Happy Goat Horror

Dark bleatings, my shambling tribe! Firstly, this list deals only with the main show, not any of the spin-offs. Secondly, yes I know, this list is like a year late, at least.

I remember being so blown away by The Walking Dead when it first came out – I simply could not believe how excellent it was. I can’t honestly say that I was still enjoying it as much by the last season, but I was fully invested and obsessed for at least half of it, and I did stay with it until it “ended”. My opinions on the show finale are… for another day.

So anyway, here are my thoughts on the main show’s villains and antagonists, in reverse order from worst to best. Be warned, there are major spoilers ahead so don’t read this if you have yet to watch the show and don’t want anything ruined for you.

NOTE: I’m not listing or talking about those creepers in that episode inspired by The People Under the Stairs, because they ultimately had no impact on the main storyline or characters. Also, as much as I think this episode was a great homage to the movie, and was shot and performed really well, it felt out of place as a TWD episode, for me at least.

16. Dawn and The Hospital People – Season 5

Dawn was the first female antagonist introduced into the show and to be honest, I found her and her group – as villains – a bit… meh. My love or loathing of characters like this isn’t just based on how they’re written and performed, but what they bring to the story. Unfortunately, this group ended up being absolutely pointless.

For reasons I can’t quite remember (was it even made clear, actually?) Beth is kidnapped and taken to the hospital, where she is held captive under the guise of indentured servitude, but she’ll never be able to pay off her “debt” and actually leave. She meets and befriends Noah, who also wants out, because things at the hospital are weird and shit – I don’t really “get” this group or their aims or why they’re just enslaving people. But my huge gripe is these few episodes are just a way to bring in Noah, who “replaces” Beth when she’s killed in one of the most truly bullshit ways ever. It’s not quite “I was under the dumpster” but it’s pretty bad. And then after giving Noah an arc for a few episodes, he dies one or two episodes later anyway, so this ENTIRE subplot is effectively useless. Dawn may as well have not existed, they could have just found Noah on the street, and Beth could have just been killed by a zombie or something.

15. Pamela/Lance/The Commonwealth – Season 10

I love the actors but honestly, also meh. I didn’t enjoy The Commonwealth much at all on the show because it opened the world out, and I preferred it when we were just following small groups. I don’t know what it says about me that I found the show more interesting when it seemed bleak and like humanity was doomed, and that there were only a handful of people left at all. I didn’t like the stormtroopers much either.

I think overall, the last two seasons of the show were more focused on the political shenanigans inside this community, and in a show like this, it didn’t work that well for me. I’m way more of a fan of Season 3’s flu outbreak inside the prison, in terms of problems for our characters to overcome. Also, in terms of organised, military-like groups, I found the Woodbury soldiers kind of covered these things already, and some ground was being treaded again.

14. Jadis and the Trash Heap People – Season 7

I couldn’t take them seriously, I just couldn’t. Living in the trash heap was fine, and making their own cool weaponised zombies was fine, but I simply could not get over that minimal speech thing. It made me cringe every time. And that’s all I have to say on this matter.

Trash people bad.

13. Gregory – Season 6

This mofo was Hilltop’s original leader, and out of fear, had his head right up the butts of The Saviours. And you know what, I understand this, to an extent. He was dangerous because he was so scared, and scared people don’t always make the most honourable decisions. I did find myself worried about what he might do at first, but then started to find him a bit annoying. I always thought it was kind of a bummer that his death wasn’t the start of Maggie’s villain origin story (though I love her and I’m glad she didn’t go evil!). Still, a wasted opportunity!

12. Eugene – Season 8

I refer specifically to his brief stint as a “Saviour”. Although it turned out that he was still on the side of the Grimes Squad all along (or changed his mind somewhere along the way), we didn’t know that until the guns all backfired. I enjoyed watching Eugene actually get some acknowledgment and respect from Negan because, as weak as he was before, I was getting sick of watching him get booted around by his “friends”. I truly didn’t blame him when I thought he’d turned to the dark side, and I was excited to see how much damage he might be capable of.

11/C. Pete – Season 5

I put three characters into the same category, and thus they are broken into A, B, and C.

Pete was Jesse’s husband in Alexandria, and the town doctor, so he was invaluable to the community. He was also an alcoholic (which doesn’t make him a bad guy) and an abusive partner (which DOES make him a piece of crap). As antagonists go, he didn’t actually cause much overall damage (well… not to the main group, anyway), but for me, he did inspire a lot of stress. I HATED that dickhead, and though Rick’s real reasons for wanting to take him out were quite selfish and unhinged, I wasn’t sad to see him go.

