The Walking Dead season 8 has come to an end, whether it was good or bad. Rick Grimes and Negan faced off once again, this time ending with Rick defeating Negan. But it could be said that Eugene was responsible for bringing an end to the war by making bullets for the Saviors that backfired, literally. Rick took Negan down through some trickery in a fight you could say he was actually losing. So, who is the real boss man in The Walking Dead? 

Rick is the real leader, and not just because his group ended up winning in the end. One very key point in all of this is that Negan does not really do anything for the Saviors. If they get captured he does not rescue them, if forced to choose between himself and, let’s say, Dwight or Simon, Negan will obviously choose himself. Rick, on the other hand, will do anything to keep members of his group safe, or at least make an attempt to rescue them.

From Negan being everywhere and everyone to Rick biting some people, here is The Walking Dead: 25 Memes That Show Who The Real Leader Is.

Eat/Don't Eat

One of the biggest differences between Negan and Rick is the fact that Negan is desensitized to the people around him, whereas Rick can feel empathy. This leads Rick down the right path in finding allies. He gets the Hilltop and the Kingdom on his side, which gains him access to King Ezekiel and his feline companion, Shiva.

This meme is clearly pointing at the fact that somehow Shiva had to learn who not to eat. Otherwise, the pretend king of the Kingdom would just be setting a wild tiger loose on the battlefield, which could be very interesting to see, as well.

Rick's ability to gain willing allies is what makes him a better leader than Negan. He treats his people like they are people, building loyalty opposed to fear. Since Negan rules the Saviors with an iron fist, his followers fear him or hate him, like in the Dwight situation. It is one of the reasons that Dwight betrays him in favor of Rick.

In the end, one of the people most important to Negan, Eugene, betrays him in favor of Rosita in an attempt to do something noble with his life. That winds up benefiting Rick since he has Rosita's loyalty.

Who Are You?

We can all probably agree that Eugene caved way too quickly to say, "I am Negan." In his position, it makes sense that he would eventually cave, especially since he is notably the coward amongst Rick and the gang. Daryl endured the endless playing of "Easy Street" and Dwight's other means of various torment per Negan's instruction. Daryl never caved.

We all knew Eugene would caved, eventually but he could have lasted through more than just one threat. As it turns out, this meme would be true, but only for a while. In the end, Eugene wound up making an effort to be one of the "good guys."

Negan's lack of successful brainwashing was another reason he met his fate under that tree.

Negan could possibly be the most tyrannical leader introduced to both the show and the comics. Those who end up opposing Negan end up getting the iron or simply beaten and then strangled by the man himself. A good leader would not be doing that to their people, especially not in the middle of an "All Out War."

When Daryl opposed Rick, Rick did not beat him or really even put up a fight. He just made sure Daryl didn't get to go on with his own plan. All in all, the scuffle between the two was actually pretty civilized. For people living in a post-apocalyptic world, they handled it well.

The Red Shirts

Don’t let anyone tell you Rick’s hatchet is a pointless weapon, because that simply isn’t true. While Officer Friendly’s python is an iconic staple of the show, Rick Grimes’ hatchet is far more powerful than his gun. 

Rick honestly doesn’t like to use guns much. They’re loud, they run out of ammo, they can backfire on you in the middle of your shootout. None of this is ever a danger with a hatchet and besides, Rick has shown he’s more than capable of wielding his blade. Likewise, Carol Peletier is a force to be reckoned with as far as her brass knuckle knife is concerned.

Negan may have had all the guns, but he had really had no idea what he was getting into.

As this meme points out, Rick had a lot of disposable characters in his army. Did we really expect to see Tobin live to see the end of the All Out War arc? If we’re being totally honest, Shiva’s sacrifice was more heart wrenching than watching Carol put down her sort-of ex even though comic book fans saw it coming the moment King Ezekiel’s loyal kitty ever appeared onscreen.

This show frequently introduces characters that never really become important just to end them all in supposedly epic battles.

