For years, The Walking Dead has prided itself on one thing: portraying survivors reacting realistically to extraordinary circumstances. The series has portrayed genuine-feeling characters for several seasons and often delves into the emotional core of its main characters. The show has always tried to portray post-apocalyptic survivors in a realistic light, and for the most part, it succeeded.
Part of being realistic means that the characters must make questionable decisions and have ambiguous moral compasses at times. This is definitely true in The Walking Dead, where no character has clean hands and everyone has done something that made the audience truly question where their loyalties lie.
Let's take a look at the worst thing that each main character of The Walking Dead has done.
RICK - IGNORING ORANGE BACKPACK GUY
Though this particular incident pales in comparison to some of the other insane decisions Rick has made during his nine seasons as the series lead, when Rick chose to deliberately ignore a man who was stranded on the side of the road, and as a result, causing the poor guy an extremely painful death, it happened at a time when Rick still held himself to a notably high standard, being the leader of the group and of course, the resident "good guy".
To make this terrible moment way worse, Carl was in the car when Rick zoomed right by Orange Backpack Guy, which is just twisted.
DARYL - CAUSING GLENN'S DEATH
Daryl has been known for his tendency to make rash and impulsive decisions in the heat of the moment. On several occasions, Daryl's inability to control his anger has resulted in devastating consequences, and this was never truer when it came to Glenn's death in TWD's seventh season premiere.
Everyone in Negan's line-up was powerless to the terrible events that were about to befall them, but what set Daryl apart from everyone else was that they knew that. After Negan killed Abraham, Daryl took the opportunity to weakly try to fight back against Negan. Obviously, the attempt failed spectacularly and resulted in the tragic death of a beloved, fan-favorite character.
CAROL - "MARRYING" EZEKIEL
Though Carol has definitely endured more than her share of trauma, when it comes to hurting others or making decisions that end up hurting others, Carol's hands are much cleaner than other survivors on the show. Since helping her family and friends is almost always the motive behind everything Carol does, her intentions are in the right place.
However, one of her less than admirable moments came in season 9, when it was revealed that she was in an established romantic relationship with Ezekiel. This felt wrong and contrived to many fans, and what's worse is that choosing to be with Ezekiel and Henry at the Kingdom, meant abandoning so many loved ones for Carol.
MICHONNE - ABANDONING THE OTHER COMMUNITIES
Season 9 brought with it new relationships and new rifts between characters and communities. At the beginning of the seasons, the Hilltop, Kingdom, Oceanside, and Alexandria were shown to work as a team and be very close and tight-knit. However, the six-year time jump that occurred after Rick's "death" in episode 4, revealed that the communities had significantly drifted apart.
The show revealed that the rift between the communities was mostly due to the fact that Michonne chose to isolate Alexandria and virtually cut them off from the others after a traumatic experience with an old former friend. The decision was understandable to an extent but was still a pretty harsh move on Michonne's part.
JUDITH - ENDANGERING THE GROUP
Judith was always subjected to having an insignificant amount of screentime since season 3, but that all changed after season 9's large time jump, in which an older version of the surviving member of the Grimes family was introduced.
Not only was the reveal of this "new" Judith hilariously corny, but this was just the start of storylines in which Judith decides to go off on her own adventures and inevitably winds up putting every unwitting person in danger.
ROSITA - HER AFFAIR WITH SIDDIQ
It's no secret that Rosita and Father Gabriel obviously make no sense as a couple. The season 9 time jump revealed several unexpected storylines, and one of them was this particular relationship. Besides the fact that these two characters had virtually no interaction prior to being presented to the audience as an established couple, Rosita and Gabriel had no real chemistry that made their romance believable.
This still doesn't excuse the fact that Rosita just blatantly had an affair with Siddiq while being in a serious relationship with Gabriel. Unfortunately, Rosita's questionable actions resulted in the only thing that's worse than a love triangle; a love quadrangle.
EUGENE - STILL BEING A COWARD
Despite being given significant amounts of screentime since his introduction in season 4, actual character development for Eugene Porter has been few and far between. Cowardice has always been the pseudo-scientist's biggest flaw, and in almost six seasons, that has not changed at all.
Eugene is still substantially inhibited by his fears, which mainly revolve around the fact that he's worried for himself more-so than anyone else. This character has been a major part of the series for a long time, and the fact that he has not evolved significantly from where he started is definitely odd.
EZEKIEL - CEASELESS NAIVETY
Ezekiel's been through his share of trauma, and an admirable trait in his character is the fact that he has managed to maintain his kindness throughout the dark events. Unfortunately though, Ezekiel never really seems to learn from his past mistakes and misjudgments.
His biggest flaw as a character has always been his naivety, and it ultimately indirectly resulted in the death of his adoptive son.
NEGAN - PRETENDING TO BE THE GOOD GUY
Negan definitely has an endless list of bad deeds. Even before the apocalypse, he was no saint and presumably made his wife, Lucille's life, a living hell. After the world ended, Negan took the opportunity to become a psychotic, sadomasochistic cult-leader and serial murderer.
But perhaps the one thing that's worse than coercing innocent women and killing hundreds of people, is the fact that Negan - and the Walking Dead crew themselves - thinks that he's not even that bad of a guy, and actually deserves a shot at redemption.
ALPHA - ABUSING HER HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER
Alpha is not nearly as smug and sadomasochistic as Negan, but she is much more cunning and menacing than the ladder ever was. Alpha is easily The Walking Dead's most intimidating, terrifying villain yet, and she was only just introduced in season 9.
A few episodes in season 9 delved into Alpha's backstory, and we learned that her sociopathic tendencies were prevalent long before the apocalypse happened. Alpha abused both her husband and her daughter, Lydia, and once the world ended Alpha wound up killing her husband and become the all-feared leader of the Whisperers.