The Governor

"Kill them all!"

- The Governor

The Governor is a character in the comic book series The Walking Dead, as well as the TV series and the novels. He is the insane leader of Woodbury who takes extreme measures to assume command of the residents of the town.

In The Walking Dead: Rise of The Governor
Brian Blake, aka The Governor, is one of the primary protagonists in the novel "The Walking Dead: Rise of The Governor", alongside his brother, Phillip. During the apocalypse, he was in a group with Phillip, his daughter Penny and his two friends Nick and Bobby. After Bobby dies from blood loss after being bit by a zombie, Brian, Phillip, Penny and Nick take their weapons and supplies and head off to find a home.

While traveling through Atlanta, the group meets a family in an apartment, where they take up residence but are soon kicked out by the family. They then live in an abandoned house, where a drug-addled and heavily armed gang attempt to take the house and kill the group.

A gunfight enuses and then ends with all members of the gang being killed and Penny being shot and killed as well. After that, Brian, Phillip and Nick discover Woodbury, a beat up old town with a fair amount of people living in it. They then take up residence in a apartment, where Phillip sneaks Penny, as a zombie, inside and feeds her apandages from bodies of people he claims he didn't kill.

One night, Nick saw Phillip dragging a girl against her will and tried to stop him, which ended with Nick shooting and killing Phillip and also accidentally shooting the girl Phillip was dragging. Nick was then killed on the spot by Brian, who held Phillip while he died in his arms. The next day, Woodbury is being terrorized by National Guard soldiers. Brian, who always went to Phillip for protection during intense situations, wonders what his brother would do, undergoes an out of body experience that has him carrying out the vision of what Phillip would do and murders the soldiers' leader, Gene Gavin.

Brian then encouraged the residents of Woodbury to help him kill the remaining soldiers and became the leader of Woodbury. One of the residents, Martinez, then asks Brian his name, to which Brian tells him that his name is Phillip Blake.

In the Comic Book Series
The Governor was a primary antagonist of The Walking Dead comic book series. As the governor, he feeds outsiders to the zombies and runs fights between his people and the zombies. He also keeps Penny as a zombie pet and keeps the heads of his decapitated victims in fish tanks.

When Rick Grimes, Michonne and Glenn arrive in town, the Governor captures them, cuts off Rick's hand, rapes Michonne repeatedly and mentally traumatizes Glenn. After Marinez helped the three escape, Michonne brutally dismembers and disfigures the Governor and leaves him to die, but the Governor is saved and survives the torture. He then leads an assault on the prison, which leads to many members of the group (including Rick's wife and daughter) being killed.

After this, Woodbury resident Lilly shoots the Governor in the head once she realizes she was forced to kill Rick's wife and daughter, then kicks his body into the hoardes of zombies who tear it apart.

In the TV Series
The Governor (real name: Phillip Blake) is the primary antagonist of the third season of The Walking Dead. In it, he is shown as the governor of Woodbury whos wife was killed in an auto wreck and keeps his daughter, Penny, as a walker. He is also in a relationship with Andrea.

In the episode, "Made To Suffer", Michonne kills Penny and stabs the Governor in the right eye with a glass shard, causing a lot of damage to his eye. He now wears a taped bandage on the eye wound.

In “Welcome to the Tombs”, The Governor has Milton tied up to a pipe in the shacks and beats him up, blaming him for the death of his men, since Milton burned up the walkers they had captured. He begins to berate him and tell him to be stronger. When Milton asks about Andrea, he takes Milton to Andrea's torture room, and orders him to kill her in order to get out of this situation alive. Milton tries to attack The Governor instead, but The Governor defends himself and stabs Milton in the gut multiple times, he then decides to leave Milton locked with Andrea, since he will reanimate and kill her, before leaving the torture room, The Governor says: "In this life, you kill or you die... Or you die and you kill."

Later, he and the Woodbury Army head to Rick's group at the prison so they can kill them once and for all. They arrive there exploding the guard towers, shooting all the barricades and running down the courtyard gate, but the prison seems to be empty. Later, they got attacked by flash grenades and walkers, everyone starts panicking and The Governor tries to calm them down, as they are running outside, Glenn and Maggie start shooting at them from the catwalk, telling them to leave the prison. The Governor wants to stay and fight, but the scared army of citizens leave the prison behind, prompting The Governor and his men to get in a car and go after them. As they reach the army, they stop the convoy and The Governor leaves his car angry at them, ordering them to go back to the prison immediately. Martinez and Allen agree with him, but the rest of the army refuse to attack the prison again, since they are scared and want to return to the safety of Woodbury. The Governor loses his sanity and starts shooting everyone to the ground, including Allen. Martinez and Shumpert only watch horrified as The Governor shows no remorse whatsoever after killing 22 of his own people. The Governor gets back in his car with Martinez and Shumpert and they drive off to an unknown location.

