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Note: This article is about the comic version of the Governor. If you were looking for the TV version of the character, click here.
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| “ | Kill them all! Now! | „ |
| ~ The Governor's most famous quote. |
| “ | Don't Panic! The Biters can't outrun us! We just need to keep calm and get inside the prison, make sure it's closed off. We can clear this place out later, rebuild the fences, we can make this work! WE'VE GOT TO STICK TOGETHER! | „ |
| ~ The Governor's last words during the prison battle before being shot in the back of the head by Lilly. |
Brian Blake, better known as The Governor, is one of the main antagonists of the horror comic book series The Walking Dead, specifically serving as the main antagonist from Volume 5: The Best Defense to Volume 8: Made To Suffer.
He is the ruthless governor of Woodbury who took extreme measures to assume command over the residents of the town, willing to destroy zombies and fellow humans alike to keep himself at the top. His goal was to take over the Meriwether County Correctional Facility and kill all of its inhabitants. Brian's atrocities and brutal terror towards Rick's group affected their mindset drastically to date, making the main survivors even more colder and hardened than they ever were.
Personality[]
Before his infamous transformation into the deranged maniac we see him today, Brian Blake was a nervous, jittery and weak willed man who relied on his younger brother for protection. He was deeply insecure of his abilities, which were heightened into the apocalypse in an attempt to prove himself to his brother, and he attempted to keep his family and friends safe in the horrid world. Brian deeply cared for his family as well as his friends and relied on them to keep him sane, and he showed to be completely subservient towards his brother, always trying to see the good in him even when Philip fell into darkness, raping April and torturing Sonny and Cher.
After the death of Philip and him having to kill Nick, Brian became broken and ultimately fell and crumbled, which ultimately shedded his humanity when he murdered Gene. In order top prove himself to no longer be weak, he adopts Philip’s name and pretends to be his younger brother, adopting his mannerism and behavior to prevent himself from becoming weak. This choice ended up making Brian lose his sanity and burying his original personality deep in side, with now Philip Blake as his new identity and personality. This ended up making a deluded survival of the fittest mentality in which he assigns the people who live are “Philips” and the people who are weak as “Brians” and despite his morals, forces himself to go through horrid acts.
As Philip Blake and now the Governor, he showed to have a complete 180, becoming a sadistic, cruel, remorseless, vicious and ruthless man who will have no qualms murdering and breaking people to get his way. While attempting to keep up a mask of charisma and niceness, it slips easily and he will become rageful, such as strangling Christina Haben to death and shooting Trey Barker violently. He shows a particular brand of sadism in the way he delivers actions, forcing Glenn to listen as he violently rapes Michonne for a second time.
Philip shows to be a Manipulative and calculating tyrant, manipulating the people of Woodbury flawlessly and is willing to use them as canon fodder without a moment notice. He shows to be willing to exploit their deaths to get them on his side and is even willing to kill them himself if they become to much for him to deal with.
However, that is not to say The Governor has zero humanity as there is times shown where Governor’s old personality and persona, Brian, seeps through, no matter how many times he attempts to restrict it. It is shown by the end that Brian himself is horrified by the actions he forced himself to commit, a remorse that he attempts to shove deep inside himself to prevent himself from becoming weak. This remorse comes in short bursts of despair, such as with immediately vomiting when kissing his zombified niece Penny.
He also shows an amount of care for two specific people: his right hand Bruce Cooper, and the town drunk and former army surgeon Bob Stookey. Brian was shown to be deeply enraged at Bruce’s death when seeing his corpse and it’s revealed that Brian did genuinely see Bruce as a friend, trusting him as much to see Penny and his collection of heads. He also said who’s to value Bob Stookey, keeping him close and showing him Penny, and even giving him responsibilities to keep watch of Penny when he is away, showing that deep down the Governor’s humanity is still deep seated.
However, after his capture and subsequent torture by Michonne, leading to the loss of his arm and eye, Brian’s old personality was almost eradicated completely, leading a shell of a man with one thing in mind: revenge. He ends up attempting to do a widespread attack on the prison, completely losing his mind as he’s set out for revenge and is completely willing to have himself and his men die just for revenge.
