Awesome shot, Rick… but you’re clearly running… not walking
The Walking Dead is pissing me off a little bit now and it’s not for the reason you probably think it is… It’s for gender diversity reasons. See, here’s the way it works:
All bad-guys are guys. The bigger the bad, the more guys the bad-guy surrounds himself with.
Good-guys are allowed to be… what’s the opposite of guys? Gells? Pretty sure that’s just Yorkshire for girls. Lasses? OK. Good-guys are allowed to be lasses and they can be interesting and fleshed characters. Bad guys have to be manly and evil because men are… I don’t know… better at being evil? Fairly certain that ain’t true.
See! Woman. Evil. I pretty much just chose this picture to remind people that The Emperor’s New Groove exists
So far, the show has given us 1 female antagonist (I’m talking real bad-guy here, not lacky… and, to be honest, not many of those are women). And she lasted a few episodes and wasn’t really all that evil, just a bit naughty. Yes, she can be called a bit naughty when compared to the likes of the Governor.
Now we’re not counting zombies here, because zombies basically cease to be one gender or another. They’re generic teeth-gnashing plot devices for the most part. The real villains of TWD are the living… and that’s kind of the point really, isn’t it.
Christine Woods as Lt. Dawn Lerner… she definitely has the ‘bad-guy’ stare
I’m going to break down the series villains (as I remember them). Spoilers will follow:
Season 1 – no real villains. Zombies are bad.
Season 2 – Arguably the only real human villain was Shane. He was nuts. Not truly evil, but certainly unhinged.
Season 3 – This was the one that gave us the Governor, right? Yeah, he was evil from start to end. Even when he was being good… he was clearly still evil.
Season 4 – Still the Governor. Still evil.
David Morrissey as the Governor. He lasted 2 series so deserves a picture
Season 5 – Terminus. While not a person but rather a place and a community of cannibals, the mouthpiece for the group was a bloke… they were also quite evil.
Then we have the hospital. Finally a villain who is a woman. Not as evil as the others, and only lasted a few episodes.
The final bad-guy in season 5 is Rick. We’ll come back to Rick.
Season 6 – Started with the Wolves(?). Basically a bunch of folk who… um… yeah I’m vague about the whole thing. Their mouthpiece was a bloke again though and he was nuts. Evil nuts. Murdering folk nuts.
Negan… don’t really know much about him, but I’ve been told he makes the Governor look all cute and fluffy. He’s definitely a bloke and definitely all sorts of evil.
Back to Rick. Rick is arguably the biggest villain of the entire show. He’s insane. There’s no arguing that Rick is insane. He regularly goes on insane rants and has even been attacked by his own crew before because of his insanity. He is willing to kill without mercy or hesitation and he always justifies those murders, at least to himself if no one else. To be honest, his first idea whenever he’s confronted by anyone he doesn’t know is to kill them. He’s a villain. A bad guy. Only he’s the good guy.
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes wearing one of many crimson masks
So what brought on this little rant today? Well, I watched the latest episode. Season 6 Episode 12 – Not Tomorrow Yet. (We’re still in spoiler territory). In this episode we see Rick and his murderous gang sneak into the Saviour’s camp and murder folk in their sleep, before then having to battle folk while they’re awake. I counted 21 bad guys that they killed. This, along with the 8 they killed in Episode 9 – No Way Out, comes to 29 confirmed Negan cronies… all men… and one disembodied woman’s voice at the end of Episode 12.
Now, maybe I’m talking out of my arse (I often do), but I would like to see a few more women as villains in TWD. Women with lines of dialogue and actual characters beyond having a gun and pointing it at Rick’s crew.
What do people think? Is there a reason all the bad guys in TWD are men? Are there any bad-ass women villains in the comics you’d like to see come to the show?
While you raise a valid point, we DID have a female main villain as you mention, and you've also forgotten Dennis Crosby's membership in the Hunters/Trainyard Cannibals.
I find this show sexism on many more levels than just villainy. The problem is Rick Kirkman, the comic and now show writer. He has been blatantly sexist in articles concerning the show and his power is unfortunately unchecked. None of the other writers on the show are women so how could they possibly see anything from a woman's perspective? I find this show very immature, as if written by a pubescent teen and not a grown man. It is always black and white morality and little boys playing good cop bad cop. Ive gotten bored from the lack of emotional complexity and subtlety. Even Downton Abbey was more exciting than this– because it was emotionally complex and the female characters were complicated 3 dimensional people. In the Walking Dead, all the women are someones gf, being raped or dying.Except Michonne, and thats why everyone loves her- she's a badass and doesn't fall into the stereotype of wayward woman who needs many help. Did we learn nothing from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the US Womens Soccer Team winning the World Cup? Also, why does the young boy have more power than some of the women? Are you serious? Thats just stupid.