Summer Breeze: Shane NEEDED To Die

I first shared my obsession with The Walking Dead a year ago. Since then, we've gotten two seasons of our favorite survivors fleeing from walkers and the deaths of many of my favorite characters. (Don't worry Norman Reedus is still with us as Daryl Dixon.) There is one loss that I predicted but wasn't ready for. I've already expressed a little love for Shane, so now, I'll go into exactly what I love about him and exactly why he had to die.

I've seen a lot of fangirls on Twitter complaining about Shane's death, saying he should have lived. Every time I read a tweet like that, my brain screams "DO YOU EVEN PAY ATTENTION TO THE SHOW?!?" This post was inspired by those girls who obviously only fap to Jon Bernthal's hot body. Hang on, readers! Summer's Breeze is blowing the message across hard today!

Jon Bernthal is truly a wonderful actor. By watching him as Shane, you'd expect Bernthal to have that attitude that seems to plague every jock. I call it "God's Gift Syndrome." Shane still wears his high school football number around his neck and recounts his glory days of being "a young high school stud who banged thirty year olds on the regular." He's a guy who peaked at eighteen and saw his life as all down hill from there. Jon Bernthal, from what I can tell, is the exact opposite of Shane. Meeting him at Dragon Con was a real eye opener. He's funny, charming and loves to chat. He's all smiles and jokes until you pull out a camera. The sight of a camera causes him to make goofy faces. Jon smiles less in pictures than Reedus does. (I didn't think that was possible at first!) With his great personality and smoking hot looks is it any wonder he's married? The beautiful blonde in the far left of the picture above is his wife Erin. The cute little dressed as a skeleton in Andrew Lincoln's arms is Baby Bernthal. With his parents' good looks and his father's winning personality, this baby is destined to break hearts one day!

I bet Shane and Rick have been best friends their entire lives. We all know those guys. They played football and probably baseball together. They were each other alibis and wing men. They went to the the same school and then police academy together. They have a truly epic bromance.

Then came Lori. Shane, being Rick's best friend, of course became friends with Lori. Knowing how I am with my husband's friends, it's not surprising that Lori and Shane would have a friendship. This is why when he told her Rick was dead and she had to come with him, she had no problem doing so. She trusts Shane completely because Rick trusts Shane completely. When he comes to Carl's school to tell Lori that Rick was shot, something in their interaction told me maybe Shane has had a thing for Lori. But that too is understandable. Like Hannibal Lector said, "We begin by coveting what we see every day." Shane saw Rick had the perfect life and deep down, wanted that life.

Shane was only trying to do right by his best friend. He did what Rick would have asked him to do. Shane was a good man. He put his life on the line for Rick when he went to the hospital and tried to get him out of there. He laid his life on the line again by doing what he could for Lori and Carl. We all would be so lucky to have a friend who would risk life and limb to save our family. I can't name someone who would risk everything to save my family when they didn't have to do it.

Shane and Lori, naturally, came together in their loneliness. I've long said that death is a natural aphrodisiac. It's why I completely understand the relationship that Shane and Lori had. That being said, it is entirely possible that Shane has always been in love with Lori, not because he actually loves her like I said earlier, but because he's always wanted the life Rick had. Like the grass is always greener on the other side type thing.

As Dale said, Shane is built to survive the Walkerworld. Had Lori not screwed with his emotions, Shane would have been an asset to the group. The only problem lies in the fact that two alpha males who are as different as Shane and Rick, cannot exist in the same family unit. Until Lori gave Shane hope that her baby could be his, there was hope for Shane and Rick could rekindle their bromance. When Lori gave him that hope, Shane's Y chromosome kicked into over drive. He would have killed Rick to prove the baby was his.

Shane has a survivor's mentality. He has proven with Otis and Randall that he will do anything to live. His betrayal of Otis has even turned his name into a verb. To "Shane" someone means to "incapacitate them so you can get away from zombies/walkers while they get eaten." He would do anything it took to make sure his future remains intact. If Lori's baby is his, that baby is his future. He would have sacrificed any member of the group, as long as it kept his child and himself alive. If it came down to it, he would even "Shaned" Carl or Lori, as long as it allows him to get away with his baby.

All this above is why Shane needed to die. I may love Shane, but he ran his course. If he was allowed to continue to live, he would have continued bulldozing through the apocalypse only concerned with keeping the baby alive. He was a beautifully flawed character. I fell in love with him in the comics. In both the comic and the show, my heart broke with his. He was a good man destroyed by the end of the world. They say, "Don't hate the player, hate the game." I love the player, and I think it's a pretty fucked up game.

Disclaimer: No person, thing, book, show, movie, character, or zombie mentioned in this post in any way, shape, or form, asked me to write this or gave me any compensation to write this. I jacked all images from Google image search or Twitter and just assumed they fell under the Public Domain Usage thingy. Please don't sue, I'm broke anyways. I just wanted to share my Walking Dead obsession with Bloggywood! While I was not offered anything to write this, I will be more than happy to receive any swag you may want to send my way.