The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones are two of the biggest TV shows of the 21st century. With all the death and destruction in each series, Game of Thrones had a distinct advantage, according to Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead.
Kirkman got fans talking after his recent comments at Annecy. Kirkman spilled some Walking Dead secrets and praised George R.R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire and the other Westeros-based stories, for killing off characters in epic ways.
“He is the master and I am but the learner. He is way better at killing characters than me," Kirkman said, according to Deadline.
Kirkman made those comments after revealing that he tried to kill off Daryl Dixon on the series multiple times early in the series. Honestly, I don't think Kirkman is giving himself enough credit when it comes to killing off characters, especially in The Walking Dead comics. Some of the choices the show made also matched the shock value that Game of Thrones mastered.
Still, there's no doubt that Game of Thrones excels in killing off characters where The Walking Dead struggled at times.
Game of Thrones' major deaths always felt earned
It's not that The Walking Dead struggled to kill key characters. The show famously killed most of its integral characters over the 11-season run. The problem is that, in my opinion, the series often chose shock value to kill off key characters. Early in the series, this works really well. It set the tone, and it created an environment where fans didn't know if their favorites were going to be safe episode to episode.
The Walking Dead also strayed from the comic storylines and killed off characters early in the series. Kirkman also revealed that was a frustration for him at Annecy. He wanted the show to feel different than the comics to keep the suspense and surprises alive. Here's what else Kirkman said:
“One of the things I thought was the coolest thing about the comics was you never knew what was going to happen next and it bugged me there was this source material [in the TV show] where you could kind of get a roadmap of what was coming. And so I thought it would be cool to change that stuff. And we did change a lot of big things in The Walking Dead."
With that approach, it's easy to see the difference between The Walking Dead's handling of key characters' deaths, which missed the mark, and Game of Thrones, which excelled at setting up and killing off key characters.
Game of Thrones had a roadmap, too, but Martin plotted the series in such a way that made those deaths make complete sense. On top of that, there are few deaths in The Walking Dead that hit like Joffrey killing Ned Stark at the end of the first season, the Red Wedding in season 3, and Joffrey's death in season 4.
You could argue Andrea's death in season 3 comes close, but that's quite underwhelming. Rick killing Shane and how The Walking Dead handled that major death didn't quite reach that level of surprise like those Game of Thrones deaths did.
The closest The Walking Dead ever came to a Red Wedding moment was Negan's arrival and Glenn's dead in season 7, but we've already discussed, at length, just how bad that was for the series as a whole many times at Undead Walking.
The Walking Dead is still a tremendous series, both the comics and the TV series. Its storytelling intricacies and character work are incredible. It's one of the best TV shows of all time. What Kirkman and the team were able to do on that budget and with so many episodes is an incredible feat.
And, it's not like The Walking Dead was bad at killing off characters. There are so many emotional deaths in the series that are just completely gut-wrenching, like Lori and T-Dog in season 3 and Beth in season 5. It's just that Game of Thrones figured out the formula for those key deaths to hit that much harder, and it's largely due to the genius writing of Martin in A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin just knows how to set up a big massacre or moment, even if it takes generations for it to pay off in Westeros.
Kirkman deserves a ton of credit for how he was able to craft The Waking Dead's story and its ability to kill characters off so often, but it's clear it's not quite on the level that Martin was able to achieve in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones.
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