The Walking Dead Villains: Who’s The Worst? Part 8

Negan

It’s a good thing that I, for the most part, look at a characters’ actions exclusively within each season, or, Negan would be a shoe-in for most irredeemable this season.

As it is, I only have his actions this season to go on. Luckily for him, he spent the better part of this season on the defensive. That does not, however, mean he’s managed to escape notice for this discussion.

I think the best place for me to start is with his counter-attack, specifically against Alexandria.

Now, this isn’t about Negan’s plan to kill Rick. If I were Negan, I’d probably want to kill Rick, too.

No, this about what Negan did when he realized Alexandria wasn’t going to give Rick to him. In retaliation for this non-compliance, Negan ordered his troops to bombard Alexandria.

Initially, I was thinking to myself “Oh, well…he only blew up houses. Houses can be rebuilt”. But, then, after further review, I was reminded that Negan’s threat was to bombard Alexandria — Regardless of whether the houses had people in them — in the event Rick wasn’t handed over.

…Huh.

Negan was prepared to kill countless people, many of them civilians, just to get his hands on Rick. I don’t think I need to explain that any further, do you?

Of course, the real reason Negan’s on this list is, honestly, a very simple one: He decided to introduce biological warfare.

When Eugene informed him that he couldn’t provide Negan with enough bullets for the planned shakedown visit of Hilltop, Negan improvised. He ordered all of The Saviors to taint all of their weapons with the most abundant resource they had: Walker blood. In so doing, they turned those weapons into legitimate weapons of mass destruction.

Now, to be fair, Negan simply wanted to threaten The Alliance with the aforementioned WMDs, but, the fact remains, he was the one who introduced them. Any mass destruction they wrought is, at least partially, his responsibility.

There is a reason why things like biological weapons are illegal in war, because you can slaughter hundreds, even thousands, with one use. Sure, you’re not likely to get those kind of numbers in a zombie apocalypse, but, you get the idea.

Honestly, I have, ever since The Governor first used walkers as weapons in Season Three, considered the use of biological weapons the most heinous thing someone can do in a zombie apocalypse, and my opinion hasn’t changed. It is despicable. Period.

The only thing that stops me from declaring Negan the worst by a landslide is the fact that his intent was simply to use these weapons as a threat. His pragmatic approach to people, that they’re a valuable resource, ensured that using them was something he didn’t want to do. In fact, he only decided to kill everyone after a certain someone’s failed assault got half his troops killed, and even then, he was not happy about it.

The same, however, can not be said for…