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[[WMG:[[center: [- ''Series/{{The Walking Dead|2010}}'' '''[[Characters/TheWalkingDead2010 Main Character Index]]'''\\
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMaggieGreene Maggie Greene]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
!!Due to the AnyoneCanDie nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. If you have not seen the first ten seasons read at your own risk!
!!''Negan Smith''
[[quoteright:300: https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/298cb649_654b_4cb4_92e8_f71a3ad0e71c.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"What's the matter? Y'all scared of the Big Bad Wolf?"'']]
!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JeffreyDeanMorgan
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Iñaki Crespo (Spanish), Pedro Ruiz (Latin-American Spanish), Cassius Romero (Brazillian Portuguese), Creator/AkioOhtsuka (Japanese), Charles Rettinghaus (German), Jérémie Covillault (French), Fabrizio Temperini (Italian), Jiří Schwarz (Czech), Zoltán Csankó (Hungarian)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/{{The Walking Dead|2010}}'' (Seasons 6-11) | ''The Walking Dead: Dead City''
!!!'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E16LastDayOnEarth Last Day on Earth]]"
->''"Hi. You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is. But I think you’re gonna be up to speed shortly. Yeah. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes. Yes, you are."''
The main antagonist of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' starting at the end of Season 6. Negan is the powerful leader of the Saviors, and controls other communities as well through intimidation, demanding tribute from them to supply his personal base, the Sanctuary. He wields Lucille, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire as his personal weapon and symbol of power. When the Alexandria Safe-Zone begins attacking his group and slaughters many of them, Negan decides to confront Rick directly, killing Glenn and Abraham and mentally tortures Rick into submission. Negan humiliates Alexandria through his visits, and offers several of their people membership in the Saviors when they show potential to him. However, his murders of Spencer and Olivia push Rick over the edge, and Rick forms a rebellion against him. With his slave states rebelling, Negan declares war on them.
It becomes apparent during the war that Negan is far more than his evil tyrant persona. Negan is revealed to genuinely believe that he is saving people by protecting the weak, and does not condone the genocidal tendencies of Simon. However, Rick points out that extortion of the weak is not the same as protection, and that the Savior empire will never last, something Negan begins to realize as the war progresses. Though AHK initially has him on the defensive, Negan strikes back and personally leads the sacking of Alexandria, but is devastated to learn of Carl’s death. Ultimately, it is the treachery of his lieutenants that causes Negan’s downfall, as his army surrenders after their weapons are sabotaged by Eugene, his attempt to wipe out AHK fails thanks to Simon’s earlier raid, and Dwight helps wound him during the final fight. Citing Carl’s desire for peace, Rick and Michonne spare Negan and sentence him to life in prison to watch the communities thrive without him.
A year and a half later, Negan is still behind bars in Alexandria, but vows that he will escape someday. Not too long after, Maggie finally arrives to kill him, only for Negan to break down and admits he wants to die. Realizing he is much worse off this way, Maggie spares him. Six years later, Negan has become friends with the now nine-year-old Judith Grimes, and begins asking Michonne if she could learn to trust him, after he saves Judith's life during a snowstorm. As a result, Negan is allowed more freedom, but as the threat of the Whisperers looms in the aftermath of a tragic loss, paranoid Alexandrians take their fear out on him. Carol orders him to infiltrate the Whisperers and assassinate Alpha, a task he succeeds in and is rewarded for with a tentative place in the group. However, this becomes complicated when Maggie returns, and is none too pleased to see him a free man, having not borne witness to his change of heart.
----
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[[folder:A-D]]
* AbhorrentAdmirer: His bragging about how Sherry is now his wife and how he originally wanted to make Tina his beloved reach uncomfortable creeper levels. He also expresses a desire in taking Maggie as a wife (after ''killing her husband'') and admits an attraction to Olivia, who isn't exactly forthcoming considering he spends half of his time insulting her weight.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: He takes a moment to stop bludgeoning Abraham with Lucille to laugh at the Sergeant's ProfaneLastWords, "Suck my nuts!" Makes sense, considering Negan's own juvenile sense of humor.
* AdaptationDeviation: How Negan got his [[WeaponOfChoice trademark baseball bat]] and IconicOutfit is played differently here:
** Negan received "Lucille" from Laura (who is not a Savior at that time) while searching for more chemotherapy bags. In the comics, he picked up "Lucille" after his previous survivor group were DevouredByTheHorde.
** In the comics, Negan got his iconic leather jacket from an abandoned store. Here, he bought it for $600 prior to the outbreak, though the real Lucille hid it and later gave it back to him as an "anniversary gift".
* AdaptationExpansion: In the comics, he is PutOnABus following the Whisperer arc, and only makes a brief cameo in the last issue of the series. In the show, he contemplates living on his own but ultimately returns to Alexandria to continue residing there instead. [[spoiler:He then leaves for real in "No Other Way", only to return four episodes later.]]
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: While Negan was a lot more muscular in the comics, he also had a pudgy, thuggish sort of appearance, in contrast to the roguishly handsome Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
* AdaptationalCurves: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Comic!Negan has a stouter built, while TV!Negan is leaner.
* AdaptationalIntelligence: TV!Negan is also far more prone to psychological warfare and careful thought than his comics counterpart. As an example, regarding how he chooses who he plans to kill in his debut, comic-book Negan truly appears to have done a random selection (he listed several reasons why he couldn't decide who was going to get [[BatterUp Lucilled]]), TV!Negan bounces around during his "random" eeny-meeny-miny-moe game and just so happens to land on Abraham (who had quietly stood up to him earlier) after pausing on the last pick. His seemingly random choice of Glenn as his second victim supports this interpretation as well, given Glenn had previously interrupted him. He finally admits to Rick in "Wrath" that killing Abraham was a calculated move, as he didn't want to murder Rick in front of his son.
* AdaptationalKarma:
** Unlike in the comic, he gets a well-deserved punch to the face after killing his first victim. Unfortunately, this leads to Negan dishing out some karma of his own and selecting Glenn to beat to death next.
** In the comic he's only incarcerated for three years, compared to the show's eight.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Negan is a lot more aggressive and merciless, but at the same time, he's a more emotionally stable and rational character compared to his borderline sociopathic comic counterpart. In the comic, he knew there was no possible peace as long as Rick was alive at the first failed assassination attempt and decides to go full scorched earth on Alexandria. Here, it's Simon who advocates the KillEmAll philosophy, which Negan objects to (at least initially). His HeelFaceTurn is also played with more sincerity and his friendships with characters like Judith and Lydia are emphasized to highlight this.
** In the comics, he continued to sleep around even ''after'' Lucille was diagnosed with cancer, [[EveryoneHasStandards leading his mistress to one day throw him out in disgust]]. In the show, he broke off the affair the minute he found out about his wife's diagnosis and never spoke to said mistress again.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Besides the AdaptationalNiceGuy above, this version of Negan is more depraved and sadistic than his comic book counterpart. For instance:
** In the Season 7 premiere, he kills two victims rather than one (the latter just for someone punching him in the face, rather than retribution for killing his men) and nearly forces Rick to chop Carl's arm off, something his comic counterpart never did. Also, while he's disrespectful to his victim(s) in both comic and TV show, TV-verse Negan spends ''far'' more time mocking and torturing the survivors, and openly admits he enjoys killing (people he feels need to die to keep everyone in line, at least), whereas Comic!Negan confessed to Rick in private that he actually didn't like it.
** Negan's {{Harem}} comes across as much creepier in the show. While Comic!Negan emphasized that all of the women were there of their own free will, were treated well, and could leave any time they wanted (albeit at the cost of having to go back to performing hard labor and being on Negan's shit list), Show!Negan is not above coercing women into joining. His offer for Tina to join him comes after she's unable to afford the insulin she ''needs to survive'' under his harsh point system (and later implies he was planning to offer Maggie a similar deal, noting that she's sick too) and [[ScarpiaUltimatum the only thing that stops him from executing Dwight for treason is that Sherry volunteers to marry him if he spares Dwight]]. [[note]]In the comics, Sherry married Negan because she believed it was the most practical choice for both her and Dwight, not because of any life-threatening circumstances, and Negan only burned Dwight's face after they continued to sleep together behind his back.[[/note]]
** Downplayed, but in their confrontation in the comics, Negan profusely apologized to Maggie for killing Glenn, realizing that for all the grief he feels over his dead wife, he dished it out to Maggie by killing her husband, and outright cried about how horrible he felt for his actions. Though TV!Negan does break down crying and begging to be killed, he does not apologize to Maggie for killing Glenn nor does he explicitly express remorse for his actions. When the two finally have a heart-to-heart in "Promises Broken", Negan is still adamant that IDidWhatIHadToDo and admits he would have killed them all if he got to do it all over again.
* AdaptationalWimp: His comic counterpart succeeded in maiming Rick and shattering his leg during their final brawl, forcing Rick to walk with the assistance of a cane for the rest of his life. TV!Negan inflicts no such lasting damage, and is more quickly taken down by Rick courtesy of a shard of broken glass.
* AerithAndBob: A guy named Negan has the decidedly common surname ''Smith''.
* AffablyEvil: In Season 8, where he's written with a lighter touch and comes across as much more personable than before.
* AintTooProudToBeg: Subverted. While he didn’t beg ''for'' his life in "Wrath", he begs Maggie to ''kill him'' in "What Comes After" so he can rejoin his [[TheLostLenore dead wife, Lucille]], after an [[ICannotSelfTerminate unsuccessful suicide attempt the previous episode]]. [[CruelMercy Maggie refuses so that he can suffer alone]].
* AllForNothing: His six-week quest to find the medicine needed to treat Lucille's cancer ended up being for naught, as she killed herself the very same day that he left.
* AlmightyJanitor: As the former leader of the Saviors, he more or less becomes this in Season 10 when he is allowed more leeway in Alexandria only to be assigned grunt work such as doing the laundry and taking out the trash. Negan, for his part, seems content with this and tries not to draw too much attention to himself, especially with the threat of the Whisperers on the horizon. He also bonds with Lydia, who has become a pariah in lieu of Alpha's massacre, dispensing her some words of advice about how to deal with bullies and later rescuing her from said bullies when they gang up on her one night.
* AmazonChaser: Seemingly averted at first, as his {{Harem}} is made up of women who are either too weak to work for points or were blackmailed into marrying him against their will. However, a closer look reveals that Negan does in fact have an admiration of strong women:
** He admits that Sasha has him "wrapped around [her] little finger" after she shows no fear in the face of his threats.
** He expresses some attraction toward Alpha who, despite being completely insane, has the intelligence and strength of will to command an entire army of Whisperers.
** After Olivia gives him a defiant BitchSlap for propositioning her, Negan admits the slap increased his desire for her by 50 percent.
** His pre-apocalypse wife, Lucille, was very much a "take no crap" kind of woman as well.
** In Season 11, Negan gets married to Annie, who is an ActionGirl and forms one-half of a BattleCouple with him.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Negan is brutally violent and sadistic, refuses to take responsibility for his actions, has a bizarre BlueAndOrangeMorality and sense of justice, and is a MoodSwinger who can flip between angry and comical at the drop of a hat. While he shows far too much empathy to fit the criteria for sociopathy, it's clear there's ''something'' not right in the head with him.
* AmbiguouslyChristian: Negan doesn't appear to be practicing any religion, but he makes enough passive comments about God and the afterlife that it seems as if he at least believes in the possibility of them. Then again, when Gabriel says he became a priest because he wanted to bring people closer to God, Negan chuckles and responds, "You gotta be kidding me." He later joins the religious Riverbend group, though it’s unknown if he actually had a HeelFaithTurn or was only there because he wanted a new community to join and was willing to acquiesce to their beliefs if it meant he could stay.
* AMFMCharacterization: He considers "[[Music/JoeCocker You Are So Beautiful]]" to be the greatest love ballad ever written. He used to sing it to his wife, Lucille, when she was afflicted with cancer, and he once nearly killed a man in a bar because the man was being loud and obnoxious when Negan and Lucille were trying to listen to the song. He's also heard listening to "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Back in Black]]" which, as a rock song, is rather fitting for a BadassBiker like him.
* AndIMustScream: While he definitely deserved to suffer for his crimes, his eight-year stint in prison -- no one to talk to, no light, and the knowledge that he could very well spend the rest of his life without ever getting to see outside his cell ever again -- counts. According to Negan himself, it got so bad that even his ''memories'' started to have bars painted on them.
* AndStarring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets this billing from Season 7 onward.
* AnimalMotifs: In Season 9, Negan is repeatedly associated with dogs -- specifically, the question of whether he is now a "good" dog or a "bad" one. In "Who Are You Now?" he tells Judith a story about how he used to bring home stray dogs when he was a kid and how the "wrong" dog ended up killing all the other strays. This comes back around in "Adaptation" when he is chased by a bunch of stray dogs while looking for a new jacket in an empty store. In "Guardians", he turns the motif on himself and tells Michonne that she "can't keep a big dog locked up forever." Michonne's response is to ask Negan what kind of dog that makes him, to which Negan doesn't yet have an answer. Finally, in "The Storm", he begins making strides towards a HeelFaceTurn by risking his own life to bring Judith and Daryl's dog (a "good" dog) to safety, symbolizing that Negan has decided to be a good dog after all.
* AntagonistInMourning: He is genuinely distraught to hear about Carl's death and offers Rick his sincere condolences... while also [[KickTheDog berating him for not being around to stop Carl from getting himself into trouble]]. Rick later takes advantage of Negan's despair to lower his guard and slash his throat.
* AntiHero: Evolves into one in Season 10. While he does the right thing and kills BigBad Alpha, as Lydia points out, he's still motivated by the selfish desire that his own misdeeds will be forgiven, and killing their leader does not necessarily end the threat of the Whisperers as a whole.
* AntiVillain: In Season 8. While still depraved, he's given many humanizing moments with characters like Gabriel, Eugene, and especially Carl, who believes Negan isn't beyond redemption. In the back half of the season, it's revealed that as harsh as Negan is, he doesn't want to needlessly murder people if he can avoid doing so, and is positively gentle compared to [[TheDragon Simon]], who gleefully advocates slaughtering everyone at Hilltop and, in an inverted "kill only one" policy, slaughters all of the Scavengers aside from a devastated Jadis without Negan's knowledge or approval. When he finally decides he must exterminate all the rebelling communities and start over, he's truly saddened that it's come to this and takes no enjoyment from it.
* ArchEnemy: Maggie makes it clear that while Negan may have redeemed himself in the eyes of the Alexandrians, to her, he's still the sadistic murderer who bashed Glenn's head in and left Hershel without a father. It gets extra awkward when [[spoiler:most of the Wardens are killed by the Reapers and they are forced to abandon an injured Alden in a church, leaving Maggie and Negan to travel alone together.]]
* ArcWords: "Right off the bat" during Season 6, as it's used by several characters as a way to hint towards his impending arrival.
* TheAtoner: Starts in earnest in Season 10 when he's given more freedom and has to work with Aaron to fend off the Whisperers' walker horde. It would seem that he's made it by the end of the season, though he still has beef with Maggie, who has adamantly ''not'' been around to see how far he's come in the years since his incarceration.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: In his first meeting with Rick's group he quickly deduces that Carl is Rick's son and that Abraham and Rosita were romantically involved.
* AxCrazy: While he does adhere to PragmaticVillainy, Negan is a little ''too'' quick to employ violence to solve problems, and is downright giddy smashing Glenn and Abraham's heads to a pulp.
* BadassBiker: Negan is a biker as shown when he departs from the Sanctuary on a motorcycle in "Adaptation". He was also part of a biker's club before the apocalypse.
* BadassBoast: He preaches to Daryl about what a powerful leader he is by proclaiming he's nearly all-powerful among his men. Later does this to Carl to demonstrate his authority.
-->'''Negan:''' I wear a leather jacket, I have Lucille, and my nutsack is made of steel! I am not dying until I am damn good and ready!
** He has a great one when Beta leaves him for dead only for Negan to march back into camp and approach the leader Alpha with a shit-eating grin on his face.
-->'''Negan:''' I'm ready for my goddamn skin suit! You best bring that extra-long tape measure on account of my ''humongous balls''.
** Downplayed when he tells Rick that he's "not saving the world, just getting it ready for me." While it does sound foreboding with his FaceFramedInShadow and Rick is clearly rattled by it, Negan's actions a few episodes later put the line in a different context when he's revealed to be suicidal, implying that it was merely an attempt to convince Rick to go back on his word and kill him.
* BadassTeacher: Seriously, how many gym teachers can say they took command over an army of hundreds of people, with all of them swearing UndyingLoyalty in their name?
** He really puts his skills to use when he teaches Maggie, Elijah and Gabriel to walk in Whisperer masks in "Promises Broken".
* TheBadGuyWins: In the Season 6 finale and continuing into the Season 7 premiere. Not only does he kill two members of Rick's group, he personally breaks down Rick's hope until he is a blubbering mess and saying he works for Negan and answers to him. He even kidnaps Daryl from the group to force him to work for him and as leverage so Rick remembers not to step out of line. The remaining members of the group are left on the road as the Saviors leave, completely broken and beaten.
* BadGuysPlayPool: He becomes excited when Spencer tells him that the house across the street from Rick's has a pool table in the garage. During the game, he guts Spencer in front of everyone for trying to betray Rick, and afterwards [[BlackComedy asks if any of the onlookers want to finish the game in Spencer's place.]]
* BattleCouple: He and Annie work side-by-side to rescue Gabriel from the Commonwealth in "Warlords".
* BeardOfEvil: Unlike his clean-shaven comic counterpart, Negan's facial hair is more noticeable in the show. He lampshades it in his first appearance when he mentions he should shave it off and finally does so in the mid-Season 7 finale. It grows back by Season 8 and he's kept it ever since.
* BeardOfSorrow: Grows one during his initial 18-month stay in Alexandria's jail.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: He used to be apprehensive about killing walkers because he didn't want to "get used to it." He also didn't want to hurt living people and was uneasy about having to rob a camp of doctors to get medication for Lucille. Compare this to the Negan who introduces himself by gleefully beating the skulls of two men and demanding half of Alexandria's supplies as tribute.
* BecomingTheMask: He confesses to Daryl that he actually enjoyed being a part of the Whisperers because it made him feel respected again, only to remember why he was there in the first place upon realizing how dead-set Alpha was on killing Lydia.
* BelligerentSexualTension: At least on his end towards Olivia. He spends most of his time with her insulting her weight, but eventually admits that he'd love to sleep with her. He doesn't even mind getting slapped by her, as it just turns him on even more.
* BeneathTheMask: In "What Comes After", Negan acts like his old, [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] self to try and provoke Maggie into killing him, but her insistence on him stepping into the light and hesitance sees his bravado fall to pieces, revealing the broken DeathSeeker he's become.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't harm Lucille. ''Ever''. When Rosita shoots his bat, he flies into an extreme rage far beyond anything we've seen before. When Rick lights Lucille on fire, Negan goes apeshit and tackles him to the ground.
** This also applied to Lucille ''before'' the apocalypse. His wife, not the bat.
** Banging one of his 'wives' behind his back is a surefire way to get an iron to the face.
** Negan hates traitors and kowtows, as shown with his murder of Spencer.
** Killing innocent children, as Brandon and Alpha learn the hard way.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Negan comes across as a little [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} off]], but, as Rick's group finds out the hard way, you do not cross him.
* BigBad: From the Season 6 finale to the Season 8 finale, he is the primary antagonist of the show.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** In "Silence the Whisperers", he arrives to stop Gage, Margot, and Alfred from beating Lydia. In "A Certain Doom", he stops Beta from going after Lydia (who is wearing Alpha's mask) by whispering to him, "Hey, shithead."
** He also saves a mother and son from being eaten by some walkers on an abandoned bus. Pity he was too late to save them from Brandon...
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: The first truly heinous act he committed in the apocalypse was returning to the Vipers' hideout and massacring them all without mercy. Granted, they definitely had it coming, but it was nevertheless a StartOfDarkness moment for Negan.
* BloodKnight: He even says he can kill people all day.
* BoisterousBruiser: He's an overly happy guy who's not afraid to crush his enemies' skulls in with his trusted baseball bat.
* BreakingSpeech: Gives a thoroughly detailed monologue that [[BreakThemByTalking breaks]] Rick while he and his friends are held hostage.
* BreakoutVillain: He gets far more to do than his comic counterpart, eventually becoming one of the show's main characters by Season 10. His popularity led to him being announced to be headlining a spinoff with Maggie in 2023. This makes Negan one of three characters confirmed to survive the main show's series finale, the others being Maggie and Daryl.
* BreakTheBadass: What he spends all of "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" doing to Rick's group (especially to Rick). He's so effective it takes the entire first half of the season and two more people dying for Rick to finally start fighting back.
* BreakTheHaughty: In Season 9. For his first couple of appearances in the season, despite being utterly defeated and locked in a jail cell, he still acts like same old Negan, gloating and crowing during his conversations with Rick and Michonne. The first cracks appear with his reaction to the news that Lucille was left on the battlefield after his defeat, which causes him to beat his head bloody on the wall. Then, in "What Comes After", Maggie arrives with the intention of killing him, and he starts trying to goad her into doing so, bringing up Glenn (and pretending to forget his name), and poking barbs at her struggles. Maggie quickly catches on to his DeathSeeker mentality, and when she hesitates, the facade absolutely shatters, resulting in Negan sobbing and begging for Maggie to kill him, so that he can be reunited with Lucille (his wife, not the bat). Maggie's refusal to do so seems to leave him even more broken and hollow.
* BrutalHonesty: In Season 11, when Maggie asks if he would have done things differently, Negan responds that yes, he would have... by killing ''all'' of Rick's group at the line-up. Shocked, Maggie asks why he would tell her this; Negan says it's because he thinks the only way for them to work together is if he's completely honest.
* TheBully: An adult version, as his MO is basically intimidating people into working for him and forcibly taking their supplies for himself. His juvenile sense of humor and childish cheerfulness also contribute to this image.
* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:Towards the end of “No Other Way”, he decides to leave Alexandria as he suspects (not without reason) that Maggie will eventually break her promise and try to kill him again.]]
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Negan keeps Dwight around just long enough to help him put down Simon's mutiny, then reveals he knows about his treachery and takes him prisoner.
* CardCarryingJerkass: He's well aware of how much of a prick he is.
-->'''Sherry:''' You're an asshole.
-->'''Negan:''' ''I know''.
* CardCarryingVillain: He plays this up to try and provoke Maggie into killing him, bragging about he enjoyed breaking open Glenn's head and watching him suffer as his eye popped out.
* TheCaretaker: He was devoted to taking care of his wife after she got diagnosed with cancer at the onset of the apocalypse. This made Lucille realize that, despite his cheating, Negan was still the man she loved.
* CargoShip: InUniverse. He has a bizarre fixation with his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille, to the point of affectionately calling her pet names like "baby" and openly speaking about her as if she were his lover. The reason for this is eventually revealed in "Still Gotta Mean Something" -- he named the bat after his actual late wife, Lucille.
* CasualKink: Possibly. He seems into the idea of Alpha leaving her mask on during sex, but considering he is also TheMole who is trying to get on Alpha's good side it's not clear how agreeable to it he really was.
* CharacterCheck: After most of Season 10 is spent giving him a HeelFaceTurn and "Here's Negan" makes him into a rather tragic and sympathetic figure, he gets two massive KickTheDog moments in the following episode, "Acheron, Part I": throwing Glenn's death in Maggie's face [[spoiler:and leaving Maggie to her fate above a herd of walkers.]] This is probably to show that while Negan may have turned over a new leaf, he's still very much a pragmatic {{Jerkass}} who isn't willing to suffer fools, sad backstory or not.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** Negan starts out as little more than a murderous bully who mentally tortures Rick into submission. Later episodes show him as a more dynamic character who ''is'' capable of occasional kindness, such as with his relationships with Sasha, Eugene, Gabriel, and '''especially''' Carl and Judith, the latter of whom eventually becomes something of a MoralityPet to him. When Negan discovers that the Sanctuary has fallen during his seven-and-a-half year incarceration, he decides to head back to Alexandria and genuinely starts taking steps to make up for what he did. This evolves into a full-fledged HeelFaceTurn in Season 10 and beyond.
** By Season 11 he has adopted a combination of Rick and Simon’s ideologies; he has come to embrace Rick’s idea for civilization to rebuild and has accepted that he can no longer operate as a bullying enemy to Alexandria. However, he has learned from Simon’s schemes for genocide that there are indeed some enemies who cross a line that means you need to put them all down when you have the chance. He tells Maggie he caused his own downfall when he didn’t wipe out the group, and convinces her to dish out a FinalSolution on the Reapers.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** He is far more reserved and serious in his debut in the Season 6 finale, only raising his voice once when he snaps at Rick for speaking out of turn. Starting in the Season 7 premiere, he is much more animated and loud, more closely resembling his comic counterpart.
** While Negan has been always shown to have a fondness for children, it is only starting in Season 8 that he adopts a WouldntHurtAChild mentality, as in the Season 7 finale he is mere seconds from executing Carl in a desperate attempt to finally break Rick.
* CharacterTics: The "Negan lean", which was inspired by a panel in the comic where Negan was leaning back and laughing, quickly became a staple of his character. He stops doing it in Season 9, which shows how broken he's become since his defeat. He begins doing it again in "What It Always Is" after seemingly reverting to his old ways and joining the Whisperers.
* TheChessmaster: He really shows his skill at this in "Worth". Knowing that both Simon and Dwight are rogue elements in their own way, Negan uses them to take out the other. First, he doesn't immediately out Dwight as having defected to AHK. He instead keeps him around to help lure Simon's mutineers into a trap to slaughter them. Negan also pretends to forgive Simon, to lure him into a sense of security so he'll be confident enough to plan his outright mutiny. While he's dealing with Simon, Negan also allows Dwight to pass on bogus intel to AHK so he can lure them into a trap and win the war. Once Simon is eliminated, then Negan reveals he's played Dwight as well.
* ClassicVillain: Greed and wrath, with a massive helping of pride.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Negan's villainous monologue seems to come completely out of nowhere and he oddly takes holding Rick's group hostage as a big joke he pulled on them. His personality is so random that even his own minions get confused half the time when he's talking to them, not being able to tell if he's serious or joking with them.
* ComfortingTheWidow: He has the nerve to consider asking Maggie to be one of his wives after he murdered Glenn. While he admits that it was a bit of a stretch to think she'd accept, it's implied from his comments to Rick that he's done this successfully at least once.
* ConfusionFu: This is how he defeats the Reaper Carver, using misdirection and trickery to get his guard down before blinding him with some hidden sand, and then knocking the daylights out of him with the bell he had openly displayed.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: To previous BigBad Philip Blake, a.k.a. The Governor.
** The Governor was mostly a serious villain. Negan is constantly making jokes and is a PsychopathicManchild.
** The Governor was a chronic liar who kept his villainy [[FauxAffablyEvil hidden behind a veneer of superficial charm]]. Negan is upfront about who he is and what his intentions are, and is openly a {{Jerkass}} to everyone around him.
** The Governor's response to hearing about other settlements is to wipe them out because he perceives them as a threat to his power. Negan believes that the communities must work together if they are ever to restore order to the world, albeit a world of his own twisted design.
** The Governor had a chance for redemption but was "[[IveComeTooFar too far gone]]" and responded to Rick's pleas for peace by murdering Hershel. Negan is capable of true change and undergoes a HeelFaceTurn over the course of Season 10.
* CooldownHug: He gives a much-needed one to Lydia when she breaks down ranting about how much she hated her mother.
* TheCorrupter: He shows some interest in making others think the way he does. This is best demonstrated when he convinces Eugene to [[FaceHeelTurn join the group]] as their EvilGenius by offering him a great position over the other Saviors. He also expresses interest in recruiting Carl for the Saviors, boasting to Rick that in a few years he'll be one of his top soldiers.
* CowardlyLion: Downplayed, but in Seasons 10 and 11 he frequently votes for the path of least resistance, avoiding conflict if at all possible and being willing to bail and go home numerous times during the Reaper conflict. Daryl implores him to defy this, warning him that if he wants to be a part of the group, he must keep laying down his life for others; and he has to get a SadisticChoice out of Maggie to agree to help stay and fight the Reapers.
* CradlingYourKill: He does this to Alpha after slashing her throat, slowly lowering her to the ground and giving her a gentle kiss as she bleeds to death.
* CrazyJealousGuy: If anyone tries to get with one of his many wives without following the point system, then he'll scorch off half a man's face as punishment.
* CrazyPrepared: After the Whisperers' defeat, he held onto his skin mask should the need to use it again ever arise.
* CruelMercy: He threatens to kill everybody in the group and back in Alexandria if Rick doesn't cut off Carl's hand, but leaves Rick alive to wander alone knowing he could have prevented it.
** Negan himself is later a victim of this in the Season 8 finale. After Rick slashes his throat, rather than let him bleed out Rick instead chooses to honor his late son's wishes and save Negan's life, with a twist: he must now spend the rest of his days locked up inside the cell below Alexandria while Rick leads the communities (including some of Negan's own surviving people) into a better and brighter future.
** Maggie ultimately chooses not to kill him after seeing how much he actually wants to die, opting to let him suffer with the pain he feels for his actions.
* CrusadingWidower: His first wife, Lucille, died from suicide seven months into the outbreak. Needless to say, Negan was never quite the same after that...
* CultOfPersonality: Negan has one of these within Sanctuary, down to the point where his followers actually bow to him and proclaim that they "are all Negan."
* DarkAndTroubledPast: He reveals to Gabriel that he cheated on his ''actual'' wife, Lucille, and that he regrets not being better to her when she was alive.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a dark-haired man in a dark outfit and the longest-reigning BigBad of the series to date.[[note]]In terms of seasons.[[/note]]
* DarkMessiah: Downplayed. Although Negan is just a mortal man, the Saviors seem to view him as a nearly god-like leader to whom they swear UndyingLoyalty, claiming "We are all Negan." A woman is heard thanking God for him in "The Big Scary U".
* DeadpanSnarker: More snarky than deadpan, but as a MotorMouth, Negan has a quip to make about damn near everything.
* DeathSeeker: By Season 9, his downfall and subsequent incarceration have broken him to the point that he tearfully begs Maggie to kill him so that he can be reunited with his wife.
* DespairEventHorizon: He passes it after spending a year and a half imprisoned for his crimes with no one to talk to, banging his head on the wall in frustration after Michonne refuses to let him see Lucille and then asking Maggie to kill him to end his suffering. He doesn't even make any attempt to escape even though he knows the alternative is being forced to rot in the cell, and willingly goes without a struggle after Maggie refuses to kill him and orders him to return to his imprisonment. Six years later, he has managed to find some level of peace again, thanks in part to his friendship with Judith.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Twice over! In the Season 7 finale, he did not expect Sasha to die and try to kill him as a walker. And he definitely didn't expect a tiger to show up and start killing his men, followed by the other communities he subjugated coming to Alexandria's rescue.
* DinnerAndAShow: Subverted in the mid-Season 7 finale, with Negan and his pretend family all gathered around the table. Except everyone aside from Negan is terrified.
* TheDogBitesBack:
** After being held prisoner by the Vipers he later returned and murdered them all.
** [[spoiler:He responds to Maggie's refusal to help him fight a big walker by leaving her to dangle from the edge of a subway car with several walkers below her.]]
* DomesticAbuser: Negan's system is fundamentally exploitative. The only other "choice" (which isn't really a choice) he gives his wives is to be treated like a slave. He knew that there would be women like Tina, who couldn't earn the points they need, and there would be women like Amber, who had a family member who couldn't work, that he could take advantage of and exploit.
** He also tortures them psychologically and enjoys it. His wives are so terrified of him they either want to kill him (as seen when Frankie asked Eugene to help her), drink themselves to death (as seen with Amber), and run away from the safety of the Sanctuary and would rather risk dying to be with him (as seen with Tina). Plus there's the fact that he withheld life-saving medication from Tina unless she agreed to marry him.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Is seen ramming a few walkers with an RV. If he's not ramming, he's gunning them down while driving.
* TheDreaded: Before he actually appears on the show. The Hilltop residents were quickly cowed into submission by his soldiers and are initially dismissive of Rick's proposal to assassinate him. We find out in the Season 6 finale just why everyone's so terrified of him.
* DrunkWithPower:
** This is implied to be what happened after he took over the Sanctuary and became leader of the Saviors. "Here's Negan" has him force a man to kneel so he can show him who's boss before executing him for being responsible for him not making it home to his wife on time. By the time Negan meets Rick's group, he's made it customary to have his people kneel to him when he enters the room and has reached AGodAmI levels of influence and ego.
** On that note, in "Look at the Flowers", he relishes having the power to make Daryl kneel before him, as well as getting to wield a firearm again. He still pulls back and helps Daryl kill the Whisperers, but his somber tone afterwards implies he knows he enjoyed it too much. He also admits to Daryl he enjoyed being a Whisperer a little because it made him feel important again.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: In Season 11, he points out he's done a lot for Alexandria and has more than earned his keep, yet everyone is ''still'' treating him like the bad guy.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-H]]
* EasilyForgiven: Completely averted. Even after spending eight years behind bars, saving Judith and Lydia, and beheading Alpha, Negan is still on shaky ground with most of the Alexandrians, which is further compounded when Maggie returns with Hershel near the end of Season 10.
* EmptyShell: Describes himself as one when he explains how he coped with his wife's death to Alpha. He didn't feel much of anything anymore, and used his lack of emotion as his strength when building the Saviors' empire.
* EnemyMine: With Gabriel in "The Big Scary U" as they work together to escape a trailer surrounded by walkers.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** In "Last Day on Earth," Negan gleefully welcomes Rick's group to their neighborhood with a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech before playfully picking which one he wants to punish for their actions against him, and then brutally bashes that person's head (the person being Abraham) to a bloody pulp. Taken further in the next episode when he suddenly murders Glenn as well simply because Daryl punched him after he killed the first victim.
** It comes a little later, but in "Sing Me a Song", after returning Carl to Alexandria, he takes a tour of their house and discovers Judith in her crib. How gentle he is with her and the fact that the next scene shows Judith comfortably sleeping in his arms reveals a side of Negan we hadn't seen yet. He may be a total {{Jerkass}} and something of a man-child in areas, but he does have a genuine soft spot for kids.
* EtTuBrute: He is shaken when he learns that Simon disobeyed him and slaughtered the Scavengers. He's also pissed when he finds out Eugene rigged the Saviors' guns to explode.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He genuinely loved his late wife, Lucille.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** He didn’t want to kill a kid’s father in front of him, hence why he didn’t choose Rick to die from the get-go and settled on the larger, more defiant Abraham. In Season 11, even long after he's pulled a HeelFaceTurn, he's disturbed when he sees how bitter and vengeful Hershel Rhee has become due to knowing his father was murdered before he was born, meaning that his attempt at a clear conscience during the line-up failed since he still destroyed a child that night.
** Forbids rape amongst the Saviors, though as noted in {{Hypocrite}}, this is a downplayed trope. However, when David violates that rule he gets severely punished by having a knife to the throat.
** He also genuinely feels bad when people cry and tries to apologize for upsetting his victims when they cave in.
** He seems to have a fondness for babies, as seen when he dotes on and plays with Judith for an entire day.
** He's disgusted when Spencer tries to betray Rick and get Negan to put him in charge. Despite how horrendously Negan treats Rick, he at least respects Rick for having the guts to fight and sacrifice for his community, which he (correctly) points out is much more than Spencer ever seems to do.
** He's disgusted by Rick and his group when Rick was actually going to detonate the bombs in the area with Eugene in the vicinity after Eugene tries to talk them down from attacking, even though they no longer consider him in their group anymore.
** As he believes in PragmaticVillainy, he’s always quick to tear Simon a new one whenever he suggests that they massacre a community (especially Hilltop). He is also outright disgusted by Simon's all-male massacre at Oceanside, as well as him killing all of the garbage people right in front of Jadis.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** He’s visibly revolted by having to resort to the walker guts trick, deeming it as disgusting as everyone else has.
** He's clearly uncomfortable having to whip Alpha as part of her SelfHarm to make herself "stronger", and as such isn't too thrilled when she tells him that it's now ''his'' turn to be flogged. Alpha even points out that he's joking to hide his fear, which Negan doesn't deny.
** He's nearly brought to tears when Alpha insists that she must kill her own daughter because it's her "destiny".
** He recognizes a gang of lunatics when he sees one in the form of the Reapers and advises Maggie to be thorough with her annihilation of them.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The ultimate reason he underestimates Rick. Negan, who rules his group through fear alongside some liberal self-interest, just sees Rick as another leader of a community he can subjugate and crush under heel, not grasping that Rick leads his group through mutual adoration and devotion, to both each other and to a better future. By the time it ''really'' dawns on him that Rick is the man that can [[TheDogBitesBack unite all the desperate communities against him,]] he's already lost control and an all out war has erupted. In Season 8, even when he’s legitimately mourning Carl’s death, he chastises Rick for rebelling against him like a parent scolds their child. Negan genuinely does not see any other way than his, and can’t understand why his slave states revolted against him.
* EvilCounterpart:
** He is this for the Rick of Seasons 5-6: a ruthless and powerful leader who takes care of his own by crushing all potential opposition and taking supplies from those who aren't a threat.
** He is also this to Ezekiel. Both men are shrewd, intelligent leaders with command over large numbers and a flair for the dramatic. They also cultivated a persona they feel is necessary to keep people alive, while also using it as a mask to avoid coping with their real feelings. However, the key difference between the two is that while Negan rules through fear, Ezekiel rules through genuine, earned respect.
* EvilGloating: Hoo boy, does he like to rub it in. He spends most of "Service" reminding Rick of what he did to Glenn and Abraham and pretty much emasculating him at every turn. Not even his own minions are safe from this, as he regularly brags to Dwight about how he has both him and Sherry under his control.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: He has a nasty habit of making cruel jokes at the expense of others. Best shown in the Season 7 premiere when he calls Lucille a "vampire bat" after he's just finished smashing Glenn's head to pieces, or later mentioning that Glenn and Abraham deserve the "spirit award" for their efforts.
--> '''Negan:''' What? Was the joke that bad?
* EvilIsHammy: Jeffrey Dean Morgan is clearly having a blast in the role.
* EvilIsPetty: Despite usually being pretty pragmatic and reasonable in his own twisted way, sometimes he does or says things that are just plain petty, no way around it. Most of these cross over into KickTheDog, but demanding that Alexandria surrender everything to him in the Season 7 finale - namely, the ''lemonade'' - is pretty petty.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Speaks with a really deep, intimidating voice.
* EvilWearsBlack: He wears a leather jacket, which accentuates his villainy.
* ExBigBad: He's the GreaterScopeVillain of the second half of Season 6 and the [[BigBad main antagonist]] of Seasons 7 and 8, but survives to be deposed as leader of the Saviors and becomes a TokenEvilTeammate to the heroes during the Whisperer arc of Seasons 9 and 10.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: ''Completely'' averted in Season 9 when Maggie arrives to kill him, though in an unusual example, he cries ''for'' death because he can't stand the idea of having to rot in jail for the rest of his life.
* FaceFramedInShadow: He is almost entirely submerged in shadows in early Season 9 when he's sitting in his cell and is still bitter from the events of the Savior War. It also has the effect of making him look menacing, such as when he tells Rick that he's "not saving the world, just getting it ready for me." The first time we clearly see Negan's face in the season is when Maggie forces him out into the light to kill him at which point he’s revealed to be a [[DeathSeeker suicidal wreck]] who begs her to finish the job that Rick couldn't. Fittingly, he stops being hidden in shadows in the next episode when six years have gone by and he's mellowed out significantly enough for the Alexandrians to finally allow him to see outside the window of his cell.
* FairytaleMotif: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]], he likes to reference ''[[Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs The Three Little Pigs]]'' and refers to himself as the [[TheBigBadWolf Big Bad Wolf]] from the fairy tale in order to intimidate others.
** When he first arrives in Alexandria, he misquotes the signature line "Little pig, little pig, let me '''come''' in" and in "What It Always Is", he calls himself the Big Bad Wolf. He often uses pigs as an insult, he has a dog-eat-dog philosophy and he calls himself a dog while in prison by saying "You can't keep a big dog locked up forever, sooner or later he's gotta run."
** His beard and dark clothing also seem to reflect this motif; as he wears mostly gray-colored clothing with a black leather jacket as if to invoke the image of a black wolf.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Invoked by Rick and Michonne when they sentence him to life in prison. For a guy like [[MotorMouth Negan]], spending almost eight years alone in a cell ''cannot'' have been an easy task.
* AFatherToHisMen: Subverted. Negan seems to genuinely care for the Saviors under his command, as demonstrated when he wants to punish Rick's group for murdering too many of them. That said, he also has no problem sacrificing some of them when he deems it necessary, as shown in the Season 8 finale.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He's clearly a fun-loving guy and has his own set of rules, but he's also completely psychotic and happy to murder people in horrible ways if they cross him or his people. Best exemplified in his introductory speech where, despite his jovial demeanor he ''is'' telling Rick's group that he now owns them and that one of them is about to suffer a brutal death for killing his men.
* FeedTheMole: In "Worth", he purposely allows [[TheMole Dwight]] to give Gregory false information to deliver to Rick.
* FireForgedFriends:
** Daryl ''loathes'' Negan for everything he did all those years ago and would hardly consider him a friend. Over the course of Season 10, however, the two men build a mutual trust that is solidified in "A Certain Doom" when Daryl saves Negan from a gruesome death at the hands of a vengeful Beta.
** A straighter example would be with Carol, who did not actually witness most of his cruelty firsthand and, aside from Glenn's death, mainly hates him on principle. While mostly apathetic towards Negan, she does come to respect him for killing her son's murderer and even does him a favor by getting him out of Alexandria when Maggie comes home and tensions start brewing.
** Season 11 revolves heavily around whether or not he can form this kind of bond with Maggie. By the end of Part 1 she accepts he has valuable advice as a military commander and even asks for his input as the group weighs the remaining Reapers’ fate. However, he decides to leave the group upon seeing she will likely turn on him anyway. Part 2 takes this a step further when circumstances force them to work together again. [[spoiler:Negan admits he has respect for Maggie and she tells him that, regardless of what happened in the past, she trusts him with Hershel.]]
* FlippingTheBird: In "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life", he throws the AHK fighters the finger as he makes an impromptu escape in one of his trucks.
