Quote:I've not been overly impressed with Negan as the villain. Don't misunderstand, I have enjoyed the actor playing the part and this season is by far the best season since they left the prison. But, I think Negan is just a generic evil guy, there is no depth at all to his character. They just pile on evil thing after evil thing to make him look, really evil. It's almost to a point of just waiting on him to shoot a dog to [BAD WORD REMOVED] off animal lovers. No rhyme or reason just "Hey, look at that dog...POW!...I shot him and he wasn't even doing anything, what do you think of that?" Eventually, someone is gonna turn on him because he constantly reminds people what a bad person he is, and for no real reason except to make people feel they have to obey. I much more enjoyed "The Governor" as the villain because he was a total character. He was a normal person, he didn't have to go kill your favorite character when you first meet him just to get you to hate him. It seemed he felt like he was doing something right for the people, at least at first. He was a person but he also had the bad side to him, like all of us...

 

I'm going to be honest, I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I love Jeffrey Dean Morgan as an actor but this character is being pushed as being uber evil "just because." This leads me to believe that may not necessarily be the case...with the added caveat that I do not read the graphic novels. After decades of reading comics, manga and fantasy, the one thing that's held true across all these genres is that the truly compelling villains are rarely, if ever wantonly evil in the way Negan is being portrayed currently. Every once in a while a murderhobo villain is good to shake things up, however in this particular setting it isn't all that necessary.

 

Does this story really benefit from the interjection an unabashed murderhobo? To me, it does not and ultimately why I don't think that's what Negan really is.

 

Edit: A murderhobo is a RPG nickname for an unethical/unscrupulous character, typically but not always evil, who only exists for no other purpose defeat monsters/enemies and claim loot. He does not have a compelling backstory. He brings nothing to the plot but death, terror and discord for his enemies and he doesn't ultimately care about anyone or anything save himself and his own vices. That sure sounds like Negan as we've seen him so far...

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