10 Reasons Why Rick Grimes is Better Than You
Or, 10 Reasons to Stop Bashing Other Characters Just Because You Like a Different One More
Word Count: ~4,200
Warnings: Strong language, discussion of death & murder, the morality of a post-apocalyptic world.
A/N: Many many thanks to twizzler, who edited this longer-than-necessary monster and provided continuous moral support, and avengersassemble-ingothamcity who provided some kick-ass reasons and ideas when all I could think of was HAVE YOU SEEN THE MAN'S BEARD.
Also, this is NOT meant to be Daryl bashing. This is rather a response to all the other character bashing I see happening in this fandom, as detailed below.
Enjoy ~~
10 Reasons Why Rick Grimes is Better Than You
(or, 10 Reasons to Stop Bashing Other Characters Just Because You Like a Different One More)
Okay, before we kick this off, I just want to be clear that this post is not a), directed at anyone in particular or b), meant to be Daryl-bashing. I want to be very clear; I do not hate Daryl Dixon. In fact, I fucking love Daryl Dixon. He’s one of my favorite characters on TV right now, and one of the only reasons why I pushed through Season 2 of The Walking Dead. Daryl’s awesome.
But, he is not the only character on the show. The Walking Dead might not be particularly outstanding in terms of plot or timing (seriously, Season 2, what), and the writing has a tendency to be meh during the middle episodes, but you know one thing The Walking Dead does better than almost anybody else? Yeah, you guessed it, characters.
TWD has some of the best characters around. We have a sass master, a badass grandpa, a budding sociopath, a genuine sweetheart (I really want a Glenn in my life), a jerk with a heart of gold, a motherfucking samurai, the creepiest sonofabitch this side of the Mississippi, and a guy who might actually belong in a Clint Eastwood movie, or possibly in a comic book somewhere.
The point is, The Walking Dead is a character-driven show. Each and every character is a fucking onion, layers upon layers of morality, motivation, anger, love, hate, greed, and fear that we’re still learning about. It makes for some damn good TV, some damn good discussion, and, you’d think, a damn good fandom.
Except that, recently, I’ve been noticing this trend. This sad, obnoxious, infuriating tendency to bash one or more characters in order to laud others. First to get it was Lori (fucking pissed about that, by the way, but that’s Another Rant for Another Time), and then Andrea, and then Carl. Carol gets it, T-Dog gets it, I’ve seen Maggie and Hershel and even Beth get it, a little. The Governor. Merle. Rick.
But do you know who doesn’t really get it? Yep, that’s right, Daryl fucking Dixon. Now I have no problem with Daryl love. He’s fucking awesome. He deserves it. He deserves fan love and more. But do you know what? He’s not the only character. Yes, his character arc has been fantastic and in-depth and one of the most kick-ass things I’ve seen. Yes, he’s the fandom dark horse, and therefore nearly universally adored. But he is not the only character on this show. He’s not perfect. None of them are. That’s why they’re good characters.
So, because I don’t have a good enough handle on the other characters (seriously need to start writing for this fandom again, my babies feel like aliens to me), we are going to talk about Rick Grimes today. Specifically, 10 Reasons Why Rick Grimes is Better Than You, or, perhaps more accurately, 10 Reasons to Help You Realize That There Are Other Characters In This Show Besides Daryl Fucking Dixon.
Reason #10: Rick Grimes Has (Most) Of His Shit Together
Step back for a second. Close your eyes. Imagine a nice, peaceful world. You’ve got a family. You’ve got friends, a good job. Yeah, life’s not perfect, but hey, it’s not terrible either. And then-
Bam! Surprise, cockbag! You’ve just been shot! And because the universe is personally out to make you suffer (or at least it feels that way), you spend a few months in a coma! And, as if that’s not enough, when you wake up, it’s the apocalypse! Complete with walking dead people who want to eat you and kids who hit your confused, sad face with shovels!
For a guy who literally woke up to find that the world had already ended (not was in the process of ending, he woke up and the world as he knew it was literally Over with a Capital Letter), Rick handles himself pretty well. Yeah, there was a bit of a breakdown there when he found his family gone, but all in all, he took the news okay. Hell, not only did he not go insane (at that point, anyway), he picked himself up, made a plan, and got his shit on the road. Which brings us to our next reason,
Reason #9: Rick Grimes is One Tenacious Motherfucker
Ever hear the saying, “he’s like a dog with a bone?” Yep. That’s Rick. He wakes up and the world is in the crapper, he’s got a hole in his side, and his neighbors want to eat him. Does it slow him down?