Baby Judith Goes Nuts

Negan is gross. He’s a abuser, a misogynist, an all-around criminal - and secretly wishes he was a doting father? Weirdly enough, despite his violent behavior, Negan seemed to have a genuine interest in children - especially Rick Grimes’ children. He was legitimately upset over the passing of Carl and actually shared a weird bond with the boy. He was also quite taken with little Judith, bouncing her on his knee while he waited for Rick to return home to Alexandria.

Considering Negan loved to remind everyone that their belongings were actually his, he easily could have claimed ownership over Judith, and there wouldn’t have been much anyone could have done to stop him.

This meme imagines what would have happened had Negan actually taken off with the young Grimes baby. Judith would obviously have grown up with some anger issues, being raised by one villain and having been born by another - Rick admitted he knew Judith was Shane’s all along.

Of course, the love of baseball bats would run through the Savior family tree. It’s hard to say where Judith would have gotten her hands on pink and blue hair dye in the zombie apocalypse, though.

The Big Bad Wolf

If only it had been as easy as refusing to unlock a gate. We all know that Rick ultimately caved and let Negan inside the walls of Alexandria. The Sheriff was basically forced into this subservient position thanks to Negan’s penchant for violence and sizable army.

This decision lost Rick and his people their food, their weapons, their mattresses, and one super cool pool table. Oh, and Eugene. Rick felt as though he didn’t have a choice and ended up “welcoming” the Big Bad into his own home.

Weirdly enough, once Sheriff Rick Grimes let Negan inside his swanky neighborhood, the Slugger proved to have a very similar reaction to the comforts of the town. When Rick first arrived in Alexandria, he settled in by washing off the dust and shaving off his epic beard. Negan’s first visit was all bravado, stealing supplies and showing his dominance.

The second time the Big Bad shows up in the neighborhood he shaves off his own facial hair in Rick’s own home. He also whipped up some pasta and drank lemonade on the porch, clearly still exerting his dominance by making himself at home in his enemy’s own house.

I Am My Enemy, My Enemy Is Me

Rick Grimes is supposed to be the hero. He will stop at nothing to keep his people safe, even if it means taking on some of his enemies’ characteristics - which he does, a lot.

After Shane ended Randall to prevent him from being able to bring his group back to Hershel’s farm, Rick eliminates the prisoners without a second thought. After the Governor shows up ready and willing to wrestle control of the prison out of Rick’s hands, Rick later takes it upon himself to do the very same thing when he disagrees with how Deanna Monroe is running things in Alexandria.

Quite frankly, Rick showed some Neganesque qualities during the All Out War arc, when he showed little concern over whether or not the people of Alexandria lost their lives.

Not to mention his seizing of Oceanside’s guns was basically the exact same thing Negan had already done to him and his group.

Ironically enough, the feud between Rick and Shane boiled down to Rick’s rejection of Shane’s brutality. Officer Friendly has only grown more and more brutal as the show has gone on. The biggest difference between Rick’s fight with Negan as opposed to his rivalry with Shane is that the Sheriff chose to learn what not to do from the leader of the Saviors.

Puss In Boots

When the Saviors were finally able to pin Rick and the rest of his group down with no escape the situation was extremely dire for them. In the moments to come, Rick would realize that Negan would not be taken down easily, if at all.

Rick is the type that is typically in control of his emotions, but the whole point of the encounter was to break Rick.

For a while, that was the case, but over time Rick was able to put himself back together and come back stronger than before. While Negan's arrogance would eventually be his downfall, in this particular situation it did work.

Negan is clearly overconfident but required in his scheme to break Rick down and make him feel helpless. His entire plan was one big mind game. He made sure to block every path to the Hilltop to show Rick that "Negan" could be everywhere at once. He knew that they would leave the RV to try and sneak the rest of the way, so he used his numbers to corral the entire group to right to where he wanted them, and there he would take away Rick's ability to fight back. Leaving the main protagonist of the show helpless, Negan got exactly what he wanted.

Reek

Theon Greyjoy was kind of cocky and arrogant before Ramsay Bolton came along. Frequently named as one of the most brutal and evil villains in all of Game Of Thrones, Bolton completely and utterly broke Theon, both physically and mentally. Bolton then gave Greyjoy a humiliating name to further torment his captive: Reek. Fans like to say that Theon will never be the same after his time as Reek; that torment will always live somewhere inside him. But is Negan really as effective a villain?

