In today’s day and age, it’s hard to get attached to fictional characters. Not because they aren’t written well but so many shows are built on the mantra of “no on is safe.” Among them: The Walking Dead.

Fans of The Walking Dead comics and TV series have had to bid tearful farewells to the likes of Hershel, Tyreese, Shane, Beth, and other characters more than once. See, not only do most characters meet their doom at some point in Robert Kirkman’s comics but fans who read the graphic novels have to relive the misery through the television adaptation.

Kirkman himself does not have a favorite which is a good thing for all of the characters you like. The writer/creator kills off the characters he starts to like the most.

“You know, I don’t really have a favorite,” Kirkman said. “I tend to kill those, just because when I find myself real attached to a character, or if I find myself wanting to write them more and more and steering more story toward them, I kind of realize that that means that audience investment in that character is extremely high, and I don’t want it to affect the story too much by focusing too much on that character. And that tends to make me want to kill them.”

Sometimes, however, Kirkman does get re-do’s of certain characters when adapting them to television. For example, Abraham had a bit of an extended shelf life before bowing out in the Season 7 premiere as opposed to getting his arrow-through-the-eye death from the comics. Shane Walsh also outlived his comic book counterpart, seeing an extended run and more depth on the AMC series.

“There are constantly things in the show where I’m like, ‘You know, the show’s Carol is so much better than the comic book Carol,’” Kirkman said. “I like the comic book Carol. There are definitely some cool stories that were done with her, but it didn’t do anything as cool as what we do in the show with her. So, there are things like that where if I look at the show and I look at the comic, it’s like, I kind of wish I had done something like that in the comic.”

MORE WALKING DEAD:

Two Big Easter Eggs In ‘Service Preview / 5 Actors Who Almost Played Negan / Andrew Lincoln Reveals Surprising Death Scene Revenge / 7 Facts About Negan / Negan’s 5 Best Lines From The Cell

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.

(via EW)