Nope.
He gets his shit together and gets his ass on the road. Now you might say that other characters have done the same thing, and you’re right, they have. Rick is in a special category mostly by himself for the reason that he does not quit. If your car runs out of gas, is your first instinct to go off down the zombie-infested road and look for more? Is your first instinct to steal a goddamn horse and ride off into the sunset? If yes, then congratulations, you might be awesome.
See, most people (especially in today’s world, let’s be honest) wouldn’t even try to pull that Clint Eastwood-type shit. Most people would say, “oh well, better luck tomorrow, I’m going to hide in my car now.”
Rick doesn’t even let it slow him down. Throughout the series, we continuously see that. There is no “dead end” for this guy. There’s no “too hard” or “too much.” He keeps going. Look at Episode Two, Guts. Everybody else is on the rooftop thinking, “welp, we’re all fucked now, might as well get high as fuck and snip and snipe at each other” but Rick says “heeyyyyy, how about we cut up some zombies and get our shit outta here?”
And you know what? It works. And this is a recurring theme. Rick’s always the one pushing on. His tenacity is one of his defining character traits-as well as flaws-and it keeps him and a good number of his people alive for a very, very long time.
Reason #8: Idealist, Bitch
Now a lot of the Rick-related hate I saw earlier on in the fandom (not so much now, since most of his idealism died a Horrible and Bloody Death when he had to stab his best friend in the heart) had to do with the fact that he was an idealist.
Now the dictionary defines idealism(in this context) as a) “the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, goals, purposes, ect.” This form of idealism is usually based on the idealist’s personal morals and value preferences.
Idealism in certain contexts can also be definition b), rejecting reality in favor of a romanticized version. An example of this could be “omg Daryl Dixon is the bestest, nicest, most handsomest zombie-killer 5everrrrr.” (In critical thinking this a fallacy called a “glittering generality;” glossing over the less savory bits, such as impressive anger management issues, borderline antisocial behavior, and racism, of a reasoning and pushing the better parts.) The latter form of idealism is not saying “I believe that we can pull together and get ourselves out of this mess.” That is not rejecting reality. In plenty of survivalist stories, this actually happens. People band together, put aside petty shit, and not only survive, they take the world back. So when Rick says, “we survive this by pulling together, not apart,” he’s not saying “omg guise this is totes not a problem, this is just a super long vacay!” he’s saying, “because of what I believe, I think that we can survive this if we focus on fighting off the dead people, not each other.”
Rick is an idealist by the first definition. He is probably one of the most noble, self-sacrificing, genuinely good characters in the show-often to the point of Honor Before Reason-because he believes with all of his heart that he’s helping people. He believes that his actions can make a difference, and that maybe, just maybe, he’s helping the people he cares about survive.
This is not rejecting reality. This is not a stupid, childish dream, or a flaw in his character that makes him weak (it is a flaw in his character, of course, but he suffers enough for it later). This is a guy in an impossible situation dealing with some pretty psychotic living people, hordes and hordes of dead people, and he still finds it in himself to think, “we can make it out of here.”
Yeah, I’d like to see anybody else keep that attitude a year into the motherfucking apocalypse.
Reason #7: Rick Grimes is Pragmatic Like a Boss
Now the true pragmatist of the show is, of course, Daryl Dixon. Man has it down to an art form, let’s be honest, but he’s not the only one.
Rick’s pragmatism (defined as “character or conduct that emphasizes practicality”) doesn’t manifest in things like hunting or killing walkers (he does that a lot, but it’s just sort of a chore for him, not something he actively seeks out until Lori’s death), it manifests in things like going off to get a bag of guns, or helping a man keep walkers in his barn, or pushing himself and his group through an infested prison to find a place to lie down for a while.
Now those all seem like bad decisions, I’ve seen them criticized as such, and rightly so because they weren’t executed very well, but the ideas themselves? Very, very practical.
