10 worst decisions made by Walking Dead characters

10. Carl goes into the forest and taunts a walker

The level of stupidity in Carl’s behavior was already pretty high when he decided it was a good idea to steal Daryl’s gun. Daryl didn’t really care that much, as it turned out. But at the time, we as viewers only knew Daryl as the quick-tempered loner who wore ears around his neck, and I can’t have been the only one thinking, “Wow, this kid has no survival instinct at all!”

Carl wants to kill his first walker… but only taunts him

Then, Carl decided to go off into the woods on his own, without telling anyone. We could guess that he was probably looking for some kind of coming-of-age experience, but even then, he was basically violating all the elementary safety rules that even adults had to follow.

Carl probably wanted to kill his first walker – except he didn’t, even when he found one that was pretty much a sitting duck. He found the beginner’s level of zombie killing and still couldn’t get it done. No, instead, he decided to just troll him. And almost got himself killed.

Oops… Sorry, Dale!

At that point, we thought Carl might have gotten off with only a fright. He had been taught a lesson: he was not yet ready to kill walkers, and playing with them was a terrible idea. But of course, we soon found out that he had also led the walker straight to the farm, which led to the mauling of Dale.

Yes, of course, we know that Carl was a child and probably did not really think this through. Still, that scene deserves a spot in the top 10 for two reasons: it fulfills both the criteria of stupidity and tragic consequences. Well done, Carl.