Which show handled death better: The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones?

If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, then you’ve probably watched Sunday night’s episode, “Thank You.” If you haven’t, then this is your warning: spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 6 (and Game of Thrones Season 6) follow.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about what actually happened in “Thank You,” and how its final moments have been inspiring both fans and industry professionals to draw comparisons to the finale of Game of Thrones Season 5.

In “Thank You,” longtime character Glenn Rhee is possibly killed. Glenn has (had) been a member of The Walking Dead since Season 1, where he was a nerdy pizza delivery boy turned supply runner for a group of survivors following a zombie apocalypse. As the show progressed, Glenn’s character grew more important to the group and became one of the most beloved characters on the show. During “Thank You,” Glenn is knocked off a dumpster and into a group of walkers (zombies) after a survivor named Nicholas kills himself and falls into Glenn.

On The Walking Dead’s aftershow, Talking Dead, Lost and The Leftovers creator Damon Lindelof mentioned characters like Jon Snow from Game of Thrones and Charlie from Lost as ones who belonged on a list of “Unkillables”—characters that fans thought could never be killed off on account of their plot armor…which is why fans are having such a hard time with Glenn’s possible death.

The reason many fans are so nonplussed by Glenn’s seemingly inescapable death is that it’s not how he dies in the (comic) books. Sound familiar? Many Game of Thrones fans—especially book readers—were upset with the way Jon Snow’s apparent death was handled on the show because of how different it was from the books. However, there was another factor at play: the way the showrunners handled the whole situation.

Moments after the Game of Thrones Season 5 finale aired, articles began to surface declaring that the character was dead. The director of the episode said he was dead. Fellow cast members said he was dead. HBO executives said he was dead. Everyone, from top to bottom, involved with the show echoed the same sentiment: “Jon Snow is dead.” There was no explanation of the scene, there was no possible hope for a resolution to Jon’s story in Season 6, and we all had to wait until pictures began to roll in from filming to see if Kit was actually back…which he is. It was all poorly handled.

That’s not the path The Walking Dead took. On Talking Dead, host Chris Hardwick read a message from showrunner Scott Gimple that promised fans that there would be a definite resolution to Glenn’s story, that fans would see Glenn…or parts of Glenn…or some version of Glenn, again. Then, executive producer Greg Nicotero talked to Entertainment Weekly and compared the situation to Game of Thrones. When EW mentions that people are going to over-analyze the scene, Nicotero had this to say:

"People are still debating about Jon Snow! I will look at this very much like dealing with Game of Thrones. It’s such a shocking moment that people will find reasons to either defend what they saw or fight against what exactly they saw. I think it’s always very exciting."

Perhaps The Walking Dead‘s showrunners were able to expertly handle Glenn’s post-death situation because they had the benefit of having watched the Game of Thrones‘ showrunners go through trials following Jon Snow’s death. But as a fan of TWD, I have to give kudos to Gimple and Nicotero for keeping their fanbase in the loop rather than leaving them twisting in the wind, wondering if a resolution to a beloved character’s story arc would ever be seen.

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