Negan Identity Revealed for Walking Dead Season Finale

Well, I will admit I don't read comic books, lol.  I followed the Walking Dead TV show, and I believed the storyline was exactly as it should be.  I found out I was wrong. It a similar scenario from Game of Thrones, meaning the TV series took creative license with the franchise to stretch the longevity of favorite characters and not show graphic violence that made the comic book famous enough to get a TV. Looks like there was a lot of stuff the show chose to edit to pass censorship and get on air.  I spent all weekend researching the differences that happened in the comic book and didn't happened on TV.

Well here is a big reveal.  On today's season finale we will see that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was cast as Negan.  Two weeks ago when one of Negan's crew said we all are Negan, they lied. Turns out that Negan is the leader of the Saviors. The Saviors are a group of violent survivors based at a place called The Sanctuary, which is in the same general area as the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Hilltop Colony and The Kingdom, which are survivor communities in the Washington, D.C. region.

The Sanctuary is a factory and it was first teased in AMC's poster for the second half of Season 5. Negan and The Saviors rule by fear, they demand supplies and rations in exchange for killing walkers outside of Hilltop. Rick and members of all three communities eventually team up to fight The Saviors in what's called "All Out War."

From what I read, Negan has a potty mouth and he is on a level of salvage evil unseen before in the Walking Dead comic series.  When asked how he compared to the Governor, who was the previous main villain of Rick's group here is what was said by fans:

“Where the Governor was a great [villain] he had some weakness that Rick could've exploited. The Governor was often irrational and made mistakes that ultimately let Rick's crew have breathing room and escape. He was much more amateur

Negan has a weird obsession with Rick's son, Carl Grimes. Negan expresses that Carl is a younger dark version of himself.  As comic fans stated, Carl in the comics is way different from Carl on the TV show. Research it to learn more.

Negan is much more professional and ruthless. Ruling by fear with his camp/gang following him for the most part with out question. Negan is also cold calculating behind his crude ruthless exterior and doesn't make dumb mistakes. In fact he is more likely to take advantage of others mistakes than to make his own.

His group of people is a mixture of biker gang and psycho cult. Negan is so powerful because of ruling with fear that Rick can never overcome him with direct force but he eventually finds a way and the story arc follows this with the glimmers of rebuilding society because of it.

In the end Rick realizes to counter the fear that Negan is using. He needs trust and cooperation, something that Negan is impossible to make use of. You see by ruling with fear means you can never trust the people you've subjected. The whole arc is kinda a demonstration of the values of leading by fear or love i.e. trust.

I think the only mistake Negan made was that he pushed people too far. He does things that people can never forgive or forget.”

Walking Dead Season 6 opener: Who Made It?

"Faith without works is dead"

- James 2:26

Wow!  This was by far the best action packed and story driven episode of the walking dead ever!  It really challenged my mind and integrated the events of the comic book well which was previously ignored for must of the tv series.  I know some of you are dying to know who died on this episode of the walking dead, so I will get to the point. 

The show opened with our first introduction to the Negan army holding Darly, Sasha and Abraham up.  Words were said and the situation looked like it was going to go from bad to worse.  Seems like Negan's group has control issues and don't like to be asked questions on who they are and what they do.  The gang's leader stated he had a history of killing first for fear factor and asking questions later, but he held back because felt the trio were "honest folks".

Darly was taken away from the trio to reveal what supplies they were hiding. Abraham and Sasha tried to ask their captures questions but all they got was hostility.  Soon the situation lead to Sasha's and Abraham's execution for questioning the Negan gang reasoning, but Darly saved the day by blowing up the bikers with a missile. Sasha, Darly, and Abraham survived.

The next scene was too graphic to show it all.  Basically, Sam had a panic attack in the middle of the horde and got his whole family killed.  This lead to a domino effect of death.  

On the talking dead, director Greg Nicotero said "Jessie sealed her family fate when she didn't train Sam to cope with the zombie reality that exist now."

Once Sam and Jessie got eaten alive, Jon snapped and attempted to take a shot at Rick.  Instead of hitting Rick, the shot hit Carl which caused him to lose his eye. Out of rage Michonne killed Jon, and she single handedly cleared a path to safety for a shell shock Rick and the injured Carl. 

A lot was happening at once, so it's hard to explain it all in sequence because continuity was not a strong of this episode.  After the wolf leader kidnapped he spent a good part convincing us he is crazy add, lol. He was challenged by Denise beliefs and courage while being afraid of his radical beliefs. In the end, he changed and sacrificed himself to save Denise. 

Glenn and Enid set out to save Maggie without weapons and gear.  Eventually they found a church with a strange message written on the: "faith without works is dead".  

On the talking dead director Nicotero said it foreshadowed that if they survivors wanted to save Alexandria, then they have to stop running away and defend it! This unleashed a domino effect butt whipping.  Enid found a gun and ammo hidden in a bible and with that alone they sat off to save Maggie.

Well Glenn got in over his head again. Too many zombies swarmed Maggie's hiding spot, and the zombies nearly rock her and Enid off.  Glenn sacrifices himself to be a distraction. We think we see the final moments of Glenn, but Sasha, Darly and Abraham show up and unleashed a cloud of semi-automatic fire on the horde to save Glenn.  Glenn must have a luck perk bc he seems to survive the most dire scenarios.

Following the injury of Carl, death of Jessie. Sam, and Jon, Rick goes postal and attacks the zombie horde alone.  Inspired by Rick's effort, the citizens take the streets to retake Alexandria from the zombie horde.  It was twenty minutes fighting!  Every able body fought the horde including the priest and Eugene.  No one lost their life in the battle.  In the end, Carl was alive but lost his eye the city of Alexandria was zombie free again.

A lot of questions were left unanswered and new threats like Negan presented the group with challenges that will be revealed in time or if you read the comic book you know a lot of death, chaos, war  is ahead.