#ftwd chris

[fanaticloser]

I did not know Chris from FTWD and Justin from Wizards of Waverly Place are siblings.

[a-really-mediocre-writer]

Chris Manawa Imagine No.1

* NOT MY GIF CREDIT TO @supercanaries *

“Do you want me to leave?” You asked as you looked up at the grieving boy sat on his bed next to you after the long awkward you were both in. It had been an hour after his mothers ceremony and it was clear Chris was suffering in silence, his emotions all turning into outward rage at anyone who tried to talk to him- especially his dad. He had snapped at you to say that he was fine after you followed him asking how he was. 

Eyes turning red and brimming with salty tears, he lifted his head and eyes to meet yours. No response.

You placed your hands on either side of your lap and lifted yourself up off of the bed. A few steps away from Chris you reached the door and began to open the door to leave only to feel a sudden tug at your other hand causing you to turn around. It was Chris. 

“I’m sorry.” The boy said quietly as you both stared into each other’s eyes.

After a moment of staring you noticed a single tear falling down his cheek. You lifted your hand up to his face and cupped his cheek, feeling his head drop into your warm hand; he closed his eyes slowly and visibly relaxed as you used your thumb to wipe away the stream of his tears. You slowly slid your hand behind his head and pulled him into an embrace where you both just held each other closely in silence, though this silence was a lot more comfortable than before.

“It’s okay, Chris.” You mumble into his shoulder and feel him squeeze you tighter into the hug.

“I don’t want you to leave. I would never.” He says back to you, answering your question from before.

“Well good...” You trail off as you release each other from the hug, “...because I’m not going anywhere.” You finish with a smile, which he returns weakly.

“Now let’s go eat up with the others.” You say to him and you both exit the room together, you slightly dragging him by his hand all the way.

[diversemymedia]

same troy anon, i was sad when troy killed claw jackson, it pissed me right off. i was sad when he killed his own people and walker's. i get that most do like troy because of daniel but the fact you're saying he's liked because of the colour of his skin is ridiculous. he's liked because his acting is brilliant and from what we know he's a decent person. i loved many of the poc character this season and last. don't call people racists when they aren't, just for liking a character

Well, I think it’s ridiculous that it’s the same across every fandom and people still ignore it. Your understanding of racism is very primitive. Biases or racism isn’t always malicious. It’s unconscious at times. I’ve been guilty of this. I haven’t always been the way I am now. I feel Chris is a perfect example. He and Troy were essentially alike in terms of their mental stability, but Chris got ripped a new one by the whole fandom and everyone pretty much rejoiced when he was killed. And someone once made a good point about how Madison and Alicia practically rejected him as family, but as soon as Troy showed up, they gave him so many chances (but the writers are to blame for that, not the fandom).I do appreciate you not being an asshole anon though, lol.

[mrcarlgrimes]

FTWD: Chris Manawa + “Monster”

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[diversemymedia]

How Fear the Walking Dead Treated Travis Manawa is Unforgivable

Let’s talk about Fear the Walking Dead and Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis), which ultimately ties into the series’ representation of Brown characters and the following article: Where showrunner, Dave Erikson, talks about the former plans for Travis and the crap reason behind giving him the boot. Just because you’re a fan of a series doesn’t mean you can’t analyze and call out its biases, right? I hope not, because with the way FTWD sidelines the majority of their Brown characters, I foresaw this unwanted moment coming. Spoilers ahead.

Initially set in cities like Los Angeles, Mexicali and Tijuana—what started off as an appealing majority-minority series, dwindled into an apocalypse of white privilege and favoritism. Regardless of the Season 3 arc centering around the reclaiming of Native American land and the loss of privilege in a post-apocalypse world, there were still some issues I began to pick up and even predict. So, when Travis, one of the few main characters of color who lasted up until the third season premiere of FTWD, met his demise, I had an honest question I figured I already knew the answer to: Was it justified?

I was bothered by Travis’ immediate death. Not only because he was my favorite character, but because lead Native characters in any genre were extremely rare. Although FTWD is trying to change that, he was easily checked off like plenty of the other Brown characters. He was the only Māori character in the series and frankly, it was my first time hearing about the indigenous race; so I loved him even more for that reason. Naturally, I rooted for actors of color fighting to get a quarter of shine in a white dominated industry, but I especially cheered for him because the FTWD writers decisively killed off his immediate family early into the series. His ex-wife, Liza Ortiz (Elizabeth Rodriquez), who was a brown Latina was the first to go, and their biological son, Chris Manawa (Lorenzo James Henrie), was next. After the death of his mother, Chris became mentally unstable, violent and made poor choices that eventually got himself killed. In addition, there were a bit of unfair push back and double standards toward Chris from the fandom. Writers and fans demonized Chris for his wearing mental state, but the same fans questionably attempted to understand Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) while the writers try to make him digestible by giving him a sob-backstory. Despite being a white supremacist suffering from mental distress as well, it’s evident that the main characters that were once so terrified of Chris remotely feel threatened by Troy.

