Characters / The Walking Dead (2010): Michonne Hawthorne

The Walking Dead Main Character Index
Rick's Group | The Grimes Family (Rick Grimes) | Georgia (Morgan Jones, Gabriel Stokes) | Atlanta | Atlanta Survivor Camp (Daryl Dixon, Carol Peletier) | Greene Family & Friends (Maggie Greene) | Prison Newcomers (Michonne Hawthorne) | Woodbury (The Governor) | Tyreese's Group | The Chambler Family | Abraham's Group | Terminus | The Coalition & Other Allies | Alexandria Safe-Zone | The Hilltop Colony (Gregory) | The Kingdom | Oceanside | The Saviors (Negan Smith, Savior Outposts, Former Saviors) | Magna's Group | The Whisperers (Alpha) | The Commonwealth | The Reapers | Other Antagonists | Other Survivors

Due to the Anyone Can Die nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. As Michonne has moved to the cast of The Ones Who Live, a sequel series, if you have not seen the eleven seasons of The Walking Dead read at your own risk!

Michonne Grimes (née Hawthorne)

"Anger makes you stupid. Stupid gets you killed."

Portrayed By: Danai Gurira^{Foreign voice actors}Yolanda Pérez Segoviano (Spanish dub), Mariko Munakata (Japanese dub), Ursula Hugo [Seasons 3-5], Diana Borgwardt [Seasons 6-10] (German dub), Laura Zichy (French dub), Laura Lenghi (Italian dub), Zuzana Hykyšová [Seasons 3-4], Irena Hrubá [Seasons 4-10] (Czech dub), Anna Pálmai (Hungarian dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 2-10, 11) ^note  Portrayed by a stand-in in Season 2 | The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

Debut: "Beside the Dying Fire"

"We're still alive, Rick. So much has happened, so much that we shouldn't have lived through. And... and in spite of it or maybe because of it, we did. We're still here, the two of us. We're still standing, and we're gonna keep standing. So, what do we do with that? How do we make that mean something? We're the ones who get things done. You said that. We're the ones who live."

Michonne is a survivor who saves Andrea after the attack on the farm. The two of them traveled together for several months as of the beginning of the third season. She used two armless and jawless walkers to carry supplies and ward off other walkers, only telling Andrea that they were barely men before becoming walkers. The truth of the matter is that they were her boyfriend and his friend who got her infant son killed by walkers, traumatizing her and causing her to shut down until she meets Andrea.

Dead on the money regarding her suspicions of The Governor, Michonne ends up joining Rick's group when she literally causes shit to hit the fan when she kills The Governor's undead daughter, provoking a brutal war between the two groups. Michonne ultimately earns her place within the group when Rick refuses to hand her over to The Governor for torture, and deeply ingratiates herself in the group, even becoming a surrogate mother to Carl and Judith.

To her horror, her hunt for The Governor ends the day he returns to the prison with a vengeance, but ultimately Michonne is able to end his reign of terror once and for all with her katana. After a brief relapse to her old, lifeless days, she finds Rick and Carl and becomes closer to Rick as a confidante and as a Lancer. Having done a 180, she becomes one of the most optimistic and friendly members of the group, especially when they risk falling into the same lifeless stupor that she once succumbed to, and becomes a constable at Alexandria. After several major battles at Alexandria, Michonne soon discovers and gets what she really wants in life — a relationship with Rick and family with him, Carl, and Judith.

When the Saviors take over Alexandria, Michonne is eventually able to help Rick realize they must fight back. The war costs Michonne her surrogate son Carl, and his dying wish to spare Negan is one she and Rick ultimately follow through on. However, after a year and a half of peace, despite Michonne's best efforts to lead alongside Rick, the communities soon devolve into infighting thanks partially to Michonne and Rick's decision to spare Negan. Michonne's world is upended when Rick seemingly dies in a explosion, leaving her to take control of Alexandria, and raise Judith and their new child RJ alone. She is traumatized by an encounter with her friend Jocelyn; after which Michonne puts Alexandria in a hardline isolationist state and cuts off contact with the communities. Six years pass, and Michonne eventually reconciles with her friends in the wake of the arrival of the Whisperers. Michonne searches for ways to put an end to Alpha’s threat, but during a mission to Bloodsworth Island, she finds evidence that Rick survived his apparent death. Upon learning of Alpha’s demise from Judith, Michonne begins traveling north on the trail of the love of her life.

