The Walking Dead is one of the most successful horror series on television now, currently in between the second and third parts of its eleventh and final season. As the show draws nearer to its ultimate conclusion, fans are looking back on the series both with fondness–and irritation.
The AMC series has introduced plenty of fan-favorite characters over the years, but it has also delivered more than its fair share of annoying personalities that fans still despise to this day. As a result, a list with over 47,000 votes on Ranker vies to forever define the most irritating characters on the show.
Gareth
Despite a relatively short tenure on The Walking Dead, Gareth is a quite memorable character for all the wrong reasons. Played by Andrew J. West, the character is among the violent group of cannibals that lure passersby into their gates under the guise of providing food and shelter.
A leader within the cannibalistic community of Terminus, Gareth is one of the most unsavory characters in the series, whose ideals are grossly overblown, as he believes that one is either “the butcher of the cattle.” His persistence in attempting to get revenge on Rick’s group after the fall of Terminus eventually leads to his well-deserved demise.
The Governor
Philip Blake, a.k.a. The Governor, portrayed by David Morrissey, was The Walking Dead‘s first true Big Bad, who plagued Rick’s group of survivors throughout Season 3 and the first half of Season 4. As the leader of Woodbury, The Governor saw Rick’s group as a threat, endeavoring to destroy their prison community on several different occasions.
The Governor’s villainy was the driving force behind several major deaths in the series, including Hershel, a fan-favorite character for years. While many fans cannot stand the Governor after all the pain he wrought on the show’s main characters, the fact remains that he fulfilled his exact purpose for the series, making him one of the best villains therein and therefore one of the most likely characters to appear in the anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead.
Allen
Allen (Daniel Thomas May) was a character originally introduced as a part of Tyreese and Sasha’s group. After the death of his wife Donna, Allen and his friends joined with the community of Woodbury, aligning themselves with the Governor’s siege against Rick’s group at the prison.
Fans would be forgiven for failing to recall exactly who Allen was in the series. The character played a rather insignificant role in the show’s third season, only appearing in a handful of scenes, mostly to disparage Rick’s group with truly very little reason to do so. In the end, his death was met with little emotion from fans, besides perhaps relief.
Spencer Monroe
Austin Nichols portrayed the character of Spencer Monroe in the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons of The Walking Dead. He comes across Rick’s group when they join with Alexandria, eventually beginning a romantic relationship with Rosita Espinosa before eventually dying at Negan’s hand.
The son of Deanna Monroe, leader of Alexandria, Spencer had a sense of entitlement that rarely bodes well for the zombie apocalypse. The character seemed to think of himself as invincible despite having very little skill to back up his ego. In the end, he meets his end doing what he did best, backstabbing his friends in pursuit of even the slightest sniff of power.
Lizzie Samuels
Lizzie Samuels was a child within the prison community at the beginning of Season 4. Played by Brighton Sharbino, the young girl and her sister Mika found themselves in the care of Carol Peletier after the fall of the prison. Neither lasted long, however, as both Lizzie and Mika died before the end of the season.
Lizzie is a complicated character for fans to decipher, as the child very clearly struggled with mental illnesses that simply could not be remedied in a post-apocalyptic world. After Lizzie murdered her sister, however, both fans and Carol knew that she could not be kept alive, forcing Carol to shoot the girl in the back of the head in a moment that is difficult for even hardcore The Walking Dead fans to watch more than once.
Ed Peletier
Ed Peletier had an extremely short stint in the first season of The Walking Dead. Adam Minarovich played Carol Peletier’s abusive husband, who is introduced in the second episode of the series, only to be devoured by walkers at the end of the very next episode.
Despite his lack of screentime, Ed was able to make a very poor impression on TWD fans, who saw over the course of just two episodes how poorly he treated both his wife and daughter. The only true purpose that his character served was dying so that his wife could be propelled into becoming the amazing character that she now is.
Lori Grimes
Sara Wayne Callies played Lori Grimes in the first three seasons of The Walking Dead. As the wife of the series protagonist Rick and mother of Carl and Judith, Lori contributed quite a bit to the show’s overall story before her death early in season 3.
Though she did make some worthwhile contributions to the group, Lori’s story is bogged down by her affair with Shane Walsh and generally clueless parenting style. Over time, Lori has become not only one of the most hated characters on this show but one of the most hated fictional characters of all time, with the character failing to appear in Rick’s final episode, despite his visions of many friendly faces from the show’s past.
Andrea Harrison
Andrea Harrison plays a much smaller role in the series than in the comics, only appearing throughout the first three seasons of AMC’s hit show. Played by Laurie Holden, the character has become thoroughly hated by many viewers.
Andrea got on fans’ nerves often during her time on the series, picking a fight with almost every character with whom she shared the screen whilst having an overconfident view of her own abilities with little to back up such beliefs. After the largely negative reactions to her character from the show’s first and second season, the showrunners quickly opted to kill Andrea off in the season 3 finale.
Nicholas
Michael Traynor’s The Walking Dead character is one that many fans have tried to forget over the years. Traynor only appeared as the Alexandrian Nicholas in a handful of episodes, but in that time, quickly made a name for himself as one of the most annoying characters in the entire series.
Nicholas got off to a very poor start with fans after his cowardice got Noah killed in season 5. Shortly thereafter, the Alexandrian attempted to murder Glenn Rhee to cover for his previous actions, cementing fans’ hatred toward him. However, his next few episodes included a compelling redemption arc, only to end in one of the most jaw-dropping betrayals on the show, as Nicholas once more succumbed to his fear and shot himself in the head, nearly killing Glenn in the process.
Sam Anderson
Sam Anderson (Major Dodson) is a character introduced when Rick’s group enters the Alexandria Safe Zone. The youngest son of Jessie Anderson, Sam grows close with Carol Peletier after a strange blackmailing scheme in which he vows not to share her secrets in exchange for freshly-baked cookies.
Many fans grew weary of Sam for his childish tendencies in a post-apocalyptic world. While many of his unpopular attributes are understandable given his age, the apocalypse is no place for such immaturity, as his fear would lead to the bloody death of his entire family in one horrifying series of events that even Rick Grimes could not prevent.