* FourthDateMarriage: He marries Annie during the six months between "No Other Way" and "Warlords".
* FreakyIsCool: He is genuinely awed by Carl's ruined eye socket and sincerely compliments him on it ([[InnocentlyInsensitive in his own way]]). Plus, he gets along with [[AmbiguousDisorder Eugene]] better than most of his own men, thinking his lateral way of solving problems is bitchin'.
* FriendlyEnemy: Negan's first appearance has him kill two important members of Rick's group, kidnapping Daryl and psychologically torturing Rick himself. His appearances since show that while Rick's side despises him, Negan tends to compliment and admire Rick and most members of his group, sparing the lives of several more and being rather cordial [[FauxAffablyEvil in his own way]] to several, such as Carl and Eugene. Of course, [[PragmaticVillainy Negan would also rather psychologically make them work for him than kill them]], so this is understandable.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: After his HeelFaceTurn and especially after Maggie returns near the end of Season 10. While he's more or less accepted as a member of the community, almost no one is particularly fond of his company and Maggie's people are openly hostile towards him on the trip to Meridian. Daryl outright tells him they're not friends, and no one bothers to help Negan when he's struggling to fight a large walker in the subway tunnel. It really shows in "No Other Way" when [[spoiler:Negan leaves the group for good and no one seems especially bothered by it except Lydia.]]
* FriendToAllChildren:
** Due to working as a gym teacher before the apocalypse. He respects Carl as a hardened survivor, forges friendships with (and goes out of his way to save) Judith and Lydia, and has a conversation with a boy named Milo that almost leads to Negan escorting him and his mother to Alexandria. Granted, it still doesn't stop him from almost killing Carl in the Season 7 finale, but he only does so because he thinks it will finally make Rick submit to him and takes no pleasure in the act.
** In Season 11, he swears to protect [[spoiler:Hershel Rhee]] after rescuing him from the Commonwealth, assuring Maggie that he would risk his life to keep her child safe. Seeing how badly the boy has taken the loss of his father before he was even born also ''rattles'' Negan to his core, who finally seems to realize the depths of the horrors he had been inflicting on people, particularly ''innocent children''.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: He was a high school gym teacher before the apocalypse.
* TheGadfly: Post-HeelFaceTurn, he still enjoys messing with people and getting under their skin for shits and giggles. Case in point, when he gleefully taunts Rosita, Gabriel, Siddiq, and Eugene about their tangled romantic history and makes a point of asking Gabriel if it bothers him that his girlfriend's doctor is also the father of her child. Gabriel, for his part, isn't too bugged by it ([[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome since the four of them are close enough that they worked it out like adults]]) and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny even laughs when Negan calls him "Father Not-the-Father."]]
-->'''Negan:''' We have this hot little love quadrangle here to entertain us. It's like Christmas to me!
* GeniusBruiser: Not only is he skilled at crushing his opponents' skulls with his lucky bat, but he successfully mind rapes ''Rick'' of all people into submitting to him. He's also very observant and showcases fine mastery over the SecretTestOfCharacter since he gains advantage over Daryl and Rick into obeying his command. In Chris Hardwick's words, "it's now psychological warfare."
* TheGhost: For most of Season 6 prior to his appearance in the finale.
** He is also this in the first episode of Season 9. While obviously not seen due to being locked up inside Alexandria's jail, he is mentioned many times and his presence is still very much felt, particularly at the Sanctuary.
* GlasgowGrin: The mouth of his Whisperer mask is an intentional ShoutOut by Jeffrey Dean Morgan to the Joker's iconic smile.
* AGodAmI: Just to fuel his DarkMessiah characteristics, he makes all his men say they are all [[IAmSpartacus "Negan"]] to promote his leadership.
-->'''Negan:''' I am everywhere!
* GoKartingWithBowser: After Carl fails to kill him he leads the boy around showing him the ins and outs of the Sanctuary before personally escorting him back to Alexandria and ordering Carl to take him on a grand tour of his house that includes playing darts and cooking.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Develops suicidal tendencies after spending 18 months in solitary confinement and being faced with potentially never getting to see the light of day ever again. He breaks down and starts banging his head against the concrete wall out of frustration for Michonne not letting him see Lucille, and when Maggie comes looking for vengeance, he ''demands'' that she kill him and put an end to his suffering.
* GoodAllAlong: After seemingly rejecting a HeelFaceTurn and joining the Whisperers, he turns out to have been working with Carol to assassinate Alpha and delivers the Whisperer leader's head to her as promised.
* GoneHorriblyRight: He urges Maggie to not make the same mistakes he made as military leader of the Saviors and give no quarter to the Reapers. This leads to Maggie violating the deal Daryl gave [[spoiler:Leah and killing the remaining Reapers.]] Negan realizes that this means Maggie will likely go back on her promise to give up trying to kill him and decides to leave the group peacefully.
* GreaterScopeVillain: His presence is first felt in "Always Accountable", where members of his group allude to him. He is first mentioned by name in TheStinger of "Start to Finish", and his reputation continues to grow stronger as the season progresses until he finally makes his debut in the finale.
** He still has a massive hold on Sherry's psyche as shown in Season 6 of ''Fear the Walking Dead''. Many of her actions are driven by a desire to atone for not killing him when she had the chance.
* GuestFighter: Negan can come to blows with the cast of ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' as part of second season of DownloadableContent for ''Tekken 7''.
* HannibalLecture: Gives these to Rick, Michonne and Maggie when he is locked up inside Alexandria's jail.
* HappilyMarried:
** Downplayed with Lucille. Their marriage prior to the apocalypse was pretty much DeadSparks, with Negan being a deadbeat husband who was cheating on his wife with her best friend Janine. In an ironic twist of fate, the end of the world allowed the couple to rediscover their love for each other. Negan was devoted to Lucille until the day that she died, and her tragic suicide was the catalyst for his StartOfDarkness.
** He has an honest and supportive marriage with Annie in Season 11, to the point where she's still with him despite being fully aware of his past atrocities.
* TheHeavy: The villain most associated with the second half of the series (Seasons 6-11).
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After becoming friends with Judith and entertaining the idea of a HeelFaceTurn, Negan is beset by the paranoid denizens of Alexandria, forced to kill a psychopathic wannabe follower, and ultimately crosses over into Whisperer territory to announce to Alpha that he wants to ''join'' her group. It's eventually revealed to have been a ruse to assassinate Alpha.
* HeelFaceTurn: By Season 10, he outright confirms to Aaron he's trying to make amends for his past actions. With his murder of current BigBad Alpha in "Walk With Us", it seems safe to say he's officially on the side of the heroes from here on out.
* HeelRealization: Seems to finally have kicked in by "The Rotten Core", where Negan has a new wife and [[spoiler:baby on the way.]] He admits to [[spoiler:Hershel]] that he used to be a bad man and probably deserves to die for what he took from him and his mother.
* HellBentForLeather: It's rare to see Negan without his trademark leather jacket.
* HellYesMoment: [[spoiler:Has a look of utmost pride when Gabriel turns the final standoff with the Reapers in Maggie's favor.]]
* HeroesFrontierStep: In "The Storm" he runs off to save Judith in a blizzard even after getting his leg hurt, pushes through to save her, and gives her his coat despite it being freezing.
* HeroKiller: One of the most notorious in the series. He makes his introduction killing Abraham and Glenn, two of the bravest and most competent survivors in Rick's group, both within the span of ''a few minutes''.
* HesBack: After killing Brandon, Negan dons his trademark leather jacket as well as a makeshift Lucille and crosses into Whisperer territory while reciting his "little pig" speech from "Service" as he gleefully takes down walkers left and right.
* HiddenDepths: For a swaggering, bullying warlord, he does possess a surprising amount of psychological know-how when it comes to either [[BreakTheBadass breaking badasses like Rick]] or getting people to otherwise obey him. He can also identify a homemade bullet from a commercially-made one. And, more tellingly, he ''does'' have something resembling a moral center, backing down when he knows he pushed it too far by (albeit admiringly) bringing up how gross Carl's missing eye is.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: When in control of the situation, Negan tends to take his time drawing out the theatrics and agony he inflicts when he could just as easily cut it short and call it a day. It's why Rick's group is able to get the jump on him in the Season 7 finale when he opens the coffin intending to make a big show of Sasha pleading for Alexandria's surrender, and instead it's Sasha as a walker trying to eat his face.
* HonestAdvisor: An unwanted one to Michonne in Season 9 and Gabriel in Season 10. While they're both annoyed by his usual snarky remarks they are also forced to acknowledge that the JerkassHasAPoint. He also dispenses some [[BrutalHonesty brutally honest]] advice to Maggie in Season 11.
* HopeCrusher: The Season 7 premiere is essentially all about him crushing every ounce of hope and bravery Rick's group has so they will learn that he's their leader now. He even purposely shows up to Alexandria earlier than expected so he could intimidate the community into giving him whatever his people wanted, making it clear that they have no choice but to obey him.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: After his defeat. His former Saviors work together with the communities to build a bridge that will benefit all of them, and the ones who legitimately want to change later end up joining Alexandria. Rick even visits Negan in prison on a semi-regular basis to gloat about how much better things are going without him. Negan himself realizes how pathetic it is for a man whose name once meant something to be rotting away behind bars and thus becomes a broken shell who attempts suicide at least once and is left crying about how things should have turned out differently by the woman whose husband he killed while at the height of his power.
* HumiliationConga: Loses control over his vassal states in the Season 7 finale, tricked by Sasha (his intended bargaining chip) and then interrupted in his punishment of Rick's rebellion by the timely arrival of the Kingdom and Shiva. He also has to suffer the indignity of being forced into a retreat by his escaped prisoner Daryl as well as Maggie, the woman he made a widow, wanted to make one of his wives, and was led to believe had died. He's forced to flee Alexandria with his tail between his legs, bitterly musing on how things went to shit.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** [[EvenEvilHasStandards For Negan, rape is a]] '''[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil big]]''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards no-no.]] But forcing a diabetic woman into your PaidHarem by giving her easier access to insulin is fair game because [[QuestionableConsent technically]] he isn't ''making'' her do anything.
** One of his rules is that his wives can't cheat on him, yet he himself once cheated on his actual wife and was deeply remorseful for it.
** For all his talk about people being a resource, he apparently had no problems ordering the extinction of the library community for attempting to start a rebellion against the Saviors. However, considering it was Simon who was dealing with them it's unknown how privy Negan was to what actually happened.
** In Season 10, he claims that both Margo and Alpha got what they deserved for trying to kill Lydia, and outright asserts to Brandon that he personally "would never kill a kid." Yet Negan himself had no issue almost killing Carl with Lucille in Season 7. He presumably is referring to innocent children who have not taken up arms against him like Carl had.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I-L]]
* ICannotSelfTerminate: When Maggie finally comes to kill him in Season 9, he tearfully admits that he wants to die and has tried to follow through on it himself, but can't.
* IChooseToStay:
** As he points out to Lydia in "A Certain Doom", he doesn't believe either of them will ever fully be trusted by the other survivors for their association with enemy groups and advises her to slip through the walker horde unnoticed, before apparently heading to do so himself. He returns later to save Lydia from Beta and when Lydia asks if this means he's there to stay, Negan replies, "For now." Although, since Maggie has officially returned as of that episode, it remains to be seen how true this statement will hold.
** Knowing that it's only a matter of time before Maggie tries to kill Negan again, Carol tries to reach a compromise by sending Negan to live in a cabin away from Alexandria. After some self-reflection, Negan tells Carol that his new living arrangement isn't going to work out and returns to Alexandria, where he smiles at Maggie, making it clear that he's done being turned away and the two of them are gonna live together under the same roof whether she likes it or not. However, after witnessing just how capricious Maggie has become during the war with the Reapers, he decides to leave.
* IconicOutfit: His leather jacket. He bought it before the apocalypse, but his wife hid it from him. She gave back to him as an "anniversary gift".
* IconicSequelCharacter: He's one of the series' most well-known characters, but he does not appear until the last episode of Season 6.
* IGaveMyWord: He actually makes a point in his introduction of saying this is probably what separates him from some of the other foes Rick's group has dealt with in the past. And then he kills Glenn to demonstrate what happens when one steps out of line after they've been given a warning.
* IHatePastMe:
** Implied in "What It Always Is" when Brandon brings up his tenure as leader of the Saviors and presents him with his leather jacket and a brand-new Lucille. Negan is visibly uncomfortable and only reclaims these items after killing Brandon, who has just murdered an innocent woman and her child.
** Taken further in "Here's Negan" when he hallucinates his past self and is thoroughly disgusted by what he sees, referring to him as a "clown" and "a cult of personality with no cult."
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: He essentially has Sherry completely under his control in a forced marriage he made up. Since he originally desired Tina before she died though, Negan may have wanted her as one of the multiple wives in his harem.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: While most of the time he's an intentional {{Jerkass}} there are a few moments where he genuinely isn't trying to be offensive. Namely, raving about Carl's missing eye while the boy is obviously self-conscious about it; only when Carl starts crying does Negan realize that he crossed a line.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Judith and Lydia both. He also befriends a young boy named Milo, who he promises to take to one of the communities, though that ends when Milo and his mother are murdered by Brandon.
* {{Irony}}: Despite Rick and Michonne sparing his life so he can listen to how they remade civilization with the help of his former Saviors, [[spoiler:Negan manages to outlive all the ex-Saviors who made a HeelFaceTurn and doesn't have to spend the rest of his life behind bars on account of his own change of heart.]] He also remains in the area much longer than Rick, who is abducted a mere eighteen months later by Jadis and the CRM.
* ItGetsEasier: Flashbacks show he was initially reluctant to even kill a ''walker'' at first, as he was afraid of getting too comfortable with it. After Lucille's death, he has no trouble wiping out an entire ''living'' biker gang without breaking a sweat.
-->'''Negan:''' I am starting to think that I am capable of damn near ''anything''.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He's predicated the Saviors' entire culture around this trope.
** Lydia calls Negan out for this, believing his efforts to atone are more out of self-preservation and a desire to make people forget about the past rather than any sort of genuine altruism. Negan's subdued reaction implies she isn't too far from the truth. He amends this somewhat in the next episode by putting his ass on the line to save Lydia from a crazed Beta.
* IWantThemAlive: Played with. He favors this option for only the strongest and "badass" prisoners he comes across, trying to break them so he can [[WeCanRuleTogether employ them as his]] [[EvilMinions own soldiers]].
* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: He's a big fan of this, since going after the people close to somebody is more effective than just punishing them directly. Cases in point, murdering Glenn as punishment for Daryl punching him, and later ordering Rick to cut off Carl's hand or watch his entire group be shot. He also does this to his wives, punishing them for cheating on him by ironing the faces of their boyfriends.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's a huge asshole to everybody and seems to get his kicks that way. He patronizes and casually torments everybody around him because he knows they can't rebel against him or his cult of personality. And that's the ''nicer'' side of him, considering the rest of the time he seems to spend just outright threatening people, their loved ones, etc. He eases out of this territory ever so slightly in Season 8, which gives him many [[PetTheDog humanizing moments]] and some backstory. Overall Negan is a flawed person, but he, unlike most villains, has a heart.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** He points out that for all of Michonne's talk about giving power to the people, ''she's'' the one running Alexandria with an iron fist. On a similar note, he makes Michonne realize that Judith has her own ideas about they should be running things, and that she would be a bit more honest with her if Michonne actually bothered to ''listen'' to what she has to say.
** He advises Gabriel to put up a front to make things seem safer than they actually are to keep the residents of Alexandria from breaking into a panic.
** He accurately surmises that Maggie's true reason for bringing him along on the trip to Meridian was to have him killed away from Alexandria. He also tells her she's not in the right headspace right now to be a leader, and that her leading them through some underground subway tunnels is extremely risky. Gage agrees, lampshading, "He's a dick, but he makes sense."
** He tells Maggie he failed as a military commander by not murdering the group entirely when he had them at his mercy. Despite his “people are a resource” mantra, Negan outlines to Maggie that in failing to wipe out the people who had already proven good enough to wipe out one of his outposts, all he did was buy time for them to rise up against him. It’s incredibly cruel to tell to someone whose husband was brutally murdered in front of her (and whose friend was murdered in the same way next to her), but Maggie takes his words to heart during the subsequent battle with the Reapers.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Downplayed after the six-year TimeSkip in Season 9. While "heart of gold" is still a stretch, he's mellowed out considerably in the past six years and even strikes up a friendship with Judith. Played straight in Season 10 and on -- he can still be an asshole, but he's heroic now.
* JokerImmunity: Manages to survive multiple attempts on his life through a combination of this and good old-fashioned PlotArmor. Even the incident that finally puts him down doesn't actually ''kill'' him. Subverted because he ends up making a HeelFaceTurn instead.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Prior to the apocalypse, Negan was a flawed man. He nearly viciously beat a man to death in a bar fight when he was a {{Jerkass}} to him and his wife and kept talking over the song they were trying to listen to. His twisted sense of humor and justice were already on full display as well, as after Negan nearly killed said man he took his money and re-played the song he kept interrupting, twice. After this felony cost Negan his job (the man had children who went to the school Negan taught gym at), Negan became a lazy slacker who spent most of his days playing video games and making little effort at finding a job. During this period he also started an affair with Lucille's best friend and didn't show much remorse for it until Lucille revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer. Afterwards he did attempt to shape up and be a better husband, a task that was put to the ultimate test with the collapse of civilization by way of the ZombieApocalypse. Negan genuinely became loyal and devoted, his only mission in life to restore his wife's health. Despite this, Negan still had morals -- he was reluctant to actually harm Franklin and Laura for medical supplies, right down to charging into their camp with an empty gun, and admitted that he was hesitant about killing walkers because he was afraid of getting too comfortable with it. Ultimately, he was forced to divulge the location of Franklin and Laura's camp to a biker gang if it meant getting home to Lucille safely, though even then, he clearly felt guilty about doing so. Then he arrived home and found that Lucille, in an effort to end what to her was fighting a losing battle, had committed suicide, making his entire trip for nothing. From that day, something inside Negan was permanently ''broken''. He returned to the bikers' hideout with vengeance on his mind and savagely murdered them all. Several months later, Negan happened upon the Sanctuary and quickly rose his way to the top of the hierarchy to become the brutal and feared leader of the Saviors, a ruthless extortionist group that ran the Virginia area and all its communities like a protection racket. He became far worse than the bikers who he blamed for Lucille's death, going from struggling to kill one walker to bashing in the heads of two men who had a hand in wiping out one of his outposts, all while laughing and mocking the survivors who watched terrified and helpless. He also formed a {{Harem}} of women who were forced to marry him in exchange for supplies and a lofty living position. If they cheated on him, it meant the woman's partner would be punished via a hot iron to the face -- again, a far cry from the Negan who was once deeply ashamed and remorseful of his own infidelity. Negan buried his past self in the facade of a grinning, sadistic cult figure deadset on rebuilding the world in his own image, determined to tune out the eternal shame he felt for failing Lucille by refusing to allow himself to feel ''anything'' ever again.
* KickTheDog:
** Mocking Rosita over Abraham's death, practically rubbing his bloodied bat in her face.
** He emasculates Dwight every time they talk in "The Cell" and actually jokes about how he has his ex-wife under his control.
** Engages in this repeatedly and gleefully during the entirety of "Service", implied to be at least partially to test Rick's patience with him while the latter is holding Lucille. Among other things, he goes on about his intention to invite Maggie into his harem, jokes about his murder of Abraham and Glenn, and forces Rick to say "thank you" to him when he finally leaves.
-->'''Negan:''' In case you haven't caught on, I just slid my dick down your throat, and you ''thanked'' me for it.
** Telling Rick that he "failed as a father" after Carl dies.
** In the same vein, telling Aaron that Eric's death was his fault because he failed to protect him, even though it was one of Negan's own men who killed Eric.
** When Maggie finally comes to kill him he cruelly mocks Glenn's death to her face, even pretending to forget her late husband's name; in this case, however, it's because Negan actually ''wants'' to die, which he tearfully confesses moments later.
** In "Acheron, Part I": While he is not wrong to say Maggie is being reckless, he ''definitely'' crosses a line when he tells Maggie he has no intention to be put down like a dog, "like Glenn was." Daryl gives him a well-deserved punch to the face for it.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: With the exceptions of Glenn, Abraham and Dr. Carson, every other person we see Negan kill on-screen is an AssholeVictim in some way.
** [[TheStarscream Spencer]] tries to betray Rick for shallow and poorly thought out reasons, so Negan guts him like a fish in front of everybody.
** When [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil David]] attempts to rape Sasha, Negan berates him harshly to scare him, then stabs him in the neck.
** [[TheSociopath Simon]] massacred several people at the Junkyard and Oceanside, so Negan beats and strangles him to death in a TrialByCombat right in front of all the rest of the Saviors.
** Margo's death by head trauma may have been accidental, but considering she was beating up [[WouldHurtAChild Lydia]] at the time, it's impossible to feel any sympathy for her.
** His killing of Brandon in the following episode also qualifies, given the latter's casual murder of an innocent mother and her son in a twisted effort to prove himself as a loyal "Savior".
** His assassination of Alpha is absolutely this given she was an unrepentant mass murderer who intended on wiping out the entire Coalition and believed that she was on her way to kill her own daughter.
** His decimation of the Valak's Vipers gang was also well-deserved.
** He helps Maggie cut down the Reaper Paul Wells, a member of the murderous gang who sacked Meridian unprovoked and had been hunting the group. He helps kill other Reapers too, and is the one who ultimately defeats Carver, a sadistic psychopath who got off on torturing people.
* KindnessButton: Dislikes it whenever his victims cry and does ''try'' to apologize for whatever he said. As evidenced when he makes Carl cry after mocking his injury, he genuinely tells him he's sorry for crossing the line. Though since he still is a MoodSwinger, his moments of compassion are far little in between.
* KneelBeforeZod: Forces Rick's group to kneel before him when at his mercy. It's also shown that he forces his own Saviors to bow to him as well.
* LargeHam: You ''will'' know when Negan is in the room. He loves hearing himself talk and is a natural showman. Although he does become slightly more subdued after his HeelFaceTurn.
* LargeHamRadio: "Rock in the Road" reveals that he occasionally graces the airwaves with his obnoxious persona, eulogizing Fat Joey over the Saviors' walkie talkie network.
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: PlayedWith. He does not appear in person until the Season 6 finale, ten episodes after his presence is first felt.
* LastKiss: He gives one to Alpha after slashing her throat and letting her bleed out.
* LaughablyEvil: His theatrics and mannerisms are often hilarious, even for such a terrifying psychopath.
* TheLeader: Of the Saviors.
* LeanAndMean: In stark contrast to his comic counterpart, who was LargeAndInCharge. Jeffrey Dean Morgan intentionally invoked this to play Negan, deciding the character should have a "lean and hungry" look.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The scratchy guitar riff that plays during his introduction (most notably when he introduces Lucille). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLq5Ka3HHo You know the one.]]
* LetThePastBurn: He left his undead wife to burn along with the house they shared. Years later, he burns Lucille the bat as a way of making peace with her death and letting go of his past as a villain.
* LightningBruiser: In physical combat, Negan not only hits fast, he hits like a Mack truck. Every time Rick goes up against him, he manages to beat him and Rick is forced to escape.
** Although, see "No Other Way" for a subversion: while Negan may be a good fighter against non-trained combatants, he's no match going up against an Afghanistan war vet like Carver, and has to resort to using his wits and a well-timed sneak attack (with assistance from Elijah) to get the upper hand.
* LivingWithTheVillain: Well, ''former'' villain. As of "Here's Negan", he's chosen to live in Alexandria as a resident instead of a prisoner. Maggie is none too happy about it. [[spoiler:After Part 1 of Season 11, however, he leaves the group knowing Maggie would eventually turn on and kill him.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-P]]
* TheMadHatter: He admits that he's a lunatic, but enjoys letting everyone know it to scare them for a cheap laugh.
* {{Manchild}}: Pre-apocalypse Negan was essentially a less psychotic version of his current persona. After being fired from his job as a gym teacher he spent most of his days playing ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' with teenagers and purchasing items he and his wife couldn't afford to waste money on, like a ''$600'' leather jacket.
* {{Mangst}}: Lucille's death still deeply affects him to this day, though you'd never guess it from his happy-go-lucky personality and {{Harem}} of wives.
* ManipulativeBastard: Mind games are his specialty. Even sitting in a cell, he's a master at getting under people's skin and pushing at their weaknesses.
* ManlyTears: During his confrontation with Maggie in "What Comes After" and when consoling Lydia about Alpha's death in "The Tower".
* MindRape: The Season 7 premiere is mostly dedicated to him psychologically torturing and breaking Rick until he's enough of a wreck to comply with his orders. As Season 7 progresses, it seems that this is a specialty for him.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter: He thinks that enslaving communities and bullying them into submission is how he can force them all to be strong. And he's apparently always had this philosophy, if the flashback of him playing video games with teenagers before the apocalypse is any indication.
-->'''Negan:''' Don’t be such a pussy, this is how you get better! You gotta take it!
* MisplacedRetribution: After Lucille's death he went after the bikers who held him hostage and threatened to dump her chemotherapy bags in the toilet, this despite the fact that Lucille killed herself on the day he left and the bikers had nothing to do with it beyond preventing Negan from making it back to their house a day earlier.
* TheMole: The ending of "Walk With Us" reveals he was tasked by Carol to infiltrate the Whisperers and take out Alpha.
* MoodSwinger: He can shift his emotional state from a dark and scary presence to a comical, happy act in a millisecond. Even his own minions can't get a fix on how to react to him.
* MoralMyopia: He completely disregards all the pain and suffering he brings upon other communities serving him since all he wants is supplies that benefit him and his Saviors.
* MotorMouth: Negan just does not know when to shut up. [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] by both Rick and Gabriel at different points, and Negan even agrees with Michonne's assessment that he likes hearing himself talk.
--> '''Rick:''' Do you ever shut the hell up?
--> '''Negan:''' Nope!
** It really puts him at odds with [[TheStoic Beta]], who comes very close to killing him for this reason and only relents when Negan reveals he has vital information about their enemy to give to Alpha.
* TheMourningAfter: It's clear that despite having a harem of wives he never got over the death of his first wife, Lucille. In Season 9, he begs Maggie to put him out of his misery so the two of them can be TogetherInDeath. Alpha also surmises that even though Negan is grateful his wife didn't live to see how awful the world would become, he has spent every day since her death wishing he could have died alongside her; Negan doesn't deny it. He finally comes to terms with Lucille's passing in "Here's Negan".
* MuggingTheMonster: Initially, Rick is far too overconfident about the idea of facing Negan, believing him to simply be a BigBadWannabe (like Gareth), an enemy who's powerful but not overwhelming (like the Governor), or, as Daryl theorizes, a fictional boogeyman created by the Saviors to intimidate people. He is very, very wrong.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: Not especially physically imposing, but he can more than hold his own in a fight against people like [[TheBerserker Rick]] or [[TheDragon Simon]]. He’s not a match for everyone, though -- see his last encounter with [[SanitySlippage Beta]] who, even though he had chunked a walker at Negan (giving him less time to respond to the attack), it’s safe to say had him beat if Daryl hadn’t arrived to save the day. He also is unable to hold his own against the Reaper Carver, a trained war veteran and mercenary, and has to resort to trickery and distraction to get one over him.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After staunchly refusing to admit to any wrongdoing in regards to Glenn's death, he ''finally'' seems to have some remorse when [[spoiler:Hershel]] pulls a gun on him, intending to shoot him for [[spoiler:killing his father]]. It appears to hit close to home as Negan is about to become a father himself; he ends up breaking down in tears while admitting to [[spoiler:Hershel]] that he took something from him and Maggie that he can never make up for.
* MyGreatestFailure:
** His failure to put down his zombified wife is still a great source of shame for him. "Here's Negan" reveals that he ''did'' technically put her down, but by leaving her to slowly burn to death in their flaming house because he couldn't bring himself to simply bash her in the head.
** He indicates that Rick's raid on the satellite outpost was this for him as leader of the Saviors. He says he was forced to explain to countless people why an entire outpost of people with friends and families were lost on his watch - and admits that he should’ve wiped out Rick’s group when he had the chance.
* MythologyGag:
** In his first appearance, he wears an exact replica of the outfit Negan wore in his comic debut. He also comments on two separate occasions that he should shave his BeardOfEvil, as his comic counterpart was nearly always clean-shaven. He finally does shave his beard in the mid-season finale.
** His killing of two hostages because somebody tried to take him down during his villainous monologue bears resemblance to a similar moment when [[ArcVillain Carver]] from ''Videogame/TheWalkingDead'' game does the exact same thing if Clementine and Kenny try to take him out during his speech.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: Robert Kirkman never gave Negan a last name in the comics. The show gives him the surname "Smith".[[note]]The name can be seen on the mailbox in front of his house.[[/note]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Robert Kirkman chose his name because he liked how negative it sounded.
* NecessarilyEvil: How he sees himself: he feels that his despotic rule over the Saviors and their forced vassal states are how he can force them all to be strong.
* NeverBeHurtAgain: Buried himself in the Savior leader persona because didn't want to face the pain and guilt he felt over losing Lucille and not staying with her when she asked.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Lucille killed herself while he was away scavenging medical supplies to treat her cancer. This ''breaks'' Negan, since Lucille specifically asked him to stay with her until she passed. Negan refused, since they were only a handful of treatments away from stopping the spread of the disease, and he thought it would be wrong not to keep trying.
* NeverMyFault:
** He takes no responsibility for the fact that it was the Saviors' cruel mistreatment of the community residents that made them unwilling to accept things as they were and start up a rebellion against him. It's ''Rick's'' fault for not being able to stand by and watch his people get bullied and/or killed.
** He tries to rationalize his treatment of his wives to Gabriel by telling him, "all those ladies made a choice."
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Invoking this is a favorite tactic of his. When Daryl punches him, he beats Glenn to death. When Rosita tries to shoot him, he orders Arat to kill someone, and she chooses Olivia.
** By alerting Alpha of Gamma's treachery, he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of all the Alexandrians Beta kills in his search for the traitor. This ironically includes Negan's own former lieutenant, Laura.
* TheNicknamer: Has a variety of nicknames that he uses to refer to other characters.
** Dwight: "Dwighty Boy"
** Maggie: "The Widow"
** Father Gabriel: "Gabe/Gabey", "Father Not-the-Father"
** Siddiq: "Dr. Baby Daddy"
** Kingdommers: "Royalty Brigade"
** Beta: "Jolly Green Giant", "Frowny Mc[=Two=] Knives"
** Duncan: "Man-Tits", "Sasquatch"
* NightmareFetishist:
** He has Carl remove the bandages over his eye so he can admire how mutilated his face is. He even asks if he ''can touch his exposed eye socket''.
** He doesn't mind when Alpha insists on leaving her mask on before seducing him. Given he is trying to get in close to eventually assasinate her, it's a bit ambiguous as to if he really means it or not.
--> '''Alpha:''' Does my true skin disturb you?
--> '''Negan:''' Not at all. Weirdly, the opposite.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Pre-apocalypse, he dished one out to an obnoxious asshole who refused to lower his voice in a bar when Lucille politely asked him and tried to fight Negan when he stepped in to defend his wife. According to Negan, he beat the guy so badly he stopped moving. The man sued Negan and this cost him his job, as the man had kids who went to the school Negan taught gym at.
* NominalHero: As of Season 10. He's formed friendships with Judith and Lydia, expresses disgust as some of his old ways of doing things, and will (usually) go out of his way to save people if it's in his best interest. He also plays a pivotal role in defeating the Whisperers, has no problems working with Alexandria to ensure the community's survival, and puts in effort to make peace with Maggie even though it's clear she wants him dead. But, as he makes clear in "Promises Broken", he ''would'' go back and slaughter all of Rick's group if he could, and it's only because circumstances landed him where he is now and he's had to accept that his way of doing things is over that he's come to terms with helping his old enemies.
* NonProtagonistResolver: He ends up being Alpha's murderer instead of Carol. Downplayed since Carol is the one who freed Negan from jail and ordered him to kill Alpha, so she still had a hand in her death.
* NoOneSeesTheBoss: Going along with OrcusOnHisThrone, it's implied Negan doesn't often intervene in outside affairs, as the people of Hilltop have never seen him. Daryl even suggests that he's possibly just a boogeyman the Saviors made up. The Saviors' mantra is "We are all Negan," and Primo poses as him when he's out of options in order to save his boss the element of surprise.
* NotHisSled: "Here’s Negan" begins with him being sent to live in a cabin in the woods, making it seem as if the show will follow the comic route of him being PutOnABus after the Whisperer arc. At the end of the episode, after coming to terms with his past and burning Lucille, Negan returns to Alexandria to announce to Carol that his new living situation "isn't gonna work out" and asks for permission to bring all his stuff back.
* NothingIsScarier: In Season 6. If the Saviors we see are violent, abrasive and murderous assholes... what's their leader like? We don't learn until the finale.
* NuclearFamily: What Negan forces Carl, Olivia and Judith to be for him in the mid-Season 7 finale. It's really more of a BigScrewedUpFamily though.
* OddFriendship: With Judith. She's a LittleMissSnarker KidHero, he's a former BigBad who's serving a life sentence for his crimes (which she's fully aware of). Yet the two of them get along well enough for Negan to help her with her math homework.
* OhCrap: When he realizes he accidentally killed Margo while saving Lydia.
* OneManArmy: Implied. He shows up to the Whisperers seemingly ready to take them on by himself if he has to. He is fully shown to be this in his backstory, as he took out an entire biker gang by himself with ease.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: Prior to the extenuating circumstances with the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Negan delegated all interactions with vassal states to his lieutenants, such as Simon and Gavin. Aside from Alexandria, he's never been to any of them.
* OutlawCouple: Subverted with Alpha. They have sex and oversee the Battle of Hilltop together, but their relationship doesn't progress any further since Negan is only there to kill Alpha for Carol, and decapitates her when they are completely alone.
* PanickyExpectantFather: He's very concerned for Annie's well-being in "The Rotten Core", revealed to be because she's twelve weeks pregnant with his child.
* PapaWolf: A surrogate one to Judith and Lydia. In "The Storm", Negan throws all caution to the wind when he rescues Judith during a blizzard, the latter having gone to get Daryl's dog. In "Silence the Whisperers", he stops a trio of bullies when they start beating up Lydia. When Alpha announces that she is going to kill Lydia, Negan murders her in response.
* ParryingBullets: Negan does this with Lucille after Rosita tries to shoot him. Needless to say, he treats this like it is a MinorInjuryOverreaction for him, er... Lucille.
* PetTheDog: Every now and again, Negan shows that for all his sadism and cruelty, he does have a kinder side to him.
** Subverted when he saves Rick from walkers that were attacking him twice during his "test" for his trust. Yeah, he was giving Rick a hand in an otherwise impossible situation, but it was also to teach Rick that ''he'' is in charge.
** After Glenn interrupts him during his introductory speech he chooses to let it slide, understanding that it's an "emotional moment" for Rick's group. Downplayed since it doesn't stop him from later killing Glenn anyway.
** In addition to the above, he genuinely apologizes to the group for having to kill Glenn, reminding them that they were warned: "No exceptions!"
** The fact that he didn't choose Rick to die in the Season 6 finale because he didn't want to kill him in front of Carl.
** Despite the sexist comments, he doesn't seem to look down on women in practice, as there are high-ranking female Saviors under his employ, such as Paula, Arat, and Regina. He also abhors the idea of raping a woman, his men stating that he only wants "ass that's willing."
** Perhaps negated by threatening to kill her soon after, but he chides Arat for manhandling Olivia unprovoked while the Saviors are confiscating Alexandria's armory.
** He has a genuine liking for Carl, and sincerely apologizes for making the kid cry over his missing eye, even comforting him after the fact like a father would. It's unfortunately downplayed by Negan threatening the boy in events surrounding it, but it's still something. He also takes a genuine liking to Judith, much to Carl's horror. When he prepares to kill him in the Season 7 finale, he tells him and Rick that he'll try to do it in just one hit to get it over with quickly, since he likes Carl. Shiva thankfully intervenes.
** He also offers nothing but hospitality to Eugene when he's held captive in the Sanctuary, but this is because he wants him to ''join'' his group.
** He sincerely thanks Sasha for cooperating in the standoff with Alexandria, not knowing that she's plotting to die on the way and reanimate and attack him.
** He treats Father Gabriel with respect when they're trapped together in a walker-surrounded trailer, and even opens up to him about his past despite Gabriel trying to kill him. When they manage to escape, he orders his men to treat Gabriel gently when they take him into captivity.
** He gives Rick his sincere condolences for Carl’s death, and his immediate reaction to the news is to ask if his people were responsible. When Rick later is hunting him, partially out of desperation, Negan offers him a new deal where AHK falls back under his control, but they only have to give him 25% of their supplies in each tribute. Then subverted a bit since a condition is that Rick must become his personal janitor and servant indefinitely.
** He apologizes to Jadis for Simon's massacre of her people and even offers her the chance to come back to Sanctuary with him. Even when she refuses his offer, he promises to make it right, which he follows through with by killing Simon for her.
** He apologizes to Gabriel for making fun of him at a time when Gabriel is stressed about his girlfriend Rosita possibly being hurt, though Gabriel angrily tells him to save it.
** He tries his best to give Maggie space after she returns following the final battle with the Whisperers, and to be a team player during the mission to Meridian. Unfortunately Maggie barely regards the effort he has made and makes it clear she’s still scheming to kill him when she has the chance.
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Implied. While he manages to talk Hershel down from killing him due to the many other lives at risk, he later meets with him in private and tells him to come find him in a few years when he's older, and they'll settle it then.]]
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His speech is littered with casual sexism and misogyny and he believes that MenAreTheExpendableGender. Downplayed, as he doesn't seem to have a problem with women in a position of power, and isn't afraid to express his admiration of [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] Sasha, Rosita, Carol, and Maggie.
* {{Polyamory}}: He has a {{Harem}} of wives who married him in exchange for a more comfortable lifestyle.
-->'''Negan:''' I always wanted to screw a whole bunch of different women. Why settle for just one? Why follow the same old rules?
* PragmaticHero: He has no problems potentially getting Gamma (who he knows is helping the heroes) killed if it means gaining Alpha's trust and moving him a step closer to taking out the leader of the Whisperers herself.
* PragmaticVillainy:
** Negan believes it's better to work as a protection racket for other safe zones in exchange for supplies. This is the only reason why he doesn't simply slaughter all of Rick's group when he has them completely OutGambitted in the Season 6 finale. He later leaves them a truck for them to use to gather supplies for his tribute, and at Alexandria, he does not touch their food supplies since if Alexandria starves to death, he doesn't get ''any'' supplies period.
** This gets flipped on it’s head by Season 11 when he outlines to Maggie that he should have killed all of Alexandria’s leaders during their initial confrontation. If he had thoroughly wiped out the ones who ultimately rallied the communities to rebel against him, Negan would’ve never lost his empire. While Negan is lamenting the loss of everything he had, he is also encouraging Maggie to not make his mistake when it comes to the Reapers.
* PromotedToLoveInterest: He and Alpha never became lovers in the comics. It's still not enough to stop him from killing her, however.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Starting Season 7.
* PsychopathicManchild: Oh yes. He playfully chooses which one of Rick's group members he wants to kill in a game of eeny meeny miny mo while taunting them with petty insults. His process of coercing Rick's partnership also involves him bullying the man by forcing him to get his hatchet off the roof of an RV in a zombie infested fog area like a bully throwing a toy on a high place. When he hits Glenn with Lucille and dislodges his eye, Negan's taunt of "I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out, and it is gross as shit!" sounds like a bully gloating to the poor kid he just beat up.
* PsychoticLoveTriangle: He's coerced Sherry into his harem, but competes for her loyalty with her ex-husband [[SanitySlippage Dwight]].
* PsychoticSmirk: Wears one of these frequently.
* PummelingTheCorpse: Continues clubbing Abraham and Glenn's heads long after they're clearly dead.
* PungeonMaster: A [[BlackComedy dark example]]. He makes cruel {{Pun}}s regarding the ones he killed (specifically, Glenn and Abraham) such as them receiving the "Spirit Award" for their "efforts" and calling the weapon he used to kill them as a "Vampire [[BatterUp Bat]]".
* PuppyDogEyes: In "Here's Negan". In practically any scene with his wife Lucille, at some point he'll probably look at her with innocent-looking eyes. When Lucille gives him his leather jacket, he's practically ''beaming'' with childlike joy.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Leaves the group on his own near the end of "No Other Way".]]
** TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:He returns four episodes later in "Warlords", and in the nick of time to save Gabriel, too.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:R-U]]
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: As in the comic, Negan appears to be a believer of this, as Wade says that "he only wants ass that's willing." Although, see {{Hypocrite}} above.
* RealAfterAll: For most of Season 6, Rick's group assumes that Negan is a fictional boogeyman the Saviors cooked up in order to strike terror into unsuspecting victims. The finale introduces him as a very real threat.
* RealMenCook: Cooks spaghetti for Carl, Judith, and Olivia while he waits for Rick to return from a scouting trip. He also used to make dinner for his wife before the apocalypse.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In "Acheron, Part I", he gives Maggie a scathing teardown of her totalitarian behavior and letting her hatred of him affect her leadership choices.
* RecruitingTheCriminal: Carol springs him from jail with the promise that she will speak on his behalf if he takes out Alpha for her.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: His favorite look is wearing his black leather jacket, black faded pants, and his red ScarfOfAsskicking.
* RedemptionDemotion: He goes through this in Season 9 after his incarceration. Without his Saviors to back him up, absolutely no one is scared of him or has any tolerance for his bullshit anymore and barely even register him as a legitimate threat, even those who used to quake in fear around him such as Eugene.
* RedOniBlueOni:
** The verbose and gleefully childlike Red Oni to Rick's serious and somewhat more reserved Blue Oni.
** He is, however, the Blue Oni compared to Simon, who strongly believes in solving the Saviors' problems through violence, while Negan often prefers psychological manipulation and always tries to see the bigger picture.
** He's also the Blue to Maggie's Red in Season 11. Maggie is fueled largely by her anger towards Negan and frustration at losing Meridian to the Reapers. Negan is calmer and tries to offer more reasonable (if pragmatic) solutions.
* ReformedButNotTamed: Especially after "Here's Negan". He's still a bit of a dick with a snarky attitude who's willing to take pragmatic means to survive such as leaving Maggie behind.
