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This week we got a look six years into the future of The Walking Dead, a timeline after the death (well, disappearance) of Rick Grimes when the society he founded is more established, but also more fractured than ever.

In six years, a lot has happened. New characters arrived, and old characters have begun pairing off and settling down, as you might expect would happen in a span of time like that. Some of the couples were a surprise, some weren’t. But I do find one aspect of the current state of The Walking Dead interesting. In this massive ensemble cast, every single relationship on the show is either interracial or LGBT, a departure from the source material, due to some major changes, and a milestone for a show as popular as TWD.

We have:

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Carol and Ezekiel, which is a change from Michonne and Ezekiel in the comics (could you even imagine that on the show? Yikes). They are actually married now, and have a little family unit with the adopted Henry, now all grown up six years later.

Rosita and Gabriel, which came as a big surprise. When we last left Gabriel he was on the verge of starting up a relationship with Anne before he left, but the one-eyed preacher has game, and has managed to land Rosita, much to Eugene’s dismay, which was a great moment of this week’s episode as Eugene tries to sell Rosita on his merits.

Jerry and Nabila, minor characters, sure, but this was glimpsed as a new relationship over the last six years. I think fans dreamed this up originally and the show just went with it.

Magna and Yumiko, who we just got to know this week, but not well enough yet to understand that the two are in a relationship together, which will be a key storyline going forward.

Jesus and Aaron(?) I am not sure whether these two have gotten into a relationship yet in the last six years, but it seems like only a matter of time if not, as that’s a comic development that seems destined to be repeated.

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And of course the two defining relationships of the series are Glenn and Maggie and Rick and Michonne. In the comic, Rick is with Andrea, but the show took a detour to pair him off with Michonne instead, which made more sense given how the characters had developed over the years. And this week we learned that before his “death,” Michonne was pregnant and they have a child together. In the comic, Michonne was constantly paired off with almost every black character from Tyreese to Ezekiel to the point where it almost became a meme, but she has gone down a much different path in the show.

Earlier in the series, we had a lot more non-interracial relationships. The Rick, Lori, Shane love triangle. Andrea and Shane, Andrea and the Governor, Rick and Jessie, Sasha and Bob, but there just aren’t any in the current state of the show.

That should be about to change soon, however (mild spoilers). No, Daryl isn’t about to steal away Carol from Ezekiel. Rather, Henry seems destined to take up Carl’s comic storyline and fall in love with the daughter of the Whisperers, Lydia, as moving to the Hilltop sets him on that path, and we know that Lydia has already been cast (she’s white).

I don’t know why I wanted to stop and point all this out, I just think that it’s cool that in a cast this big, every single relationship on the show is now either LGBT or interracial, and it’s a far cry from say, I don’t know, Game of Thrones, where its mostly-white fantasy setting has created the exact opposite situation.

Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing how all of these relationships develop, though a few seem destined to be torn apart by some new horror, as this is The Walking Dead we’re talking about. Stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Read my new sci-fi thriller novel Herokiller, available now in print and online. I also wrote The Earthborn Trilogy.

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