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There’s been plenty of shipping within the “Walking Dead” fandom, and not all of it has been in vain. For instance, some fans were shipping Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) together long before the characters actually hooked up in “The Walking Dead” season 6. It wasn’t a sure thing either, as the pair never became a romantic couple in the original comic books.<\/p>\n
Unlike “Richonne,” however, many “Walking Dead” fandom ships failed to pan out.\u00a0The clearest case of this would have to be Daryl (Norman Reedus)\u00a0and Carol (Melissa McBride). When making the case for “Caryl,” the shippers would point as far as back as “The Walking Dead” season 2, noting it was Daryl who put the most effort into finding Carol’s lost daughter, Sophia (Madison Lintz), and that he was also the one who comforted her when it was discovered that Sophia had been turned into a walker. They’d also point to Carol’s season 4 glow-up, when she evolved seamlessly from a near-background character to the show’s toughest survivor; from then on, she and Daryl were on equal footing, and every scene between them was delightful.<\/p>\n
Alas, it wasn’t to be. Not only do the two never hook up throughout any of the 11 seasons of “The Walking Dead,” but the spin-off series “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” (which picks up with Daryl in France<\/a>)\u00a0has since explicitly shut this fan theory down. When a character named\u00a0Valentina (Irina Bj\u00f6rklund) mistakenly assumes Daryl is Carol’s boyfriend, Carol replies, “Never.” Daryl agrees with her, definitively adding “Nope” and walking off. Of course, it doesn’t just feel like they’re talking to Valentina; it feels like they’re talking directly to those watching at home.<\/p>\n