In the hit television show The Walking Dead there are many great characters and weapons. One of the most iconic weapons in the show is Negan’s bat, Lucille. Lucille is one of the weapons with a backstory and origin that had fans hooked on what Lucille would be used to kill next.
When weapons become something of their own character it is easy to become interested in their origins and for fans to have a lot of questions about how that weapon came to be. Lucille is one of the rare weapons in television that has a backstory and a fan following. This is truly a remarkable bat.
The fact that Negan has such a strong connection to his weapon of choice that it is almost an obsession only makes the bat more intriguing to audiences. Why is this bat so important and why does such a notorious villain treat his bat better than he treats any of the people around him.
Both the show and the original comics that the show, The Walking Dead, is based on answer the majority of these questions. Here are some of the most asked questions about where Lucille came from and why she is so important to Negan.
1. What is Lucille?
For those who are new to The Walking Dead, Lucille might be something of a mystery. She is one of the most talked-about weapons used in the show along with Daryl’s bow and Michone’s whole personality. Lucille left a definite impression on the audience, and many people’s brains throughout the show.
If you want a Lucille for yourself, here is a great one on Amazon.
Lucille is a wooden Louisville Slugger baseball bat that appears with the villain Negan at the end of season six. She has been wrapped in barbed wire to make her more lethal and painful. Lucille cuts an intimidating figure and is always seen with her owner, Negan.
Louisville sluggers and therefore Lucille, weigh anywhere in between thirty ounces and forty-five ounces. The most likely weight of Lucille is forty-three ounces with a length of about forty-two inches. That would make Lucille a regulation heavyweight Louisville slugger that could do some serious damage.
The intimidating sight of a large man with a lethal baseball bat slung over his shoulder is enough to get many people to surrender to Negan immediately. Once they realize how willing Negan is to end people’s lives with his beloved Lucille, there is not a single person who does not surrender. Except, of course, for the people he kills.
2. How Was Lucille Introduced?
Probably the most asked question when Negan and Lucille first came on-screen was why Negan had named his bat. It was clearly an important name to him as his bat was treated so well. It was also such an interesting name for something he used so violently.
Our first introduction to Lucille is when Negan brutally beats two people to death with her. This left a lasting impression on audiences of both what Negan was capable of and what Lucille was used for. In the last episode of season six, we meet Lucille and see exactly what she and Negan are capable of.
This is regarded by the cast as one of the best character entrances in the show. Negan and his bat are immediately shown as a dynamic duo that should be feared and respected. Lucille spills her first blood upon her introduction and from then on it is clear that Lucille is used for killing and not just for intimidation.
The last thing we see before the season ends is Negan choosing who to kill by pointing Lucille at each person while saying “eenie, meenie, miny, mo” before finally landing on a person and beating them to death with Lucille. This sets the tone for how we will view both Negan and Lucille for the rest of the series.
The introduction to Lucille was violent because she is used only for violence and intimidation. Adding a name and something of a personality to Negan’s weapon only serves to make her more frightening and made Negan seem more unhinged. This is the perfect introduction to a weapon that would quickly become something of a legend on the show.
3. Why Lucille?
After the introduction of Lucille audiences desperately wanted to know the meaning behind her name. As more people died at the end of this barbed wire covered bat, interest only grew. Why did a bat that was used so viciously have such a normal name?
The answer came in the fifth episode of season eight. In this episode, Negan finds himself stuck in a trailer with Father Gabriel. While they are trapped in the trailer Father Gabriel makes an attempt to have Negan confess his sins before he is killed.
Negan is resistant at first but ends up admitting that his biggest regret is the way he treated his wife, Lucille, before the apocalypse. Lucille was Negan’s first wife who died of cancer right as the end of the world began. He named his bat in honor of her.
Negan admitted to not being a good husband to Lucille while she was still alive. He had an affair while she was sick and did not appreciate her. Negan also said that Lucille was good to him while he “didn’t give her shit” and that she “got me through” before the apocalypse began.
Finally, Negan states that Lucille, the bat, “got me through” the apocalypse and so he named her after his dead wife. This finally gave fans the answers they wanted as well as humanized Negan a bit to the audience. This was quickly negated when Negan started beating people to death with Lucille again.
When Negan’s wife got cancer he did stay by her side. He began an affair but never left Lucille and was next to her when she died. He seems to regret the affair and respects his wife Lucille very much.
