Fuck you season 3. The fact that Travis was holding out despite being bitten, waiting to reunite with Maddy whilst he was in the helicopter high above and she was in the car far below— waiting to see her again, living under a timer— waiting to see her one last time before he killed himself for the sake of others. BUT HE DIED BEFORE HE COULD SEE MADDY! The whole time they were escaping the camp area, he knew he was doomed. We see it in his face. He looks … so sad. Burdened. Nobody knows he’s bitten. Before the escape even happens, Travis says to Madison, “I’m okay. I’m with you.” — AND THEN HE DIES BEFORE HE CAN SEE HER AGAIN! He looked so broken when he fell from the helicopter, by choice. Dying without your loved ones with you is … I can’t imagine it.
I’m going to sob. Travis Manawa. He was the best. Such a good guy. His moral compass was so strong. I knew I liked him more than any other character when he admitted that he failed his son, when he still loved his son despite Chris being mentally sick and twisted. Travis knows that people deserve love and that kids are so impressionable and need support and guidance. When Travis said that his son would remember his last words as “God damn you, Chris!” — and Travis said Chris would be shaped by them, god, it just showed me he understands the depth of the human mind and heart. He was an English literature teacher for gods sake. My favorite person ever in FTWD.
I wish he lived longer. It’s not right. They could’ve really brought out ethical dilemmas in the new apocalyptic world, had Travis stayed alive and on air. But his actor had to go film for Avatar.
Other thoughts: Jake is hot and I want him. Alicia is gorgeous and I like her a lot and I can’t stop ogling every panel she’s in CAUSE LADY IS BEAUTIFUL. Nick is also very hot. The whole cast is beautiful. I want maddy too. Also Troy. Fuck him. But he’s hot.
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
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Why would Alex (Fear walking dead) be pissed off with Travis he try to help her. She should be hating Strand. I hope Alex returns and to see how She react to Strand. I like Strand and Alex there my favorite characters so I hope one doesn't kill the another.
I suppose Alex was pissed at Travis for not trying to stop Strand. But I can imagine she’s pretty angry at Strand, too, more so than the others. There’s a possibility that we may see a villain arc from her, because she’s sore about what happened to Jake (I saw a brother-sister feel between the two of them, so I was pretty upset at his death and how it happened).
One of my friends said that Alycia Debnam-Carey also mentioned that there was a scene where Alex says she’ll help them escape, but it was edited out. I was kind of miffed because I would have loved to see that, since we saw so little of Alex in the episode itself. I’m sure she’ll return, though.
I mean God damnnnn,I know I wouldn’t survive a zombie apocalypse,I’m not about that life. I can admit that,but you on some weak shit right now cuh. You break my heart.😭. I hope he told him the right directions.