This meme indicates the often humiliating nature of Negan’s abuse. Not only does he terrify his victims through carnage and mayhem, but he’ll mock them for being scared while he does it. It’s true that Negan’s brutality seemed to throw Rick for a loop at first. And having Negan force a “thank you” out of Rick after he just decimated Alexandria’s resources certainly couldn’t have felt good.

Of course, this meme came about before the end of All Out War and Rick didn’t stay a victim forever. We now know that Rick does indeed move past Negan’s mind games to win the fight against his nemesis and usher in a new era in their post-zombie apocalypse society.

Not My Stuff ...

This meme is a perfect example of what it is Negan does. He simply takes whatever it is he wants, and what he wants is half of whatever the Hilltop and Alexandria have. He even has a deal with the Kingdom for their supplies, although not as oppressive as the others. When King Ezekiel states the terms of their arrangement, it is revealed that the Saviors cannot step foot into the Kingdom. While it may have been the best deal these two leaders could achieve at the time, a peace treaty would have played more to Negan's interests.

It is later used against him when Rick uses the Kingdom to harbor Daryl, one of the groups best and most experienced combatants. He also made a huge mistake in not making it a priority to retrieve Daryl. He told Rick in their first encounter that it is important to have a right-hand man, and in his case he had Simon. He would later go on to sleep Simon with the fishes. The only leader with a right-hand man was Rick, although he and Daryl haven't been on the best of terms with one another. At the end of the war, Daryl seems to be more on Maggie's side than his "brother" Rick.

It's Negan! No, it's Not.

While Negan may be one of the most popular villains on television, he is without a doubt deranged. He has a lot of brute force and numbers amongst his ranks, but he also doesn't have a whole lot of originality. Across most of the storytelling media, brainwashing has been a mainstay in villainy. Many have betrayed Negan, including Rick, Dwight, Simon, Eugene, Gregory, amongst various others - proving that whether they say “I am Negan” or not, they aren’t and they aren’t on his side either.

From the start the show has made a very strong point in that if people are willing to adapt, they survive. If they don’t adapt, they don’t survive. Take Hershel and Dale, for example.

Negan never makes an attempt to change his way of doing things. His concept of breaking his victims mentally gave him a start but he never adapted his methods of leadership. Where Rick has consistently adapted to his role, going as far as becoming like a dictator, and then the very next season not being a leader at all until the Governor ruins all he had built. When he finally does step back into the role as leader, he listens to his people and what they want to do. Even though he may not always agree or do what they say, he listens.

Hi, I'm Negan

We have already talked a little bit about how Negan claims half of whatever the Alexandrians and the Hilltop have. The biggest catch is that Negan determines what half is, which is another telling sign of his arrogance.

Negan believes that if someone has 100 items and he says 60 items is half of that, then it's so.

He abuses this when he pays his first visit to Alexandria and decides to take all of their beds and all of their guns. By the time he is done with his walk of Alexandria, they have only their homes, some hand to hand weapons, and food.

However, his escapades in Alexandria also bring Rick back from his detached state. He had Rick so close to defeat and let his arrogance get the best of him. Rick was ready to give up and comply with Negan’s wishes, but Negan being himself just has to keep poking and tormenting Rick, which eventually leads to his determination to bring an end to Negan.

It’s strikingly similar to what he does to Dwight, flaunting Dwight’s love in front of him and keeping them apart. Dwight eventually snaps and decides to help Rick bring him down.

The Earth Still Has A Sun

Carl’s passing was shocking to Rick, and Negan as well. Negan had somewhat of a kinship with Rock's son. He definitely liked Carl’s attitude and was willing to express interest in Carl, but of course, he had to use this as leverage against Rick.

Negan had tried to use Carl’s passing against Rick, calling him a failure and telling him that he could not protect anyone in his group, but in the end, it would be Rick who would leverage his son’s passing and gain the upper-hand. While it may have just been a dirty trick to get Negan to drop his guard, Rick does honor Carl’s wishes in the end. It's a form of peace and war at the same time.