After Lucille passed away from cancer, she came back as a zombie. This seems to be what upset Negan the most as he was unable to kill her. He sees this as an act of weakness and something to atone for.
Negan clearly missed and regret not being able to put Lucille down once she was turned. He speaks of her with love and regret, calling her “my only real wife”. This regret and weakness are what keeps Negan going and helps him remember to not be weak and kill anyone who challenges him or turns into a zombie.
4. What Happens to Lucille?
Negan is almost never seen without his bat as the show continues. She is his weapon of choice that he keeps with him and talks about as if she is a person. Throughout the next few seasons, Lucille is seen in almost every episode and is always with Negan.
The last time we see Lucille is the end of season eight. At the end of season eight, we see Lucille left behind as Negan is dragged to prison. She is left alone in a field and never seen again on the television show.
This clearly upsets Negan as he asks for her to be returned to him. When Michone tells Negan that Lucille was abandoned he becomes visibly upset and beats his head against his cell wall. This shows his clear attachment to the bat and also how much weaker he feels without her by his side.
Lucille is not seen again on the show after season eight, and the next two seasons feature Negan without his beloved bat. The loss of Lucille demonstrates the power Negan lost and the weakness he must endure now that he is not in charge. Lucille was a visual representation of Negan’s strength and power, without her he has none.
That is the end of one of the most notorious television weapons ever created. She is given one of the most intense character introductions in television history and then left alone in a field as her owner is dragged to a cell. It is a peaceful end to a weapon that was used to hurt so many and not quite the end for her owner.
In the comic books, Lucille continues on after Negan is put in prison. She is wielded by Dwight for a long time while Negan is rotting in a cell. During that time Dwight does not use her as his main weapon but keeps her almost to spite Negan.
Her final battle ends with her broken and Negan burying her properly. It seems proper that Negan is the last person to wield her and the one to say goodbye to the bat he named after his wife. That is the poetic end of Lucille in the comic books.
5. Kill Count
Lucille is a notorious weapon in The Walking Dead. She is seen killing many people and walkers. It is also suggested that she kills many more as Negan uses her as his main weapon throughout the series.
Negan is seen beating two people to death with Lucille. Two of those murders take place in the first episode of season seven as he beats both Abraham and Glenn as a show of power and to make Rick obey. The murder of Glenn was so shocking and violent that is shocked many viewers into declaring the show too violent to watch.
Those are the only onscreen human kills that we see Negan perform with Lucille. However, in the Saviors Compound, there are many polaroid pictures of Negan’s victims with their heads beaten in. There are twenty-one pictures shown that have a person clearly murdered with the help of Lucille.
Those are only the humans that Lucille has been used to kill. As The Walking Dead features hoards of zombies, many more walkers are killed than humans. Negan killed about twenty-two walkers with Lucille on screen.
Twenty-one zombies were killed with Lucille in the woods while Negan tries to break Rick. She is later used to beat another walker to death when Negan went to make Alexandria beg for protection. That brings Lucille’s impressive kill count to a confirmed twenty-two deaths.
Of course, those are only the deaths that we see proof of on-screen. Considering Negan’s method of ruling through fear and killing a person in every group that betrays him, it stands to reason that many more people have died at the end of Lucille. That is not even counting the hundreds of walkers Negan would have killed to stay alive during the years before our heroes met him.
6. Comic Books
Lucille is seen in the comic books about as often as she is seen in the television show. Which is to say, every time you see Negan. The introduction in the comics is very similar to the one seen on television and equally, if not more, gory.
In the comics, Negan plays the same game of “eenie, meenie, miny, mo” to choose who from Rick’s group he is going to beat to death. However, the bat lands on Glenn the first time instead of Glenn being the second person killed.
Lucille is then used to beat Glenn to death in front of all of his friends and his wife. Every character is left to watch in horror as one of their best friends is brutally beaten to death in front of them all. The television show stayed relatively true to this and made sure Glenn’s death was just as gory and horrifying as it was in the comic.
Glen’s death is widely regarded as the most tragic death in both the comics and the show. The fact that he was so brutally murdered while his wife watched and screamed only made his death more horrifying. That death is, of course, attributed to Negan and Lucille.
