The Walking Dead: What a Tragic Character Death Says About Future Generations

The Walking Dead universe has had many short-lived characters, but one character death solidified a harrowing message about future generations.

The Walking Dead series has come to an end, with the final season having aired in 2022. However, despite the main series ending, spinoff series are being released in 2023 to answer many remaining questions fans may have. One such spinoff that debuted in June is The Walking Dead: Dead City -- which centers on the characters Maggie Rhee and Negan Smith -- while Fear the Walking Dead is set to conclude its eighth and final season in late 2023.

Throughout The Walking Dead series, many characters were introduced and lost. Fan favorite characters such as Daryl Dixon and Rick Grimes continue to live during the apocalypse, and audience members will be able to watch them progress through their own spinoffs. Other beloved characters such as Glenn Rhee and Hershel Green unfortunately did not have the same outcome, having been killed off at some point during the series. But there is one character whose death had more of an impact than fans may have realized, and is often overlooked: Noah.

Why Noah Mattered In The Walking Dead

Noah wasn't the first young character to die in The Walking Dead. Beth Greene was another beloved character who was killed off and her death deeply impacted the group. It was because of Beth that the group met Noah, so after losing one young individual, another joined the family. Noah held the same optimism that Beth had, especially in maintaining hope for the group, even when things were looking bleak. Both Beth and Noah were deemed the weakest in the group, yet they managed to prove themselves reliable and stronger than they appeared.

It's important for post-apocalyptic shows to introduce younger characters because they can give hope for the audience, as well as the group, that a future generation will rise in a world ruled by the dead. Other than Carl and Judith, Noah was one of the last surviving teenagers in the group. When the group found Alexandria, there was a false sense of hope that everything would be okay because they found this community. But even when there seemed to be sanctity and a chance for survival, that didn't mean that all is good. Noah had wanted to help Alexandria grow stronger, but he was sadly killed off not long after making this plan.

The Impact Noah's Death Had in the Walking Dead

In The Walking Dead Season 4, Noah told the group about the community he had come from, how it had walls and houses, and he invited the group to come with him. Upon arrival, however, they realized that the complex was lost, having been supposedly overrun by "The Wolves." After losing his home and family, when Noah and the group finally found Alexandria, there was hesitancy and uncertainty about joining the community. However, Noah ended up meeting with the lead man, Reg, who built the walls. Noah asked if they could start meeting every morning, so he could learn the architecture and be able to maintain the walls to Alexandria. Toward the end of the same episode, Noah was killed off by a group of walkers in front of Glenn's eyes. Thus, the future that Noah wanted to keep the group safe and work with Reg to keep the walls up was gone the same day.

The group had already lost so much by that point, but Noah was only 17 years old when he was killed off. He was the same age as Beth at the time of her death. Having lost two young, hopeful characters so close together in time, the group began breaking and losing themselves. For instance, Glenn was close with Noah and looked out for him. After being killed due to another character's ignorance and lack of experience, Glenn was so infuriated that he almost killed him. Glenn was one of the few characters who had been lucky enough to not have taken another human life by that point, since his morals didn't allow him to do so. But after having witnessed a close friend die right in front of his eyes (as well as being so young), Glenn almost lost himself and beat the character nearly to death.

Even though Noah did not last a full season in The Walking Dead and his death is often overlooked or forgotten, his presence meant a lot more to the group than the series explained. His death was referenced for several episodes, and a lot of the group members mentioned how impacted they were. If not for Judith (as well as the other children born and raised in the post-apocalyptic world), any hope for a future generation would've been long gone.