The Walking Dead Villains: Who ISN’T The Worst? Part 10
By Liam O'Leary
Dante
It’s not easy trying to defend Dante. As I said in my “Who’s The Worst?” article, the fact that he, so relatively soon after joining the Whisperers, decides to become a spy for Alpha, and, in spite of being taken in by a community of good people, and even befriending Siddiq, still carries on sowing discord and disease whenever possible, doesn’t do much for his reputation. It is tough defending a guy a like that.
That said, I think I found one thing (one thing) to defend Dante with: His remorse.
I’ve mentioned in previous “Who’s The Worst?” lists my disdain for people who commit lethal violence without remorse — It’s easily one the worst traits a person could have — so, I put a decent bit of value in a person who, even when doing truly despicable things, actually has remorse for doing them.
In the case of Dante, as he choked out poor Siddiq, you could hear him say to Siddiq “I didn’t want this! Not you!“. These are not the words of a man who revels in killing (Like Simon), or an utterly callous viper (like Martin…that guy), but, a person who actually cares about someone! It might not be caring to be saying such things as one strangles the person they’re saying it to but, well…we don’t have much to work with here, do we?
The fact remains that Dante didn’t want to kill Siddiq. I don’t know what his ultimate end game would have been, or, if he would have carried on spying for Alpha as the war progressed, but, I think I can say that, whatever it was, he’d hoped that killing Siddiq would not have been part of it.
Having remorse as you’re strangling your friend doesn’t absolve you of doing it, of course, but, it does mean that somewhere, deep down inside you, there is a human being in there who actually cares about other people, which, considering Dante’s group, says something.
I won’t say that Dante is a “good guy” per se, but, I think, had he been found by Alexandria before joining the Whisperers, he would have been. Sometimes…that’s all you can ask for.