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A-F

• Action Girl: By far the most adept female at fighting walkers on the show, and she's no slouch in a fight against living humans, either. In fact, she fares better against the Governor than Rick does and manages to defeat Navy-trained Thorne in a swordfight in the finale of The Ones Who Live.
• Action Mom: Though her baby is long dead. She now counts as this with Carl and Judith, who she's become an adoptive mother to since Season 4. After the six-year Time Skip in Season 9, she gave birth to her and Rick's son, RJ.
• Adaptation Deviation: Her comic counterpart never left the Alexandria-led coalition of communities, whereas this Michonne leaves towards the end of the Whisperer War arc to find Rick (another instance of this trope).
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Michonne in both the comics and the series has dreadlocks. However, starting in Season 9, Michonne noticeably has the dreadlocks on the side of her head shaved.
• Adaptational Modesty: Her comicbook counterpart Really Gets Around, having slept with Tyreese, Morgan, and Ezekiel, and attempting to with Heath. This incarnation doesn't, only having one relationship (with Rick) following the death of her boyfriend Mike.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Her humanity is evident much earlier here than the comics. Her more questionable actions from the comic were also Adapted Out. Best shown in Season 5 when the group gets to Alexandria; her comic counterpart found it hard to fit in and didn't trust the place, whereas here she is one of the most optimistic members of the group about the situation. Sasha ends up getting her "out of place" storyline.
• The Aloner: Implied to have spent a great deal of time traveling alone save for her two zombie companions. As a result, she's very self-sufficient, but slowly learns to rely and care for others.
• Arch-Enemy: For The Governor.
• Back for the Finale: Makes a cameo in the series finale, still searching for Rick a year later.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Sasha and Rosita in "Try".
• Badass Armfold: Occasionally shows this whenever Rick's negotiating with someone.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: She wears a diadem.
• Battle Couple: With Rick starting the second half of Season 6.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: As The Governor soon finds out.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Her debut shows her saving Andrea from a walker by cutting its head off.
  • Stabbing the Governor to save Rick in the second attack on the prison.
• The Big Girl: She's pretty on par with the physically strong fighters. She even survives going into a one-on-one fight with the Governor and gives Rick a One-Hit KO.
• Black Cloak: Her hooded jacket.
• Bodyguard Babes: She's often Rick's partner and is very easy on the eyes.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: She walks by Rick's side to protect him, despite the fact that Rick himself is a highly competent badass in his own right.
• Bodyguard Crush: She keeps an eye on Rick, but soon becomes a Battle Couple with him.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Her and Rick’s feud with Daryl and Maggie regarding the Saviors in Season 9.
  • Rick and Michonne are wary of the political fallout that executing Negan would draw from the Saviors, and insist that everyone can and must come together. Once the Sanctuary falls, most of its people integrate peacefully into the Coalition’s other communities, proving they were correct about most of the Saviors. Incarceration also proves to be a fitting, effective punishment for Negan who is soon Driven to Suicide, but eventually recovers, mellows, and pulls a Heel–Face Turn, providing the Coalition with an invaluable ally.
  • Daryl and Maggie are still angry that Rick and Michonne made the decision to spare Negan without consulting anybody else, and have done little to actually help heal the scars from the Savior empire’s reign of terror, and come across as simply insisting people get over them, right up to and including the genocide Oceanside suffered. As Maggie points out, there’s little reason to fear the fallout of killing Negan when for those who wanted justice, they’ve already been enduring hell watching the Saviors walk freely and enjoy the new world that their lost loved ones do not get to. Michonne, for her part, seems to realize the torment she’s played a part in putting Maggie through and relents and gives her the key to Negan’s cell.
• Break the Cutie/Broken Bird: Downplayed, but the apparent death of Rick and being forced to take over Alexandria and raising Judith and RJ alone sadly breaks so much of the optimism and warmth that Michonne had cultivated since the end of the Savior War. Even once she decides to rejoin the Coalition, she’s understandably never the same.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Much like Daryl, she's incredibly tough, but does have a friendly demeanor underneath her hardened shell.
• The Cassandra: She was immediately able to sense that the Governor (and by extension, his men) is someone who shouldn't be trusted and warned Andrea. Andrea being Andrea...
• The Cavalry: Served in this role to Andrea at the end of the second season.
• Character Development: One of the best examples in the series. She starts out as an emotionless, quiet survivor who kills without hesitation and likes to do things on her own. By Season 5, she's a team player and has become one of the nicest and most optimistic members of the group; she may even qualify as The Heart after the deaths of Tyreese and Glenn.
