Tonight we mourn Carl Grimes
A son, a brother, and the heart of what was once the most popular show on cable TV
The Walking Dead will never be the same going forward, and unlike all of the other massive, earth-shattering deaths- unlike Lori, Shane, Glenn- this one there is no recovery from
It doesn’t matter how good Angela Kang may make The Walking Dead going forward, how much she may be able to restore of the glory that it was before Negan hog-rolled himself all over our screens, how much magic she may create, Carl’s abscence will ALWAYS be felt, and there will ALWAYS be a sheriff-hat shaped hole in this show, there will always be one less bright shining light in this grim world
It doesn’t matter if you LIKE Carl or not, as a charector, it isn’t about “liking” someone, Carl- since episode one- has been the center of the show, our journey started with Rick and it has REMAINED Rick’s journey and throughout this Rick’s journey has orbited around Carl, he’s been the hope, he’s been the heart, he’s been what the aspirations have been for the future, and that goes beyond “liking”
It doesn’t matter if Rick “still has one child”, that doesn’t replace Carl, and although there is no such thing as a parent loving one child more than another, Carl is fundamentally different from Judith in that CARL is the one and only thing Rick has held onto- until now- that he had before the world ended, Carl was the one thing he had of his old life, and Judith- no matter ow much he loves her- was a child born into the world as it is, and the nostalgia of Rick’s old life does not lie with her, it lies with Carl, Rick’s journey in this world started with Carl, it was always for Carl, and Judith came along AFTER, just like there is no changing that, there is no replacing one child with another, and all of the loss Rick has felt until this moment is absolutely nothing compared to the loss of a child- ANY child, and just because he “still has another one”, there is nothing in any world that can ease the pain of losing one, he will be changed forever by this loss, no matter how many children he has going forward
It doesn’t matter if you read the comic books or not, the story is and always has been Carl’s, and it was always supposed to be Carl’s going forward- even on the show, even if they stopped following the comic books, that’s the natural progression of life, passing on the torch to your child, a parent’s story becoming their child’s story, a legacy, Carl was meant to carry Rick’s legacy, and where will that legacy go now? Judith is FAR too young to carry anything on her shoulders, much less war, much less leadership, much less the weight of the world that Rick has been carrying and that Carl was starting to carry, where will that legacy go now? Unless Rick lives until Judith is old enough to carry it- wich we’re unlikely to see, even if it does happen, as EIGHT SEASONS of the show has only amounted in a very rough estimation of three years in show, if not a little less- I can’t imagine how many seasons it would take to age Judith up to a twelve or thirteen-year-old, the point of TWD is the legacy of a father passing down to a son- a son who can do even better, who can survive better in the new world- and that story, that legacy, will be scrubbed away now that Carl is gone, one way or another
There is, without doubt or question, some really, flat out SHITTY things about how this was handled behind-the-scenes, with how and when Chandler was informed of this decision and just the general handling of it, but I won’t go into that here (as pissed off as I am about it) because this post specifically isn’t about BTS crap, it’s about the story, and the horrible decision that was made to cut out the heart of this story and toss it away
We love you and will always miss you Carl Grimes
We, the fans, will honor your legacy when the show cut it short