Why is the governor in my fan made story based on an apocalypse a good villain/hero?
You may not be familiar at all with my inspired story characters at all so I'll delve into it a little where I might make a story on her, and I won't say when the chapters are or when the events that take place in the story so I'll spoil a little but not enough to the point where it actually ruins the reading experience! (I have been considering writing this out actually as a real story, but this is mostly just meant for a character dive in to get to know her!)
The Governor is considered a villain by everyone outside of her town called Citadel because she has the death penalty put in place for crimes committed, but they don't know or grasp the full extent of why she did this, it's because the children involved in crimes were often hurt because of it so she put the death penalty in place. She was also notoriously enemies with the rebels, a faction that took down all of the evil ones to try and make peace, they had always seen her as a villain even when she and Michael regularly tried to kill eachother, so when they've got no choice but to ask her for help when a faction threatens everyone its a bitter pill to swallow. But The Governor does agree pretty quickly, they do not understand why, but they do agree to her condition that she bring her own ride because if that was all it took for a woman as powerful as the governor herself then they'd do it. She would ride in on her horse, he is black as midnight and his eyes were the color of fresh grass, she doesn't immediately speak, and she doesn't roam around the camp looking for weaknesses, they would find it unusual for someone they think of as a villain. But they do get a glimpse into her sense of humor out of a horribly embarrassing decision made by the group of adults because they needed a break from the stress of the world, they know she doesn't drink because she always turns it down hard but she notices something about the cider that was "alcoholic". The label would be faded but her observation was sharp, a skill that comes in handy for almost anything, she read the nonalcoholic part on the label and sat back as everybody got "wasted" on the "alcoholic" cider, and she pulled out a video recording device and set it up to capture the chaos. It goes on with everybody acting the exact opposite of how they usually do, so when they pass out and wake up hung over and what the h#ll happened they notice The Governor still sitting there and laughing her @$$ off at some recording, their horror when they find out she recorded them "drunk" was enough to send her into fresh peels of laughter but when it dies down she adds something else humiliating to the fire, she shows them the non-alcoholic part of the label and tells them that their drunken antics was nothing more than a simple placebo effect from a misread label. They would later recall her observational skills because she spotted something that they missed for weeks at a time, and they notice that she's a good strategist when hunting for something to eat because she set up a tripwire that would trigger an arrow shot if something walked by, this does not only reveal how good of a strategist that she is but it also makes them hyper aware of her ability to make great traps and disguise them. After the hunting thing had happened they would discover her love for horses because of the way she treats Brett (her black horse). She always makes sure Brett has the first and the last carrot, the first and last apple, and other fruits and veggies that she fed her horse, they have a get to know the enemy campfire night where they ask questions to know something about her, they would note her closed off nature when the questions got too personal such as her actual name and who her parents were, but they do discover that her favorite color is black. While they don't think it's a big deal that she wears alot of black her reason is a little sad though she doesn't tell them because they don't ask, the most personal question she answered that night would be when somebody asks her how old her pet horse is, they're all shocked with disbelief when she says Brett is 25 years old. But that's not the question that gets the truth of her past out in the open, it's actually what Michael, the leader of the rebels, asks her next, it doesn't reveal much but it does give them an idea of what her life must've been like.
The big question
Michael would ask her what her favorite memory was of before the collapse, a seemingly innocent question but for the governor it carried so much weight, the governor said "I wouldn't know..." in a quiet and neutral tone, but when one of the other rebels asked her what she meant because everyone missed something the governor spoke up again and said "I mean I wouldn't know! You guys all know what it's like but I don't, I don't remember a time before the collapse..." and things did click for them. They had all assumed that she was in her 30's like they all were, but when Michael asked how old she was and she said 27 it showed that she did genuinely grow up in this world. She never knew a world where you didn't have to constantly look over your shoulder and she never knew what it was like to go to school. She didn't even know what it was like to just sit back and relax by the television after a long day of work in an office building or a long day in the vehicle, she just grew up knowing the harsh wastelands and being constantly under threat. When Michael had apologized for asking she said "it's fine, you can't really miss what you never had to begin with" but she would have a sense of longing in her eyes when she did look at something from before the world fell. This would make them think that maybe there was more to the governor than they originally thought there was besides her only being a villain.