* ReformedButRejected: And quite understandably so, given the amount of damage he caused during his time as a BigBad. Even after returning to Alexandria and saving Judith during a blizzard, he is still on shaky ground with most of the Alexandrians. The only people even willing to give him a chance are Michonne, Laura, Siddiq, and Gabriel, and it takes Negan killing Alpha and rescuing Daryl from some Whisperers for Daryl to genuinely start coming around on him.
* ReminiscingAboutYourVictims: Invoked when he tries to commit SuicideByCop and "fondly" recalls to Maggie how his brutal dispatch of Glenn made him realize how much he got a kick out of sadistically killing people.
* RevengeByProxy: He kills Glenn as revenge for Daryl punching him in the face.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: He took out all of the grief and anger he was feeling from Lucille's death by massacring the entire Valak's Vipers biker gang single-handedly.
* SadClown: Underneath all the crudeness and joking is a man still deeply haunted by the tragedy of his wife's death.
* {{Sadist}}: He openly admits that he enjoys killing -- men at least, though he'd kill a woman too -- and clearly likes inflicting both physical and psychological pain; in fact, his debut consists of gleefully murdering two people and then spending the rest of the episode [[MindRape mind raping]] Rick.
* SadisticChoice:
** He makes Rick choose to either cut off Carl's arm or watch his entire group be shot in the head. He relents at the last second when it's clear that Rick has been pacified.
** He is on the receiving end of this from Craven in "Here’s Negan", being forced to either divulge the location of Franklin's camp or be shot and have Lucille die thinking he ran out on her. It ends up being for naught since, unknown to him, Lucille is already dead anyway.
** [[spoiler:He makes Maggie agree to stop trying to kill him if he assists her in taking back Meridian from the Reapers.]]
* ScarfOfAsskicking: He's wearing a red scarf underneath his leather jacket a lot of the time.
* SecretTestOfCharacter:
** "The Cell" shows that he's been secretly testing [[PunchClockVillain Dwight]] and [[BadassInDistress Daryl]] to see where their loyalties are with him.
** "Service" implies that he was testing Rick's patience with him the whole time when he asks Rick to hold Lucille for him while he proceeded to bully everyone in the community.
* SelfImposedExile: [[spoiler:After seeing Maggie execute the remaining Reapers, Negan accepts that his peace with Maggie is likely own temporary peace and she could one day revert to her old ways and try to do the same with him. Thus, he takes Aaron's advice and chooses to exile himself from the Coalition and be on his own way.]]
* SettleForSibling: He originally desired Tina as his wife, but after she died, accepted her sister Sherry's offer of marriage in exchange for Dwight's life being spared.
* ShroudedInMyth: Prior to "Last Day on Earth", when he reveals himself to the Alexandrians, no one outside of the Saviors has any definitive proof that he even exists at all. Daryl even speculates that he is nothing more than a [[ShadowDictator fictional boogeyman]] made up by the Saviors.
* SirSwearsALot: Though heavily [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerized]] compared to his [[ClusterFBomb comic counterpart]], Negan isn't shy about using foul language. In the uncensored version of the Season 6 finale, he uses the F-word a whopping 23 times.
* SlashedThroat: This is how Rick finally puts him down -- by cutting open his throat with a broken shard of glass from a stained glass window.
** Negan later takes a page from Rick's book and successfully uses this move to take out Alpha.
* SlasherSmile: His default facial expression, at least before his HeelFaceTurn.
* SmarterThanYouLook: At first glance, you may be given the impression that he's just a cruel thug, but he is a genuinely credible GeniusBruiser who has led his minions very well, if not in an evil way.
* SmugSmiler: He has the nerve to grin at Maggie as he re-enters Alexandria to continue living there after Carol banished him. It's worth mentioning that the script originally called for Negan to simply glare at Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan actually did do several takes of this version. In the end, the editors decided to go with the take of him smiling because they felt it did a better job setting up the conflict for Season 11.
* SmugSnake: He is incredibly boastful and supremely confident in his authority and leadership. He delights in lording power over others because he knows they can't do anything to fight back.
* SoLastSeason: After getting defeated, the survivors have become more savvy to his manipulation tactics and don't fear him much without his Saviors to back him up. Becomes even more pronounced when the Whisperers take over as the major threat, with even Negan lampshading that he's gone from "Public Enemy #1" to "the guy doing the laundry and taking out the trash."
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:As of "No Other Way", he's the only Savior introduced as a member of the group who is confirmed to still be alive (barring the non-combatant Gracie).]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:For Carlson's (and Lance's) plan to exterminate the Riverbend community. First, he sends Jesse to Hilltop to notify Maggie, ensuring she is already ''en route'' by the time she meets Aaron halfway on the road. As a trusted member of Riverbend and a more-or-less ally of the Coalition, Negan serves as the diplomat between the two factions, convincing them to work together peacefully to take out Carlson's entire operation. He also rescues Gabriel and Hershel, eliminating any potential bargaining chips Carlson may have had.]]
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Starting in Season 10, he's gotten more story importance and been featured in more of the promotional material than many of the characters who have been around for longer than him like Eugene, Rosita, Gabriel, and Aaron. He's also one of four (the others being Daryl, Carol, and Maggie) to be chosen to be a part of ''The Walking Dead: Origins'' series of specials documenting each character's journey over the course of the show, even though Negan only made his introduction in the Season 6 finale.
* TheStarscream: When Negan first arrived at the Sanctuary, he (with the help of [[TheDragon Simon]], himself an example of the trope) overthrew the original leader who he saw was doing a poor job of leading the community, and brought the various gangs and factions that had built up in the Sanctuary together.
* StartOfDarkness: "Here's Negan" chronicles how Negan started on the path from normal high school gym teacher to maniacal, post-apocalyptic warlord.
* StoppedCaring: Negan actually found it unnerving to kill walkers at first, let alone any living, breathing human. Needless to say, after [[MoralityChain Lucille's]] death he seemed to get over it pretty quickly, to the point of outright finding it ''fun''.
* SubmissiveBadass: Despite being a natural leader with years of experience, he doesn't seem to mind falling under Ian's leadership when he joins the Riverbend apartment community.
* SuddenlyShouting: He rarely yells at people, but when he does, it is truly terrifying.
-->"That... was a no-no. '''THE WHOLE THING! NOT ONE BIT OF THAT SHIT FLIES HERE!'''"
-->"But there's always work. There is always a cost. '''HERE, if you try to SKIRT IT! If you try to [[PunctuatedForEmphasis CUT! THAT! CORNER!]]'''"
* SuicideByCop: After being broken by his year and a half-long incarceration, he tries to goad Maggie into killing him by mocking Glenn's death to her face. It almost works, until Maggie realizes what it is he's really after and decides to let him suffer.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: He stands 6'2, and is a crazy, imposing, and [[LaughablyEvil darkly comedic]] character.
* TattooedCrook: He has several tattoos (Jeffrey Dean Morgan's own) and eventually spends most of a decade locked up inside Alexandria's jail.
* TautologicalTemplar: He is absolutely convinced that his way is the only way and [[NeverMyFault refuses to admit any wrongdoing on his part]].
* TeamKiller: Murders Dr. Carson (who was framed by Dwight), David (who was about to rape Sasha) and Simon (who betrayed and was planning to assassinate him).
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: With the Coalition as of late Season 10. No one wants him around due to having memories of what he did, but are forced to acknowledge him being useful and having earned his keep due to executing Alpha. It's most notable when he gets invited on the trip to scavenge food from Meridian and the team consists almost entirely of people who are fiercely loyal to Maggie. It gets worse when the majority of the group are either sidelined due to injuries (Alden), MIA (Gabriel and Elijah), or outright killed or kidnapped by the Reapers (Daryl and everyone else), forcing Maggie and Negan to travel alone. They later meet up with Gabriel and Elijah and the four of them work together to infiltrate Meridian, with Negan and Maggie proving to be a very effective team once they put their feud on hold and actually start cooperating.
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Has this reaction when he takes his first human life by using the newly-created Lucille to bash in the skull of one of Craven's men. He quickly gets over it.
* TheyDiedBecauseOfYou: Aaron accuses him of failing his wife, which clearly strikes a nerve. We see why in "Here's Negan".
* ThisMeansWar: After witnessing the united communities working together ''against'' him firsthand, Negan gets right to the point letting his people know what to expect in the coming weeks.
--> '''Negan:''' We are going to war!
* TokenEvilTeammate: Downplayed. He takes pragmatic means to kill Alpha but still follows through and takes out the leader of their sworn enemy. However, since the Whisperers are still a threat even without Alpha, it's implied Negan did this so that Carol would vouch for him to the Coalition, rather than out of any sort of altruism.
* TookALevelInBadass: In "Here's Negan", we see how he went from being unable to even kill a walker by himself and making a clumsy attempt at a robbery with an unloaded gun to taking out an entire biker gang almost single-handedly and starting on the path to becoming leader of the Saviors.
* TookALevelInJerkass: One that goes hand in hand with his level in badass. He was once a flawed but respectable guy who loved his wife and didn't actively ''seek'' to hurt anyone. The Negan we meet in the Season 6 finale is a sadistic warlord who demands half of everything from every group he encounters and delights in bashing in the skulls of his victims.
* TookALevelInKindness:
** Prior to meeting Rick's group, he went from a LazyBum who was cheating on Lucille to a dedicated husband determined to help his wife beat her cancer. [[CrusadingWidower Unfortunately...]]
** After Maggie spares his life, he takes on a less antagonistic attitude and his interactions with others from that point on are portrayed in a much lighter fashion. By the end of Season 10, he's firmly in JerkWithAHeartOfGold territory.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He loves powdered lemonade, and during the faceoff in the Season 7 finale, he orders Alexandria to surrender their supplies... and their remaining lemonade.
* TragicKeepsake: His leather jacket. He bought it before the apocalypse, but his wife didn't approve of him spending $600 on it when they couldn't afford it. She hid it from him for months and said she returned it to the store, and gave it back to him not long before she died.
* TragicVillain: While it excuses none of his actions since then, it is a bit sad seeing how much Negan loved his wife and knowing he was just another victim of the apocalypse who lost himself along the way.
* TranquilFury: Anytime his usual joking manner is absent... be afraid.
** The first time he confronts Rick's group personally he greets them in a positive, joking manner before giving them a HannibalLecture. He only raises his voice ''once'', when Rick does the same to him, but even then isn't that harsh with him. In the uncensored cut, however, he does raise his voice a lot more. Starting with the Season 7 premiere, he is much more animated and loud, more closely resembling his comic counterpart.
** He just barely keeps it together when Aaron accuses him of causing his wife's death and suggests that she must have died hating him.
** A good example is when he kills Brandon, who has just murdered an innocent woman and her son and is overjoyed thinking Negan will finally be proud of him for it. Negan is clearly fuming, but he doesn't speak a word the entire time. He simply picks up a rock, walks over to Brandon, and smacks him across the head before proceeding to turn his skull into a bloody mess.
** In "Here's Negan", he is remarkably calm when addressing Craven while also making it clear in no uncertain terms that he is fixing to kill Craven the moment he's done monologuing.
-->'''Negan:''' You best hope I never stop talking. Because when I do... when I do, ''something very terrible is gonna happen to you''.
* {{Tritagonist}}: In Season 10. He gets more focus than anyone in the cast besides Carol and Daryl, and has his own backstory episode to boot.
* {{Troll}}: He knows that everyone either hates and/or fears him, but he enjoys messing with everyone around him anyway by acting like a complete and utter lunatic.
* TheUnapologetic: Even with Maggie back and out for his blood, Negan makes no attempt to actually apologize to her. In "Promises Broken", he outright says to Maggie he would have killed them ''all'' at the lineup if he could go back.
* TheUnfettered: Even after making a HeelFaceTurn, he's adamant that IDidWhatIHadToDo to keep people alive and shows very little remorse for his cruel actions as BigBad.
-->'''Negan:''' I made myself into a monster, because that is what the world needed.
** Set in stone in "Promises Broken", where he firmly justifies everything he did and makes clear he doesn't regret any of it, other than that he ''didn't'' kill Maggie and the rest of the group at the lineup.
* UnseenNoMore: Negan is the GreaterScopeVillain of Season 6 and is frequently mentioned by people who work for him, but only appears in the season finale. In the following seasons, he's a regular.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:V-Y]]
* VilerNewVillain: His presence helps to make Dwight more sympathetic and set him up for a HeelFaceTurn in the back half of Season 7.
* VillainBall: His decision to kill Dr. Carson for failing him comes across as this, considering the lack of doctors or people with medical knowledge in general there are in the apocalypse. True, he had to set an example, and he suggests afterwards that they're going to get the Dr. Carson at Hilltop to replace him, but it's really not wise to diminish such a valuable resource on the strength of one man's word and a coerced confession.
* VillainExitStageLeft: ''Attempts'' this when the tide turns against him in "Wrath". Rick quickly catches up to him and [[SlashedThroat puts an end to his reign for good]].
* VillainousBSOD:
** When Carl (trying to buy the Alexandrians time to escape) offers himself up as a sacrifice in "How It's Gotta Be", he outright asks Negan if he's happy with himself and the man he's become. Negan's silent reaction suggests that Carl's words hit a little too close to home.
** Negan breaks down crying when Rick mentions the now-deceased Carl during their final face-off, as if the pain of what he’s done is finally catching up with him. Then Rick slashes his throat.
* VillainousFriendship:
** He starts to form one with Spencer in "Hearts Still Beating", when Spencer introduces himself to Negan. After Spencer tells him about a Pool table and offers to play a game with Negan, he calls Spencer his "new best friend" and during the game he appears to take sympathy for Spencer when he tells him the story of how his mom was the original leader before Rick came and everyone in his family died, saying it was "the saddest story [he'd] ever heard". Subverted when he refuses to help Spencer kill Rick, and instead calls him a gutless coward for going behind Rick's back to ask Negan to do the dirty work for him before gutting him through the stomach.
** He forms one with Eugene of all people, hoping to convince him to join the Saviors as their EvilGenius. It's worth telling that Eugene's also the first person at the Sanctuary who isn't outright threatened by him or any of his followers. Indeed, Negan genuinely seems to get a kick out of Eugene's [[TheComicallySerious stoic and overly-complex manner of speaking]]. When Negan is released from his cell for the first time in years, he can't help but crack a smile at listening to Eugene talk again.
--> '''Negan:''' Damn, I missed you, Eugene.
** He starts up yet another one with Alpha when he joins the Whisperers... and while it's not a ''true'' friendship since he's only there to kill her and has no actual interest in joining her group, Negan does admit he liked Alpha and laments being unable to convince her to change her ways.
* VillainRespect:
** Though he takes every opportunity he can to make Rick miserable and torture him, he admits that he has respect for him. Negan remembers how Rick said he would kill him, clearly hating him for murdering Abraham and Glenn, but he has swallowed that hatred and put his pride aside, submitting to him and going out to gather supplies for him to keep his group safe from The Saviors, saying how all of that takes guts. Because of this he refuses to help Spencer with his plan to murder Rick and put Spencer in charge of Alexandria because Spencer is a coward who only talked to Negan after Rick was gone and wanted for Negan to do the dirty work for him.
** This respect also extends to two more of Rick's group: Negan respects Olivia for standing up to him despite her fear, and takes a shine to her, even admitting that had he chosen someone to die instead of Arat, she wouldn't have been the one he picked; Gabriel, meanwhile, is one of the few to seriously unnerve Negan, which Negan ironically admires. The two work well together to make it out of a harrowing situation alive, and when they are finally safe in the confines of the Sanctuary, Negan treats Gabriel kindly, allowing Eugene to take him a blanket and an ice pack, later also granting him prompt medical attention when he falls ill.
* VillainsNeverLie: Rick's group discovers this the hard way when Negan kills Glenn after he had already announced that any retaliation (in this case, Daryl's punch) would result in serious consequences to the rest of the group and he needed to make sure his point was understood.
* VillainsWantMercy: He begs Maggie to grant him an undeserved MercyKill as opposed to spending the rest of his life behind bars. Maggie, wanting him to suffer but realizing she'll be doing him a favor if she executes him, declines.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: He finds it fascinating how little Carl is afraid of him, especially in contrast to many of his own people. Negan vows to corrupt Carl into being one of his top soldiers one day, and is genuinely disappointed when Rick announces that Carl has died, ensuring that the boy wouldn't be around to help build the future he wanted to create.
* VisionaryVillain: He plans to rebuild society by finding other communities to "save" and having them produce for him in exchange for protection.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: He explains this as his mindset to Maggie after the Whisperer War as to why he is no longer the enemy of the group. In his view, there is too little left to bother fighting over, and too little decent people left to fight with; and Alpha’s attempt to destroy the Coalition’s civilization was the last nail in the coffin for him that he needed to join with other people and not dominate and extort them as he had done in the past, so they could have a shot at surviving and building a future.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Offers Sasha a chance at joining the Saviors, and outright says that with her courage and status as a bonafide badass, she could one day join his inner circle and help him lead the empire.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: How he sees the Saviors and himself: they're subjugating others in order to make them strong and able to contend with the CrapsackWorld they've all found themselves in. Gabriel takes issue with this viewpoint, pointing out that [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Negan's methods are dangerous and cruel]].
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Numerous times:
** When fighting zombies with the temporarily blinded Aaron, who wouldn't let him use a weapon to fight the dead, Negan could have left him to fight on his own or die, and no one would ever know the truth except as it came from Negan. He doesn't and chooses to watch over Aaron for the night.
** His wife Lucille invoked this on him. He ended his affair with Janine after Lucille's cancer diagnosis and never spoke to her again. Lucille had never told him that she knew about it.
* TheWonka: Downplayed. He really comes across as crazy and random, but he has successfully outsmarted Rick Grimes with his skills.
* WontDoYourDirtyWork: His response to Spencer's cowardly appeal to have Negan kill Rick behind his leader's back.
* TheWorfEffect:
** He is effortlessly knocked to the ground like a toy by the mammoth Beta, and later is defeated in mere seconds by him in “A Certain Doom” despite being fully prepared for a fight.
** Despite taking on the Reaper Carver with Maggie and a wounded Elijah at his side in a small hallway, Negan is still thrashed around by the highly trained combat veteran and doesn’t succeed until he uses his wits to outsmart him. It establishes that the Reapers are too dangerous to be kept alive if just one of them - a disturbingly sadistic one at that - was able to manhandle three of the best fighters the group has ever had in their ranks.
* WorthyOpponent:
** He views Daryl as one for showing his complete defiance towards his authority, but the only reason he's keeping him alive is because he wants to recruit him for the Saviors.
** He also views Carl as one for showing absolutely no fear around his presence and admires how the KidHero broke into the Sanctuary just to kill him even though he knew it would end in his own death. According to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan views Carl as the son he never had.
** In his own twisted way, he appears to respect Rick considerably more than most of his own people, even ones he's been with for a long time. Rick could easily stay home and order some of his people to go out and forage for supplies, but instead he always goes along and takes more than his share of the risks. Rick also always comes through and delivers supplies as expected. Negan knows he ultimately needs people like Rick, as if he has nothing but sheep working for him, then nothing will ever get done. Spencer finds out the hard way that Negan doesn't like slackers who try to get someone else to do the dirty work.
** He tries to keep his distance from Maggie once she returns after the Whisperer War, knowing very well she is capable of killing him. By “No Other Way” he decides to leave the group after seeing her lead the war effort against the Reapers, completely convinced she could have him dead to rights the moment his back is turned regardless of their deal.
* WouldHitAGirl: Though he claims he doesn't like killing women, he will ''not'' hesitate to do so if he has to. Just ask Alpha.
* WouldHurtAChild: In the Season 7 finale, he is seconds away from killing Carl before the timely arrival of Shiva and the Kingdom.
* WouldntHurtAChild: Following Carl's death from a walker bite he becomes this.
* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: He recalls the gruesome details of Glenn's murder as part of a gambit to be slain by Maggie.
* YouAreInCommandNow: After Negan kills Alpha, a trio of Whisperers submit to him as their new leader. Unfortunately for them, Negan has no interest in taking over the Whisperers, and seizes this moment as a chance to prove his loyalty to Daryl by killing all three of the skins.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After escaping his cell he returns home to the Sanctuary, only to find it entirely abandoned and in ruins. He ends up deciding to head back to Alexandria.
* YouGotSpunk: {{Jerkass}} he may be, Negan will often take a moment to marvel at the courage shown by the members of Rick's group.
** He clearly admires Carl's stone-cold badassery in the face of a potentially horrible demise and seems more impressed than angry after Carl breaks into Sanctuary and almost kills him.
** He also seems to admire Abraham's [[HeroicSacrifice willingness to sacrifice himself as the potential victim]] and for said victim "taking it like a champ" after Negan delivers the first blow to Abraham from Lucille. Likewise, he seems to respect Daryl after he attacked him for mocking Abraham's death and notes that (unlike Rick) he still refuses to submit.
** Similarly, he also respects Olivia for standing up to him and refusing to leave Judith and Carl alone with him. The Season 7 midseason finale shows that, while he may not like Rick and he'll take any opportunity he can to mock him, Negan has grown to respect him for swallowing his pride and continuing to work for him despite how much Rick clearly hates him. Enough that he guts Spencer like a fish after he tries to convince Negan to kill Rick and let Spencer be in charge instead.
** Negan comes to respect [[ArchEnemy Maggie]] for her iron-willed devotion to her people and her son, even if it means sacrificing the community she's worked so hard these last few months to build.
-->'''Negan:''' You have big balls, Maggie Rhee.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Negan's reaction when one of the Saviors finds the RPG that took out Bud and his crew is one of astonishment and sadistic glee, stating he couldn't wait to test out that rocket launcher.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: He is disgusted by Brandon's fanatical devotion to the old ways of the Saviors and his regime.
* YouRemindMeOfX: When discussing his late wife with his current lover Alpha, he mentions how she looked beautiful even when she lost her hair (from cancer), and then gazes wistfully at Alpha, clearly having a flashback to his beloved Lucille.
[[/folder]]
!!Weapons
[[folder:Lucille]]
!!''Lucille''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twdtv_lucillebat.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Lucille is thirsty! She is a vampire bat!"'']]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/{{The Walking Dead|2010}}'' (Seasons 6-8, 10)
!!!'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E16LastDayOnEarth Last Day on Earth]]"
->''"This is Lucille. And she is awesome."''
-->-- '''Negan'''
Negan's primary weapon, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Lucille quickly becomes notorious in the series for being the weapon used to murder Glenn Rhee and Abraham Ford. The bat originally belonged to Savior lieutenant Laura, who gave it to Negan to defend himself from marauders on the road.
For tropes related to Lucille Smith, see [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies here]].
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* BatterUp: Negan's signature weapon, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire that he uses both in combat and to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make an example of people in front of their loved ones]].
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Negan first wrapped Lucille in barbed wire on the night he returned to find his wife (the original Lucille) dead as a walker.
* CompanionCube: [[NamedWeapons Lucille]] creepily comes across as this to Negan as he describes her like a close friend, or even a lover. Later revealed to be a way of coping with the loss of his wife, who was named Lucille.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Lucille is first alluded to in "East", when Carl notices an image of the bat carved into one of the guns Rick's group took from the Saviors' outpost.
* HeroKiller: Literally, as she's used to kill two of the series' main heroes, Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee.
* ICallItVera: See the above quote. Negan takes a moment to introduce Lucille to Rick's group when they first meet, and informs them that she will be used to turn at least one of their skulls into mush before the night is through.
* IconicItem: One of the most recognizable items associated with the series. Even people who don't watch the show have probably heard of or can recognize Lucille.
* KillItWithFire: Lucille is finally destroyed when Negan burns her in the fireplace in Leah's cabin.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Lucille sustains damage from her first two on-screen victims from beyond the grave.
** In "Hearts Still Beating", she takes a bullet fired by Abraham's ex-girlfriend, Rosita.
** In "The Key", the lighter Rick uses to set Lucille on fire originally belonged to Glenn.
* NamedWeapons: A baseball bat named in honor of Negan's dead wife.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Negan burning her in the fire is symbolic of him finally overcoming the trauma caused by his wife's death as well as officially putting his past as a villain to rest.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the comics, Lucille ends up getting destroyed when Negan repeatedly smashes her on Beta's back during the Whisperer War. This does not happen in the show, and the original Lucille remains unaccounted for until the Season 10 finale, "Here's Negan", when she is finally destroyed for good.
* WeaponOfChoice: "Lucille" is a baseball bat, which, as a piece of sporting equipment, highlights Negan's playfulness. However, it is also wrapped in barbed wire, demonstrating the violent and brutal side of his nature.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: When Negan asks to see Lucille in Season 9, Michonne claims that the bat is still lying under the tree where Negan last dropped it. She wasn't lying -- Negan returns to the tree eight years later in search of the bat and, after some digging, finds her buried underneath the grass and dirt that has accumulated over the last decade.
* WreckedWeapon:
** First, Lucille blocks a homemade bullet intended to kill Negan. Then, in "The Key", Rick gets a hold of Lucille and lights her on fire to draw Negan out of hiding. The bat survives both occasions.
** Lucille is irreparably damaged when Negan digs her out of the ground after eight years and uses her to kill a walker. He burns her in the fire shortly afterward.
* YourHeadASplode: Negan's SignatureMove is to repeatedly whack his victims' heads using Lucille until it's all gore. Abraham and Glenn sadly find this out the hard way.
[[/folder]]
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->''"No one ever thinks that they're the evil one."''
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMaggieGreene Maggie Greene]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
!!Due to the AnyoneCanDie nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. If you have not seen the first ten seasons read at your own risk!
!!''Negan Smith''
[[quoteright:300: https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/298cb649_654b_4cb4_92e8_f71a3ad0e71c.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"What's the matter? Y'all scared of the Big Bad Wolf?"'']]
!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JeffreyDeanMorgan
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Iñaki Crespo (Spanish), Pedro Ruiz (Latin-American Spanish), Cassius Romero (Brazillian Portuguese), Creator/AkioOhtsuka (Japanese), Charles Rettinghaus (German), Jérémie Covillault (French), Fabrizio Temperini (Italian), Jiří Schwarz (Czech), Zoltán Csankó (Hungarian)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/{{The Walking Dead|2010}}'' (Seasons 6-11) | ''The Walking Dead: Dead City''
!!!'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E16LastDayOnEarth Last Day on Earth]]"
->''"Hi. You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is. But I think you’re gonna be up to speed shortly. Yeah. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes. Yes, you are."''
The main antagonist of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' starting at the end of Season 6. Negan is the powerful leader of the Saviors, and controls other communities as well through intimidation, demanding tribute from them to supply his personal base, the Sanctuary. He wields Lucille, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire as his personal weapon and symbol of power. When the Alexandria Safe-Zone begins attacking his group and slaughters many of them, Negan decides to confront Rick directly, killing Glenn and Abraham and mentally tortures Rick into submission. Negan humiliates Alexandria through his visits, and offers several of their people membership in the Saviors when they show potential to him. However, his murders of Spencer and Olivia push Rick over the edge, and Rick forms a rebellion against him. With his slave states rebelling, Negan declares war on them.
It becomes apparent during the war that Negan is far more than his evil tyrant persona. Negan is revealed to genuinely believe that he is saving people by protecting the weak, and does not condone the genocidal tendencies of Simon. However, Rick points out that extortion of the weak is not the same as protection, and that the Savior empire will never last, something Negan begins to realize as the war progresses. Though AHK initially has him on the defensive, Negan strikes back and personally leads the sacking of Alexandria, but is devastated to learn of Carl’s death. Ultimately, it is the treachery of his lieutenants that causes Negan’s downfall, as his army surrenders after their weapons are sabotaged by Eugene, his attempt to wipe out AHK fails thanks to Simon’s earlier raid, and Dwight helps wound him during the final fight. Citing Carl’s desire for peace, Rick and Michonne spare Negan and sentence him to life in prison to watch the communities thrive without him.
A year and a half later, Negan is still behind bars in Alexandria, but vows that he will escape someday. Not too long after, Maggie finally arrives to kill him, only for Negan to break down and admits he wants to die. Realizing he is much worse off this way, Maggie spares him. Six years later, Negan has become friends with the now nine-year-old Judith Grimes, and begins asking Michonne if she could learn to trust him, after he saves Judith's life during a snowstorm. As a result, Negan is allowed more freedom, but as the threat of the Whisperers looms in the aftermath of a tragic loss, paranoid Alexandrians take their fear out on him. Carol orders him to infiltrate the Whisperers and assassinate Alpha, a task he succeeds in and is rewarded for with a tentative place in the group. However, this becomes complicated when Maggie returns, and is none too pleased to see him a free man, having not borne witness to his change of heart.
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-D]]
* AbhorrentAdmirer: His bragging about how Sherry is now his wife and how he originally wanted to make Tina his beloved reach uncomfortable creeper levels. He also expresses a desire in taking Maggie as a wife (after ''killing her husband'') and admits an attraction to Olivia, who isn't exactly forthcoming considering he spends half of his time insulting her weight.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: He takes a moment to stop bludgeoning Abraham with Lucille to laugh at the Sergeant's ProfaneLastWords, "Suck my nuts!" Makes sense, considering Negan's own juvenile sense of humor.
* AdaptationDeviation: How Negan got his [[WeaponOfChoice trademark baseball bat]] and IconicOutfit is played differently here:
** Negan received "Lucille" from Laura (who is not a Savior at that time) while searching for more chemotherapy bags. In the comics, he picked up "Lucille" after his previous survivor group were DevouredByTheHorde.
** In the comics, Negan got his iconic leather jacket from an abandoned store. Here, he bought it for $600 prior to the outbreak, though the real Lucille hid it and later gave it back to him as an "anniversary gift".
* AdaptationExpansion: In the comics, he is PutOnABus following the Whisperer arc, and only makes a brief cameo in the last issue of the series. In the show, he contemplates living on his own but ultimately returns to Alexandria to continue residing there instead. [[spoiler:He then leaves for real in "No Other Way", only to return four episodes later.]]
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: While Negan was a lot more muscular in the comics, he also had a pudgy, thuggish sort of appearance, in contrast to the roguishly handsome Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
* AdaptationalCurves: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Comic!Negan has a stouter built, while TV!Negan is leaner.
* AdaptationalIntelligence: TV!Negan is also far more prone to psychological warfare and careful thought than his comics counterpart. As an example, regarding how he chooses who he plans to kill in his debut, comic-book Negan truly appears to have done a random selection (he listed several reasons why he couldn't decide who was going to get [[BatterUp Lucilled]]), TV!Negan bounces around during his "random" eeny-meeny-miny-moe game and just so happens to land on Abraham (who had quietly stood up to him earlier) after pausing on the last pick. His seemingly random choice of Glenn as his second victim supports this interpretation as well, given Glenn had previously interrupted him. He finally admits to Rick in "Wrath" that killing Abraham was a calculated move, as he didn't want to murder Rick in front of his son.
* AdaptationalKarma:
** Unlike in the comic, he gets a well-deserved punch to the face after killing his first victim. Unfortunately, this leads to Negan dishing out some karma of his own and selecting Glenn to beat to death next.
** In the comic he's only incarcerated for three years, compared to the show's eight.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Negan is a lot more aggressive and merciless, but at the same time, he's a more emotionally stable and rational character compared to his borderline sociopathic comic counterpart. In the comic, he knew there was no possible peace as long as Rick was alive at the first failed assassination attempt and decides to go full scorched earth on Alexandria. Here, it's Simon who advocates the KillEmAll philosophy, which Negan objects to (at least initially). His HeelFaceTurn is also played with more sincerity and his friendships with characters like Judith and Lydia are emphasized to highlight this.
** In the comics, he continued to sleep around even ''after'' Lucille was diagnosed with cancer, [[EveryoneHasStandards leading his mistress to one day throw him out in disgust]]. In the show, he broke off the affair the minute he found out about his wife's diagnosis and never spoke to said mistress again.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Besides the AdaptationalNiceGuy above, this version of Negan is more depraved and sadistic than his comic book counterpart. For instance:
** In the Season 7 premiere, he kills two victims rather than one (the latter just for someone punching him in the face, rather than retribution for killing his men) and nearly forces Rick to chop Carl's arm off, something his comic counterpart never did. Also, while he's disrespectful to his victim(s) in both comic and TV show, TV-verse Negan spends ''far'' more time mocking and torturing the survivors, and openly admits he enjoys killing (people he feels need to die to keep everyone in line, at least), whereas Comic!Negan confessed to Rick in private that he actually didn't like it.
** Negan's {{Harem}} comes across as much creepier in the show. While Comic!Negan emphasized that all of the women were there of their own free will, were treated well, and could leave any time they wanted (albeit at the cost of having to go back to performing hard labor and being on Negan's shit list), Show!Negan is not above coercing women into joining. His offer for Tina to join him comes after she's unable to afford the insulin she ''needs to survive'' under his harsh point system (and later implies he was planning to offer Maggie a similar deal, noting that she's sick too) and [[ScarpiaUltimatum the only thing that stops him from executing Dwight for treason is that Sherry volunteers to marry him if he spares Dwight]]. [[note]]In the comics, Sherry married Negan because she believed it was the most practical choice for both her and Dwight, not because of any life-threatening circumstances, and Negan only burned Dwight's face after they continued to sleep together behind his back.[[/note]]
** Downplayed, but in their confrontation in the comics, Negan profusely apologized to Maggie for killing Glenn, realizing that for all the grief he feels over his dead wife, he dished it out to Maggie by killing her husband, and outright cried about how horrible he felt for his actions. Though TV!Negan does break down crying and begging to be killed, he does not apologize to Maggie for killing Glenn nor does he explicitly express remorse for his actions. When the two finally have a heart-to-heart in "Promises Broken", Negan is still adamant that IDidWhatIHadToDo and admits he would have killed them all if he got to do it all over again.
* AdaptationalWimp: His comic counterpart succeeded in maiming Rick and shattering his leg during their final brawl, forcing Rick to walk with the assistance of a cane for the rest of his life. TV!Negan inflicts no such lasting damage, and is more quickly taken down by Rick courtesy of a shard of broken glass.
* AerithAndBob: A guy named Negan has the decidedly common surname ''Smith''.
* AffablyEvil: In Season 8, where he's written with a lighter touch and comes across as much more personable than before.
* AintTooProudToBeg: Subverted. While he didn’t beg ''for'' his life in "Wrath", he begs Maggie to ''kill him'' in "What Comes After" so he can rejoin his [[TheLostLenore dead wife, Lucille]], after an [[ICannotSelfTerminate unsuccessful suicide attempt the previous episode]]. [[CruelMercy Maggie refuses so that he can suffer alone]].
* AllForNothing: His six-week quest to find the medicine needed to treat Lucille's cancer ended up being for naught, as she killed herself the very same day that he left.
* AlmightyJanitor: As the former leader of the Saviors, he more or less becomes this in Season 10 when he is allowed more leeway in Alexandria only to be assigned grunt work such as doing the laundry and taking out the trash. Negan, for his part, seems content with this and tries not to draw too much attention to himself, especially with the threat of the Whisperers on the horizon. He also bonds with Lydia, who has become a pariah in lieu of Alpha's massacre, dispensing her some words of advice about how to deal with bullies and later rescuing her from said bullies when they gang up on her one night.
* AmazonChaser: Seemingly averted at first, as his {{Harem}} is made up of women who are either too weak to work for points or were blackmailed into marrying him against their will. However, a closer look reveals that Negan does in fact have an admiration of strong women:
** He admits that Sasha has him "wrapped around [her] little finger" after she shows no fear in the face of his threats.
** He expresses some attraction toward Alpha who, despite being completely insane, has the intelligence and strength of will to command an entire army of Whisperers.
** After Olivia gives him a defiant BitchSlap for propositioning her, Negan admits the slap increased his desire for her by 50 percent.
** His pre-apocalypse wife, Lucille, was very much a "take no crap" kind of woman as well.
** In Season 11, Negan gets married to Annie, who is an ActionGirl and forms one-half of a BattleCouple with him.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Negan is brutally violent and sadistic, refuses to take responsibility for his actions, has a bizarre BlueAndOrangeMorality and sense of justice, and is a MoodSwinger who can flip between angry and comical at the drop of a hat. While he shows far too much empathy to fit the criteria for sociopathy, it's clear there's ''something'' not right in the head with him.
* AmbiguouslyChristian: Negan doesn't appear to be practicing any religion, but he makes enough passive comments about God and the afterlife that it seems as if he at least believes in the possibility of them. Then again, when Gabriel says he became a priest because he wanted to bring people closer to God, Negan chuckles and responds, "You gotta be kidding me." He later joins the religious Riverbend group, though it’s unknown if he actually had a HeelFaithTurn or was only there because he wanted a new community to join and was willing to acquiesce to their beliefs if it meant he could stay.
* AMFMCharacterization: He considers "[[Music/JoeCocker You Are So Beautiful]]" to be the greatest love ballad ever written. He used to sing it to his wife, Lucille, when she was afflicted with cancer, and he once nearly killed a man in a bar because the man was being loud and obnoxious when Negan and Lucille were trying to listen to the song. He's also heard listening to "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Back in Black]]" which, as a rock song, is rather fitting for a BadassBiker like him.
* AndIMustScream: While he definitely deserved to suffer for his crimes, his eight-year stint in prison -- no one to talk to, no light, and the knowledge that he could very well spend the rest of his life without ever getting to see outside his cell ever again -- counts. According to Negan himself, it got so bad that even his ''memories'' started to have bars painted on them.
* AndStarring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets this billing from Season 7 onward.
* AnimalMotifs: In Season 9, Negan is repeatedly associated with dogs -- specifically, the question of whether he is now a "good" dog or a "bad" one. In "Who Are You Now?" he tells Judith a story about how he used to bring home stray dogs when he was a kid and how the "wrong" dog ended up killing all the other strays. This comes back around in "Adaptation" when he is chased by a bunch of stray dogs while looking for a new jacket in an empty store. In "Guardians", he turns the motif on himself and tells Michonne that she "can't keep a big dog locked up forever." Michonne's response is to ask Negan what kind of dog that makes him, to which Negan doesn't yet have an answer. Finally, in "The Storm", he begins making strides towards a HeelFaceTurn by risking his own life to bring Judith and Daryl's dog (a "good" dog) to safety, symbolizing that Negan has decided to be a good dog after all.
* AntagonistInMourning: He is genuinely distraught to hear about Carl's death and offers Rick his sincere condolences... while also [[KickTheDog berating him for not being around to stop Carl from getting himself into trouble]]. Rick later takes advantage of Negan's despair to lower his guard and slash his throat.
* AntiHero: Evolves into one in Season 10. While he does the right thing and kills BigBad Alpha, as Lydia points out, he's still motivated by the selfish desire that his own misdeeds will be forgiven, and killing their leader does not necessarily end the threat of the Whisperers as a whole.
* AntiVillain: In Season 8. While still depraved, he's given many humanizing moments with characters like Gabriel, Eugene, and especially Carl, who believes Negan isn't beyond redemption. In the back half of the season, it's revealed that as harsh as Negan is, he doesn't want to needlessly murder people if he can avoid doing so, and is positively gentle compared to [[TheDragon Simon]], who gleefully advocates slaughtering everyone at Hilltop and, in an inverted "kill only one" policy, slaughters all of the Scavengers aside from a devastated Jadis without Negan's knowledge or approval. When he finally decides he must exterminate all the rebelling communities and start over, he's truly saddened that it's come to this and takes no enjoyment from it.
* ArchEnemy: Maggie makes it clear that while Negan may have redeemed himself in the eyes of the Alexandrians, to her, he's still the sadistic murderer who bashed Glenn's head in and left Hershel without a father. It gets extra awkward when [[spoiler:most of the Wardens are killed by the Reapers and they are forced to abandon an injured Alden in a church, leaving Maggie and Negan to travel alone together.]]
* ArcWords: "Right off the bat" during Season 6, as it's used by several characters as a way to hint towards his impending arrival.
* TheAtoner: Starts in earnest in Season 10 when he's given more freedom and has to work with Aaron to fend off the Whisperers' walker horde. It would seem that he's made it by the end of the season, though he still has beef with Maggie, who has adamantly ''not'' been around to see how far he's come in the years since his incarceration.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: In his first meeting with Rick's group he quickly deduces that Carl is Rick's son and that Abraham and Rosita were romantically involved.
* AxCrazy: While he does adhere to PragmaticVillainy, Negan is a little ''too'' quick to employ violence to solve problems, and is downright giddy smashing Glenn and Abraham's heads to a pulp.
* BadassBiker: Negan is a biker as shown when he departs from the Sanctuary on a motorcycle in "Adaptation". He was also part of a biker's club before the apocalypse.
* BadassBoast: He preaches to Daryl about what a powerful leader he is by proclaiming he's nearly all-powerful among his men. Later does this to Carl to demonstrate his authority.
-->'''Negan:''' I wear a leather jacket, I have Lucille, and my nutsack is made of steel! I am not dying until I am damn good and ready!
** He has a great one when Beta leaves him for dead only for Negan to march back into camp and approach the leader Alpha with a shit-eating grin on his face.
-->'''Negan:''' I'm ready for my goddamn skin suit! You best bring that extra-long tape measure on account of my ''humongous balls''.
** Downplayed when he tells Rick that he's "not saving the world, just getting it ready for me." While it does sound foreboding with his FaceFramedInShadow and Rick is clearly rattled by it, Negan's actions a few episodes later put the line in a different context when he's revealed to be suicidal, implying that it was merely an attempt to convince Rick to go back on his word and kill him.
* BadassTeacher: Seriously, how many gym teachers can say they took command over an army of hundreds of people, with all of them swearing UndyingLoyalty in their name?
** He really puts his skills to use when he teaches Maggie, Elijah and Gabriel to walk in Whisperer masks in "Promises Broken".
* TheBadGuyWins: In the Season 6 finale and continuing into the Season 7 premiere. Not only does he kill two members of Rick's group, he personally breaks down Rick's hope until he is a blubbering mess and saying he works for Negan and answers to him. He even kidnaps Daryl from the group to force him to work for him and as leverage so Rick remembers not to step out of line. The remaining members of the group are left on the road as the Saviors leave, completely broken and beaten.
* BadGuysPlayPool: He becomes excited when Spencer tells him that the house across the street from Rick's has a pool table in the garage. During the game, he guts Spencer in front of everyone for trying to betray Rick, and afterwards [[BlackComedy asks if any of the onlookers want to finish the game in Spencer's place.]]
