i was watching an EPIX zombie documentary last night (had romero, kirkman, brooks, simon pegg, among others) talking about zombies (the history, evolution of what a zombie is, fast vs slow, etc), anywho, throughout the show, it went to kirkman and he said a few times that a zombie themed show wouldnt be realistic (in the genre) if there wasnt a constant flow of death of main characters. he said that he would be writing his graphic novels and realize that he hadnt killed off a main character in a few editions and immediately correct to kill one off. he said for it to be "realistic" there had to be death all the time and killing off main characters is what makes it believable to him, otherwise, its pointless and its just a bunch of heroes running around and his characters are not immortal heroes, just regular people. the death of those characters is what makes people invested and what makes his show different. anyway, he seemed to be all about slowly killing off all the characters, but that his story is a zombie story that never ends. obviously, rick being the main protagonist might live the longest, but he seemed to relish the thought of killing off a developed character for its realness. it was the first i had heard his opinion, which doesnt bode well for anyone too caught up in any single character. when they kill off daryl, they are going to have a riot on their hands.