kingsmakers

The coercion thing is something the writers fucked up in terms of the adaptation from the comic books. The comic book are wild and really out there especially with explicit sex and violence. When it came to Negan they really toned it down for TV. Same with the Governor and everything. The wives in the comic book had some depth and personality and knew their own mind to a certain extent. Sherry wasn't a victim who sacrificed herself she made a play for Negan while with Dwight before Negan was the leader of the Sanctuary then manipulated her way into a position of power via the wives. Some of the wives chose to be there for status and luxury. The others I can't speak for but Amber is probably an example of being exploited I think. I haven't read the books for a long time but it was sexual politics and power. Negan has a real thing against rape in the comic books but he's also crazy and unpredictable and in a very violent dystopian setting. It's like Mad Max and there's gender and sexual politics and power dynamics and sexual exploration/exploitation but with Sherry and Negan it's who is exploiting who. It's complex and not clear cut. There's sometimes no set right and wrong in their world.

The wives in the TV show were done badly and most were just standing in the background. They could have had the exploited women beyond Amber, the women who chose to be there for luxury and status, the ones looking to get power. Sherry was done dirty. Those women could have had depth and characterization. It could show a more nuanced take on sexual exploition and coercion which is all at play here - like Negan has women wanting to be with him willingly in a transactional sense but it's a mutual arrangement as part of the plot. But then it changes over time and Negan starts abusing his position to gain women he otherwise wouldn't have exploiting their vulnerable status that he creates, resulting in a situation he manipulates. It results on the wives with various dynamics at play. It would show how a man who is obsessive about no sexual assault or rape being allowed is completely ignorant of how it can happen in many forms or refuses to face what he is doing being a hypocrite. He thinks by giving a woman the verbal opportunity to consent is not rape 🤦 when they can't say no since others will probably suffer.

I hate Negan by the way but the TV series santizes and does a lot of stuff wrong

I get what you're saying, and I agree that there’s definitely a weird disconnect between how fans perceive Negan and what he actually did, especially when it comes to the Sanctuary and the whole "wives" situation. You're absolutely right to point out that coercion is coercion, and calling it anything else doesn't erase the moral problem. But I’d argue that instead of glossing over it, we can look at it as part of what makes Negan such an interesting and flawed character, precisely because of his hypocrisy.

Yes, he says "rape is bad", but he also created a system where consent was murky at best. That contradiction doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it does show that he THINKS he’s doing something moral, even when he's not. That’s not a free pass, it’s character depth. It’s like watching someone try to impose order on chaos, justify their power through rules, and still completely miss the moral core of what they’re doing. That’s fascinating in a storytelling sense. It doesn’t make him a good person, but it makes him a great character.

And when it comes to redemption, the show doesn’t just hand it to him. He’s forced to reckon with his past over and over. He’s isolated. Hated. He has to face Maggie, who literally represents one of the worst things he’s done. His journey isn’t about "he’s hot now and we forgive him". It’s about whether someone who did unforgivable things can change. And even then, the show leaves a lot of that up to interpretation, some characters forgive him, others never do, and the audience is to this day put in a place where we’re supposed to wrestle with it.

So no, I don’t think fans should ignore what he did or rewrite it just because he has charisma. But I do think the writers intended for him to be morally complex, even uncomfortable. He’s a former villain trying (and often failing) to live with what he’s done, and that, to me, is far more compelling than if he had been a black-and-white bad guy.