Hey, everyone! It’s Writing Wednesday again and this week’s theme is The Walking Dead! This week, I’ll be sticking close to what we’ve seen in the show. It’s possible that later in the year I’ll talk about the comic. Today I’ll be focusing on the character of Rick as a protagonist that becomes darker and darker as the show goes on. This post may contain mild spoilers.
If you’ve been watching the show, you know that Rick is pretty much the leader of the survivors right now. This has been true since season one but the position becomes more prevalent and defined as the show goes on. Rick once ruled through democracy but an inability to make certain decisions has forced Rick into the role of leader.
The role of leader is a tricky one. I think many writers are inclined to make their leaders fearless, doubtless, and correct in their decisions. The trick to keeping Rick interesting is that the group is often split on his decisions. Because the group is split, the audience is likely to be split on what Rick should do. This tactic keeps the audience engaged in the decisions being made. It also keeps Rick from being a constant do-good hero without flaws.
Each decision, from killing outsiders to killing insiders, pushes Rick a little further from being “good” by his own definition. In season three, the audience is introduced to the character of The Governor. He’s the leader of a town, an actual working town in the apocalypse. On the surface, he seems like a good guy. Underneath, not so much. He goes to great lengths, killing, experimentation, and an iron fist, to keep his own town safe. Like Rick, he’s a leader who has had to make hard decisions to survive. His group is quite a bit larger than Rick’s, so we can only assume that he’s also made difficult decisions to survive.
However, it’s not to be mistaken, The Governor is a bad guy. He’s portrayed as such, even though the water is murky when it comes to the difference between him and Rick.
What separates Rick from The Governor?
The lines are blurry on this one. Earlier in season three, The Governor had his men kill a bunch of military survivors. The reasoning, according to The Governor, was that those men could overthrow their town. Would Rick do that? Right now, I don’t think he would. However, with each passing episode I believe he’s moving closer and closer to being that kind of person.
So, when the lines are this blurred, the audience needs something to latch on to. Here’s where The Governor’s treatment of Maggie comes in. The Governor forces her to strip down in front of him. If you’ve read the comics, you know he’s even worse. This is something the audience probably can’t imagine Rick ever doing. For all the terrible things Rick might be willing to do, they all revolve around protecting the group. They do not revolve around power. The Governor’s traits are centered around personal power and it’s apparent in this scene.
How does the show keep Rick and The Governor relatable and humanized?
Rick has a family, so this is easy. He has children, a wife, and people that he cares about. These are people he can lose, and so these are people he needs to protect. People and attachments help to keep Rick somewhat grounded during these difficult times.
I don’t think it’s out of place to say that The Governor might be Rick’s potential future. The Governor has lost his wife and seen his daughter turned into a walker. Because of this, The Governor is the protector of a group but has few grounding emotional attachments. In fact, his largest attachment is his zombie daughter. If Rick went through the same thing with Carl, I wonder if he truly would break and become nearly indistinguishable from The Governor.
Now it’s your turn, what do you think? Do you see Rick becoming more and more like The Governor? Do you think the writers have done a good job drawing both similarities and differences between these two leaders? Have you seen other leader portrayed the same way Rick has been portrayed over the three seasons?