I think the show has not revealed his life before ZA. If he was already in some sort of an authority position (eg a construction manager with a bunch of construction workers under him), then he could use that as a base to build upon. But in any case, I think, he gained followers by his charisma, in the beginning. This is no difference from any cult leaders. But his charm would only work to an extent and then he would have to use 'fear and intimidation'. Eg, he burned Dwight's face as a lesson to show others of what he would do to disloyal members.

Just my speculation.

 

Someone posted an interview with JDM I think @Patriot? I can't find that post now it was somewhere in the premiere threads sorry. JDM talks about the Here's Negan spinoff that @DragonRacer references. He says pre ZA Negan was a gym teacher/ ping pong coach. His wife had cancer and was named Lucille and when ZA struck he was in the hospital after she passed on.

So he was not a military man and not sure how much span of control a gym teacher/ ping pong coach has so it would be interesting to see his community and how his thugs behave toward him. From all episodes so far including the erudite fellow we had jumping on Richard in 702, Simon, Dwight it seems Negan's men are of the lights are on but no one's home variety.

( that said thank you Negan for ironing Dwight's face)

edit: JDM gives his own view on your question

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/23/walking-dead-negan-jeffrey-dean-morgan-saviors

 

Well Rick is not all that imposing at first blush either but we are all too aware of the lengths that he has gone to when protecting his family is concerned.

When fighting one on one he often looks like a child against bigger men,the Gov. and Pete come easiest to mind for me.

And this is just observation of mine not criticism, I willingly Bow before RMFG as always.

More will be revealed about Negan I am sure but in the meantime I would stay away from any heated Ping Pong Games just to be safe!

Dont judge a book by its Village People Cover!

 

I have been indirectly summoned, so here I am.

My husband - who has only watched the show and not read the comics - had similar questions as to why and how people are following JDM Negan.

The answer is - I'm not sure how the show would like to explain that. LOL In the comic, Negan is a big dude. Big, buff dude. Like, looks like he could've played linebacker on a college football team meaty fellow. He's pretty much taller than most everyone else and built like a brick shithouse, so he's already intimidating based on that. Add that he is intelligent (the rampant cursing masks it at first) and somewhat has a grasp on decent strategy (as far as setting up a community, working out a protection racket to keep them supplied, and eventual battles) and has a rather odd charm/charisma, and you have a bit of a perfect storm. Plus, he's already used to herding around immature folks given he was a coach (of either middle or high school kids; it's a little hard to tell from the Here's Negan! backstory). So, this is someone who already knows how to organize and order around people to work as a team for a common goal. He knows how to manipulate a room.

Oh, and if none of that is enough to convince you to either work for him or join his team, there is that pesky little bit of knowledge that he will beat the holy fuckedy fuck fucking fuckity fuck out of you with a barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat. That's a bit of an intimidation factor. By the time Team Family meets him in the comics/show, his reputation well precedes him.

 

I think he is boring with all his ya de ya de yas. He seems very plastic and a hollow stereotype.

 

He's played by a great actor with loads of charisma and humour, but I'm not buying it at all that nobody ever just shot him in the face and be done with it before. It's my one major gripe with season 7 so far, and I thought it was going to be the tiger.

 

Me, too. He is out in the open often. I don't see a Secret Service detail.

The person who would take him out wouldn't even have to be someone who expected to live afterwards, so that further increases the opportunities to kill him. It could be someone who cares about nothing else left in life except to take revenge for the death of a loved one. Or it could be a person coming from a place of power who is just sick of the psychopathology.

It's not as if they need Negan to survive. They already have a farming situation set up. They can still take supplies from the other communities that are already intimidated into submission.

This is a far harder suspension of disbelief for me than the premise of the ZA.