Unfortunately, Chandler Riggs and his father were surprised by Carl being written out of the show, as well. Riggs’ father would go on to let AMC and Scott Gimple have it. The dispute reported;y started when Chandler Riggs was making decisions about his education, and where to get it. Scott Gimple had stated that he thought Riggs was an amazing actor that could accomplish both, and by all means, that was Riggs’ intention - only to later find out that he had been written out of the show, even though he chose a college in Georgia.

Carl may not have been able to stay in the house but he deserved a better exit than being bitten by a walker.

The Python Vs Lucille

If you had to choose between having the Python or Lucille in the zombie apocalypse, which would you choose? Some might pick the Python as it is a very powerful weapon, and would easily incapacitate a zombie provided you are able to hit it. But there are a lot of downsides to the weapon as well. It is loud, and it can only carry six bullets at a time. On top of its low capacity, each bullet gets loaded individually, unlike most handguns that would have a magazine. That is probably why Rick started favoring the hatchet he loves so much, or the machete with a red handle.

Others would pick Lucille.

What could be cooler than a bat with barbed wire wrapped around the tip of it? It’s a classic zombie terminating weapon.

Believe it or not, that barbed wire does not help when stopping the living dead in The Walking Dead. The whole point of having a skull is to protect the brain, which is what the bat would break, not the barbed wire. That plays a different role. It provides cuts, scrapes, and punctures that would be very difficult to treat in such a situation, and Negan uses that to his advantage when he has the Saviors coat their weapons with zombified blood.

No, You!

Rick is by far the better leader, but that does not mean he is better than Negan at everything, or even most things. Rick has lost to Negan, in several different ways.

Negan has taken victory in battles between the groups, beaten Rick in hand to hand combat, but even more importantly, he takes the lead in verbal assaults.

Negan may not have the best brainwashing techniques but he has a very quick wit and has an uncanny ability to hit Rick where it hurts, just when it will hurt the most. When Carl passed away and Rick used his radio to tell Negan that Carl was no more, Negan did not hesitate to fire shots at Rick.

Once again, Rick demonstrates his ability to adapt to any situation by using Carl’s wishes to get close enough to Negan take him down. Whether or not Rick understands why Negan has a fascination with his son and half baby daughter is yet to be seen, but he understood enough to know that he could use his own son against the leader of the Saviors, while still respecting Carl. He does not hurt Negan bad enough to end his life, but he does make sure that Negan will lead a life of misery for his  crimes against the Grimes.

Things Look Bad For Rick

This meme seems to indicate that fans were worried over Rick Grimes’ fate during the All Out War arc. But we all knew Rick was ultimately going to reign victorious over his nemesis of the week. Still, the showrunners had to make it appear that Rick felt as though he had no choice but to go along with Negan’s tyranny, and this image of a crying Rick certainly gets that point across. Losing multiple group members and almost cutting off your son’s hand will do that to you. Unfortunately for Rick, his tears of concern over his fellow survivors only seemed to hurt his leadership cred.

From the second Negan put an end to Glenn Rhee, Rick’s group basically lost all control over their own actions.

Rick was still trying to put some sort of plan into action. He attempted to find a way to fight back, but knew that he and his group had to present a subservient front to the Saviors. Despite his best efforts to gain control of the Alexandrians, they all just did their own thing anyway. Rosita fails to take out Negan, Michonne fails to get information from a Savior, and Spencer was just kind of stupid. Maybe this meme should have depicted an a frustrated and angry Rick instead.

  Best Friends Forever

Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon have pledged themselves as brothers. The actors that play the two leads, Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus, are just as close in real life. The two share a close bond and are constantly hanging out and joking around. They even had an epic glitter prank war going for a while.

It would have made sense for Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan to feel left out when he joined the cast, but he fit in perfectly fine. Morgan quickly bonded with The Walking Dead cast, despite the fact he was there to literally destroy them all on screen. The actor tooled around on motorcycles with Reedus in their downtime and eventually showed up on Reedus’ motorcycle show. While Morgan and Lincoln have stated many times that they liked to rile each other up before tense scenes, they’ve also been shown to hang out and get along really well when the cameras aren’t rolling.

