Every fan of The Walking Dead must come to terms with the brutal truth that people will die. If the title doesn’t make this clear, then the events of the Season 1 finale certainly do. After six episodes of traveling with the same companions, most of the group disbands by the finale, with some dying in a fiery inferno. The Walking Dead is not a feel-good series. Throughout 11 seasons and quite a few spin-offs, each series has had its fair share of trauma, and there are some deaths that no one will ever forget.

Glenn Rhee, the uncontested best character of the series, dies in the milestone 100th issue of The Walking Dead comic. This moment hits hard because of its brutality and because he was the last person who deserved it. There was no universe where the AMC series could avoid this monumental moment, as painful as it is. But there is a difference between killing off a character to further the story and almost ruining the series for shock value. Regrettably, The Walking Dead franchise has been guilty of killing off the wrong character at absolutely the wrong time.

Carl Grimes Was Always Supposed to Be the Hero

If there is one character’s death that fans tend to agree on, it’s that Carl Grimes’ death is one of the biggest missteps in The Walking Dead history. The television series made its mark by deviating from the comics, but Carl was sacred territory that was not supposed to be touched. Carl makes it throughout the entire comic, ultimately becoming the main character of the story. The Walking Dead television series fumbles this storyline, instead making Carl’s death a plot device. At this point, Rick is still deep in his conflict with Negan, the leader of the Saviors. Full of rage over Glenn’s death, Rick sees no way through without violence. Carl’s death is used as a hamfisted way of getting Rick to defeat Negan without further bloodshed.

After getting bit saving a new survivor, Carl implores his father in a letter to opt for forgiveness instead of revenge. This clumsy storyline is made even worse with the knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes. Chandler Riggs, who played Carl for eight years, was unceremoniously fired from the series, coinciding with turning 18 on The Walking Dead. While correlation does not equal causation, many have drawn the line between Riggs’ requiring adult pay if he was to continue in the series as opposed to being compensated as a child actor. Carl’s death was a mess from top to bottom. The main crux of the issue ultimately boils down to the fact that Carl was always supposed to take up his father’s mantle after Rick couldn’t go on any longer. Iconic scenes featuring the fan-favorite character would never be able to be used from that moment forward, and other characters had to take on these storylines.

Beth’s Death Was Too Cold Even For The Walking Dead

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To get one thing out of the way, Emily Kinney wanted to leave The Walking Dead. Arguably more a musician than she was an actor, the performer who played Beth opted to end her time in the series. Even so, her farewell was emotionally traumatizing to everyone who knew her. First introduced in Season 2, Beth Greene was one of the great deviations from the comic. An invented additional daughter of Hershel’s, Beth was one of the most interesting survivors, particularly because no one expected her to last as long as he did. Beth was tender-hearted and never showed any particular talent for fighting, but she still survived. She says as much to Daryl when they escape the prison together. He saw another dead girl because she was the last person anyone believed would live this long.

So begins one of the most touching romances that never was in The Walking Dead, which makes Beth’s death a brutal twist of the knife. Beth is the only person Daryl truly opens himself up to at this point, falling for Beth’s strength of spirit and inherent goodness. Darly has been hurt his entire life, and Beth is someone who helps heal those wounds. In turn, he teaches Beth the ways of survival. The two are an odd couple, but in their few episodes together, they clearly share affection for one another. Of course, the moment someone pries open the doors to Daryl’s heart, it has to slam shut again. Beth gets taken by a mercenary group of cops before unceremoniously getting shot in the head. To add salt to the wound, Dawn shooting Beth is an accident, making her death even more meaningless and one of the most hated storylines in The Walking Dead. Daryl is there for the event and immediately shoots Dawn in retribution before carrying her out of the hospital. Where Glenn’s death had a narrative purpose, Beth’s death is just bleak. With this moment, The Walking Dead seems to say that there is no point in caring about anyone and that the best of humanity always dies.

