Is the Art of Peace in Walking Dead a Real Book

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[This story contains spoilers for the final consequence of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's The Walking Dead comic book series.]

Some important differences nonetheless, HBO'southward Game of Thronesand George R.R. Martin'south A Vocal of Water ice and Burn down source material were closely aligned throughout the adaptation procedure. The same can be said for AMC's The Walking Dead and the comic book series of the same proper name from Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard, although "a mountain of of import differences" is more accurate: Chandler Riggs' season 8 exit was a huge swing abroad from Carl Grimes' fate in the comics, for one thing, while Andrew Lincoln'southward departure as Rick Grimes in flavor nine was still another massive shift from the original version of the tale.

Martin's Ice and Fire saga remains unfinished, so it's not yet possible to say how closely Game of Thrones' ending aligns with what the author has in mind. Now, thanks to a shocking unannounced serial finale,The Walking Dead fandom finds itself in an opposite position: the comics take come to an end, concluded with no warning by Kirkman and Adlard in the pages of The Walking Expressionless #193 — and no matter what the TV series has upwards its sleeve for whenever it decides to pull the trigger on a determination, nosotros can already say with certainty that it will be fundamentally dissimilar from Kirkman and Adlard's finale.

The Walking Dead #193, released Wed, takes identify several years after the events of the previous issue, in which Rick Grimes was assassinated. Indeed, it features the biggest fourth dimension jump in the series' history, leaping forward decades into the time to come. Carl Grimes (very much not killed in the comics' version of "All-Out State of war," unlike his live-activity counterpart) is a grown man with a wife (Sophia, very much not killed in the comics' version of the Greene family subcontract storyline) and a daughter, fittingly named Andrea. They live on a farm far away from a highly functional version of the Alexandria Safe-Zone, where walkers have not been an agile threat for years. It'due south all the more reason why Carl is furious when a walker roams onto his country, having escaped a traveling road show led by Hershel Rhee, the now adult son of Maggie and the tardily Glenn. Carl finds himself on trial for killing the walker, which was technically Hershel'south belongings; he's spared from penalisation thank you to Maggie, now president of the prophylactic-zone, who is accused by Carl and others of babying Hershel to a dangerous degree.

Like his father earlier him, Carl acts on his vision of justice and decides to destroy the residuum of Hershel'southward walkers. He heads out on a long scavenging mission, and when he returns, he'south once once again on trial — except this time, he stands before the highest court in the community, presided over by a famous face up: Michonne, now known as Gauge Hawthorne, the first time her final proper noun has been revealed in the series. Carl makes a passionate pitch about the need to not minimize the walker threat, fifty-fifty if the new, young generation of survivors hasn't had to endure such terrors. Michonne sides with Carl and clears him of any wrongdoing, assuasive him to return to his family unit without any farther consequences.

The finale'southward last scenes feature Carl reading a volume to his daughter, recounting the story of Rick Grimes and all the trials he endured on his way toward restoring civilization. Both in the book — penned past his married woman — and in the customs at large, Rick is looked upon as a hero; Carl wrestles with his father's legendary condition but is ultimately proud of him. The issue ends when Carl's girl teases him for e'er bringing up the importance of her granddaddy, just withal, she wants to hear the story 1 more than time. The last image of the serial is Carl with his child, happy and rubber in a rocking chair; cue the avalanche of inevitable Rocking Dead merch.

"Oddly, every bit unsure every bit I feel almost ending the story, I feel confident in how I ended it," Kirkman writes at the stop of the issue, in a lengthy final acknowledgement to readers. "I've been building to this for years, and information technology does feel expert to stop on such a happy annotation. To know that everything these characters lived through meant something. To see that Michonne got to find her daughter, detect peace with her life, and even have a grandchild … that feels good. That the world is fixed … and at peace, that in some means it's even improve than before … that'southward meaningful. And to see Carl in that rocking chair, reading happily to his daughter, to know that'southward the life Rick wanted him to have … that makes me happy."

For Walking Expressionless comic book readers, it's well-nigh as happy an ending equally 1 tin can imagine, save for Rick's own existence in this relatively idyllic post-post-apocalypse. Merely how much condolement should the Idiot box audition accept from the way in which Kirkman and Adlard wrapped their run? Perhaps non equally much.