If you’ve got guns, you can use them.
If the man who keeps walkers in his barn (oh, oh Hershel) is happy, he might not throw you and yours out into the woods.
If you’ve got a safe place with fucking iron bars and doors you can lock and (generally, fucking Andrew) expect to stay locked, you might just have a chance at, gasp! Survival!
Of course Rick has many, many non-pragmatic moments (dude, just shoot the fucking outsider already, this is not going to end well for you, also let your kid eat the fucking dog food, it is probably the most nutritious thing he’s seen in months), but yeah, usually? He has that shit down.
Reason #6: Rick Grimes Will Long-Term Plan the Shit Out of That
Got a little apocalypse problem? World ending everywhere you look? Never fear, Rick Grimes is here!
Rhymes aside, one of the things The Walking Dead does very well is the juxtaposition between immediate survival-day to day-type shit-and long-term survival. Characters like Shane and Daryl are extremely day-to-day: they see the world in terms of here and now. They’re concerned with surviving until the next morning. That’s great. That’s normal. That means that they’re always looking for food, for water, for medicine. They are excellent hunters and scouters and fighters.
Characters like Dale and Rick, on the other hand, are what we call long-term planners. Yeah, they’re concerned with waking up the next day, but while Shane’s busy making sure he’s got a place to sleep for the night, Rick is busy trying to make sure he and his have a place to sleep in ten nights, in a hundred, in as long as takes for the Powers That Be to fix this whole mess.
In an apocalyptic situation, you want the guy running the show to be long-term, not short-term. Short-term planners will leave you to die because in that moment you are more useful to them as walker bait. Long-term planners will save your sorry ass because they realize that down the road, they might need you to deliver their baby or grow crops or tend to injuries. Short-termers are going to see an open rock quarry and think, seems legit. Long-termers are going to see a prison and think, now that’s a little better.
Rick is always thinking about the future. He keeps talking over and over about a “safe haven,” a home. He doesn’t want a nomadic life, never knowing where he’s going to have to spend the night, he wants a place where he can fortify, defend, rebuild. As a result, he’s always thinking two or three steps ahead.
We see this most obviously in Pretty Much Dead Already. Shane wants to open the barn full of walkers and take care of the immediate threat, but Rick sees the value of letting Hershel keep it, namely that Hershel’s not going to send them back out on the road. So, Rick helps Hershel wrangle some walkers. From a short-term perspective, Rick, no, do not encourage the old bastard’s misconceptions. It presents a danger to the whole group. From a long-term view, though, Rick is actually choosing the best course of action.
And he’s always thinking like that. Always. Keep that in mind next time you hear someone say that he makes stupid decisions. And then punch that misinformed motherfucker in the face.
Reason #5: Redefining Loyalty One Big Damn Hero Moment at a Time
One of my favorite things about Rick? Motherfucker was a golden retriever in a past life or something, because once he considers you his family, it will literally take repeated attempts at murder for him to turn his back on you.
He’s so loyal that it’s almost painful to watch. This isn’t behavior developed over time, either, like Daryl’s loyalty is. Rick is crazy loyal from the get go. Glenn, for example? Saves his life once, and then less than two days later Rick’s facing down a group of apparent gangsters to get him home safely. He does the same for Morgan, radioing him every fucking day even though he could probably use the batteries for better things than telling a man who might not even be listening that he needs to stay away, it’s not safe, if he comes to the city he’ll die. He was with Morgan for what, a day? Two?
Maybe his loyalty is born out of guilt, like it seems to be towards Hershel. Maybe his loyalty is just another survival mechanism, something that grew out of waking up alone and afraid of the monsters in the dark. Maybe Rick’s a long-lost Winchester and he’s just naturally loyal to the point of insanity. But whatever the reason, his loyalty to his friends and his family is one of his defining character traits.
He doesn’t leave anyone he cares for behind. (Before somebody brings up Andrea, remember that Rick wasn’t actually there when she got split from the group. He was on top of a burning barn-not a very good decision, that, but we’ll let it slide for now-and had everyone else’s word that she had died.) He doesn’t leave Lori, even though she slept with his best friend. Hell, he doesn’t even kill Shane until Shane has tried not once, not twice, but three fucking times to kill him first. Instead, he does his damnedest to save everyone even though he can’t.