Henry Was a Bridge Too Far For Carol

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Carol is another inspired change from The Walking Dead comics. The character initially dies at the beginning of the story, driven insane by the world she is forced to reside in. By contrast, Carol in the show has a moving character arc as the apocalypse turns her to steel. This change causes a butterfly effect of other changes in the series, mainly Carol’s revolving door of children. By the time her third attempt at raising a child dies painfully, it is all too much. Carol has suffered losses no parent should, and she does it three times.

Her biological daughter, Sophia, dies in Season 2, revealed late in the season as one of the walkers in Hershel’s barn. This hardens Carol to the point that when Lizzie and Misha need a mother figure, she struggles with it. But as soon as she opens her heart, it all implodes, leading Carol to make the devastating choice of killing one of her daughters. Henry was supposed to be the child that survives, but he dies during the Whisperers arc. His death threatens the tenuous suspension of disbelief already present in the series. There is only so much that one woman can take, and killing her third surrogate child is too much, even for The Walking Dead.

Fear the Walking Dead Wasted Nick’s Potential

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In another example of an actor wanting to leave the series, Nick was killed off in Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead. But no matter how ready this actor was to move on to greener pastures, that doesn’t change the unfortunate side effect of the character’s death. Nick Clark is a main character in Fear the Walking Dead from the first episode. He starts as a drug addict who is forced to change in the wake of the zombie apocalypse. Throughout the time on the series, he showed tremendous growth, which was cruelly cut short after a confluence of events. When Nick and his family take in an abandoned girl, Charlie, they eventually learn that she is a spy for the antagonist group, the Vultures. Nick gets into an altercation with one of the Vultures, Ennis, who Charlie has a connection with. He is forced to kill Ennis, and Charlie kills Nick in revenge.

Nick’s death is another senseless act in a show populated with harrowing scenes. Not only does Nick’s death devastate his sister, Alicia, to a point where she barely recovers, but it puts an end to a fascinating character. Only after the world ends does Nick truly learn how to live again. Not held back by drug dependency, Nick becomes a leader. His death cuts short a character who should have gone on until the end.

Isabelle’s Death Is Disrespectful In Daryl Dixon

There is an unfortunate recurring theme in The Walking Dead spin-offs: writing off new and interesting characters who weren’t part of the flagship series. Isabelle in Daryl Dixon is the biggest example of this. The beauty of Daryl’s spin-off series is that it is nothing like The Walking Dead. Down to the cinematography, Daryl Dixon is a beautiful change of pace, all about looking for optimism in the world. With that in mind, killing off one of these optimistic characters is just cruel.

Daryl encounters Isabelle when he finds himself on French shores. Though initially reluctant, he learns to love this community and protect it with his life. Isabelle is a rare character that Daryl shows a romantic interest, so of course, she has to die. This is a rehash of Beth’s death in The Walking Dead, but worse because Daryl has already lost so much. Isabelle’s death in Season 2 is also an uncomfortable trope of killing off female characters to further the plot. With her dying words, Isabelle urges Daryl to take care of her nephew Laurent and make sure he gets out of France safely. This death is made even more senseless due to the fact that Daryl was already protecting Laurent and needed no motivation to continue. Isabelle was a refreshing new character in the series but was axed as soon as Daryl was reunited with Carol.

The Ones Who Live Doesn’t Let Michonne Have Nice Things

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Another regrettable death in a Walking Dead spin-off is Nat in The Ones Who Live. The spin-off finally unites lovers Rick and Michonne after years of absence, but it comes at a cost. On her travels to find her missing husband, Michonne meets a group, including the fleshed-out character Nat. Learning to survive in the zombie apocalypse due to his talent for pyrotechnics, Nat would have been a well-respected addition to Alexandria. But like many of these spin-off characters, he is killed off as soon as the original characters reunite.

