In six seasons, The Walking Dead has introduced us to all sorts of unspeakable horror: Walkers with an insatiable hunger for human flesh and mere men (and women) corrupted beyond belief by the zombie apocalypse. But not all of the bad guys our heroes have faced are created equal. We present: The Walking Dead's villains, ranked!
Naturally, there are spoilers ahead. Click at your own risk.
Ron was a measly twerp whose irrational hatred towards Carl (Chandler Riggs) inadvertently got a bunch of people killed—including, ultimately, himself and his family—but he was mostly just an idiot.
He abused his wife Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and kids. He accidentally slit Reg's throat while in a drunken rage. Pete was a pretty awful guy, but in the world of The Walking Dead, his awful-ness was but a mere blip on the radar.
Sure, Nicholas let Noah (Tyler James Williams) die out of fear. Sure, his suicide also nearly killed Glenn (Steven Yeun). But he never seemed to be evil. Just incredibly cowardly.
When the gang stumbled upon the prison in season three, the surviving inmates made several attempts on Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) life. One was even responsible for accidentally letting walkers in, leading to T-Dog (IronE Singleton) and Lori's (Sarah Wayne Callies) deaths. But what did you expect? They were criminals!
Oh, the curious case of Shane Walsh. No one on this show has so quickly gone from hero's sidekick to jealous, insane lunatic so quickly. His obsession with Lori and his willingness to play judge, jury and executioner was too much for Rick. (Remember, season two Rick was a much different man than the one we know today.) Shane was the first sign that this new world was probably going to corrupt everyone in it. Good times!
Merle was a misogynistic, racist piece of work who turned on the group early (to be fair, they did leave him for dead) and eventually joined ranks with the nasty Governor of Woodbury. He showed shades of a redemptive spirit in season three, turning on the Governor and attempting to assassinate him, but he was a surly son of a bitch until his bitter end.
Dawn ran Grady Memorial Hospital with an iron-clad fist, treating Beth (Emily Kinney), Noah, and everyone else more like prisoners than fellow survivors. (Shocking, considering her title.) Failing to see that her authoritarian regime wasn't the way to survive the apocalypse in any meaningful way, she earned the ire of dear, sweet Beth, who basically loved everyone. And then she shot Beth in the head. Accident or not, we can't forgive that. Neither could Daryl (Norman Reedus). He shot her in the head right back.
On one hand, the walkers are the show's most terrifying enemy because they're a constant, unstoppable threat in the abstract. On the other hand, they're entirely unmotivated by any concept of human evilness. It's this dichotomy that lands them smack dab in the middle of the list.
As a member of Negan's dreaded Saviors, Paula admitted to killing so many people, she'd stopped counting or caring. But there was something in her conversations with hostage Carol (Melissa McBride) that betrayed a sliver of humanity. We're talking very, very, very slight, but it was there. Also, she and her gang were taken out relatively easily by Carol and Maggie (Lauren Cohan). Otherwise, she'd have ranked higher.
Nothing felt more bait-and-switch than season four's promise of safety at Terminus turning into season five's nightmare upon learning the truth about the settlement. Plain and simple, Gareth and his people ate other people. A lot of them. Shudder.
For a group of people who we've heard nothing but horrifying things about, most of the Saviors our heroes have encountered thus far have been easily overcome. Daryl took out the biker gang with a rocket launcher. That base full of Saviors was duped with the walker head in the bag. Carol's machine gun jacket got the better of a truck full of 'em. No wonder Rick felt so certain he'd be able to take Negan out lickety-split.
Every other villain on this show acts that way because they want something. The Wolves? They're just demented beyond belief and kill with abandon. That's a terrifying force to face. But, as the Wolf (Benedict Samuel) who took Denise (Merritt Wever) revealed, there may be some heart left in these freaks. (He sacrificed himself to save her during a walker attack.)
He shot Daryl, point blank. Plain and simple.
Dwight may have shot Daryl, but no one was nastier than the Governor of Woodbury. His authoritarian regime may have somehow won over Andrea (Laurie Holden), but we knew better. An insane man who kept his zombie daughter locked up in a room where he treated her to body parts, he routinely executed large groups while accepting lone survivors into his community. He forced his people into sparring matches surrounded by chained, toothless walkers. He beheaded Hershel during a final assault on the prison, forcing Rick and the gang to abandon their makeshift home for good. The Governor was the absolute worst The Walking Dead has had to offer. Or so we thought...
We've only spent twenty minutes with Negan, but that was all it took to catapult The Walking Dead's latest villain to the top of this list. We may not know yet who was on the receiving end of his bat attack, but that certainly hasn't stopped us from hearing that awful whacking sound in our nightmares.
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