• Composite Character: With the Death by Adaptation of Andrea in Season 3, she takes her place as Rick's confidant, female Lancer (shared with Carol, though Michonne is obviously more prominent), and eventually his Second Love.
• The Conscience: She has become this to Rick since Season 5, often reining him back from making hasty decisions that will result in violence or death. Despite shrugging off others, Rick actually listens to Michonne's advice and will change a plan of action if she's firmly opposed to it.
• Cruel Mercy: Merely stabs the Governor in the back instead of killing him, but only because she knows he'll either bleed out slowly or be devoured by walkers in the overrun prison yard.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The death of her son caused her to become very cynical and withdrawn. She undergoes another one in Season 9 when an old friend returns and kidnaps Judith, which causes Michonne to become very distrusting and isolationist.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She lost her son early in the apocalypse, and it is implied that her boyfriend killed him in what he thought was a Mercy Kill.
• Deadpan Snarker: She gets out a few witty remarks and sarcastic comments, all of them in her usual deadpan demeanor.
  Rick: We're eating [Morgan's] food now?
  Michonne: The mat said "Welcome".
• Dead Person Conversation: Sometimes talks with her dead boyfriend as a coping mechanism. She starts doing it again in Season 9 after Rick's apparent death.
• Death Glare: This appears to be her permanent facial expression at first, but she gets better as she starts to open up to Rick's group. She can still shoot some pretty nasty ones to enemies, though.
• Decomposite Character:
  • Due to her Adaptational Nice Guy, her "out of place in Alexandria" storyline in the comics is given to Sasha.
  • Due to Michonne being given many of Andrea's comics storylines after the latter suffers Death by Adaptation, Carol is in turn given several of Michonne's comics storylines (such as becoming Ezekiel's love interest and spending time with Oceanside).
  • As she leaves the show in late Season 10 before the group travels to the Commonwealth, her place in Eugene's mission as the former attorney is taken by Yumiko.
• Defrosting Ice Queen:
  • She is mostly out for herself at first, but still tries to help the prison group in Season 3. And then there's her sad reaction to Penny... before learning she is a walker.
  • In "Clear", she opens up to both Carl and Rick, showing her soft side and helping them with both their problems. As a result, they accept her into the group.
  • Season 4 delves into her past and, as a result, we learn her initial frostiness was because of grief due to the death of her son. Carl primarily learns this information and Michonne becomes more affectionate and protective of him, eventually crediting he, Rick, and Andrea for helping her through her pain.
  • She finally opens up enough to pursue a romantic relationship with Rick in Season 6, inspired by Deanna's advice to take what she wants in life.
• Diagonal Cut: Frequently cuts clean through walker heads in this manner.
• Dreadlock Warrior: She's always seen with her hair in dreadlocks.
• The Drifter: Prefers traveling rather than trying to find a place to settle down safely. She eventually joins the group at the prison, although it still takes her a few months to decide to stay permanently.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In The Ones Who Live, she manages to bring down the genocidal CRM and reunite with her long lost love Rick who then goes home with her so they can reunite with their children.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite being alone in the wastelands on the zombie world, Michonne absolutely refuses to give into committing atrocious deeds like so many antagonists and even goes out of her way to help others.
• Fake Shemp: Since Danai Gurira hadn't been cast yet, the Michonne seen in the Season 2 finale is played by an unknown stand-in.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Throughout Season 3, she and Rick don't get along at first until they start working together more. After overcoming the Governor, she grows attached to him and his group, eventually joining them permanently.
• Friendly Sniper: In Season 7, she steps up to become the group's main sniper, after Sasha departs to Hilltop to take care of Maggie and later dies.
• Friendship Moment: In "Try" where she and Rosita search for Sasha, quickly determining that she was hunting walkers and even fighting alongside each other and saving Sasha in the process. Though their efforts went in vain, they at least tried to comfort Sasha.
• Friend to All Children: Michonne has a soft spot for kids. In fact, the only reason why she even met Rick and his group at the prison in the first place was because she saw his friends get abducted when they were searching for baby food, which prompted her to take it upon herself to give the infant supplies to strangers she never met.
  • Horrifically subverted when Michonne and Daryl are brutalized by the Ax-Crazy children in Jocelyn's care. Michonne recognizes them for the brainwashed minions they are and is still willing to give them the chance to drop their weapons and come back to Alexandria for rehabilitation. It's only when they won't stop trying to attack her and threaten Judith's life that Michonne is forced to put them all down.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Despite being two of the show's main characters (and arguably the two most popular female characters), she and Carol never share a scene with just the two of them until Season 9.

