Yeesss!! People, we are in season 7. I think by now the audience fully understands the bond that Daryl and Carol have. TPTB did NOT have to show their bond AGAIN just to show they care about one another. Valuable screen-time could have been given to Maggie. Remember her, Gimple? Don't get me started on that, lol. But for some reason, Gimple wanted to add another layer to the caryl story. And we all know what that reason will be. Well, at least most of us do, lol.
Exactly this. If tptb didn’t want so many people shipping Caryl, if they wanted us to give up and see that their bond was nothing more than familial and they’d never grow beyond their platonic relationship - then those Caryl scenes in episode 10 simply would not have existed. Or, they would have looked a lot different.
To portray a strictly familial bond, all the writers would have needed to do was have Daryl happen upon Carol while he was out. They absolutely would not have needed to go to the extra lengths that they went to, like: having Daryl bring Carol up to Morgan and gush about how she would have saved all their asses and led them to war (showing that she’s on his mind and that he is missing her); creating the whole conflict between Daryl and Richard (it would have been way easier to just not include that whole showdown because it delivered absolutely nothing to the big plot); having Morgan confront Daryl in a way that has been used since forever as a romantic trope - showing a character’s feelings for another character, then having an “outside” character point it out.
Tpbt could have still provided a Caryl scene or two in episode 10 if they just wanted to troll or tell us that the connection is platonic and staying that way. But if that was their goal, there’s no way they would have included all this other stuff that was used for the sole purpose of conveying Daryl’s feelings for Carol, over and over again.
They also wouldn’t have made those scenes as emotional as they were. If they wanted us to believe that Daryl saw Carol as a family member, then they wouldn’t have shown that he took her leaving very personally, and it broke his heart. They would have shown Daryl to be upset, not so extremely hurt as he was, because what they did show was Daryl being the guy who is heartbroken over the love of his life leaving him. When a character is that hurt over another character leaving, it’s not meant to be seen as “oh he’s upset over his mom/sister/real estate agent leaving him”. You don’t do that
There were so many things packed into that episode that are undeniably romantic tropes:
talking about her out of the blue to other people.
beating up and threatening someone who wants to harm her.
heartbroken that she left.
he’s the one exception - the only person she lets in.
firelight dinner and emotional talk.
telling a huge lie to protect her and her feelings. (also the trope where one character can’t bear to see the other in pain or crying.)
walking away and then turning back and hugging her.
clinging to each other - in which smelling each other, nuzzling, and Daryl kissing her shoulder a little through her shirt were all involved.)
being called out on your feelings by the very person you were previously talking to when you brought her up out of the blue.
Everyone knows that these are romantic tropes. That’s just common knowledge, especially for writers. These tropes have been used for years to convey a bond that has romantic potential and underlying romantic feelings - to convey that they are on the road to canon, or taking their relationship to that next level.
So there’s no way Gimple would have gone through all this trouble, dedicated all that screen time to emphasizing and highlighting the fact that Daryl loves Carol and will put her before everything else, and used all those romantic tropes to do that - just because he wanted to troll.
Because now it is canon in Daryl’s character that Carol is the most important thing to him in the world, and it was portrayed not in the way that you portray one’s platonic/familial feelings for another character - but in the way that is traditionally used to show romantic, loving, deeper-than-friendship feelings.
And you don’t do that if you don’t have plans to develop the relationship into something romantic.
jacobvanloon
ellievsbear
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
prguitarman
2087
annaxmalina
areudirty
