Carphia

Carphia is the het ship between Carl Grimes and Sophia Peletier from the The Walking Dead fandom.

TV Series
"I thought I'd find her. I mean me, that I'd be the one. Like, maybe she was hiding somewhere in a cave or a tree. She'd be safe and I'd find her and bring her back. He did the right thing, shooting her like that. I would've done it, too."

- Carl to Lori about Sophia's demise

Season 1
On the night of the military bombings in Atlanta, Carl and Sophia, being the only kids, are seen playing checkers together in the back of the Peletier's van while stuck in a traffic jam. Sophia tells Carl she thinks his "dad" is nice, but Carl corrects Sophia that Shane is not his dad. Throughout their time in the series together after this they are shown to study and play games with each other.

At the Atlanta camp, Carl and Sophia are playing in a wooded area before noticing a walker eating a deer. They scream and call for their moms while running back to the camp. Carl and Sophia are later seen studying with the help of their mothers. When Shane asks the kids if they want to help clean some fish. Carl excitedly calls Sophia to come help.

On the way to the CDC, after they leave Jim, Carl and Sophia are sat next to each other in the RV, looking sadly out the window. At the CDC, Carl and Sophia are playing checkers in the recreation room. Carol tells them it's bed time and states that this might be the first time they might get real sleep.

Season 2
After escaping the CDC and heading back to Atlanta, Lori reminisces on a time where she, Rick and Carl went to the Grand Canyon. But, since Carl was so young he doesn't remember the trip and asks if they can go again now that he's older. Sophia then asks if she could go too, to which Lori assures her they won't go without her or Carol, to which Sophia smiles and lays her head on Carol's shoulder.

After Sophia goes missing on the highway, Carl is adamant that he's going to search and find her. While searching for her, he gets shot in the stomach. After Carl wakes up from the surgery, the first thing he asks is if Sophia is okay. Rick lies and tells him she's fine so he could get some rest, Lori later tells him the truth. After he recovers from his wound, Carl sneaks a gun from the RV and when he gets caught he says he wanted to defend the camp and look for Sophia. Carl gets annoyed with Shane's mentality surrounding Sophia's disappearance, saying she isn't dead and that they'll stay at the farm until they find her.

After Rick, Hershel, and Jimmy come back to the barn with walkers, Shane gets irritated and shoots at the walkers in vital areas to prove they aren't actually alive, he then busts open the barn full of walkers. After they think they've killed them all, Sophia emerges from the barn, as a walker. Carl is seen crying while Lori holds him and Rick puts Sophia down. Shortly after, Lori and Carl are sitting next to the barn. Carl states that he wanted to be the one to find Sophia, and that maybe she was hiding in a cave or tree. But, then Carl expresses that he thinks Rick did the right thing by shooting Sophia and that he would've done the same thing.

Carl is seen mourning Sophia at her grave. Carol attempts to cheer him up by assuring him that they'll see Sophia in heaven again one day and that she's in a better place, to which Carl denies, saying she's not in a better place and that heaven is another lie, he calls Carol an idiot before storming off.

Comic Series
"I love you, Carl Grimes."

- Sophia to Carl in Issue #193.

Compendium One
It’s unknown how Sophia and Carl first meet, but they eventually end up both living in the Atlanta camp. After Rick arrives at the camp, Sophia asks Carl if he thinks her dad will come back to life too. But he says his dad was never dead and he was just sick, which saddens Sophia that her father is dead forever. In the RV leaving Atlanta, Lori swears which makes Carl tell her she owes him a quarter while Sophia laughs.

At the farm, Carl wakes up after surgery from being shot. Carol brings Sophia in saying she wants to see him. Carol comments on how cute they look together and Tyreese says they should let them talk and they leave. Sophia asks if it hurt and Carl says he doesn’t remember but he’s probably going to have a ‘big scar’. Sophia says that’s cool and scars are sexy, but Carl calls out she doesn’t even know what that means and she admits she thinks it’s a grown-up word for pretty. Carl says scars aren’t pretty but she just says she’s glad he’s okay and kisses him on the cheek, to which he wipes his cheek and exclaims that that’s gross.

In the RV while the adults are clearing out the prison, Carl tells Chris to stop swearing so much since he isn’t an adult yet. After Chris calls him a brat, Carl takes Sophia to the other side of the RV to play Go Fish. Sophia asks if he has a king of spades card, and does he want to be her boyfriend. He calls her disgusting and tells her to go fish. Later at the prison courtyard, Carl takes back what he said and says he’ll be her boyfriend. He says he thinks she’s pretty and they can hold hands, this excites Sophia and she kisses him on the cheek. He wipes his cheek stating that he said they could only hold hands but then looks down and smiles.

