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“ | KILL THEM ALL! | „ |
~ The Governor's most famous quote when he and the soldiers of Woodbury attack the prison. |
Brian Blake, also known as The Governor or by his usurped identity Philip Blake, is a major antagonist of The Walking Dead comic book series, serving as the main antagonist of Volume 5: The Best Defense and Volume 8: Made To Suffer. He is the ruthless governor of Woodbury who takes extreme measures to assume command over the residents of the town.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
Rise of The Governor[]
- While originally, when he was Brian, he had a Freudian Excuse of his insecurities making him lean to his younger brother more, and the onset of the apocalypse making him lose his brother, niece and friends, after the adoption of the Philip persona and it fully taking over, he goes beyond any sympathy or Freudian excuse that ever happened to him.
- He brutally murders the original leader of Woodbury, Gene Gavin and took over Woodbury while imprisoning Gene’s men, although this is arguably justified given how vile Gene himself was.
Road To Woodbury[]
- After ascending to leader, he sets up a tournament style fighting ring where people who committed crimes are forced to fight each other to death for the amusement and entertainment of the citizens, and it’s made clear it’s not done out of any sense of justice.
- Murders a few people, including some of Gene’s imprisoned men and fed them to his “daughter” Penny.
- Keeps dozens of decapitated heads of people he killed in glass tanks to watch them in order to be further desensitized, and when he is helped to move the glass tanks by Scott Moon, he murders him offscreen and places his head in the tank.
- Murders Trey Parker when trying to escape imprisonment.
- Forces another man imprisoned soldier Stinson to fight against a prisoner and even though he one, imprisoned him in a trailer and had him be eaten to death by zombies.
- He rapes Meghan Lafferty while he makes her see her dead boyfriend's body, which led to her suicide.
- Kills a few people during Lilly and Martinez’s attempted coup and assassination against the group, and, while sparing them, made them work as retribution for the attempt.
- When Rick, Michonne and Glenn came into Woodbury, Philip immediately shuts down any friendliness and cuts off Rick’s arm out of sadistic glee.
- After Michonne bites off his ear, Philip keeps her locked up in a room and rapes her brutally out of sadism, and later on forces Glenn to hear him rape her again.
- He strangles the bedridden Christina to death when she was yelling at him and fed her to zombies as he kept her head in the glass tank.
- He does a small shootout at the prison, injuring Axel with a shot in the arm, Andrea with a shot in the ear and Rick with a gut shot that nearly kills him.
- He french-kisses his zombified niece Penny after ripping out her teeth.
- Murders Tyreese in front of the group by decapitating him and leaving his corpse.
- He manipulates all the Woodbury soldiers into joining him in the full prison assault by using Martinez’ zombified head and the deceased Dr. Stevens, and sends his men out on a all out fight against the Prison, which ends in the deaths of Axel, Patricia and Billy Greene.
- When Alice stays behind to cover Rick, Lori, Carl and Judith, Philip shoots her in the leg and kills her in point blank, calling her a “bitch”.
- Orders Lilly to shoot Lori while she was fleeing, which also leads to the death of the baby Judith by being crushed by her. While it was unintentional and he said “fuck” while seeing it, he doesn’t feel remorse for the action.
- Personally kills a non-fighting Hershel who had given up living at that moment.
- When the prison gets overrun, he yells at his men to continue fighting against the zombies.
- Unlike his original personality, Brian Blake, who is a mild mannered and kind hearted person who psychotically snapped after his entire life crumbled as well as feeling horrified over his actions when he resurfaces, after his Philip persona took over, he became a completely irredeemable monster who takes joy and glee in the deaths of innocents and, after Brian’s original personality was temporarily killed after Michonne’s torture, Philip fully takes over and becomes even worse.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He explicitly cares for two people:
- He was best friends with Bruce, his bodyguard. In the comics, he's clearly saddened at his death and becomes much more vengeful towards Rick's group because of it, and it's even outright stated in the novels that he genuinely saw him as a friend.
- He is shown to have a good friendship with Bob Stookey, who nursed his injuries from Michonne’s torture, even trusting him to watch Penny while he’s gone and seeing him as a genuine friend.
- He has a Pet the Dog moment, deciding to spare Lilly and the other people trying to stage a coup and assassination attempt despite it being easier for him to kill them all.
Trivia[]
- He and Gabe seem to get along pretty well. However, this could very much be out of mutual sadism rather than genuine care, as he gets over his death fairly quickly.
- It could be argued that he has a moral agency issue, due to Brian’s dissociative mind coming up with the personality of the ruthless image he portrayed of his brother Phillip. However, the novels show he’s completely in control of his actions and after Michonne’s torture, Brian’s original personality fully dies with Philip taking over, arguably making him aware of his actions in a way.
- His TV counterpart is a lot more tragic and sympathetic, in addition to being less heinous overall due to some of his worst actions being cut or toned down.
External Links[]
- The Governor on the Villains Wiki
- The Governor on the Walking Dead Wiki
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Comic Universe Telltale Series Television Universe Fear the Walking Dead Tales of The Walking Dead |