* BattleCouple: He and Annie work side-by-side to rescue Gabriel from the Commonwealth in "Warlords".
* BeardOfEvil: Unlike his clean-shaven comic counterpart, Negan's facial hair is more noticeable in the show. He lampshades it in his first appearance when he mentions he should shave it off and finally does so in the mid-Season 7 finale. It grows back by Season 8 and he's kept it ever since.
* BeardOfSorrow: Grows one during his initial 18-month stay in Alexandria's jail.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: He used to be apprehensive about killing walkers because he didn't want to "get used to it." He also didn't want to hurt living people and was uneasy about having to rob a camp of doctors to get medication for Lucille. Compare this to the Negan who introduces himself by gleefully beating the skulls of two men and demanding half of Alexandria's supplies as tribute.
* BecomingTheMask: He confesses to Daryl that he actually enjoyed being a part of the Whisperers because it made him feel respected again, only to remember why he was there in the first place upon realizing how dead-set Alpha was on killing Lydia.
* BelligerentSexualTension: At least on his end towards Olivia. He spends most of his time with her insulting her weight, but eventually admits that he'd love to sleep with her. He doesn't even mind getting slapped by her, as it just turns him on even more.
* BeneathTheMask: In "What Comes After", Negan acts like his old, [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] self to try and provoke Maggie into killing him, but her insistence on him stepping into the light and hesitance sees his bravado fall to pieces, revealing the broken DeathSeeker he's become.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't harm Lucille. ''Ever''. When Rosita shoots his bat, he flies into an extreme rage far beyond anything we've seen before. When Rick lights Lucille on fire, Negan goes apeshit and tackles him to the ground.
** This also applied to Lucille ''before'' the apocalypse. His wife, not the bat.
** Banging one of his 'wives' behind his back is a surefire way to get an iron to the face.
** Negan hates traitors and kowtows, as shown with his murder of Spencer.
** Killing innocent children, as Brandon and Alpha learn the hard way.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Negan comes across as a little [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} off]], but, as Rick's group finds out the hard way, you do not cross him.
* BigBad: From the Season 6 finale to the Season 8 finale, he is the primary antagonist of the show.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** In "Silence the Whisperers", he arrives to stop Gage, Margot, and Alfred from beating Lydia. In "A Certain Doom", he stops Beta from going after Lydia (who is wearing Alpha's mask) by whispering to him, "Hey, shithead."
** He also saves a mother and son from being eaten by some walkers on an abandoned bus. Pity he was too late to save them from Brandon...
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: The first truly heinous act he committed in the apocalypse was returning to the Vipers' hideout and massacring them all without mercy. Granted, they definitely had it coming, but it was nevertheless a StartOfDarkness moment for Negan.
* BloodKnight: He even says he can kill people all day.
* BoisterousBruiser: He's an overly happy guy who's not afraid to crush his enemies' skulls in with his trusted baseball bat.
* BreakingSpeech: Gives a thoroughly detailed monologue that [[BreakThemByTalking breaks]] Rick while he and his friends are held hostage.
* BreakoutVillain: He gets far more to do than his comic counterpart, eventually becoming one of the show's main characters by Season 10. His popularity led to him being announced to be headlining a spinoff with Maggie in 2023. This makes Negan one of three characters confirmed to survive the main show's series finale, the others being Maggie and Daryl.
* BreakTheBadass: What he spends all of "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" doing to Rick's group (especially to Rick). He's so effective it takes the entire first half of the season and two more people dying for Rick to finally start fighting back.
* BreakTheHaughty: In Season 9. For his first couple of appearances in the season, despite being utterly defeated and locked in a jail cell, he still acts like same old Negan, gloating and crowing during his conversations with Rick and Michonne. The first cracks appear with his reaction to the news that Lucille was left on the battlefield after his defeat, which causes him to beat his head bloody on the wall. Then, in "What Comes After", Maggie arrives with the intention of killing him, and he starts trying to goad her into doing so, bringing up Glenn (and pretending to forget his name), and poking barbs at her struggles. Maggie quickly catches on to his DeathSeeker mentality, and when she hesitates, the facade absolutely shatters, resulting in Negan sobbing and begging for Maggie to kill him, so that he can be reunited with Lucille (his wife, not the bat). Maggie's refusal to do so seems to leave him even more broken and hollow.
* BrutalHonesty: In Season 11, when Maggie asks if he would have done things differently, Negan responds that yes, he would have... by killing ''all'' of Rick's group at the line-up. Shocked, Maggie asks why he would tell her this; Negan says it's because he thinks the only way for them to work together is if he's completely honest.
* TheBully: An adult version, as his MO is basically intimidating people into working for him and forcibly taking their supplies for himself. His juvenile sense of humor and childish cheerfulness also contribute to this image.
* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:Towards the end of “No Other Way”, he decides to leave Alexandria as he suspects (not without reason) that Maggie will eventually break her promise and try to kill him again.]]
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Negan keeps Dwight around just long enough to help him put down Simon's mutiny, then reveals he knows about his treachery and takes him prisoner.
* CardCarryingJerkass: He's well aware of how much of a prick he is.
-->'''Sherry:''' You're an asshole.
-->'''Negan:''' ''I know''.
* CardCarryingVillain: He plays this up to try and provoke Maggie into killing him, bragging about he enjoyed breaking open Glenn's head and watching him suffer as his eye popped out.
* TheCaretaker: He was devoted to taking care of his wife after she got diagnosed with cancer at the onset of the apocalypse. This made Lucille realize that, despite his cheating, Negan was still the man she loved.
* CargoShip: InUniverse. He has a bizarre fixation with his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille, to the point of affectionately calling her pet names like "baby" and openly speaking about her as if she were his lover. The reason for this is eventually revealed in "Still Gotta Mean Something" -- he named the bat after his actual late wife, Lucille.
* CasualKink: Possibly. He seems into the idea of Alpha leaving her mask on during sex, but considering he is also TheMole who is trying to get on Alpha's good side it's not clear how agreeable to it he really was.
* CharacterCheck: After most of Season 10 is spent giving him a HeelFaceTurn and "Here's Negan" makes him into a rather tragic and sympathetic figure, he gets two massive KickTheDog moments in the following episode, "Acheron, Part I": throwing Glenn's death in Maggie's face [[spoiler:and leaving Maggie to her fate above a herd of walkers.]] This is probably to show that while Negan may have turned over a new leaf, he's still very much a pragmatic {{Jerkass}} who isn't willing to suffer fools, sad backstory or not.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** Negan starts out as little more than a murderous bully who mentally tortures Rick into submission. Later episodes show him as a more dynamic character who ''is'' capable of occasional kindness, such as with his relationships with Sasha, Eugene, Gabriel, and '''especially''' Carl and Judith, the latter of whom eventually becomes something of a MoralityPet to him. When Negan discovers that the Sanctuary has fallen during his seven-and-a-half year incarceration, he decides to head back to Alexandria and genuinely starts taking steps to make up for what he did. This evolves into a full-fledged HeelFaceTurn in Season 10 and beyond.
** By Season 11 he has adopted a combination of Rick and Simon’s ideologies; he has come to embrace Rick’s idea for civilization to rebuild and has accepted that he can no longer operate as a bullying enemy to Alexandria. However, he has learned from Simon’s schemes for genocide that there are indeed some enemies who cross a line that means you need to put them all down when you have the chance. He tells Maggie he caused his own downfall when he didn’t wipe out the group, and convinces her to dish out a FinalSolution on the Reapers.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** He is far more reserved and serious in his debut in the Season 6 finale, only raising his voice once when he snaps at Rick for speaking out of turn. Starting in the Season 7 premiere, he is much more animated and loud, more closely resembling his comic counterpart.
** While Negan has been always shown to have a fondness for children, it is only starting in Season 8 that he adopts a WouldntHurtAChild mentality, as in the Season 7 finale he is mere seconds from executing Carl in a desperate attempt to finally break Rick.
* CharacterTics: The "Negan lean", which was inspired by a panel in the comic where Negan was leaning back and laughing, quickly became a staple of his character. He stops doing it in Season 9, which shows how broken he's become since his defeat. He begins doing it again in "What It Always Is" after seemingly reverting to his old ways and joining the Whisperers.
* TheChessmaster: He really shows his skill at this in "Worth". Knowing that both Simon and Dwight are rogue elements in their own way, Negan uses them to take out the other. First, he doesn't immediately out Dwight as having defected to AHK. He instead keeps him around to help lure Simon's mutineers into a trap to slaughter them. Negan also pretends to forgive Simon, to lure him into a sense of security so he'll be confident enough to plan his outright mutiny. While he's dealing with Simon, Negan also allows Dwight to pass on bogus intel to AHK so he can lure them into a trap and win the war. Once Simon is eliminated, then Negan reveals he's played Dwight as well.
* ClassicVillain: Greed and wrath, with a massive helping of pride.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Negan's villainous monologue seems to come completely out of nowhere and he oddly takes holding Rick's group hostage as a big joke he pulled on them. His personality is so random that even his own minions get confused half the time when he's talking to them, not being able to tell if he's serious or joking with them.
* ComfortingTheWidow: He has the nerve to consider asking Maggie to be one of his wives after he murdered Glenn. While he admits that it was a bit of a stretch to think she'd accept, it's implied from his comments to Rick that he's done this successfully at least once.
* ConfusionFu: This is how he defeats the Reaper Carver, using misdirection and trickery to get his guard down before blinding him with some hidden sand, and then knocking the daylights out of him with the bell he had openly displayed.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: To previous BigBad Philip Blake, a.k.a. The Governor.
** The Governor was mostly a serious villain. Negan is constantly making jokes and is a PsychopathicManchild.
** The Governor was a chronic liar who kept his villainy [[FauxAffablyEvil hidden behind a veneer of superficial charm]]. Negan is upfront about who he is and what his intentions are, and is openly a {{Jerkass}} to everyone around him.
** The Governor's response to hearing about other settlements is to wipe them out because he perceives them as a threat to his power. Negan believes that the communities must work together if they are ever to restore order to the world, albeit a world of his own twisted design.
** The Governor had a chance for redemption but was "[[IveComeTooFar too far gone]]" and responded to Rick's pleas for peace by murdering Hershel. Negan is capable of true change and undergoes a HeelFaceTurn over the course of Season 10.
* CooldownHug: He gives a much-needed one to Lydia when she breaks down ranting about how much she hated her mother.
* TheCorrupter: He shows some interest in making others think the way he does. This is best demonstrated when he convinces Eugene to [[FaceHeelTurn join the group]] as their EvilGenius by offering him a great position over the other Saviors. He also expresses interest in recruiting Carl for the Saviors, boasting to Rick that in a few years he'll be one of his top soldiers.
* CowardlyLion: Downplayed, but in Seasons 10 and 11 he frequently votes for the path of least resistance, avoiding conflict if at all possible and being willing to bail and go home numerous times during the Reaper conflict. Daryl implores him to defy this, warning him that if he wants to be a part of the group, he must keep laying down his life for others; and he has to get a SadisticChoice out of Maggie to agree to help stay and fight the Reapers.
* CradlingYourKill: He does this to Alpha after slashing her throat, slowly lowering her to the ground and giving her a gentle kiss as she bleeds to death.
* CrazyJealousGuy: If anyone tries to get with one of his many wives without following the point system, then he'll scorch off half a man's face as punishment.
* CrazyPrepared: After the Whisperers' defeat, he held onto his skin mask should the need to use it again ever arise.
* CruelMercy: He threatens to kill everybody in the group and back in Alexandria if Rick doesn't cut off Carl's hand, but leaves Rick alive to wander alone knowing he could have prevented it.
** Negan himself is later a victim of this in the Season 8 finale. After Rick slashes his throat, rather than let him bleed out Rick instead chooses to honor his late son's wishes and save Negan's life, with a twist: he must now spend the rest of his days locked up inside the cell below Alexandria while Rick leads the communities (including some of Negan's own surviving people) into a better and brighter future.
** Maggie ultimately chooses not to kill him after seeing how much he actually wants to die, opting to let him suffer with the pain he feels for his actions.
* CrusadingWidower: His first wife, Lucille, died from suicide seven months into the outbreak. Needless to say, Negan was never quite the same after that...
* CultOfPersonality: Negan has one of these within Sanctuary, down to the point where his followers actually bow to him and proclaim that they "are all Negan."
* DarkAndTroubledPast: He reveals to Gabriel that he cheated on his ''actual'' wife, Lucille, and that he regrets not being better to her when she was alive.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a dark-haired man in a dark outfit and the longest-reigning BigBad of the series to date.[[note]]In terms of seasons.[[/note]]
* DarkMessiah: Downplayed. Although Negan is just a mortal man, the Saviors seem to view him as a nearly god-like leader to whom they swear UndyingLoyalty, claiming "We are all Negan." A woman is heard thanking God for him in "The Big Scary U".
* DeadpanSnarker: More snarky than deadpan, but as a MotorMouth, Negan has a quip to make about damn near everything.
* DeathSeeker: By Season 9, his downfall and subsequent incarceration have broken him to the point that he tearfully begs Maggie to kill him so that he can be reunited with his wife.
* DespairEventHorizon: He passes it after spending a year and a half imprisoned for his crimes with no one to talk to, banging his head on the wall in frustration after Michonne refuses to let him see Lucille and then asking Maggie to kill him to end his suffering. He doesn't even make any attempt to escape even though he knows the alternative is being forced to rot in the cell, and willingly goes without a struggle after Maggie refuses to kill him and orders him to return to his imprisonment. Six years later, he has managed to find some level of peace again, thanks in part to his friendship with Judith.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Twice over! In the Season 7 finale, he did not expect Sasha to die and try to kill him as a walker. And he definitely didn't expect a tiger to show up and start killing his men, followed by the other communities he subjugated coming to Alexandria's rescue.
* DinnerAndAShow: Subverted in the mid-Season 7 finale, with Negan and his pretend family all gathered around the table. Except everyone aside from Negan is terrified.
* TheDogBitesBack:
** After being held prisoner by the Vipers he later returned and murdered them all.
** [[spoiler:He responds to Maggie's refusal to help him fight a big walker by leaving her to dangle from the edge of a subway car with several walkers below her.]]
* DomesticAbuser: Negan's system is fundamentally exploitative. The only other "choice" (which isn't really a choice) he gives his wives is to be treated like a slave. He knew that there would be women like Tina, who couldn't earn the points they need, and there would be women like Amber, who had a family member who couldn't work, that he could take advantage of and exploit.
** He also tortures them psychologically and enjoys it. His wives are so terrified of him they either want to kill him (as seen when Frankie asked Eugene to help her), drink themselves to death (as seen with Amber), and run away from the safety of the Sanctuary and would rather risk dying to be with him (as seen with Tina). Plus there's the fact that he withheld life-saving medication from Tina unless she agreed to marry him.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Is seen ramming a few walkers with an RV. If he's not ramming, he's gunning them down while driving.
* TheDreaded: Before he actually appears on the show. The Hilltop residents were quickly cowed into submission by his soldiers and are initially dismissive of Rick's proposal to assassinate him. We find out in the Season 6 finale just why everyone's so terrified of him.
* DrunkWithPower:
** This is implied to be what happened after he took over the Sanctuary and became leader of the Saviors. "Here's Negan" has him force a man to kneel so he can show him who's boss before executing him for being responsible for him not making it home to his wife on time. By the time Negan meets Rick's group, he's made it customary to have his people kneel to him when he enters the room and has reached AGodAmI levels of influence and ego.
** On that note, in "Look at the Flowers", he relishes having the power to make Daryl kneel before him, as well as getting to wield a firearm again. He still pulls back and helps Daryl kill the Whisperers, but his somber tone afterwards implies he knows he enjoyed it too much. He also admits to Daryl he enjoyed being a Whisperer a little because it made him feel important again.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: In Season 11, he points out he's done a lot for Alexandria and has more than earned his keep, yet everyone is ''still'' treating him like the bad guy.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-H]]
* EasilyForgiven: Completely averted. Even after spending eight years behind bars, saving Judith and Lydia, and beheading Alpha, Negan is still on shaky ground with most of the Alexandrians, which is further compounded when Maggie returns with Hershel near the end of Season 10.
* EmptyShell: Describes himself as one when he explains how he coped with his wife's death to Alpha. He didn't feel much of anything anymore, and used his lack of emotion as his strength when building the Saviors' empire.
* EnemyMine: With Gabriel in "The Big Scary U" as they work together to escape a trailer surrounded by walkers.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** In "Last Day on Earth," Negan gleefully welcomes Rick's group to their neighborhood with a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech before playfully picking which one he wants to punish for their actions against him, and then brutally bashes that person's head (the person being Abraham) to a bloody pulp. Taken further in the next episode when he suddenly murders Glenn as well simply because Daryl punched him after he killed the first victim.
** It comes a little later, but in "Sing Me a Song", after returning Carl to Alexandria, he takes a tour of their house and discovers Judith in her crib. How gentle he is with her and the fact that the next scene shows Judith comfortably sleeping in his arms reveals a side of Negan we hadn't seen yet. He may be a total {{Jerkass}} and something of a man-child in areas, but he does have a genuine soft spot for kids.
* EtTuBrute: He is shaken when he learns that Simon disobeyed him and slaughtered the Scavengers. He's also pissed when he finds out Eugene rigged the Saviors' guns to explode.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He genuinely loved his late wife, Lucille.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** He didn’t want to kill a kid’s father in front of him, hence why he didn’t choose Rick to die from the get-go and settled on the larger, more defiant Abraham. In Season 11, even long after he's pulled a HeelFaceTurn, he's disturbed when he sees how bitter and vengeful Hershel Rhee has become due to knowing his father was murdered before he was born, meaning that his attempt at a clear conscience during the line-up failed since he still destroyed a child that night.
** Forbids rape amongst the Saviors, though as noted in {{Hypocrite}}, this is a downplayed trope. However, when David violates that rule he gets severely punished by having a knife to the throat.
** He also genuinely feels bad when people cry and tries to apologize for upsetting his victims when they cave in.
** He seems to have a fondness for babies, as seen when he dotes on and plays with Judith for an entire day.
** He's disgusted when Spencer tries to betray Rick and get Negan to put him in charge. Despite how horrendously Negan treats Rick, he at least respects Rick for having the guts to fight and sacrifice for his community, which he (correctly) points out is much more than Spencer ever seems to do.
** He's disgusted by Rick and his group when Rick was actually going to detonate the bombs in the area with Eugene in the vicinity after Eugene tries to talk them down from attacking, even though they no longer consider him in their group anymore.
** As he believes in PragmaticVillainy, he’s always quick to tear Simon a new one whenever he suggests that they massacre a community (especially Hilltop). He is also outright disgusted by Simon's all-male massacre at Oceanside, as well as him killing all of the garbage people right in front of Jadis.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** He’s visibly revolted by having to resort to the walker guts trick, deeming it as disgusting as everyone else has.
** He's clearly uncomfortable having to whip Alpha as part of her SelfHarm to make herself "stronger", and as such isn't too thrilled when she tells him that it's now ''his'' turn to be flogged. Alpha even points out that he's joking to hide his fear, which Negan doesn't deny.
** He's nearly brought to tears when Alpha insists that she must kill her own daughter because it's her "destiny".
** He recognizes a gang of lunatics when he sees one in the form of the Reapers and advises Maggie to be thorough with her annihilation of them.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The ultimate reason he underestimates Rick. Negan, who rules his group through fear alongside some liberal self-interest, just sees Rick as another leader of a community he can subjugate and crush under heel, not grasping that Rick leads his group through mutual adoration and devotion, to both each other and to a better future. By the time it ''really'' dawns on him that Rick is the man that can [[TheDogBitesBack unite all the desperate communities against him,]] he's already lost control and an all out war has erupted. In Season 8, even when he’s legitimately mourning Carl’s death, he chastises Rick for rebelling against him like a parent scolds their child. Negan genuinely does not see any other way than his, and can’t understand why his slave states revolted against him.
* EvilCounterpart:
** He is this for the Rick of Seasons 5-6: a ruthless and powerful leader who takes care of his own by crushing all potential opposition and taking supplies from those who aren't a threat.
** He is also this to Ezekiel. Both men are shrewd, intelligent leaders with command over large numbers and a flair for the dramatic. They also cultivated a persona they feel is necessary to keep people alive, while also using it as a mask to avoid coping with their real feelings. However, the key difference between the two is that while Negan rules through fear, Ezekiel rules through genuine, earned respect.
* EvilGloating: Hoo boy, does he like to rub it in. He spends most of "Service" reminding Rick of what he did to Glenn and Abraham and pretty much emasculating him at every turn. Not even his own minions are safe from this, as he regularly brags to Dwight about how he has both him and Sherry under his control.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: He has a nasty habit of making cruel jokes at the expense of others. Best shown in the Season 7 premiere when he calls Lucille a "vampire bat" after he's just finished smashing Glenn's head to pieces, or later mentioning that Glenn and Abraham deserve the "spirit award" for their efforts.
--> '''Negan:''' What? Was the joke that bad?
* EvilIsHammy: Jeffrey Dean Morgan is clearly having a blast in the role.
* EvilIsPetty: Despite usually being pretty pragmatic and reasonable in his own twisted way, sometimes he does or says things that are just plain petty, no way around it. Most of these cross over into KickTheDog, but demanding that Alexandria surrender everything to him in the Season 7 finale - namely, the ''lemonade'' - is pretty petty.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Speaks with a really deep, intimidating voice.
* EvilWearsBlack: He wears a leather jacket, which accentuates his villainy.
* ExBigBad: He's the GreaterScopeVillain of the second half of Season 6 and the [[BigBad main antagonist]] of Seasons 7 and 8, but survives to be deposed as leader of the Saviors and becomes a TokenEvilTeammate to the heroes during the Whisperer arc of Seasons 9 and 10.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: ''Completely'' averted in Season 9 when Maggie arrives to kill him, though in an unusual example, he cries ''for'' death because he can't stand the idea of having to rot in jail for the rest of his life.
* FaceFramedInShadow: He is almost entirely submerged in shadows in early Season 9 when he's sitting in his cell and is still bitter from the events of the Savior War. It also has the effect of making him look menacing, such as when he tells Rick that he's "not saving the world, just getting it ready for me." The first time we clearly see Negan's face in the season is when Maggie forces him out into the light to kill him at which point he’s revealed to be a [[DeathSeeker suicidal wreck]] who begs her to finish the job that Rick couldn't. Fittingly, he stops being hidden in shadows in the next episode when six years have gone by and he's mellowed out significantly enough for the Alexandrians to finally allow him to see outside the window of his cell.
* FairytaleMotif: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]], he likes to reference ''[[Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs The Three Little Pigs]]'' and refers to himself as the [[TheBigBadWolf Big Bad Wolf]] from the fairy tale in order to intimidate others.
** When he first arrives in Alexandria, he misquotes the signature line "Little pig, little pig, let me '''come''' in" and in "What It Always Is", he calls himself the Big Bad Wolf. He often uses pigs as an insult, he has a dog-eat-dog philosophy and he calls himself a dog while in prison by saying "You can't keep a big dog locked up forever, sooner or later he's gotta run."
** His beard and dark clothing also seem to reflect this motif; as he wears mostly gray-colored clothing with a black leather jacket as if to invoke the image of a black wolf.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Invoked by Rick and Michonne when they sentence him to life in prison. For a guy like [[MotorMouth Negan]], spending almost eight years alone in a cell ''cannot'' have been an easy task.
* AFatherToHisMen: Subverted. Negan seems to genuinely care for the Saviors under his command, as demonstrated when he wants to punish Rick's group for murdering too many of them. That said, he also has no problem sacrificing some of them when he deems it necessary, as shown in the Season 8 finale.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He's clearly a fun-loving guy and has his own set of rules, but he's also completely psychotic and happy to murder people in horrible ways if they cross him or his people. Best exemplified in his introductory speech where, despite his jovial demeanor he ''is'' telling Rick's group that he now owns them and that one of them is about to suffer a brutal death for killing his men.
* FeedTheMole: In "Worth", he purposely allows [[TheMole Dwight]] to give Gregory false information to deliver to Rick.
* FireForgedFriends:
** Daryl ''loathes'' Negan for everything he did all those years ago and would hardly consider him a friend. Over the course of Season 10, however, the two men build a mutual trust that is solidified in "A Certain Doom" when Daryl saves Negan from a gruesome death at the hands of a vengeful Beta.
** A straighter example would be with Carol, who did not actually witness most of his cruelty firsthand and, aside from Glenn's death, mainly hates him on principle. While mostly apathetic towards Negan, she does come to respect him for killing her son's murderer and even does him a favor by getting him out of Alexandria when Maggie comes home and tensions start brewing.
** Season 11 revolves heavily around whether or not he can form this kind of bond with Maggie. By the end of Part 1 she accepts he has valuable advice as a military commander and even asks for his input as the group weighs the remaining Reapers’ fate. However, he decides to leave the group upon seeing she will likely turn on him anyway. Part 2 takes this a step further when circumstances force them to work together again. [[spoiler:Negan admits he has respect for Maggie and she tells him that, regardless of what happened in the past, she trusts him with Hershel.]]
* FlippingTheBird: In "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life", he throws the AHK fighters the finger as he makes an impromptu escape in one of his trucks.
* FourthDateMarriage: He marries Annie during the six months between "No Other Way" and "Warlords".
* FreakyIsCool: He is genuinely awed by Carl's ruined eye socket and sincerely compliments him on it ([[InnocentlyInsensitive in his own way]]). Plus, he gets along with [[AmbiguousDisorder Eugene]] better than most of his own men, thinking his lateral way of solving problems is bitchin'.
* FriendlyEnemy: Negan's first appearance has him kill two important members of Rick's group, kidnapping Daryl and psychologically torturing Rick himself. His appearances since show that while Rick's side despises him, Negan tends to compliment and admire Rick and most members of his group, sparing the lives of several more and being rather cordial [[FauxAffablyEvil in his own way]] to several, such as Carl and Eugene. Of course, [[PragmaticVillainy Negan would also rather psychologically make them work for him than kill them]], so this is understandable.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: After his HeelFaceTurn and especially after Maggie returns near the end of Season 10. While he's more or less accepted as a member of the community, almost no one is particularly fond of his company and Maggie's people are openly hostile towards him on the trip to Meridian. Daryl outright tells him they're not friends, and no one bothers to help Negan when he's struggling to fight a large walker in the subway tunnel. It really shows in "No Other Way" when [[spoiler:Negan leaves the group for good and no one seems especially bothered by it except Lydia.]]
* FriendToAllChildren:
** Due to working as a gym teacher before the apocalypse. He respects Carl as a hardened survivor, forges friendships with (and goes out of his way to save) Judith and Lydia, and has a conversation with a boy named Milo that almost leads to Negan escorting him and his mother to Alexandria. Granted, it still doesn't stop him from almost killing Carl in the Season 7 finale, but he only does so because he thinks it will finally make Rick submit to him and takes no pleasure in the act.
** In Season 11, he swears to protect [[spoiler:Hershel Rhee]] after rescuing him from the Commonwealth, assuring Maggie that he would risk his life to keep her child safe. Seeing how badly the boy has taken the loss of his father before he was even born also ''rattles'' Negan to his core, who finally seems to realize the depths of the horrors he had been inflicting on people, particularly ''innocent children''.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: He was a high school gym teacher before the apocalypse.
* TheGadfly: Post-HeelFaceTurn, he still enjoys messing with people and getting under their skin for shits and giggles. Case in point, when he gleefully taunts Rosita, Gabriel, Siddiq, and Eugene about their tangled romantic history and makes a point of asking Gabriel if it bothers him that his girlfriend's doctor is also the father of her child. Gabriel, for his part, isn't too bugged by it ([[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome since the four of them are close enough that they worked it out like adults]]) and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny even laughs when Negan calls him "Father Not-the-Father."]]
-->'''Negan:''' We have this hot little love quadrangle here to entertain us. It's like Christmas to me!
* GeniusBruiser: Not only is he skilled at crushing his opponents' skulls with his lucky bat, but he successfully mind rapes ''Rick'' of all people into submitting to him. He's also very observant and showcases fine mastery over the SecretTestOfCharacter since he gains advantage over Daryl and Rick into obeying his command. In Chris Hardwick's words, "it's now psychological warfare."
* TheGhost: For most of Season 6 prior to his appearance in the finale.
** He is also this in the first episode of Season 9. While obviously not seen due to being locked up inside Alexandria's jail, he is mentioned many times and his presence is still very much felt, particularly at the Sanctuary.
* GlasgowGrin: The mouth of his Whisperer mask is an intentional ShoutOut by Jeffrey Dean Morgan to the Joker's iconic smile.
* AGodAmI: Just to fuel his DarkMessiah characteristics, he makes all his men say they are all [[IAmSpartacus "Negan"]] to promote his leadership.
-->'''Negan:''' I am everywhere!
* GoKartingWithBowser: After Carl fails to kill him he leads the boy around showing him the ins and outs of the Sanctuary before personally escorting him back to Alexandria and ordering Carl to take him on a grand tour of his house that includes playing darts and cooking.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Develops suicidal tendencies after spending 18 months in solitary confinement and being faced with potentially never getting to see the light of day ever again. He breaks down and starts banging his head against the concrete wall out of frustration for Michonne not letting him see Lucille, and when Maggie comes looking for vengeance, he ''demands'' that she kill him and put an end to his suffering.
* GoodAllAlong: After seemingly rejecting a HeelFaceTurn and joining the Whisperers, he turns out to have been working with Carol to assassinate Alpha and delivers the Whisperer leader's head to her as promised.
* GoneHorriblyRight: He urges Maggie to not make the same mistakes he made as military leader of the Saviors and give no quarter to the Reapers. This leads to Maggie violating the deal Daryl gave [[spoiler:Leah and killing the remaining Reapers.]] Negan realizes that this means Maggie will likely go back on her promise to give up trying to kill him and decides to leave the group peacefully.
* GreaterScopeVillain: His presence is first felt in "Always Accountable", where members of his group allude to him. He is first mentioned by name in TheStinger of "Start to Finish", and his reputation continues to grow stronger as the season progresses until he finally makes his debut in the finale.
** He still has a massive hold on Sherry's psyche as shown in Season 6 of ''Fear the Walking Dead''. Many of her actions are driven by a desire to atone for not killing him when she had the chance.
* GuestFighter: Negan can come to blows with the cast of ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' as part of second season of DownloadableContent for ''Tekken 7''.
* HannibalLecture: Gives these to Rick, Michonne and Maggie when he is locked up inside Alexandria's jail.
* HappilyMarried:
** Downplayed with Lucille. Their marriage prior to the apocalypse was pretty much DeadSparks, with Negan being a deadbeat husband who was cheating on his wife with her best friend Janine. In an ironic twist of fate, the end of the world allowed the couple to rediscover their love for each other. Negan was devoted to Lucille until the day that she died, and her tragic suicide was the catalyst for his StartOfDarkness.
** He has an honest and supportive marriage with Annie in Season 11, to the point where she's still with him despite being fully aware of his past atrocities.
* TheHeavy: The villain most associated with the second half of the series (Seasons 6-11).
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After becoming friends with Judith and entertaining the idea of a HeelFaceTurn, Negan is beset by the paranoid denizens of Alexandria, forced to kill a psychopathic wannabe follower, and ultimately crosses over into Whisperer territory to announce to Alpha that he wants to ''join'' her group. It's eventually revealed to have been a ruse to assassinate Alpha.
* HeelFaceTurn: By Season 10, he outright confirms to Aaron he's trying to make amends for his past actions. With his murder of current BigBad Alpha in "Walk With Us", it seems safe to say he's officially on the side of the heroes from here on out.
* HeelRealization: Seems to finally have kicked in by "The Rotten Core", where Negan has a new wife and [[spoiler:baby on the way.]] He admits to [[spoiler:Hershel]] that he used to be a bad man and probably deserves to die for what he took from him and his mother.
* HellBentForLeather: It's rare to see Negan without his trademark leather jacket.
* HellYesMoment: [[spoiler:Has a look of utmost pride when Gabriel turns the final standoff with the Reapers in Maggie's favor.]]
* HeroesFrontierStep: In "The Storm" he runs off to save Judith in a blizzard even after getting his leg hurt, pushes through to save her, and gives her his coat despite it being freezing.
* HeroKiller: One of the most notorious in the series. He makes his introduction killing Abraham and Glenn, two of the bravest and most competent survivors in Rick's group, both within the span of ''a few minutes''.
* HesBack: After killing Brandon, Negan dons his trademark leather jacket as well as a makeshift Lucille and crosses into Whisperer territory while reciting his "little pig" speech from "Service" as he gleefully takes down walkers left and right.
* HiddenDepths: For a swaggering, bullying warlord, he does possess a surprising amount of psychological know-how when it comes to either [[BreakTheBadass breaking badasses like Rick]] or getting people to otherwise obey him. He can also identify a homemade bullet from a commercially-made one. And, more tellingly, he ''does'' have something resembling a moral center, backing down when he knows he pushed it too far by (albeit admiringly) bringing up how gross Carl's missing eye is.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: When in control of the situation, Negan tends to take his time drawing out the theatrics and agony he inflicts when he could just as easily cut it short and call it a day. It's why Rick's group is able to get the jump on him in the Season 7 finale when he opens the coffin intending to make a big show of Sasha pleading for Alexandria's surrender, and instead it's Sasha as a walker trying to eat his face.
* HonestAdvisor: An unwanted one to Michonne in Season 9 and Gabriel in Season 10. While they're both annoyed by his usual snarky remarks they are also forced to acknowledge that the JerkassHasAPoint. He also dispenses some [[BrutalHonesty brutally honest]] advice to Maggie in Season 11.
* HopeCrusher: The Season 7 premiere is essentially all about him crushing every ounce of hope and bravery Rick's group has so they will learn that he's their leader now. He even purposely shows up to Alexandria earlier than expected so he could intimidate the community into giving him whatever his people wanted, making it clear that they have no choice but to obey him.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: After his defeat. His former Saviors work together with the communities to build a bridge that will benefit all of them, and the ones who legitimately want to change later end up joining Alexandria. Rick even visits Negan in prison on a semi-regular basis to gloat about how much better things are going without him. Negan himself realizes how pathetic it is for a man whose name once meant something to be rotting away behind bars and thus becomes a broken shell who attempts suicide at least once and is left crying about how things should have turned out differently by the woman whose husband he killed while at the height of his power.
* HumiliationConga: Loses control over his vassal states in the Season 7 finale, tricked by Sasha (his intended bargaining chip) and then interrupted in his punishment of Rick's rebellion by the timely arrival of the Kingdom and Shiva. He also has to suffer the indignity of being forced into a retreat by his escaped prisoner Daryl as well as Maggie, the woman he made a widow, wanted to make one of his wives, and was led to believe had died. He's forced to flee Alexandria with his tail between his legs, bitterly musing on how things went to shit.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** [[EvenEvilHasStandards For Negan, rape is a]] '''[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil big]]''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards no-no.]] But forcing a diabetic woman into your PaidHarem by giving her easier access to insulin is fair game because [[QuestionableConsent technically]] he isn't ''making'' her do anything.
** One of his rules is that his wives can't cheat on him, yet he himself once cheated on his actual wife and was deeply remorseful for it.
** For all his talk about people being a resource, he apparently had no problems ordering the extinction of the library community for attempting to start a rebellion against the Saviors. However, considering it was Simon who was dealing with them it's unknown how privy Negan was to what actually happened.
** In Season 10, he claims that both Margo and Alpha got what they deserved for trying to kill Lydia, and outright asserts to Brandon that he personally "would never kill a kid." Yet Negan himself had no issue almost killing Carl with Lucille in Season 7. He presumably is referring to innocent children who have not taken up arms against him like Carl had.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I-L]]
* ICannotSelfTerminate: When Maggie finally comes to kill him in Season 9, he tearfully admits that he wants to die and has tried to follow through on it himself, but can't.
* IChooseToStay:
** As he points out to Lydia in "A Certain Doom", he doesn't believe either of them will ever fully be trusted by the other survivors for their association with enemy groups and advises her to slip through the walker horde unnoticed, before apparently heading to do so himself. He returns later to save Lydia from Beta and when Lydia asks if this means he's there to stay, Negan replies, "For now." Although, since Maggie has officially returned as of that episode, it remains to be seen how true this statement will hold.
** Knowing that it's only a matter of time before Maggie tries to kill Negan again, Carol tries to reach a compromise by sending Negan to live in a cabin away from Alexandria. After some self-reflection, Negan tells Carol that his new living arrangement isn't going to work out and returns to Alexandria, where he smiles at Maggie, making it clear that he's done being turned away and the two of them are gonna live together under the same roof whether she likes it or not. However, after witnessing just how capricious Maggie has become during the war with the Reapers, he decides to leave.
* IconicOutfit: His leather jacket. He bought it before the apocalypse, but his wife hid it from him. She gave back to him as an "anniversary gift".
* IconicSequelCharacter: He's one of the series' most well-known characters, but he does not appear until the last episode of Season 6.
* IGaveMyWord: He actually makes a point in his introduction of saying this is probably what separates him from some of the other foes Rick's group has dealt with in the past. And then he kills Glenn to demonstrate what happens when one steps out of line after they've been given a warning.
* IHatePastMe:
** Implied in "What It Always Is" when Brandon brings up his tenure as leader of the Saviors and presents him with his leather jacket and a brand-new Lucille. Negan is visibly uncomfortable and only reclaims these items after killing Brandon, who has just murdered an innocent woman and her child.
** Taken further in "Here's Negan" when he hallucinates his past self and is thoroughly disgusted by what he sees, referring to him as a "clown" and "a cult of personality with no cult."
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: He essentially has Sherry completely under his control in a forced marriage he made up. Since he originally desired Tina before she died though, Negan may have wanted her as one of the multiple wives in his harem.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: While most of the time he's an intentional {{Jerkass}} there are a few moments where he genuinely isn't trying to be offensive. Namely, raving about Carl's missing eye while the boy is obviously self-conscious about it; only when Carl starts crying does Negan realize that he crossed a line.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Judith and Lydia both. He also befriends a young boy named Milo, who he promises to take to one of the communities, though that ends when Milo and his mother are murdered by Brandon.
* {{Irony}}: Despite Rick and Michonne sparing his life so he can listen to how they remade civilization with the help of his former Saviors, [[spoiler:Negan manages to outlive all the ex-Saviors who made a HeelFaceTurn and doesn't have to spend the rest of his life behind bars on account of his own change of heart.]] He also remains in the area much longer than Rick, who is abducted a mere eighteen months later by Jadis and the CRM.
* ItGetsEasier: Flashbacks show he was initially reluctant to even kill a ''walker'' at first, as he was afraid of getting too comfortable with it. After Lucille's death, he has no trouble wiping out an entire ''living'' biker gang without breaking a sweat.
-->'''Negan:''' I am starting to think that I am capable of damn near ''anything''.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He's predicated the Saviors' entire culture around this trope.
** Lydia calls Negan out for this, believing his efforts to atone are more out of self-preservation and a desire to make people forget about the past rather than any sort of genuine altruism. Negan's subdued reaction implies she isn't too far from the truth. He amends this somewhat in the next episode by putting his ass on the line to save Lydia from a crazed Beta.
* IWantThemAlive: Played with. He favors this option for only the strongest and "badass" prisoners he comes across, trying to break them so he can [[WeCanRuleTogether employ them as his]] [[EvilMinions own soldiers]].
* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: He's a big fan of this, since going after the people close to somebody is more effective than just punishing them directly. Cases in point, murdering Glenn as punishment for Daryl punching him, and later ordering Rick to cut off Carl's hand or watch his entire group be shot. He also does this to his wives, punishing them for cheating on him by ironing the faces of their boyfriends.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's a huge asshole to everybody and seems to get his kicks that way. He patronizes and casually torments everybody around him because he knows they can't rebel against him or his cult of personality. And that's the ''nicer'' side of him, considering the rest of the time he seems to spend just outright threatening people, their loved ones, etc. He eases out of this territory ever so slightly in Season 8, which gives him many [[PetTheDog humanizing moments]] and some backstory. Overall Negan is a flawed person, but he, unlike most villains, has a heart.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** He points out that for all of Michonne's talk about giving power to the people, ''she's'' the one running Alexandria with an iron fist. On a similar note, he makes Michonne realize that Judith has her own ideas about they should be running things, and that she would be a bit more honest with her if Michonne actually bothered to ''listen'' to what she has to say.
** He advises Gabriel to put up a front to make things seem safer than they actually are to keep the residents of Alexandria from breaking into a panic.
** He accurately surmises that Maggie's true reason for bringing him along on the trip to Meridian was to have him killed away from Alexandria. He also tells her she's not in the right headspace right now to be a leader, and that her leading them through some underground subway tunnels is extremely risky. Gage agrees, lampshading, "He's a dick, but he makes sense."
** He tells Maggie he failed as a military commander by not murdering the group entirely when he had them at his mercy. Despite his “people are a resource” mantra, Negan outlines to Maggie that in failing to wipe out the people who had already proven good enough to wipe out one of his outposts, all he did was buy time for them to rise up against him. It’s incredibly cruel to tell to someone whose husband was brutally murdered in front of her (and whose friend was murdered in the same way next to her), but Maggie takes his words to heart during the subsequent battle with the Reapers.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Downplayed after the six-year TimeSkip in Season 9. While "heart of gold" is still a stretch, he's mellowed out considerably in the past six years and even strikes up a friendship with Judith. Played straight in Season 10 and on -- he can still be an asshole, but he's heroic now.