After shooting down Rick’s CRM helicopter, one of the soldiers kills Nat. Again, Nat’s death is used as a plot device to keep the key characters going despite what an intriguing addition he was. He is solely used for Michonne’s development. Once she reaches CRM, the series devolves into just another season of The Walking Dead, which the spin-offs should actively work against. Nat should have survived, especially since the rest of his original group had already gone the way of the sword.

John Was the Best Part of Fear the Walking Dead

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After Nick’s death, Fear the Walking Dead had to reinvent itself, and it did this spectacularly with John Dorie — the gunslinging former cop who is on the path to true love. When relationships happen in The Walking Dead, they are rarely a romantic endeavor. But John is pure of heart, and all he wants to do is find the love of his life. Before meeting up with Morgan, John lived an isolated life in his cabin. One day, he saves a woman’s life, and the two fall in love. She later leaves him alone at the cabin for fear of emotional attachment. By happenstance, the two reunite, and John learns that her name is June.

The rest of John’s time on the series is populated with this love story and his inspirational attempts to always do the right thing. Garret Dillahunt was another actor who elected to leave the series, but the result is tragic. After rooting for John to be reunited with his love and, seeing their marriage together was a shining light of the series. His later downward spiral and eventual turn into a zombie is another event that makes it difficult to root for anyone in this universe.

The Whisperers Killed Too Many Hallmark Characters

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The Walking Dead keeps surprising book readers with how it deviates from the source material. One of the major anticipated events was The Whisperers’ horrifying attack. In the comic, they put many beloved heads on spikes, including Ezekiel and Rosita. In the show, these characters are spared, but the ones that are chosen are just as heartbreaking. Henry’s death traumatizes Carol once again, but Tara and Enid’s death takes away a lot of hope in the season. One of their deaths would have been enough to justify the storyline, but killing them both had massive repercussions. Perhaps the saddest is Enid, who has endured too much to die this way.

Her entire mantra was J.S.S: “Just survive somehow.” She endures Carl’s death, who she had grown close with, to find love with Alden, only to be killed by one of the most reprehensible The Walking Dead villains with no redeeming qualities. Enid had learned medical experience and was instrumental in the series. Ezekiel and Rosita were spared, but the cost was too great.

Sylvie Was Another Tragic Casualty in Daryl Dixon

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In Season 2 of Daryl Dixon, Sylvie was another beloved character original to the series who was quickly dispatched once it was convenient. When she realizes that the religious faction, Union of Hope, is planning on testing Laurent’s abilities as a Messiah, she acts quickly. She is one of the few characters around Laurent who truly cares for him, not just for his status as a savior of the world. Losang believes that he is meant to save them from the zombie apocalypse and to test this theory, he tries to put Laurent before a zombie as lunch meat. Though Daryl and his cohorts storm the place, they are too late.

Union of Hope throws Sylvie off a balcony in a truly disrespectful death. While her intentions were heroic, her death is not. It seems that as soon plans went into place to reunite Carol and Daryl in the season, creatives went to quick work to get rid of all the interesting side characters introduced over the seasons. Sylvie was a selfless character who seemed dispensable by the narrative.

Maybe Someone Had To Die, But It Didn’t Have To Be Rosita

When The Walking Dead officially ended, it had to go out with a bang. There is no way to end the series without someone dying. Rosita dies heroically after getting bit while saving her child in a horde of walkers. But just as with Carl, many characters have had worse only to survive the trajectory of the show. Rosita dies quietly in bed, surrounded by the people that she loves, but this isn’t comforting.

Rosita survives her comic fate of being a head on a spike only to give birth to Coco, survive Coco’s father Sadiq’s death, and form a family with Gabriel. Rosita is capable and a success story in The Walking Dead when others, such as Eugene, would have died long ago without her. Coco now has to go on without her mother, no matter what a good cause she died for. The Walking Dead was already at its end with Rosita’s death, but it is a depressing coda to the long-running series.