u/CombinationMean3129

i might be biased because i watched the show after reading the comics. dont get me wrong the early seasons were genuinely thrilling with strong tension and atmosphere. but after season 6 and especially 7 it went completely off track, becoming hard to defend as it sidelined or wasted so many great comic setups, like lydia’s relationship with carl and her role bridging the whisperers, she was in a few episodes and then forgotten about, same goes for tara and enid, they were just put on the shelf whilst the show writers were dragging plots endlessly with filler, repetitive drama, they had so much to work with, in terms of the comics, the money, the actors, and it seems like the writers just got to cocky and thought the brand alone would keep viewers hooked forever, the show couldve been done in maybe 8/9 seasons to save it from going stale, )it was really weird in the way they did the time skips too) but arguably the worst sin was what they did to carl: the comics make him pretty much the heart of the story, watching him evolve from a scared kid to a hardened leader who represents the future after rick is one of the coolest things in the comics, but the show gave him inconsistent scripting that bounced between innocent and barbaric, rushed his arc, then killed him off in a cheap, contrived walker bite that comic carl would never suffer, right as he was getting interesting. they used his death as a weak excuse for rick sparing negan, which made no sense because just a few episodes earlier negan was about ready to crush carls skull, and rumors of contract or behind the scenes issues aside, they could’ve given him a far better, truer send-off.
anyways overall the show was so so underwhelming, considering what we couldve had

imo her whole thing with carl just felt forced, they could’ve been endgame if we actually got to know them properly as individuals, but instead it felt like she was just written as this manic pixie dream girl for him, especially since AMC had already killed off basically every other kid his age so it was like “well, here you go.” compared to other relationships in the show theirs had no real depth, it was mostly just them hanging out in the woods which doesn’t exactly build a strong emotional connection, and it came off more like a forced proximity coworker-type crush than anything meaningful. i get that teenage romance is always gonna be a bit cringe, but this felt more like a media move than an actual storyline, especially with the whole “JSS” thing which just felt really try-hard and put in for impact rather than substance. then when they were finally bearable they went and killed carl off..

although i will say she did get a lot better after the time skip because she finally felt like her own character instead of just existing for his arc.