The biggest loss in the ZA is lost innocence

It is interesting you bring this up because yesterday I was wondering how Lori would have fared if she had survived. Would she have hung onto her humanity like Glenn? That was an important thing for her... not just for her but for Carl. She talked about how he is growing cold. I think Carl would have been in a strugge to have his mom watching over him and to endure all he is enduring.

He also shot a young man in the head at the prison. That to me was when Carl really went dark... watching Lori die definitely was traumatic and there was no way he was going to recover from that emotionally... but when he shot the boy and had no remorse or empathy for it I thought that just showed where Carl was going. He seems to have come back from that extreme and become more pragmatic.

Carl is a favorite of mine and I feel a lot of empathy for him now that his disfigurement has happened on the show. Carl has already grown acustomed to the people around him side-eyeing him and thinking him a "monster" for killing Jody at the battle for the prison in 'Welcome To The Tombs'  . Hershel was clear about his feelings with Carl and I am sure that others worried about Carl during the six months of his "rehabilitation" between seasons 304.

He wasn't allowed to use a weapon, worked closely with Rick on the gardens and livestock care, and was clearly in disgrace. As new people came to the prison, I'm sure they heard things about Carl and possibly cut a wide berth around him.

Carl was no longer a child, able to be satisified with 'Story Time' like Patrick, and in fact was asked by Carol (a rare mistake on her part IMO) to actively keep secret from RIck how she was teaching the children to use knives.

Let me be clear- I think Carol's teaching was great and necesary for the kids, no doubt. But asking a child to keep a big, potentially controversial secret from his only parent complicated that relationship until Carl confessed to Rick. I think the kids should have been taught defense and knife use- openly and with the parent's knowledge. But, the parents at the prison seemed more invested in trying to give those children - Like, Molly, Lizzie and Mika- a sense of some vestiage of childhood so likely some parents would not have agreed.

So Carl has always, after Sophia's death, been an outsider in the very group to which he belonged in some ways. After the prison and on the road, he was an adult in a child's body in many ways, which remained the case when he got to Alexandria. Mikey, (who disappeared after Nichilas' death lol) Ron and Enid were still trying to be teens with video games, art projects and more. Enid also didn't fit into the typical teen mold because of all she has done to survive after the death of her parents. Another reason she and Carl are well matched.

Losing his eye thanks to Ron's gunshot has left Carl now with a huge disfigurement which separates him from most other people. He now has some aspects of the "monster" he once described himself to Michonne as being. Sure, the ASZ folks and Rick's group love Carl or like him and are used to his face.

But remember when he opted not to go to Hilltop the first time saying he didn't want his face to be an issue- it shows he is aware of how much his disfigurement separates him from other people. On some level, he has been forever changed in a way which most people find more horrible than his simply losing an arm or a leg.  He is likely to be defined by hi s disfigurement- any ne with a disability knows how hard it becomes when some limitation or difference defines a person more than their personality and who they are on the inside.

In the comic, he finds a young woman who has a fetish aboout his eye socket so it works out for him for a while. Enid seems tt have no problems accepting Carl as he is. But strangers will stare and whisper his story amongst themselves or he will be known as "that kid/guy who got shot in the face and lost his eye" from now on so is isolation continues in the way- of his being defined by his disfigurement in some instances.  Eventually in the comic, Carl works through this is many ways through his continued stoicism and determination to build a new life for himself away from Rick and via his blacksmith training- work usually done alone and away from others btw. So for me, Carl's biggest final loss of innocence comes with the accidental loss of his eye and part of his face.