 

Just caught up on 703. The fellow who was kneeling and asking to be shot was saying the same thing and Dwight parroted he is everywhere line. Negan's men have weapons I take it (they drew guns on Daryl) but still the Stockholm Syndrome thing will take a bit of convincing for me. Esp. as Dwight knows Negan despises him, moreso for Sherry and is well placed to take a shot at him. Maybe the man just loves his egg butties.

 

AWWW I love Shiva. But Negan just kinda walking around with the bat and messing with people's minds, I am going to need more. I guess we will see more of what he has done to enslave people by violence or maybe his men are just all thugs like him and like hanging around Big Man on campus.

 

lol!

 

Yeah when I saw the production line Dwight's sandwich had in the ZA, I started wondering what the hell does Alexandria have to give to Negan next week?
Applesauce to go with the pigs? They've got squat.

 

I'm not sure what his power is, I think its just easier to work for him, than against him. But my main question is how long do we have to watch Neegan exploit and terrorize the group? Its getting a little boring frankly.

 

The Nile.


Sent from my iPad using little or no insight.

 

He is powered by Viagra!

 

If he set up the process which keeps them relatively safe and fed in the start -- then he already has power over others. His main support group of secondary leaders(and then smaller leaders after that that follow the secondary) could have been men there from the start that live it up good and on down it goes. With dissension being obvious and likely having happened in the past, his brutality and charisma would create a cult of personality. It's not as much of a stretch as you would believe, being that people fall prey to charisma literally all of the time in the real world and that Negan's men aside from a few of his top leaders don't seem to have much in the way of intelligence.

We saw lower ranking Saviors like the group Carol and Maggie were taken by and they weren't unintelligent, lacking in acute situational self awareness and unaware of their surroundings, but they are kept in line by guys like "Bud" on the bike.

If Negan has a loyal group of "enforcer leaders" from the start that he provides with food, sex slaves and safe housing and then has picked up other survivors who have had to brave the ZA world without shelter and resources -- who then answer to Negan's "enforcers" -- then you've got an established command structure. Dwight gave you a good indication when he said "it's better than being dead".

He also intelligently keeps smaller satellite colonies outside of his main base, this gets rid of some potentially mutinous issue's by having too large of a group and resources all in one place.

I imagine he as well has necessary resources stashed in places potentially mutinous people can't get to and keeps vital information among himself and his closest trusted. You see the extent of the mind games he plays, it would not be that hard to control big dumb guys and then desperate survivors that they've picked up along the way.

This is definitely not more of a stretch than the ZA itself.

 

Charisma, intelligence and brutality are going to take you farther in leading in insane environments than brawn.

If anything other was the case in so many situations we could historically discuss, then why wouldn't someone in the Political and Military elite of the USSR have had arranged to remove Joseph Stalin?

Stalin ruled the roost for 30 years and starting with the 1930s under his rule -- many of these elite's in that society knew that they were going to be purged, but nothing like the assassination attempts that were almost successful on Hitler ever came into fruition.

By the same idea's that posters are presenting in this thread about how it's unrealistic for JDMs Negan to rule over his band of uncouth nitwits, how would any repugnant and brutal Dictator in human history that weren't physically imposing warriors and did things that surely set many people surrounding them off ever have ruled?

 

His source of power? I was going to say "the Force" but that's soooo cliche. No, it's definitely an Infinity gem. Or maybe he's a mutant. Or he's a wizard!!!

All of these theories are plausible and sane.

 

yeah more Istari Radagast the Brown than Saruman right now.

Hope it improves including the logic of his alpha and omega.

 

Wow, that was low. So being 45+ and not the standard fat a** American makes him a "weenie"?

You're getting it wrong. They don't worship the ground he walks, they fear him. Huge difference.

However, I too look forward to discover how he managed to force all those people into complete submission. Sure, once you have a following it is easy: you simply outnumber the person and break them with threads and torture (both physical and mental), as we have seen him do with Daryl and heard him do with D. The big question is: How did he manage to gather followers in the first place?

I really do hope the writers will allow us a peek into Negan's past (I doubt that's even his real name to begin with).