Standing in front of a fence crawling with walkers, holding hands, Carl asks Sophia if she’s scared of them. She says she used to be but now she just feels sorry for them because they look sad, Carl agrees. Later, Sophia asks if it’s possible his dad’s hand will grow back because she read that lizards tails could grow back. But Carl says that’s impossible and animals can do things humans can’t do, like how birds can fly but his dad can’t. She says he doesn’t have to be mean and he apologizes asking if she’s still his girlfriend and she says yes.

After Carol commits suicide, Sophia and Carl are holding hands at her funeral. Back in the prison Sophia is in shock, Carl gives her his condolences but she doesn’t respond. Lori tells him she's very upset and to give her some time and Rick says she doesn’t want to talk right now. Carl tells her it’s okay and she doesn’t have to talk if she doesn’t want to and he still likes her. Later that day, Sophia’s in the courtyard still shocked, Carl asks if she wants to come play to which she still doesn’t respond. He says if she does feel like playing to just tell him and kisses her on the cheek.

Compendium Two
After the prison falls, back at Hershel’s farm, Sophia is sitting on the floor. When Carl greets her and says he missed her, she doesn’t respond and looks annoyed. He tries to reassure her that it’s okay since they both have dead moms, and he knows how she feels now. Sophia says her mom isn’t dead and she’s crying in the other room, Carl states that’s Maggie, and not her mom. But, Sophia gets angry saying that she is her mom and she’s not dead. Carl, looking a little disturbed, asks her if she remembers him to which she says ‘of course’ and that he’s her ‘most favoritest person in the world’ she then hugs him and tells him she loves him. Carl confusingly hugs her back. It cuts to Carl telling Rick that Sophia’s crazy and Rick says most girls are at her age and he’ll get used to it, but Carl tells him she’s really crazy and she doesn’t even remember her mom. Rick tells him she lost both her parents and is being raised by strangers and to not be so hard. Carl apologizes and says he thought it was weird but he still likes her.

Sophia is trick or treating with the other Alexandrian kids along with Carl, but Carl thinks it stupid and leaves early. They later read a book together. After the walkers invade Alexandria and everyone’s holed up in one home, Sophia remarks she’s scared and Carl tells her not to be and they’ll be fine. The group splits up and they hug and say goodbye. After Carl wakes up from his coma after being shot in the eye, the two are reading together and Sophia asks if his eye hurts. Carl says it never did and Sophia says she feels bad because nothing bad ever happens to her. He asks if she’s serious because both her mom and dad took their own lives and Glenn and Maggie are just people who took her in. Which he immediately apologizes for and she says it’s okay and she knows they’re dead, but it’s easier to pretend they aren’t.

Compendium Three
After Glenn’s death, Maggie attacks Rick causing Carl to pull his gun on her. Sophia bites his arm and tackles him and has to be pulled off of him. The next day Sophia asks if he was going to shoot her mom and he says no and he’s sorry about her dad. She says everyone in her family dies and then asks if he thinks it’s because of her, he wraps his arm around her and tells her that’s just the way it is. Later that day, they hug and part ways.

Some time passes and Rick brings some members of Alexandria to Hilltop. While Carl is eating in the corner, Sophia greets him and jokingly asks if he remembers her. He says of course and makes a dig about how Sophia tried to forget Carol existed. Sophia says she was younger and scared and calls him mean. She says doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. He tries to apologize but she goes to eat with her other friends.

After the All Out War, there’s a timeskip where the two are now preteenangers. Sophia protects a kid from being attacked by bullies and gets suddenly startled when Carl comes up from behind her. She accidentally punches him in the face and immediately starts apologizing. Carl sarcastically says it’s nice to see her too and she tries to apologize again but gets mad when he rubs it in saying 'it’s not like he only has one eye left'. He moves his bags in Hilltop and Sophia asks if he wants to play chess. He says he has more bags but he will after. She asks how long he’s planning to stay there and he says he’s moving it. Sophia is later gloating about how she’s just better than him, but Carl says he blames Earl and the craftsmanship was bad. After Carl finishes blacksmithing, Sophia tells him he smells bad. He agrees and she asks if he wants to get dinner. She makes a comment afterwards about how long it took him to ‘pretty up’.

The two are sitting on a picnic cloth reminiscing about all their time together, and Sophia makes a comment about how the people at Hilltop would freak out if they knew what a wimp he used to be. Carl doesn’t get to respond as the bullies from earlier crack him over the head with a brick. They talk about how they’re going to teach Sophia a lesson and Carl runs away. The bullies taunt Sophia saying they have a cover story for how they’ll get away with attacking her, and they start beating her up. Carl comes back behind them with a shovel and almost kills them. He has to walk Sophia back to Maggie. In the infirmary Carl is holding Sophia’s hand. Tammy and Morton are yelling about how Carl nearly killed her son and Carl tells them they would’ve hurt Sophia more and he wasn’t going to apologize for saving a friend and tells them to go screw themselves. After Sophia wakes up she gives Carl his glasses that fell off during the attack. Sophia thanks him and they hug and promises nothing bad will happen as long as he’s around and she says she’ll hold on to that. Later, Sophia goes to check on him in his room and he’s gone.

