Negan is with no doubt one of the most ruthless and brutal villains that you can ever see on modern television.

The amazingly mysterious thing is that The Walking Dead fans absolutely adore him, it’s almost like a messed-up natural attraction of sorts. The more sadistic his crimes are, the more fans are drawn to him. Go figure.

So where can we find the keys to the mystery?

Sometimes to better understand why certain phenomenon occur, it’s important to pay attention to which era those events take place.

Sympathy for the Devil

I was watching TV the other day, and this shows comes along about an alien from outer space that came planet earth and…

I’m gonna stop you right there. You had me at Alien.

So you understand, I pretty much had to watch it.

The show was called Children’s End and that scene in particular was about a singular event that put the entire planet on its toes awaiting for the arrival of an alien overlord, some kind of savior it seemed.

New York, Paris, London, Rio de Janeiro… People from all over the world were glued to their TV sets as the suspense was competing with heart disease in mortality, metaphorically speaking.

Then all of the sudden, bam!

Jaws collectively dropped as the mother-ship was landing on planet earth.

After some Pink Panther-type of suspenseful music, the door opens and we finally see the first glimpse of the savior.

When I saw his legs, I almost fell out of my chair. And you might wanna hang on to yours as well, because trust me, you are not gonna believe this:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the fearless leader, the savior of humanity:

One thing is sure:

That is NOT my alien!

Hashtag: #notmyalien.

The most amazing thing is that no one seemed to be phased with that at all, it's like some weird normalization process from an alternate universe.

Either that or we're living inside Brave New World and someone is handing out Soma.

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul to waste

And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

— Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones

Now, that show in question was based on a 1953 novel by Arthur C Clark. It wasn’t developed into television because the time wasn’t right back then, the public wasn’t ready.

The same thing occurred with the television show Lucifer that is somehow based on the Novel Vertigo by Neil Gaiman, the studios considered developing it for television in the 1990s, but the public wasn’t ready then, as opposed to now.

Although to be fair, the Lucifer character in question is not that cruel.

Let me give you another example:

Remember The Omen? The infamous horror trilogy from the 1980s where the Antichrist called Damien rises to power and schemes to bring hell on earth? It was fucking terrifying, was it not?

Well, brace yourselves because there is a new 2016 remake of that as well, only this time Damien is the hero.

And by hero I mean an entitled dude that kills a bunch of people just like that, and he vows to destroy humanity because it’s his destiny while we’re supposed to... Like him?

In comparison with the old Omen movies - even with the 2006 remake of The Omen – The contrast could not be greater.

Funny how times change.

Strange Times

I don’t know what it is, and I cannot put a finger on it, but something has changed. It feels like we suddenly woke up to an alternate universe where bullies are the new role models.

Let me give you an example:

Suppose some authoritarian preacher came along and said something like: “Why should we stop at killing the suspects? We have to murder their families and children as well!”

Ten years ago, people would’ve thought: “Jesus, this guy is a fucking lunatic!”

Now people would just think: “Jesus, this guy should be president!”.

Funny times indeed.

Negan’s World

Negan operates in a very similar manner than most dictators in modern history. He is a colossal bully, he rules through fear and violence, and he uses brutality and barbarism to steal people’s stuff while ironically calling it ‘civilization’.

After all, most dictators in human history have been known to take the stuff from people using very similar tactics.

"You figure it's all a scam, huh? All them folks? They just wrong?"

"Oh yeah! Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey, "He said for you to give me your fucking share."— True Detective

For instance, most dictators expect total obedience and sometimes even worship from the people that are under their thumb. And they always, always crack down on dessent.

Negan does the same the thing by requiring his followers to bend the knee at his presence.

Just like what kings and monarchs used to require from the medieval serfs because as you know, they’re representing God.

The difference however is that Negan runs a cult of personality and he does so by using some very effective manipulation techniques such as mirroring, asking everyone else to identify as Negan, thus scarifying their own identity.

As opposed to him being a representative to some imaginary friend, imaginary line on the ground, or a piece of cloth that has imaginary powers.

“It’s the house of God!"

"No. It’s just four walls and a roof” — Maggie Green, The Walking Dead

Now you might think that these things won’t happen in this day and age, but look around, we’ve got people supporting punishing cloth burners with treason, cheering when their leader suggests throwing a “deserter” from a helicopter without a parachute on live television (Bowe Bergdhal).

Hell, even the very people they used to call heroes (Snowden) they now see as traitors. They turned on them like a spineless snake on a back-stabbing competition.

The cult of personality, is a real thing.

Now the question remains, why do people love Negan so much despite all his heinous crimes, despite forcing women to sex slavery, killing children (The Hilltop, The Amazon women) despite enslaving people left and right..

Despite all of that, what makes him so damn irresistible?

The easy answer is Charisma, and Robert Kirkman did a spectacular job with Negan in this case. He took a character whose actions are obviously extremely cruel and sadistic and he turned him very likable nonetheless.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan who plays Negan, also did an outstanding job.

But is that enough to outweigh the cruelty? Or are we more prone to Stockholm Syndrome than prior generation?

Unlike the Joker on the Dark Knight, what sets Negan apart from most popular villains is that he actually enjoys hurting people. He gets off tormenting them with the remains of their dead friends, he takes pleasure tormenting his generals with the fact that he’s having sex with their wives.

He wiped out an entire community, well the males at least and any children over the age of 10, yet none of those things seem to matter.

Sympathy for the devil, I thought they were joking.

Charisma maybe the easy answer but the honest answer is: I truly don’t know.

How about you? What do you think? Why do so many people feel inevitably drawn so strongly towards sociopathic dictators?

Image Sources: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7