Negan was always shown to be good with kids. He had a somewhat twisted but definitely soft spot for Carl, and now Judith and Lydia. I think he might have been a really good teacher. Weird as it is.

The only time his appreciation of kids was in question, (and his words "beating on a kid" brought back these bitter memories) when this happened:



Much as I hated his guts back then, I wanted to believe he was bluffing, and he wouldn't have hurt Carl. But it was very borderline. Like even he didn't know what he was going to do. And to be frank, even if he wasn't going to do it, just putting him through this was f**ked up. Second time too.
So Daryl and Michonne being sceptical about how much he cares for Lydia and Judith is totally justified, even if we have only been shown positives so far. He was supposed to be fond of Carl too.

Your thoughts?

 

Yeah, that's what I meant by this being the second time threatening Carl with violence. He was actually making Rick cut Carl's hand off in lieu of all his friends' lives, or something along those lines. I could never rewatch that episode. I just remember Carl saying "do it, dad" which traumatised me for life. Honestly, I do get the people who stopped watching after 7x01.

[Side note: My husband refused to watch that episode, the lineup scenario at the end of S6 was enough to turn him off. I think he would probably enjoy the show now (except for baby killing and pike scene) but I don't think you can just skip two seasons. It's not enough to be told what's happened, you had to go through all the shit to fully appreciate what we have now.]

Yes, once a person is capable of such cruelty, physical and psychological, you can never feel completely safe around them. No matter how much they have changed, we can't forget that if they were once capable, they do have it in them still, somewhere, no matter how deep down. It's there.