"I bet Carver was a nice guy too, once. Probably had a nice job and a nice, pretty wife. Then all this happened. And one day, he caved some kid's face in and realized he could sleep at night."
"...I can kill this likable gent on his knees over there...Then...then we take you to Hilltop, gather everyone up and kill you in front of the whole place. And then drag you back to the Sanctuary and put you on a spike in front of HQ...And then my people will lead the walker herd to the Hilltop..."
In a world that went through a Zombie Apocalypse, sometimes the Walkers aren't the only things the protagonists have to worry about when rebuilding society. Some humans are just as big a threat. Here are the vilest.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
open/close all folders
Comic book continuity
Telltale game Examples
- Season One:
- "Starved for Help" & "Long Road Ahead": Jake is the hot-tempered and barbaric leader of the Save-Lots Bandits, raiding and massacring any settlements for supplies, including Ben's former school, and murdering the St. John's farm hands. Willing to murder any of his allies for the slightest grievances, Jake organizes the gang-rape and murder of Jolene's young daughter Danielle, driving Jolene to gain a psychotic break. After harassing and attacking the Motor Inn for weeks, Jake strong-arms and threatens Ben into stealing supplies, and when Lee intercepts the next supply exchange, Jake immediately takes over the Motor Lodge and is quick to murder all the inhabitants, Clementine and Duck included.
- "Around Every Corner": Crawford Oberson was a ruthless tyrant with a firm belief in the survival of the fittest. From the sick to the elderly and children, Oberson exiled anyone he believed to be a burden, coerced pregnant women into abortion, and killed dozens of dissidents to form a barrier with their reanimated corpses. Even long after his death, Oberson's cruelty left a mark on Savannah with tales spread as a "ghost story come true".
- Season Two: William Carver is a cruel despot who runs his settlement like a prison camp. When a group of survivors escape from him, including Rebecca, the woman he raped and impregnated, Carver relentlessly pursue them and upon finding them he would break Carlos fingers to lure Rebecca. Carver would then proceed to kill his hostages one-by-one, starting off with Walter, then potentially Alvin, and threatens to kill either Sarita or Clementine; if Alvin survives, Carver will torture him to death. He also murders one of his own men, and beats Kenny so savagely that his eye is permanently damaged. When Rebecca tries to escape with her group again, Carver attempts to kill her and the unborn child. Though claiming to have everyone's best interests, Carver just wants complete control believing that the strong should rule and the weak should be dominated or culled.
- Season Three (A New Frontier):
- Joan is one of the leaders of the New Frontier, and despite her claims to be looking out for the city of Richmond, is just a sociopathic tyrant ordering raids on other settlements without the other leaders' knowledge. She would destroy these settlements by setting walkers on them and steal supplies that the New Frontier doesn't actually need; Prescott is one such example. Joan will have Javi and David arrested when they try to expose her raids, and if their only witness is killed, Joan will accuse David of said raids. When Joan prepares to publicly execute David and Javi confronts her, she captures Javi's friends Tripp and Ava hostage and forces him to choose who to spare, spitefully killing whomever Javi tries to save. When called out for her brutality, Joan declares she can do anything she wants, and only entertains the idea of exiling Javi and his group because of massive herds of walkers outside the city walls.
- Badger is a barbaric sadist gleefully raiding settlements for Joan, while hoarding the stolen supplies from the New Frontier. Encountering the Garcia family, Badger shoots at them, personally killing Javi's niece, Mariana, and demands the community Prescott hand over Javi by taking one of their women and cutting off her fingers one-by-one before killing her, regardless if Javi surrenders himself or not. Badger would then attempt to kill Javi despite his allies' protests and would drive a truck filled with walkers into Prescott, killing almost everyone there. Attempting to kill Javi and his group once more, Badger says he wished he knew Javi was David's brother so he could kill him in a more gruesome manner and shows no remorse for killing David's daughter, who Badger calls "a little bitch".
Typhoon novel, by Wesley Chu
Examples
- Secretary Guo, the former Chinese Secretary of State, is the founder of the Beacon of Light, whose seeming presentation as a loyal member of his country served to hide his true nature. Exploiting and endangering the thousands of souls in the community through labor and dangerous mission runs, Guo is willing to throw them into back-breaking fields for the slightest rule breaking, while keeping all the citizens impoverished and miserable. Refusing to abandon the settlement and lying to the citizens about the military coming, Guo green-lights the drafting of hundreds of Vultures—survivors—around China, having them kidnapped and enslaved to fight against the Typhoon horde. After Zhu abandoned his post, Guo manipulates Elena into following a raid on the Grove, imprisoning most of the members and keeping Zhu as a prisoner. Sending all the citizens to fight against the incoming horde, Guo abandons the community, revealed to have stolen a lifetime of their supplies ahead of time and left them all to die so he and his small group of supporters can get away. An arrogant and power-hungry man even to the end, Guo's claims of loyalty and care of China are ultimately a cover up to hide a delusional man clinging to power.
- Wangfa is the Defensemaster and lieutenant of the Beacon of Light who shows himself to be an abusive and power-hungry individual. Quickly letting the power of Defensemaster get to his head and having his soldiers intimidate and abuse civilians to keep them in line, Wangfa personally brings up and leads the drafting, mass kidnapping, and enslaving of hundreds of Vultures to be on the front lines of the Typhoon horde. Quick to use force, such as beating Bo in order to find out Zhu's location, Wangfa attempts to suppress any deserters, brutally beating Zhu and Bo before murdering the ladder in cold blood, spitefully blaming Zhu for it just to twist the knife. Quickly slipping away from the battle, Wangfa joins Guo in abandoning the Beacon of Light, leaving the thousands for dead while making off with all their supplies. Angered at losing any power he had left, Wangfa plans to murder Guo and most of his supporters before raiding the settlements around them, planning to restart the time of The Warlord.
