i am ready to be bombarded with comments eating me alive for this, but i don’t care. i think this fandom is extremely critical of lori, in particular, and her relationship with shane. let me break it down for everyone and plead my case before everyone runs to disagree.
firstly, in the twd verse they do not have zombie media, unlike us, they had no idea what was going on. absolutely zero clue about reanimated corpses coming alive and eating people. in the midst of all this brand new chaotic news, explosions, fire, gunshots, evacuations, lori is alone. she is all alone with her young son carl because rick is in the hospital with a gun shot wound, while the literal world was collapsing.
shane walsh, rick’s best friend, who lori is familiar with, comes to their rescue, like a knight in shining armor. he comes to lori and carl’s aid and helps them get to safety. bravo shane. he eventually tells her rick is dead, which he had every right to assume with how the events at the hospital were on a downward spiral. and let’s be honest, rick surviving that is unrealistic as fuck. he’s lucky he’s the main character.
anyways, now shane, lori, and carl are all living with the atlanta survivors by the quarry. lori now grieving her husband in this new, broken world and carl grieving his father. shane quickly becomes a new father-like figure to carl, beginning to fill the void rick left in carl’s heart.
on the other hand, what three unhealthy coping mechanisms do grieving people turn to? immense loads of work, drugs/alcohol, and sex/new relationships. lori and shane both chose the last option. it’s assumed that they started their relationship roughly 2 months after rick’s presumed death at the hospital, which is extremely fast, but again, this is not under normal circumstances whatsoever.
the remaining survivors, including lori and shane, are now prey in the new world, danger lurking everywhere, food and supplies are scarce. they never knew when their last days were. their relationship was more so a trauma bonding moment, rather than a cold, calculating affair to disrespect rick. i also think lori saw how shane was quickly becoming a new father figure to carl and that played a huge part in their relationship developing. she was also able to find emotional comfort in shane, again with him coming to rescue her and carl he immediately wore the “i will protect lori and carl forever” badge with honor. it was only a matter of time before they began to date.
in conclusion, it’s unfair to say that lori “cheated” on rick. she didn’t. the moment rick came back, she ended it with shane. did she send mixed signals along the way? well yes, but she never tried to rekindle with shane when rick was back, lori stayed loyal to rick. i just think many people would be shocked how skewed their own values and morals
would also become in an apocalyptic setting.