Compendium Four
Sophia is later watching Carl and Lydia, who’ve now gotten into a relationship, hug. That night, Carl comes out of his tent to see Sophia still up. He asks if she’s not tired and she says no because she takes care of her baby brother all the time and this is her only quiet time, but she says she misses her friend. Carl asks what she means by that and she says they’ve been together since the start and they were there for each other through most of it, but after Andrea died they didn’t even talk about it. He apologizes and says it feels like betraying Lydia to spend time with another girl and asks if that makes sense, but Sophia says it doesn’t and she wants to talk to Carl as a person and not whatever it is he does with Lydia, she asks if they can talk more and he says he’d like that. The next day, Sophia drops her stuff, when Carl hurries to help her Lydia glares at them. When Sophia discovers Maggie and Dante together, Carl asks if the rumors are true and she confirms, she asks how he reacted to Rick and Andrea getting together and he says he just wanted them to be happy. She says she guesses he’s way more mature than she is, and he jokes that was never up for debate.

Sophia catches Carl going to the bathroom from the hallway where Lydia’s room is at and she jokes he’s having more sex than her mom and Dante, which he smugly remarks it’s not so bad for him. Sophia goes on a rant about how she doesn’t think she’ll ever lose her virginity since all the boys at Hilltop suck. Carl keeps suggesting boys but she denies all of them before saying she needs someone here and stares at him before Carl awkwardly excuses himself. While eating, a new boy, Josh, asks if he can sit with Sophia and she says he can. Carl gives her the thumbs up while smirking and she rolls her eyes. Sophia and Josh later go on a date and Carl’s smiling thinking of it. Lydia asks what he’s smiling about and he says it’s just Sophia. Lydia gets annoyed and Carl says it isn’t like that, he’s just happy for her. Lydia accuses him of loving her and he says he does, but as a friend and reassures her what they have he’ll never have with Sophia.

Twenty-five years after Rick’s death, the two are in their late 30s. It reveals they are married and have a six-year-old daughter, Andrea. A walker gets on the lawn and Carl kills it, something Sophia sees from the window and she runs outside, but Carl reassures her he already killed it. She asks why he didn't use a gun because she doesn't like him being close to them. Carl worries if Andrea saw it, but Sophia says she’s still in bed and doesn’t wake up unless she’s dragged out of bed. That night, they talk about Rick. After Carl’s trial, the two are riding on horses back home and Sophia tells him to slow down, she says she’s on his side and he says he knows but wishes she wasn’t the only one. She asks if she’s not enough for him, and he says she’s almost too much for him. They race to Andrea’s school, not before Sophia jokes about him losing something else today. The next night, Carl sleeps in Lydia’s tent and she makes digs about their previous relationship. She makes a remark about how he sleeps with his eyepatch on, and says she never made him hide it and celebrated it and she would never ask him to cover it up. Carl snaps at her saying Sophia doesn't make him hide it and that he hides it for Andrea since she doesn't know what life was like. When Carl comes back home Sophia yells at him because he’ll be arrested for his attack on Hershel’s walkers. While in custody, she apologizes for yelling at him, he says it’s okay and he was being stupid, to which she agrees, but now there’s more important things to worry about. Sophia greets him at the exit of the courthouse after the trial and they walk home.

At the house, Sophia asks if he ever thought they'd ever think they'd make it there and says there was probably never a time where people appreciated what they had more than now. Carl says all he knows is he really appreciates what he has now, and Sophia tells him she loves him.

Season 3

 * While Daryl is feeding Judith, he asks Carl if she has a name yet. The first name Carl suggests is 'Sophia'.

Fanon
Carphia is a smaller pairing in the Walking Dead fandom. On AO3, Carphia is the most written ship for Sophia. There are currently 70+ written works.

The pairing is particularly small with TV series fans. With Sophia being in only four episodes the two have little on-screen interactions and those interactions can be read as strictly platonic. Whereas in the Comic series the two as young children instantly form a ‘relationship’, likely because they were the only boy and girl of the same age, leading to the pair being mostly popular with comic fans. Other ships involving either of the two are favored more such as Carnid, and even Rarl, with the former being canon. Comic series wise, it rivals popularity with Carlydia, with some saying Sophia and Carl ending up together in the end was just fan service, but nevertheless is still an ending enjoyed by a lot of people.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * In a deleted scene taking place during What Lies Ahead, the group revisits The Vatos. While a walker shuffles by, Carl and Sophia are seen holding hands. Carl holds his finger to his lips while mouthing "It's okay" in an attempt to calm Sophia down.
 * While Carl was at Sophia's grave, he was holding bullets. He later sneaks a gun from Daryl's bike and finds a walker out in the woods and points the gun at it angrily. Though never stated, it could imply he did this because of Sophia's death.