The Walking Dead: Why [SPOILER]'s Death Was A Mistake

4. Jesus' Potential Was Never Fully Realised

As far as badasses go, there are few who can compete with Jesus. The long-haired warrior is not only an incredibly interesting character, but he's also a highly skilled martial arts fighter. However, like many characters on The Walking Dead, he's not had the opportunity to show what he's capable of, due to the series' inability to fully explore the characters that they introduce.

Here we have a character that had one of the most memorable introductions in the show's nine-season history, and yet since then he's been hidden away at Hilltop and given very little to do. It's not necessarily that the show didn't develop him enough, because a quick glance at social media will prove just how loved the character actually is (although you could argue that that's down to Tom Payne's wonderful performance), but rather it's the fact that Jesus has barely featured on the show in recent seasons.

In the source material, Jesus swiftly becomes one of the story's most significant characters, however, Scott Gimple never allowed this to translate to the screen. Kang has given the character a bit more to do so since Rick left, but his death renders all of this pointless. Killing him off in such a fashion serves no other purpose than to shock. It's contrived for a number of reasons, but primarily because of the amount of narrative material the writers have now squandered.

Tom Payne himself has spoke about how frustrated he is in regards to Jesus' lack of storylines. It's a real shame that the writers let the Jesus character down, because Payne was a great addition to the show, and his characterisation of the Hilltop warrior is largely the reason audiences fell in love with Jesus. He couldn't have been more perfect for this role.

Kang spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how Jesus' death is simply part of the story, but the problem here is that, in killing off the character, the writers have not furthered their story at all, but rather hindered it. This wasn't a cleverly foreshadowed event, and the writing certainly has not been building towards the character's death - which was often the case in earlier seasons of the show (and on superior series Game Of Thrones). No, this evidently wasn't a planned decision, but a hasty one, and it's one that will leave a massive hole in the show going forward.