The Governor will return in Season 4.

He is portrayed by British actor David Morissey.

Trivia

 * In 2009, The Governor was ranked as IGN's 86th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
 * In a Comic Book Resources interview, Robert Kirkman jokingly said: "A lot of different characters have aspects of my personality, I think, but for the most part, I'm just making people up. Not one character is exclusively based on one person. Except for The Governor, who is exactly like Joe Quesada [editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics]. They are literally exactly the same.".
 * Regarding the torture and medical care of The Governor, Robert Kirkman wrote: "It wasn't that Bob was such a good medic that suddenly came out of nowhere that saved Governor's life-although he certainly did save his life. The idea is that Michonne was keeping The Governor alive, so she could torture him more. His wounds were bad, but not impossible to heal from.".
 * The Governor has suffered the most pain and injuries in the comic book series. For example, gunshots (chest, shoulder, cheek), amputations (ear, eye, fingernails, arm, some parts of his cheek, and possibly penis), blood loss, been exposed to fire (Michonne stopped his arm nub's bleeding with blowtorch), hits, bites, and kicks (numerous counts, most from Michonne), and numerous falls (fall from Jared's tank, explosion). He has also vomited badly several times (both puke and blood) and he's been drilled in the shoulder.
 * The Governor is one of the two people in the comic series to lose an eye, Carl being the second.
 * The Governor lost his left eye which is opposite of Carl who lost his right.
 * The Governor's kiss with Penny shows one of several incidents, proving the survivors cannot be turned into zombies by exchanging body fluids.
 * Brian had mentioned to zombified Penny that he had attempted the act of cannibalism.
 * Brian is one of the many people who have been amputated in The Walking Dead..
 * Brian managed to have his arm, ear, and possibly penis amputated by Michonne.
 * Brian, along with Rick Grimes, Andrea, Michonne, and Abraham Ford, have killed the most named characters, either as a zombie or as a living person.
 * Brian has killed the most characters, either as a zombie or as a living person out of everyone in the Comic Series combined.
 * Brian is one of the few characters with a continuing nickname.
 * In the Comic Series, he loses his left eye to Michonne, whereas in the TV Series episode, "Made to Suffer", he loses his right.
 * In "The Governor Special", the origin of Brian's fish tank of human heads is revealed.
 * The Governor's signature sidearm is a Beretta 92SB Nickel, he also likes to use a Steyr AUG A1 assault rifle.
 * "He is a badass, just as in the comic book. He scares me." Glen Mazzara quoted as saying within an AMC interview based on fan questions.
 * In the Comic Series and corresponding novel The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor, The Governor, Philip/Brian Blake, was of partial Hispanic descent. It appears that the show has gone another way with the character's origin, or at least his ethnicity.
 * The Governor is one of the few characters with a continuing nickname.
 * In response to a fan's worriment about how the nature of the character would be, in the face of mainstream television, Kirkman offered a reassuring statement that he would not be watered down for the show.
 * An Entertainment Weekly article released on September 14, 2012 confirmed The Governor's real name to be Philip, despite in the Comic Series, where his name is Brian.
 * In "Hounded", Merle chooses not to reveal to The Governor that Michonne has survived, due to the fear of his wrath. This is similar to how Dwight decides not to tell Negan about Paul Monroe's escape, for the same reason.
 * As a result of this lie, he lost his right eye to Michonne, which was one of the factors to him betraying Merle.
 * In the TV Series, the Governor loses his right eye during the fight with Michonne, whereas in the Comic Series, he lost his left.
 * In the TV Series, he suffered much less damage from Michonne in the fight, as he only lost an eye, whereas in the Comic Series he lost an eye, arm, ear, and had his genitals nailed to a 2x4. He did, however, lose his daughter, causing him much more emotional pain than physical, as well as driving him to be presumably one of the least sane people encountered so far in the TV Series.
 * The Governor is one of two characters to appear on a promotional Season poster, the other character being Rick Grimes.
 * In the Comic Series, Penny was The Governor's niece, but in the TV Series, she appears to be his daughter.
 * The Governor's clothes can be purchased as an Xbox 360 Avatar Outfit.
 * In "This Sorrowful Life", Merle mentions that the Governor had slashed the throats and stabbed any opposing people he came across, saying to "Never waste a bullet". It is apparent that The Governor has recently reconciled this practice (he shoots both Axel and Merle and directs his men to shoot any of the prison survivors on sight)
 * Philip is the second of three to make a walker herd intentionally (the Walker Bomb released on the prison) the first being Hershel and the third being Merle.
 * Interestingly enough, all three characters are the only ones in the TV Series known to have had a significant amputation.
 * Philip has killed more living people than any other characters, with more than 30 counts.
 * The Governor didn't care if the people he killed come back as zombies or not. Unlike Rick and the others who shoot living people in the head, The Governor shoot any part of the body.