‘The Walking Dead’: Have Rick, Maggie, And Carol Become ‘Villains’? Why Attacking The Saviors Was Necessary

The Walking Dead Season 6 has been intense the past few weeks. Over the years, all of the TWD characters have changed. In a normal world, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), Maggie Green (Lauren Cohan) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) would be considered crazy, insane, and perhaps psychotic. However, in the world of the undead — the zombie apocalypse — their actions and reactions to certain events are understandable. Recently, Design & Trend wrote a few reasons why Rick is worse than the Governor, one of the previous villains on The Walking Dead. In this rebuttal, we will explain why Rick, as well as Maggie and Carol, are not the “bad guys.”

When watching television, especially one that has been on the air for more than a few years, the characters should reach out to viewers. That is what good books, movies, and TV do to fans. Viewers should get to know characters, understand the storylines, and have intense emotions about their words, actions, or even deaths. If a character is not able to do any of those things, then viewers will not care. This means the writers and actors have not done their jobs.

When it comes to The Walking Dead, fans have watched Rick, Maggie, Carol, Glenn, Daryl, and the others evolve over the seasons. They are not who they used to be, but neither is the world. The characters on The Walking Dead quickly learned what happens to some people when the world dies, when there is nobody to enforce the law or protect citizens and when there are no rules. The Walking Dead isn’t just a show about zombies, it is about survival and how the living can be far worse than the dead.

“Do we have a deal?” Find out during tomorrow’s #TWD. pic.twitter.com/nsPas1EZxR

— The Walking Dead (@WalkingDead_AMC) March 12, 2016

It is true that Rick Grimes decided to go after Negan and the Saviors on the last episode of The Walking Dead. Spoiler TV recently wrote that the question of the next episode is if Rick’s group are the bad guys. However, he didn’t do it just because he could — there were reasons for this decision. First, the Hilltop Colony is full of weak survivors. There is a group out there that is taking advantage of them and, as Jesus (Tom Payne) said, the Saviors beat a 16-year-old boy to death just to make a point. Even though Jesus seems well-equipped to take care of himself, what about the other residents of the Hilltop Colony? Who will protect them?

Second, Maggie didn’t really “threaten” Gregory (Xander Berkeley) on The Walking Dead, although it may have seemed like it to some viewers. It was a move Maggie had to make for Alexandria’s survival. They are so low on food that Carol had to bake cookies with beets. In the pantry, it was revealed just how low the community is on food. Alexandria needs food desperately, and the Hilltop Colony obviously needs protection. In The Walking Dead, Maggie tried to make a peaceful deal the first time. However, Gregory didn’t take the deal initially, and wasn’t even polite in his refusal. It wasn’t until Gregory was stabbed that Maggie pounced on the opportunity to help take care of Gregory’s problem and solve Alexandria’s food crisis at the same time.

The Walking Dead …Negan… pic.twitter.com/dgwkltKCB6

— TWD Apocalypse (@TWDApocalypse) March 8, 2016

The third reason why Rick decided to attack the Saviors on The Walking Dead was actually as a precaution. As Design & Trend noted, Rick and the group lived through the Governor — not to mention Terminus on The Walking Dead. This was not a villainous move — in Rick’s mind, this was a precaution necessary to avoid being attacked in the future. If the Saviors showed up at Hilltop Colony one day, made threats and killed a teenage boy while demanding half of their resources, the same will eventually happen to Alexandria. Rick and his group have lived through ZA terrorists before. The Walking Dead characters know there is no negotiating, no guarantee of safety and just because a deal is made doesn’t mean it will be honored.

Unfortunately, the only problem with Rick’s plan on was that Negan is unlike any villain ever seen before on The Walking Dead. Rick started a war with the wrong person and as a result, people will die on The Walking Dead. However, if the battle wasn’t going to start now, it just would have been an issue later on. The Saviors eventually would have come across Alexandria and if they had, more people, including children, could have been killed.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Carol is going to do something drastic to one of the Saviors on tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead. Is this action extreme? Yes. Does it make Carol a “villain” of one of the bad guys? Absolutely not. In The Walking Dead, there is only one way to deal with threats, ZA terrorists, and those who dare threaten the safety of Rick’s group. Carol’s “kabob” act in “The Same Boat” is probably to teach the rest of the Saviors that they are not like other communities. The Walking Dead characters have survived this long for a reason. TWD fans will have to wait and see what Negan’s reaction to Rick, Maggie, Carol, and the others are in the next few episodes of The Walking Dead.

What do you think? Have Rick, Carol, and Maggie become villains on The Walking Dead, or are they acting appropriately considering the world they live in?

[Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images]