Get Over It: Letting Characters Go

SPOILER WARNING: The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Two and a Half Men, Family Guy, everything. Jesus, Carly.

Guys, we need to talk. Let’s sit down and have a conversation that’s going to be hard for the both of us, but I just can’t take it anymore. Shut up about Glenn.

You know Glenn. He’s the lovable pizza delivery man who has proven himself to be a valuable asset in a world overrun with zombies in The Walking Dead. He’s honest to goodness my favorite character, but please just shut up about him. I know what we saw on the episode “Thank You” was hard, but it’s over and there’s no use watching every minuscule detail to discover whether he’s alive or not. In fact, while everyone was scrutinizing you missed a really important episode. Fans whined about the Morgan centric “Here’s Not Here,” but you missed a pivotal piece of Walking Dead history. Seriously, both Lennie James and John Carroll Lynch should be nominated for Emmys. It was a powerful reminder of the humanity lost in the apocalypse, but people missed it all because they were pissed they didn’t get answers about Glenn.

It also surrounds another famous franchise, Game of Thrones. Actor Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, literally can’t go anywhere without people TAKING PICTURES OF HIS HAIR. For evidence of a fictional characters death. I get it, we’re fans and we’re heavily invested. But, can’t we have a little faith in the story?

There are so many ways to get a television show wrong and high on that list of wrongs is an unjustified character. Like when Charlie Sheen was killed off of Two and a Half Men, there was no justice, but the actor was fired and something had to be done, but it was cheap and played the fans for stupid. Sometimes the audience’s reaction is so intense that it brings characters back, like the time Brian died in Family Guy. That was a beautiful episode, but was cheapened by the fact that the moment was erased by a trip in a time machine. When a character’s death is meaningless, nobody wins.

That’s why Glenn and Jon are hard, because those deaths feel too fast and like they didn’t need to happen. However, in shows like these, authors Robert Kirkman and George R.R. Martin are trying to convey that in these worlds it can happen. In fact, anything can happen because no one is safe. Personally, I am in the majority group who hopes these two characters are alive, but it has to be good. If Kirkman and AMC are deliberately trying to throw viewers off with things like removing actor Steven Yeun’s name from the credits then bravo, you’ve called their bluff. But, if it isn’t a ploy, then we all need to just move on because there’s a new story blossoming in it’s place.

If you enjoyed Carly’s beautiful read, you can find the rest of her work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow her on Twitter @MrsCarlyRodgers. Also, be sure to check in later tonight for this week’s Friday Fiction!

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