By Season 3, we can call this familial loyalty. Everyone’s showing it-they’re living for each other, fighting for each other, dying for each other, in some cases-and I honestly think that’s because of Rick. He’s kind of the broken (but awesome) pedestal to which they all reach, and it makes them better as a group of people trying to survive.
Reason #4: Rick Grimes: More Adaptable than the Common Fucking Cold
Ever wonder why you get a cold every fucking year? It’s not because the universe hates you, or because the cold bug specifically wants to fuck up your day, it’s because a cold is a virus. Your body can develop the antibodies to fight a certain strain of the virus, and, in a perfect world, if you got the cold once, your body could fight it off easy-breezy next time, no problem. But viruses, because they’re tricky little fuckers, mutate, often just enough to be unrecognizable to your body’s antibodies, which means they get to fuck up your day all over again, and again, and again.
Rick Grimes? Yeah, he’s pretty much the apocalyptic equivalent of the common cold. The man is crazy adaptable. Everybody is, on some level. When Rick wakes up (after what, six months? How the fuck did he manage that?) enough time has passed that those who were unable to adapt to at least some degree to the newer, hungrier world have already been weeded out.
Rick, though, kind of outstrips them all. He wakes up, wanders out of the hospital, and finds that the world has gone to shit while he napped. A day and a half, some soup, and one shovel to the face later, he’s killing zombies. Yeah. Thirty-six hours and he’s good to go. I don’t know about you guys, but it takes me thirty-six days to adjust to the changes of the seasons (though that might just be because it’s Ohio). Rick is aware of and efficient at killing zombies in less time than it takes me to get out of bed in the morning.
After that, the longest it takes him to adapt to a new situation-horde of zombies, trapped on a roof, best friend is actually secretly a murdering psychopath, et cetera-is an hour, max. Rick’s the one who thinks of covering himself and Glenn in zombie guts. Rick’s the one who figures out that fresh blood lures in and distracts zombies. Rick’s the one who learns that if you cut off an infected limb in enough time, you can save a bitten person’s life. Rick’s the one who thinks on his feet (an excellent skill for a cop) with the best results.
Rick’s adaptability is one of the main reasons I’m looking forward to his and the Governor’s inevitable showdown. The Governor’s bigger, stronger, and better-fed, probably better armed too, but if you give Rick an inch he’ll turn it into a mile, and then he will put a machete in your forehead. True facts.
Reason #3: Tenth-Degree Badass
If Badassery was an Olympic Sport, Mr. Grimes would consistently wipe the floor with the competition. He’s not the only badass, naturally-everyone in the show has their moments-but from the moment he gets his shit together in Morgan and Dwayne’s house, he’s pretty much one continuous badass moment after another.
Riding a fucking horse into an infested city? Stupid as hell but damn, that takes cajones. Going back for a lost bag of guns and squaring off with a full group over them? Badass. Going back for Glenn? Badass. “Nebraska?” Stone cold. Tricking a man in the midst of a psychotic break to lower his weapon and then knifing his bitch ass? (Just kidding, still love Shane) Bad. Ass.
Chuck Norris has nothing on this motherfucker. Rick sure as hell doesn’t look like much of a badass-he’s a skinny little fucker, especially compared to the Governor, Shane, and Merle-but he has the perfect combination of intelligence, skill, and sheer tenacity (look at that, full circle) to outclass all of them.
A badass is certainly a person who can take a nasty fall down a ravine into a creek, climb out of said creek with an arrow hole in his side, and make a necklace of fucking zombie ears, all while hallucinating (four for you, Daryl Dixon. You go, Daryl Dixon), but a badass can be the guy who sweet talks you into dropping your weapon too.
(Also, I’m pretty sure riding a horse into motherfucking zombie-Atlanta and then surviving the resulting feeding frenzy puts you on some Ultimate Badass List somewhere below Batman but above the honey badger. Just saying.)
Reason #2: No Bitch Compartmentalizes Like Rick Grimes Compartmentalizes
Yeah, okay, before you bring up the (justified) arguments as to why compartmentalization (splitting up conflicting ideas, values, knowledge, ect into different “compartments” in the mind to avoid cognitive dissonance) is unhealthy, realize that this is the zombie apocalypse, anything your brain does to keep you alive is For Your Own Damn Good.
