Like every Saturday, here we are again in Aperit-Hero, the column dedicated to our favorite heroes! Today we’re talking about a very particular character, who made the history of The Walking Dead, especially in the TV series: the protagonist of today’s Aperit-Hero is Negan!
Speak about Negan He’s really complicated, he’s one of the most nuanced characters in the world of The Walking Dead. We saw how before an enemy of Rick’s groupthen it became one of Daryl’s most loyal allies and good company. Summarizing his story and his personality is very complex, but we will try, because it is one of the most beautiful characters of the series and also one of the best written ones. Also thanks to the interpretation of the great Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The character’s history is long and intricate, and not only that, it continued even after the finale of the main series, with the spin-off Dead City with Maggie Rhee.
You’re so beautiful to me | Aperit-Hero: Negan and his redemption
We see the character of Negan for the first time inlast episode of the sixth season, but we still know nothing about his personal history, except a few hints. We want to make some leaps forward with the seasons, arriving at the episode “Here’s Negan“, where we know his entire past. Negan was a gym teacher, who sadly lost his job after a man in a bar started bothering him and his wife Lucille. Taken by fury, Negan beats the man bloody and his children go to report everything to the school where he taught, causing him to lose his job. The worst thing is that his wife Lucille was cancer patient and at that point she had to start paying her own medical bills. Despite this, she loved him madly and so did he. Then the zombie apocalypse began.
Negan was constantly trying to take care of his wife, bringing her medicine, doing the chemotherapy and being close to her. Unfortunately, however, when the apocalypse began, things became more difficult. When he goes looking for medicines, some doctors don’t let him in because of the virus, therefore grabs a baseball bat and takes medicines by force. But when he returns to her, it was too late: Lucille was dead and turned into a zombie. So Negan, in pain, with the last strength he had left, put an end to his wife’s suffering. From that moment the character we have learned to love was born Negan names his baseball bat Lucillein honor of his wife, and since then he has always carried her with him.
Little pig, little pig, let me in! | Aperit-Hero: Negan e la sua redenzione
After the death of his wife, his life changes completely. He begins to build his own empire, gathering more and more men and earning their respect with his charisma, but also through fear and humiliation. Negan, in fact, tends to humiliate his enemies and take everything he wants. Everything he finds is his: weapons, ammunition, food, drinks, medicines, even the women are all his. He created an empire of which he is the head, but at the same time he has always had a code of honor: never kill women and children. When one of her men tried to harm a woman, even just by molesting her, he made her pay very dearly, killing him without scruples. A very wicked and selfish man, but still an honorable man.
There’s a reason it was the best villain of the seriesthe performer of Daryl Dixon, Norman Reedushe even compared it to the Joker della DC Comics. And we can’t blame him, Negan in the first seasons in which he appears is pure chaos, he even enslaved Rick and his group. Negan spreads his name among the various groups of survivors through his men, who do nothing but say “I’m Negan“, as if he were a deity to be venerated. More than an empire, therefore, Negan has created a real one religious worship, and Negan is the god his people worship. This cult, however, did not last long, when Rick finally manages to destroy everything that Negan created, but still deciding to spare him. And thank goodness, we would say, because here comes the beauty.
A repentant man | Aperit-Hero: Negan and his redemption
After the fight with Rick, Negan was imprisoned in the cell. In that cell he had the opportunity to think, to reflect on his actions. With the course of the episodes we see in him pure repentance. We understand, scene after scene, that Negan was never pure evil, he just made mistakes that he learned from. After getting out of his cell, he started working humbly and helping out Rick’s group. Already in various scenes he shows that he has changed, like all the times Judith Grimes she found herself in danger and Negan immediately intervened to save her. True redemption, however, comes when she faces the Whisperers, a group of people who blend in with the walkers by wearing their own faces as masks. Negan destroys the group from the inside, tricking the leader, Alpha, a psychopathic woman who gave Daryl and the others a hard time. Thanks to Negan, the group now led by Daryl was saved.
But here comes the hardest part, which is… Maggie Rhee. When we first met Negan, we see him first kill Abraham, then Glenn Rhee, Maggie’s husband, who was even expecting a child. It is not at all easy to forgive the murderer of the person you loved most in your life. In fact this is one of man’s greatest torments, with which he tries in every way to make amends. Negan also takes care of Maggie and her son, Hershel Rhee, but despite everything, Maggie can’t forgive him. Negan therefore has no choice but to accept it, even if the woman has recognized that he has changed and that she will no longer try to kill him, simply separating their paths. Negan has now become part of Daryl’s group and a very faithful ally.
Don’t be sorry, do better
We conclude this episode of Aperit-Hero by saying that Negan is proof positive that a person can get better. In life we all make serious mistakes that we regret, mistakes that we manage to forgive ourselves, while others are mistakes that will torment us forever, but that we learn to live with. Negan’s character teaches us exactly thisfix our mistakesbut most of all be a better person. With this, we can say that Negan is truly a well-written character, perhaps even the best we see in the TV series. Not just in The Walking Dead, Negan has become an iconic TV character.
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