The Walking Dead: Negan should help watch over Judith

One of the most unlikely bonds on The Walking Dead is that of Negan and Judith. With Michonne gone, Negan should help watch over her.

No matter what people think of Negan on The Walking Dead, the former leader of the Saviors has made it clear that he has a soft spot for the Grimes children. The community will certainly care for Judith and RJ, but there’s one man who should be front and center when it comes to watching over them: Negan.

Now that Danai Gurira has said goodbye to The Walking Dead [for now?] it means that Michonne is gone and the Grimes children are without their mother. Daryl, Carol, Ezekiel, Aaron, Jerry and Nabila and even Alden are all there to make sure that Judith and RJ have what they need, but Negan has already demonstrated that he’s willing to risk it all for Judith, so he should be included in her list of guardians.

Negan put his life on the line for Judith back in season 9 when he braved the blizzard to rescue Judith and Dog. Now that he’s back in Alexandria after killing Alpha, he needs a job. Caring for the Grimes children, and perhaps even watching over the children in the community in general, might make a good role for him when he’s not helping the others to fight the whisperers.

Judith and Negan bonded while he was in the jail cell. While it looked like he was nothing more than a glorified math tutor for her, in reality he was the only adult (aside from her mother) who treated the precocious child with respect. Negan knows that Judith is more than capable of taking care of business, but he is also wise to the world around them to the extent that he knows children are always going to be at risk.

Another major benefit to having Negan watching over Judith and RJ is that he knows Alpha was willing to kill her own daughter to get what she wanted. If that’s the case, then Beta probably holds the same philosophy as well. Knowing that even the children are at risk could make him fight even harder to protect them from the Whisperers.

Many fans will be quick to point out that Negan was about to kill Carl at one point to send a lesson to Rick. He was going to chop his hand off, too. But he didn’t. Since Shiva intervened we will never know if Negan would have pulled back from that fatal blow or not. What remains clear is that Negan has said many times that he does not kill children, and after this bout of leaf-turning it seems like now is a good time to let him prove himself there, too.

And let’s face it: Seeing Judith and Negan fighting side by side would be a lot of fun, wouldn’t it?

Only time will tell what Negan’s role will be moving forward, but it makes sense to have him watching over Judith and RJ to make sure that they’re around when Rick and Michonne return.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.