Dumpster death for Glenn could have been something special
By Susie Graham
Unless Glenn lives for a good while into season 7, death at the dumpster could have been a better, more realistic and more poetic death for the pizza delivery boy.
Part of watching The Walking Dead is knowing that people die. We know we are going to lose people and we know that stories are going to go unfinished. Things are going to go unexplored. It’s a world where hope and life is snatched from you in an instant.
I’m known for being a hopeless cheerleader for the underdog and a bit of a sap. But I also love the poetry and beauty of the loss and the brokenness we see on The Walking Dead. I love seeing things that are real and raw.
I don’t agree when people talk about characters not getting the deaths they deserve. Death doesn’t work that way. Just because someone is writing the death doesn’t mean they get to write deserving deaths. What does that mean?
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Did Hershel deserve to get his head cut off? Or he got a death he deserved because it was dramatic? Or he got a death he deserved because it caused the Governor’s demise? What does that mean?
When Glenn “died” at the dumpster, people wanted it to be a gimmick or a hoax because he didn’t deserve to die like that. What does that mean? If he dies from Lucille, is that a more deserving death? Why? Because it’s more epic and bloody? Because it’s more emotional because there are people there to witness it?
If Glenn had died at the dumpster, it would have been something The Walking Dead had never done before. Glenn would have died with nobody there to find him. Nobody to witness it. We would be his witnesses.
That would have been very brave for the writers. That would likely happen in the real world. It happened in war all the time. Wives would have to just accept that their husbands were probably dead.
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The poetry of Nicholas’ thank you would still be there. Glenn would have died having helped NIcholas become a better person. Having believed in people. Glenn would have died fighting to make a better place for his child by getting the herd away from Alexandria. It doesn’t matter that the plan failed. He would have died trying.
He would have died never having killed a human. If he lived just so he could kill Negan’s people and then get killed by Lucille or watch the group get decimated and lose all hope, perhaps, a beautiful accidental scene at the dumpster might have been better.
It’s funny to me that people were up in arms about him dying then, but they seem to be okay with the possibility that he might die when we return in October.
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I don’t usually try to re-write the story or second guess things. I’m an “it is what it is” kind of person. I know that changing one thing changes everything. I thought I had gotten over the dumpster thing. But I guess I haven’t.
I was very sad when it happened. But I thought it was a beautiful death for him. I guess I just don’t want an ugly death for him now after that beautiful one could have been.
I’ll get over it.