on survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Fear the Walking Dead introduced its own military organization named PADRE.
Located on an island, PADRE is a group of kidnappers who lure in adult survivors and persuade them to go out and abduct kids for the organization to use in its nefarious experiments. PADRE and the CRM are practically identical, which doesn’t make sense because Fear already had the CRM.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has introduced a third villainous group in this mold: the Cause. The Cause, also known as the Power of the Living (or “Pouvoir Du Vivant” in French), is a paramilitary group led by the sinister Genet. Its soldiers are known as Guerriers (or “Warriors” in English) and, much like the CRM and PADRE, they impose their authority on fellow survivors.
The CRM, PADRE, and the Cause are all essentially the same organization. They’re all military groups, they’re all really powerful and widespread, they’re all experimenting on zombies, and they’re all abducting people. Even some of their uniforms are similar.
Walking Dead's Recurring Villain Trope Highlights The Franchise's Expansion Problem
The recurring villain trope in The Walking Dead franchise highlights the problem with expanding the series into an endless string of spin-offs.
There are only so many stories to tell in a world full of zombies, and so many stories to tell about how other survivors can be more monstrous than the zombies themselves, before the writers start repeating themselves.
Even before The Walking Dead expanded into spin-offs, the flagship show settled into a formula of moving from one settlement with corrupt leadership to another settlement with corrupt leadership. These corrupt leaders were all basically the same: evil overlords whose power had gone to their heads.
The writers have strived to keep things fresh with individual ideas like the bizarre zombie orchestra from Daryl Dixon. But the larger story arcs like the threat of the CRM, the threat of PADRE, and now the threat of Genet’s group keep recycling the same tropes and plot points.
These shows need to keep shaking things up; audiences will eventually get bored of watching their heroes defeat essentially the same villain over and over again. It’s time to come up with a new kind of bad guy.
The Walking Dead Can Easily Fix Its Copycat Villain Problem
There is an easy fix for The Walking Dead franchise’s copycat villain problem. The shows can simply reveal that all these groups are connected. The CRM, PADRE, and the Cause could all be working under the same leadership. The Cause could be the French arm of PADRE, or PADRE could be a branch of the CRM.
Maybe PADRE’s island is a remote base for the CRM. If all these groups are separate but essentially the same, then The Walking Dead plays like a tired, repetitive franchise. But if they’re all connected, then they have a solid reason to share the same methods and agendas.
Post a Comment