This article contains spoilers forThe Walking Dead: The Ones Who Liveepisode 1.
Say what you will aboutThe Walking Dead, but the franchise has never wanted for compelling villains.
Enter the CRM or Civic Republic Military.
So forget the piecemeal information youve gleaned fromWorld Beyondand lets take stock of what wereallyknow about the CRM.
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What Is the CRM?
Thankfully, you are not.
How Did the CRM Start?
The Pennsylvania National Guard is particularly old, tracing its roots back to Benjamin Franklin founding theAssociators in 1747.
As of 2020, it was thesecond largest National Guard in the country.
Are the CRM and the Civic Republic Different?
So we have both a Civic Republic and a Civic Republic Military what, exactly, is their relationship?
To pit it as simply as possible: the CR and the CRM are related but not identical.
In a fully-functioning Democratic society, the military is closely aligned with civilian leadership.
That does not appear to be the case with the CR and the CRM.
The CRM wishes to rebuild society as it was before.
To do that, it needs infrastructure, cities, and people.
Therefore it established the Civic Republic of Philadelphia and works to keep it safe.
Beyond that, however, the CRM consistently goes off and does its own thing.
Whats With The Three-Ring Symbol?
Connected by the CRMs military resources, the Alliance of the Three works together to rebuild society.
Or at least they did work together until Omaha and its roughly 100,000 citizens were liquidated by the CRM.
Is the CRM Evil?
Yeah, the CRM is evil!
Didnt you just read the part where they killed 100,000 people?
Granted, the CRM does have a grim rationale for doing everything that it does.
In the case of Omaha, CRM leadership reasoned that the settlement wasnt strong enough to last long term.
Well see whether that argument holds weight with the mighty Rick Grimes.
New episodes of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premiere Sundays at 9 p.m.