* JokerImmunity: Manages to survive multiple attempts on his life through a combination of this and good old-fashioned PlotArmor. Even the incident that finally puts him down doesn't actually ''kill'' him. Subverted because he ends up making a HeelFaceTurn instead.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Prior to the apocalypse, Negan was a flawed man. He nearly viciously beat a man to death in a bar fight when he was a {{Jerkass}} to him and his wife and kept talking over the song they were trying to listen to. His twisted sense of humor and justice were already on full display as well, as after Negan nearly killed said man he took his money and re-played the song he kept interrupting, twice. After this felony cost Negan his job (the man had children who went to the school Negan taught gym at), Negan became a lazy slacker who spent most of his days playing video games and making little effort at finding a job. During this period he also started an affair with Lucille's best friend and didn't show much remorse for it until Lucille revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer. Afterwards he did attempt to shape up and be a better husband, a task that was put to the ultimate test with the collapse of civilization by way of the ZombieApocalypse. Negan genuinely became loyal and devoted, his only mission in life to restore his wife's health. Despite this, Negan still had morals -- he was reluctant to actually harm Franklin and Laura for medical supplies, right down to charging into their camp with an empty gun, and admitted that he was hesitant about killing walkers because he was afraid of getting too comfortable with it. Ultimately, he was forced to divulge the location of Franklin and Laura's camp to a biker gang if it meant getting home to Lucille safely, though even then, he clearly felt guilty about doing so. Then he arrived home and found that Lucille, in an effort to end what to her was fighting a losing battle, had committed suicide, making his entire trip for nothing. From that day, something inside Negan was permanently ''broken''. He returned to the bikers' hideout with vengeance on his mind and savagely murdered them all. Several months later, Negan happened upon the Sanctuary and quickly rose his way to the top of the hierarchy to become the brutal and feared leader of the Saviors, a ruthless extortionist group that ran the Virginia area and all its communities like a protection racket. He became far worse than the bikers who he blamed for Lucille's death, going from struggling to kill one walker to bashing in the heads of two men who had a hand in wiping out one of his outposts, all while laughing and mocking the survivors who watched terrified and helpless. He also formed a {{Harem}} of women who were forced to marry him in exchange for supplies and a lofty living position. If they cheated on him, it meant the woman's partner would be punished via a hot iron to the face -- again, a far cry from the Negan who was once deeply ashamed and remorseful of his own infidelity. Negan buried his past self in the facade of a grinning, sadistic cult figure deadset on rebuilding the world in his own image, determined to tune out the eternal shame he felt for failing Lucille by refusing to allow himself to feel ''anything'' ever again.
* KickTheDog:
** Mocking Rosita over Abraham's death, practically rubbing his bloodied bat in her face.
** He emasculates Dwight every time they talk in "The Cell" and actually jokes about how he has his ex-wife under his control.
** Engages in this repeatedly and gleefully during the entirety of "Service", implied to be at least partially to test Rick's patience with him while the latter is holding Lucille. Among other things, he goes on about his intention to invite Maggie into his harem, jokes about his murder of Abraham and Glenn, and forces Rick to say "thank you" to him when he finally leaves.
-->'''Negan:''' In case you haven't caught on, I just slid my dick down your throat, and you ''thanked'' me for it.
** Telling Rick that he "failed as a father" after Carl dies.
** In the same vein, telling Aaron that Eric's death was his fault because he failed to protect him, even though it was one of Negan's own men who killed Eric.
** When Maggie finally comes to kill him he cruelly mocks Glenn's death to her face, even pretending to forget her late husband's name; in this case, however, it's because Negan actually ''wants'' to die, which he tearfully confesses moments later.
** In "Acheron, Part I": While he is not wrong to say Maggie is being reckless, he ''definitely'' crosses a line when he tells Maggie he has no intention to be put down like a dog, "like Glenn was." Daryl gives him a well-deserved punch to the face for it.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: With the exceptions of Glenn, Abraham and Dr. Carson, every other person we see Negan kill on-screen is an AssholeVictim in some way.
** [[TheStarscream Spencer]] tries to betray Rick for shallow and poorly thought out reasons, so Negan guts him like a fish in front of everybody.
** When [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil David]] attempts to rape Sasha, Negan berates him harshly to scare him, then stabs him in the neck.
** [[TheSociopath Simon]] massacred several people at the Junkyard and Oceanside, so Negan beats and strangles him to death in a TrialByCombat right in front of all the rest of the Saviors.
** Margo's death by head trauma may have been accidental, but considering she was beating up [[WouldHurtAChild Lydia]] at the time, it's impossible to feel any sympathy for her.
** His killing of Brandon in the following episode also qualifies, given the latter's casual murder of an innocent mother and her son in a twisted effort to prove himself as a loyal "Savior".
** His assassination of Alpha is absolutely this given she was an unrepentant mass murderer who intended on wiping out the entire Coalition and believed that she was on her way to kill her own daughter.
** His decimation of the Valak's Vipers gang was also well-deserved.
** He helps Maggie cut down the Reaper Paul Wells, a member of the murderous gang who sacked Meridian unprovoked and had been hunting the group. He helps kill other Reapers too, and is the one who ultimately defeats Carver, a sadistic psychopath who got off on torturing people.
* KindnessButton: Dislikes it whenever his victims cry and does ''try'' to apologize for whatever he said. As evidenced when he makes Carl cry after mocking his injury, he genuinely tells him he's sorry for crossing the line. Though since he still is a MoodSwinger, his moments of compassion are far little in between.
* KneelBeforeZod: Forces Rick's group to kneel before him when at his mercy. It's also shown that he forces his own Saviors to bow to him as well.
* LargeHam: You ''will'' know when Negan is in the room. He loves hearing himself talk and is a natural showman. Although he does become slightly more subdued after his HeelFaceTurn.
* LargeHamRadio: "Rock in the Road" reveals that he occasionally graces the airwaves with his obnoxious persona, eulogizing Fat Joey over the Saviors' walkie talkie network.
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: PlayedWith. He does not appear in person until the Season 6 finale, ten episodes after his presence is first felt.
* LastKiss: He gives one to Alpha after slashing her throat and letting her bleed out.
* LaughablyEvil: His theatrics and mannerisms are often hilarious, even for such a terrifying psychopath.
* TheLeader: Of the Saviors.
* LeanAndMean: In stark contrast to his comic counterpart, who was LargeAndInCharge. Jeffrey Dean Morgan intentionally invoked this to play Negan, deciding the character should have a "lean and hungry" look.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The scratchy guitar riff that plays during his introduction (most notably when he introduces Lucille). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLq5Ka3HHo You know the one.]]
* LetThePastBurn: He left his undead wife to burn along with the house they shared. Years later, he burns Lucille the bat as a way of making peace with her death and letting go of his past as a villain.
* LightningBruiser: In physical combat, Negan not only hits fast, he hits like a Mack truck. Every time Rick goes up against him, he manages to beat him and Rick is forced to escape.
** Although, see "No Other Way" for a subversion: while Negan may be a good fighter against non-trained combatants, he's no match going up against an Afghanistan war vet like Carver, and has to resort to using his wits and a well-timed sneak attack (with assistance from Elijah) to get the upper hand.
* LivingWithTheVillain: Well, ''former'' villain. As of "Here's Negan", he's chosen to live in Alexandria as a resident instead of a prisoner. Maggie is none too happy about it. [[spoiler:After Part 1 of Season 11, however, he leaves the group knowing Maggie would eventually turn on and kill him.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-P]]
* TheMadHatter: He admits that he's a lunatic, but enjoys letting everyone know it to scare them for a cheap laugh.
* {{Manchild}}: Pre-apocalypse Negan was essentially a less psychotic version of his current persona. After being fired from his job as a gym teacher he spent most of his days playing ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' with teenagers and purchasing items he and his wife couldn't afford to waste money on, like a ''$600'' leather jacket.
* {{Mangst}}: Lucille's death still deeply affects him to this day, though you'd never guess it from his happy-go-lucky personality and {{Harem}} of wives.
* ManipulativeBastard: Mind games are his specialty. Even sitting in a cell, he's a master at getting under people's skin and pushing at their weaknesses.
* ManlyTears: During his confrontation with Maggie in "What Comes After" and when consoling Lydia about Alpha's death in "The Tower".
* MindRape: The Season 7 premiere is mostly dedicated to him psychologically torturing and breaking Rick until he's enough of a wreck to comply with his orders. As Season 7 progresses, it seems that this is a specialty for him.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter: He thinks that enslaving communities and bullying them into submission is how he can force them all to be strong. And he's apparently always had this philosophy, if the flashback of him playing video games with teenagers before the apocalypse is any indication.
-->'''Negan:''' Don’t be such a pussy, this is how you get better! You gotta take it!
* MisplacedRetribution: After Lucille's death he went after the bikers who held him hostage and threatened to dump her chemotherapy bags in the toilet, this despite the fact that Lucille killed herself on the day he left and the bikers had nothing to do with it beyond preventing Negan from making it back to their house a day earlier.
* TheMole: The ending of "Walk With Us" reveals he was tasked by Carol to infiltrate the Whisperers and take out Alpha.
* MoodSwinger: He can shift his emotional state from a dark and scary presence to a comical, happy act in a millisecond. Even his own minions can't get a fix on how to react to him.
* MoralMyopia: He completely disregards all the pain and suffering he brings upon other communities serving him since all he wants is supplies that benefit him and his Saviors.
* MotorMouth: Negan just does not know when to shut up. [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] by both Rick and Gabriel at different points, and Negan even agrees with Michonne's assessment that he likes hearing himself talk.
--> '''Rick:''' Do you ever shut the hell up?
--> '''Negan:''' Nope!
** It really puts him at odds with [[TheStoic Beta]], who comes very close to killing him for this reason and only relents when Negan reveals he has vital information about their enemy to give to Alpha.
* TheMourningAfter: It's clear that despite having a harem of wives he never got over the death of his first wife, Lucille. In Season 9, he begs Maggie to put him out of his misery so the two of them can be TogetherInDeath. Alpha also surmises that even though Negan is grateful his wife didn't live to see how awful the world would become, he has spent every day since her death wishing he could have died alongside her; Negan doesn't deny it. He finally comes to terms with Lucille's passing in "Here's Negan".
* MuggingTheMonster: Initially, Rick is far too overconfident about the idea of facing Negan, believing him to simply be a BigBadWannabe (like Gareth), an enemy who's powerful but not overwhelming (like the Governor), or, as Daryl theorizes, a fictional boogeyman created by the Saviors to intimidate people. He is very, very wrong.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: Not especially physically imposing, but he can more than hold his own in a fight against people like [[TheBerserker Rick]] or [[TheDragon Simon]]. He’s not a match for everyone, though -- see his last encounter with [[SanitySlippage Beta]] who, even though he had chunked a walker at Negan (giving him less time to respond to the attack), it’s safe to say had him beat if Daryl hadn’t arrived to save the day. He also is unable to hold his own against the Reaper Carver, a trained war veteran and mercenary, and has to resort to trickery and distraction to get one over him.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After staunchly refusing to admit to any wrongdoing in regards to Glenn's death, he ''finally'' seems to have some remorse when [[spoiler:Hershel]] pulls a gun on him, intending to shoot him for [[spoiler:killing his father]]. It appears to hit close to home as Negan is about to become a father himself; he ends up breaking down in tears while admitting to [[spoiler:Hershel]] that he took something from him and Maggie that he can never make up for.
* MyGreatestFailure:
** His failure to put down his zombified wife is still a great source of shame for him. "Here's Negan" reveals that he ''did'' technically put her down, but by leaving her to slowly burn to death in their flaming house because he couldn't bring himself to simply bash her in the head.
** He indicates that Rick's raid on the satellite outpost was this for him as leader of the Saviors. He says he was forced to explain to countless people why an entire outpost of people with friends and families were lost on his watch - and admits that he should’ve wiped out Rick’s group when he had the chance.
* MythologyGag:
** In his first appearance, he wears an exact replica of the outfit Negan wore in his comic debut. He also comments on two separate occasions that he should shave his BeardOfEvil, as his comic counterpart was nearly always clean-shaven. He finally does shave his beard in the mid-season finale.
** His killing of two hostages because somebody tried to take him down during his villainous monologue bears resemblance to a similar moment when [[ArcVillain Carver]] from ''Videogame/TheWalkingDead'' game does the exact same thing if Clementine and Kenny try to take him out during his speech.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: Robert Kirkman never gave Negan a last name in the comics. The show gives him the surname "Smith".[[note]]The name can be seen on the mailbox in front of his house.[[/note]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Robert Kirkman chose his name because he liked how negative it sounded.
* NecessarilyEvil: How he sees himself: he feels that his despotic rule over the Saviors and their forced vassal states are how he can force them all to be strong.
* NeverBeHurtAgain: Buried himself in the Savior leader persona because didn't want to face the pain and guilt he felt over losing Lucille and not staying with her when she asked.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Lucille killed herself while he was away scavenging medical supplies to treat her cancer. This ''breaks'' Negan, since Lucille specifically asked him to stay with her until she passed. Negan refused, since they were only a handful of treatments away from stopping the spread of the disease, and he thought it would be wrong not to keep trying.
* NeverMyFault:
** He takes no responsibility for the fact that it was the Saviors' cruel mistreatment of the community residents that made them unwilling to accept things as they were and start up a rebellion against him. It's ''Rick's'' fault for not being able to stand by and watch his people get bullied and/or killed.
** He tries to rationalize his treatment of his wives to Gabriel by telling him, "all those ladies made a choice."
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Invoking this is a favorite tactic of his. When Daryl punches him, he beats Glenn to death. When Rosita tries to shoot him, he orders Arat to kill someone, and she chooses Olivia.
** By alerting Alpha of Gamma's treachery, he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of all the Alexandrians Beta kills in his search for the traitor. This ironically includes Negan's own former lieutenant, Laura.
* TheNicknamer: Has a variety of nicknames that he uses to refer to other characters.
** Dwight: "Dwighty Boy"
** Maggie: "The Widow"
** Father Gabriel: "Gabe/Gabey", "Father Not-the-Father"
** Siddiq: "Dr. Baby Daddy"
** Kingdommers: "Royalty Brigade"
** Beta: "Jolly Green Giant", "Frowny Mc[=Two=] Knives"
** Duncan: "Man-Tits", "Sasquatch"
* NightmareFetishist:
** He has Carl remove the bandages over his eye so he can admire how mutilated his face is. He even asks if he ''can touch his exposed eye socket''.
** He doesn't mind when Alpha insists on leaving her mask on before seducing him. Given he is trying to get in close to eventually assasinate her, it's a bit ambiguous as to if he really means it or not.
--> '''Alpha:''' Does my true skin disturb you?
--> '''Negan:''' Not at all. Weirdly, the opposite.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Pre-apocalypse, he dished one out to an obnoxious asshole who refused to lower his voice in a bar when Lucille politely asked him and tried to fight Negan when he stepped in to defend his wife. According to Negan, he beat the guy so badly he stopped moving. The man sued Negan and this cost him his job, as the man had kids who went to the school Negan taught gym at.
* NominalHero: As of Season 10. He's formed friendships with Judith and Lydia, expresses disgust as some of his old ways of doing things, and will (usually) go out of his way to save people if it's in his best interest. He also plays a pivotal role in defeating the Whisperers, has no problems working with Alexandria to ensure the community's survival, and puts in effort to make peace with Maggie even though it's clear she wants him dead. But, as he makes clear in "Promises Broken", he ''would'' go back and slaughter all of Rick's group if he could, and it's only because circumstances landed him where he is now and he's had to accept that his way of doing things is over that he's come to terms with helping his old enemies.
* NonProtagonistResolver: He ends up being Alpha's murderer instead of Carol. Downplayed since Carol is the one who freed Negan from jail and ordered him to kill Alpha, so she still had a hand in her death.
* NoOneSeesTheBoss: Going along with OrcusOnHisThrone, it's implied Negan doesn't often intervene in outside affairs, as the people of Hilltop have never seen him. Daryl even suggests that he's possibly just a boogeyman the Saviors made up. The Saviors' mantra is "We are all Negan," and Primo poses as him when he's out of options in order to save his boss the element of surprise.
* NotHisSled: "Here’s Negan" begins with him being sent to live in a cabin in the woods, making it seem as if the show will follow the comic route of him being PutOnABus after the Whisperer arc. At the end of the episode, after coming to terms with his past and burning Lucille, Negan returns to Alexandria to announce to Carol that his new living situation "isn't gonna work out" and asks for permission to bring all his stuff back.
* NothingIsScarier: In Season 6. If the Saviors we see are violent, abrasive and murderous assholes... what's their leader like? We don't learn until the finale.
* NuclearFamily: What Negan forces Carl, Olivia and Judith to be for him in the mid-Season 7 finale. It's really more of a BigScrewedUpFamily though.
* OddFriendship: With Judith. She's a LittleMissSnarker KidHero, he's a former BigBad who's serving a life sentence for his crimes (which she's fully aware of). Yet the two of them get along well enough for Negan to help her with her math homework.
* OhCrap: When he realizes he accidentally killed Margo while saving Lydia.
* OneManArmy: Implied. He shows up to the Whisperers seemingly ready to take them on by himself if he has to. He is fully shown to be this in his backstory, as he took out an entire biker gang by himself with ease.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: Prior to the extenuating circumstances with the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Negan delegated all interactions with vassal states to his lieutenants, such as Simon and Gavin. Aside from Alexandria, he's never been to any of them.
* OutlawCouple: Subverted with Alpha. They have sex and oversee the Battle of Hilltop together, but their relationship doesn't progress any further since Negan is only there to kill Alpha for Carol, and decapitates her when they are completely alone.
* PanickyExpectantFather: He's very concerned for Annie's well-being in "The Rotten Core", revealed to be because she's twelve weeks pregnant with his child.
* PapaWolf: A surrogate one to Judith and Lydia. In "The Storm", Negan throws all caution to the wind when he rescues Judith during a blizzard, the latter having gone to get Daryl's dog. In "Silence the Whisperers", he stops a trio of bullies when they start beating up Lydia. When Alpha announces that she is going to kill Lydia, Negan murders her in response.
* ParryingBullets: Negan does this with Lucille after Rosita tries to shoot him. Needless to say, he treats this like it is a MinorInjuryOverreaction for him, er... Lucille.
* PetTheDog: Every now and again, Negan shows that for all his sadism and cruelty, he does have a kinder side to him.
** Subverted when he saves Rick from walkers that were attacking him twice during his "test" for his trust. Yeah, he was giving Rick a hand in an otherwise impossible situation, but it was also to teach Rick that ''he'' is in charge.
** After Glenn interrupts him during his introductory speech he chooses to let it slide, understanding that it's an "emotional moment" for Rick's group. Downplayed since it doesn't stop him from later killing Glenn anyway.
** In addition to the above, he genuinely apologizes to the group for having to kill Glenn, reminding them that they were warned: "No exceptions!"
** The fact that he didn't choose Rick to die in the Season 6 finale because he didn't want to kill him in front of Carl.
** Despite the sexist comments, he doesn't seem to look down on women in practice, as there are high-ranking female Saviors under his employ, such as Paula, Arat, and Regina. He also abhors the idea of raping a woman, his men stating that he only wants "ass that's willing."
** Perhaps negated by threatening to kill her soon after, but he chides Arat for manhandling Olivia unprovoked while the Saviors are confiscating Alexandria's armory.
** He has a genuine liking for Carl, and sincerely apologizes for making the kid cry over his missing eye, even comforting him after the fact like a father would. It's unfortunately downplayed by Negan threatening the boy in events surrounding it, but it's still something. He also takes a genuine liking to Judith, much to Carl's horror. When he prepares to kill him in the Season 7 finale, he tells him and Rick that he'll try to do it in just one hit to get it over with quickly, since he likes Carl. Shiva thankfully intervenes.
** He also offers nothing but hospitality to Eugene when he's held captive in the Sanctuary, but this is because he wants him to ''join'' his group.
** He sincerely thanks Sasha for cooperating in the standoff with Alexandria, not knowing that she's plotting to die on the way and reanimate and attack him.
** He treats Father Gabriel with respect when they're trapped together in a walker-surrounded trailer, and even opens up to him about his past despite Gabriel trying to kill him. When they manage to escape, he orders his men to treat Gabriel gently when they take him into captivity.
** He gives Rick his sincere condolences for Carl’s death, and his immediate reaction to the news is to ask if his people were responsible. When Rick later is hunting him, partially out of desperation, Negan offers him a new deal where AHK falls back under his control, but they only have to give him 25% of their supplies in each tribute. Then subverted a bit since a condition is that Rick must become his personal janitor and servant indefinitely.
** He apologizes to Jadis for Simon's massacre of her people and even offers her the chance to come back to Sanctuary with him. Even when she refuses his offer, he promises to make it right, which he follows through with by killing Simon for her.
** He apologizes to Gabriel for making fun of him at a time when Gabriel is stressed about his girlfriend Rosita possibly being hurt, though Gabriel angrily tells him to save it.
** He tries his best to give Maggie space after she returns following the final battle with the Whisperers, and to be a team player during the mission to Meridian. Unfortunately Maggie barely regards the effort he has made and makes it clear she’s still scheming to kill him when she has the chance.
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Implied. While he manages to talk Hershel down from killing him due to the many other lives at risk, he later meets with him in private and tells him to come find him in a few years when he's older, and they'll settle it then.]]
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His speech is littered with casual sexism and misogyny and he believes that MenAreTheExpendableGender. Downplayed, as he doesn't seem to have a problem with women in a position of power, and isn't afraid to express his admiration of [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] Sasha, Rosita, Carol, and Maggie.
* {{Polyamory}}: He has a {{Harem}} of wives who married him in exchange for a more comfortable lifestyle.
-->'''Negan:''' I always wanted to screw a whole bunch of different women. Why settle for just one? Why follow the same old rules?
* PragmaticHero: He has no problems potentially getting Gamma (who he knows is helping the heroes) killed if it means gaining Alpha's trust and moving him a step closer to taking out the leader of the Whisperers herself.
* PragmaticVillainy:
** Negan believes it's better to work as a protection racket for other safe zones in exchange for supplies. This is the only reason why he doesn't simply slaughter all of Rick's group when he has them completely OutGambitted in the Season 6 finale. He later leaves them a truck for them to use to gather supplies for his tribute, and at Alexandria, he does not touch their food supplies since if Alexandria starves to death, he doesn't get ''any'' supplies period.
** This gets flipped on it’s head by Season 11 when he outlines to Maggie that he should have killed all of Alexandria’s leaders during their initial confrontation. If he had thoroughly wiped out the ones who ultimately rallied the communities to rebel against him, Negan would’ve never lost his empire. While Negan is lamenting the loss of everything he had, he is also encouraging Maggie to not make his mistake when it comes to the Reapers.
* PromotedToLoveInterest: He and Alpha never became lovers in the comics. It's still not enough to stop him from killing her, however.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Starting Season 7.
* PsychopathicManchild: Oh yes. He playfully chooses which one of Rick's group members he wants to kill in a game of eeny meeny miny mo while taunting them with petty insults. His process of coercing Rick's partnership also involves him bullying the man by forcing him to get his hatchet off the roof of an RV in a zombie infested fog area like a bully throwing a toy on a high place. When he hits Glenn with Lucille and dislodges his eye, Negan's taunt of "I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out, and it is gross as shit!" sounds like a bully gloating to the poor kid he just beat up.
* PsychoticLoveTriangle: He's coerced Sherry into his harem, but competes for her loyalty with her ex-husband [[SanitySlippage Dwight]].
* PsychoticSmirk: Wears one of these frequently.
* PummelingTheCorpse: Continues clubbing Abraham and Glenn's heads long after they're clearly dead.
* PungeonMaster: A [[BlackComedy dark example]]. He makes cruel {{Pun}}s regarding the ones he killed (specifically, Glenn and Abraham) such as them receiving the "Spirit Award" for their "efforts" and calling the weapon he used to kill them as a "Vampire [[BatterUp Bat]]".
* PuppyDogEyes: In "Here's Negan". In practically any scene with his wife Lucille, at some point he'll probably look at her with innocent-looking eyes. When Lucille gives him his leather jacket, he's practically ''beaming'' with childlike joy.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Leaves the group on his own near the end of "No Other Way".]]
** TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:He returns four episodes later in "Warlords", and in the nick of time to save Gabriel, too.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:R-U]]
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: As in the comic, Negan appears to be a believer of this, as Wade says that "he only wants ass that's willing." Although, see {{Hypocrite}} above.
* RealAfterAll: For most of Season 6, Rick's group assumes that Negan is a fictional boogeyman the Saviors cooked up in order to strike terror into unsuspecting victims. The finale introduces him as a very real threat.
* RealMenCook: Cooks spaghetti for Carl, Judith, and Olivia while he waits for Rick to return from a scouting trip. He also used to make dinner for his wife before the apocalypse.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In "Acheron, Part I", he gives Maggie a scathing teardown of her totalitarian behavior and letting her hatred of him affect her leadership choices.
* RecruitingTheCriminal: Carol springs him from jail with the promise that she will speak on his behalf if he takes out Alpha for her.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: His favorite look is wearing his black leather jacket, black faded pants, and his red ScarfOfAsskicking.
* RedemptionDemotion: He goes through this in Season 9 after his incarceration. Without his Saviors to back him up, absolutely no one is scared of him or has any tolerance for his bullshit anymore and barely even register him as a legitimate threat, even those who used to quake in fear around him such as Eugene.
* RedOniBlueOni:
** The verbose and gleefully childlike Red Oni to Rick's serious and somewhat more reserved Blue Oni.
** He is, however, the Blue Oni compared to Simon, who strongly believes in solving the Saviors' problems through violence, while Negan often prefers psychological manipulation and always tries to see the bigger picture.
** He's also the Blue to Maggie's Red in Season 11. Maggie is fueled largely by her anger towards Negan and frustration at losing Meridian to the Reapers. Negan is calmer and tries to offer more reasonable (if pragmatic) solutions.
* ReformedButNotTamed: Especially after "Here's Negan". He's still a bit of a dick with a snarky attitude who's willing to take pragmatic means to survive such as leaving Maggie behind.
* ReformedButRejected: And quite understandably so, given the amount of damage he caused during his time as a BigBad. Even after returning to Alexandria and saving Judith during a blizzard, he is still on shaky ground with most of the Alexandrians. The only people even willing to give him a chance are Michonne, Laura, Siddiq, and Gabriel, and it takes Negan killing Alpha and rescuing Daryl from some Whisperers for Daryl to genuinely start coming around on him.
* ReminiscingAboutYourVictims: Invoked when he tries to commit SuicideByCop and "fondly" recalls to Maggie how his brutal dispatch of Glenn made him realize how much he got a kick out of sadistically killing people.
* RevengeByProxy: He kills Glenn as revenge for Daryl punching him in the face.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: He took out all of the grief and anger he was feeling from Lucille's death by massacring the entire Valak's Vipers biker gang single-handedly.
* SadClown: Underneath all the crudeness and joking is a man still deeply haunted by the tragedy of his wife's death.
* {{Sadist}}: He openly admits that he enjoys killing -- men at least, though he'd kill a woman too -- and clearly likes inflicting both physical and psychological pain; in fact, his debut consists of gleefully murdering two people and then spending the rest of the episode [[MindRape mind raping]] Rick.
* SadisticChoice:
** He makes Rick choose to either cut off Carl's arm or watch his entire group be shot in the head. He relents at the last second when it's clear that Rick has been pacified.
** He is on the receiving end of this from Craven in "Here’s Negan", being forced to either divulge the location of Franklin's camp or be shot and have Lucille die thinking he ran out on her. It ends up being for naught since, unknown to him, Lucille is already dead anyway.
** [[spoiler:He makes Maggie agree to stop trying to kill him if he assists her in taking back Meridian from the Reapers.]]
* ScarfOfAsskicking: He's wearing a red scarf underneath his leather jacket a lot of the time.
* SecretTestOfCharacter:
** "The Cell" shows that he's been secretly testing [[PunchClockVillain Dwight]] and [[BadassInDistress Daryl]] to see where their loyalties are with him.
** "Service" implies that he was testing Rick's patience with him the whole time when he asks Rick to hold Lucille for him while he proceeded to bully everyone in the community.
* SelfImposedExile: [[spoiler:After seeing Maggie execute the remaining Reapers, Negan accepts that his peace with Maggie is likely own temporary peace and she could one day revert to her old ways and try to do the same with him. Thus, he takes Aaron's advice and chooses to exile himself from the Coalition and be on his own way.]]
* SettleForSibling: He originally desired Tina as his wife, but after she died, accepted her sister Sherry's offer of marriage in exchange for Dwight's life being spared.
* ShroudedInMyth: Prior to "Last Day on Earth", when he reveals himself to the Alexandrians, no one outside of the Saviors has any definitive proof that he even exists at all. Daryl even speculates that he is nothing more than a [[ShadowDictator fictional boogeyman]] made up by the Saviors.
* SirSwearsALot: Though heavily [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerized]] compared to his [[ClusterFBomb comic counterpart]], Negan isn't shy about using foul language. In the uncensored version of the Season 6 finale, he uses the F-word a whopping 23 times.
* SlashedThroat: This is how Rick finally puts him down -- by cutting open his throat with a broken shard of glass from a stained glass window.
** Negan later takes a page from Rick's book and successfully uses this move to take out Alpha.
* SlasherSmile: His default facial expression, at least before his HeelFaceTurn.
* SmarterThanYouLook: At first glance, you may be given the impression that he's just a cruel thug, but he is a genuinely credible GeniusBruiser who has led his minions very well, if not in an evil way.
* SmugSmiler: He has the nerve to grin at Maggie as he re-enters Alexandria to continue living there after Carol banished him. It's worth mentioning that the script originally called for Negan to simply glare at Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan actually did do several takes of this version. In the end, the editors decided to go with the take of him smiling because they felt it did a better job setting up the conflict for Season 11.
* SmugSnake: He is incredibly boastful and supremely confident in his authority and leadership. He delights in lording power over others because he knows they can't do anything to fight back.
* SoLastSeason: After getting defeated, the survivors have become more savvy to his manipulation tactics and don't fear him much without his Saviors to back him up. Becomes even more pronounced when the Whisperers take over as the major threat, with even Negan lampshading that he's gone from "Public Enemy #1" to "the guy doing the laundry and taking out the trash."
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:As of "No Other Way", he's the only Savior introduced as a member of the group who is confirmed to still be alive (barring the non-combatant Gracie).]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:For Carlson's (and Lance's) plan to exterminate the Riverbend community. First, he sends Jesse to Hilltop to notify Maggie, ensuring she is already ''en route'' by the time she meets Aaron halfway on the road. As a trusted member of Riverbend and a more-or-less ally of the Coalition, Negan serves as the diplomat between the two factions, convincing them to work together peacefully to take out Carlson's entire operation. He also rescues Gabriel and Hershel, eliminating any potential bargaining chips Carlson may have had.]]
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Starting in Season 10, he's gotten more story importance and been featured in more of the promotional material than many of the characters who have been around for longer than him like Eugene, Rosita, Gabriel, and Aaron. He's also one of four (the others being Daryl, Carol, and Maggie) to be chosen to be a part of ''The Walking Dead: Origins'' series of specials documenting each character's journey over the course of the show, even though Negan only made his introduction in the Season 6 finale.
* TheStarscream: When Negan first arrived at the Sanctuary, he (with the help of [[TheDragon Simon]], himself an example of the trope) overthrew the original leader who he saw was doing a poor job of leading the community, and brought the various gangs and factions that had built up in the Sanctuary together.
* StartOfDarkness: "Here's Negan" chronicles how Negan started on the path from normal high school gym teacher to maniacal, post-apocalyptic warlord.
* StoppedCaring: Negan actually found it unnerving to kill walkers at first, let alone any living, breathing human. Needless to say, after [[MoralityChain Lucille's]] death he seemed to get over it pretty quickly, to the point of outright finding it ''fun''.
* SubmissiveBadass: Despite being a natural leader with years of experience, he doesn't seem to mind falling under Ian's leadership when he joins the Riverbend apartment community.
* SuddenlyShouting: He rarely yells at people, but when he does, it is truly terrifying.
-->"That... was a no-no. '''THE WHOLE THING! NOT ONE BIT OF THAT SHIT FLIES HERE!'''"
-->"But there's always work. There is always a cost. '''HERE, if you try to SKIRT IT! If you try to [[PunctuatedForEmphasis CUT! THAT! CORNER!]]'''"
* SuicideByCop: After being broken by his year and a half-long incarceration, he tries to goad Maggie into killing him by mocking Glenn's death to her face. It almost works, until Maggie realizes what it is he's really after and decides to let him suffer.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: He stands 6'2, and is a crazy, imposing, and [[LaughablyEvil darkly comedic]] character.
* TattooedCrook: He has several tattoos (Jeffrey Dean Morgan's own) and eventually spends most of a decade locked up inside Alexandria's jail.
* TautologicalTemplar: He is absolutely convinced that his way is the only way and [[NeverMyFault refuses to admit any wrongdoing on his part]].
* TeamKiller: Murders Dr. Carson (who was framed by Dwight), David (who was about to rape Sasha) and Simon (who betrayed and was planning to assassinate him).
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: With the Coalition as of late Season 10. No one wants him around due to having memories of what he did, but are forced to acknowledge him being useful and having earned his keep due to executing Alpha. It's most notable when he gets invited on the trip to scavenge food from Meridian and the team consists almost entirely of people who are fiercely loyal to Maggie. It gets worse when the majority of the group are either sidelined due to injuries (Alden), MIA (Gabriel and Elijah), or outright killed or kidnapped by the Reapers (Daryl and everyone else), forcing Maggie and Negan to travel alone. They later meet up with Gabriel and Elijah and the four of them work together to infiltrate Meridian, with Negan and Maggie proving to be a very effective team once they put their feud on hold and actually start cooperating.
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Has this reaction when he takes his first human life by using the newly-created Lucille to bash in the skull of one of Craven's men. He quickly gets over it.
* TheyDiedBecauseOfYou: Aaron accuses him of failing his wife, which clearly strikes a nerve. We see why in "Here's Negan".
* ThisMeansWar: After witnessing the united communities working together ''against'' him firsthand, Negan gets right to the point letting his people know what to expect in the coming weeks.
--> '''Negan:''' We are going to war!
* TokenEvilTeammate: Downplayed. He takes pragmatic means to kill Alpha but still follows through and takes out the leader of their sworn enemy. However, since the Whisperers are still a threat even without Alpha, it's implied Negan did this so that Carol would vouch for him to the Coalition, rather than out of any sort of altruism.
* TookALevelInBadass: In "Here's Negan", we see how he went from being unable to even kill a walker by himself and making a clumsy attempt at a robbery with an unloaded gun to taking out an entire biker gang almost single-handedly and starting on the path to becoming leader of the Saviors.
* TookALevelInJerkass: One that goes hand in hand with his level in badass. He was once a flawed but respectable guy who loved his wife and didn't actively ''seek'' to hurt anyone. The Negan we meet in the Season 6 finale is a sadistic warlord who demands half of everything from every group he encounters and delights in bashing in the skulls of his victims.
* TookALevelInKindness:
** Prior to meeting Rick's group, he went from a LazyBum who was cheating on Lucille to a dedicated husband determined to help his wife beat her cancer. [[CrusadingWidower Unfortunately...]]
** After Maggie spares his life, he takes on a less antagonistic attitude and his interactions with others from that point on are portrayed in a much lighter fashion. By the end of Season 10, he's firmly in JerkWithAHeartOfGold territory.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He loves powdered lemonade, and during the faceoff in the Season 7 finale, he orders Alexandria to surrender their supplies... and their remaining lemonade.
* TragicKeepsake: His leather jacket. He bought it before the apocalypse, but his wife didn't approve of him spending $600 on it when they couldn't afford it. She hid it from him for months and said she returned it to the store, and gave it back to him not long before she died.
* TragicVillain: While it excuses none of his actions since then, it is a bit sad seeing how much Negan loved his wife and knowing he was just another victim of the apocalypse who lost himself along the way.
* TranquilFury: Anytime his usual joking manner is absent... be afraid.
** The first time he confronts Rick's group personally he greets them in a positive, joking manner before giving them a HannibalLecture. He only raises his voice ''once'', when Rick does the same to him, but even then isn't that harsh with him. In the uncensored cut, however, he does raise his voice a lot more. Starting with the Season 7 premiere, he is much more animated and loud, more closely resembling his comic counterpart.
** He just barely keeps it together when Aaron accuses him of causing his wife's death and suggests that she must have died hating him.
** A good example is when he kills Brandon, who has just murdered an innocent woman and her son and is overjoyed thinking Negan will finally be proud of him for it. Negan is clearly fuming, but he doesn't speak a word the entire time. He simply picks up a rock, walks over to Brandon, and smacks him across the head before proceeding to turn his skull into a bloody mess.
** In "Here's Negan", he is remarkably calm when addressing Craven while also making it clear in no uncertain terms that he is fixing to kill Craven the moment he's done monologuing.
-->'''Negan:''' You best hope I never stop talking. Because when I do... when I do, ''something very terrible is gonna happen to you''.
* {{Tritagonist}}: In Season 10. He gets more focus than anyone in the cast besides Carol and Daryl, and has his own backstory episode to boot.
* {{Troll}}: He knows that everyone either hates and/or fears him, but he enjoys messing with everyone around him anyway by acting like a complete and utter lunatic.
* TheUnapologetic: Even with Maggie back and out for his blood, Negan makes no attempt to actually apologize to her. In "Promises Broken", he outright says to Maggie he would have killed them ''all'' at the lineup if he could go back.
* TheUnfettered: Even after making a HeelFaceTurn, he's adamant that IDidWhatIHadToDo to keep people alive and shows very little remorse for his cruel actions as BigBad.
-->'''Negan:''' I made myself into a monster, because that is what the world needed.
** Set in stone in "Promises Broken", where he firmly justifies everything he did and makes clear he doesn't regret any of it, other than that he ''didn't'' kill Maggie and the rest of the group at the lineup.
* UnseenNoMore: Negan is the GreaterScopeVillain of Season 6 and is frequently mentioned by people who work for him, but only appears in the season finale. In the following seasons, he's a regular.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:V-Y]]
* VilerNewVillain: His presence helps to make Dwight more sympathetic and set him up for a HeelFaceTurn in the back half of Season 7.
* VillainBall: His decision to kill Dr. Carson for failing him comes across as this, considering the lack of doctors or people with medical knowledge in general there are in the apocalypse. True, he had to set an example, and he suggests afterwards that they're going to get the Dr. Carson at Hilltop to replace him, but it's really not wise to diminish such a valuable resource on the strength of one man's word and a coerced confession.
* VillainExitStageLeft: ''Attempts'' this when the tide turns against him in "Wrath". Rick quickly catches up to him and [[SlashedThroat puts an end to his reign for good]].
* VillainousBSOD:
** When Carl (trying to buy the Alexandrians time to escape) offers himself up as a sacrifice in "How It's Gotta Be", he outright asks Negan if he's happy with himself and the man he's become. Negan's silent reaction suggests that Carl's words hit a little too close to home.
** Negan breaks down crying when Rick mentions the now-deceased Carl during their final face-off, as if the pain of what he’s done is finally catching up with him. Then Rick slashes his throat.
* VillainousFriendship:
** He starts to form one with Spencer in "Hearts Still Beating", when Spencer introduces himself to Negan. After Spencer tells him about a Pool table and offers to play a game with Negan, he calls Spencer his "new best friend" and during the game he appears to take sympathy for Spencer when he tells him the story of how his mom was the original leader before Rick came and everyone in his family died, saying it was "the saddest story [he'd] ever heard". Subverted when he refuses to help Spencer kill Rick, and instead calls him a gutless coward for going behind Rick's back to ask Negan to do the dirty work for him before gutting him through the stomach.
** He forms one with Eugene of all people, hoping to convince him to join the Saviors as their EvilGenius. It's worth telling that Eugene's also the first person at the Sanctuary who isn't outright threatened by him or any of his followers. Indeed, Negan genuinely seems to get a kick out of Eugene's [[TheComicallySerious stoic and overly-complex manner of speaking]]. When Negan is released from his cell for the first time in years, he can't help but crack a smile at listening to Eugene talk again.
--> '''Negan:''' Damn, I missed you, Eugene.
** He starts up yet another one with Alpha when he joins the Whisperers... and while it's not a ''true'' friendship since he's only there to kill her and has no actual interest in joining her group, Negan does admit he liked Alpha and laments being unable to convince her to change her ways.
* VillainRespect:
** Though he takes every opportunity he can to make Rick miserable and torture him, he admits that he has respect for him. Negan remembers how Rick said he would kill him, clearly hating him for murdering Abraham and Glenn, but he has swallowed that hatred and put his pride aside, submitting to him and going out to gather supplies for him to keep his group safe from The Saviors, saying how all of that takes guts. Because of this he refuses to help Spencer with his plan to murder Rick and put Spencer in charge of Alexandria because Spencer is a coward who only talked to Negan after Rick was gone and wanted for Negan to do the dirty work for him.
** This respect also extends to two more of Rick's group: Negan respects Olivia for standing up to him despite her fear, and takes a shine to her, even admitting that had he chosen someone to die instead of Arat, she wouldn't have been the one he picked; Gabriel, meanwhile, is one of the few to seriously unnerve Negan, which Negan ironically admires. The two work well together to make it out of a harrowing situation alive, and when they are finally safe in the confines of the Sanctuary, Negan treats Gabriel kindly, allowing Eugene to take him a blanket and an ice pack, later also granting him prompt medical attention when he falls ill.
* VillainsNeverLie: Rick's group discovers this the hard way when Negan kills Glenn after he had already announced that any retaliation (in this case, Daryl's punch) would result in serious consequences to the rest of the group and he needed to make sure his point was understood.
* VillainsWantMercy: He begs Maggie to grant him an undeserved MercyKill as opposed to spending the rest of his life behind bars. Maggie, wanting him to suffer but realizing she'll be doing him a favor if she executes him, declines.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: He finds it fascinating how little Carl is afraid of him, especially in contrast to many of his own people. Negan vows to corrupt Carl into being one of his top soldiers one day, and is genuinely disappointed when Rick announces that Carl has died, ensuring that the boy wouldn't be around to help build the future he wanted to create.
* VisionaryVillain: He plans to rebuild society by finding other communities to "save" and having them produce for him in exchange for protection.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: He explains this as his mindset to Maggie after the Whisperer War as to why he is no longer the enemy of the group. In his view, there is too little left to bother fighting over, and too little decent people left to fight with; and Alpha’s attempt to destroy the Coalition’s civilization was the last nail in the coffin for him that he needed to join with other people and not dominate and extort them as he had done in the past, so they could have a shot at surviving and building a future.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Offers Sasha a chance at joining the Saviors, and outright says that with her courage and status as a bonafide badass, she could one day join his inner circle and help him lead the empire.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: How he sees the Saviors and himself: they're subjugating others in order to make them strong and able to contend with the CrapsackWorld they've all found themselves in. Gabriel takes issue with this viewpoint, pointing out that [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Negan's methods are dangerous and cruel]].
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Numerous times:
** When fighting zombies with the temporarily blinded Aaron, who wouldn't let him use a weapon to fight the dead, Negan could have left him to fight on his own or die, and no one would ever know the truth except as it came from Negan. He doesn't and chooses to watch over Aaron for the night.