In the bear witness's version of events, Carl is dead and Rick is far away, albeit set to make some kind of return in a serial of movies for AMC. Fifty-fifty and then, the citizenry of Alexandria, the Hilltop and the Kingdom all believe Rick is dead — and in the several years that followed his supposed death, the communities grew further apart rather than rallying together in the wake of his loss. The entire Walking Dead comic volume finale hinges on Rick having died a martyr, paving the style for a pseudo-utopia. Without Rick actively in the Walking Dead television set series, fifty-fifty if he's still somewhere out in the universe, can the show come anywhere near the aforementioned catastrophe?

There are characters on the show who could theoretically occupy the pivotal Rick and Carl spots: Michonne and Judith Grimes, for case. But the Michonne of the AMC series isn't probable to end up as Estimate Hawthorne, as the show's version of the graphic symbol wasn't a lawyer before the apocalypse. What's more, breakout star Danai Gurira is fix to go out The Walking Expressionless at some point in flavour x. Depending on the circumstances of her departure, Michonne may not fifty-fifty be alive to run into the end of the series.

Every bit e'er, at that place's the wild card to consider: Norman Reedus every bit Daryl Dixon, a graphic symbol who doesn't announced in the comics at all. Perhaps he could serve as a martyr, a la Rick's comic book fate; then again, Daryl doesn't quite instill the same spirit of leadership and camaraderie equally good old Sheriff Grimes. Besides, in that location's the old saying to a consider: "If Daryl dies, nosotros riot." Doesn't exactly sound like peace will follow the crossbow-slinging warrior's demise, should it always come to pass.

If there'due south anything from the Walking Dead comics' ending that could prove useful for divining Daryl's eventual fate, perhaps it's Carl's eventual marriage to Sophia. In the comics, the two are childhood sweethearts before becoming nothing more than keen friends in their teenage years. The ideal relationship eventually evolved, conspicuously. Could a similar pairing occur by the end of the Television receiver adaptation between Daryl and the late Sophia's female parent, Carol? It would stand in the way of a current Daryl Dixon honey interest theory, simply it would certainly make one (major) department of the fandom very happy indeed.

Other characters who are all the same alive in the TV serial who also happen to be live at the cease of the comic books' run include Eugene (Josh McDermitt), working tirelessly to repair a railroad to the westward despite apparent sickness; Aaron (Ross Marquand), who has happily aged with his partner, Jesus, dead in the television version of events; and very likely Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who goes sight unseen in the finale, but his continued survival is strongly believed in by Carl and outright confirmed in Kirkman'south terminal two words in his closing remarks postscript: "Negan Lives." Lauren Cohan'southward Maggie is still alive, of course, if not quite on the show anymore; the death of Whiskey Cavalier may ease her return to the zombie franchise before long. As for her son, Hershel, it's a great opportunity to bring Steven Yeun back into the serial to play a time-jumped version of Glenn's son; that'southward perhaps a bit too fan-servicey, but it'due south still fun to consider.

Fifty-fifty though there will have to be important distinctions between the comic books' ending and the television series' eventual finale, based solely on who's live and who isn't, two of the decision'southward biggest factors can still make the leap. First, there's the time spring, a fast-forwards into the future to show that there is indeed life later on Walking death. The next is the surprise factor. Few people anticipated Kirkman and Adlard would end The Walking Dead with the 193rd issue, just in sight of the landmark 200th issue and right on the heels of killing off its lead character. But every bit Kirkman notes in his concluding address to the readers, his story "has ever been built on surprise." Since and then many things have been mixed and matched over the years between the two tellings of the tale, showrunner Angela Kang and her team of writers (or whoever is in place when AMC finally shutters the flagship Walking Dead) should feel emboldened to double down and become with something completely different from Kirkman's version of events. Without Rick as an agile presence on the prove and, fifty-fifty more important, without Carl still alive in the universe, the truest way the TV series can honor the comic books at this signal is past offering up an entirely dissimilar ending — one the audience will never see coming.

Read Kirkman's entire farewell column beneath, and go on scrolling to see the solicited encompass art for issues that volition never see the light of day.