I've been rewatching the first three seasons of the show because season 5 has really dulled the FTWD experience for me. Alicia was one of my favourite characters from season 2 onwards and I think the reboot completely killed her development and the interesting aspects of her personality. She evolved from a bratty teenager who was among the "kids" (Madison not telling her about the outbreak to "protect her", being left behind in the parking lot with Chris while everyone else went on the search for Nick at the end of S1...) to a young woman who learned to make the best of her circumstances in the middle of the apocalypse (i.e. her whole storyline at the ranch about trying to fit in while also coming to terms with the fact that she would never have the life she expected, Bible study, hooking up with Jake... remnants of the teen she used to be and trying to feel alive again).

What was really interesting about her is that she was never made to become a full on killing machine. She was human and made mistakes which were at times really annoying (giving away info about the Abigail and their location to a stranger on the radio) but also understandable given the timeline (only a few weeks/a month since the outbreak? Can't blame her for having hope still at this point). Contrary to Chris who went batshit crazy reaaaally fast, I think Alicia's evolution was one of the most realistic. Her arc with Madison was also really interesting and I wish their mother/daughter relationship could have been explored further later on.

In my opinion, the reboot didn't do her justice at all. By killing off her family, it turned her into a bland, emotionless killing machine and took away everything that made her interesting as a character. All she did was just kill and she rarely had second thoughts about doing so, until Morgan came along and turned her into his pacifist apprentice (honestly, couldn't they find a middle ground? What happened to "You don't get tired of surviving. You just push on'?). I liked her relationship with Strand at the beginning of season 6 and I was sort of hoping that they would form a nice duo but unfortunately it seems complicated. I'm waiting for 6B to come up with an interesting arc for her character but I don't think that's going to happen if she stays in Morgan's shadow. What do you think?