** His wife Lucille invoked this on him. He ended his affair with Janine after Lucille's cancer diagnosis and never spoke to her again. Lucille had never told him that she knew about it.
* TheWonka: Downplayed. He really comes across as crazy and random, but he has successfully outsmarted Rick Grimes with his skills.
* WontDoYourDirtyWork: His response to Spencer's cowardly appeal to have Negan kill Rick behind his leader's back.
* TheWorfEffect:
** He is effortlessly knocked to the ground like a toy by the mammoth Beta, and later is defeated in mere seconds by him in “A Certain Doom” despite being fully prepared for a fight.
** Despite taking on the Reaper Carver with Maggie and a wounded Elijah at his side in a small hallway, Negan is still thrashed around by the highly trained combat veteran and doesn’t succeed until he uses his wits to outsmart him. It establishes that the Reapers are too dangerous to be kept alive if just one of them - a disturbingly sadistic one at that - was able to manhandle three of the best fighters the group has ever had in their ranks.
* WorthyOpponent:
** He views Daryl as one for showing his complete defiance towards his authority, but the only reason he's keeping him alive is because he wants to recruit him for the Saviors.
** He also views Carl as one for showing absolutely no fear around his presence and admires how the KidHero broke into the Sanctuary just to kill him even though he knew it would end in his own death. According to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan views Carl as the son he never had.
** In his own twisted way, he appears to respect Rick considerably more than most of his own people, even ones he's been with for a long time. Rick could easily stay home and order some of his people to go out and forage for supplies, but instead he always goes along and takes more than his share of the risks. Rick also always comes through and delivers supplies as expected. Negan knows he ultimately needs people like Rick, as if he has nothing but sheep working for him, then nothing will ever get done. Spencer finds out the hard way that Negan doesn't like slackers who try to get someone else to do the dirty work.
** He tries to keep his distance from Maggie once she returns after the Whisperer War, knowing very well she is capable of killing him. By “No Other Way” he decides to leave the group after seeing her lead the war effort against the Reapers, completely convinced she could have him dead to rights the moment his back is turned regardless of their deal.
* WouldHitAGirl: Though he claims he doesn't like killing women, he will ''not'' hesitate to do so if he has to. Just ask Alpha.
* WouldHurtAChild: In the Season 7 finale, he is seconds away from killing Carl before the timely arrival of Shiva and the Kingdom.
* WouldntHurtAChild: Following Carl's death from a walker bite he becomes this.
* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: He recalls the gruesome details of Glenn's murder as part of a gambit to be slain by Maggie.
* YouAreInCommandNow: After Negan kills Alpha, a trio of Whisperers submit to him as their new leader. Unfortunately for them, Negan has no interest in taking over the Whisperers, and seizes this moment as a chance to prove his loyalty to Daryl by killing all three of the skins.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After escaping his cell he returns home to the Sanctuary, only to find it entirely abandoned and in ruins. He ends up deciding to head back to Alexandria.
* YouGotSpunk: {{Jerkass}} he may be, Negan will often take a moment to marvel at the courage shown by the members of Rick's group.
** He clearly admires Carl's stone-cold badassery in the face of a potentially horrible demise and seems more impressed than angry after Carl breaks into Sanctuary and almost kills him.
** He also seems to admire Abraham's [[HeroicSacrifice willingness to sacrifice himself as the potential victim]] and for said victim "taking it like a champ" after Negan delivers the first blow to Abraham from Lucille. Likewise, he seems to respect Daryl after he attacked him for mocking Abraham's death and notes that (unlike Rick) he still refuses to submit.
** Similarly, he also respects Olivia for standing up to him and refusing to leave Judith and Carl alone with him. The Season 7 midseason finale shows that, while he may not like Rick and he'll take any opportunity he can to mock him, Negan has grown to respect him for swallowing his pride and continuing to work for him despite how much Rick clearly hates him. Enough that he guts Spencer like a fish after he tries to convince Negan to kill Rick and let Spencer be in charge instead.
** Negan comes to respect [[ArchEnemy Maggie]] for her iron-willed devotion to her people and her son, even if it means sacrificing the community she's worked so hard these last few months to build.
-->'''Negan:''' You have big balls, Maggie Rhee.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Negan's reaction when one of the Saviors finds the RPG that took out Bud and his crew is one of astonishment and sadistic glee, stating he couldn't wait to test out that rocket launcher.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: He is disgusted by Brandon's fanatical devotion to the old ways of the Saviors and his regime.
* YouRemindMeOfX: When discussing his late wife with his current lover Alpha, he mentions how she looked beautiful even when she lost her hair (from cancer), and then gazes wistfully at Alpha, clearly having a flashback to his beloved Lucille.
[[/folder]]
!!Weapons
[[folder:Lucille]]
!!''Lucille''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twdtv_lucillebat.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Lucille is thirsty! She is a vampire bat!"'']]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/{{The Walking Dead|2010}}'' (Seasons 6-8, 10)
!!!'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E16LastDayOnEarth Last Day on Earth]]"
->''"This is Lucille. And she is awesome."''
-->-- '''Negan'''
Negan's primary weapon, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Lucille quickly becomes notorious in the series for being the weapon used to murder Glenn Rhee and Abraham Ford. The bat originally belonged to Savior lieutenant Laura, who gave it to Negan to defend himself from marauders on the road.
For tropes related to Lucille Smith, see [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies here]].
----
* BatterUp: Negan's signature weapon, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire that he uses both in combat and to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make an example of people in front of their loved ones]].
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Negan first wrapped Lucille in barbed wire on the night he returned to find his wife (the original Lucille) dead as a walker.
* CompanionCube: [[NamedWeapons Lucille]] creepily comes across as this to Negan as he describes her like a close friend, or even a lover. Later revealed to be a way of coping with the loss of his wife, who was named Lucille.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Lucille is first alluded to in "East", when Carl notices an image of the bat carved into one of the guns Rick's group took from the Saviors' outpost.
* HeroKiller: Literally, as she's used to kill two of the series' main heroes, Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee.
* ICallItVera: See the above quote. Negan takes a moment to introduce Lucille to Rick's group when they first meet, and informs them that she will be used to turn at least one of their skulls into mush before the night is through.
* IconicItem: One of the most recognizable items associated with the series. Even people who don't watch the show have probably heard of or can recognize Lucille.
* KillItWithFire: Lucille is finally destroyed when Negan burns her in the fireplace in Leah's cabin.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Lucille sustains damage from her first two on-screen victims from beyond the grave.
** In "Hearts Still Beating", she takes a bullet fired by Abraham's ex-girlfriend, Rosita.
** In "The Key", the lighter Rick uses to set Lucille on fire originally belonged to Glenn.
* NamedWeapons: A baseball bat named in honor of Negan's dead wife.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Negan burning her in the fire is symbolic of him finally overcoming the trauma caused by his wife's death as well as officially putting his past as a villain to rest.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the comics, Lucille ends up getting destroyed when Negan repeatedly smashes her on Beta's back during the Whisperer War. This does not happen in the show, and the original Lucille remains unaccounted for until the Season 10 finale, "Here's Negan", when she is finally destroyed for good.
* WeaponOfChoice: "Lucille" is a baseball bat, which, as a piece of sporting equipment, highlights Negan's playfulness. However, it is also wrapped in barbed wire, demonstrating the violent and brutal side of his nature.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: When Negan asks to see Lucille in Season 9, Michonne claims that the bat is still lying under the tree where Negan last dropped it. She wasn't lying -- Negan returns to the tree eight years later in search of the bat and, after some digging, finds her buried underneath the grass and dirt that has accumulated over the last decade.
* WreckedWeapon:
** First, Lucille blocks a homemade bullet intended to kill Negan. Then, in "The Key", Rick gets a hold of Lucille and lights her on fire to draw Negan out of hiding. The bat survives both occasions.
** Lucille is irreparably damaged when Negan digs her out of the ground after eight years and uses her to kill a walker. He burns her in the fire shortly afterward.
* YourHeadASplode: Negan's SignatureMove is to repeatedly whack his victims' heads using Lucille until it's all gore. Abraham and Glenn sadly find this out the hard way.
[[/folder]]
----
->''"No one ever thinks that they're the evil one."''
to:
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMaggieGreene Maggie Greene]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
!!Due to the AnyoneCanDie nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. If you have not seen the first ten seasons read at your own risk!
!!''Negan Smith''
[[quoteright:300: https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/298cb649_654b_4cb4_92e8_f71a3ad0e71c.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"What's the matter? Y'all scared of the Big Bad Wolf?"'']]
!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JeffreyDeanMorgan
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Iñaki Crespo (Spanish), Pedro Ruiz (Latin-American Spanish), Cassius Romero (Brazillian Portuguese), Creator/AkioOhtsuka (Japanese), Charles Rettinghaus (German), Jérémie Covillault (French), Fabrizio Temperini (Italian), Jiří Schwarz (Czech), Zoltán Csankó (Hungarian)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/{{The Walking Dead|2010}}'' (Seasons 6-11) | ''The Walking Dead: Dead City''
!!!'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E16LastDayOnEarth Last Day on Earth]]"
->''"Hi. You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is. But I think you’re gonna be up to speed shortly. Yeah. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes. Yes, you are."''
The main antagonist of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' starting at the end of Season 6. Negan is the powerful leader of the Saviors, and controls other communities as well through intimidation, demanding tribute from them to supply his personal base, the Sanctuary. He wields Lucille, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire as his personal weapon and symbol of power. When the Alexandria Safe-Zone begins attacking his group and slaughters many of them, Negan decides to confront Rick directly, killing Glenn and Abraham and mentally tortures Rick into submission. Negan humiliates Alexandria through his visits, and offers several of their people membership in the Saviors when they show potential to him. However, his murders of Spencer and Olivia push Rick over the edge, and Rick forms a rebellion against him. With his slave states rebelling, Negan declares war on them.
It becomes apparent during the war that Negan is far more than his evil tyrant persona. Negan is revealed to genuinely believe that he is saving people by protecting the weak, and does not condone the genocidal tendencies of Simon. However, Rick points out that extortion of the weak is not the same as protection, and that the Savior empire will never last, something Negan begins to realize as the war progresses. Though AHK initially has him on the defensive, Negan strikes back and personally leads the sacking of Alexandria, but is devastated to learn of Carl’s death. Ultimately, it is the treachery of his lieutenants that causes Negan’s downfall, as his army surrenders after their weapons are sabotaged by Eugene, his attempt to wipe out AHK fails thanks to Simon’s earlier raid, and Dwight helps wound him during the final fight. Citing Carl’s desire for peace, Rick and Michonne spare Negan and sentence him to life in prison to watch the communities thrive without him.
A year and a half later, Negan is still behind bars in Alexandria, but vows that he will escape someday. Not too long after, Maggie finally arrives to kill him, only for Negan to break down and admits he wants to die. Realizing he is much worse off this way, Maggie spares him. Six years later, Negan has become friends with the now nine-year-old Judith Grimes, and begins asking Michonne if she could learn to trust him, after he saves Judith's life during a snowstorm. As a result, Negan is allowed more freedom, but as the threat of the Whisperers looms in the aftermath of a tragic loss, paranoid Alexandrians take their fear out on him. Carol orders him to infiltrate the Whisperers and assassinate Alpha, a task he succeeds in and is rewarded for with a tentative place in the group. However, this becomes complicated when Maggie returns, and is none too pleased to see him a free man, having not borne witness to his change of heart.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-D]]
* AbhorrentAdmirer: His bragging about how Sherry is now his wife and how he originally wanted to make Tina his beloved reach uncomfortable creeper levels. He also expresses a desire in taking Maggie as a wife (after ''killing her husband'') and admits an attraction to Olivia, who isn't exactly forthcoming considering he spends half of his time insulting her weight.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: He takes a moment to stop bludgeoning Abraham with Lucille to laugh at the Sergeant's ProfaneLastWords, "Suck my nuts!" Makes sense, considering Negan's own juvenile sense of humor.
* AdaptationDeviation: How Negan got his [[WeaponOfChoice trademark baseball bat]] and IconicOutfit is played differently here:
** Negan received "Lucille" from Laura (who is not a Savior at that time) while searching for more chemotherapy bags. In the comics, he picked up "Lucille" after his previous survivor group were DevouredByTheHorde.
** In the comics, Negan got his iconic leather jacket from an abandoned store. Here, he bought it for $600 prior to the outbreak, though the real Lucille hid it and later gave it back to him as an "anniversary gift".
* AdaptationExpansion: In the comics, he is PutOnABus following the Whisperer arc, and only makes a brief cameo in the last issue of the series. In the show, he contemplates living on his own but ultimately returns to Alexandria to continue residing there instead. [[spoiler:He then leaves for real in "No Other Way", only to return four episodes later.]]
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: While Negan was a lot more muscular in the comics, he also had a pudgy, thuggish sort of appearance, in contrast to the roguishly handsome Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
* AdaptationalCurves: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Comic!Negan has a stouter built, while TV!Negan is leaner.
* AdaptationalIntelligence: TV!Negan is also far more prone to psychological warfare and careful thought than his comics counterpart. As an example, regarding how he chooses who he plans to kill in his debut, comic-book Negan truly appears to have done a random selection (he listed several reasons why he couldn't decide who was going to get [[BatterUp Lucilled]]), TV!Negan bounces around during his "random" eeny-meeny-miny-moe game and just so happens to land on Abraham (who had quietly stood up to him earlier) after pausing on the last pick. His seemingly random choice of Glenn as his second victim supports this interpretation as well, given Glenn had previously interrupted him. He finally admits to Rick in "Wrath" that killing Abraham was a calculated move, as he didn't want to murder Rick in front of his son.
* AdaptationalKarma:
** Unlike in the comic, he gets a well-deserved punch to the face after killing his first victim. Unfortunately, this leads to Negan dishing out some karma of his own and selecting Glenn to beat to death next.
** In the comic he's only incarcerated for three years, compared to the show's eight.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Negan is a lot more aggressive and merciless, but at the same time, he's a more emotionally stable and rational character compared to his borderline sociopathic comic counterpart. In the comic, he knew there was no possible peace as long as Rick was alive at the first failed assassination attempt and decides to go full scorched earth on Alexandria. Here, it's Simon who advocates the KillEmAll philosophy, which Negan objects to (at least initially). His HeelFaceTurn is also played with more sincerity and his friendships with characters like Judith and Lydia are emphasized to highlight this.
** In the comics, he continued to sleep around even ''after'' Lucille was diagnosed with cancer, [[EveryoneHasStandards leading his mistress to one day throw him out in disgust]]. In the show, he broke off the affair the minute he found out about his wife's diagnosis and never spoke to said mistress again.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Besides the AdaptationalNiceGuy above, this version of Negan is more depraved and sadistic than his comic book counterpart. For instance:
** In the Season 7 premiere, he kills two victims rather than one (the latter just for someone punching him in the face, rather than retribution for killing his men) and nearly forces Rick to chop Carl's arm off, something his comic counterpart never did. Also, while he's disrespectful to his victim(s) in both comic and TV show, TV-verse Negan spends ''far'' more time mocking and torturing the survivors, and openly admits he enjoys killing (people he feels need to die to keep everyone in line, at least), whereas Comic!Negan confessed to Rick in private that he actually didn't like it.
** Negan's {{Harem}} comes across as much creepier in the show. While Comic!Negan emphasized that all of the women were there of their own free will, were treated well, and could leave any time they wanted (albeit at the cost of having to go back to performing hard labor and being on Negan's shit list), Show!Negan is not above coercing women into joining. His offer for Tina to join him comes after she's unable to afford the insulin she ''needs to survive'' under his harsh point system (and later implies he was planning to offer Maggie a similar deal, noting that she's sick too) and [[ScarpiaUltimatum the only thing that stops him from executing Dwight for treason is that Sherry volunteers to marry him if he spares Dwight]]. [[note]]In the comics, Sherry married Negan because she believed it was the most practical choice for both her and Dwight, not because of any life-threatening circumstances, and Negan only burned Dwight's face after they continued to sleep together behind his back.[[/note]]
** Downplayed, but in their confrontation in the comics, Negan profusely apologized to Maggie for killing Glenn, realizing that for all the grief he feels over his dead wife, he dished it out to Maggie by killing her husband, and outright cried about how horrible he felt for his actions. Though TV!Negan does break down crying and begging to be killed, he does not apologize to Maggie for killing Glenn nor does he explicitly express remorse for his actions. When the two finally have a heart-to-heart in "Promises Broken", Negan is still adamant that IDidWhatIHadToDo and admits he would have killed them all if he got to do it all over again.
* AdaptationalWimp: His comic counterpart succeeded in maiming Rick and shattering his leg during their final brawl, forcing Rick to walk with the assistance of a cane for the rest of his life. TV!Negan inflicts no such lasting damage, and is more quickly taken down by Rick courtesy of a shard of broken glass.
* AerithAndBob: A guy named Negan has the decidedly common surname ''Smith''.
* AffablyEvil: In Season 8, where he's written with a lighter touch and comes across as much more personable than before.
* AintTooProudToBeg: Subverted. While he didn’t beg ''for'' his life in "Wrath", he begs Maggie to ''kill him'' in "What Comes After" so he can rejoin his [[TheLostLenore dead wife, Lucille]], after an [[ICannotSelfTerminate unsuccessful suicide attempt the previous episode]]. [[CruelMercy Maggie refuses so that he can suffer alone]].
* AllForNothing: His six-week quest to find the medicine needed to treat Lucille's cancer ended up being for naught, as she killed herself the very same day that he left.
* AlmightyJanitor: As the former leader of the Saviors, he more or less becomes this in Season 10 when he is allowed more leeway in Alexandria only to be assigned grunt work such as doing the laundry and taking out the trash. Negan, for his part, seems content with this and tries not to draw too much attention to himself, especially with the threat of the Whisperers on the horizon. He also bonds with Lydia, who has become a pariah in lieu of Alpha's massacre, dispensing her some words of advice about how to deal with bullies and later rescuing her from said bullies when they gang up on her one night.
* AmazonChaser: Seemingly averted at first, as his {{Harem}} is made up of women who are either too weak to work for points or were blackmailed into marrying him against their will. However, a closer look reveals that Negan does in fact have an admiration of strong women:
** He admits that Sasha has him "wrapped around [her] little finger" after she shows no fear in the face of his threats.
** He expresses some attraction toward Alpha who, despite being completely insane, has the intelligence and strength of will to command an entire army of Whisperers.
** After Olivia gives him a defiant BitchSlap for propositioning her, Negan admits the slap increased his desire for her by 50 percent.
** His pre-apocalypse wife, Lucille, was very much a "take no crap" kind of woman as well.
** In Season 11, Negan gets married to Annie, who is an ActionGirl and forms one-half of a BattleCouple with him.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Negan is brutally violent and sadistic, refuses to take responsibility for his actions, has a bizarre BlueAndOrangeMorality and sense of justice, and is a MoodSwinger who can flip between angry and comical at the drop of a hat. While he shows far too much empathy to fit the criteria for sociopathy, it's clear there's ''something'' not right in the head with him.
* AmbiguouslyChristian: Negan doesn't appear to be practicing any religion, but he makes enough passive comments about God and the afterlife that it seems as if he at least believes in the possibility of them. Then again, when Gabriel says he became a priest because he wanted to bring people closer to God, Negan chuckles and responds, "You gotta be kidding me." He later joins the religious Riverbend group, though it’s unknown if he actually had a HeelFaithTurn or was only there because he wanted a new community to join and was willing to acquiesce to their beliefs if it meant he could stay.
* AMFMCharacterization: He considers "[[Music/JoeCocker You Are So Beautiful]]" to be the greatest love ballad ever written. He used to sing it to his wife, Lucille, when she was afflicted with cancer, and he once nearly killed a man in a bar because the man was being loud and obnoxious when Negan and Lucille were trying to listen to the song. He's also heard listening to "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Back in Black]]" which, as a rock song, is rather fitting for a BadassBiker like him.
* AndIMustScream: While he definitely deserved to suffer for his crimes, his eight-year stint in prison -- no one to talk to, no light, and the knowledge that he could very well spend the rest of his life without ever getting to see outside his cell ever again -- counts. According to Negan himself, it got so bad that even his ''memories'' started to have bars painted on them.
* AndStarring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets this billing from Season 7 onward.
* AnimalMotifs: In Season 9, Negan is repeatedly associated with dogs -- specifically, the question of whether he is now a "good" dog or a "bad" one. In "Who Are You Now?" he tells Judith a story about how he used to bring home stray dogs when he was a kid and how the "wrong" dog ended up killing all the other strays. This comes back around in "Adaptation" when he is chased by a bunch of stray dogs while looking for a new jacket in an empty store. In "Guardians", he turns the motif on himself and tells Michonne that she "can't keep a big dog locked up forever." Michonne's response is to ask Negan what kind of dog that makes him, to which Negan doesn't yet have an answer. Finally, in "The Storm", he begins making strides towards a HeelFaceTurn by risking his own life to bring Judith and Daryl's dog (a "good" dog) to safety, symbolizing that Negan has decided to be a good dog after all.
* AntagonistInMourning: He is genuinely distraught to hear about Carl's death and offers Rick his sincere condolences... while also [[KickTheDog berating him for not being around to stop Carl from getting himself into trouble]]. Rick later takes advantage of Negan's despair to lower his guard and slash his throat.
* AntiHero: Evolves into one in Season 10. While he does the right thing and kills BigBad Alpha, as Lydia points out, he's still motivated by the selfish desire that his own misdeeds will be forgiven, and killing their leader does not necessarily end the threat of the Whisperers as a whole.
* AntiVillain: In Season 8. While still depraved, he's given many humanizing moments with characters like Gabriel, Eugene, and especially Carl, who believes Negan isn't beyond redemption. In the back half of the season, it's revealed that as harsh as Negan is, he doesn't want to needlessly murder people if he can avoid doing so, and is positively gentle compared to [[TheDragon Simon]], who gleefully advocates slaughtering everyone at Hilltop and, in an inverted "kill only one" policy, slaughters all of the Scavengers aside from a devastated Jadis without Negan's knowledge or approval. When he finally decides he must exterminate all the rebelling communities and start over, he's truly saddened that it's come to this and takes no enjoyment from it.
* ArchEnemy: Maggie makes it clear that while Negan may have redeemed himself in the eyes of the Alexandrians, to her, he's still the sadistic murderer who bashed Glenn's head in and left Hershel without a father. It gets extra awkward when [[spoiler:most of the Wardens are killed by the Reapers and they are forced to abandon an injured Alden in a church, leaving Maggie and Negan to travel alone together.]]
* ArcWords: "Right off the bat" during Season 6, as it's used by several characters as a way to hint towards his impending arrival.
* TheAtoner: Starts in earnest in Season 10 when he's given more freedom and has to work with Aaron to fend off the Whisperers' walker horde. It would seem that he's made it by the end of the season, though he still has beef with Maggie, who has adamantly ''not'' been around to see how far he's come in the years since his incarceration.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: In his first meeting with Rick's group he quickly deduces that Carl is Rick's son and that Abraham and Rosita were romantically involved.
* AxCrazy: While he does adhere to PragmaticVillainy, Negan is a little ''too'' quick to employ violence to solve problems, and is downright giddy smashing Glenn and Abraham's heads to a pulp.
* BadassBiker: Negan is a biker as shown when he departs from the Sanctuary on a motorcycle in "Adaptation". He was also part of a biker's club before the apocalypse.
* BadassBoast: He preaches to Daryl about what a powerful leader he is by proclaiming he's nearly all-powerful among his men. Later does this to Carl to demonstrate his authority.
-->'''Negan:''' I wear a leather jacket, I have Lucille, and my nutsack is made of steel! I am not dying until I am damn good and ready!
** He has a great one when Beta leaves him for dead only for Negan to march back into camp and approach the leader Alpha with a shit-eating grin on his face.
-->'''Negan:''' I'm ready for my goddamn skin suit! You best bring that extra-long tape measure on account of my ''humongous balls''.
** Downplayed when he tells Rick that he's "not saving the world, just getting it ready for me." While it does sound foreboding with his FaceFramedInShadow and Rick is clearly rattled by it, Negan's actions a few episodes later put the line in a different context when he's revealed to be suicidal, implying that it was merely an attempt to convince Rick to go back on his word and kill him.
* BadassTeacher: Seriously, how many gym teachers can say they took command over an army of hundreds of people, with all of them swearing UndyingLoyalty in their name?
** He really puts his skills to use when he teaches Maggie, Elijah and Gabriel to walk in Whisperer masks in "Promises Broken".
* TheBadGuyWins: In the Season 6 finale and continuing into the Season 7 premiere. Not only does he kill two members of Rick's group, he personally breaks down Rick's hope until he is a blubbering mess and saying he works for Negan and answers to him. He even kidnaps Daryl from the group to force him to work for him and as leverage so Rick remembers not to step out of line. The remaining members of the group are left on the road as the Saviors leave, completely broken and beaten.
* BadGuysPlayPool: He becomes excited when Spencer tells him that the house across the street from Rick's has a pool table in the garage. During the game, he guts Spencer in front of everyone for trying to betray Rick, and afterwards [[BlackComedy asks if any of the onlookers want to finish the game in Spencer's place.]]
* BattleCouple: He and Annie work side-by-side to rescue Gabriel from the Commonwealth in "Warlords".
* BeardOfEvil: Unlike his clean-shaven comic counterpart, Negan's facial hair is more noticeable in the show. He lampshades it in his first appearance when he mentions he should shave it off and finally does so in the mid-Season 7 finale. It grows back by Season 8 and he's kept it ever since.
* BeardOfSorrow: Grows one during his initial 18-month stay in Alexandria's jail.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: He used to be apprehensive about killing walkers because he didn't want to "get used to it." He also didn't want to hurt living people and was uneasy about having to rob a camp of doctors to get medication for Lucille. Compare this to the Negan who introduces himself by gleefully beating the skulls of two men and demanding half of Alexandria's supplies as tribute.
* BecomingTheMask: He confesses to Daryl that he actually enjoyed being a part of the Whisperers because it made him feel respected again, only to remember why he was there in the first place upon realizing how dead-set Alpha was on killing Lydia.
* BelligerentSexualTension: At least on his end towards Olivia. He spends most of his time with her insulting her weight, but eventually admits that he'd love to sleep with her. He doesn't even mind getting slapped by her, as it just turns him on even more.
* BeneathTheMask: In "What Comes After", Negan acts like his old, [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] self to try and provoke Maggie into killing him, but her insistence on him stepping into the light and hesitance sees his bravado fall to pieces, revealing the broken DeathSeeker he's become.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't harm Lucille. ''Ever''. When Rosita shoots his bat, he flies into an extreme rage far beyond anything we've seen before. When Rick lights Lucille on fire, Negan goes apeshit and tackles him to the ground.
** This also applied to Lucille ''before'' the apocalypse. His wife, not the bat.
** Banging one of his 'wives' behind his back is a surefire way to get an iron to the face.
** Negan hates traitors and kowtows, as shown with his murder of Spencer.
** Killing innocent children, as Brandon and Alpha learn the hard way.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Negan comes across as a little [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} off]], but, as Rick's group finds out the hard way, you do not cross him.
* BigBad: From the Season 6 finale to the Season 8 finale, he is the primary antagonist of the show.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** In "Silence the Whisperers", he arrives to stop Gage, Margot, and Alfred from beating Lydia. In "A Certain Doom", he stops Beta from going after Lydia (who is wearing Alpha's mask) by whispering to him, "Hey, shithead."
** He also saves a mother and son from being eaten by some walkers on an abandoned bus. Pity he was too late to save them from Brandon...
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: The first truly heinous act he committed in the apocalypse was returning to the Vipers' hideout and massacring them all without mercy. Granted, they definitely had it coming, but it was nevertheless a StartOfDarkness moment for Negan.
* BloodKnight: He even says he can kill people all day.
* BoisterousBruiser: He's an overly happy guy who's not afraid to crush his enemies' skulls in with his trusted baseball bat.
* BreakingSpeech: Gives a thoroughly detailed monologue that [[BreakThemByTalking breaks]] Rick while he and his friends are held hostage.
* BreakoutVillain: He gets far more to do than his comic counterpart, eventually becoming one of the show's main characters by Season 10. His popularity led to him being announced to be headlining a spinoff with Maggie in 2023. This makes Negan one of three characters confirmed to survive the main show's series finale, the others being Maggie and Daryl.
* BreakTheBadass: What he spends all of "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" doing to Rick's group (especially to Rick). He's so effective it takes the entire first half of the season and two more people dying for Rick to finally start fighting back.
* BreakTheHaughty: In Season 9. For his first couple of appearances in the season, despite being utterly defeated and locked in a jail cell, he still acts like same old Negan, gloating and crowing during his conversations with Rick and Michonne. The first cracks appear with his reaction to the news that Lucille was left on the battlefield after his defeat, which causes him to beat his head bloody on the wall. Then, in "What Comes After", Maggie arrives with the intention of killing him, and he starts trying to goad her into doing so, bringing up Glenn (and pretending to forget his name), and poking barbs at her struggles. Maggie quickly catches on to his DeathSeeker mentality, and when she hesitates, the facade absolutely shatters, resulting in Negan sobbing and begging for Maggie to kill him, so that he can be reunited with Lucille (his wife, not the bat). Maggie's refusal to do so seems to leave him even more broken and hollow.
* BrutalHonesty: In Season 11, when Maggie asks if he would have done things differently, Negan responds that yes, he would have... by killing ''all'' of Rick's group at the line-up. Shocked, Maggie asks why he would tell her this; Negan says it's because he thinks the only way for them to work together is if he's completely honest.
* TheBully: An adult version, as his MO is basically intimidating people into working for him and forcibly taking their supplies for himself. His juvenile sense of humor and childish cheerfulness also contribute to this image.
* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:Towards the end of “No Other Way”, he decides to leave Alexandria as he suspects (not without reason) that Maggie will eventually break her promise and try to kill him again.]]
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Negan keeps Dwight around just long enough to help him put down Simon's mutiny, then reveals he knows about his treachery and takes him prisoner.
* CardCarryingJerkass: He's well aware of how much of a prick he is.
-->'''Sherry:''' You're an asshole.
-->'''Negan:''' ''I know''.
* CardCarryingVillain: He plays this up to try and provoke Maggie into killing him, bragging about he enjoyed breaking open Glenn's head and watching him suffer as his eye popped out.
* TheCaretaker: He was devoted to taking care of his wife after she got diagnosed with cancer at the onset of the apocalypse. This made Lucille realize that, despite his cheating, Negan was still the man she loved.
* CargoShip: InUniverse. He has a bizarre fixation with his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille, to the point of affectionately calling her pet names like "baby" and openly speaking about her as if she were his lover. The reason for this is eventually revealed in "Still Gotta Mean Something" -- he named the bat after his actual late wife, Lucille.
* CasualKink: Possibly. He seems into the idea of Alpha leaving her mask on during sex, but considering he is also TheMole who is trying to get on Alpha's good side it's not clear how agreeable to it he really was.
* CharacterCheck: After most of Season 10 is spent giving him a HeelFaceTurn and "Here's Negan" makes him into a rather tragic and sympathetic figure, he gets two massive KickTheDog moments in the following episode, "Acheron, Part I": throwing Glenn's death in Maggie's face [[spoiler:and leaving Maggie to her fate above a herd of walkers.]] This is probably to show that while Negan may have turned over a new leaf, he's still very much a pragmatic {{Jerkass}} who isn't willing to suffer fools, sad backstory or not.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** Negan starts out as little more than a murderous bully who mentally tortures Rick into submission. Later episodes show him as a more dynamic character who ''is'' capable of occasional kindness, such as with his relationships with Sasha, Eugene, Gabriel, and '''especially''' Carl and Judith, the latter of whom eventually becomes something of a MoralityPet to him. When Negan discovers that the Sanctuary has fallen during his seven-and-a-half year incarceration, he decides to head back to Alexandria and genuinely starts taking steps to make up for what he did. This evolves into a full-fledged HeelFaceTurn in Season 10 and beyond.
** By Season 11 he has adopted a combination of Rick and Simon’s ideologies; he has come to embrace Rick’s idea for civilization to rebuild and has accepted that he can no longer operate as a bullying enemy to Alexandria. However, he has learned from Simon’s schemes for genocide that there are indeed some enemies who cross a line that means you need to put them all down when you have the chance. He tells Maggie he caused his own downfall when he didn’t wipe out the group, and convinces her to dish out a FinalSolution on the Reapers.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** He is far more reserved and serious in his debut in the Season 6 finale, only raising his voice once when he snaps at Rick for speaking out of turn. Starting in the Season 7 premiere, he is much more animated and loud, more closely resembling his comic counterpart.
** While Negan has been always shown to have a fondness for children, it is only starting in Season 8 that he adopts a WouldntHurtAChild mentality, as in the Season 7 finale he is mere seconds from executing Carl in a desperate attempt to finally break Rick.
* CharacterTics: The "Negan lean", which was inspired by a panel in the comic where Negan was leaning back and laughing, quickly became a staple of his character. He stops doing it in Season 9, which shows how broken he's become since his defeat. He begins doing it again in "What It Always Is" after seemingly reverting to his old ways and joining the Whisperers.
* TheChessmaster: He really shows his skill at this in "Worth". Knowing that both Simon and Dwight are rogue elements in their own way, Negan uses them to take out the other. First, he doesn't immediately out Dwight as having defected to AHK. He instead keeps him around to help lure Simon's mutineers into a trap to slaughter them. Negan also pretends to forgive Simon, to lure him into a sense of security so he'll be confident enough to plan his outright mutiny. While he's dealing with Simon, Negan also allows Dwight to pass on bogus intel to AHK so he can lure them into a trap and win the war. Once Simon is eliminated, then Negan reveals he's played Dwight as well.
* ClassicVillain: Greed and wrath, with a massive helping of pride.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Negan's villainous monologue seems to come completely out of nowhere and he oddly takes holding Rick's group hostage as a big joke he pulled on them. His personality is so random that even his own minions get confused half the time when he's talking to them, not being able to tell if he's serious or joking with them.
* ComfortingTheWidow: He has the nerve to consider asking Maggie to be one of his wives after he murdered Glenn. While he admits that it was a bit of a stretch to think she'd accept, it's implied from his comments to Rick that he's done this successfully at least once.
* ConfusionFu: This is how he defeats the Reaper Carver, using misdirection and trickery to get his guard down before blinding him with some hidden sand, and then knocking the daylights out of him with the bell he had openly displayed.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: To previous BigBad Philip Blake, a.k.a. The Governor.
** The Governor was mostly a serious villain. Negan is constantly making jokes and is a PsychopathicManchild.
** The Governor was a chronic liar who kept his villainy [[FauxAffablyEvil hidden behind a veneer of superficial charm]]. Negan is upfront about who he is and what his intentions are, and is openly a {{Jerkass}} to everyone around him.
** The Governor's response to hearing about other settlements is to wipe them out because he perceives them as a threat to his power. Negan believes that the communities must work together if they are ever to restore order to the world, albeit a world of his own twisted design.
** The Governor had a chance for redemption but was "[[IveComeTooFar too far gone]]" and responded to Rick's pleas for peace by murdering Hershel. Negan is capable of true change and undergoes a HeelFaceTurn over the course of Season 10.
* CooldownHug: He gives a much-needed one to Lydia when she breaks down ranting about how much she hated her mother.
* TheCorrupter: He shows some interest in making others think the way he does. This is best demonstrated when he convinces Eugene to [[FaceHeelTurn join the group]] as their EvilGenius by offering him a great position over the other Saviors. He also expresses interest in recruiting Carl for the Saviors, boasting to Rick that in a few years he'll be one of his top soldiers.
* CowardlyLion: Downplayed, but in Seasons 10 and 11 he frequently votes for the path of least resistance, avoiding conflict if at all possible and being willing to bail and go home numerous times during the Reaper conflict. Daryl implores him to defy this, warning him that if he wants to be a part of the group, he must keep laying down his life for others; and he has to get a SadisticChoice out of Maggie to agree to help stay and fight the Reapers.
* CradlingYourKill: He does this to Alpha after slashing her throat, slowly lowering her to the ground and giving her a gentle kiss as she bleeds to death.
* CrazyJealousGuy: If anyone tries to get with one of his many wives without following the point system, then he'll scorch off half a man's face as punishment.
* CrazyPrepared: After the Whisperers' defeat, he held onto his skin mask should the need to use it again ever arise.
* CruelMercy: He threatens to kill everybody in the group and back in Alexandria if Rick doesn't cut off Carl's hand, but leaves Rick alive to wander alone knowing he could have prevented it.
** Negan himself is later a victim of this in the Season 8 finale. After Rick slashes his throat, rather than let him bleed out Rick instead chooses to honor his late son's wishes and save Negan's life, with a twist: he must now spend the rest of his days locked up inside the cell below Alexandria while Rick leads the communities (including some of Negan's own surviving people) into a better and brighter future.
** Maggie ultimately chooses not to kill him after seeing how much he actually wants to die, opting to let him suffer with the pain he feels for his actions.
* CrusadingWidower: His first wife, Lucille, died from suicide seven months into the outbreak. Needless to say, Negan was never quite the same after that...
* CultOfPersonality: Negan has one of these within Sanctuary, down to the point where his followers actually bow to him and proclaim that they "are all Negan."
* DarkAndTroubledPast: He reveals to Gabriel that he cheated on his ''actual'' wife, Lucille, and that he regrets not being better to her when she was alive.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a dark-haired man in a dark outfit and the longest-reigning BigBad of the series to date.[[note]]In terms of seasons.[[/note]]
* DarkMessiah: Downplayed. Although Negan is just a mortal man, the Saviors seem to view him as a nearly god-like leader to whom they swear UndyingLoyalty, claiming "We are all Negan." A woman is heard thanking God for him in "The Big Scary U".
* DeadpanSnarker: More snarky than deadpan, but as a MotorMouth, Negan has a quip to make about damn near everything.
* DeathSeeker: By Season 9, his downfall and subsequent incarceration have broken him to the point that he tearfully begs Maggie to kill him so that he can be reunited with his wife.
* DespairEventHorizon: He passes it after spending a year and a half imprisoned for his crimes with no one to talk to, banging his head on the wall in frustration after Michonne refuses to let him see Lucille and then asking Maggie to kill him to end his suffering. He doesn't even make any attempt to escape even though he knows the alternative is being forced to rot in the cell, and willingly goes without a struggle after Maggie refuses to kill him and orders him to return to his imprisonment. Six years later, he has managed to find some level of peace again, thanks in part to his friendship with Judith.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Twice over! In the Season 7 finale, he did not expect Sasha to die and try to kill him as a walker. And he definitely didn't expect a tiger to show up and start killing his men, followed by the other communities he subjugated coming to Alexandria's rescue.
* DinnerAndAShow: Subverted in the mid-Season 7 finale, with Negan and his pretend family all gathered around the table. Except everyone aside from Negan is terrified.
* TheDogBitesBack:
** After being held prisoner by the Vipers he later returned and murdered them all.
** [[spoiler:He responds to Maggie's refusal to help him fight a big walker by leaving her to dangle from the edge of a subway car with several walkers below her.]]
* DomesticAbuser: Negan's system is fundamentally exploitative. The only other "choice" (which isn't really a choice) he gives his wives is to be treated like a slave. He knew that there would be women like Tina, who couldn't earn the points they need, and there would be women like Amber, who had a family member who couldn't work, that he could take advantage of and exploit.
** He also tortures them psychologically and enjoys it. His wives are so terrified of him they either want to kill him (as seen when Frankie asked Eugene to help her), drink themselves to death (as seen with Amber), and run away from the safety of the Sanctuary and would rather risk dying to be with him (as seen with Tina). Plus there's the fact that he withheld life-saving medication from Tina unless she agreed to marry him.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Is seen ramming a few walkers with an RV. If he's not ramming, he's gunning them down while driving.
* TheDreaded: Before he actually appears on the show. The Hilltop residents were quickly cowed into submission by his soldiers and are initially dismissive of Rick's proposal to assassinate him. We find out in the Season 6 finale just why everyone's so terrified of him.
* DrunkWithPower:
** This is implied to be what happened after he took over the Sanctuary and became leader of the Saviors. "Here's Negan" has him force a man to kneel so he can show him who's boss before executing him for being responsible for him not making it home to his wife on time. By the time Negan meets Rick's group, he's made it customary to have his people kneel to him when he enters the room and has reached AGodAmI levels of influence and ego.
** On that note, in "Look at the Flowers", he relishes having the power to make Daryl kneel before him, as well as getting to wield a firearm again. He still pulls back and helps Daryl kill the Whisperers, but his somber tone afterwards implies he knows he enjoyed it too much. He also admits to Daryl he enjoyed being a Whisperer a little because it made him feel important again.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: In Season 11, he points out he's done a lot for Alexandria and has more than earned his keep, yet everyone is ''still'' treating him like the bad guy.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-H]]
* EasilyForgiven: Completely averted. Even after spending eight years behind bars, saving Judith and Lydia, and beheading Alpha, Negan is still on shaky ground with most of the Alexandrians, which is further compounded when Maggie returns with Hershel near the end of Season 10.
* EmptyShell: Describes himself as one when he explains how he coped with his wife's death to Alpha. He didn't feel much of anything anymore, and used his lack of emotion as his strength when building the Saviors' empire.
* EnemyMine: With Gabriel in "The Big Scary U" as they work together to escape a trailer surrounded by walkers.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** In "Last Day on Earth," Negan gleefully welcomes Rick's group to their neighborhood with a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech before playfully picking which one he wants to punish for their actions against him, and then brutally bashes that person's head (the person being Abraham) to a bloody pulp. Taken further in the next episode when he suddenly murders Glenn as well simply because Daryl punched him after he killed the first victim.
** It comes a little later, but in "Sing Me a Song", after returning Carl to Alexandria, he takes a tour of their house and discovers Judith in her crib. How gentle he is with her and the fact that the next scene shows Judith comfortably sleeping in his arms reveals a side of Negan we hadn't seen yet. He may be a total {{Jerkass}} and something of a man-child in areas, but he does have a genuine soft spot for kids.