With that in mind, compartmentalization is one of the best fucking things you can do for yourself. Forced to kill a living human being? It’s all good, your awesome brain is going to separate that from your value system so you don’t have a mental breakdown.
No one is better at this than Rick. It’s how he survives the second season and is a more effective leader than anyone else in the show. He is able to put everything that he knows, everything he sees, everything that happens to him, in different compartments so he can deal with them a later time. No, it’s not particularly healthy and no doubt contributed to his really, really steep nosedive off Sanity Mountain, but hey, who knows? Maybe he’ll be able to put his guilt and sorrow over his wife’s death (GUILT AND SADNESS, MOTHERFUCKERS, HE’S NOT “WEAK” FOR LOSING IT WHEN LORI DIES, HE’S ACTUALLY JUST MOURNING HIS FREAKING WIFE HOLY SHIT) in one compartment and his determination to keep going in another, and deal with them accordingly.
See, compartmentalization is a defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are generally Good Things, especially in a post-apocalyptic world. Defense mechanisms defend you, and stave off mental breakdowns sometimes indefinitely. The guy with the defense mechanisms longer than the Great Wall of China is the guy you want on your side, because he’s probably going to be one of the more stable and better adjusted ones, and, you know, less likely to kill you in a fit of psychotic rage.
Reason #1: Nicest (Loosely Speaking) Motherfucker This Side of the Apocalypse
Now if you happened to be in this fandom last year and you read the Character Tropes page for Rick, you would have seen three or four different tropes describing Rick as “the nice guy.” That was who he was-the nicest motherfucker in the whole show, aside from maybe Glenn.
See, Rick is Officer Friendly. In my personal headcanon he was the cop they sent out to every school in the district as part of the public relations campaign. Little kids loved him because he was awesome and let them see his handcuffs. Older kids tolerated him in that bemused teenager way because he was nice and understanding and wouldn’t even arrest you when he found the weed in your bookbag (seriously, man had like a sixth sense for weed detection), he’d just give you the Disappointed Face and a Stern Talking To. When Rick introduces himself as Officer Friendly it’s mostly a sarcastic jab but it’s also an actual truth. He’s just a really, really nice guy.
Who else would forgive you for sleeping with his wife? Who else would pause while hacking up a long-dead body and deliver a fucking eulogy for a man he didn’t know? Who else would go back to save a racist jerkass who hours before punched him in the face? A nice guy.
As the show progresses, we see this nice guy fade, little by little. It’s only self-preservation. The nice guy doesn’t last very long. But no matter how much Rick tries to hide it, he’s still just a nice guy. That’s why he tries to listen to and reason with Hershel instead of storming the house and taking over, as he so easily could. That’s why he spares Randall’s life. That’s why he gives Shane a second chance. That’s why he stays and waits by the highway. Why he lets Oscar and Axel join the group, even after Andrew fucked everything up.
Because Rick, underneath it all, under the anger and the fear and the guilt and the crushing responsibility and the shiny new layer of crazy, is a nice guy. He wants to do nice things. He wants to make things better. Robert Kirkman said that The Walking Dead is, at the core, the story of Rick Grimes ruining people’s lives. And it’s true. Since he showed up that’s all he’s done. Shane. Merle. Hershel and the Greene family. Tomas. Andrew. Dale. Andrea. Jim. All of these people were killed or hurt or upset by something that was a direct result of Rick’s actions. Rick caused Shane’s downward spiral. Rick handcuffed Merle to a roof. Rick brought his group’s drama onto Hershel’s land. Rick gave Tomas an ultimatum, and forced Andrew into a terrible situation. Rick chose (at first) to kill Randall, driving Dale out into the fields alone. Rick didn’t go back for Andrea. Rick left the group alone with half its fighting force gone, resulting in the attack that cost Jim his life.
But do you know what Robert Kirkman also said? That Rick meant well. Even though he does all of these things he does them not out of malice, or anger, or greed, he does them because he means well. He means well. He means well.
And this, I think, is the most important part of his entire character.
So, the moral of the story; there’s more than one complex, awesome character in The Walking Dead. Please, please start acting like it.