11/B. Mitch – Season 4

This dude was The Governor’s bitch, and a trained former soldier, which made him pretty dangerous to the main group. He was a slimy piece of work that made me nervous whenever he was onscreen because I didn’t know how far he might go or what his skillset really was. He also instigated one of Daryl’s first ever real badass moments – throwing that grenade in the tank.

11/A. Ed – Season 1

This twat was Carol’s husband, and the reason she was so meek in the first couple of seasons. Abusive, vile, misogynistic, and it was implied that he would soon become more of a danger to his daughter, Sophia. As the show progressed, the villains became a little more exaggerated and somewhat cartoonish in design, but Ed was one of the OG flesh-and-blood, real people that posed a threat within the group. For someone with so little screentime, in the grand scheme, his impact was bigger than it seemed.

His death heralded in the start of Carol’s character arc, arguably one of the greatest arcs in the whole show. She’s my favourite character, and her catharsis of being the one to smash his head in after his death was a much needed step in her closure, and rising from the ashes of her marriage like a phoenix.

10. Dwight – Season 6

As villains go, Dwight was interesting to me because he was one of the more conflicted, flawed characters. That dude was all shades of grey. When we first meet him, he screws Daryl over (I was so angry watching him steal that jacket and take off on Daryl’s beloved bike!). Learning that he had to suffer Negan with a smile because Negan was a tyrant and a direct threat to not only Dwight, but his wife, Sherry, made for really compelling viewing. Sympathising with him because The Saviours, as a group, were really messed up and there was no way he could know who to trust or truly fear – such great personal peril! I love an antagonist that you eventually come around to rooting for.

9. Joe and The Claimers – Season 6

Joe and his gang turn up in Season 6, when – for reasons I can’t quite remember – the group is split up, and Daryl ends up latching on to them. I thought they were great for building tension. Daryl was one of the more “rough” and capable members of our usual group, but just looked like Merle’s little brother all over again amongst these guys. Daryl was tough, but these guys were stone-cold killers, with at least one of them looking for any excuse to murder our dear Dixon.

I like to imagine that they were the group that Randall (Season 2) belonged to.

8. The Wolves – Season 5

These guys showed up for not for a long time, but a short, savage, impactful time! I just loved how they appeared. A few subtle clues in a body or two found by the group, with a “W” carved into the forehead, and then they just fall upon Alexandria like feral hyenas… just because. They – unlike the majority of people we see in this show, thankfully – were just plain nuts. The apocalypse got to them and they went peculiar.

Also, once again, they’re a villain that serves as a function to exemplify the qualities of other characters, namely Carol. The episode that they descend on the terrified town, we’re reminded that Carol is not only brave, capable, and willing to do whatever it takes to protect her group, but she’s also quick-thinking and crafty.

7. Leah and The Reapers – Season 11

I know that these folk aren’t very popular with the fanbase – they turned up really late (in the grand scheme), and honestly, it didn’t feel like the show could really go bigger or badder with the antagonists, without getting ridiculous. But I liked them because the show was somewhat restrained in how it used them to create dissension in the main group, and problems.

Obviously, we meet Leah first, when she has her bizarre out-of-nowhere relationship with Daryl. Sidenote: I found it pretty funny how much everyone seemed to absolutely hate that love story, by the way, including me. I was actually hoping that Daryl’s love for Carol was platonic because he was gay – that’s how I’d been reading the character from like, Season 2 onwards, so I felt weirdly jilted that all of a sudden, he was interested in this lady. And not that he and Carol couldn’t be platonic just because, but this guy had arguably never really shown an ounce of attraction for anyone for the entire show. Unless you count the sexual tension between him and Jesus in the episode that introduced Jesus – but that could have just been me projecting what I was hoping to see develop into a romance (did anyone else read into that? Please tell me if so!).

Anyway, he and Leah part ways, and then when she returns, she’s with the group that had slaughtered Maggie’s entire secondary group. The “Pope” character – a somewhat religious zealot, felt unhinged in the best way to me, and the other members of this gang were violent assholes. But they were all bonded by duty and a deep sense of brotherhood that went all the way back to their time serving together in the military, before the apocalypse. I thought this made them a potentially, diabolically lethal threat to our main group.

If anything, they were taken out too early, if you ask me.

6/B. Simon – Season 6

EVERYONE loved this dude – he was a violence-loving dickbag with a smart brain, and unpredictable moments. One of Negan’s key players and trusted right-hands, and quite often the manically grinning face of The Saviours. I never knew what he was going to do. He was one of very few people in the show that made me nervous when he was nice.

