The Walking Dead: World Beyond is a spin-off of The Walking Dead. The focus of this series is a group of teenagers who grew up in the apocalypse. Being just toddlers or kindergarteners at the time the apocalypse happened, they have no other memory of the world before. Sheltered from walkers and living in a protected community, they decide to venture out into the "real" world on a mission.
The series has a different tone compared to other Walking Dead series, arguably geared at a different type of viewer. Nonetheless, it shares a lot of similarities and takes place in the same universe, at the same time. That said, there are a few puzzling things about the series so far.
The Kids' Confidence So Early On
The kids don't know how to fight the walkers like the adults in other series within the franchise. In fact, they're fearful of doing anything but pushing a walker back and running. Yet strangely, despite this, they had a lot of false confidence right out of the gate that didn't quite jive with their clear inexperience.
Aside from deciding to go out into the wild on a whim in general, consider Hope's brave an elaborate plan to take off in the middle of the night to an abandoned building in hopes of helping the group make it past the herd of walkers circling the burning tires. For someone who is afraid to poke a spear through a walker's head to kill it, it was a pretty bold move to confidently navigate by a herd of them, with limited visibility, to boot.
Felix Not Knowing What Went On Back At The School
Considering the groups fans have followed on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead all seem to be able to communicate successfully via two-way radios, why don't Felix and Huck know what happened at the school yet? Surely someone made it out alive or at least was able to radio them before everything was blown to bits.
Or, at the very least, haven't Felix and Huck reached out to those in charge to say they were on a mission to save some kids yet? If they did so using two-way radio technology or some other form of communication, they would have gotten suspicious by now that something was up when they got no answer.
Elizabeth's Wasteful Mentality
To make a point in one scene in the second episode, Elizabeth Kublick runs every bit of power and luxury in her house. She turns on the gas stove, lights up the apartment like it's Christmas. Blasts her music. Turns on a fan. Everything under the sun to show that what they are working for is worth it.
It's totally understandable that a group can work so hard toward making a better life that they lose sight of what's important and why they're doing it. But to get to that level and then use your riches in a boastful manner after knowing what happened to the world seems downright evil. While Elizabeth comes across as a tyrant, with some even dubbing her the most despicable villain in the entire Walking Dead universe, it's clear she has a conscience.
Felix And Huck's Strategy
Felix and Huck seem to take a very light-handed approach to try to coax the kids back to safety. Knowing the urgency of the situation and the fact that these kids were literally putting their lives in danger, why wouldn't they do whatever was necessary to get them back to presumed safety?
They are letting the kids venture further and further away while trying to handle them delicately instead of doing what any authoritative figure would do, which is tell them it's time to head home or else. The lax attitude is getting the danger the kids are putting themselves in across, and they might not ever realize it until they face some truly scary zombies that could completely terrify and traumatize them, not to mention the likelihood of coming across human enemies as well.
How Silas Didn't Get Bit
In one scene in the third episode, Silas flies into a rage and starts beating up a walker (empty, as they call them) that had just come at he and Iris while they were stuck together in a high school basement. He proceeded to pummel the walker's face, delivering fist after fist into what was left of its head.
Surely in such a state of rage and with both of his fists hitting the walker repeatedly, his hand would have come in contact with the walker's mouth at some point. The walker, which had no other purpose but to ravenously hunt for human flesh, never even got a tiny nick out of one of his fingers, thereby infecting the young boy? It seems highly unlikely.
Why Elizabeth Took Out The Entire Campus Community
At the end of the first episode, Elizabeth and her people took out the entire Campus Community. It was one of many survivor communities that exist across the U.S., except this one had about 10,000 people, many of them still technically children. But why did they do it? According to Elizabeth's words, while the kids and teachers weren't a threat, they were likely to be someday. But they were also likely to be talented and resourceful scientists, engineers, programmers, and analysts who could help the cause. Why kill them?
Perhaps her group has some amazing technology that can predict who might be a future threat so they can eliminate them before they become so. Nonetheless, if the idea is to work towards a better world for the future, why take out thousands of people who represent that future?
Why Hasn't War Broken Out?
Surely by this time, someone, or some affiliated group, has discovered that the Campus Colony was completely obliterated. Yet nothing has happened. Or at least nothing the group is aware of yet.
Two episodes have passed since it was shown that the Campus was blown to bits but the scenes haven't flipped back to show viewers what's going on there. Did anyone survive who knows what happened? And are they trying to do anything about it? It doesn't make sense that viewers aren't at least given some idea of what's going on outside of the small group that is being followed on the show.
The Kids Aren't Better Trained
It's wonderful that the show is exploring another side of the apocalypse with kids who grew up in it but have basically been sheltered their whole lives. But these are 16-18-year-old kids who have been getting official combat training includes simulated scenarios, and yet they are still afraid to do anything but push a walker back or run away.
In The Walking Dead, kids like Henry could wield a sword before he would have entered high school, and at 10, Judith is not only wise beyond her years, evidenced through her always clever and thought-provoking words, she's a badass with a gun and knife. Both lived in pretty protected communities their entire lives as well. Why aren't the kids on this show just as brave and skilled?
Barca's Decision
Viewers really see Elizabeth's true colors when a soldier named Barca goes to see her to presumably clear his conscience after taking part in demolishing the Campus Community. He's feeling a tremendous sense of guilt because of it and wants to speak out to tell her he believes it isn't right.
How long has he been with the Civic Republic Military (CRM) and does he not understand how they work and who Elizabeth is? It seemed more like a death wish than an act of bravery. Maybe he thought that he could make Elizabeth feel something and spark change. But the move seemed very naïve. It would have made more sense if Elizabeth approached him, sensing that he was questioning his role and the actions of the CRM.
Where Are Other Soldiers?
Felix and Huck are the only two soldiers from the Campus Community who are main characters. But no other soldiers are really ever seen. Were they the only two at the campus, tasked with protecting the entire community, teaching self-defense classes to the kids, and more? Didn't they have colleagues?
Assuming they did work as part of a larger team, why weren't more soldiers there to fend off the attack from the CRM? And why didn't viewers at least get to see how that whole attack went down? With a community of about 10,000 people, the protective detail should be much larger and they should have been able to fight back better such that there were at least some survivors who were able to escape.