Or much of...anything that would make him a better choice to take to Woodbury than Oscar

Take them both, kill one of them. Don't kill Oscar on the raid. Kill Abel some other time. You're not trying to say that one death was inevitable, surely? They can kill whoever they like and they decided to kill Oscar.

Right. And, as you pointed out, that decision was made before they sent him to Woodbury. All I am saying is that based on the group of people that went to Woodbury, if you feel the need to kill someone to show that NO ONE IS SAFE or whatever, Oscar is your man. Except since he's not really a major character, he's mostly a sacrifice to false narrative stakes and makes it less likely that a major character will die.

They could have left both of them at the prison and had no one die in the raid, and it would have been just as effective, really.

Killing the former prisoners doesn't up the level of tension for me, because of course a lot of people we don't care about are dead--every walker is one. Killing them doesn't make me think "Whew! That could have been Rick!"

Of course it wasn't going to be Rick. Not then. It'll be Rick when it's Ricks turn. This isn't like killing Wash.

I was really, really antsy that Andrea might shoot one of the intruders without realizing who it was. At one point it seemed like it would be Daryl, but I thought, nah, he's the most popular character, no way.

I also almost thought she'd shoot Michonne in the back, but again, no way.

Yeah--I figure Michonne, Daryl, and Carl are the safest right now.

I've just caught up with TWD -- whoa, that was a fight between the Governor and Michonne, wasn't it? One of the better ones between a non-super man and non-super woman that I can remember.

(I don't know how well it scores on Actual Martial Arts content, but it was believable to me on a This Is What Normal People With Maybe A Little Training Could Do scale.)

It was a great fight. I think they scored high on the "Oh, fuck, that's going to sting" scale, as well as shot so that you could see who was who instead of wondering if the stunt person was cute.

However, I totally expected homeslice to die, and am sad that it was effectively a flesh wound.

I am *totally* fucking disturbed by the new guy at IO9 (this isn't a vendetta, I swear) saying that the Governor is an okay guy, or we can rationalise what he's done--it's not that bad.

HE HAD THE SHIT BEAT OUT OF GLENN WHILE HE WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTING MAGGIE.

There are no nuances there. That's not grey. That's a guy who twiddles his moustache with one hand as he jacks off while making eye contact with the zombie heads in his office.

For fuck's sake, man.

He also went out and ruthlessly ambushed a bunch of US soldiers, presumably because he felt the mere existence of any other figures of authority/order would be a threat to him ruling Pleasantville. Being harsh in protecting your own people against an immediate threat might be something okay people do, but looking to murder people who don't even know you exist doesn't qualify in my book.

And although Merle was a lying liar who lies to him, I don't get the impression that their ideas of who gets killed in a day's work are too disparate. Merle just didn't want to get in trouble for being bested, and by a girl at that.

It's hardly a good guy being hoodwinked by a charming sociopath in his charge--I'd expect Merle is more likely to be surprised by him than him by Merle.

Okay, caught up.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, ANDREA. When the severed heads show up? That is the time to decamp. I'm not actually sure I can remember a character with worse decision-making skills. Possibly Lori, although I don't think she made many decisions.