It’s been really cool having one of my favorite comics of all time turned into a hit tv show, but it’s also been kinda weird. I’ve been with these characters for nearly a decade, I care about them, some of them I have a deep fondness for… so it can be kind of frustrating to hear fans of just the show constantly talking about which characters “need” to die.

It especially annoys me when people say that Carl needs to die. Are you goddam crazy? If you just want to see zombies kill and be killed, fine. But if you’re interested in story and character, Carl is arguably the most important character in The Walking Dead. I can’t even really explain why without potentially spoiling things, but he’s just too vital a component of this world.

Plus, come on, a boy having to grow up in the zombie apocalypse in their most formative years, nobody on the show is going to be more fundamentally affected by this world than he is, you’re not interested in seeing that? I can’t think of any other zombie fiction that explores how a child fits into this world like TWD has.

Oh well, people will find out over time what we fans of the comic already know, that Carl is a little badass.