The Walking Dead Villains: Who’s The Worst, Part 6

Negan

I…I don’t even know how to begin this, really.

Negan, even in the brief window in which we actually see him, he absolutely commands terror. Need proof? Go back and look at the featured picture for this article. Go ahead and tell me that if he were really standing before you with that look on his face, that you wouldn’t be in “Pee-pee Pants City”.

Go ahead. I’ll wait…

You can’t. Because he’s that scary.

Of course, I’m not here to talk about how scary he is, but, rather, whether or not he is the most despicable villain of season 6, and, calling him “villain” is 100% accurate: No character since The Governor has posed such a looming, imposing threat to The Group as Negan has, and, in that role, he has done very well.

How well?

Well, let me put it this way: All of the violent, vicious, brutal, despicable things the The Saviors did (Or that we heard about) throughout season 6, were either done for or done by Negan.

The sixteen year old kid from the Hilltop The Saviors murdered? That was because of Negan’s policy.

Bud’s attempt to kill Abraham and Sasha? Also Negan’s policy.

Denise being killed? Again, Negan’s policy.

Whoever it is from The Group (I honestly can’t guess who at this point) Negan killed? …I mean, do I need to spell it out?

Even the things The Saviors do that aren’t directly under his orders are the result of the environment he creates beneath him.

While The Governor was a megalomaniac, and The Wolves were like a cult, Negan operates much more akin to a mob boss: He rules by fear, he uses violence and intimidation to extort supplies from other groups around him, and has little compunctions about killing people to ensure that intimidation.

And this doesn’t just apply to those he’s extorting, it applies to his own troops.

Look at Dwight. He doesn’t look like a Batman villain by accident, who do you think gave him that?

If you think the perpetrator’s name rhymes with “vegan”, you would be correct.

What do you think that does to the rest of his underlings?

If you answered: Scares them into doing whatever they think he wants, up to and including murder, you would be correct again.

You see, Negan and The Saviors could have bartered protection for food and supplies with the Hilltop (And whatever other communities they may be extorting) just as The Group did without killing a member of their community to do it.

But, the thing is…I don’t think they wanted to.

Look at the picture on the right, what do you see? A collection of about a dozen pictures of people The Saviors executed in order to begin extorting people, either there for the purpose of putting the fear of God into The Saviors, to show what could happen to them if they didn’t obey, or as trophies, reminding them of all the groups they’ve forced into submission.

Either way, it shows a lust for violence that seems to go beyond a simple desire to ensure The Saviors are fed and safe. It suggests that they do it, and Negan does it…because they like doing it.

While we haven’t seen very much of Negan yet, what we’ve seen of his group shows us more than enough to determine that he’s someone who loves himself “a bit of the ol’ ultraviolence”; a person who isn’t just a man made violent to adapt to a violent world, but a man who enjoys violence for violence’s sake.

It doesn’t get much scarier than that…

Now, before, this would be where I’d include a poll, ask you who you thought was the most irredeemable villain of season six.

Sadly, I can’t do that anymore, so, you’re just going to have to ask yourself: Who is the most irredeemable villain of season six of The Walking Dead?

I mean, the easy answer is Negan, but, is it the correct one? It could easily be The Wolves, hell, they were a band of crazed barbarians who killed at least 15 Alexandrians and would have killed more had Carol not been there.

Or, why not Paula? She killed, by all accounts, an innocent man just because she was angry with what the world has become.

Do you agree? Disagree? Do you think I left anyone out? Anyone I should have left out? Let me know in the comments!

Next: The Walking Dead Villains: Who's The Worst, Part 5

And, of course, if you enjoyed this, and want to hear my ideas on how to survive a zombie apocalypse, you can always pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also find it on Kindle here, and, on iTunes here!