G-L

• Glass Cannon: She's good on the offensive. However, her opponents weren't usually able to hit her back, and when she's traveling alone she can't treat her own injuries.
• Good Is Not Soft: She may be one of the noblest characters, but she doesn't hesitate to kill if necessary.
• Good Parents: Michonne is shown to be a very good mother to Andre and she treats Carl and Judith like her own children. The majority of her decisions and advice to Rick involve making sure Carl and Judith can live a safe, healthy life.
• Good Stepmother: To Carl and Judith.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. Every single male main character prefers using long ranged weapons such as guns and crossbow, while she prefers swords.
• Happily Married: Showrunner Angela Kang revealed that Michonne married Rick at some point, likely during the 18-month Time Skip between Seasons 8 and 9. This ended up being retconned by backstory given in The Ones Who Live. Gabriel reveals that Rick asked him to marry them offscreen during early Season 9, but they never got the chance to go through with it. In the penultimate episode, Rick finally makes it official by proposing to her, and she accepts.
• Hates Being Alone: Realizes in "After" that she's grown attached to Rick's group and goes out of her way to reunite with them, succeeding at her efforts in the end. She then fully embraces the group as her family and vows to be with them until the very end.
• The Heart: She of all people becomes this during the Alexandria arc, being the most vocal supporter of the place and trying to push Rick in a less pragmatic direction.
• Heartbroken Badass: After Rick's supposed death.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • In the fourth season, after the fall of the prison, she lapses into her original behavior, captures and maims two zombies like her previous "companions", and joins a herd. Eventually snaps out of it, wipes out the herd, and rejoins Rick and Carl.
  • Suffers another one in "Say Yes," when she believes that Rick has been killed and goes near-catatonic as walkers surround her. Thankfully, it turns out Rick survived and she is quickly snapped out of it.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Andrea, who seems to be one of the few companions Michonne has allowed herself to become to close after the apocalypse. When Andrea leaves Michonne for the Governor, she is deeply hurt, and in the end stays by Andrea's side in her final moments.
  • Before the apocalypse she was also this with a woman named Jocelyn, as revealed in "Scars". The two women were good friends in college and Jocelyn helped Michonne through the death of her mother. Michonne is understandably delighted when Jocelyn shows up at Alexandria's gates, especially since she's still grieving the loss of Rick. Unfortunately, as the episode progresses, we see that the friendship is long dead and buried.
• Hidden Depths: In "Clear", she turns out to relate very well with Rick, having gone through the same mental trauma. She also displays a soft side with Carl, helping him get a photo of his mother, and generally acting in a weird, cool bodyguard/aunt combination. In fact, when she's around Carl, she tends to reveal she can be downright nerdy, as she apparently goes out scavenging for comic books that the two can share. Several episodes show that she has an artistic side.
• Human Pack Mule: She uses two walkers to carry supplies around. They're later revealed to be the reanimated corpses of her boyfriend Mike and his friend Terry, as punishment for getting her son Andre killed.
• Iconic Item: Her katana.
• Iconic Outfit: The headband and bright colored tank tops she's seen wearing much of the time.
• Iconic Sequel Character: One of the series' most beloved and recognizable characters, she does not appear until the finale of Season 2 and is only properly introduced in the Season 3 premiere.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Michonne displays about zero proficiency with firearms, and pretty much sticks to using her katana and other melee weapons. However, when several of the group's better shots are either killed, incapacitated, or otherwise absent, Michonne learns and trains herself to be the group's sniper come Season 7.
• Improbable Hairstyle: The most notable case of this on the show. Her dreadlocks look awesome, but anyone with dreadlocks in real life will tell you that it takes a lot of effort to maintain them.
• Intergenerational Friendship:
  • With Carl. They geek out over comic books together and even trade stories about their lives before the apocalypse, gradually becoming closer as Michonne transitions into the role of surrogate mother to him and Judith.
  • With Deanna too. Deanna is a Cool Old Lady who inspires Michonne to become a more noble human being and encourages her to pursue a romantic relationship with Rick.
• In the Hood: In the Season 2 finale.
• I Shall Return: She leaves on a mission to bring Rick home to his family while promising Judith she will be back one day.
• It's All My Fault: Implied when she puts down Hershel’s reanimated head in “After”, who was killed by The Governor the exact day she decided to give up her long hunt for him.
• I Will Find You: After discovering evidence of Rick's survival, Michonne vows to find him and bring him home.
• I Work Alone: When she's leaving Woodbury and Andrea refuses to go with her, Michonne claims that she just slowed her down anyway. In Season 4, she goes out on scavenging runs by herself, as well as to look for the Governor. However, in "Indifference", she decides to end her hunt for him and stay at the prison.
• Jack of All Stats: Not initially; when she's first introduced, she's not a good shot, focusing mainly on using her katana. Later seasons rectify this, and she becomes one of the group's main snipers after she trains herself with using a rifle.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Her preferred weapon of choice is her katana blade, which can slice through walkers in a single stroke.
• Lady of War: Cool and collected, she's usually seen disposing of walkers with grace and quickness.
• The Lancer: During the second half of Season 4, after meeting up with Rick and Carl, Michonne takes this role in their small group. After the entire group reunites in Terminus, she begins sharing this role with Daryl.
• Last Episode, New Character: In Season 2.
• The Leader: By Season 9, she has become co-leader of Alexandria alongside Rick. After Rick is apparently killed in "What Comes After", Michonne becomes Head of Security for the community instead, though as Gabriel (the head of the council) notes, she is still the one calling the shots anyway.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Due to leaving before the final season of The Walking Dead, she is unaware of the existence of the Commonwealth or that Daryl has left on his own to find both her and Rick after they failed to return over a year later.

