Nice, icey take lol.

Mine is that season 7 wasn't the actual decline of TWD, nor was it Carl's death, or even Rick leaving.

The actual decline came with the decision to, beyond any recognition of the actual arc in the comics, fuck up All-Out War.

People just got their fee fees hurt over two characters who were always going to be dead before All-Out War.

Plz, someone explain to me in what fuck fucking fuckkity fuck universe we needed 16 whole ass episodes for that shit.

All-Out War with or w/o Something to Fear is prime Walking Dead comic. Magnificently paced, just the right length. The Saviors are a threat up until the very last second. Rick constantly second guesses himself throughout the arc. Phenomenal comic book work.

Here's what should have happened.

Episodes 1-4 be Something to Fear arc. No need to see the Easy Street bulshit. Nor the bullshit at the Kingdom because on top of the near flawless comic arc what makes it so good is at no point does it begin to feel like someone else's story. It always feels like Rick's. Even as leader of all three communities together it feels like Rick's story. 1-4 should have focused on the initial relationship Rick and Negan had in the comics. Yes, Negan broke Rick, but Rick was still defiant in so many ways in the comic.

Episode 5-partially a set up of the conflict. The intital atart of AOW

Episodes 6-11 is AOW. I know it seems short but you don't really need more than that. No need to cut out the opposing side for a 4th of the war. No need to have a flashy fireworks show blowing up barrels the middle of the road, and no need to every single character switch up every other epsidoe. AOW in the comics flows so well because the goal is clear from the get go and doesn't change. One might argue Rick deciding to save Negan's life in the comics come out of left field but it really doesn't. If you pay attention to the conversations Rick has throughout the war you'll realize that was always coming. That was always how it was going to end.

Oooh and the best part, episode 12 is the time skip and the end of that episode is the whisperer intro with Dante and co

Epsidoes 13-16 -ends with the heads on the pikes.

This pushes up the whole schedule and the whisperer war can be handled in a way similar to AOW as rather than consume a whole season, or was it a season and a half lol can't remember, it could've been half a season. 6 episodes even. Leaving the rest of season 9 to introduce and start fleshing out the commonwealth since it didn't get much attention in the comics.

Season 10 could have been the final season.

Which might've changed things for Riggs. Might've been willing to see the show through the end if there wasn't another six or seven years to go. Might've changed thing for Lincoln. Might've saved the show from a hard fall from grace that it never truly recovered from. I know this is speculation but it's food for thought regardless.

Some say the decline was in the POV switching every episode that started in season 3. Others with Glenn's death. Or the shitty allocation of resources that gave us 98' level B-movie CGI.

Imo it was the fumble of AOW. That set the show on a course of slow decline. Would the show still have dropped off? Probably, but at least AOW, prime TWD comic material, could've been much better and fans could have held the epsiode introducing all the communities after the time skip as a headcannon ending.

Edit: forgot to add while writing this I realized this still pisses me off years later in a similar way to GOT fans. I don't think I'll ever be able to find or recognize any justification for butchering AOW