I was so excited when he got the idea that he should fight Negan for top position…

6/A. Merle – Season 1

Merle was a twat, and a truly excellent character. Part of the original group in the first season, a racist and a bigot, and naturally the kind of guy that people want to placate because he makes them nervous. Paired with his slightly softer, but still rough brother, Daryl, they were an asset to the group in that they had hunting and wilderness skills, and were two of the more capable members of the group in regards to keeping everyone safe from walkers and the living alike. Merle, in particular, was also a direct threat to the group, especially where T-Dog was concerned. I was gutted when he seemed to have been written out so early, but then he returned!

Though some might not class Merle as a real antagonist due to his character arc and final redeeming actions, I rank him this highly because of how he served the story in regard to the growth of other characters. Merle’s return in Season 3 wasn’t just to create excitement amongst the fanbase (we loved to hate him!), but to highlight how much the others had changed since he’d last seen them. We’d all seen Daryl change (or perhaps, become more himself in the absence of his older brother), but the amount he’d developed was only glaringly obvious when we saw him through Merle’s eyes. There was also a great deleted scene between Merle and Carol, in which she – whilst smiling sweetly – informs him that if he ruins anything for Daryl, she’ll slit his throat while he sleeps, and Merle smiles but takes the threat seriously. He serves as a mirror to the growth of every other person he’d previously encountered.

5. The Whisperers, Alpha, Beta, etc. – Season 9

I’m lumping them all in together because I don’t have all day here. As a reader of the comics, I was a bit concerned about them introducing The Whisperers because… well… the concept of wearing zombie faces and trudging around in zombie hordes might come off a bit… stupid. What works in comic books and graphic novels doesn’t necessarily translate well on TV (sorry Shiva and “King” Ezekiel but I’m looking at you…).

As it turns out, they were creepy as f*** and formidable foes. Sending that doctor to infiltrate Alexandria was a stroke of genius, and their hideous introduction into the show was well done and quite shocking. Alpha was absolutely unhinged, but clever, and I liked that her general group seemed split on their true feelings about her. Most of them were there because there’s safety in numbers, and this is the zombie apocalypse, after all.

There were elements of their storyline I didn’t like. I mean… Negan and Alpha getting it on was a bit weird and out of nowhere (and unnecessary, if you ask me). Also, though everyone loved that fight scene between Beta and Daryl… they could have taken it down a notch. Beta was like the bloody Undertaker from WWE.

But overall, they were different and extremely dangerous, not least because of their capacity to weaponise hordes of zombies against our main group.

Also…. what they did with the heads on the sticks… that was one of the most horrible (in a good way) finales of the entire show.

4. Gareth and Terminus – Season 4

I loved this storyline. In the earlier days of the show, when Rick and co. got to Terminus, only to discover people wearing several items that belonged to the lost members of their group, my heart was in my mouth. The show had (recently) proven that it was absolutely fine with killing off huge, beloved characters, so no one was safe.

Everything about these villains was insidious – from the way they lured desperate, unsuspecting people into their little set up, to their justification of what they were doing, and the cold way they went about it… errrghghh… still gives me the shivers!

Once again, the show effectively used them as a storytelling device to bring about change in the group dynamic and highlight certain characters. Carol once again is shown to be possibly the most resourceful and clever (and needed) member of the group, because it’s only entirely because of her that any of them survived. It also, for the first real time, exemplified her as an absolute badass mofo. It got her back into the group, which Rick had ousted her from. It also marked a slight shift in Rick’s perception of himself as their leader. He’d naturally assumed this role right from the beginning, and clung to it, but often he was unsure of and conflicted about his decisions. His confidence after being locked inside a trailer, like animals sheltered for slaughter, was fabulous.

The Terminus gang also pushed our group into straight up, pre-meditated murder (it was their own fault, they shouldn’t have tracked them!). Several of them had not actually killed a person before, so this marked a turn in the group’s “we don’t kill the living” philosophy, setting them up and equipping them for the challenges that would come later.

3. The Governor – Season 3

You have no idea how long I argued with myself about whether this dude should be in this spot, or the Number 2 position. I eventually settled here though, for reasons that I’ll explain when we move on.

The Governor was the first proper “villain” in the show, appearing in the third season as the charming, smiley leader of Woodbury. His people loved him, and his foot soldiers were really loyal – the town worked, everyone seemed to have what they needed, and most importantly – they were safe. The people inside those sheltered walls had it so good, who would not love the guy leading them?

But with every layer you peel back, with every hint at an aspect of the town, or the man himself, you learned something that hinted at something slightly dark. The deeper you look, the darker it gets.

The writing of this character was so great. His descent (or “ascent”, as you might prefer to think of it!) into ultimate villainy was so well planned out and executed. He was so unpredictably duplicitous that it was impossible to know what he might do in any given situation, or how needlessly cruel he was capable of being.