After his subsequent fatal shot on the head by Lily and getting eaten by zombies, The Governor’s last thoughts are of complete psychotic break as Brian’s old personality suddenly seaps in, hitting the Governor with the realization that Philip has been dead for years and he was simply Brian. This ends up psychologically destroying The Governor, who simply yells that he lives, the last of his thoughts and feelings of a psychotic break as he ends up dying a completely broken shell, no longer Brian or even Philip as he dies.
Biography[]
Brian Blake along with his younger brother Philip Blake grew up in Waynesboro, Georgia. Although Brian is three years older than Philip, he has always relied on Philip for protection. The novel describes Brian as sickly, frail, and "the runt" of the two brothers. He studied at the University of Georgia and got his degree in comparative literature. He is intelligent, but unable to harness his wits toward anything productive. At the time of the outbreak, he had failed at several business ventures in Athens that were funded with his parents money. He has a vast knowledge of music and wears band t-shirts throughout the novel (REM and Weezer among them). Just before the outbreak, Brian moves back in with his parents after a brief marriage to a Jamaican woman named Jocelyn.
During the zombie apocalypse his insecurity took it's toll on him as days grew darker and humanity crumbled, and he ultimately succumbed to carnal instincts. After Philip was killed in order to assure he would never be weak, he assumed his brother's identity as Phillip Blake and adopted Phillip's daughter Penny as his own in spite of her being undead.
Before he first met Rick Grimes and his group in the series, Brian Blake ended up becoming a ruthless and tyrannical ruler of a residential town called "Woodbury" - up to the point where he ended up branding himself "The Governor" to assert his leadership over the townsfolk and the militant forces within the area. At times he would often feed outsiders to the zombies and arrange fights between his people with the zombies surrounding them. He also keeps Penny as a zombie pet, as well as keeping the heads of his decapitated victims in fish tanks.
Soon enough, his sadistic and brutal nature emerged when Rick Grimes and his two companions Michonne and Glenn Rhee arrived in town. At first the Governor appeared friendly towards them, but eventually revealed his true colors when he demanded to know the location of their campsite - a prison. When they refuse to tell him about the prison's location, the Governor proceeded to cut off Rick's hand with a cleaver. In an attempt to stop him, Michonne tackled the Governor and bit off his ear. After having his men subdue the trio, he sent Rick to Dr. Stevens in the hopes of getting the prison's location out of him later. He had Glenn and Michonne locked into separate cells. Keeping Michonne restrained and stripped, the Governor raped her repeatedly. On one occasion he assaulted Michonne in earshot of Glenn - which consequently left Glenn mentally traumatized in the process. Besides using Michonne as a sex slave, he tried to force her into partaking into the Woodbury fights. He grew enraged when she undercut his plan by killing his favored fighter and all of the zombies nearby, only barely stopping himself from killing her with her own sword.
Martinez soon helped Rick and his companions escape, but Michonne decided to confront the Governor for revenge. She overpowers the Governor and, after restraining him into captivity, proceeded to brutally torture him by dismembering and disfiguring him to the point of near death. She then left the Governor to die, but he was found by his two enforcers Bruce and Gabe; they later brought up to Bob Stookey, the town drunk who was a former army medic, and they manage to help The Governor recuperate from his his death experience.
Soon afterwards, the Governor resolved to exterminate Rick's group. He learns that Martinez has been killed, and uses the latter's zombified head to create a propaganda by convincing Woodbury that Martinez was murdered by Rick's group in cold blood. This inspired his army to join him in attacking Rick's group, and the Governor leads them on a lethal assault on the prison after locating the campsite. However, the battle is won by Rick's group in the end and The Governor and his army are forced to retreat. Later on Michonne and her companion Tyreese follow them in an attempt to kill the Governor, only for Tyreese to get captured and for Michonne's katana to be confiscated by the Governor himself.
The Governor and his army later return to the prison with Tyreese as their hostage. In that moment, the Governor brandishes Michonne's katana onto Tyreese's neck and issues a ultimatum to Rick's group - either they surrender the prison to him or he will execute Tyreese. In response, Tyreese urges Rick's group not to let him in; Rick's group comply with Tyreese's request, knowing that The Governor intents to murder everyone present at the prison anyway. Upon realizing that Rick and his group are not letting him in the prison, the Governor kills Tyreese by decapitating him with Michonne's katana before kicking the deceased's body into the grass field.
