[user104658]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Regarding Carl and killing him off, I hated Carl all through the seasons and was literally just starting to warm to him. Such a bad and bizarre choice to kill him off. They should never have killed off that many original characters. There's just Carol and Daryl left now (if my calculations are correct)

Yeah, the others "closest to" being originals would be the Farm group - of which only Maggie is left - and the prison/post-prison group of which only Rosita and Eugene are left. There was also Michonne* and Tara until recently but Michonne left and poor Tara got her head on a spike.

I've grown to like some of the newer characters - actually more on a full rewatch than I did originally, which is interesting. I think because you know who is going to be sticking around rather than expecting them to die as zombie-fodder at any moment. But it's a shame to have so few originals.

Speaking of bad writing - Michonne... leaving Judith and RJ behind to wander off across America in search of a vague hope that she might find Rick. Ludicrous writing . And not in peace-time, oh no no, they were in the middle of the Whisperer war! We're supposed to believe that she just took a 9-year-old's word that it was all sorted and LEFT, having no idea if they were actually OK. Come onnn.