2. Negan and The Saviours – Season 6

Everyone loves the charismatic, bat-wielding, sassy leader of The Saviours. It’s a bit disturbing how much of a pass people will give a character if they’re funny, especially if they’re sexy and funny. This role could not have been more perfectly cast (although I did hear that second in line for this role was Matthew Lillard, and I’m extremely interested about what his auditions looked like!).

The reason I placed Negan above The Governor is because of the way he was written in. It was, in my humble opinion, masterfully done. We hear his name, we become aware of his group, but it’s at least a full season (if memory serves) before we ever lay eyes on him in the Season 6 Finale. He’s a mysterious enigma, a guy with so much power and influence that not only does he have a group so large that they’re split into sub-groups, ready and willing to rinse the surrounding few communities of their resources, but apparently they’re all also quite willing to die for him. The fact that he keeps so many people in line in these sorts of circumstances is remarkable.

The episode that finally introduced him started with Rick feeling relaxed and overconfident about dealing with him. They’re on the road trying to get a pregnant, sick Maggie to the doctor at Hilltop, but at every turn, a group of armed Saviours is waiting, blocking the road. The building of tension in this episode, the slow slip of the grin from Rick’s face as they are thwarted again and again, running out of roads and directions to go in, as we the audience gradually realise that they are, in fact, being herded like sheep into the woods…. holy cripes, it was good. Watching the confidence of Rick and the group entirely dissolve to make way for the absolute terror – felt for the first time in years – as they’re all put on their knees, completely helpless and at the mercy of The Saviours – I will never forget how stressed I felt watching this episode.

I do think that the show was at its best in its first few seasons, but for me, this episode was one of the single greatest of the entire show. People are divided on the cliff-hanger ending, and considering he offed two characters, it probably would have been more effective if he’d killed one at the end here, so that we could be surprised by a second shock of a death in the Season 7 opener. Also – not really relevant to these rankings – but it will forever piss me off that Andrew Lincoln didn’t win every single available award for his performance in that final scene.

AND THAT LEAVES MY NUMBER ONE ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE ANTAGONIST OF THE ENTIRE SHOW….

SHANE WALSH

Through all the years and great performances, no one ever quite toppled Shane for me as the greatest antagonist in this show. No one else was so sympathetically unhinged, so right but also wrong, so quietly threatening to Rick, but for reasons that we not only understood, but felt sorry for him over. His two seasons on the show marked some of the best acting, writing, character dynamics, character arcs, and issues to overcome.

I initially loved Shane and as far as Lori was concerned, I was on his side (well.. except for in THAT incident). You couldn’t blame the guy for telling her Rick was dead – when he had to leave him at the hospital, despite blocking his door, his felled partner was practically zombie food (or at least likely to die from, you know, being in a coma with no medical staff able to continue his care). Lori wouldn’t have left for safety had she thought her husband was still alive. Shane did what he had to do.

He already knew Lori and Carl, he loved them, that love deepened. When Rick, his long-time best friend, waltzes into the camp that he’s been in charge of, his conflicting feelings about what that meant for him almost had me tearful. Lori’s treatment of him from thereon out pissed me – and everyone else – right off.

He starts to lose everything – the woman he loves, the kid he’d begun to father, the group immediately starts taking orders from Rick… and he doesn’t know what to do with it because he’s so guilty over resenting his best friend being alive. He tries to leave, Lori stops him, so he continues to endure watching her play happy families with a guy who’s now in charge, making decisions for them that Shane doesn’t even agree with.

It’s one of the greatest villain origin stories I’ve ever seen. They took their time with it, creating immediate tension but only pushing it in tiny amounts with each episode. He kills Otis to save Carl, and can’t cope with the guilt, so he leans into the person he thinks that makes him.

By the time he reaches the point of hatching his half-baked plan to lure Rick out to the woods to kill him, he has of course gone too far, and we’re on Rick’s side, but we still feel sorry for him. Shane’s death changes Rick, shifts the group dynamic, creates a zombie killer in Carl, finally puts the nail in Rick and Lori’s marriage, AND illuminates the fact that they’re all infected.

Shane’s role, his descent, and his ending irrevocably changed everything for everyone in the group, forever, in the world of the show. Even after 9 more seasons, it remained (to me at least) the death that carried the most weight.

And that is why Shane Walsh, the easily-aggravated, head-rubbing, heart-broken dickhead, will forever be my favourite antagonist on The Walking Dead.

I’d love to hear YOUR rankings! Talk to me!

PS. I know I forgot about Spencer and Nick – sorry – but by the time I realised, I’d finished this article and couldn’t be arsed to slot them in anywhere, which should, in itself, give you an idea on where I’d rank them anyway. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten others!