It'd be interesting if Negan were to break out in a really inopportune time. Say, for example, something like the Alexandria zombie herd were to happen again, and Negan seized his opportunity to escape while everybody was dealing with the problem. Although I do like your idea of a flaw in their system leading to an eventual escape. If he were to escape, I'd prefer he either killed somebody and was killed in retaliation or just ran off and was never seen again.

No way he's ever getting another army. He's just not skilful enough in… persuasion.

 

Exactly my point with Negan. The Governor was a silver tonged villain, a bit on the cartoonish side, but a master manipulator supreme. Negan is just a brute who never was successfully challenged until recently. Rule through manipulation, and it is hard to wrestle the reigns away. Rule through force, and it will only take one defeat to render you powerless.

My only complaint with the predictions, is the part where Negan becomes a sort of anti-confidant. The only way I could see that even being plausible, is if Rick would come down to ask Negan his opinion just to do the exact opposite. It is like calling a plumber to fix your computer, Bullies are only good at being bullies.

I get what is going on, and I applaud the return of Dale's lessons at the hands of Rick MotherF***'in Grimes in full force, but I still think that ending Negan would have been the smartest thing to do. He will have more blood on his hands before he is done for good now, and irony dictates it be Rick that pays the highest price... Not looking forward to that comeuppance.

I hope Andrea recognizes Dale's words, and follows this new concept fully. Maybe she will even put his hat on again in honor of the last man alive with the strength of character to push these ideals back into the group, even if it took a while for those seeds of wisdom to sprout.

 

you're taking what i said too literally. when i said glenn was "forgotten," it wasn't that was literally not mentioned because he clearly was. it was that they completely forgot what negan did to him and they're cool with it.

 

Yes. I suppose that makes sense. Sort of like how not killing Randall on TV was remembering Dale... And that turned out the he a huge mistake and totally wrong. And how it was a good idea to not kill the governor in Arrow to the Doorpost... Except that's exactly what they should've done.

Fact is, negan is a rabid dog. Nothing more. You don't put a rabid dog in a cage. You put a shotgun in its mouth. He's a threat. You don't keep a threat alive out of the hope that you can deliver some poetic justice. You kill it. And then sleep like a baby.

Fact is, even if he's in prison, negan can still jerk off, corrupt people, and possibly escape. Glenn can't do any of that any more because he's dead. Negan should die too. Come to think of it, negan is living an easy life now. No more work ever. Likely protected by an armed guard. Doesn't have to worry about walkers. That's bullshit.

Carl, you know what to do. You've done it before. (even if you don't remember it.) Time to do it again. Your dad is wrong. He's gone soft. He's been TV Hershel'd. That world is dead and gone. Put three bullets in negan, center mass. Even if he lives, he'll spend the rest of his days wishing he hadn't. THAT is justice.

 

Might be the worst issue ever. For me, the thing that's always made TWD so great is the decisions of the characters are always believable and in line with what you'd expect from them. But ever since Negan showed up, this has been a bit of a TV type series. Negan would've smoked Rick's group after the second time they killed half a dozen or more of his men. And after all the crap Negan's put them through, someone definitely would've killed him. Maggie or Carl for sure. I'm just not buying that this group has the time or energy to look after prisoners. Unless they're taking his ass back to the prison...

Anyway, this is not to mention the fact that we would've had a great story on our hands if Carl just looked at Rick and said, "Sorry, dad, but you're wrong this time." [BLAM!]

 

I hated that Rick didn't kill him. Negan is going to get out of there one way or another.

 

Yup. And that's why I say it's not really in line with Rick's character, or the reality of the situation (they're not equipped to handle prisoners that pose as big a threat as Negan does). Granted, there will probably be some interesting Xavier/Magneto-esque conversations and interactions. But the reality is someone in that situation would probably say, "Rick, I get what you're saying. But this guy's gotta go." Keep in mind, this is a guy that took a bat to Glenn's head. If that happened in the real world, you'd get the chair for sure. So no need to keep Negan around. What's he gonna do? Appeal Rick's decision? Ha ha.

 

Yeah I agree it's not like Rick's character. Rick chopped up the hunters and burned them up,he also took a bite out of those bandits. And has done more. Don't know why he would let his biggest threat live....I just think Robert Kirkman loves Negan so much he wants to keep him around as long as he can.

 

Right. It's not too long ago he blew some guy's brains out for beating his wife and child, and accidentally killing someone.

I might've been able to swallow this if there was a little more discussion involved. But the whole "You know what, Rick? You're right!" stuff just lost me. This is one of the things that bugs me about modern comic storytelling. Everything has to fit in six issue arcs. Could've used an epilogue "What's to be done about Negan?" type issue.

 

I really like the path that seems to be taken for this story.

I still hope, in despite of the traps set by RK to confuse us, that we're going to keep following rick mofo Grimes for a long time. After the survival, the discovery of a good shelter, the conquest of power in the community and the war to keep the hand on it... it's time to finally build something. Can't wait...