- The Supernatural Skeptic's Guide to New Orleans podcasts: In the legend of New Orleans, Quentin LaRouche was a sadistic slave owner who personally tortured and murdered his slaves, having a dungeon where he would commit his depraved acts while joking on painting his walls with the blood of the slaves. After his brutal deaths, it is said in local legend that LaRouche's restless ghost manipulating the Brill Family into brutally torturing and killing 12 people, his story keeping everyone away from the house and deeply affecting the town.
The Walking Dead Television Universe
Original 2010 series Examples
- "Last Day on Earth", Seasons 7 & 8: Simon is Negan's right-hand man and the most vicious and bloodthirsty member of the Saviors. Seeing gratuitous slaughter and twisted mind games as the only solution against revolting communities, Simon makes his debut after having just finished wiping out an entire community of survivors, before beating and lynching the remaining survivor as an example for Rick's group. When Negan sends Simon to make another deal with the Scavengers and kill one for betraying them, he massacres the whole community instead while forcing their leader to watch. During Negan's absence, Simon leads his men towards Hilltop with the intent of exterminating them all. When Maggie tries to blackmail him by using his captured men as hostages, Simon simply dismisses them as "damaged goods" and attacks the colony while they are on the line of fire. Simon has his men smear their weapons with walker blood, ensuring that it would infect all the wounded. He is also the one behind the tragedy of the Oceanside, having massacred their entire male population above the age of ten for revolting against Negan's rule, which disgusted even Negan himself. After Negan's return, Simon tries to launch a coup against him, despite Negan having forgiven him for his atrocities multiple times.
- "No Sanctuary": The Crazed Man was a horrid leader of a group who took over Terminus after being let in gracefully, trapping everyone while murdering and torturing people and raping the women, including the leader Mary. In a flashback in which he tosses Mary back in after a session and has his men drag a woman out, he laughs at Gareth and Alex misery and hits them. A completely sadistic maniac, he is the direct cause behind Terminus being the cannibalistic community who'll kill any group that doesn't join to keep themselves safe.
- "Scars": Jocelyn is a former friend of Michonne's and the leader of a cult of Child Soldiers she herself has kidnapped and brainwashed to do her bidding. Initially taken in as a wounded survivor within Alexandria Safe Zone, Jocelyn first comes across as supporting and amiable before kidnapping young Judith Grimes and killing another Alexandrian resident. When Daryl and Michonne follow her, they are imprisoned and tortured by Jocelyn's children, with Jocelyn gloating that "the children can't be soft". Jocelyn sends her children after the pregnant Michonne when the latter manages to get loose, with all of them trying to slice open her stomach, while Jocelyn escapes and tries to save her own skin. When this fails, she tries to kill Michonne herself. Even after her death, the remaining children swear loyalty to Jocelyn and try to kill Michonne while having Judith kidnapped. While only a minor villain, Jocelyn's encounter leaves Michonne with deep physical and emotional scars.
- "Outpost 22" & "Faith": The Warden is the abusive commanding officer of the Commonwealth Army and the leader of Outpost 22, which he took over and subjected all the prisoners to severe slave labor and abuse, torturing and executing them for the smallest infractions. The Warden completely strips all of them of their identity to psychologically break them, while being an abusive boss. The Warden is shown to be completely feared, with prisoners being so afraid that they are willing to kill themselves so they don't face The Warden's wrath. Intending to break Negan, the Warden attempts to kill the latter's pregnant wife to spite him, before attempting to brutally suppress a rebellion and calling for their executions. A sadistic and ruthless tyrant, The Warden ultimately serves as who Negan would've been if he had shed his humanity.
- "Wrath" through "Children of Wrath": Jeremiah Otto Sr. is the racist and abusive patriarch of the Otto family, and created the Broke Jaw Ridge on the land of the stolen Natives. Jeremiah lynched several Natives, including Qaletaqa Walker's father and uncle, before the outbreak, and after the apocalypse, allows a bloody war between his Broke Jaw Ridge and the Hopi Tribe. A seemingly reasonable family man, it's revealed that Jeremiah is an prideful and stubborn man who is willing to let all his friends and family die just to prevent himself from apologizing to Walker and surrendering, and refuses to atone for his actions, caring more for himself than the safety of anyone else.
- Major General Johnathan Beale, the head of The Civic Republic Military, appears as a benevolent leader, but is revealed to be the most dangerous villain ever faced. Beale became disillusioned over the state of the world and, believing that only the CRMs superiority can save it, thus schemed to completely Take Over the World under his rule. Having operated things in the background for years, Beale had ordered the massacre of the Campus Colony and Omaha Community using chlorine gas, murdering thousands without remorse. People inside the Philadelphia community are never allowed to leave, with it being clear that any place they go to will be massacred to protect the CRM's secrets. Giving Rick Grimes the Echelon Briefing, Beale reveals his plans of world domination, having Portland massacred completely to find an excuse to release Martial Law and throw out the Civic Republic Council, ruling everything with an iron fist as he strips the rights of everybody else. After establishing his position, he'd go on to massacre every remaining community in the country and then the world, and attempts to entice Rick on his side with a promise of sparing his loved ones, despite them being enslaved as well, and is left as a sociopathic madman who believes his own strength and superiority above all.