M-R

• Mama Bear:
  • Michonne's very quick to protect Carl, spends days tracking him down in "After", and when Ron tries to shoot Carl and Rick in "No Way Out", she doesn't hesitate to stab him through the chest. She's also one of those who slaughtered the remaining Termites after they threatened Judith. She even tries to reason with Negan to protect Carl, knowing that it could get someone killed for her talking out of turn (and considering that the whole group was at gunpoint, the stakes were at their highest) — it doesn't, possibly because she doesn't attempt to resist him physically, but she took a big risk for Carl nonetheless. In a flashback in "Scars", although she really doesn't want to and even gives them the chance to stand down, Michonne slaughters a bunch of Ax-Crazy children holding Judith captive, proving once and for all just how deadly Michonne can be when her kids are in danger.
  • In The Ones Who Live she is horrified to learn of what the CRM intends to do to the children of Portland - both the 90% who are going to die horrible deaths, and the measly 10% they are willing to save. This is what fully convinces her that she and Rick cannot simply return home after destroying the dossier on Alexandria, even without the knowledge Rick gains in the Echelon Briefing.
• Master Swordsman: She's very skilled with that sword of hers, to say the least, and in Season 5, we're informed that she's self-taught, having acquired the weapon after the start of the apocalypse and learning its use via the "School of Hard Knocks" method.
• Morality Chain: To Rick. By Season 6, she's one of the few people he'll listen to, as shown on several occasions when she talks him down from using violence to solve all of Alexandria's problems.
• The Mourning After: Seven years after Rick's apparent death, she has no intention of moving on and finding love with anyone else.
• Ms. Fanservice: She gets a sex scene with Rick in "The Next World" where we see her naked backside. After officially becoming his girlfriend, she and Rick begin to share more sex scenes together more often. In The Ones Who Live, the camera (from Rick's perspective) takes a long look at her when she's half-undressed.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • It’s a Tranquil Fury version of this trope, but she’s clearly enraged that The Governor returned the same day she decided to give up searching for him. Even though she did more than her due diligence hunting him for months, Michonne still clearly blames herself for his return, attack, and murder of Hershel.
  • In “What Comes After” she finally realizes the pain Maggie and other people who have been wanting retribution against the Saviors have been suffering for the last 18 months. Even though the decision remains debatable, Michonne is clearly distraught hearing that her friend has been in such anguish since the decision to spare Negan was made by her and Rick.
• Mythology Gag:
  • She makes her debut in "Beside the Dying Fire", which is the nineteenth episode of the show. Her comic counterpart was introduced in the nineteenth issue of the series.
  • Going nearly catatonic while surrounded by walkers in "Say Yes" calls to mind her video game counterpart being Driven to Suicide in The Walking Dead (Telltale) Michonne DLC.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Due to leaving to find Rick, she is unaware of the death of Rosita in the series finale of the parent show.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Killing the Governor's undead daughter in front of him, after seeing him beg her not to. This results in a fight between the two, the loss of his eye, and thus the start of his road to madness and the downfall of Woodbury. Although judging by his notebook, the Governor had already gone off the deep end after his daughter turned, and all Michonne did was strip away the veneer and hasten the inevitable conflict.
  • The communities becoming estranged from each other after Michonne’s traumatic experience with Jocelyn during the second Time Skip means that at the Kingdom fair, plenty of people don’t recognize each other. Alpha uses this to infiltrate the fair as “Deborah from Alexandria” and is able to walk amongst her enemies and pick her victims for the pikes. Michonne herself acknowledges how avoidable this was in the following episode to Ezekiel.
• No Social Skills: Good against walkers, not that good with people. She starts to grow out of this in Season 4.
• Not So Stoic: She finally breaks down and sobs in "After," which proves cathartic after everything she's been through since the apocalypse. She's also barely able to keep her cool when Carl is shot in the eye in "No Way Out".
