Carl's Death was the Dumbest Decision in The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead experienced a massive decline in seasons 7 and 8, and while it had a lot of major problems, due to the writing direction the show decided to take, there was one huge decision that NEVER should have been made.

Carl Grimes, the son of the main character, Rick Grimes, was killed off during season 8.

To this day, I feel that the show really did handle this death scene poorly. This moment came out of nowhere, and the actor who played Carl barely had any screentime during season 8. It felt like the writers purposely did this for shock value, to somehow make up for the Negan storyline that wasn't going so well with audiences.

This death scene would have worked if season 8 was written much better, and having Negan feel sorry for Carl was incredibly dumb writing, because this dude was willing to murder Glenn and Abraham without batting an eye. Plus, let's not forget that Negan ATTEMPTED to murder Carl in the finale of season 7.

Also, killing Carl Grimes made a significant change for the rest of the storyline for The Walking Dead.

In the comic books, Carl plays a huge role in the new villains who are introduced, known as the Whisperers.

Carl gets romantically involved with Lydia, who is the daughter of the leader, known as Alpha. This interaction of Lydia leaving behind her mother's disturbing life for Carl's people led to Alpha making a crazy stand, by killing multiple of their people and placing their heads on pikes for the group to find.

Alpha's retaliation leads to war between both groups, but Lydia chooses to stick by Carl's side, going against her mother's evil nature.

(We also get a crazy side to Lydia, because Carl's missing eye plays a huge point for their relationship. Lydia apparently accepts Carl with only one eye, to the point where she admits that she finds this part of him sexy...that was definitely weird, but it was very important for this storyline).

I don't get why they felt the need to kill Carl. This was such a stupid decision, and it completely erased the future romantic storyline Carl could have experienced with Lydia.

Another interesting factor is that Rick Grimes was removed from the storyline of the Whisperers, because the actor wanted to leave the television show for a bit. Carl could have taken over his father's place in the show, and the rest of the characters could have taken on a family role to look after Carl. Killing him early also took away the impact of the crew finding their loved one's heads on pikes toward the end of season 9. And there are so many unanswered questions that I had for the other great storylines we got in season 9:

• What if Carl and Henry had become friends in some way? The son of both Carol and Ezekiel? How would he have reacted to that death?

• How would have Carl reacted to finding Enid dead, his current girlfriend at the time?

• Would Enid and Carl have worked out? Enid does get with another character in season 9...Or would he had left her for Lydia?

• Would Carl have been helping Carol move on from Henry's death? I would have loved to have seen Carl interact more with her later...this was such a missed opportunity.

• Would Carl have taken Michonne leaving hard? The actress had also left the show like the actor who played Rick Grimes.

• How would Carl and Judith's interactions have been like? He would have also been left to look after RJ, his little brother. He would have been an excellent older sibling.

Can you see why the writers made such an awful choice here?

We missed out on way too much, and it's a shame too, because we actually got a better showrunner for the rest of The Walking Dead storyline after season 8.

How do you feel about Carl's death? Do you think it was wise to kill off such a big character from the comics?

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn