Leadership in The Walking Dead: Comparing the Governor, Negan and Rick
Rick’s relationship to violence: a complicated story…
Even though he’s supposedly the “good guy”, Rick definitely has a potential for violence, even savagery, in him. Initially, Rick’s acts of violence are impulsive, committed out of rage or desperation. Rick has a very hard time carrying out deliberate, cold-headed acts of violence: in season 2, even after the group has had a vote, he cannot bring himself to execute young Randall. He also puts off the inevitable confrontation with Shane for as long as he can.
As the story progresses, though, it is noticeable that Rick becomes more prone to savage, impulsive acts of violence. This is particularly visible after the loss of the prison. The most striking example of Rick’s potential for savagery is, of course, when he rips off a man’s throat with his bare teeth – Joe, the leader of the Claimers, never saw this coming, and neither did we!
This moment is also a landmark, as it evidences how Rick increasingly rationalizes his own savagery, and presents it as a necessary evil. Even though he is visibly shaken after killing Joe, he still tells Daryl that it this savagery in him is what kept him and Carl safe. He later insists that they should kill all the Terminus people to make sure they never hurt anyone again. He uses the same line of argument when he goes on an angry rant in front of all of Alexandria after fighting with Pete.
This is also when Rick starts deliberately planning to solve problems with violence: at the hospital, his plan is to kill everyone there, until Tyreese and Daryl talk him out of it – he ends up killing Lamson anyway. In Alexandria, he suggests to Deanna that the best way to put an end to Pete’s abuse of Jessie is simply to kill him. And in season 6, although Daryl is the first to suggest attacking the Saviors, Rick is very quick to take up this plan and convince everyone that killing the entire group at the outpost is necessary – a decision that has dreadful consequences for all those involved.
Rick, however, is fundamentally different from both Negan and the Governor in at least one aspect: he shows very few signs of taking any sadistic pleasure in his acts of violence. He is slightly ashamed of his potential for savagery, though he sees it as a necessary evil. While still covered in Joe’s blood, he contradicts Daryl’s statement that this kind of mindless violence isn’t him. Referring to his fist fight with Tyreese at the prison, he says: “You saw what I did to Tyreese. I ain’t all of it, but that’s me”.