PHILIP BLAKE.

 .

 .

canon divergence.

       my philip blake / the governor is canon divergent, but heavily focuses on the show's portrayal with some minor influences from the novel 'rise of the governor'. i do not acknowledge the comics portrayal of the character, as from what little i've read from it, i just do not find it an interesting portrayal of the character lol. it feels too mustache-twirling villain for my taste. like, i like my villains to be complex and have some humanity even tho they're shitty people, u know?       

biography.

philip was born in the mid 60s and grew up in meriwether county alongside his brother, brian. the pair experienced a rough childhood and thus held a negative relationship with their father whom was physically abusive towards them both. as a child, philip often played chess with his father which he frequently lost to, as he often pressured philip into making quick decisions and thus never show mercy, which caused philip to lose confidence in himself. at a young age, the brothers were caught smoking a pack of cigarettes belonging to their father in a garage, his brother intervened, taking the blame for their actions (when in actuality it was philip who was responsible.) regardless the siblings were beaten up by their father. the futility of his brother’s attempts to stand up against their father had a strong impact on philip’s development and led him to believe of heroes as fools who only bring harm upon themselves and others.

in spite of his brutal upbringing, philip grew to become a family man where he had a beloved wife and a daughter named penny where the three lived together as a typical family. he also had a pet dog who he called a "wonder of stupidity." over time however, philip gradually grew to become dissatisfied with his plain, mediocre life where he worked as an office drone under a younger and unintelligent boss who hounded him for several years. eighteen months prior to the outbreak, while at work one day, philip received a call from the hospital informing him that his wife had tragically died in a car crash. this event left philip emotionally devastated, especially after she had previously left a message for him to call her back, which he never did, (an action for which he deeply regrets). after her death, philip and penny began to rely upon each other.

after the onset of the outbreak, philip and his daughter, alongside his brother, brian, and two of philip’s friends ( bobby and nick,) barricaded themselves up in an apartment before they eventually moved out, in hopes to find someplace safer to stay. along the way, they lost bobby when he got bit, and at some point later, brian felt that they were being watched by someone, and expressed his concerns to the others. however, they dismissed it as brian just being paranoid. they found a cabin that seemed to be perfectly located for them to be able to spot any unwanted visitors before they showed up. it had plenty of supplies as well, and so, they decided to stay there for a while. however, one night, a few weeks after settling in, and setting up traps to alert of walkers, traps went off on all sides of the cabin at once, and turns out, the people brian had felt watching them hadn’t just been his paranoia, and they had now showed up, armed with guns, and intended to take the place from them.

with weapons pointed at them, and philip pointing his at their de facto leader, philip managed to convince them to let them go, assuring them that if they shot them, he would be able to shoot and kill their leader with his own gun before being shot himself, and suggested they let them leave so no one would be harmed. to which the leader agreed, and ordered his other people to let them leave. suspecting that as soon as they were out and had gotten far enough away from the cabin that they couldn’t get in any clear shots, that the group would chase after them and kill them, philip and the others started running for the forest to hide. and indeed, the group that had stolen their cabin set after them not long after they’d started running; gunfire opening up all around them as they each ducked out of the line of fire, into the woods, brian carrying philip’s daughter, as he wasn’t any good with fighting yet. philip and his friend, nick, on the other hand, each hid and quietly knocked out two of the other grou, so they could capture them and figure out how to deal with them. brian and penny hid, though were soon found by one of the gunmen, who, as brian made a run for it, shot at them, penny taking a bullet, causing brian to stop running as soon as he noticed the blood, putting penny down and muttering something to himself, as he pressed his hands against her wound.

just as the gunman approached to finish the job, philip and nick showed up and philip shot the gunman, but it was too late. penny was bleeding out, and despite philip’s best attempts to stop the bleeding, his daughter died seconds later. trying to talk himself into doing what he knew had to be done, philip asked for brian and nick to give him some time to prepare himself emotionally for it, and in the meanwhile, tied up his now zombified daughter to a tree.

the two people from the other group they’d managed to capture taken to the small barn a little ways down from the cabin, were tied up, and philip convinced nick and brian to stay away from the cabin while he talked to them, and nick and brian agreed, as philip had been the one who’d gotten them this far, and they trusted him to continue to keep them safe.

though little did they know, as philip visited the barn each day, he was actually beating up and torturing the people they’d captured, for what they’d done to his daughter. philip also spent time sneaking out at night to the woods, to spend time with his daughter, reading stories to her, talking to her, singing to her, as if behind the flesh-hungry monster, his little girl was still in there somewhere.

brian and nick found out, and tried to confront philip about it, all to no avail, philip pulling a gun on them and refusing to listen, convincing them to let him keep penny with him. they also found the barely alive captives in the barn, and nick put them out of their misery at their request while philip wasn’t there, and when philip found out, he responded with initial aggression that soon shifted into indifference.

deciding to get back on the road, philip improvised a leash to keep his zombified daughter on, and put her in a cage in a car they found, then started driving, eventually reaching a town called woodbury. they stopped a few miles back, approaching the town on foot ( leaving penny behind, safe in the car,) and found a town where people were starting to build walls around them, a few people keeping watch. after introducing themselves, they were taken in, and found that the place had no leader. everyone mostly stayed to themselves, with a select few people having decided to start working on trying to make the place more safe. philip and brian found an apartment to share, and nick found an apartment of his own, and they decided to stay. a few nights in, brian heard philip coming back, which was unusual, since he never heard philip entering the apartment. but this time, he heard philip struggling, and subtle groans and moans of the dead. penny.

philip had found a way to sneak her past the others and into the apartment, and was now locking her up in a closet. this bothered brian, but he didn’t bring it up. at some point, one of the few select men who’d been working on putting up a barricade around the town, pulled everyone in woodbudy into a ‘meeting’ to which he told the others that they would have to pull their own weight, or be killed. brian, trying to speak up for the weak and sick in this place, was then shot as an example of what would happen to anyone who refused. this caused philip to pull his own gun and shoot the man dead before he could react.

since then, people started to look to philip as someone who would keep them all safe, not just those fittest to survive, and soon, philip became the leader of the community of woodbury. though broken by the death of his daughter, the grief of losing his brother, and growing paranoid and distrustful towards strangers to the point where he perceived them as a threat, philip started taking it upon himself to keep woodbury safe from the outside world, both against the biters as well as the living; gathering a group of men who wouldn’t hesitate to kill to survive into his trusted circle, who he secretly used to take out other communities.

abilities.

connections.

universes.