The Walking Dead: Was disarming The Saviors the right thing to do?

It is fair for the other communities on The Walking Dead to not give The Saviors a way to defend themselves from whoever is hunting them?

The communities on The Walking Dead seem to be having a hard time deciding what to do with The Saviors and with The Sanctuary. The Sanctuary still isn’t self-sufficient, even though it’s now 19 months after Negan was captured. They’re relying on the other communities for food and supplies.

They’re also relying on the other communities for protection since Rick and the others have disarmed The Saviors. That leaves the entire community, especially The Saviors that are at the camp working on the bridge, in danger.

It’s clear why Rick and the other community leaders would decide to take The Saviors’ weapons – to prevent an armed insurrection that could lead to The Sanctuary breaking free or put The Saviors on a mission to rescue Negan. But is it humane to have The Saviors working out in the open where there are lots of walkers without giving them weapons they can use to defend themselves?

When the herd attacked the group at the bridge The Saviors felt more vulnerable than the others because they have to rely on whatever weapons they can find like tree branches or anything branch to protect themselves from walkers.

And now that it seems like something, or someone, is hunting The Saviors and killing or kidnapping any Saviors that break off from the group or go out on their own the decision to leave them unarmed seems kind of callous. People are a resource after all, so is it right to leave people in a vulnerable position?

The Case For Disarming The Saviors

From one perspective it seems that the decision to disarm The Saviors was absolutely the right decision. Even now The Saviors are making threats, causing trouble, and chafing against their dependence on the other communities. It’s safe to assume, given their cult like devotion to Negan, that if they had weapons some of them would be plotting ways to rescue their leader or at the very least take control of The Sanctuary again. And the communities don’t want a repeat of All Out War.

Keeping The Saviors dependent on the goodwill of the other communities is one way that the other communities can protect themselves and make sure that The Sanctuary plays ball with the rules that the other communities are trying to set up to create the basis for good will and trade among all the communities. Strategically it’s a good option. But could the ultimate goal of bringing The Sanctuary into the community group be accomplished without disarming them?

The Case For Not Disarming The Saviors

It could also be argued that Rick and the others are making a bad decision by keeping The Saviors and The Sanctuary vulnerable. The unrest among The Saviors could be due in part to their feelings of helplessness and inequality. If the rest of the communities had let them stay armed and expected them to contribute to the security and safety of the entire group then The Saviors might feel more like they were included as equals. Keeping them subservient and dependent isn’t creating a lot of cooperation between The Saviors and the rest of the communities.

From a tactical standpoint disarming The Saviors also means taxing the few resources that the other groups have available. Now they need to be responsible for the safety of The Sanctuary and of The Saviors who are working on the bridge. And they are failing miserably at keeping The Saviors working on the bridge safe.

As more and more Saviors go missing, and now that Justin has been killed, the remaining Saviors aren’t going to be happy about not being able to defend themselves. If Rick and the others really want to bring The Sanctuary and The Saviors into the fold so that they are contributing members of the community alliance then they need to give The Sanctuary the tools that they need to be self-reliant, which includes giving them their weapons back.

Rebuilding society is tough in The Walking Dead world, and it looks like Rick, Maggie, and the others are going to be struggling with the problem of how to balance practicality with humanity when it comes to residents of The Sanctuary.