When Season 7 of The Walking Dead aired, many people thought that the episode was too violent. In fact, some of these people thought that it would be cool to have their kids watch the popular episode, only to have major regrets later on. It should be no surprise to anyone that a show involving zombies is going to be violent, and yet when the premiere episode of Season 7 aired many people thought that it was a little too much even for The Walking Dead. Judging by how Season 6 ended, it was pretty obvious that the must anticipated premier was going to be a brutal one. Yet, the show may have pushed the envelope a little too hard this time, adding significant amounts of gore and some truly shocking scenes that fans won’t soon forget.

Brutality was the word of choice when people described the season opening. Maybe the producers knew it was time to push the limits because fans are pretty desensitized to zombies being beheaded and knives being smashed in their heads, with blood splattered all over the screen. It’s even become normal to see our beloved characters die gruesome deaths that tug at our heart strings. But none of that compares to what happened when Season 7 was unleashed to the audience. So was the season opener too brutal? Judging by the comic book series that the show is based on, the show may not be as brutal as you think. Many scenes that were written in the comic series had to be toned down for the TV series. Check out our list of the 15 terrible comic scenes that The Walking Dead had to tone done, and see how gruesome the show could have been if they were left in as-is.

15.  Judith’s Death

Via Screen Rant

The comic book series is particularly graphic when it comes to little girls being murdered in front of their parents. We all remember the scene where Lori was dying while giving birth to Judith, and then was killed by her own son. Judith miraculously lived, and the father/son bond was stronger than ever. Killing a baby isn’t something the show wanted to air, but that wasn’t the case in the comic books. Robert Kirkman, the man responsible for the comics, told a more gruesome story. In the book, Lori died from a shotgun blast while she was holding Judith, all while Rick was watching. The shocking part was when Rick turned over his wife to find his daughter dead either by the shotgun blast or the result of his wife falling on top of her. The show decided it was best to leave out this gruesome scene and instead, let Judith live.

14.  Hershel Deals With A Serial Killer

Via Undead Walking

In the show, while the group was living in the prison, there was a scene where Carol killed two members of the group because they were sick with the deadly flu. She feared that once they were dead, they would reanimate as zombies and kill someone unknowingly. She wanted to prevent the risk to her family, and because of that, she was sent away by Rick. But that wasn’t how things went down in the comic books. It wasn’t the flu that was killing people off in the jail but a serial killer. In the comic book, twin girls were decapitated and left for Hershel to find. The heads reanimated into zombie heads and started making their way towards their father. It also wasn’t the first time that Hershel had to watch his daughters die in the comic books. It seems that it’s almost a running joke that daughters are often killed in front of their fathers.

13.  Negan Has A Potty Mouth

Via Forbes

Although this isn’t a gruesome part of the show, it is an interesting one. In the show, Negan has a great command of the English language, and although he may swear now and again, it’s nothing compared to the comic book version of him. There is no doubt about it, Negan is a dangerous and terrifying man but in the comic book he has almost an obsession with profanity. He constantly swears, to the point where it appears as if the F-Bomb is the only word he knows. Over a period of 16 pages, Negan manages to swear a whopping 41 times. At one point, he even says the F-Bomb four times in one sentence. If you think about it, that’s around two swear words per page. That makes Negan one of the most offensive characters in the comic books. The show, however, toned things down quite a bit because they wanted Negan to appear more intelligent, so they limited his potty mouth significantly.

12.  The Governor Liked To Make Out With His Daughter

Via SciFi4me.com

We all remember how the Governor kept his daughter in captivity on the show, secretly from the rest of the residents. She was locked away in a special room where he fed her regularly. It wasn’t until one of Rick's crew members stumbled upon her that the girl was finally killed. The Governor was known to be a cruel and sick man, one without a soul but although we saw that version of him on TV, he was far worse than that in the comics. We believed that when we saw the daughter in captivity, this must have meant that the Governor had some redeeming qualities because he had such a loving attachment to his little girl. In the comic books, however, the backstory was that the teeth were removed from the girl, not so that she wouldn’t bite him but so that he could make out with his daughter for as long as he wanted. Which really makes you wonder what their relationship was like before the zombie apocalypse. Was the governor a pedophile with an inappropriate relationship with his daughter?