* EtTuBrute: He is shaken when he learns that Simon disobeyed him and slaughtered the Scavengers. He's also pissed when he finds out Eugene rigged the Saviors' guns to explode.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He genuinely loved his late wife, Lucille.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** He didn’t want to kill a kid’s father in front of him, hence why he didn’t choose Rick to die from the get-go and settled on the larger, more defiant Abraham. In Season 11, even long after he's pulled a HeelFaceTurn, he's disturbed when he sees how bitter and vengeful Hershel Rhee has become due to knowing his father was murdered before he was born, meaning that his attempt at a clear conscience during the line-up failed since he still destroyed a child that night.
** Forbids rape amongst the Saviors, though as noted in {{Hypocrite}}, this is a downplayed trope. However, when David violates that rule he gets severely punished by having a knife to the throat.
** He also genuinely feels bad when people cry and tries to apologize for upsetting his victims when they cave in.
** He seems to have a fondness for babies, as seen when he dotes on and plays with Judith for an entire day.
** He's disgusted when Spencer tries to betray Rick and get Negan to put him in charge. Despite how horrendously Negan treats Rick, he at least respects Rick for having the guts to fight and sacrifice for his community, which he (correctly) points out is much more than Spencer ever seems to do.
** He's disgusted by Rick and his group when Rick was actually going to detonate the bombs in the area with Eugene in the vicinity after Eugene tries to talk them down from attacking, even though they no longer consider him in their group anymore.
** As he believes in PragmaticVillainy, he’s always quick to tear Simon a new one whenever he suggests that they massacre a community (especially Hilltop). He is also outright disgusted by Simon's all-male massacre at Oceanside, as well as him killing all of the garbage people right in front of Jadis.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** He’s visibly revolted by having to resort to the walker guts trick, deeming it as disgusting as everyone else has.
** He's clearly uncomfortable having to whip Alpha as part of her SelfHarm to make herself "stronger", and as such isn't too thrilled when she tells him that it's now ''his'' turn to be flogged. Alpha even points out that he's joking to hide his fear, which Negan doesn't deny.
** He's nearly brought to tears when Alpha insists that she must kill her own daughter because it's her "destiny".
** He recognizes a gang of lunatics when he sees one in the form of the Reapers and advises Maggie to be thorough with her annihilation of them.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The ultimate reason he underestimates Rick. Negan, who rules his group through fear alongside some liberal self-interest, just sees Rick as another leader of a community he can subjugate and crush under heel, not grasping that Rick leads his group through mutual adoration and devotion, to both each other and to a better future. By the time it ''really'' dawns on him that Rick is the man that can [[TheDogBitesBack unite all the desperate communities against him,]] he's already lost control and an all out war has erupted. In Season 8, even when he’s legitimately mourning Carl’s death, he chastises Rick for rebelling against him like a parent scolds their child. Negan genuinely does not see any other way than his, and can’t understand why his slave states revolted against him.
* EvilCounterpart:
** He is this for the Rick of Seasons 5-6: a ruthless and powerful leader who takes care of his own by crushing all potential opposition and taking supplies from those who aren't a threat.
** He is also this to Ezekiel. Both men are shrewd, intelligent leaders with command over large numbers and a flair for the dramatic. They also cultivated a persona they feel is necessary to keep people alive, while also using it as a mask to avoid coping with their real feelings. However, the key difference between the two is that while Negan rules through fear, Ezekiel rules through genuine, earned respect.
* EvilGloating: Hoo boy, does he like to rub it in. He spends most of "Service" reminding Rick of what he did to Glenn and Abraham and pretty much emasculating him at every turn. Not even his own minions are safe from this, as he regularly brags to Dwight about how he has both him and Sherry under his control.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: He has a nasty habit of making cruel jokes at the expense of others. Best shown in the Season 7 premiere when he calls Lucille a "vampire bat" after he's just finished smashing Glenn's head to pieces, or later mentioning that Glenn and Abraham deserve the "spirit award" for their efforts.
--> '''Negan:''' What? Was the joke that bad?
* EvilIsHammy: Jeffrey Dean Morgan is clearly having a blast in the role.
* EvilIsPetty: Despite usually being pretty pragmatic and reasonable in his own twisted way, sometimes he does or says things that are just plain petty, no way around it. Most of these cross over into KickTheDog, but demanding that Alexandria surrender everything to him in the Season 7 finale - namely, the ''lemonade'' - is pretty petty.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Speaks with a really deep, intimidating voice.
* EvilWearsBlack: He wears a leather jacket, which accentuates his villainy.
* ExBigBad: He's the GreaterScopeVillain of the second half of Season 6 and the [[BigBad main antagonist]] of Seasons 7 and 8, but survives to be deposed as leader of the Saviors and becomes a TokenEvilTeammate to the heroes during the Whisperer arc of Seasons 9 and 10.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: ''Completely'' averted in Season 9 when Maggie arrives to kill him, though in an unusual example, he cries ''for'' death because he can't stand the idea of having to rot in jail for the rest of his life.
* FaceFramedInShadow: He is almost entirely submerged in shadows in early Season 9 when he's sitting in his cell and is still bitter from the events of the Savior War. It also has the effect of making him look menacing, such as when he tells Rick that he's "not saving the world, just getting it ready for me." The first time we clearly see Negan's face in the season is when Maggie forces him out into the light to kill him at which point he’s revealed to be a [[DeathSeeker suicidal wreck]] who begs her to finish the job that Rick couldn't. Fittingly, he stops being hidden in shadows in the next episode when six years have gone by and he's mellowed out significantly enough for the Alexandrians to finally allow him to see outside the window of his cell.
* FairytaleMotif: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]], he likes to reference ''[[Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs The Three Little Pigs]]'' and refers to himself as the [[TheBigBadWolf Big Bad Wolf]] from the fairy tale in order to intimidate others.
** When he first arrives in Alexandria, he misquotes the signature line "Little pig, little pig, let me '''come''' in" and in "What It Always Is", he calls himself the Big Bad Wolf. He often uses pigs as an insult, he has a dog-eat-dog philosophy and he calls himself a dog while in prison by saying "You can't keep a big dog locked up forever, sooner or later he's gotta run."
** His beard and dark clothing also seem to reflect this motif; as he wears mostly gray-colored clothing with a black leather jacket as if to invoke the image of a black wolf.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Invoked by Rick and Michonne when they sentence him to life in prison. For a guy like [[MotorMouth Negan]], spending almost eight years alone in a cell ''cannot'' have been an easy task.
* AFatherToHisMen: Subverted. Negan seems to genuinely care for the Saviors under his command, as demonstrated when he wants to punish Rick's group for murdering too many of them. That said, he also has no problem sacrificing some of them when he deems it necessary, as shown in the Season 8 finale.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He's clearly a fun-loving guy and has his own set of rules, but he's also completely psychotic and happy to murder people in horrible ways if they cross him or his people. Best exemplified in his introductory speech where, despite his jovial demeanor he ''is'' telling Rick's group that he now owns them and that one of them is about to suffer a brutal death for killing his men.
* FeedTheMole: In "Worth", he purposely allows [[TheMole Dwight]] to give Gregory false information to deliver to Rick.
* FireForgedFriends:
** Daryl ''loathes'' Negan for everything he did all those years ago and would hardly consider him a friend. Over the course of Season 10, however, the two men build a mutual trust that is solidified in "A Certain Doom" when Daryl saves Negan from a gruesome death at the hands of a vengeful Beta.
** A straighter example would be with Carol, who did not actually witness most of his cruelty firsthand and, aside from Glenn's death, mainly hates him on principle. While mostly apathetic towards Negan, she does come to respect him for killing her son's murderer and even does him a favor by getting him out of Alexandria when Maggie comes home and tensions start brewing.
** Season 11 revolves heavily around whether or not he can form this kind of bond with Maggie. By the end of Part 1 she accepts he has valuable advice as a military commander and even asks for his input as the group weighs the remaining Reapers’ fate. However, he decides to leave the group upon seeing she will likely turn on him anyway. Part 2 takes this a step further when circumstances force them to work together again. [[spoiler:Negan admits he has respect for Maggie and she tells him that, regardless of what happened in the past, she trusts him with Hershel.]]
* FlippingTheBird: In "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life", he throws the AHK fighters the finger as he makes an impromptu escape in one of his trucks.
* FourthDateMarriage: He marries Annie during the six months between "No Other Way" and "Warlords".
* FreakyIsCool: He is genuinely awed by Carl's ruined eye socket and sincerely compliments him on it ([[InnocentlyInsensitive in his own way]]). Plus, he gets along with [[AmbiguousDisorder Eugene]] better than most of his own men, thinking his lateral way of solving problems is bitchin'.
* FriendlyEnemy: Negan's first appearance has him kill two important members of Rick's group, kidnapping Daryl and psychologically torturing Rick himself. His appearances since show that while Rick's side despises him, Negan tends to compliment and admire Rick and most members of his group, sparing the lives of several more and being rather cordial [[FauxAffablyEvil in his own way]] to several, such as Carl and Eugene. Of course, [[PragmaticVillainy Negan would also rather psychologically make them work for him than kill them]], so this is understandable.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: After his HeelFaceTurn and especially after Maggie returns near the end of Season 10. While he's more or less accepted as a member of the community, almost no one is particularly fond of his company and Maggie's people are openly hostile towards him on the trip to Meridian. Daryl outright tells him they're not friends, and no one bothers to help Negan when he's struggling to fight a large walker in the subway tunnel. It really shows in "No Other Way" when [[spoiler:Negan leaves the group for good and no one seems especially bothered by it except Lydia.]]
* FriendToAllChildren:
** Due to working as a gym teacher before the apocalypse. He respects Carl as a hardened survivor, forges friendships with (and goes out of his way to save) Judith and Lydia, and has a conversation with a boy named Milo that almost leads to Negan escorting him and his mother to Alexandria. Granted, it still doesn't stop him from almost killing Carl in the Season 7 finale, but he only does so because he thinks it will finally make Rick submit to him and takes no pleasure in the act.
** In Season 11, he swears to protect [[spoiler:Hershel Rhee]] after rescuing him from the Commonwealth, assuring Maggie that he would risk his life to keep her child safe. Seeing how badly the boy has taken the loss of his father before he was even born also ''rattles'' Negan to his core, who finally seems to realize the depths of the horrors he had been inflicting on people, particularly ''innocent children''.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: He was a high school gym teacher before the apocalypse.
* TheGadfly: Post-HeelFaceTurn, he still enjoys messing with people and getting under their skin for shits and giggles. Case in point, when he gleefully taunts Rosita, Gabriel, Siddiq, and Eugene about their tangled romantic history and makes a point of asking Gabriel if it bothers him that his girlfriend's doctor is also the father of her child. Gabriel, for his part, isn't too bugged by it ([[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome since the four of them are close enough that they worked it out like adults]]) and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny even laughs when Negan calls him "Father Not-the-Father."]]
-->'''Negan:''' We have this hot little love quadrangle here to entertain us. It's like Christmas to me!
* GeniusBruiser: Not only is he skilled at crushing his opponents' skulls with his lucky bat, but he successfully mind rapes ''Rick'' of all people into submitting to him. He's also very observant and showcases fine mastery over the SecretTestOfCharacter since he gains advantage over Daryl and Rick into obeying his command. In Chris Hardwick's words, "it's now psychological warfare."
* TheGhost: For most of Season 6 prior to his appearance in the finale.
** He is also this in the first episode of Season 9. While obviously not seen due to being locked up inside Alexandria's jail, he is mentioned many times and his presence is still very much felt, particularly at the Sanctuary.
* GlasgowGrin: The mouth of his Whisperer mask is an intentional ShoutOut by Jeffrey Dean Morgan to the Joker's iconic smile.
* AGodAmI: Just to fuel his DarkMessiah characteristics, he makes all his men say they are all [[IAmSpartacus "Negan"]] to promote his leadership.
-->'''Negan:''' I am everywhere!
* GoKartingWithBowser: After Carl fails to kill him he leads the boy around showing him the ins and outs of the Sanctuary before personally escorting him back to Alexandria and ordering Carl to take him on a grand tour of his house that includes playing darts and cooking.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Develops suicidal tendencies after spending 18 months in solitary confinement and being faced with potentially never getting to see the light of day ever again. He breaks down and starts banging his head against the concrete wall out of frustration for Michonne not letting him see Lucille, and when Maggie comes looking for vengeance, he ''demands'' that she kill him and put an end to his suffering.
* GoodAllAlong: After seemingly rejecting a HeelFaceTurn and joining the Whisperers, he turns out to have been working with Carol to assassinate Alpha and delivers the Whisperer leader's head to her as promised.
* GoneHorriblyRight: He urges Maggie to not make the same mistakes he made as military leader of the Saviors and give no quarter to the Reapers. This leads to Maggie violating the deal Daryl gave [[spoiler:Leah and killing the remaining Reapers.]] Negan realizes that this means Maggie will likely go back on her promise to give up trying to kill him and decides to leave the group peacefully.
* GreaterScopeVillain: His presence is first felt in "Always Accountable", where members of his group allude to him. He is first mentioned by name in TheStinger of "Start to Finish", and his reputation continues to grow stronger as the season progresses until he finally makes his debut in the finale.
** He still has a massive hold on Sherry's psyche as shown in Season 6 of ''Fear the Walking Dead''. Many of her actions are driven by a desire to atone for not killing him when she had the chance.
* GuestFighter: Negan can come to blows with the cast of ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' as part of second season of DownloadableContent for ''Tekken 7''.
* HannibalLecture: Gives these to Rick, Michonne and Maggie when he is locked up inside Alexandria's jail.
* HappilyMarried:
** Downplayed with Lucille. Their marriage prior to the apocalypse was pretty much DeadSparks, with Negan being a deadbeat husband who was cheating on his wife with her best friend Janine. In an ironic twist of fate, the end of the world allowed the couple to rediscover their love for each other. Negan was devoted to Lucille until the day that she died, and her tragic suicide was the catalyst for his StartOfDarkness.
** He has an honest and supportive marriage with Annie in Season 11, to the point where she's still with him despite being fully aware of his past atrocities.
* TheHeavy: The villain most associated with the second half of the series (Seasons 6-11).
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After becoming friends with Judith and entertaining the idea of a HeelFaceTurn, Negan is beset by the paranoid denizens of Alexandria, forced to kill a psychopathic wannabe follower, and ultimately crosses over into Whisperer territory to announce to Alpha that he wants to ''join'' her group. It's eventually revealed to have been a ruse to assassinate Alpha.
* HeelFaceTurn: By Season 10, he outright confirms to Aaron he's trying to make amends for his past actions. With his murder of current BigBad Alpha in "Walk With Us", it seems safe to say he's officially on the side of the heroes from here on out.
* HeelRealization: Seems to finally have kicked in by "The Rotten Core", where Negan has a new wife and [[spoiler:baby on the way.]] He admits to [[spoiler:Hershel]] that he used to be a bad man and probably deserves to die for what he took from him and his mother.
* HellBentForLeather: It's rare to see Negan without his trademark leather jacket.
* HellYesMoment: [[spoiler:Has a look of utmost pride when Gabriel turns the final standoff with the Reapers in Maggie's favor.]]
* HeroesFrontierStep: In "The Storm" he runs off to save Judith in a blizzard even after getting his leg hurt, pushes through to save her, and gives her his coat despite it being freezing.
* HeroKiller: One of the most notorious in the series. He makes his introduction killing Abraham and Glenn, two of the bravest and most competent survivors in Rick's group, both within the span of ''a few minutes''.
* HesBack: After killing Brandon, Negan dons his trademark leather jacket as well as a makeshift Lucille and crosses into Whisperer territory while reciting his "little pig" speech from "Service" as he gleefully takes down walkers left and right.
* HiddenDepths: For a swaggering, bullying warlord, he does possess a surprising amount of psychological know-how when it comes to either [[BreakTheBadass breaking badasses like Rick]] or getting people to otherwise obey him. He can also identify a homemade bullet from a commercially-made one. And, more tellingly, he ''does'' have something resembling a moral center, backing down when he knows he pushed it too far by (albeit admiringly) bringing up how gross Carl's missing eye is.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: When in control of the situation, Negan tends to take his time drawing out the theatrics and agony he inflicts when he could just as easily cut it short and call it a day. It's why Rick's group is able to get the jump on him in the Season 7 finale when he opens the coffin intending to make a big show of Sasha pleading for Alexandria's surrender, and instead it's Sasha as a walker trying to eat his face.
* HonestAdvisor: An unwanted one to Michonne in Season 9 and Gabriel in Season 10. While they're both annoyed by his usual snarky remarks they are also forced to acknowledge that the JerkassHasAPoint. He also dispenses some [[BrutalHonesty brutally honest]] advice to Maggie in Season 11.
* HopeCrusher: The Season 7 premiere is essentially all about him crushing every ounce of hope and bravery Rick's group has so they will learn that he's their leader now. He even purposely shows up to Alexandria earlier than expected so he could intimidate the community into giving him whatever his people wanted, making it clear that they have no choice but to obey him.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: After his defeat. His former Saviors work together with the communities to build a bridge that will benefit all of them, and the ones who legitimately want to change later end up joining Alexandria. Rick even visits Negan in prison on a semi-regular basis to gloat about how much better things are going without him. Negan himself realizes how pathetic it is for a man whose name once meant something to be rotting away behind bars and thus becomes a broken shell who attempts suicide at least once and is left crying about how things should have turned out differently by the woman whose husband he killed while at the height of his power.
* HumiliationConga: Loses control over his vassal states in the Season 7 finale, tricked by Sasha (his intended bargaining chip) and then interrupted in his punishment of Rick's rebellion by the timely arrival of the Kingdom and Shiva. He also has to suffer the indignity of being forced into a retreat by his escaped prisoner Daryl as well as Maggie, the woman he made a widow, wanted to make one of his wives, and was led to believe had died. He's forced to flee Alexandria with his tail between his legs, bitterly musing on how things went to shit.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** [[EvenEvilHasStandards For Negan, rape is a]] '''[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil big]]''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards no-no.]] But forcing a diabetic woman into your PaidHarem by giving her easier access to insulin is fair game because [[QuestionableConsent technically]] he isn't ''making'' her do anything.
** One of his rules is that his wives can't cheat on him, yet he himself once cheated on his actual wife and was deeply remorseful for it.
** For all his talk about people being a resource, he apparently had no problems ordering the extinction of the library community for attempting to start a rebellion against the Saviors. However, considering it was Simon who was dealing with them it's unknown how privy Negan was to what actually happened.
** In Season 10, he claims that both Margo and Alpha got what they deserved for trying to kill Lydia, and outright asserts to Brandon that he personally "would never kill a kid." Yet Negan himself had no issue almost killing Carl with Lucille in Season 7. He presumably is referring to innocent children who have not taken up arms against him like Carl had.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I-L]]
* ICannotSelfTerminate: When Maggie finally comes to kill him in Season 9, he tearfully admits that he wants to die and has tried to follow through on it himself, but can't.
* IChooseToStay:
** As he points out to Lydia in "A Certain Doom", he doesn't believe either of them will ever fully be trusted by the other survivors for their association with enemy groups and advises her to slip through the walker horde unnoticed, before apparently heading to do so himself. He returns later to save Lydia from Beta and when Lydia asks if this means he's there to stay, Negan replies, "For now." Although, since Maggie has officially returned as of that episode, it remains to be seen how true this statement will hold.
** Knowing that it's only a matter of time before Maggie tries to kill Negan again, Carol tries to reach a compromise by sending Negan to live in a cabin away from Alexandria. After some self-reflection, Negan tells Carol that his new living arrangement isn't going to work out and returns to Alexandria, where he smiles at Maggie, making it clear that he's done being turned away and the two of them are gonna live together under the same roof whether she likes it or not. However, after witnessing just how capricious Maggie has become during the war with the Reapers, he decides to leave.
* IconicOutfit: His leather jacket. He bought it before the apocalypse, but his wife hid it from him. She gave back to him as an "anniversary gift".
* IconicSequelCharacter: He's one of the series' most well-known characters, but he does not appear until the last episode of Season 6.
* IGaveMyWord: He actually makes a point in his introduction of saying this is probably what separates him from some of the other foes Rick's group has dealt with in the past. And then he kills Glenn to demonstrate what happens when one steps out of line after they've been given a warning.
* IHatePastMe:
** Implied in "What It Always Is" when Brandon brings up his tenure as leader of the Saviors and presents him with his leather jacket and a brand-new Lucille. Negan is visibly uncomfortable and only reclaims these items after killing Brandon, who has just murdered an innocent woman and her child.
** Taken further in "Here's Negan" when he hallucinates his past self and is thoroughly disgusted by what he sees, referring to him as a "clown" and "a cult of personality with no cult."
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: He essentially has Sherry completely under his control in a forced marriage he made up. Since he originally desired Tina before she died though, Negan may have wanted her as one of the multiple wives in his harem.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: While most of the time he's an intentional {{Jerkass}} there are a few moments where he genuinely isn't trying to be offensive. Namely, raving about Carl's missing eye while the boy is obviously self-conscious about it; only when Carl starts crying does Negan realize that he crossed a line.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Judith and Lydia both. He also befriends a young boy named Milo, who he promises to take to one of the communities, though that ends when Milo and his mother are murdered by Brandon.
* {{Irony}}: Despite Rick and Michonne sparing his life so he can listen to how they remade civilization with the help of his former Saviors, [[spoiler:Negan manages to outlive all the ex-Saviors who made a HeelFaceTurn and doesn't have to spend the rest of his life behind bars on account of his own change of heart.]] He also remains in the area much longer than Rick, who is abducted a mere eighteen months later by Jadis and the CRM.
* ItGetsEasier: Flashbacks show he was initially reluctant to even kill a ''walker'' at first, as he was afraid of getting too comfortable with it. After Lucille's death, he has no trouble wiping out an entire ''living'' biker gang without breaking a sweat.
-->'''Negan:''' I am starting to think that I am capable of damn near ''anything''.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He's predicated the Saviors' entire culture around this trope.
** Lydia calls Negan out for this, believing his efforts to atone are more out of self-preservation and a desire to make people forget about the past rather than any sort of genuine altruism. Negan's subdued reaction implies she isn't too far from the truth. He amends this somewhat in the next episode by putting his ass on the line to save Lydia from a crazed Beta.
* IWantThemAlive: Played with. He favors this option for only the strongest and "badass" prisoners he comes across, trying to break them so he can [[WeCanRuleTogether employ them as his]] [[EvilMinions own soldiers]].
* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: He's a big fan of this, since going after the people close to somebody is more effective than just punishing them directly. Cases in point, murdering Glenn as punishment for Daryl punching him, and later ordering Rick to cut off Carl's hand or watch his entire group be shot. He also does this to his wives, punishing them for cheating on him by ironing the faces of their boyfriends.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's a huge asshole to everybody and seems to get his kicks that way. He patronizes and casually torments everybody around him because he knows they can't rebel against him or his cult of personality. And that's the ''nicer'' side of him, considering the rest of the time he seems to spend just outright threatening people, their loved ones, etc. He eases out of this territory ever so slightly in Season 8, which gives him many [[PetTheDog humanizing moments]] and some backstory. Overall Negan is a flawed person, but he, unlike most villains, has a heart.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** He points out that for all of Michonne's talk about giving power to the people, ''she's'' the one running Alexandria with an iron fist. On a similar note, he makes Michonne realize that Judith has her own ideas about they should be running things, and that she would be a bit more honest with her if Michonne actually bothered to ''listen'' to what she has to say.
** He advises Gabriel to put up a front to make things seem safer than they actually are to keep the residents of Alexandria from breaking into a panic.
** He accurately surmises that Maggie's true reason for bringing him along on the trip to Meridian was to have him killed away from Alexandria. He also tells her she's not in the right headspace right now to be a leader, and that her leading them through some underground subway tunnels is extremely risky. Gage agrees, lampshading, "He's a dick, but he makes sense."
** He tells Maggie he failed as a military commander by not murdering the group entirely when he had them at his mercy. Despite his “people are a resource” mantra, Negan outlines to Maggie that in failing to wipe out the people who had already proven good enough to wipe out one of his outposts, all he did was buy time for them to rise up against him. It’s incredibly cruel to tell to someone whose husband was brutally murdered in front of her (and whose friend was murdered in the same way next to her), but Maggie takes his words to heart during the subsequent battle with the Reapers.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Downplayed after the six-year TimeSkip in Season 9. While "heart of gold" is still a stretch, he's mellowed out considerably in the past six years and even strikes up a friendship with Judith. Played straight in Season 10 and on -- he can still be an asshole, but he's heroic now.
* JokerImmunity: Manages to survive multiple attempts on his life through a combination of this and good old-fashioned PlotArmor. Even the incident that finally puts him down doesn't actually ''kill'' him. Subverted because he ends up making a HeelFaceTurn instead.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Prior to the apocalypse, Negan was a flawed man. He nearly viciously beat a man to death in a bar fight when he was a {{Jerkass}} to him and his wife and kept talking over the song they were trying to listen to. His twisted sense of humor and justice were already on full display as well, as after Negan nearly killed said man he took his money and re-played the song he kept interrupting, twice. After this felony cost Negan his job (the man had children who went to the school Negan taught gym at), Negan became a lazy slacker who spent most of his days playing video games and making little effort at finding a job. During this period he also started an affair with Lucille's best friend and didn't show much remorse for it until Lucille revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer. Afterwards he did attempt to shape up and be a better husband, a task that was put to the ultimate test with the collapse of civilization by way of the ZombieApocalypse. Negan genuinely became loyal and devoted, his only mission in life to restore his wife's health. Despite this, Negan still had morals -- he was reluctant to actually harm Franklin and Laura for medical supplies, right down to charging into their camp with an empty gun, and admitted that he was hesitant about killing walkers because he was afraid of getting too comfortable with it. Ultimately, he was forced to divulge the location of Franklin and Laura's camp to a biker gang if it meant getting home to Lucille safely, though even then, he clearly felt guilty about doing so. Then he arrived home and found that Lucille, in an effort to end what to her was fighting a losing battle, had committed suicide, making his entire trip for nothing. From that day, something inside Negan was permanently ''broken''. He returned to the bikers' hideout with vengeance on his mind and savagely murdered them all. Several months later, Negan happened upon the Sanctuary and quickly rose his way to the top of the hierarchy to become the brutal and feared leader of the Saviors, a ruthless extortionist group that ran the Virginia area and all its communities like a protection racket. He became far worse than the bikers who he blamed for Lucille's death, going from struggling to kill one walker to bashing in the heads of two men who had a hand in wiping out one of his outposts, all while laughing and mocking the survivors who watched terrified and helpless. He also formed a {{Harem}} of women who were forced to marry him in exchange for supplies and a lofty living position. If they cheated on him, it meant the woman's partner would be punished via a hot iron to the face -- again, a far cry from the Negan who was once deeply ashamed and remorseful of his own infidelity. Negan buried his past self in the facade of a grinning, sadistic cult figure deadset on rebuilding the world in his own image, determined to tune out the eternal shame he felt for failing Lucille by refusing to allow himself to feel ''anything'' ever again.
* KickTheDog:
** Mocking Rosita over Abraham's death, practically rubbing his bloodied bat in her face.
** He emasculates Dwight every time they talk in "The Cell" and actually jokes about how he has his ex-wife under his control.
** Engages in this repeatedly and gleefully during the entirety of "Service", implied to be at least partially to test Rick's patience with him while the latter is holding Lucille. Among other things, he goes on about his intention to invite Maggie into his harem, jokes about his murder of Abraham and Glenn, and forces Rick to say "thank you" to him when he finally leaves.
-->'''Negan:''' In case you haven't caught on, I just slid my dick down your throat, and you ''thanked'' me for it.
** Telling Rick that he "failed as a father" after Carl dies.
** In the same vein, telling Aaron that Eric's death was his fault because he failed to protect him, even though it was one of Negan's own men who killed Eric.
** When Maggie finally comes to kill him he cruelly mocks Glenn's death to her face, even pretending to forget her late husband's name; in this case, however, it's because Negan actually ''wants'' to die, which he tearfully confesses moments later.
** In "Acheron, Part I": While he is not wrong to say Maggie is being reckless, he ''definitely'' crosses a line when he tells Maggie he has no intention to be put down like a dog, "like Glenn was." Daryl gives him a well-deserved punch to the face for it.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: With the exceptions of Glenn, Abraham and Dr. Carson, every other person we see Negan kill on-screen is an AssholeVictim in some way.
** [[TheStarscream Spencer]] tries to betray Rick for shallow and poorly thought out reasons, so Negan guts him like a fish in front of everybody.
** When [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil David]] attempts to rape Sasha, Negan berates him harshly to scare him, then stabs him in the neck.
** [[TheSociopath Simon]] massacred several people at the Junkyard and Oceanside, so Negan beats and strangles him to death in a TrialByCombat right in front of all the rest of the Saviors.
** Margo's death by head trauma may have been accidental, but considering she was beating up [[WouldHurtAChild Lydia]] at the time, it's impossible to feel any sympathy for her.
** His killing of Brandon in the following episode also qualifies, given the latter's casual murder of an innocent mother and her son in a twisted effort to prove himself as a loyal "Savior".
** His assassination of Alpha is absolutely this given she was an unrepentant mass murderer who intended on wiping out the entire Coalition and believed that she was on her way to kill her own daughter.
** His decimation of the Valak's Vipers gang was also well-deserved.
** He helps Maggie cut down the Reaper Paul Wells, a member of the murderous gang who sacked Meridian unprovoked and had been hunting the group. He helps kill other Reapers too, and is the one who ultimately defeats Carver, a sadistic psychopath who got off on torturing people.
* KindnessButton: Dislikes it whenever his victims cry and does ''try'' to apologize for whatever he said. As evidenced when he makes Carl cry after mocking his injury, he genuinely tells him he's sorry for crossing the line. Though since he still is a MoodSwinger, his moments of compassion are far little in between.
* KneelBeforeZod: Forces Rick's group to kneel before him when at his mercy. It's also shown that he forces his own Saviors to bow to him as well.
* LargeHam: You ''will'' know when Negan is in the room. He loves hearing himself talk and is a natural showman. Although he does become slightly more subdued after his HeelFaceTurn.
* LargeHamRadio: "Rock in the Road" reveals that he occasionally graces the airwaves with his obnoxious persona, eulogizing Fat Joey over the Saviors' walkie talkie network.
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: PlayedWith. He does not appear in person until the Season 6 finale, ten episodes after his presence is first felt.
* LastKiss: He gives one to Alpha after slashing her throat and letting her bleed out.
* LaughablyEvil: His theatrics and mannerisms are often hilarious, even for such a terrifying psychopath.
* TheLeader: Of the Saviors.
* LeanAndMean: In stark contrast to his comic counterpart, who was LargeAndInCharge. Jeffrey Dean Morgan intentionally invoked this to play Negan, deciding the character should have a "lean and hungry" look.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The scratchy guitar riff that plays during his introduction (most notably when he introduces Lucille). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLq5Ka3HHo You know the one.]]
* LetThePastBurn: He left his undead wife to burn along with the house they shared. Years later, he burns Lucille the bat as a way of making peace with her death and letting go of his past as a villain.
* LightningBruiser: In physical combat, Negan not only hits fast, he hits like a Mack truck. Every time Rick goes up against him, he manages to beat him and Rick is forced to escape.
** Although, see "No Other Way" for a subversion: while Negan may be a good fighter against non-trained combatants, he's no match going up against an Afghanistan war vet like Carver, and has to resort to using his wits and a well-timed sneak attack (with assistance from Elijah) to get the upper hand.
* LivingWithTheVillain: Well, ''former'' villain. As of "Here's Negan", he's chosen to live in Alexandria as a resident instead of a prisoner. Maggie is none too happy about it. [[spoiler:After Part 1 of Season 11, however, he leaves the group knowing Maggie would eventually turn on and kill him.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-P]]
* TheMadHatter: He admits that he's a lunatic, but enjoys letting everyone know it to scare them for a cheap laugh.
* {{Manchild}}: Pre-apocalypse Negan was essentially a less psychotic version of his current persona. After being fired from his job as a gym teacher he spent most of his days playing ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' with teenagers and purchasing items he and his wife couldn't afford to waste money on, like a ''$600'' leather jacket.
* {{Mangst}}: Lucille's death still deeply affects him to this day, though you'd never guess it from his happy-go-lucky personality and {{Harem}} of wives.
* ManipulativeBastard: Mind games are his specialty. Even sitting in a cell, he's a master at getting under people's skin and pushing at their weaknesses.
* ManlyTears: During his confrontation with Maggie in "What Comes After" and when consoling Lydia about Alpha's death in "The Tower".
* MindRape: The Season 7 premiere is mostly dedicated to him psychologically torturing and breaking Rick until he's enough of a wreck to comply with his orders. As Season 7 progresses, it seems that this is a specialty for him.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter: He thinks that enslaving communities and bullying them into submission is how he can force them all to be strong. And he's apparently always had this philosophy, if the flashback of him playing video games with teenagers before the apocalypse is any indication.
-->'''Negan:''' Don’t be such a pussy, this is how you get better! You gotta take it!
* MisplacedRetribution: After Lucille's death he went after the bikers who held him hostage and threatened to dump her chemotherapy bags in the toilet, this despite the fact that Lucille killed herself on the day he left and the bikers had nothing to do with it beyond preventing Negan from making it back to their house a day earlier.
* TheMole: The ending of "Walk With Us" reveals he was tasked by Carol to infiltrate the Whisperers and take out Alpha.
* MoodSwinger: He can shift his emotional state from a dark and scary presence to a comical, happy act in a millisecond. Even his own minions can't get a fix on how to react to him.
* MoralMyopia: He completely disregards all the pain and suffering he brings upon other communities serving him since all he wants is supplies that benefit him and his Saviors.
* MotorMouth: Negan just does not know when to shut up. [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] by both Rick and Gabriel at different points, and Negan even agrees with Michonne's assessment that he likes hearing himself talk.
--> '''Rick:''' Do you ever shut the hell up?
--> '''Negan:''' Nope!
** It really puts him at odds with [[TheStoic Beta]], who comes very close to killing him for this reason and only relents when Negan reveals he has vital information about their enemy to give to Alpha.
* TheMourningAfter: It's clear that despite having a harem of wives he never got over the death of his first wife, Lucille. In Season 9, he begs Maggie to put him out of his misery so the two of them can be TogetherInDeath. Alpha also surmises that even though Negan is grateful his wife didn't live to see how awful the world would become, he has spent every day since her death wishing he could have died alongside her; Negan doesn't deny it. He finally comes to terms with Lucille's passing in "Here's Negan".
* MuggingTheMonster: Initially, Rick is far too overconfident about the idea of facing Negan, believing him to simply be a BigBadWannabe (like Gareth), an enemy who's powerful but not overwhelming (like the Governor), or, as Daryl theorizes, a fictional boogeyman created by the Saviors to intimidate people. He is very, very wrong.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: Not especially physically imposing, but he can more than hold his own in a fight against people like [[TheBerserker Rick]] or [[TheDragon Simon]]. He’s not a match for everyone, though -- see his last encounter with [[SanitySlippage Beta]] who, even though he had chunked a walker at Negan (giving him less time to respond to the attack), it’s safe to say had him beat if Daryl hadn’t arrived to save the day. He also is unable to hold his own against the Reaper Carver, a trained war veteran and mercenary, and has to resort to trickery and distraction to get one over him.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After staunchly refusing to admit to any wrongdoing in regards to Glenn's death, he ''finally'' seems to have some remorse when [[spoiler:Hershel]] pulls a gun on him, intending to shoot him for [[spoiler:killing his father]]. It appears to hit close to home as Negan is about to become a father himself; he ends up breaking down in tears while admitting to [[spoiler:Hershel]] that he took something from him and Maggie that he can never make up for.
* MyGreatestFailure:
** His failure to put down his zombified wife is still a great source of shame for him. "Here's Negan" reveals that he ''did'' technically put her down, but by leaving her to slowly burn to death in their flaming house because he couldn't bring himself to simply bash her in the head.
** He indicates that Rick's raid on the satellite outpost was this for him as leader of the Saviors. He says he was forced to explain to countless people why an entire outpost of people with friends and families were lost on his watch - and admits that he should’ve wiped out Rick’s group when he had the chance.
* MythologyGag:
** In his first appearance, he wears an exact replica of the outfit Negan wore in his comic debut. He also comments on two separate occasions that he should shave his BeardOfEvil, as his comic counterpart was nearly always clean-shaven. He finally does shave his beard in the mid-season finale.
** His killing of two hostages because somebody tried to take him down during his villainous monologue bears resemblance to a similar moment when [[ArcVillain Carver]] from ''Videogame/TheWalkingDead'' game does the exact same thing if Clementine and Kenny try to take him out during his speech.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: Robert Kirkman never gave Negan a last name in the comics. The show gives him the surname "Smith".[[note]]The name can be seen on the mailbox in front of his house.[[/note]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Robert Kirkman chose his name because he liked how negative it sounded.
* NecessarilyEvil: How he sees himself: he feels that his despotic rule over the Saviors and their forced vassal states are how he can force them all to be strong.
* NeverBeHurtAgain: Buried himself in the Savior leader persona because didn't want to face the pain and guilt he felt over losing Lucille and not staying with her when she asked.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Lucille killed herself while he was away scavenging medical supplies to treat her cancer. This ''breaks'' Negan, since Lucille specifically asked him to stay with her until she passed. Negan refused, since they were only a handful of treatments away from stopping the spread of the disease, and he thought it would be wrong not to keep trying.
* NeverMyFault:
** He takes no responsibility for the fact that it was the Saviors' cruel mistreatment of the community residents that made them unwilling to accept things as they were and start up a rebellion against him. It's ''Rick's'' fault for not being able to stand by and watch his people get bullied and/or killed.
** He tries to rationalize his treatment of his wives to Gabriel by telling him, "all those ladies made a choice."
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Invoking this is a favorite tactic of his. When Daryl punches him, he beats Glenn to death. When Rosita tries to shoot him, he orders Arat to kill someone, and she chooses Olivia.
** By alerting Alpha of Gamma's treachery, he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of all the Alexandrians Beta kills in his search for the traitor. This ironically includes Negan's own former lieutenant, Laura.
* TheNicknamer: Has a variety of nicknames that he uses to refer to other characters.
** Dwight: "Dwighty Boy"
** Maggie: "The Widow"
** Father Gabriel: "Gabe/Gabey", "Father Not-the-Father"
** Siddiq: "Dr. Baby Daddy"
** Kingdommers: "Royalty Brigade"
** Beta: "Jolly Green Giant", "Frowny Mc[=Two=] Knives"
** Duncan: "Man-Tits", "Sasquatch"
* NightmareFetishist:
** He has Carl remove the bandages over his eye so he can admire how mutilated his face is. He even asks if he ''can touch his exposed eye socket''.
** He doesn't mind when Alpha insists on leaving her mask on before seducing him. Given he is trying to get in close to eventually assasinate her, it's a bit ambiguous as to if he really means it or not.
--> '''Alpha:''' Does my true skin disturb you?
--> '''Negan:''' Not at all. Weirdly, the opposite.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Pre-apocalypse, he dished one out to an obnoxious asshole who refused to lower his voice in a bar when Lucille politely asked him and tried to fight Negan when he stepped in to defend his wife. According to Negan, he beat the guy so badly he stopped moving. The man sued Negan and this cost him his job, as the man had kids who went to the school Negan taught gym at.
* NominalHero: As of Season 10. He's formed friendships with Judith and Lydia, expresses disgust as some of his old ways of doing things, and will (usually) go out of his way to save people if it's in his best interest. He also plays a pivotal role in defeating the Whisperers, has no problems working with Alexandria to ensure the community's survival, and puts in effort to make peace with Maggie even though it's clear she wants him dead. But, as he makes clear in "Promises Broken", he ''would'' go back and slaughter all of Rick's group if he could, and it's only because circumstances landed him where he is now and he's had to accept that his way of doing things is over that he's come to terms with helping his old enemies.
* NonProtagonistResolver: He ends up being Alpha's murderer instead of Carol. Downplayed since Carol is the one who freed Negan from jail and ordered him to kill Alpha, so she still had a hand in her death.
* NoOneSeesTheBoss: Going along with OrcusOnHisThrone, it's implied Negan doesn't often intervene in outside affairs, as the people of Hilltop have never seen him. Daryl even suggests that he's possibly just a boogeyman the Saviors made up. The Saviors' mantra is "We are all Negan," and Primo poses as him when he's out of options in order to save his boss the element of surprise.
* NotHisSled: "Here’s Negan" begins with him being sent to live in a cabin in the woods, making it seem as if the show will follow the comic route of him being PutOnABus after the Whisperer arc. At the end of the episode, after coming to terms with his past and burning Lucille, Negan returns to Alexandria to announce to Carol that his new living situation "isn't gonna work out" and asks for permission to bring all his stuff back.
* NothingIsScarier: In Season 6. If the Saviors we see are violent, abrasive and murderous assholes... what's their leader like? We don't learn until the finale.
* NuclearFamily: What Negan forces Carl, Olivia and Judith to be for him in the mid-Season 7 finale. It's really more of a BigScrewedUpFamily though.
* OddFriendship: With Judith. She's a LittleMissSnarker KidHero, he's a former BigBad who's serving a life sentence for his crimes (which she's fully aware of). Yet the two of them get along well enough for Negan to help her with her math homework.
* OhCrap: When he realizes he accidentally killed Margo while saving Lydia.
* OneManArmy: Implied. He shows up to the Whisperers seemingly ready to take them on by himself if he has to. He is fully shown to be this in his backstory, as he took out an entire biker gang by himself with ease.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: Prior to the extenuating circumstances with the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Negan delegated all interactions with vassal states to his lieutenants, such as Simon and Gavin. Aside from Alexandria, he's never been to any of them.
* OutlawCouple: Subverted with Alpha. They have sex and oversee the Battle of Hilltop together, but their relationship doesn't progress any further since Negan is only there to kill Alpha for Carol, and decapitates her when they are completely alone.
* PanickyExpectantFather: He's very concerned for Annie's well-being in "The Rotten Core", revealed to be because she's twelve weeks pregnant with his child.
* PapaWolf: A surrogate one to Judith and Lydia. In "The Storm", Negan throws all caution to the wind when he rescues Judith during a blizzard, the latter having gone to get Daryl's dog. In "Silence the Whisperers", he stops a trio of bullies when they start beating up Lydia. When Alpha announces that she is going to kill Lydia, Negan murders her in response.
* ParryingBullets: Negan does this with Lucille after Rosita tries to shoot him. Needless to say, he treats this like it is a MinorInjuryOverreaction for him, er... Lucille.