• Odd Friendship: Forms a pretty strong admiration of Non-Action Guy Deanna.
• Official Couple: With Rick starting in the second half of Season 6.
• One-Hit KO: Knocks Rick out cold after he goes off the deep end while fighting Pete and pulls a gun on everyone.
• One-Man Army: Her katana allows her to quickly dispatch multiple walkers in a short time at long range. In Season 4, she wipes out a small herd of walkers solo with just her katana. Later cuts a bloody swathe — on two occasions — through a massive walker horde in "No Way Out".
• Only One Name: Subverted. She's never referred to as anything but "Michonne" on the show, but The Walking Dead: Onslaught VR game, which is confirmed canon to the events of the series, gives Michonne her comic book surname of "Hawthorne".
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her infant son, Andre, was killed early in the apocalypse. She also loses her surrogate son, Carl, in Season 8.
• Parental Substitute: She takes over as a surrogate mother for Carl and Judith after Lori's passing. Carl more or less admits she's his mother now in "The Next World". After the six-year Time Skip in Season 9, Judith outright calls her "mom".
• Parents as People: Michonne raises Judith to be a level-headed and capable warrior against walkers by the time she’s ten years old, avoiding most of the problems that Carl went through. Despite this, she frequently ends up inadvertently neglecting Judith and her feelings. She refuses to listen to Judith or treat her with respect, insisting she stay focused on school and not trusting her to make decisions. Eventually, Michonne realizes the error of her ways when Judith finds a friendship with Negan of all people, who even spells out that she needs to get her shit together as a parent.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • Stabbing the Governor and leaving him to bleed out in a field of walkers without mercy killing him.
  • Murdering Theresa for trying to kill her group while she breaks down crying.
  • Murdering Ron for attacking Carl.
  • Stabbing Jocelyn through the heart for kidnapping Judith.
• Perpetual Frowner: During Season 3, she rarely has any expression on her face besides a distrusting or concerned frown. In Season 4, she is more open with her emotions and starts smiling a lot more.
• Plucky Girl: Not so obvious because of her quiet demeanor.
• Pregnant Badass: Michonne being pregnant with RJ doesn't save Jocelyn and her band of Enfant Terrible minions from her wrath. In fact, it arguably makes her even more dangerous, her being a Mama Bear and all.
• Pretend We're Dead: Two variants:
  • With her walker pack mules, their scent overcomes her own, which disguises herself partially to walkers.
  • She also takes advantage of a time when she's Covered in Gunge to walk freely among the dead.
• Promoted to Love Interest: In the comic, Rick's Second Love was with Andrea, while he and Michonne were Platonic Life-Partners. Due to Andrea's early death at the end of Season 3, Michonne becomes Rick's Second Love after his fling with Romantic False Lead Jessie.
• Properly Paranoid: She quickly picks up on the Governor's lies and all of the subtle things wrong with Woodbury and decides to leave as quickly as possible.
• Put on a Bus: After discovering evidence that Rick might still be alive, she embarks on a quest to find him and bring him home.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Subverted. She takes no pleasure in killing The Governor, recognizing that saving Rick’s life and helping the others escape the prison is far more important, and barely gives the villain a disgusted aside look as she turns her back on him. It actually helps since The Governor wanted to be remembered as a god who would be remembered through history for his actions after the Fall, so it surely stung him even more that she didn’t regard him much more than any old walker she would’ve put down.
• The Quiet One: She never says any more than she has to, and often prefers to use a Death Glare to communicate when people who annoy her. Emphasized in "Hounded", where she has a major role yet spends the entire episode without uttering a single word (not counting her grunts upon fighting walkers and Merle's group), at all. This changes in Season 4 as she becomes more acclimated to the group.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She tears Heath a new one when he accuses her of being a bad person, pointing out how he's never had to really fight for his survival in the apocalypse.
• Relationship Upgrade: With Rick, from friends to lovers.
• Riches to Rags: Before the apocalypse arrived, Michonne was upper-middle classed and lived a privileged and lavish lifestyle.