11.  Daryl Doesn’t Exist

Via The Independent

Many people blame Daryl for Glenn’s death in the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead because of his angry outburst. Daryl set off Negan’s temper when he punched him after the death of Abraham. Due to the outburst, Negan decided to take a second life, which turned out to be Glenn. So was it also Daryl’s fault in the comic book? Well, it turns out that Daryl doesn’t even exist in the comic series, so there’s that. Not only that, but in the comic no one gets out of the group to strike at Negan, so there is no need for him to kill a second person from the group. In the TV series, Daryl is taken by Negan as a captive since he wants him on his team. In the comic book, however, Negan doesn’t claim anyone from Rick’s team as his own. The twist of Daryl being recruited to the other side is something that producers came up with for the show alone.

10.  Tyreese Makes Sure Daughter’s Boyfriend Is Dead By Killing Him Twice

Via Sidekick Reviews

In the TV series, Tyreese doesn’t have any living children, just a girlfriend that he loses to Carol who kills her while in jail. Tyreese is seen as a good person throughout the series, although he does have issues with violence. When he found out that Carol killed his girlfriend, he got into a fight with Rick which ended with a lot of blood being spilled. In the comic books, however, Tyreese has a daughter who stays with him in the jail and this daughter has a boyfriend. The couple gets depressed after a long period of being stuck in the jail and the two of them decide on a suicide pact. The boyfriend shoots the girl, but before he can end his own life, Tyreese walks in on him. Not understanding the situation, Tyreese strangled the boy to death, which was what he wanted. But if that wasn’t bad enough, Tyreese sat there and waited for the boy to reanimate into a zombie so he could kill him all over again.

9.  Tyreese Is A Player

Via Nerdophiles

In the TV series, Tyreese seemed to be a one-woman man, and although he had a girlfriend that Carol killed, for the most part, he stuck to himself. Not once throughout the series did he come off as the type of man that played around. Yet, that was far from the case in the comic book series. Tyreese is seen as the type of person who would be considered to be a player. During the comic book series, he actually hooked up with Carol, who isn't the badass murderer that she is in the TV series. They seemed to be hitting it off pretty well until he ended up cheating on her with Michonne. The problem with being in the zombie apocalypse, however, was there weren't a whole lot of healthy ways to deal with a breakup. There were no chances for a girl’s night out or ice cream binges, so Carol could only resort to killing herself to ease the pain.

8.  Maggie Blames Rick

Via SuperHeroHype

When Glenn died on the Season 7 premiere, the group banded together in their time of mourning. There were some tears and some talk about how Glenn should be buried, but no one wanted Maggie to have to deal with it alone. Carl approached Maggie and hugged her, and it became a heartwarming time where they got together to determine what to do about their dead friend. As a group, they were always united as they disposed of Abraham’s and Glenn’s remains. Yet, that was not what happened in the comic book. After Glenn’s death, Rick made a speech that resulted in Maggie coming up to him screaming and calling him a coward. The only thing that stopped the abuse on Rick was Carl pulling a gun on Maggie. To make matters worse, Sophia jumped on Carl and bit him in order to get him to drop the gun. It was pretty much a debacle of everyone turning on one another, which was very unlike the bonding moment that was seen on the television series.

7.  Michonne Violates The Governor

Via SheKnows

It was no big surprise in the series that Michonne hated the Governor since she expressed her hatred for him in every way possible. There was no love lost between the two, after all, she was responsible for his daughter’s death as well as the loss of his eye. In the comic book, however, the Governor was seen as even more of a monster than in the TV show. In the comic book, Michonne dealt with the Governor in her own special way. At first, she started off with a drill that she took to his shoulders. After that, she cut off his right arm and watched him bleed. If that wasn’t enough, she ended the torture by shoving a spoon up the guy’s ass. Talk about some serious revenge! The guy never stood a chance against Michonne. You certainly don’t expect that sort of thing during The Walking Dead, and it’s no wonder that it got cut from the TV series. Just when you think the scene couldn’t get any worse, however, Michonne then used the same spoon to gouge out the Governor's eye.

