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Listen. I only watched three whole episodes of Season 9 because of the fairy tale that wasn't. To this day, I have yet to fortify myself enough to go back and watch the whole thing because that whole storyline was, IMHO, so contrived and existed solely to serve the plot.
Loving children and taking them wholly into her heart is not out of character for Carol, but she could have loved Henry without marrying his adoptive father. She could have been a peripheral part of the 'kingdom' that banded together to raise that child.
Henry's eventual loss would have still stung because Carol's tough but her heart is soft where children are concerned and in a time of renewed safety? She would have been more open to loving a child again and not pushing that child away as she did Sam.
But the plot apparently demanded it and this show has proven time and time again it's quite the slave to the plot, oftentimes cutting itself off at its own knees to do so and doing various levels of damage in the process.
So there's definitely an established history with this show cutting corners with its characters and twisting them into sometimes unrecognizable configurations to satisfy its need to get from point A to point B. Carol's leap was unnecessary.
But, as much as I personally did not like it, not totally out of the realm of possibility. So I swallowed it. Because I love Carol. She's one of my favorite fictional characters ever created because Melissa McBride is a master at what she does. She's an inspiration.
But here's the thing. What's been hinted in these new spoilers about Daryl? Well, what's been hinted at is so far out of the realm of what's been written and presented concerning his character for the better part of the last decade.
It's straight up out of his established character. Carol allowing another child into her heart was honestly inevitable. They might have taken it a step too far to up the angst factor and stakes when Henry met his end at Alpha's hands, but of all the changes Carol has undertaken
Her nurturing nature where children is concerned has been a constant she just hasn't been able to fight against. Daryl doing a 180 and seeking comfort and companionship with someone he barely knows--and let's be real here, no matter how they retcon it by doing the time cards
and flashing forward or backwards or whatever the hell direction they're taking this, he barely knows this person--is just not something he does or will convincingly do. It's not his nature. It's not his character. He's experienced loss after loss after loss over the years.
And he's always isolated himself to come to terms with those losses. He's self-harmed and lashed out with anger. He's had ample opportunity to seek out comfort and has always pushed it and the people he cares about away as a form of self punishment.
Historically? Daryl's character has shown a lot of growth but his coping methods? His vices? His weaknesses, for lack of a better word? Those have not changed. They've been constant. Until now, apparently. And this is just an assumption of mine, but I think I know why.
Because it serves some kind of plot TWD wants to serve. Not the character of Daryl himself but whatever they want to happen to his character. We're again moving from point A to B here, lovelies. I'm not really sure what the ultimate destination is.
Although I have my suspicions. We're moving from point A to B with a shoehorned character of little significance driving us there instead of Daryl Dixon himself. Do I like it? Absolutely not. Personally, I think it's a lazy copout of contrivance yet again.
Do I think it might get us where we eventually want to go as fans of one of the most touching and beautiful relationships on television, forget TWD? Well. Maaayyybbeee. But at what cost when it carves away a little bit more of their characters?
When it tampers with the essence of what made Carol and Daryl, well. Carol and Daryl.
I'm going to love these two forever. Try as I might, I can't fully quit them. Consequently, I can't write off the show completely until they are no longer a part of it. But you know? I'm certain I'm not alone in my wish that the show's writers had chosen differently.
That they had chosen to enrich the relationship that was already there and built it into more without first cheapening what made it special and taking a plot-driven wrecking ball into it to smash it into smithereens to reach the goal they had in mind. Because honestly?
These two didn't need that. The building blocks were all there. They've been there since Season 2 and if ever there were two people with enough internal conflict to power a century's worth of stories without having a lot of external junk thrown at them?
Carol and Daryl are them.
Anyway. That's my long, rambling thoughts on the subject. I've read the theories and they're not all without some merit, but I'm personally of the opinion that these two did not need this 'helping hand' to shine a light on the true nature of their relationship.
Spoiler alert: it's been romantically coded since Day 1. This rebranding and tearing down of Carol and Daryl to rebuild them into something recognizably romantic is being done for the willfully blind buried underneath a mountain of denial.
The people that have steadfastly ignored all the signs are going to remain stubbornly rooted in their own belief systems until Daryl gets intimately acquainted with every orifice in Carol's body and vice versa. Even then they'll insist they're platonic. They're best friends.
That's okay though. To each their own. Mulder and Scully were platonic best friends too, right? Some viewers refused to acknowledge what was staring them right in the face until the moment Scully and Mulder tickled each other's tonsils right in front of their boss so, um, yeah
