The Walking Dead's Negan Didn't Deserve Redemption, and Here's Why
The showrunners first made us hate him, but then they made us love him.
It is a common point of view among The Walking Dead fans that Rick and his group were no better than Negan. Viewers believe that their actions sometimes were as terrible as Negan’s. However, the most common counter argument is that unlike Negan, no one from Rick’s group was a rapist.
In the comics, Negan's relationship with his "wives" was a status symbol. Women could choose to be with him for a more comfortable life in his twisted society. While it was still a morally gray area, the comics showed that these women had a choice.
However, the show took a different route, making the whole situation murkier and more controversial. In the series, Negan's actions and intentions were less clear. The series basically implied that Negan was a predator, which wasn't the case in the comics.
In the comics, it was evident that women like Sherry chose to be with Negan for the benefits, even if it meant leaving their loved ones. The show, however, blurred these lines, leading to debates about Negan's true nature.
This deviation from the source material left fans questioning the showrunners' decisions. Why introduce such a plotline if they weren't going to handle it with the nuance it deserved?
The main problem is that Negan becomes this controversial guy who seeks redemption in the final seasons of the show. If it hadn’t been for the charisma and charm that Jeffrey Dean Morgan infused into this role, it would’ve been much harder to sympathize with this guy knowing what he had done.
One of the most important things Negan said in Dead City, the recent The Walking Dead spinoff, was during his dialogue with Maggie. He said, “I was a monster only when I absolutely had to.” Is it really so? Was raping women something Negan had to do? Absolutely not.
This made many fans think that the showrunners simply had made Negan more of a “good guy” character in the latest seasons of the original show and Dead City, suggesting that we should forget the terrible things he’s done.
Source: Reddit