I'm glad to see the story evolve like this because it permits to keep it interesting instead of being lock in a repetitive scheme. (Zombie survival/Fight against ruthless brutal antagonist etc)
And if the serie actually avoid repetition and lead progressively to the creation of a new civilization, while keeping a great tension, it would really make TWD the most complete post apo story ever made.

I really expect the group to cope with challenge much more brain oriented (Politics, high scale strategy, diplomacy...) than muscle oriented. That's why I would make the assumption that the new group is going to be a way to keep the "fight needy" readers satisfied while telling both stories in parallel.. and eventually merging it.

I would like to see Ricks community face an even bigger organization during their struggle for extension. For those knowing Fallout we can imagine them, in a more or less close future, coping with some kind of NCR or Legion.

About Negan I don't really imagine him escaping and fight again. I'd rather see him admits Rick superiority and try, after a big fight with his ego, to help the community (win) or to end himself -suicide/shameful exile- (loss). I think he was genuinely trying to make life better for his group but had been enjoying power (because of the lack of real opposition) too much and lost himself like Rick almost did in the prison. Remember also the war escalated only because of Rick choices.

I think Negan was really convinced by Rick speech and that this speech could have only be effective at this precise time because of the growing respect Rick gained during the war at the eyes of Negan. For me this arc is nothing more than an alpha male duel and Negan finally admitted is inferiority (see how powerless he is on the last pic).

I can't believe Negan,or anybody, will ever turn Carl against his father. Carl admires Rick too much, all he does is trying to be worthy of him. (Including, if I remember well, Ben murder which happen to be after Rick's savage revenge on 2 rapist- or even if not- after the prison episode of expeditious justice)

PS) First post but I have been keeping an eye on this forum and his interesting debates since a while. Btw sorry if my English is sometime weak. Not native speaker

 

Great first post!

I too am excited for where the story seems to be going. It should be a fun journey.

Don't worry about the English... it's stronger than some of the native speakers I've seen.

 

No, I understood you were making that statement. I just don't find it true.

Maggie was getting mad at Rick, no? Kirkman definitely touched on that indirectly.

 

They actually addressed Glenn in the context of what Negan did to him. Maggie at first was appalled by the idea of letting Negan live after what he did to Glenn, and then she reconsidered and said that maybe this is what Glenn would want. Nothing was forgotten.

 

Well... what to say about issue 126? I really wasn't expecting it to end that way. I was expecting a lot more conflict than that. It will be interesting to see where RK will lead the comics from now forward.

 

My favorite tidbits from this comic:

-everything Negan did. My god, even on the verge of death he's so hilarious "kill- -me!? Kill- -you!!" "Heh. Heh. Uhh. (Faints)

-The final battle. Just Saviors, but it never got old. Seeing Michonne, Aaron, Jesus and Ezekiel kick a bunch of ass was fun.

-Rick telling Negan he's ****ed. Perfect.

-I never thought Dwight's actions would make a lick of sense, but that he cared about the Saviors and wanted to be their leader. He had some awesome moments and as much dialogue as Rick. Plus it was nice to see Ezekiels unbiased trust pay off.

I wouldn't mind if this was the ending to the comics, WH h obviously it isn't, but I could accept it as being the ending to Ricks group, at least for a period of time.

 

I FINALLY got my hands on this issue after 2 days. I loved it, I'm SO GLAD Negan survived. I can totally see Carl confronting him in prison, I feel like that would be cool to have. I think this issue really set what the next years with the comic will be about, I love what direction RK is taking it.

 

qft.
I was with high expectations, and had though my mind would be blown away by this volume. But so did not happen. I liked the outcome nevertheless.
I'm looking forward for #127 since the preview picture was very promising.

 

At first, like almost everyone else, after reading the end of this issue I was like "WTF!!??" and thought it was pure bullshit. But after thinking about it a bit, I think the ending is so much better than if we had Negan getting executed.

Think about it: not having Negan killed leads to so many different possibilities: Rick starts to rebuild civilization as it was before, with prisons and everything, instead of being the brutal group who they we're before. He could now be going back to being a cop in the post-apocalyptic world. We could now even have post-ZA politics.

Also, it will be so much interesting seeing how Negan is now handled. He could become a crazy prisoner (more crazy than he is now, that is), or try to escape, or see the wrong in his ways, or maybe escape and kill a main character, making everyone regret having him prisoner. Maybe he could even be killed by Carl...

And Carl wanting to kill Negan? That would make a really interesting story too. To me, Carl didn't really seem convinced when his father told him to leave the room. Carl really hated Negan. I'm expecting him to become a rebellious teenager during the next issues, rejecting the new law that will be installed by his father, and like someone said in another post, he will express his desire to kill Negan publicly. We will probably have him and his father now growing a rough relationship. And at the ends of this issue's Letter Hacks, someone asked if it was possible to have another group to clash with Rick's ideals of the Post-ZA world, and that could cause conflict. Maybe Carl, rebelling agaisnt the new law, will gather a group of rebels who share his ideas (because I don't think he's the only one who doesn't like this "putting Negan in prison" idea) and this will lead to a whole "rebels vs Post-ZA government" situation, with the rebels lead by Carl and the "government" lead by Rick... Don't tell me that would be really awesome to have.