I blame the writers. You can’t just eliminate important characters without some serious repercussions. Who’s left from the Atlanta Five? Just Darryl and Carol? Not enough for me.

 

@HonestAbe No one was more devastated than me when the news of Jesus' demise was leaked. And I honestly do not have a concrete answer for your question as to why. The best I can come up with is an opinion. The writers had to build a bridge to get from introducing the whisperers to TF taking Lydia as hostage. Taking her needed to be a product of something devastating. TFs taking a hostage and interrogating said hostage needed to stem from an act that could be seen as a "you can't go back Bob" kind of moment. You scare Eugene into a barn cellar - they could have come back from that. You take Luke and Alden hostage - they could have come back from that. But to kill a beloved member of a tight knit community - nope, there is now no redemption. Now it makes sense for TF to take a hostage, to interrogate and for all The Whisperers know - to harm or kill that hostage. Is that what the writers had in mind? No clue, but that is my head canon. That is how I came to terms with his death (that and knowing he has a new series on deck has helped )

The new crop of characters has great potential in my opinion.

Already Connie has proven that she is bad ass. She goes toe to toe with Daryl, never once being a shrinking violet to his gruff redneck persona. I like that about her. Her mindset seems to be "Daryl Dixon? Pffft - whatever. Now, follow me! Come on Dog"

Though Aaron is not a new character I do see this new era as an opportunity to expand on his character. While he will never be a Rick I do see similar qualities of Rick in him. And I think Aaron could build upon those similarities and make them his own. A more nuanced version of Rick Grimes perhaps.

Siddiq - I still consider him new since we have yet to really get to know him. His character intrigues me. He is definitely shaping up to be a voice of reason. And while there is that running joke of what it means to be that voice I do think Siddiq will be around for a bit *knocks on wood*

Yumiko - I am really looking forward to what they do with her character. It seemed evident that something is in the works for her considering the part she played in the pike reveal and the conversation she had with Michonne on the road to bringing Kingdom to Hilltop. She is obviously in the thick of whatever make shift council Hilltop has going on at the moment. Her presence is strong and solid and TPTB have a great opportunity to give us another character who can fill the screen.

Magna - I am not sure what to make of her character and I quite like that. Will she be one to cause trouble? Not trouble per se but I do think she will be one to buck the so called system. She will be someone who is willing to stand up and voice her dissent on decisions, strategy etc. I like the idea of that. I think we need a character who does not easily fall in line. And that type of friction between two partners could prove to be interesting for the characters of Yumiko and Magna.

Lydia - For the first time we are seeing, through a child/young adults eyes what it means to be brought up on the proverbial wrong side of the apocalyptic tracks. All these seasons we have seen what it is to be a child surrounded by people who are trying to survive and who we, as fans, see as the protagonists. Now we have Lydia. She has been raised from a very early age with a completely different mind set as to what it means to survive. She has been raised to live by a completely different code than our protagonists. And now, quite suddenly, she is living among those she was always taught were the weak, the useless. How will she live with those two very different mind sets constantly warring with one another? How will she respond to developing healthy relationships with people? Will she be able to reconcile her guilt? So much can be done with this character and they have an amazing actress in Cassidy McClincy to pull it off

For the first 3-4 seasons I was not a fan of Carol. Honestly I would have been fine with an exit through season 4. It took me that long to start developing any kind of attachment to her. And to this day I would never rank her as one of my all time favorite characters. I like her character just fine now but there was a bit of time needed for me to form that fan attachment. I think that the crop of newbies has great potential, it just may take us some time to find that emotional string that binds us to them

 

I noticed you left out Dan (I think that was his name), the former music teacher.