6.  The Governor Tortured Rick

Via Nerd Like You

Rick was a pretty strong adversary when it came to being the leader of the group. There didn’t seem to be a situation that he couldn’t handle, even though he’s not the strongest man in their group. Whether it’s by instinct or skill alone, Rick always had the upper hand in most situations. In the TV series, he was never once captured and tortured. In the comics, though, he was captured by the Governor, along with Glenn and Michonne. He took them into custody in the hopes that he could torture information out of them; though we suspected he did it out of sheer joy as well. During the act of torture, the Governor chopped off Rick's hand which was shocking in and of itself. He also carved a few body parts off of Michonne as well, which led to her eventual rage where she got creative with a spoon.

5.  Negan Threatens Carl

Via ComicBook.com

Rick being the tough guy that he was, he often threatened people even when he found himself in a pickle. That was just the case when it came time for him to face the all-terrifying Negan. The group was in dire straits, and there was Rick down on his knees threatening Negan that he would one day kill him when he got the chance. Whether it was on the TV show or in the comic books, Negan didn’t take the news very well at all. In the show, Negan dragged Rick into an RV and drove off with him. He then unceremoniously threw him into a horde of zombies without a weapon. Yet, in the comic books, things are a little more disturbing. After Rick threatened to kill Negan, he tells Rick to go ahead and try. He said that this would result in just taking more lives in the same manner as Glenn. If that wasn’t bad enough, Negan threatened to have some of his men, the Saviors, “run a train” on his son, Carl. That’s the last thing a parent wants to hear.

4.  Abraham Died Sooner

Via ComicBook.com

In the TV series Abraham died at the hands of Negan with a bat, in the same manner that Glenn eventually died. Yet, in the comic books, that wasn’t the way that it went down. In the books, Abraham didn’t live as long, in fact, he died in the same way that Denise died. He was killed with a crossbow mid-speech while he was talking to Daryl, except Daryl didn’t exist in the comic books. This might be a little difficult to follow due to all of the inconsistencies between the show and the comics. Denise actually died in the comic books from a zombie bite that she left untreated because she was trying to save her boyfriend's life. She had a boyfriend in the books, even though the TV series had her dating a girl, Tara. It seemed as if the lives were all connected and if one character was supposed to die one way, it happened, even if it meant another character had to take their place.

3.  Carol Is Not A Monster

Via Geek and Sundry

In the TV series, Carol is depicted as a stone cold killer. She rarely showed remorse for the people or zombies that she killed. There was more than one occasion when she chose to kill a human for the greater good. She didn’t care about who she killed as long as it was not someone from her “immediate family.” Yet, she wasn’t the same girl in those comic books. She wasn’t the plain Jane that she was in the series; in fact, she was quite the looker in the comic books (enough to attract Tyreese’s attention, at least). She was also pretty feisty and considered a tad bit nuts, but not the emotionless robot that she comes off as on the show. The feisty Carol even suggested to Tyreese that they should have a foursome with Rick and Lori. Talk about something that would have raised the ratings!

2.  Merle Never Existed

Via Undead Walking

We all remember Merle, Daryl’s surly and rather unpleasant brother who was a problem with the group right from the beginning. He was the type of person who would rather see someone dead than happy. He seemed to enjoy other people’s pain. He seemed to be the kind of problem that was going to get members of the group killed on more than one occasion. It got to the point that Rick knew that Merle had to be dealt with. Merle's first big plot twist came at the rooftop of a shopping center when he was handcuffed and left for dead (even though he ended up cutting off his own hand and made it out alive). However, he did eventually turn into a zombie, and Daryl ultimately had to kill his own brother when he saw him wandering around in zombie form. How was this dramatic moment different from the comics? Well in the comics, Merle didn’t even exist, which makes sense since Daryl didn’t exist in the comic books either.

1.  Andrea Never Died

Via ComicBook.com

In the TV series, Andrea was the kind of character that annoyed fans because she often seemed emotionally unstable and a risk to the group. It’s the thing that drove fans nuts because although she talked a good game, she was practically scared of her own shadow. That opinion certainly didn’t change after she decided to move in with the Governor in Woodbury to start a new life outside of the group. After all, how could fans forgive a character who willingly wanted to start up a relationship with someone as sinister as the Governor? Her death on the series was pretty intense, as she ended up dying and then turning into a walker (which was her worst fear over all). These events just didn’t transpire in the comic books; in fact, Andrea never left the group and instead she became a sharpshooter. She was a central part of the storyline involving the prison and protected the group with her shooting skills.

Sources: Paste Magazine, Screenrant