S-Z

• Samus Is a Girl: The Season 2 finale leaves it ambiguous as to whether the hooded figure who saved Andrea is a man or a woman. The Season 3 premiere reveals her to be female.
• Second Love: She eventually enters a relationship with Rick after the death of Romantic False Lead Jessie. In The Ones Who Live, Rick calls Michonne the love of his life.
• Ship Tease:
  • With Rick in Seasons 3-5, before progressing to Official Couple status in Season 6's "The Next World".
  • Defied in Season 10's "Silence the Whisperers", with Ezekiel. He kisses her in a moment of loneliness and confusion, only to immediately apologize. Michonne isn't bothered by it, as she understands what he's going through, and the two of them are able to talk it out and remain friends.
• Shoot the Dog: Slicing the heads of her Human Pack Mule so she and Andrea won't be caught by The Governor and his men. Merle still finds them, however.
• Sixth Ranger: When she first joins the prison group, who have already been together for almost a year. After becoming integrated into the group she becomes The Big Guy and later The Lancer.
• Skewed Priorities: Discussed in "Strangers". She is briefly caught off guard after forgetting her sword was confiscated by Terminus, and Rick asks if she misses it. Michonne says she doesn't, and that she misses loved ones like Andrea and Hershel.
• Sleep Cute: She and Rick share a few adorable scenes where they're cuddling in bed together.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Until the second half of Season 4, the only times we see her with sleeves is when she's wearing her Black Cloak in the Season 2 finale and while wearing her green jacket from the comic in the last two episodes of Season 3.
• Sole Survivor: She's the only prison newcomer who's still alive.
• Someone to Remember Him By: In the time jump following Rick's presumed death in Season 9, it is revealed that Michonne did get pregnant (with Rick Grimes, Jr.) after she and Rick decided to try for a baby just days before his "death".
• So Proud of You: In "Silence the Whisperers", she has a look of pure pride when she watches Judith hold her own against the walkers attacking Hilltop.
• The Stoic: She refuses to convey much emotion out of fear of being looked down upon as weak.
• Survival Mantra: A shared one with Rick: "We're the ones who live."
• Talk to the Fist: In "Try", Rick goes completely off the deep end after fighting Pete, pulling a gun on the Alexandria citizens and giving them a huge "The Reason You Suck" Speech where he pretty much says that he's going to take over Alexandria. So what does Michonne do? She hits him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.
• Tempting Fate: An episode after she declares that she'll stop the hunt for The Governor, he returns.
• Took a Level in Badass: She finally learns how to use firearms in Season 7.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: She becomes more sociable and upbeat over time thanks to her friendship with Rick's group.
• Took a Level in Cynic: After the six-year Time Skip in Season 9, she loses much of the idealism that she gained together with Rick after the latter's supposed death. She gets it back after talking with Judith and realizing how far she's fallen.