25 most polarizing The Walking Dead characters

17. Spencer Monroe

Spencer Monroe wasn’t disliked because he was evil, like Gareth or some of the other villains. Spencer was disliked, and therefore polarizing because he was a boot-licking opportunist who never liked Rick and held him responsible for the death of his family.

Before Rick and the group showed up at Alexandria, Spencer had a pretty nice life, or as nice as it could be in the apocalypse world. His mother and father were the leaders of the Alexandria community so he had a privileged place in Alexandria. He had his brother and some friends. Not too much was really expected of him, and he got to reap the rewards of other people’s work. And because he had a relatively easy life that was interrupted by the arrival of Rick and the others, he did whatever he could to undermine Rick whenever possible.

It’s easy to see why Spencer had such hatred for Rick. After Rick and the others arrived, Rick essentially took over and in very short order all of the members of his family were killed. But instead of embracing the chance to survive, Spencer chose to go behind Rick’s repeatedly to try and get someone stronger to kill Rick. His efforts to stage a coup in Alexandria culminated with him taking a bottle of liquor to Negan when Negan was in Alexandria waiting for Rick and telling Negan that he should be installed as the leader in Alexandria.

Spencer told Negan that if Negan would make him the leader in Alexandria that he would work with The Saviors and with Negan. But Negan saw Spencer for the spineless cowardly opportunist that he was and killed him.