I AGREE and will be very upset if thats how things turn out this Sunday. One thing you didn't mention is that I feel the idea to wait until next season to find out who dies via Negan's bat is a shameful ploy to get higher ratings for next seasons premiere. They can make much higher profit sell ad space for a 90 minute (Im guessing) premiere if millions will be turing in to see the guaranteed death of a main character. Just look at what they did with Glenn under the dumpsters this season.... UGH!
I respectfully disagree with you both.. here's why:
When Negan first showed up in the comic, he kills Glenn and we hated him for it. We immediately wanted revenge. It's all we cared about. We wanted Negan dead.
Rick tries, time and time again, to exact that revenge but Negan out-does him every time. Eventually we realize that we're dealing with a far more adept 'bad-guy' than we've ever have before. We start to learn more about Negan and we realize that he has his reasons for doing what he does. For many of us, he is now our favorite character.
He went from being the character I hated the most, to being my favorite. That's a pretty impressive turn for a 'villain' to make.
If Negan kills one of our favorite characters this Sunday, it will be painful. However, we will have 6 months for our rage too cool and our pain to heal. Whereas, if he kills on Sunday, but we don't know who.. We'll spend 6 months living in tension. And then when the season premier hits, we'll see that death. We'll lose that character, we'll crave that revenge, and we'll have 8 weeks of episodes to watch Rick try to obtain it and fail miserably.
I feel it's important, for Negan's character development, that we don't lose any of our 'anger momentum' after he kills whoever it is that he will kill.
Agree to disagree....