Her lack of understanding
The Governor doesn't understand adult humor like they all do, for example she just thinks that wood refers to the material and that the word erection means the starting of a settlement, to be fair centuries ago that was all they meant, but because she never knew a modern world filled with those jokes she wouldn't know why they laughed whenever they all played a settlement building game and she said those words. She didn't even understand why they laughed so hard when she said something about a long hard and sturdy pole when she was referring to scaffolding for construction, she just saw the practical purpose of the materials she was talking about and completely missed the real reason why they were all crying laughing at what she said. She also doesn't understand why everyone holds onto certain things from before the world collapsed, she's tried before but failed to understand, The Governor never experienced that kind of life so she wouldn't understand why they felt that need to hold onto old world things. Unlike them she only held onto things that could still serve a use such as the parts for a gun, if a gun part wore out and she needed to replace it then she would have a spare part handy, and the leftover foods that would've gone to waste always go to the animals that need it. Like them she had reasons for doing the stuff she did but unlike them she didn't hold onto old world stuff that couldn't be used because she never knew what that life was like. She also wouldn't understand romantic feelings if they slapped her across the face, sure she had one previous boyfriend but after he died she closed herself off from any sort of romance, the rebels wouldn't know about this but it would prove how deep it cut her if she still closed herself off after many years since.
Her true feelings
When the governors horse reaches the end of his life she also reaches the worst point of her life, it started off like an ordinary day and her horse looked longingly at the distant field of grass, but on arriving there he would've nudged the governor with his head and got her to sit down next to him just like when she was little. He ate a little bit of grass and when she stroked his head and said "I love you Brett" those were the last words that she would ever get to say to him because after 25 years of life time would finally catch up to him, the horse held on longer than a horses lifespan should allow. But it wasn't until the sun started to set that she nudged Brett to try and make him stand up, after realizing her only friend in the world died she couldn't help but cry as she cremated her horse with her lighter and scooped the ashes into Brett's favorite plastic apple container. The weight of losing her only friend would cut so deep that she would be crying the whole way back to the camp. Nobody had ever seen her crying before so the sight would a shocker, but her silence when somebody would her where's Brett would explain everything, the only reason she had continued was because she had something by her side to fight for and that was Brett, now without him it would set in motion an avalanche of emotion. What starts out as a tiny little pebble would very quickly grow into a huge Boulder that she wouldn't want to escape from, she would start to feel so bad that she wouldn't care about how but she would just want the pain to stop, when Michael would inevitably suggest gently that they could find her another horse she would shout at him in a shaky voice and say "I don't want another horse!!!" She would then quietly add on "I just want Brett..." and that one statement alone would explain how much he meant to her. She would feel like she was trying to replace something irreplaceable. And then she just completely shut down. Somehow her silence would scream louder than any gunshot she could ever make.
Her grief
At a deceptively normal campfire after her horse died she would reveal that her name was Elianna after Michael had asked what it really was because nobody had ever heard it. They've grown closer by this point but the weight of everything would silently crush her until it drove her to do something irreversible. Some who didn't know her might say she was depressed because of overreacting but those who did know what Brett meant to her would know how deep his death truly cut, as a tiny girl in the wastelands he was always by her side whenever things got difficult, he was her whole plan and he was also her support beam when things got difficult, so as a result she would develop possibly the worst kid of depression that there was. She wouldn't cut herself, she wouldn't skip meals, and she still existed with them, but it would feel, like she was completely hollow, like nothing mattered anymore, the rebels would know that something was fundamentally wrong but they wouldn't be able to pinpoint it. Michael would notice too but like the rest of his group he wouldn't know what it was, whenever she was asked how she was her tone was always deceptively casual, almost conversational, the only outward sign that was actually visible of her decline was that she no longer cared if she got hurt doing something super risky. Once during a run in with an enemy group the rebels were fighting with them and it was super risky but Elianna fought hand first with an enemy that weilded a blade. After the fight was won she would bandage herself up and Michael would start to pay more attention to her, in all of the time they'd grown close he would know she wasn't okay but knew she wouldn't admit it outright, but he would know something was deathly wrong once she told him to make sure her hat didn't blow away. To most they would be confused but they'd hold onto if for her, but to Michael that's when everything fell into place...
Her sudden lack of being careful wasn't just her being clumsy lately, once she disappeared he would run after her even though he wouldn't fully know why. He followed her for afew hours and then found where she was, she climbed to the top of an abandoned building, for a moment he admired her dedication because climbing up a 20 story building wasn't an easy feat, especially without the proper safety and climbing gear. By the time he ran up the fire escape stairs he would've been winded and she looked like she was about to fall because of her alarming closeness to the edge, and he asked her what the h#ll she was doing. Elianna would flinch backwards, hard, and she would've told him not to startle her but he asked the same question again and this time she would say that she was admiring the view from up there, however he would know differently because the way she was about to fall off didn't look like she was just admiring the view. He would return her hat and coax her back to the camp, and along the way they'd get to know eachother on a level so personal that he would find out why she had nightmares at night, as it turns out Elianna was just two years old when she watched her father die right infront of her eyes, she recalled the bloody scene in great detail and after he died she spent the rest of her life running anywhere to stay while avoiding the first place she called home. Now that he knew more about her he didn't see her as a villain, but as an anti-hero that did bad things for good reasons. Soon they would be an item and they would one day have a family, but for that moment of time all either of them focused on was just a casual chat with the other one and getting to know them personally.