Up until the latter episodes of the second season, Travis became the minority token among his second wife, Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), and her two children from a previous marriage. I was hoping Travis wouldn’t be next to disappear just like the others. So, as soon as Travis died, I had a feeling his death would parallel the same times black men were killed off in FTWD’s core series, The Walking Dead. Shortly afterward, he was replaced by another Native character named Qaletaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes). Boom—there was my answer. Don’t get me wrong, I was more than happy that there was another Native character with an even greater storyline, but Travis has no reason to die the way he did. It only proved to me that “The Rule of Three” was a racist policy that had not yet been ruled out in 2017 and crossed over into television. “The Rule of Three” is a preconception, especially in the comic industry, that if there is more than three main characters of a specific race in a series, it suddenly “belongs” to that group of people. Even if FTWD doesn’t limit their poc count to three, they still have a limit (The Walking Dead surely does, and it’s why a person of a specific ethnicity disappears or is killed off when another is introduced). Despite relatively recent studies that prove black people watch more TV and Asians spent more on movies and more time on media, it’s still deemed wrong to centralize people of color because writers prioritize white consumers. It’s racist and biased nonetheless but it’s a “rule” we can look further into in another discussion.

Of course, the showrunners wouldn’t admit to that, so I desperately searched for a reassuring answer. That’s when I happened to stumble across the article mentioned in the opening paragraph, but it made things more complicated and inexplicably racist. Why? Because if it is true, Travis was just a tool used to prop up Madison; the woman I knew would be lead lady because of her race. Since the significant rise of female leads in media, studies show that majority are only offered to white women. Now, we suddenly have this bizarre idea that killing off men of color in the name of white feminism is acceptable and equivalent to killing off just any man. Newsflash: It isn’t. Black men have had targets on their backs in horror/thriller genres and the same applies for other non-black people of color when tokenized in similar situations. It’s no different than the Women in Refrigerators trope, because Travis was used as a sacrificial lamb to motivate Madison’s story the same way women have been used for their male counterparts for years. When there isn’t a woman to spare for a male, there’s a man of color to spare for a white woman (e.g. NETFLIX’S DAREDEVIL SPOILER: The lone man of color (a black man) was strangled to death for Karen’s selfishness in Daredevil is a perfect example of this. Because he is dead it adds more to her story). Either way, this is a fresh problem that has begun to reoccur, but it needs to be addressed before it becomes the new WiR. Typically, men of color are rarely on par with white leads (male or female) in media. Now, if it does happen to become a trend, I suggest we coin it the “Choked out Journalist” trope (CoJ). FTWD adamantly proved to us that Madison would walk     to the moon and back if it meant keeping her favored son, Nick (Frank Dillane), alive. So why not kill him off to make her story more riveting? When it came to the selection of killing off a white male or Maori man in a show’s predicament, the Maori man was chosen and I find it more than a coincidence that Walker, another main  Native character, was introduced shortly afterward. 

This post isn’t to say that people of color shouldn’t die or be killed in films/TV shows ever; leads of color just shouldn’t be killed irregularly or killed for the sole purpose of being replaced by someone of the same ethnicity. For instance, we see this replacement done again with Luciana (Danay Garcia) and Ofelia (Mercedes Masohn) who both portray Latina women. However, their exit and entrances are done differently. When Luciana is brought to Broke Jaw Ranch, she is slowly given less dialogue and less involvement. She remains by Nick’s side until she conveniently suggests going to Mexicali. At this point, Ofelia had been missing the entire first half of Season 3 due to unknown circumstances. But when she happens to reappear, Luciana leaves the ranch in the same exact episode. There was no real critical reason behind it. She just easily leaves Nick; the number one love of her life. This action only proves to me that showrunners don’t want “too much” of the same race on their television show. That, ladies and gentlemen, is racist.

Writing characters of diverse backgrounds shouldn’t be done with such a tongue-in-cheek manner, because all it does is bait. Main characters of color should be able to be brought in without the need to sacrifice another. They should be developed and written with care just as their white counterparts would be. Overall, Travis, would have been an interesting addition to this season’s arc, considering that he is also of Native descent.

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 3A rating: 1.5/5 stars

Feel free to follow my blog for more posts and critiques on diversity & representation.

[mrcarlgrimes]

FTWD S1 Summary: C h r i s   M a n a w a

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[mrcarlgrimes]

FTWD: Chris Manawa + “The Good Man”

⇢   Other Episodes   ⇠

[thegoodplce]

I have very mixed feeling about Chris Manawa’s death but the most prominent is relief that I can now efficiently tag #clark siblings instead of some weird clark and manawa limbo bullshit