The Walking Dead: 9 Comic Book Moments The TV Show Totally Butchered

There are no two-ways about it: season 3 completely mangled The Governor's character. The villain who was a terrifying presence in the original comic became nothing more than an ineffectual, semi-crazy dictator. Even then, fans still hoped that the season 3 finale, which promised to show a full assault of the prison after weeks and weeks of small skirmishes, would do the comic book justice.

And although the attack did indeed happen, it was hardly the epic battle that fans were expecting. In the source material, The Governor attacks Rick's group with a tank, slaughtering a bunch of long-standing characters while obliterating the prison in the process. Although the villain does show up with his personal army in the TV series, the assault only lasts about five minutes before he retreats with his tail tucked between his legs. Not only that, but The Governor proceeds to kill almost all of his own people, more or less confirming that the war that raged in the comic would never be seen on the small screen.

Thankfully, when Scott Gimple took the helm of the show in season 4, he put this storyline into damage control, building the Governor back up as an unseen threat, before finally showing the fall of the prison and the final battle between him and Rick in all its glory. Sadly, even that couldn't quite erase the memory of such a botched first attempt.