#carol/ezekiel

[molotovgrifter]

twd as onion headlines

[linusbenjamin]

This place is a damn circus... all of it. These people… this is make-believe. It's playtime. I can't do this.

[gyroshrike]

"This is my husband, Jerry, and this is Jerry's boyfriend, Ezekiel, and this is Ezekiel's wife, Carol, and this is Carol's life partner, Daryl, and this is Daryl's girlfriend, Connie."

[gerathewise]

OKAAAY-- i drew all my fav twd characters (s1-11) i want to eat them 😭😭😭

[myownsummer24]

why is the walking dead so hard to watch sometimes 😭😭

like can yall stop being stupid for 5 minutes

[euphorial-docx]

no one does straight ships like the walking dead

[thebookofcarol]

i am angry and tired of people dismissing the strong beautiful bond between Daryl and Zeke. listen, those two love each other deeply, not as much as they both love Carol, though. Daryl and Zeke are brother husbands FFS!!!!

ps- this is why Laurent is praying for Zeke. Daryl's husband, icydk!

[villifix]

i need to have my editing rights revoked lmfao

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

She married this guy

[darylscigarettesmoke]

Rewatching Season 8 again bc I miss Daryl and idc what y’all say, Carol and Ezekiel were cute together. Ezekiel is a great guy in general with such a positive outlook on life. It must be really healing to be involved with a guy like him.

And yet I smile.

[emeryhiro]

Do you think Carol would have continued to stay with Ezekiel had Henry not died? For me, Carol's married era in the Kingdom is a conundrum - because on the one hand, I love that she got to experience some peace and happiness after being put through the wringer both emotionally and mentally. I love that she was able to save Henry and at least partly come to peace with the fact that she was able to find and save this kid - when she has lost so many in the past (which makes it all the more heartbreaking she has go through all of that again in s10 - I love s10 but it so emotionally hard to watch as a Carol fan). But - in the second half of s9 whenever Carol is shown in the Kingdom, it feels a little wrong - like maybe she doesn't belong. She is smiling so widely and brightly - and it is so great to see her lighthearted - but something somewhere just feels off. Even her appearance - her clothes - they don't feel like her. I can't quite pinpoint it. Or I could be just looking at it through shipper goggles. Lol.

I absolutely adore your narrative breakdowns of these two. I don't have much hope for Caryl in TBOC but I am definitely looking forward to your analysis of the episodes to come.

Hi Anon 😊

Thank you so much for the kind words! They truly mean so much to me 🩵🩵🩵

I already have my thoughts/breakdown of TBOC episode 1 written up, which should be posted as soon as episode 1 is released to everyone. I honestly can't wait for everyone to see it and get everyone's thoughts on it as well.

Now, regarding your question...

This is such a good question, and I really had to think about it for a bit to be able to express my thoughts properly.

The short answer is yes, but ultimately, no. I think Carol would have stayed with Ezekiel if Henry had lived, at least for as long as they were in a good place. I know that seems like a cop-out of an answer, but I'll flesh it out a little bit.

Carol was happy enough with Ezekiel, and she would have probably continued to be with him until their situation changed and they had to go through some form of hardship as they naturally would've at some point or another in an apocalypse. Even if it wasn't for losing Henry, there would have been something else that would have pulled them apart because despite them being happy enough, their relationship lacked the depth to withstand severe adversity. They loved each other, but they weren't IN love, if you know what I mean.

If by some miracle they didn't face any hardship of any kind, then yep they probably would stay together for two main reasons (and trust me, this hurts my Caryl shipper heart to say):

Loyalty/Convenience: As we've seen, Carol is an incredibly loyal person. We don't know Ezekiel as well as we know Carol, but from what I could tell, he seems to be a very loyal person as well.

Trauma/Sacrifice: The only person that Carol would hypothetically leave Ezekiel for would be Daryl. But both Carol and Daryl have experienced way too much trauma to actually come clean about their feelings, not unless something huge happened to push them to do so. Daryl would never ever think he's good enough for Carol, or that he could make her happy compared to how Ezekiel appeared to make her. And Carol would feel the exact same way about Daryl, and she'd also be content with (as you said) the peace and happiness of staying with Ezekiel because she would never think she deserved anything better than that.

Ultimately, the perfect circumstances that would have kept Carol and Ezekiel together are near impossible in the world they live in. Starting a family with Ezekiel and Henry definitely helped Carol heal from some of her past trauma with Ed and Sofia, but ultimately the deeper traumas and wounds that she had yet to face and heal from (as she will in TBOC) would have never healed if she stayed with Ezekiel. They would have eventually been naturally pulled apart because neither is made for the other.