It is shown in the comics that Negan acquired Lucille after her original owner, Paul, was killed by roamers. Negan is the one who wraps Lucille in barbed wire and gives her the killer reputation she possesses by the time we see her in the show. He is also still the one who gave her the name Lucille after his dead wife.
In contrast to Lucille’s exit in the show, Dwight takes hold of Lucille in the comics which gives her a longer presence in the comics than she has in the show. Dwight keeps Lucille with him through the Whisper War and she continues being used to kill many walkers. This keeps the notorious Lucille killing throughout the comics.
Finally, Lucille is given back to Negan so he can kill Beta at the end of the Whisper War. This brutal fight leads to Lucille finally splintering and becoming unusable. Negan is seen mourning both the bat and his wife as he buries his beloved bat and apologizes to his wife for not burying her properly.
This showed a bit more of Negan’s humanity and showed regret for the way he treated his wife before the apocalypse and her death. The burial of his beloved bat is the closest he will ever get to burying his wife and that is shown to be something he regrets deeply as he apologizes to his wife for her lack of burial even as he buries his bat. The burial is a poignant view of how much Negan misses his wife and wishes he would have done better by her and her memory.
In the comics, Lucille still seems to be a wooden bat and still has her trademark barbed wire wrapped around the business part of her. Negan maintains his obsession with his bat and his need to refer to her as though she is a real person. However, she might be an even more iconic weapon in the comics than she was in the show with a longer presence and a deeper history.
7. Who Holds Lucille?
Though Negan is Lucille’s owner and the person she is seen with the most, there are other people who get the honor of holding Lucille throughout the series. The number changes depending on whether you are following the comic book or the television series. It remains a small number either way.
Negan is very protective of his bat and is almost never seen without her. That means he rarely allows anyone else to hold her in the show or the comic series. Between the show and the comics, Lucille is only seen with three other people.
In the comic books, Negan gets Lucille from Paul. Paul is a man who encounters Negan on the road as they both try to find a safe place to settle with their groups. Paul is the owner of Lucille, who is not yet named, until he is killed in a surprise attack by roamers and Negan takes her as his own.
After Negan is defeated in the comics Lucille is taken by Dwight, who was one of Negan’s Saviors until he chose to betray him and work as a double agent for Rick’s crew. Dwight keeps Lucille through the two years he controls the Saviors and his time leading the militia for Alexandria. He finally gives Lucille back to Negan for her final battle against Beta.
In the television series, Lucille is only seen being held by Negan and Rick for any amount of time. Negan gives Lucille to Rick as a test to see if he has truly broken Rick into being too afraid to be a threat to Negan. When it is shown that Rick is not going to harm Negan he takes Lucille back and mocks Rick for being weak.
The very small number of people that hold Lucille shows how possessive Negan is of his bat. The only person it ever seems he allows to hold her after he acquires her is Rick. Even then Rick is only allowed to hold her while Negan deals with other problems and to prove to Negan that Rick is no longer a threat.
Lucille is clearly Negan’s most treasured possession. Having something that had been with him for so long and had helped him stay in control of a large group of people made Lucille the most steady and dependable thing in his life. This is made clear by the way Negan morns Lucille when she is gone in both the comics and the show.
Conclusion
Lucille is absolutely one of the most notorious weapons in television history. Her debut is widely regarded as the best character introduction to ever take place on The Walking Dead and her exit is simple and heartbreaking for Negan. Overall, she is one of the few inanimate objects that has managed to become her own character over the run of the show.
The thing that makes Lucille so iconic and important to the show is how much Negan cares about her. She is a bat, but he treats her as though she is a person and makes everyone else aware that she is to be respected and feared. That is enough to make any weapon iconic and unforgettable.
Lucille is named after Negan’s dead wife who he views as a reason he used to be weak. That adds to Lucille’s history and importance to Negan. The way that Negan reacts when he learns he will not see Lucille again is more emotion than we see from him throughout the entire show letting us know that he feels helpless without his beloved bat.
Her kill count in prolific and her presence is something that strikes fear in every character that comes in contact with Negan. He is possessive of her and uses her to strike fear into the people who try to oppose him. All of this only serves to increase the legend and fear that is built up around Negan’s barbed-wire covered baseball bat.
To conclude, Lucille became her own character in both the television series and the comic series. She is one of the only weapons in television that is called by name and spoken of with respect. That is what makes her such a legendary weapon.