When he reunites with the rest of his army, the Governor claims that Rick's group murdered Tyreese and - despite some of his army wanting to return to Woodbury - insists that they will go back to attack them in the prison. With that, he leads the army back to the prison and they launch another attack on Rick's group. Just as it appears that the Governor is about to lose again upon seeing many of his forces being gunned down, he brandishes a tank and uses it to ram through the prison fences in an act of desperation. This consequently allows the zombies to enter the prison, and several people - including members of Rick's group - end up getting killed in the ensuing carnage. Regardless of the situation, the Governor forces his army to continue with the onslaught - going as far as to berate one of his young soldiers for feeling guilty after killing Ben Greene during the battle.
Eventually, Rick and his family attempt to flee as their friend Alice covers fire for them. The Governor notices this and kills Alice before ordering Woodbury resident Lilly Caul to kill them. She reluctantly complies and opens fire on the Grimes family, killing Lori and causing the latter to fall on top of baby Judith; consequently, Judith is crushed to death as a result of Lilly killing Lori under the Governor's orders. Just as Rick and Carl escape the carnage, the Governor notices Ben's mournful father Hershel in an emotional state. When the Governor confronts him, Hershel says "Just kill me" and the Governor responds by executing him.
In that moment, Lilly examines through Lori's dead body and discovers Judith under her. Horrified and enraged, Lilly angrily brands the Governor a monster and hysterically berates him for making her kill a baby; she becomes furious enough to draw her gun at the Governor, but the distraction of oncoming zombies allows the Governor to fight back and punch her onto the ground. While fending off a horde of zombies, the Governor desperately tires to retain his control over his army by assuring them that - in spite of the escalating situation - they can still win the war. However, Lilly - finally realizing how evil the Governor truly is - openly pulls out her handgun and shoots him in the face.
She then kicks his body into the hordes of the zombies and leaves him to die by ordering the remaining Woodbury soldiers to make their narrow escape; they do so as the Governor gets eaten alive by the sheer number of zombies. With the Governor dead and his reign of terror ultimately brought to an end, the deaths of those that he himself had committed - including Tyreese, Axel, Patricia, Billy, Alice, Lori, Judith, and Hershel - have all been avenged.
TV Series[]
- Main article: The Governor (TV)
The Governor also appears as a major antagonist in the live-action television series by AMC, although he is actually Phillip Blake as opposed to Brian Blake and has an altered backstory and personality. As a result, he is portrayed with much more sympathy as opposed to his comic/novel counterpart.
He was portrayed by David Morrissey.
Victims[]
- Bruce Cooper (Before Reanimation)
- Tyreese (Alive)
- Axel (Caused)
- Patricia (Caused)
- Billy Greene (Caused)
- Alice
- Lori Grimes (Caused)
- Judith Grimes (Caused, Accidental)
- Hershel Greene
- Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people (Caused and Direct)
Gallery[]
.jpg "The Governor (Comic Series).jpg (38 KB)")
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 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 Grimes being the second.
- The Governor lost his left eye which is opposite of Carl who lost his right.
- The Governor is one of the two people in the comic series to lose an eye, Carl Grimes being the second.
- The Governor had mentioned to zombified Penny that he had once attempted the act of cannibalism, but stopped because he didn't like how it tasted.
- The Governor is one of the many people who have been amputated in The Walking Dead.
- He managed to have his arm, ear, and penis amputated by Michonne.
- He loses his left eye to Michonne in the comics, whereas in the TV Series episode, "Made to Suffer", he loses his right eye.
- 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 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.
- The Governor is the first major primary antagonist, the second being Negan and the third being Alpha.
- Also, unlike The Governor and Alpha, Negan is still alive and has a much longer lifespan than either The Governor or Alpha did.
- He also has the shortest lifespan out of the three antagonists.
- Also, each other the three major antagonists has a different status: The Governor is dead, Negan is alive, and Alpha is undead.
External Links[]
- The Governor on the Walking Dead Wiki
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 Villains
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