Sebastian – THE REVIEW MONSTER

It seems like Game of Thrones may have influenced The Walking Dead in issue 178, or at least that is what everyone else is saying about the character of Sebastian.
This issue really showed how much of a jerk he was and naturally this, combined with his spoiled upbringing, has caused many people to compare him to the hundreds-of-people-praying-for-him-to-die character, Joffrey from Game of Thrones.
Sebastian certainly is an entitled jerk of a character, as can bee seen in the final moments of the issue when he starts a fight by assaulting Yumiko, Magna and Elodie just because Yumiko would not go on a private tour with him (shudder).
This scene did have the best moments of the issue though, with Princess showing off her skills by beating up a bunch of Commonwealth soldiers after they tried to defend Sebastian.
As someone who did not like Princess previously, it was nice to see her fighting those soldiers for her friends because it made her more likeable.
On top of this, the reveal that came afterwards, at the end of the issue, also had a lot of great implications.
I predicted in my review of Issue 176 that The Commonwealth was built on a class system and Elodie’s comment that, “it’s important we know our place,” basically confirmed this prediction.
Despite the fact that Sebastian just assaulted three people he will not get arrested because he is Governor Milton’s son, while Princess probably will be arrested for trying to defend her friends.
This is an interesting turn of events because, as I mentioned in my review of Issue 176, this probably means Governor Milton sees herself as above everyone else and will want to take over Alexandria and the other communities.
These final moments of the Issue were really entertaining and had some great revelations.
Another great moment in the issue was a touching scene between Michonne and Elodie, where Michonne reconnects with her and assures her that, even if Elodie hates her, she will always be there for her.
This was a great part because of Elodie’s constant changing expression across the different panels as Michonne assured her that she would be there.
However, in comparison to these moments the rest of the issue was lacking.
It was revealed in the beginning of the issue that Mercer and George were just letting off steam when Siddiq overheard them talking about overthrowing Milton, which makes the previous cliffhanger feel very misleading.
Then there was the part when Sophia confronted her mother about Dante, which I did not like at all.
It had the potential to be a good scene but it was ruined by how over-the-top Sophia was.
Yes, Sophia did have justifiable reasons to be angry about Maggie and Dante’s relationship but she went too far by calling Maggie a f*#@ing w!*#e .
This over-the-top reaction was made worse when Sophia seemed to be completely over it and jokes about it with Maggie minutes later.
There was also a weird inconsistency this issue with Stephanie.
When she was first introduced in Issue 176, Stephanie was Caucasian but in this issue she is African-American and this was a little odd to see.
Overall though, this issue was still good, despite the weird inconsistency and the over-the-top Sophia scene.
It certainly has me intrigued about what Governor Milton will do when she reaches Alexandria two issues from now.

In issue 177 of The Walking we got to meet more news characters, saw ones we had not seen in a while and had a few interruptions of intimate moments (wink).
The issue starts off with Rick reading a poem Mikey wrote about the death of his mother.
It was nice to see Rick again, who had been absent for three issues, which is apparently the longest time he has ever been absent in the series.
The scene between Rick and Mikey was very touching because of how Rick reacts to Mikey bringing up Andrea’s death.
Rick comments that he, “wouldn’t even know where to begin,” when writing a poem about her.
I like that Rick is still shown to be grieving Andrea, something that will probably take him many issues to bounce back from.
Although, it should be said that Rick will never be completely the same, considering that he loved her more than Lori.
Next at the Hilltop, we saw Maggie and Dante choose the absolute worst spot to hook up.
Seriously, if Maggie wanted to be discreet about her and Dante’s new relationship why did they choose a weapons shack where anyone could walk in?
Naturally, someone does and after that awkward situation we meet two new important characters named Sebastian and Mercer.
Sebastian is the son of Governor Milton and Mercer is his bodyguard.
Unfortunately for Mercer, Sebastian is a jerk who sees Mercer as below him, even though Mercer just saved him and his girlfriend’s life from multiple zombies.
This, however, did lead to a very funny moment where Sebastian criticized Mercer for not being able to handle two Walkers quickly and in the very next panel it reveals there were actually more than ten of them, which Mercer killed.
Then we finally get the conversation between Michonne and her daughter Elodie that had been built up the past two Issues.

michonne and elodie — Michonne shares a heartfelt moment with her daughter Elodie.

This was one of my favourite moments of Issue 177 because we learnt that Elodie is a real chip off the old block, when she reveals she murdered the men who raped her and murdered her sister.
This was very surprising to me because I thought Elodie would have found The Commonwealth early on and not had to resort to violence previously.
But no, just like Michonne, she has had to kill people to survive and knows exactly how bad things can get.
This may prove to be very interesting as their relationship progresses, with Elodie maybe helping Michonne in battle, instead of Michonne having to constantly protect her.
After this however, we get what I feel is the weakest part of the Issue and that is the cliffhanger.
Mercer meets with another soldier named George and the two discuss overthrowing Governor Milton, only to see Siddiq has overheard this conversation.

I do not like this cliffhanger for two reasons.
Number one, if Mercer and George were not just blowing off steam and are actually planning to overthrow Governor Milton, then this is happening too quickly.
The group just arrived at The Commonwealth.
It would have been better to have them, and thus the readers, get a better sense of the community before introducing this plot line.
Number two, this cliffhanger seemed way too similar to the scene Issue 89 when Glenn overheard Nicholas conspiring to kill Rick.
However, this might not turn out so bad if Mercer is just blowing off steam and I really hope he is because Mercer seems like a good character.
Overall, Issue 177 was a good Issue.
It introduced us to some interesting characters like Mercer and Sebastian and I really liked where Kirkman took Elodie’s story.
But the scene between Maggie and Dante was kind of dumb considering the loss of logic on Maggie’s part and I did not like the cliffhanger.

Tag: Sebastian

The Walking Dead Issue 178: Sebastian, The Walking Dead’s version of Joffrey?

Issue 177 of The Walking Dead: Good Issue With a Bad Cliffhanger.