And Negan and the Governor and other characters are all doctors and nurses and other patients in the hospital! And Rick's like 'You were there, and you were there and you...' etc

i really hope not.

After the war with Negan in the comics, there was a 3 or 4 year time skip where Rick is older and broken down (he can't walk well without a cane).

It seems like the show will be doing that as well. Though Rick looks much older than he did after the skip in the books.

Kirkman has said many times that this isn't a dream.

No. It's been done. Cliché as hell. No way they will do that.

If it is all just a dream, would you feel ripped off, duped, hoodwinked, like following this entire story has been a waste of time?

Or, does it matter? After all, even if it wasn't all just a dream, we're still actually talking about a work of fiction - none of these characters are real, the story is not real, so who cares if it's a dream or not?

@DRDMovieMusings said:

If it is all just a dream, would you feel ripped off, duped, hoodwinked, like following this entire story has been a waste of time?

Or, does it matter? After all, even if it wasn't all just a dream, we're still actually talking about a work of fiction - none of these characters are real, the story is not real, so who cares if it's a dream or not?

Haha. Interesting. I'd say yes and no. I think the journey's as important as the resolution. So the show has already entertained me. But I would still feel pretty annoyed at the end.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

If it is all just a dream, would you feel ripped off, duped, hoodwinked, like following this entire story has been a waste of time?

Or, does it matter? After all, even if it wasn't all just a dream, we're still actually talking about a work of fiction - none of these characters are real, the story is not real, so who cares if it's a dream or not?

Haha. Interesting. I'd say yes and no. I think the journey's as important as the resolution. So the show has already entertained me. But I would still feel pretty annoyed at the end.

Same here! When I saw the trailer, I thought "Oh, hell no!" Then I started thinking about it, about WHY foisting the "it was all a dream cliche" would tick me off...one great thing about dreams is, they allow for a world that can acceptably bend logic, rules, laws of physics because, well, it IS a dream, it is not real.

Might it be because I got emotionally invested in these characters on the basis that I thought they were real lives worth caring about? And, it hit me - all works of fiction are not real.

But, in a work of fiction, we want to connect to characters. If - within that work of fiction - there is another layer of fiction beneath it...is that too many layers for us?

I'm thinking it should not matter...and yet...and yet...it does. I just can't figure out why!

@DRDMovieMusings said:

Same here! When I saw the trailer, I thought "Oh, hell no!" Then I started thinking about it, about WHY foisting the "it was all a dream cliche" would tick me off...one great thing about dreams is, they allow for a world that can acceptably bend logic, rules, laws of physics because, well, it IS a dream, it is not real.

Might it be because I got emotionally invested in these characters on the basis that I thought they were real lives worth caring about? And, it hit me - all works of fiction are not real.

But, in a work of fiction, we want to connect to characters. If - within that work of fiction - there is another layer of fiction beneath it...is that too many layers for us?

I'm thinking it should not matter...and yet...and yet...it does. I just can't figure out why!

Possibly because fiction creates the illusion of reality. We want to accept that reality to an extent.

And we're watching something in a certain context. There are dangers and threats. There are no dangers in a dream. There are no repercussions, no real cause and effect. Unless it's created like in Inception.

It's illusion but the film or show we're watching is telling us it's real. Then suddenly it tells us it's not real, we are no longer able to accept that reality.

And also it's a cliche that's been done to death.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

Same here! When I saw the trailer, I thought "Oh, hell no!" Then I started thinking about it, about WHY foisting the "it was all a dream cliche" would tick me off...one great thing about dreams is, they allow for a world that can acceptably bend logic, rules, laws of physics because, well, it IS a dream, it is not real.

Might it be because I got emotionally invested in these characters on the basis that I thought they were real lives worth caring about? And, it hit me - all works of fiction are not real.

But, in a work of fiction, we want to connect to characters. If - within that work of fiction - there is another layer of fiction beneath it...is that too many layers for us?

I'm thinking it should not matter...and yet...and yet...it does. I just can't figure out why!

Possibly because fiction creates the illusion of reality. We want to accept that reality to an extent.

And we're watching something in a certain context. There are dangers and threats. There are no dangers in a dream. There are no repercussions, no real cause and effect. Unless it's created like in Inception.

It's illusion but the film or show we're watching is telling us it's real. Then suddenly it tells us it's not real, we are no longer able to accept that reality.

And also it's a cliche that's been done to death.

I feel ya. And, yes, it was a fresh, novel device for the story of The Wizard of Oz...back in nineteen and thirty nine; is it too cliche to try to pull off today? Some argue Inception could quite in fact have done the same thing (the ambiguity and raging debate is part of its subtle craftiness - while I'm not a fan of that movie, I appreciate their leaving it to debate); American Psycho is also no stranger to the "did he or didn't he?" debate...so, it can be done. But, it'd have to be done right - if TWD tries to pull this, it may go down as the biggest cop-out the world has ever seen.

Yeah, hyperbole much? But still. I'm not having it.

@DRDMovieMusings said:

I feel ya. And, yes, it was a fresh, novel device for the story of The Wizard of Oz...back in nineteen and thirty nine; is it too cliche to try to pull off today? Some argue Inception could quite in fact have done the same thing (the ambiguity and raging debate is part of its subtle craftiness - while I'm not a fan of that movie, I appreciate their leaving it to debate); American Psycho is also no stranger to the "did he or didn't he?" debate...so, it can be done. But, it'd have to be done right - if TWD tries to pull this, it may go down as the biggest cop-out the world has ever seen.

Yeah, hyperbole much? But still. I'm not having it.

Yeah, with films like Inception and American Psycho they're doing it in order to explore interesting themes. In The Walking Dead it would serve no purpose.

I really don't believe they're gonna do anything like that in The Walking Dead.

It might be happening in a retarded kid's snow globe.

@Moonglum9 said:

It might be happening in a retarded kid's snow globe.

To be honest I think our reality is all happening in a retarded kid's snow globe.

@Moonglum9 said:

It might be happening in a retarded kid's snow globe.

Any person's snow globe wouldn't do?

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@Moonglum9 said:

It might be happening in a retarded kid's snow globe.

Any person's snow globe wouldn't do?

Lol. There was a show hospital St. Elsewhere that ended like that.

@Moonglum9 said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@Moonglum9 said:

It might be happening in a retarded kid's snow globe.

Any person's snow globe wouldn't do?

Lol. There was a show hospital St. Elsewhere that ended like that.

Gotcha.