The Walking Dead: More Deaths or Just Different Ones?

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for both the second season of AMC’s The Walking Dead and for Robert Kirkman’s Image Comics series by the same name. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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Additional Spoiler Space to Accommodate Gizmo

With this week’s shocking midseason finale on AMC’s The Walking Dead, fans of the comic have found themselves scratching their heads and wondering to themselves, “Is it still The Walking Dead if Shane outlives Sophia?” The answer, of course, is yes but as a longtime reader I’ve got a more specific question in mind:What if some of the surprising deaths in the TV show are meant to fulfill the same thematic purposes as unrelated comic book deaths? Does that mean that the likelihood increases of some long-gone comics characters to survive not just longer than you expect (we’re looking at you, Shane!) but indefinitely?

The Walking Dead showing a little too much loyalty