I also think that Carol always sensed/knew that her relationship with Ezekiel had an expiration date, and she had probably prepared for that inevitable end from the start of the relationship, while Ezekiel on the other hand, was less willing to accept that their relationship was at its end when Carol tried to return the ring in S9EP16.

Regarding Caryl...

I honestly don't blame you for not having much hope for Caryl, especially with all the mixed messages being sent around with the current publicity campaign. And I'm not sure if this will mean anything or change anything for you, but I'm personally still confident that canon is where we're heading. And as I've said in my previous posts, especially in the summary section of my last one (here), it makes sense (at least to me) for them to wait until season 3 to finally make Caryl officially canon.

I'm just gonna fangirl here for a second, but I believe (since the first time I saw them 12 years ago) that Carol and Daryl are soulmates, and I don't just mean platonic soulmates, but soulmates in every sense of the word. So, in my mind, based on all the evidence I've seen, one way or another, they will be together in the end. But like I said, that's in my mind. The final outcome for Caryl depends on Norman and Melissa's vision for the characters, which I understand may not align with mine, but I trust that no matter what they end up giving us, it's still gonna be a fantastic story ♡

~~~~

Thank you again for the really interesting question ♡♡♡ I hope my answer made sense and got my thoughts across properly.

I can't explain how excited I am about TBOC and seeing Carol and Daryl in the same frame again. ONLY 19 DAYS TO GO!! 🥰🎉

[angelwings-crossbowstrings]

Accurate.

[that-left-turn]

Is there a reason we as Carol fans can’t appreciate that she has had mature loving romantic relationships with other men? Why is it misogyny if it’s not Daryl? No one will answer this for me. Personally I wish she would have stayed where she was adored, and that was with Ezekiel. It’s actually more harmful that the writers pulled her away from that loving marriage and have her chasing dusty Daryl. That’s the real problem.

I'm pretty sure you don't want my answer to this, but since you asked, no, that's not the real problem.

Ezekiel adored his own idea of who Carol was, not the actual flawed woman and she didn't love him. He came with the bargain when she wanted to raise a child (who chose her). That's not a mature healthy relationship. He was also emotionally abusive, calling her a coward for not going in search of Henry when he went missing, despite not doing anything useful about the situation himself and he tried to cut off her emotional support in the wake of Henry's death by telling Daryl to make himself scarce. At best, Ezekiel's behavior is tone-deaf and selfish, and at worst, he's emotionally manipulative because he knows he can't "win" Carol's affection on a level playing field. He's a much better man than Ed, but he was using a lot of the same gameplays from the book of abusive spouses.

Carol's shaped by her past, just like real people and living with abuse changes your sense of self-worth and ability to ask for support and respect from your partner. Tobin wasn't love at all. It was an attempt at what she perceived as normalcy with a man who not so incidentally had the same body type as Ed. It was testing the waters. It was going back to the housewife who, in addition to making casseroles and baking cookies out of offbeat ingredients, had sex with a man she didn't love. By her own admission, she was lost during the time period when she chose both men.

I think Carol was raised (or indoctrinated) from childhood that parenthood meant a nuclear family. She obviously couldn't "take" Henry from Ezekiel. He'd been the brothers' family since their dad died and Benjamin had recently been killed. So, she had to take the man in the bargain and she'd settled for worse in the past. "King Ezekiel" was a ridiculous persona and their personalities were incredibly mismatched. He hid things from Carol, like retrieving that light bulb from the movie theater because he knew she wouldn't approve. That's not a healthy partnership. Ezekiel also tried to pressure her into changing to fit his fantasy, to be Queen Carol and the person he thought she should be. A gilded cage is still a cage.

Daryl has never tried to change who Carol is. He's always swallowed his own feelings, his pride, his concern... until things boiled over in S10. He was raw and honest and scared. Hurt, most of all. The fight at the cabin in "Find Me" was about him feeling unseen. He's been willing to settle all along for what Carol wants and trying to let her define what they are to each other, but he came very close to losing her entirely in the cave and on top of the cliffs. He wants it to be reciprocated that he lets her temper him, that he checks his impulse control for her. Daryl needs Carol to be cautious with herself because she's the loss he can't bear, not because he wants to tell her what to do or how to be.

He's the only one of Carol's men who's gotten in on the passenger side of the car and let her do the driving, and that's why Daryl is the one she's chasing to France. She loves him (as she herself has said) and she loves that he doesn't try to "tame" her. He understands the emotional and physical abuse she's suffered, he's been there for her losses and is the only one left who's met Sophia. They have history and emotional support that isn't conditional with each other. They understand each other's need for space and freedom. As Melissa said in an interview, Daryl is Carol's life partner.

[anothertwdblog]

[darealsaltysam]

we are the ones who live