The Walking Dead: Do all characters need a hero’s death?

Characters on AMC’s The Walking Dead seem to die for a multitude of reasons, but does any character deserve to die in a more dignified manner than another?

Death is a crazy thing on television shows.  Rarely do major characters meet their doom for no reason whatsoever, but should that be a more common existence on The Walking Dead?

There have been plenty of instances on the hit AMC zombie drama that a major character death has helped other characters develop.  For example, having characters like T-Dog, Lori, Tyreese and many of the characters die in situations that made them appear to be either sacrificing themselves for the better of the group or to help move another character’s story along.

Other deaths on The Walking Dead serve the purpose of proving how dangerous surviving in the undead apocalypse can be.  Typically, these will be your more minor characters, like Amy, Axel, and Aiden.  Killing these characters off heightened the drama in their locations and helped push the story along to another venue.

This formula has been successful for AMC, but should it continue?

Personally, I’d love to see some major character deaths happen once in a while to break up this pattern.  For example, the current situation regarding Glenn Rhee has a lot of people on social media saying that he can’t die because he deserves a hero’s death.

But does he really?

Having a major character like Glenn die at the hands of the undead would finally help prove that the walkers really are a major threat.  It would also provide more unexpected moments for the program if things like that were to happen a little more often.  The concept of the zombie apocalypse should be that anyone can die at any time, but that doesn’t seem to be the reality on The Walking Dead.

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Prior to

“Thank You”

, fans of

The Walking Dead

weren’t talking much about Glenn at all.  In fact, much of the talk surrounding the show focused on the two most popular characters on the program: Rick and Daryl.  However, the second Glenn gets in danger, the social media outcry begins that “they can’t kill him like that” or “that’s not how he’s supposed to die”.

Don’t get me wrong.  I absolutely love the character of Glenn Rhee and the message of forgiveness that he has spread on the show.  I love that he’s never killed another human and gives people a second chance.  But if Glenn ends up surviving with the massive amount of walkers surrounding him, it will not only make the zombies almost no threat at all on the show, but it will continue to add to the theme that all deaths need to serve a purpose as a learning experience or move the story along.

And that is one dangerous trend to continue if the creators want to keep The Walking Dead exciting and fresh.