The Walking Dead: 5 Reasons The Rick Grimes Era Was The Best (& 5 Its The Daryl Dixon Era) – CBR – Comic Book Resources

The Walking Dead can be firmly divided by its two eras: the first with Rick Grimes, and the second with Daryl Dixon. Which is better, though?

The departure of Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead in its ninth season effectively separated the show into two halves. Daryl Dixon has been placed as the main character ever since, with him being given all the storylines that Rick had in the comics as the lead.

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There was also a change in the way the series was presented following Ricks leave, with the show having different elements under this new direction. While this has been a good change, certain aspects were still much stronger during Ricks era.

Those who want to be surprised will prefer the Daryl Dixon seasons, as these largely ignore the comic book events. While the outline of the seasons is derived from the source material, character importance and deaths are the choices of the showrunners, meaning its impossible to predict what will happen next.

The Rick Grimes seasons were almost completely the same as the comic books, with many fans who were aware of the source materials story already knowing what was to come. The Daryl Dixon seasons keep the shock value at a high throughout.

Looking back at the shows history, the scariest episodes have to be during Ricks time. The reason for this is due to the series actually making the walkers out to be a threat rather than minor side villains as in recent seasons.

Rick-centric episodes are a thrill ride through the zombie apocalypse, especially the earlier ones that keep the horror factor as the main selling point. The Daryl Dixon era has more to do with people as the bad guys, which isnt nearly as scary a prospect to think about.

The Walking Dead truly became an ensemble show after Ricks departure. Beforehand, it wascentered entirely around one protagonist, making the others strictly supporting roles. While Daryl has now become the main character, all the others are given equal importance. So much so, that even Negan can be seen in a sympathetic light since there's more of him to follow.

This allows for a more dynamic presentation of episodes, as multiple characters are shown and all of them have their own backstories and characterizations. Its far easier to pick ones favorite character when they are given time to shine on-screen.

It was a pleasure to see new and more vicious villains showing up frequently during the Rick Grimes seasons. These would vary in personality, such as the Governor and his viciousness to Negan and his charismatic and devious antics.

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The bad guys came in all sorts of ways, adding in an appeal that was directed toward the antagonists.These seasons could also play up the threat of the zombies while adding in enough dark moments that terrifying villains like the Terminus group could remain alive in memory.

It was only when the new era began that fans could see how much Daryl had changed since the first episode. Prior to that, Rick was the only one who got genuine character development, as the others were largely relegated to personality traits distinct to them.

Its not just Daryl whos had significant development, with everyone from the likes of Eugene, Carol, and Ezekiel, among others, seeing a change in their character that makes for great reflections on how they used to be and how they turned out.

As far as moments that have kept fans rapt in attention and at the edge of their seats go, its easily the Rick Grimes era that achieved this quality. These episodes would generally have big bombshell reveals that shook the series, making fans shocked but excited for more.

The Daryl Dixon era lacks in this area due to episodes having a slower pace, meaning high impact moments are few to come by. During Ricks time at the helm, character debuts and deaths were touted to glorious levels, in that it was impossible not to jump on the hype train.

One would be inclined to only care about the characters close to Rick when he was the main character. Although many were killed at the time, there wasnt much sympathy from fans since quite a lot of these characters werent closely connected.

The Daryl Dixon era does this aspect better, with friendships formed between most within the community so that every character feels important. Fans have even loved to form their own fan fiction relationships due to the chemistry between the cast, something that wouldnt have been apparent during Ricks time.

The Walking Dead used to be pretty good in hitting those emotional points, with more than several times where the series managed to make viewers teary-eyed over the events. For as much brutality on-screen, there were enough reasons to sympathize with Rick, what with the air of relatability he brought from his emotional moments.

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These seasons put particular focus on both the sad and happy times and fans were made to appreciate the sentiment either occasion carried. The Daryl Dixon era does bring this quality too, but just not to the level as the earlier seasons.

While the walkers stopped being a threat during the Daryl Dixon-centric seasons, a creative turn was experienced when the episodes brought in a level of tension. This has been such that the sense of exhilaration one has over the sensitivity of a situation is a special feeling.

It comes from characters being at odds in a way that hints at total calamity if even one person breaks the tension. The constant foreboding sensation has been a breath of fresh air, bringing in the heart-pounding quality that lacked when Rick was the main guy.

At the end of the day, fans are attracted to the hero that starts out as an extreme underdog and rises to the challenge. Rick was such a protagonist, as he learned from his mistakes and went through hell in order to keep his family safe.

Its an admirable format that has always worked since it achieves that start-to-finish story where viewers want to see the main character adapt and learn how to survive. These seasons had an established protagonist for fans to follow, and its hard to argue against it considering how much of a hit Rick turned out to be.

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Saim Cheeda is an entertainment writer covering all of Film, TV, Gaming and Books. He's been a writer for The Gamer, Screen Rant and CBR since 2017, contributing 100+ articles for a variety of topics. Saim also covers entertainment articles for Fansided.Apart from freelance writing, Saim is a lifestyle blogger, co-owning the blog 3 States Apart.

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