It's Negan! (Part One)



Negan is the leader of 'The Saviors', a group consisting mostly of physically adept, violent survivors. A little after the Hilltop Colony was established, Negan formed this group and located their own headquarters; an abandoned factory, complete with stone barricades and a chain fence. To top it all of, the base has a 'wall' of chained Roamers and Lurkers. This has the effect of deterring other survivors, but also acts as an extremely good method of keeping other Roamers away.



Now, onto Negan himself. He's a rather terrifying character. Gregory, the self-proclaimed 'boss' of the Hilltop Colony was under the impression that Negan was merely a fabrication of The Saviors, in order to scare the other groups to comply with their demands. In Issue #100, however, Negan makes his dramatic entrance. Bringing along with him 50 men, he captures the group that Rick was taking up to the Hilltop Colony. He makes a rather striking first impression;



Negan totes his Baseball bat covered in barbed wire, 'Lucille', as he jokes about the situation. What's frightening about this is the fact that Negan doesn't lose his composure at all. He talks to Rick, patronising and demeaning him, as though he's a little, unruly child. 'Pee Pee Pants City' is so childish, but it's so sinister. Such a remark in a situation like that gives it a surprising amount of seriousness. He even keeps up the happy face when talking about his allies that Rick and his group killed. His excessive use of the F-word is an interesting character trait. Commonly, it would be used in situations of extreme emotion, yet Negan throws F-bombs every chance he gets. This, along with his happy demeanour show how he's desensitised to this new world, he's adapted to the point where the hesitations that were present in the old world are nowhere to be seen. That's not to say that he's completely thrown out his sense of morality, but I'll discuss that later.

After making his entrance, Negan puts forward a cruel ultimatum;



Negan sees the Alexandria Safe Zone as something akin to the Hilltop Colony; a group that have no chance of fighting back against him. His lack of a major reaction to the death of his allies shows that it wasn't too big of a deal for him; his forces weren't damaged that much. He's got Rick down to a tee. While he may not seem it, Negan's quite a perceptive character. He's got a pretty good idea what kind of situation Rick's in. At the end of the day, though, he's pretty selfish. Scratch that, *very* selfish. As 'punishment' for their actions, Negan ponders which of the group he should kill, even going as far as to sarcastically ponder political correctness. He looks at Glenn and exclaims ''Not you...I'm a lot of things, but I'd never want to be called a racist. No f***ing way. You're off limits''. Through a cruel process of random selection, he selects his victim.





After essentially assuring Glenn that he wouldn't choose him, he reveals that he was kidding. He doesn't even react to Glenn's pleas to stop.

He hits him once and stops to see the damage, as if relishing in the violence. He's very sadistic, even though he may claim that he isn't. Negan says ''Holy s*** -- He's taking it like a champ!'' when Glenn tries to scream Maggie's name. ''You in there, buddy? I just don't know. Seems like you're trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit. I cracked your skull so much that your f***ing eye popped out. It's gross as s***.''

Negan's so non-chalant about the fact that a man's dying right in front of him and he's the cause of it. It's as if he's having a regular conversation.

He delivers another brutal hit to Glenn, who collapses to the floor. He's basically dead at this point, but Negan continues to hit, again and again.



He's doing it for fun at this point. It's rather sickening, but it shows us just what kind of character Negan is. After he finishes, he sees that everyone crying and asks ''What? Was the joke that bad?'' Again, it shows us how he's either oblivious to the heavy atmosphere, or just doesn't care. Perhaps he acts this way to add even more impact to the events that had just transpired.

He then delivers what could be described as a 'bomb shell' to Rick. ''I know this is hard for you. You've been the King s*** Mother f***er for so damn long. Bossing people around...being 'in charge'. So long you're probably addicted to it. Hell, you probably thought you had this world figured out. Managing the dead, gathering supplies...might have even been a long time since the last person died before we came along. Working together...that's all over now. Done. Gone. Dead. It's time for something new. Everything has changed, Rick. Things are going to be different from now on. You're entering into a whole new world. It didn't have to be such a painful birth - - you made it that way. I just hope -- for your f***ing sake, you've finally realised how things work and where you stand in all this. Things have changed, Rick. Whatever you had going for you -- that's over. You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me. Welcome to a brand new beginning, you sorry f***s. We'll come for your first offering in one week. Until then...''

Even though it was entirely unnecessary after what he'd just done, Negan asserted his complete dominance over Rick, stating that he was the big man now. Even with the Governor, such an act of dominance and a feeling of powerlessness and despair weren't there. Negan's unique in that he's, by far, the biggest threat to Rick and his group. The Governor tore down their prison defences and forced them to leave while killing many members of their group, yes, but Negan's doing even worse; he's making them feel completely trapped inside the Alexandria Safe Zone. It's one thing to force someone out, but to put them in a situation where they have to comply with such unfair demands or face the wrath of The Saviors and the Roamers outside? Making someone feel trapped and vulnerable in one of the safest known places in the land is no small feat. Negan does that perfectly, with a menacing, eerie calm. He makes the 'negotiations' sound logical and reasonable, even though he knows they're completely unfair and unreasonable.

What's more, he has the complete loyalty of The Saviors, bar a few. He threatens the group and makes it very clear that he's fully capable of following up on the threats. The Saviors are also all 'fighters', as opposed to the non-violent citizens present in Alexandria and the Hilltop Colony. To command the loyalty of that group, with such numbers, means that he's obviously proven himself to be a fearsome, capable leader, which makes him even more terrifying.

End of Part One.