The Walking Dead television show isn’t required to stick to the textbooks in any way, however, they did make an exception with Glenn. This is the reason why his character had to pass away.
Glenn (Steven Yeun), who played Glenn in the seventh season of The Walking Dead, had to pass away for a specific cause, despite the fact that his passing continues to stun viewers of the show.
In issue #100 of The Walking Dead comic book, Negan and the Saviors held Rick and his comrades hostage, allowing them to do anything they pleased.
Glenn, a member of Rick’s crew, was brutally assassinated by Negan as a demonstration of the repercussions of going against the Saviors. Negan did this by crushing Glenn’s skull in with Lucille, one of his signature weapons.
When the fight with the Saviors in season 6 led to a direct meeting with Negan, the television adaptation of the plot proceeded in the same route as the comic book version (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
Negan, as he did in the books, chose his victim, but no one knew who it was until the opening of season 7 of The Walking Dead.
The fact that Negan’s victim was Abraham (played by Michael Cudlitz) prompted Daryl (Norman Reedus) to take vengeful action against Negan out of fury. Negan’s temper was quickly frayed by Daryl’s outburst, and as a result, Glenn was put to death.
The heartbreaking circumstances surrounding Glenn’s death on The Walking Dead have continued to have an impact on both the original series and its spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead gave the story of Glenn’s death its own unique spin by also taking Abraham’s life at the same time. There are times when The Walking Dead deviates from the original reference content.
The program, overall, makes use of the same plot arcs, however, it is capable of keeping viewers on the edge of their seats by murdering a variety of people.
Given the inconsistency between the various canons, though, there was never any possibility that Glenn would be spared. Robert Kirkman, the author of The Walking Dead, said shortly after the show premiered that the death of Glenn in the Walking Dead comics was much more significant in order to be swapped with anybody else [via EW].
To put it another way, it absolutely had to be Glenn since his demise was the catalyst for a more significant plot development that still needed to take place in the program.
In point of fact, even in the 11th season of The Walking Dead, this specific tragedy continues to play a significant role in the development of the individual narrative arcs of the surviving victims in some fashion or form. The reason why Glenn had to pass away in The Walking Dead may be found here.
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The Passing of Glenn Was Way Too Significant A Prompter For Upcoming Tales To Come
Kirkman cited content in the comics connected to Rick, Maggie (Lauren Cohan), and Negan as explanations for why the contentious decision to kill off Glenn in The Walking Dead can not be reversed.
As per Kirkman, these individuals went through a lot as a direct consequence of Negan’s choice to murder Glenn, which is why it was “important” that he passed away in the first episode of the seventh season of The Walking Dead.
It is a fact that Rick and the other characters would have been devastated by the passing of any character; nonetheless, the events that took place with Glenn had a particularly profound impact on Rick and Maggie.
Glenn, who had stood by Rick’s side ever since the beginning of the 1st season, had developed into his most reliable and trustworthy friend.
Rick Grimes, who was the major hero of The Walking Dead at the time, suffered a significant setback when Glenn was killed, and this event was the catalyst for his tale in the Walking Dead seasons 7 and 8.
Rick’s anger for Negan was fuelled by the sight of Glenn meeting such a horrible death, which led to his vengeance-driven campaign to free the people from their enslavement and win the battle against the Saviors.
In a similar vein, the commission of the aforementioned atrocity was necessary for Negan’s own development during the course of the series.
Maggie experienced an identical although more long-lasting effect as a result of the loss of Glenn on The Walking Dead. As a result, she became tougher and much more resolute. Maggie’s life changed significantly as a result of the devastating loss of Glenn.
Daryl was yet another figure who was profoundly changed by the events of this narrative, and the manner in which he was changed was really something that was added to the series after the fact, given that Daryl is not a figure that appears in The Walking Dead comics.
Throughout season 7, Daryl was plagued by his guilt over Glenn, which led to a strong and emotionally charged moment with Maggie. In this scene, Maggie assured Daryl that she can’t criticize him because of what Negan had done.
In The Walking Dead, the passing of Glenn was certainly tragic; yet, there are a great many things that would not have transpired if another character had passed away instead of Glenn.
The Horrific Reasons Behind Glenn’s Death
The intention was for the savagery of Glenn’s death in The Walking Dead, much as in the comics, to be distressing. This was not only due to the sheer amount of body horror but also because of what the character symbolizes.
Stephen Yeun, who plays Glenn, points out that the incident’s profound effect was due to more than simply the gratuitous brutality that occurred.
Instead, it was the premise that The Walking Dead delivered a death that was so gruesome to a character who had been in the series for such a long time and had such deep roots.
In an interview with Cinema Blend, Yeun shared the following thoughts about the legendary death scene that his character experienced:
It was gory, but it wasn’t any more gory than anything that we’ve shown before. I think what it was was just watching someone that you feel like you know getting killed that way, and getting killed in a way that was not like, ‘Oh man, look at Noah getting ripped up,’ which is gnarly but it’s just happening to him. Whereas, in this instance, it was just like, ‘You could’ve stopped, but you’re just gonna keep going and you’re gonna rub it in.’ And that’s probably where probably felt like it was too much.
In addition, the death of Glenn provided Negan on The Walking Dead with possibly the greatest plotline in the entirety of the tv adaptation.
The dilemma of whether or not Negan can be redeemed is still a source of discussion between many long-time fans of the show; however, this controversy may be resolved in the Walking Dead spinoff show Isle of the Dead.
Even after all these years, the savagery of what happened to Glenn is still ingrained in the consciousness of the viewers. There is little question that Glenn’s death irrevocably altered the harsh world of The Walking Dead, whether for the better or for the worse.