* PetTheDog: Every now and again, Negan shows that for all his sadism and cruelty, he does have a kinder side to him.
** Subverted when he saves Rick from walkers that were attacking him twice during his "test" for his trust. Yeah, he was giving Rick a hand in an otherwise impossible situation, but it was also to teach Rick that ''he'' is in charge.
** After Glenn interrupts him during his introductory speech he chooses to let it slide, understanding that it's an "emotional moment" for Rick's group. Downplayed since it doesn't stop him from later killing Glenn anyway.
** In addition to the above, he genuinely apologizes to the group for having to kill Glenn, reminding them that they were warned: "No exceptions!"
** The fact that he didn't choose Rick to die in the Season 6 finale because he didn't want to kill him in front of Carl.
** Despite the sexist comments, he doesn't seem to look down on women in practice, as there are high-ranking female Saviors under his employ, such as Paula, Arat, and Regina. He also abhors the idea of raping a woman, his men stating that he only wants "ass that's willing."
** Perhaps negated by threatening to kill her soon after, but he chides Arat for manhandling Olivia unprovoked while the Saviors are confiscating Alexandria's armory.
** He has a genuine liking for Carl, and sincerely apologizes for making the kid cry over his missing eye, even comforting him after the fact like a father would. It's unfortunately downplayed by Negan threatening the boy in events surrounding it, but it's still something. He also takes a genuine liking to Judith, much to Carl's horror. When he prepares to kill him in the Season 7 finale, he tells him and Rick that he'll try to do it in just one hit to get it over with quickly, since he likes Carl. Shiva thankfully intervenes.
** He also offers nothing but hospitality to Eugene when he's held captive in the Sanctuary, but this is because he wants him to ''join'' his group.
** He sincerely thanks Sasha for cooperating in the standoff with Alexandria, not knowing that she's plotting to die on the way and reanimate and attack him.
** He treats Father Gabriel with respect when they're trapped together in a walker-surrounded trailer, and even opens up to him about his past despite Gabriel trying to kill him. When they manage to escape, he orders his men to treat Gabriel gently when they take him into captivity.
** He gives Rick his sincere condolences for Carl’s death, and his immediate reaction to the news is to ask if his people were responsible. When Rick later is hunting him, partially out of desperation, Negan offers him a new deal where AHK falls back under his control, but they only have to give him 25% of their supplies in each tribute. Then subverted a bit since a condition is that Rick must become his personal janitor and servant indefinitely.
** He apologizes to Jadis for Simon's massacre of her people and even offers her the chance to come back to Sanctuary with him. Even when she refuses his offer, he promises to make it right, which he follows through with by killing Simon for her.
** He apologizes to Gabriel for making fun of him at a time when Gabriel is stressed about his girlfriend Rosita possibly being hurt, though Gabriel angrily tells him to save it.
** He tries his best to give Maggie space after she returns following the final battle with the Whisperers, and to be a team player during the mission to Meridian. Unfortunately Maggie barely regards the effort he has made and makes it clear she’s still scheming to kill him when she has the chance.
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:Implied. While he manages to talk Hershel down from killing him due to the many other lives at risk, he later meets with him in private and tells him to come find him in a few years when he's older, and they'll settle it then.]]
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His speech is littered with casual sexism and misogyny and he believes that MenAreTheExpendableGender. Downplayed, as he doesn't seem to have a problem with women in a position of power, and isn't afraid to express his admiration of [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] Sasha, Rosita, Carol, and Maggie.
* {{Polyamory}}: He has a {{Harem}} of wives who married him in exchange for a more comfortable lifestyle.
-->'''Negan:''' I always wanted to screw a whole bunch of different women. Why settle for just one? Why follow the same old rules?
* PragmaticHero: He has no problems potentially getting Gamma (who he knows is helping the heroes) killed if it means gaining Alpha's trust and moving him a step closer to taking out the leader of the Whisperers herself.
* PragmaticVillainy:
** Negan believes it's better to work as a protection racket for other safe zones in exchange for supplies. This is the only reason why he doesn't simply slaughter all of Rick's group when he has them completely OutGambitted in the Season 6 finale. He later leaves them a truck for them to use to gather supplies for his tribute, and at Alexandria, he does not touch their food supplies since if Alexandria starves to death, he doesn't get ''any'' supplies period.
** This gets flipped on it’s head by Season 11 when he outlines to Maggie that he should have killed all of Alexandria’s leaders during their initial confrontation. If he had thoroughly wiped out the ones who ultimately rallied the communities to rebel against him, Negan would’ve never lost his empire. While Negan is lamenting the loss of everything he had, he is also encouraging Maggie to not make his mistake when it comes to the Reapers.
* PromotedToLoveInterest: He and Alpha never became lovers in the comics. It's still not enough to stop him from killing her, however.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Starting Season 7.
* PsychopathicManchild: Oh yes. He playfully chooses which one of Rick's group members he wants to kill in a game of eeny meeny miny mo while taunting them with petty insults. His process of coercing Rick's partnership also involves him bullying the man by forcing him to get his hatchet off the roof of an RV in a zombie infested fog area like a bully throwing a toy on a high place. When he hits Glenn with Lucille and dislodges his eye, Negan's taunt of "I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out, and it is gross as shit!" sounds like a bully gloating to the poor kid he just beat up.
* PsychoticLoveTriangle: He's coerced Sherry into his harem, but competes for her loyalty with her ex-husband [[SanitySlippage Dwight]].
* PsychoticSmirk: Wears one of these frequently.
* PummelingTheCorpse: Continues clubbing Abraham and Glenn's heads long after they're clearly dead.
* PungeonMaster: A [[BlackComedy dark example]]. He makes cruel {{Pun}}s regarding the ones he killed (specifically, Glenn and Abraham) such as them receiving the "Spirit Award" for their "efforts" and calling the weapon he used to kill them as a "Vampire [[BatterUp Bat]]".
* PuppyDogEyes: In "Here's Negan". In practically any scene with his wife Lucille, at some point he'll probably look at her with innocent-looking eyes. When Lucille gives him his leather jacket, he's practically ''beaming'' with childlike joy.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Leaves the group on his own near the end of "No Other Way".]]
** TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:He returns four episodes later in "Warlords", and in the nick of time to save Gabriel, too.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:R-U]]
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: As in the comic, Negan appears to be a believer of this, as Wade says that "he only wants ass that's willing." Although, see {{Hypocrite}} above.
* RealAfterAll: For most of Season 6, Rick's group assumes that Negan is a fictional boogeyman the Saviors cooked up in order to strike terror into unsuspecting victims. The finale introduces him as a very real threat.
* RealMenCook: Cooks spaghetti for Carl, Judith, and Olivia while he waits for Rick to return from a scouting trip. He also used to make dinner for his wife before the apocalypse.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In "Acheron, Part I", he gives Maggie a scathing teardown of her totalitarian behavior and letting her hatred of him affect her leadership choices.
* RecruitingTheCriminal: Carol springs him from jail with the promise that she will speak on his behalf if he takes out Alpha for her.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: His favorite look is wearing his black leather jacket, black faded pants, and his red ScarfOfAsskicking.
* RedemptionDemotion: He goes through this in Season 9 after his incarceration. Without his Saviors to back him up, absolutely no one is scared of him or has any tolerance for his bullshit anymore and barely even register him as a legitimate threat, even those who used to quake in fear around him such as Eugene.
* RedOniBlueOni:
** The verbose and gleefully childlike Red Oni to Rick's serious and somewhat more reserved Blue Oni.
** He is, however, the Blue Oni compared to Simon, who strongly believes in solving the Saviors' problems through violence, while Negan often prefers psychological manipulation and always tries to see the bigger picture.
** He's also the Blue to Maggie's Red in Season 11. Maggie is fueled largely by her anger towards Negan and frustration at losing Meridian to the Reapers. Negan is calmer and tries to offer more reasonable (if pragmatic) solutions.
* ReformedButNotTamed: Especially after "Here's Negan". He's still a bit of a dick with a snarky attitude who's willing to take pragmatic means to survive such as leaving Maggie behind.
* ReformedButRejected: And quite understandably so, given the amount of damage he caused during his time as a BigBad. Even after returning to Alexandria and saving Judith during a blizzard, he is still on shaky ground with most of the Alexandrians. The only people even willing to give him a chance are Michonne, Laura, Siddiq, and Gabriel, and it takes Negan killing Alpha and rescuing Daryl from some Whisperers for Daryl to genuinely start coming around on him.
* ReminiscingAboutYourVictims: Invoked when he tries to commit SuicideByCop and "fondly" recalls to Maggie how his brutal dispatch of Glenn made him realize how much he got a kick out of sadistically killing people.
* RevengeByProxy: He kills Glenn as revenge for Daryl punching him in the face.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: He took out all of the grief and anger he was feeling from Lucille's death by massacring the entire Valak's Vipers biker gang single-handedly.
* SadClown: Underneath all the crudeness and joking is a man still deeply haunted by the tragedy of his wife's death.
* {{Sadist}}: He openly admits that he enjoys killing -- men at least, though he'd kill a woman too -- and clearly likes inflicting both physical and psychological pain; in fact, his debut consists of gleefully murdering two people and then spending the rest of the episode [[MindRape mind raping]] Rick.
* SadisticChoice:
** He makes Rick choose to either cut off Carl's arm or watch his entire group be shot in the head. He relents at the last second when it's clear that Rick has been pacified.
** He is on the receiving end of this from Craven in "Here’s Negan", being forced to either divulge the location of Franklin's camp or be shot and have Lucille die thinking he ran out on her. It ends up being for naught since, unknown to him, Lucille is already dead anyway.
** [[spoiler:He makes Maggie agree to stop trying to kill him if he assists her in taking back Meridian from the Reapers.]]
* ScarfOfAsskicking: He's wearing a red scarf underneath his leather jacket a lot of the time.
* SecretTestOfCharacter:
** "The Cell" shows that he's been secretly testing [[PunchClockVillain Dwight]] and [[BadassInDistress Daryl]] to see where their loyalties are with him.
** "Service" implies that he was testing Rick's patience with him the whole time when he asks Rick to hold Lucille for him while he proceeded to bully everyone in the community.
* SelfImposedExile: [[spoiler:After seeing Maggie execute the remaining Reapers, Negan accepts that his peace with Maggie is likely own temporary peace and she could one day revert to her old ways and try to do the same with him. Thus, he takes Aaron's advice and chooses to exile himself from the Coalition and be on his own way.]]
* SettleForSibling: He originally desired Tina as his wife, but after she died, accepted her sister Sherry's offer of marriage in exchange for Dwight's life being spared.
* ShroudedInMyth: Prior to "Last Day on Earth", when he reveals himself to the Alexandrians, no one outside of the Saviors has any definitive proof that he even exists at all. Daryl even speculates that he is nothing more than a [[ShadowDictator fictional boogeyman]] made up by the Saviors.
* SirSwearsALot: Though heavily [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerized]] compared to his [[ClusterFBomb comic counterpart]], Negan isn't shy about using foul language. In the uncensored version of the Season 6 finale, he uses the F-word a whopping 23 times.
* SlashedThroat: This is how Rick finally puts him down -- by cutting open his throat with a broken shard of glass from a stained glass window.
** Negan later takes a page from Rick's book and successfully uses this move to take out Alpha.
* SlasherSmile: His default facial expression, at least before his HeelFaceTurn.
* SmarterThanYouLook: At first glance, you may be given the impression that he's just a cruel thug, but he is a genuinely credible GeniusBruiser who has led his minions very well, if not in an evil way.
* SmugSmiler: He has the nerve to grin at Maggie as he re-enters Alexandria to continue living there after Carol banished him. It's worth mentioning that the script originally called for Negan to simply glare at Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan actually did do several takes of this version. In the end, the editors decided to go with the take of him smiling because they felt it did a better job setting up the conflict for Season 11.
* SmugSnake: He is incredibly boastful and supremely confident in his authority and leadership. He delights in lording power over others because he knows they can't do anything to fight back.
* SoLastSeason: After getting defeated, the survivors have become more savvy to his manipulation tactics and don't fear him much without his Saviors to back him up. Becomes even more pronounced when the Whisperers take over as the major threat, with even Negan lampshading that he's gone from "Public Enemy #1" to "the guy doing the laundry and taking out the trash."
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:As of "No Other Way", he's the only Savior introduced as a member of the group who is confirmed to still be alive (barring the non-combatant Gracie).]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:For Carlson's (and Lance's) plan to exterminate the Riverbend community. First, he sends Jesse to Hilltop to notify Maggie, ensuring she is already ''en route'' by the time she meets Aaron halfway on the road. As a trusted member of Riverbend and a more-or-less ally of the Coalition, Negan serves as the diplomat between the two factions, convincing them to work together peacefully to take out Carlson's entire operation. He also rescues Gabriel and Hershel, eliminating any potential bargaining chips Carlson may have had.]]
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Starting in Season 10, he's gotten more story importance and been featured in more of the promotional material than many of the characters who have been around for longer than him like Eugene, Rosita, Gabriel, and Aaron. He's also one of four (the others being Daryl, Carol, and Maggie) to be chosen to be a part of ''The Walking Dead: Origins'' series of specials documenting each character's journey over the course of the show, even though Negan only made his introduction in the Season 6 finale.
* TheStarscream: When Negan first arrived at the Sanctuary, he (with the help of [[TheDragon Simon]], himself an example of the trope) overthrew the original leader who he saw was doing a poor job of leading the community, and brought the various gangs and factions that had built up in the Sanctuary together.
* StartOfDarkness: "Here's Negan" chronicles how Negan started on the path from normal high school gym teacher to maniacal, post-apocalyptic warlord.
* StoppedCaring: Negan actually found it unnerving to kill walkers at first, let alone any living, breathing human. Needless to say, after [[MoralityChain Lucille's]] death he seemed to get over it pretty quickly, to the point of outright finding it ''fun''.
* SubmissiveBadass: Despite being a natural leader with years of experience, he doesn't seem to mind falling under Ian's leadership when he joins the Riverbend apartment community.
* SuddenlyShouting: He rarely yells at people, but when he does, it is truly terrifying.
-->"That... was a no-no. '''THE WHOLE THING! NOT ONE BIT OF THAT SHIT FLIES HERE!'''"
-->"But there's always work. There is always a cost. '''HERE, if you try to SKIRT IT! If you try to [[PunctuatedForEmphasis CUT! THAT! CORNER!]]'''"
* SuicideByCop: After being broken by his year and a half-long incarceration, he tries to goad Maggie into killing him by mocking Glenn's death to her face. It almost works, until Maggie realizes what it is he's really after and decides to let him suffer.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: He stands 6'2, and is a crazy, imposing, and [[LaughablyEvil darkly comedic]] character.
* TattooedCrook: He has several tattoos (Jeffrey Dean Morgan's own) and eventually spends most of a decade locked up inside Alexandria's jail.
* TautologicalTemplar: He is absolutely convinced that his way is the only way and [[NeverMyFault refuses to admit any wrongdoing on his part]].
* TeamKiller: Murders Dr. Carson (who was framed by Dwight), David (who was about to rape Sasha) and Simon (who betrayed and was planning to assassinate him).
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: With the Coalition as of late Season 10. No one wants him around due to having memories of what he did, but are forced to acknowledge him being useful and having earned his keep due to executing Alpha. It's most notable when he gets invited on the trip to scavenge food from Meridian and the team consists almost entirely of people who are fiercely loyal to Maggie. It gets worse when the majority of the group are either sidelined due to injuries (Alden), MIA (Gabriel and Elijah), or outright killed or kidnapped by the Reapers (Daryl and everyone else), forcing Maggie and Negan to travel alone. They later meet up with Gabriel and Elijah and the four of them work together to infiltrate Meridian, with Negan and Maggie proving to be a very effective team once they put their feud on hold and actually start cooperating.
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Has this reaction when he takes his first human life by using the newly-created Lucille to bash in the skull of one of Craven's men. He quickly gets over it.
* TheyDiedBecauseOfYou: Aaron accuses him of failing his wife, which clearly strikes a nerve. We see why in "Here's Negan".
* ThisMeansWar: After witnessing the united communities working together ''against'' him firsthand, Negan gets right to the point letting his people know what to expect in the coming weeks.
--> '''Negan:''' We are going to war!
* TokenEvilTeammate: Downplayed. He takes pragmatic means to kill Alpha but still follows through and takes out the leader of their sworn enemy. However, since the Whisperers are still a threat even without Alpha, it's implied Negan did this so that Carol would vouch for him to the Coalition, rather than out of any sort of altruism.
* TookALevelInBadass: In "Here's Negan", we see how he went from being unable to even kill a walker by himself and making a clumsy attempt at a robbery with an unloaded gun to taking out an entire biker gang almost single-handedly and starting on the path to becoming leader of the Saviors.
* TookALevelInJerkass: One that goes hand in hand with his level in badass. He was once a flawed but respectable guy who loved his wife and didn't actively ''seek'' to hurt anyone. The Negan we meet in the Season 6 finale is a sadistic warlord who demands half of everything from every group he encounters and delights in bashing in the skulls of his victims.
* TookALevelInKindness:
** Prior to meeting Rick's group, he went from a LazyBum who was cheating on Lucille to a dedicated husband determined to help his wife beat her cancer. [[CrusadingWidower Unfortunately...]]
** After Maggie spares his life, he takes on a less antagonistic attitude and his interactions with others from that point on are portrayed in a much lighter fashion. By the end of Season 10, he's firmly in JerkWithAHeartOfGold territory.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He loves powdered lemonade, and during the faceoff in the Season 7 finale, he orders Alexandria to surrender their supplies... and their remaining lemonade.
* TragicKeepsake: His leather jacket. He bought it before the apocalypse, but his wife didn't approve of him spending $600 on it when they couldn't afford it. She hid it from him for months and said she returned it to the store, and gave it back to him not long before she died.
* TragicVillain: While it excuses none of his actions since then, it is a bit sad seeing how much Negan loved his wife and knowing he was just another victim of the apocalypse who lost himself along the way.
* TranquilFury: Anytime his usual joking manner is absent... be afraid.
** The first time he confronts Rick's group personally he greets them in a positive, joking manner before giving them a HannibalLecture. He only raises his voice ''once'', when Rick does the same to him, but even then isn't that harsh with him. In the uncensored cut, however, he does raise his voice a lot more. Starting with the Season 7 premiere, he is much more animated and loud, more closely resembling his comic counterpart.
** He just barely keeps it together when Aaron accuses him of causing his wife's death and suggests that she must have died hating him.
** A good example is when he kills Brandon, who has just murdered an innocent woman and her son and is overjoyed thinking Negan will finally be proud of him for it. Negan is clearly fuming, but he doesn't speak a word the entire time. He simply picks up a rock, walks over to Brandon, and smacks him across the head before proceeding to turn his skull into a bloody mess.
** In "Here's Negan", he is remarkably calm when addressing Craven while also making it clear in no uncertain terms that he is fixing to kill Craven the moment he's done monologuing.
-->'''Negan:''' You best hope I never stop talking. Because when I do... when I do, ''something very terrible is gonna happen to you''.
* {{Tritagonist}}: In Season 10. He gets more focus than anyone in the cast besides Carol and Daryl, and has his own backstory episode to boot.
* {{Troll}}: He knows that everyone either hates and/or fears him, but he enjoys messing with everyone around him anyway by acting like a complete and utter lunatic.
* TheUnapologetic: Even with Maggie back and out for his blood, Negan makes no attempt to actually apologize to her. In "Promises Broken", he outright says to Maggie he would have killed them ''all'' at the lineup if he could go back.
* TheUnfettered: Even after making a HeelFaceTurn, he's adamant that IDidWhatIHadToDo to keep people alive and shows very little remorse for his cruel actions as BigBad.
-->'''Negan:''' I made myself into a monster, because that is what the world needed.
** Set in stone in "Promises Broken", where he firmly justifies everything he did and makes clear he doesn't regret any of it, other than that he ''didn't'' kill Maggie and the rest of the group at the lineup.
* UnseenNoMore: Negan is the GreaterScopeVillain of Season 6 and is frequently mentioned by people who work for him, but only appears in the season finale. In the following seasons, he's a regular.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:V-Y]]
* VilerNewVillain: His presence helps to make Dwight more sympathetic and set him up for a HeelFaceTurn in the back half of Season 7.
* VillainBall: His decision to kill Dr. Carson for failing him comes across as this, considering the lack of doctors or people with medical knowledge in general there are in the apocalypse. True, he had to set an example, and he suggests afterwards that they're going to get the Dr. Carson at Hilltop to replace him, but it's really not wise to diminish such a valuable resource on the strength of one man's word and a coerced confession.
* VillainExitStageLeft: ''Attempts'' this when the tide turns against him in "Wrath". Rick quickly catches up to him and [[SlashedThroat puts an end to his reign for good]].
* VillainousBSOD:
** When Carl (trying to buy the Alexandrians time to escape) offers himself up as a sacrifice in "How It's Gotta Be", he outright asks Negan if he's happy with himself and the man he's become. Negan's silent reaction suggests that Carl's words hit a little too close to home.
** Negan breaks down crying when Rick mentions the now-deceased Carl during their final face-off, as if the pain of what he’s done is finally catching up with him. Then Rick slashes his throat.
* VillainousFriendship:
** He starts to form one with Spencer in "Hearts Still Beating", when Spencer introduces himself to Negan. After Spencer tells him about a Pool table and offers to play a game with Negan, he calls Spencer his "new best friend" and during the game he appears to take sympathy for Spencer when he tells him the story of how his mom was the original leader before Rick came and everyone in his family died, saying it was "the saddest story [he'd] ever heard". Subverted when he refuses to help Spencer kill Rick, and instead calls him a gutless coward for going behind Rick's back to ask Negan to do the dirty work for him before gutting him through the stomach.
** He forms one with Eugene of all people, hoping to convince him to join the Saviors as their EvilGenius. It's worth telling that Eugene's also the first person at the Sanctuary who isn't outright threatened by him or any of his followers. Indeed, Negan genuinely seems to get a kick out of Eugene's [[TheComicallySerious stoic and overly-complex manner of speaking]]. When Negan is released from his cell for the first time in years, he can't help but crack a smile at listening to Eugene talk again.
--> '''Negan:''' Damn, I missed you, Eugene.
** He starts up yet another one with Alpha when he joins the Whisperers... and while it's not a ''true'' friendship since he's only there to kill her and has no actual interest in joining her group, Negan does admit he liked Alpha and laments being unable to convince her to change her ways.
* VillainRespect:
** Though he takes every opportunity he can to make Rick miserable and torture him, he admits that he has respect for him. Negan remembers how Rick said he would kill him, clearly hating him for murdering Abraham and Glenn, but he has swallowed that hatred and put his pride aside, submitting to him and going out to gather supplies for him to keep his group safe from The Saviors, saying how all of that takes guts. Because of this he refuses to help Spencer with his plan to murder Rick and put Spencer in charge of Alexandria because Spencer is a coward who only talked to Negan after Rick was gone and wanted for Negan to do the dirty work for him.
** This respect also extends to two more of Rick's group: Negan respects Olivia for standing up to him despite her fear, and takes a shine to her, even admitting that had he chosen someone to die instead of Arat, she wouldn't have been the one he picked; Gabriel, meanwhile, is one of the few to seriously unnerve Negan, which Negan ironically admires. The two work well together to make it out of a harrowing situation alive, and when they are finally safe in the confines of the Sanctuary, Negan treats Gabriel kindly, allowing Eugene to take him a blanket and an ice pack, later also granting him prompt medical attention when he falls ill.
* VillainsNeverLie: Rick's group discovers this the hard way when Negan kills Glenn after he had already announced that any retaliation (in this case, Daryl's punch) would result in serious consequences to the rest of the group and he needed to make sure his point was understood.
* VillainsWantMercy: He begs Maggie to grant him an undeserved MercyKill as opposed to spending the rest of his life behind bars. Maggie, wanting him to suffer but realizing she'll be doing him a favor if she executes him, declines.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: He finds it fascinating how little Carl is afraid of him, especially in contrast to many of his own people. Negan vows to corrupt Carl into being one of his top soldiers one day, and is genuinely disappointed when Rick announces that Carl has died, ensuring that the boy wouldn't be around to help build the future he wanted to create.
* VisionaryVillain: He plans to rebuild society by finding other communities to "save" and having them produce for him in exchange for protection.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: He explains this as his mindset to Maggie after the Whisperer War as to why he is no longer the enemy of the group. In his view, there is too little left to bother fighting over, and too little decent people left to fight with; and Alpha’s attempt to destroy the Coalition’s civilization was the last nail in the coffin for him that he needed to join with other people and not dominate and extort them as he had done in the past, so they could have a shot at surviving and building a future.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Offers Sasha a chance at joining the Saviors, and outright says that with her courage and status as a bonafide badass, she could one day join his inner circle and help him lead the empire.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: How he sees the Saviors and himself: they're subjugating others in order to make them strong and able to contend with the CrapsackWorld they've all found themselves in. Gabriel takes issue with this viewpoint, pointing out that [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Negan's methods are dangerous and cruel]].
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Numerous times:
** When fighting zombies with the temporarily blinded Aaron, who wouldn't let him use a weapon to fight the dead, Negan could have left him to fight on his own or die, and no one would ever know the truth except as it came from Negan. He doesn't and chooses to watch over Aaron for the night.
** His wife Lucille invoked this on him. He ended his affair with Janine after Lucille's cancer diagnosis and never spoke to her again. Lucille had never told him that she knew about it.
* TheWonka: Downplayed. He really comes across as crazy and random, but he has successfully outsmarted Rick Grimes with his skills.
* WontDoYourDirtyWork: His response to Spencer's cowardly appeal to have Negan kill Rick behind his leader's back.
* TheWorfEffect:
** He is effortlessly knocked to the ground like a toy by the mammoth Beta, and later is defeated in mere seconds by him in “A Certain Doom” despite being fully prepared for a fight.
** Despite taking on the Reaper Carver with Maggie and a wounded Elijah at his side in a small hallway, Negan is still thrashed around by the highly trained combat veteran and doesn’t succeed until he uses his wits to outsmart him. It establishes that the Reapers are too dangerous to be kept alive if just one of them - a disturbingly sadistic one at that - was able to manhandle three of the best fighters the group has ever had in their ranks.
* WorthyOpponent:
** He views Daryl as one for showing his complete defiance towards his authority, but the only reason he's keeping him alive is because he wants to recruit him for the Saviors.
** He also views Carl as one for showing absolutely no fear around his presence and admires how the KidHero broke into the Sanctuary just to kill him even though he knew it would end in his own death. According to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan views Carl as the son he never had.
** In his own twisted way, he appears to respect Rick considerably more than most of his own people, even ones he's been with for a long time. Rick could easily stay home and order some of his people to go out and forage for supplies, but instead he always goes along and takes more than his share of the risks. Rick also always comes through and delivers supplies as expected. Negan knows he ultimately needs people like Rick, as if he has nothing but sheep working for him, then nothing will ever get done. Spencer finds out the hard way that Negan doesn't like slackers who try to get someone else to do the dirty work.
** He tries to keep his distance from Maggie once she returns after the Whisperer War, knowing very well she is capable of killing him. By “No Other Way” he decides to leave the group after seeing her lead the war effort against the Reapers, completely convinced she could have him dead to rights the moment his back is turned regardless of their deal.
* WouldHitAGirl: Though he claims he doesn't like killing women, he will ''not'' hesitate to do so if he has to. Just ask Alpha.
* WouldHurtAChild: In the Season 7 finale, he is seconds away from killing Carl before the timely arrival of Shiva and the Kingdom.
* WouldntHurtAChild: Following Carl's death from a walker bite he becomes this.
* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: He recalls the gruesome details of Glenn's murder as part of a gambit to be slain by Maggie.
* YouAreInCommandNow: After Negan kills Alpha, a trio of Whisperers submit to him as their new leader. Unfortunately for them, Negan has no interest in taking over the Whisperers, and seizes this moment as a chance to prove his loyalty to Daryl by killing all three of the skins.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After escaping his cell he returns home to the Sanctuary, only to find it entirely abandoned and in ruins. He ends up deciding to head back to Alexandria.
* YouGotSpunk: {{Jerkass}} he may be, Negan will often take a moment to marvel at the courage shown by the members of Rick's group.
** He clearly admires Carl's stone-cold badassery in the face of a potentially horrible demise and seems more impressed than angry after Carl breaks into Sanctuary and almost kills him.
** He also seems to admire Abraham's [[HeroicSacrifice willingness to sacrifice himself as the potential victim]] and for said victim "taking it like a champ" after Negan delivers the first blow to Abraham from Lucille. Likewise, he seems to respect Daryl after he attacked him for mocking Abraham's death and notes that (unlike Rick) he still refuses to submit.
** Similarly, he also respects Olivia for standing up to him and refusing to leave Judith and Carl alone with him. The Season 7 midseason finale shows that, while he may not like Rick and he'll take any opportunity he can to mock him, Negan has grown to respect him for swallowing his pride and continuing to work for him despite how much Rick clearly hates him. Enough that he guts Spencer like a fish after he tries to convince Negan to kill Rick and let Spencer be in charge instead.
** Negan comes to respect [[ArchEnemy Maggie]] for her iron-willed devotion to her people and her son, even if it means sacrificing the community she's worked so hard these last few months to build.
-->'''Negan:''' You have big balls, Maggie Rhee.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Negan's reaction when one of the Saviors finds the RPG that took out Bud and his crew is one of astonishment and sadistic glee, stating he couldn't wait to test out that rocket launcher.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: He is disgusted by Brandon's fanatical devotion to the old ways of the Saviors and his regime.
* YouRemindMeOfX: When discussing his late wife with his current lover Alpha, he mentions how she looked beautiful even when she lost her hair (from cancer), and then gazes wistfully at Alpha, clearly having a flashback to his beloved Lucille.
[[/folder]]
!!Weapons
[[folder:Lucille]]
!!''Lucille''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twdtv_lucillebat.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Lucille is thirsty! She is a vampire bat!"'']]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/{{The Walking Dead|2010}}'' (Seasons 6-8, 10)
!!!'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E16LastDayOnEarth Last Day on Earth]]"
->''"This is Lucille. And she is awesome."''
-->-- '''Negan'''
Negan's primary weapon, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Lucille quickly becomes notorious in the series for being the weapon used to murder Glenn Rhee and Abraham Ford. The bat originally belonged to Savior lieutenant Laura, who gave it to Negan to defend himself from marauders on the road.
For tropes related to Lucille Smith, see [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies here]].
----
* BatterUp: Negan's signature weapon, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire that he uses both in combat and to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make an example of people in front of their loved ones]].
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Negan first wrapped Lucille in barbed wire on the night he returned to find his wife (the original Lucille) dead as a walker.
* CompanionCube: [[NamedWeapons Lucille]] creepily comes across as this to Negan as he describes her like a close friend, or even a lover. Later revealed to be a way of coping with the loss of his wife, who was named Lucille.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Lucille is first alluded to in "East", when Carl notices an image of the bat carved into one of the guns Rick's group took from the Saviors' outpost.
* HeroKiller: Literally, as she's used to kill two of the series' main heroes, Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee.
* ICallItVera: See the above quote. Negan takes a moment to introduce Lucille to Rick's group when they first meet, and informs them that she will be used to turn at least one of their skulls into mush before the night is through.
* IconicItem: One of the most recognizable items associated with the series. Even people who don't watch the show have probably heard of or can recognize Lucille.
* KillItWithFire: Lucille is finally destroyed when Negan burns her in the fireplace in Leah's cabin.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Lucille sustains damage from her first two on-screen victims from beyond the grave.
** In "Hearts Still Beating", she takes a bullet fired by Abraham's ex-girlfriend, Rosita.
** In "The Key", the lighter Rick uses to set Lucille on fire originally belonged to Glenn.
* NamedWeapons: A baseball bat named in honor of Negan's dead wife.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Negan burning her in the fire is symbolic of him finally overcoming the trauma caused by his wife's death as well as officially putting his past as a villain to rest.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the comics, Lucille ends up getting destroyed when Negan repeatedly smashes her on Beta's back during the Whisperer War. This does not happen in the show, and the original Lucille remains unaccounted for until the Season 10 finale, "Here's Negan", when she is finally destroyed for good.
* WeaponOfChoice: "Lucille" is a baseball bat, which, as a piece of sporting equipment, highlights Negan's playfulness. However, it is also wrapped in barbed wire, demonstrating the violent and brutal side of his nature.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: When Negan asks to see Lucille in Season 9, Michonne claims that the bat is still lying under the tree where Negan last dropped it. She wasn't lying -- Negan returns to the tree eight years later in search of the bat and, after some digging, finds her buried underneath the grass and dirt that has accumulated over the last decade.
* WreckedWeapon:
** First, Lucille blocks a homemade bullet intended to kill Negan. Then, in "The Key", Rick gets a hold of Lucille and lights her on fire to draw Negan out of hiding. The bat survives both occasions.
** Lucille is irreparably damaged when Negan digs her out of the ground after eight years and uses her to kill a walker. He burns her in the fire shortly afterward.
* YourHeadASplode: Negan's SignatureMove is to repeatedly whack his victims' heads using Lucille until it's all gore. Abraham and Glenn sadly find this out the hard way.
[[/folder]]
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->''"No one ever thinks that they're the evil one."''
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* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Has this reaction when he takes his first human life by using the newly-created Lucille to bash in the skull of one of Craven's men.
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* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Has this reaction when he takes his first human life by using the newly-created Lucille to bash in the skull of one of Craven's men. He quickly gets over it.
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* SoLastSeason: After getting defeated, the survivors have become more savvy to his manipulation tactics and don't fear him much without his Saviors to back him up. Becomes even more pronounced when the Whisperers take over as the major threat, with even Negan lampshading that he's gone from "Public Enemy #1" to "the guy doing the laundry and taking out the trash."
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* BreakoutVillain: He gets far more to do than his comic counterpart, eventually becoming one of the show's main characters by Season 10. His popularity led to him being announced to be headlining a spinoff with Maggie in 2023. This news also makes Negan one of three characters confirmed to survive the mother show's series finale, the others being Maggie and Daryl.
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* BreakoutVillain: He gets far more to do than his comic counterpart, eventually becoming one of the show's main characters by Season 10. His popularity led to him being announced to be headlining a spinoff with Maggie in 2023. This news also makes Negan one of three characters confirmed to survive the mother main show's series finale, the others being Maggie and Daryl.
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* BreakoutVillain: He gets far more to do than his comic counterpart, eventually becoming one of the show's main characters by Season 10. His popularity led to him being announced to be headlining his own spinoff with Maggie starting in 2023.
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* BreakoutVillain: He gets far more to do than his comic counterpart, eventually becoming one of the show's main characters by Season 10. His popularity led to him being announced to be headlining his own a spinoff with Maggie starting in 2023.2023. This news also makes Negan one of three characters confirmed to survive the mother show's series finale, the others being Maggie and Daryl.
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* AmbiguouslyChristian: Downplayed. Negan doesn't appear to be practicing any religion, but he makes enough passive comments about God and the afterlife that it seems as if he at least believes in the possibility of them. Then again, when Gabriel says he became a priest because he wanted to bring people closer to God, Negan chuckles and responds, "You gotta be kidding me." He later joins the religious Riverbend group, though it’s unknown if he actually had a HeelFaithTurn or was only there because he wanted a new community to join and was willing to acquiesce to their beliefs if it meant he could stay.
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* AmbiguouslyChristian: Downplayed. Negan doesn't appear to be practicing any religion, but he makes enough passive comments about God and the afterlife that it seems as if he at least believes in the possibility of them. Then again, when Gabriel says he became a priest because he wanted to bring people closer to God, Negan chuckles and responds, "You gotta be kidding me." He later joins the religious Riverbend group, though it’s unknown if he actually had a HeelFaithTurn or was only there because he wanted a new community to join and was willing to acquiesce to their beliefs if it meant he could stay.
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* AffablyEvil: In Season 8, where he's written with a lighter touch and comes across as much more personable than before.
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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His speech is littered with casual sexism and misogyny and he believes that MenAreTheExpendableGender. Downplayed, as he doesn't seem to have a problem with women in a position of power, and is not afraid to express his admiration of [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] Sasha, Rosita, Carol, and Maggie.
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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His speech is littered with casual sexism and misogyny and he believes that MenAreTheExpendableGender. Downplayed, as he doesn't seem to have a problem with women in a position of power, and is not isn't afraid to express his admiration of [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] Sasha, Rosita, Carol, and Maggie.
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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His speech is littered with casual sexism and misogyny and he believes that MenAreTheExpendableGender. Ultimately downplayed, since he doesn't seem to have a problem with women in a position of power, and is not afraid to express his admiration of [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] Sasha, Rosita, Carol, and Maggie.
to:
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His speech is littered with casual sexism and misogyny and he believes that MenAreTheExpendableGender. Ultimately downplayed, since Downplayed, as he doesn't seem to have a problem with women in a position of power, and is not afraid to express his admiration of [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] Sasha, Rosita, Carol, and Maggie.
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** Despite the sexist comments, he doesn't look down on women in practice, as there are high-ranking female Saviors under his employ, such as Paula, Arat, and Regina. He also abhors the idea of raping a woman, his men stating that he only wants "ass that's willing."
to:
** Despite the sexist comments, he doesn't seem to look down on women in practice, as there are high-ranking female Saviors under his employ, such as Paula, Arat, and Regina. He also abhors the idea of raping a woman, his men stating that he only wants "ass that's willing."
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* {{Polyamory}}: He has a {{Harem}} of wives who married him in exchange for a more comfortable lifestyle.
-->'''Negan:''' I always wanted to screw a whole bunch of different women. Why settle for just one? Why follow the same old rules?
-->'''Negan:''' I always wanted to screw a whole bunch of different women. Why settle for just one? Why follow the same old rules?
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** He's also the Blue to Maggie's Red in Season 11. Maggie is fueled largely by her anger towards Negan and is insistent (not without good reason) at pressing forward on the mission even when most of her people are dead or MIA. Negan is calmer and tries to offer more reasonable (if pragmatic) solutions.
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** He's also the Blue to Maggie's Red in Season 11. Maggie is fueled largely by her anger towards Negan and is insistent (not without good reason) frustration at pressing forward on losing Meridian to the mission even when most of her people are dead or MIA.Reapers. Negan is calmer and tries to offer more reasonable (if pragmatic) solutions.
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** By alerting Alpha of Gamma's treachery, he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of all the people Beta kills in his search for the traitor. This ironically includes Negan's own former lieutenant, Laura.
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** By alerting Alpha of Gamma's treachery, he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of all the people Alexandrians Beta kills in his search for the traitor. This ironically includes Negan's own former lieutenant, Laura.
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* AdaptationalAttractiveness: While Negan was a lot more muscular in the comics, he also had a pudgy, thuggish sort of appearance, in contrast to the roguishly handsome Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
* LastKiss: He gives one to Alpha after slashing her throat and letting her bleed out.
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* TheLeader: Of the Saviors. He and Annie also take over leadership of the Riverbend community survivors after [[spoiler:Ian dies]].
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* TheLeader: Of the Saviors. He and Annie also take over leadership of the Riverbend community survivors after [[spoiler:Ian dies]].
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* TookALevelInBadass: In flashbacks, we see how Negan went from being unable to even kill a walker by himself and making a clumsy attempt at a robbery with an unloaded gun to taking out an entire biker gang almost single-handedly and starting on the path to becoming leader of the Saviors.
to:
* TookALevelInBadass: In flashbacks, "Here's Negan", we see how Negan he went from being unable to even kill a walker by himself and making a clumsy attempt at a robbery with an unloaded gun to taking out an entire biker gang almost single-handedly and starting on the path to becoming leader of the Saviors.
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** In flashbacks we see that he went from a LazyBum who was cheating on Lucille to a dedicated husband determined to help his wife beat her cancer. [[CrusadingWidower Unfortunately...]]
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** In flashbacks we see that Prior to meeting Rick's group, he went from a LazyBum who was cheating on Lucille to a dedicated husband determined to help his wife beat her cancer. [[CrusadingWidower Unfortunately...]]
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[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
to:
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMaggieGreene Maggie Greene]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
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[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowVirginia Virginia]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
to:
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowVirginia Virginia]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
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[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowVirginia Virginia]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
to:
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowVirginia Virginia]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherAntagonists Other Antagonists]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
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Changed line(s) 2,3 (click to see context) from:
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowVirginia Virginia]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
to:
[[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRicksGroup Rick's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGrimesFamily The Grimes Family]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowRickGrimes Rick Grimes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGeorgia Georgia]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMorganJones Morgan Jones]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGabrielStokes Gabriel Stokes]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlanta Atlanta]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAtlantaSurvivorCamp Atlanta Survivor Camp]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowDarylDixon Daryl Dixon]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowCarolPeletier Carol Peletier]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowGreeneFamilyFarm Greene Family Farm]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowPrisonNewcomers Prison Newcomers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMichonne Michonne Hawthorne]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowWoodbury Woodbury]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheGovernor The Governor]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTyreesesGroup Tyreese's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheChamblerFamily The Chambler Family]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAbrahamsGroup Abraham's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTerminus Terminus]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowVirginia Virginia]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCoalitionAndOtherAllies The Coalition and Other Allies]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlexandriaSafeZone Alexandria Safe-Zone]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheHilltop The Hilltop Colony]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheKingdom The Kingdom]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOceanside Oceanside]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheSaviors The Saviors]] ('''Negan Smith''', [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowSaviorOutposts Savior Outposts]], [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFormerSaviors Former Saviors]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowMagnasGroup Magna's Group]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheWhisperers The Whisperers]] ([[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowAlpha Alpha]]) | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheCommonwealth The Commonwealth]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowTheReapers The Reapers]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowFamilies Other Families]] | [[Characters/TheWalkingDeadTVShowOtherSurvivorGroups Other Survivor Groups]]]]]]-]
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Changed line(s) 479 (click to see context) from:
* TallDarkAndSnarky: He stands 6'2, and is a crazy, imposing, and darkly comedic character.
to:
* TallDarkAndSnarky: He stands 6'2, and is a crazy, imposing, and [[LaughablyEvil darkly comedic comedic]] character.
Changed line(s) 484 (click to see context) from:
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: He has this reaction when he takes his first human life by using the newly-created Lucille to bash in the skull of one of Craven's men.
to:
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: He has Has this reaction when he takes his first human life by using the newly-created Lucille to bash in the skull of one of Craven's men.
