Zombie Fans : Walking Dead Season 2 Starts Tonight.

I'm hoping like hell they don't kill him off and start doing things a little bit against the grain compared to the original Walking Dead series. The original series has somewhat of a blueprint in terms of the comic series as far as how storylines play out.

Fear being a direct to TV spin-off can do its own thing. Different set of people & locale, with some things playing out quite different than the main series.

 

Of course Strand is gay. You can't have a competent, suave black male who is a lead character without him being gay because you just may have to pair him with a white chick or a Hispanic woman eventually. And the only heterosexual black characters on AMC shows that get to have interracial relationships are black chicks.

Not that I even thought AMC would kill Srand but now that he appears to be homosexual you can bet that that he will be bulletproof for quite a long while. And all of those fans and critics who were on the fence about him or indifferent will SUDDENLY become huge fans of his.

 

I think that Colman Domingo, as a homosexual actor, had some input into his character's sexuality. I don't think it's a big deal, either way. Omar is one of the iconic characters in television history and his sexuality doesn't take away from it one way or the other. His character's Macchiavellian tendencies and internal machinations are what make him compelling to me, not who he's boning. Lol

Great point.

 

Ya'll over on the east coast need to be putting up spoilers warnings on your posts for those of us on the west coast or overseas members who may not have seen the current episode yet. Just saying.......

 

Strand homosexual? Well that never occurred to me. He seemes to be the alpha male here and plenty of black characters in Walking Dead don't fit your description. Whuuuuuttttt?

 

Tyrese

 

They made him to a gay thief now that cuts rope to leave people to die.

I was expecting a mutiny. The voice really doesn't fit the show. too happy. His voice gives me the impression that he should be doing a better show.

 

I am well aware of Domingo's sexuality and I don't have an issue with gay male characters. But please...just give me a heterosexual alpha type black
man on these very popular sci fi/fantasy shows. Particularly those who actually have a pulse when it comes to hooking up with a woman. You know...like hoe Tyreese in the comics was but wasn't allowed to be line on the TV version of TWD.

 

Well his character is different since he isn't the dutiful sidekick like all the other black people in this universe. He doesn't fuck around and doesn't allow himself to be tethered to emotions and people. He might make it a really long time.

 

That TAME would-be romance that didn't go anywhere because the woman was dead in the first two seconds? Please. Nothing like the comic book : Tyreese. They made Shane into Tyreese on the show in some ways and then the brought in a made-up non-book character in Darryl to fill Shane's roll once he was gone. All the heterosexual alpha males on this series have been white men. Strand was my only hope and then....

 

Yeah....sorry about that. I'll do better next time.

 

And how long did he last and he was a total sidekick.
One thing i really appreciate about Strand is he is his own man, he doesn't cow tow but as Jamal said of course he had to be gay in order for that even be a thing.

 

I knew Strand was too good to be true. I know I shouldn't be that way. Gay blacks have as much right to see themselves in strong, non-stereotypical leading roles as us hetero black males. It just seems like we never really got the chance. At least with any reasonable conststancy.

Gay black male characters are a Godsend for Hollywood. They can bring them into an ensomble cast without having to worry about pairing them with any of the white female leads and therby risking alienating their white male demographic.

 

:smt038


SO much of what you said I was thinking too when they revealed Strand was gay.

I don't really have a big problem with Strand being gay, he's still the same guy except he's homosexual.

THe problem I had is they presented Strand as soooo Alpha up to this point on FOTWD and the one character solely responsible for the survival of two families and driving the narrative arc, to do the 'gotcha' tonight seemed agenda driven.

Maybe it's my own latent homophobia but making Strand gay seemed to emasculate the importance of his character.

I still like the Strand character, but leaving him as a straight guy by the writers IMO was too threatening to them.

I've literally never seen a character like Strand on TV before, played by a Black male actor.

He was refined, sophisticated, financially successful and HARD.

You got the sense at some point he was going to start capping muthafuckers on HIS boat because they were fucking his shit up.

Every crisis the survivors have faced while on the water has been because they didn't follow his rules.

It's also part of the reason Strand's character was so threatening, because he seemed SMARTER than everyone else on his boat and was thinking 10 steps ahead of them.

I do agree if they'd let Strand be hetero, he would have been killed off.
Now that he's gay I'd expect him to survive the entire run of the show.


The fact is non-Black men have a hard time dramatizing these type of Black hereto characters because it plays into their insecurities and prejudices.

It would be like if Iron Man's Tony Stark was originally Black in the Marvel comic books.

Good bet we never would have seen him on the big screen.

I think it's good to have portrayals of gay men on TV that aren't stereotypical, I just feel like it was too convenient to diminish Strand's character by making him gay.


EDIT: I didn't know the actor who played Strand was actually gay.
But then again think about how many male actors in Hollywood who are gay and still are allowed to play hetero characters.


It was just a shock because here we are being presented one of the strongest characters in the Walking Dead franchise since Rick, but they decide to make the Black guy gay.

 

Damn. Spoilers got me. I haven't watched it bc of work. I knew I should've stayed out of this thread. Lol

 

I just pointed out that it existed. I felt someone said it didn't.
I wasn't arguing the brevity of it but I am happy to have enlighten some on the matter.

 

This is very true, if he's not gay they'll just pair him with a non-ww cast member a la Hitch.

 

Right "safe" pairings :smt081

 

"Welcome To The Kingdom"

[YOUTUBE]SmUz88zoIg0[/YOUTUBE]

 

I'm ready!!