Still, even with all their real-world camaraderie, it’s hard to picture Negan and Rick ever hugging it out the way Rick and Daryl would. Even if Morgan’s character finds some kind of future redemption, we have a feeling Rick will be keeping him at arm’s length, figuratively and literally.

Who's Negan?

Negan may act and behave like a savage, but after the events of season 5 and season 6 of The Walking Dead, we learned that Rick doesn’t actually has a savage side that requires being reigned in by his group. Rick could have very easily become a Negan-like character, but for the help of his family and friends. He made the choice to approach things in a more civilized manner, although it would take the loss of comrades, ending Jessie’s husband, and getting knocked out by his future girlfriend Michonne.

This meme is implying the lack of knowledge Rick and the rest had when they accepted the mission to eradicate Negan and the Saviors.

The lack of knowledge they had led them to believe they had ended Negan in their first raid of what they would find out later was not the main base of operations, but an outpost. Since they did not know what Negan looked like, when one of his followers said, “I am Negan” the group quickly put an end to his life.

In the end, the mistake would cost them Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee, while Rick’s unwillingness to eliminate Negan may have also cost him Maggie, Daryl, and Jesus.

Stuff And Thangs

The Saviors first appeared in front of Sasha, Abraham, and Daryl, who received the news that all of what they had now belonged to Negan, whether they accepted it or not. While Daryl would proceed to eliminate the threat with the rocket launcher found by Abraham, they did not realize that what the Saviors had told them would go on to become true.

This meme seems to be pointing more at the comic book storyline.

In The Walking Dead comic book storyline, after Rick first meets Negan, he isn’t broken or beaten down thinking that the situation is hopeless. Instead, Rick tells his entire community that they will play the part of obedient servants while they begin to plot how and where to take Negan down. Rick would then recruit The Hilltop and the Kingdom in his fight. The Scavengers did not exist in the comics and Oceanside was not introduced until later.

It was all a ploy to buy themselves some time while knowing that they would be sacrificing people along the way, which has been a running theme on the show for quite some time. When the season concluded, Rick had reclaimed the societies, but in the ninth season he may end up making more sacrifices if The Whisperers make their debut.

Meet Lucille

For such an iconic weapon, and the only one in The Walking Dead to have a name, Lucille hasn’t actually taken out all that many people in the show. In reality, it would seem that Negan pulls out his special little lady as a last resort, preferring toend  people with guns and knives instead. Still, it’s an instantly recognizable weapon and one fans won’t soon forget. This makes reports of Andrew Lincoln wielding a similar prop on the set of season 9 that much more interesting.

Photos have popped up of Sheriff Rick Grimes riding a horse with a mace close at hand. While the obvious comparisons have been made to Negan’s Lucille, but there’s another possibility these photos could be hinting at.

In the comics, Rick has a younger brother whose whereabouts are unknown to Rick after the walker infestation.

Rick’s brother, Jeffrey Grimes, uses such a mace for protection in a comic book spinoff. It doesn’t seem likely that Jeffrey will actually appear in the show. His companion Claudia could appear in a different form, perhaps as a member of the Kingdom, where a mace would fit right in with the local aesthetic. It seems most likely, however, that the mace is simply a nod to the youngest Grimes brother.

Negan's Facial Expressions

Negan is a bad dude. Not only is he incredibly violent, but he’s incredibly insulting, too. He can find the point that needs to be hit to emotionally scar his victims and always makes sure to dig in deep. TWD fans still love every time he opens his mouth on account of his clever one-liners, dad jokes, and captivating charisma.

It’s likely that charisma and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s real-life good-natured sense of humor that caused so many of these happy looks.

If we really want to find an in-universe reason for why Negan constantly looks at Rick with such adoration, there’s actually a pretty simple explanation: Negan likes Rick.

He really does. He likes Rick’s tenacity, his stubborn nature, and his natural leadership skills. It’s just, all those things kind of get in the way when you’re trying to become the dictator of the apocalypse, so these two were always going to butt heads. In another lifetime, before the end of the world, they may have even been friends. If anything, Negan probably would have looked up to Rick.

If Rick and Shane could become so close, despite all of their obvious differences, the Sheriff and the Slugger could probably do it, too.