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Season 9, she's a lot more hostile to everyone and coldly says that as long as Alexandria survives, she doesn't care what happens to the other communities, despite having friends there who fought in the Savior War with them. The reason? Sometime after Rick's "death", her former best friend Jocelyn showed up at the gates of Alexandria along with several children who accompanied her. Jocelyn then proceeded to double-cross Michonne by robbing the community of all their food, killing a resident, and kidnapping the children, including Judith. When Daryl and the heavily pregnant Michonne caught up to them, Jocelyn had them both tied up and branded by the children as a test of strength. After escaping, Michonne was forced to kill Jocelyn and all but one of the children in self-defense. This led to her severing ties with all the communities and refusing to let in any strangers.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The first time she meets Rick's group, she is openly hostile towards them and completely disobeys Rick's direct orders when they infiltrate Woodbury, but decides to stay with them until the Governor is off her back. However, she soon grows attached to the group, to the point of being regarded as one of their own.
• Tough Love: She punches out Rick while he is suffering a bout of Sanity Slippage in Alexandria in order to save him from himself.
• Tranquil Fury: In "Too Far Gone", when she and Hershel are taken hostage by The Governor. Returns again in Season 5 when Gareth and the Hunters threaten to hurt Judith and kill the rest of the group. She's fairly calm throughout most of their slaughter.
• Undying Loyalty: To Rick. In "Conquer", Michonne assures Rick that she's with him no matter what. However, she also makes it clear that she'll knock some sense into him if the situation calls for it, too.
• Villain Killer: She stabs the Governor in the back during the final prison battle, and he would have died from it had Lily not finished him off with a headshot instead. Among her other notable villain kills are Ron Anderson and Jocelyn. In The Ones Who Live she is the one who deals the mortal wound to Thorne.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Shortly after entering into a relationship with Rick, she very clearly demonstrates that she's this trope when they're attacked at the Hilltop, knocking another girl on her ass after she punches Rick in the face.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Michonne uses a katana, demonstrating her foreign nature.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • She makes no secret about her disappointment when Rick gives in to the Saviors and serves them loyally, though she understands that he just wants to do what it takes to keep them all alive. A few episodes later, he realizes that Michonne is right for questioning him and decides to strike back thanks to her.
  • In The Ones Who Live she frequently chews out Rick for refusing to try to get home until he outlines the severity of the threat against Alexandria. She does accept Rick's valid reason to be afraid to try to go home, but when he still continues to be wishy-washy, she continues to needle him until he finally comes clean with what he's been dealing with.
• When She Smiles: Whenever she lets out a genuine smile, her happiness is often noted by Carl and Rick.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • In "The King, the Widow, and Rick", she's still not fully recovered from her nearly fatal beating in the Season 7 finale. This means she struggles a lot against a few Saviors she likely would've been fine against if she wasn't still recovering.
  • Downplayed in "Scars". While she's not at her full strength due to being pregnant, she's still capable enough to take out Jocelyn and her entire crew almost single-handedly. Judith's life being in danger probably had something to do with it as well.
• Would Hurt a Child: Justified, as she stabs Ron after the latter points a gun at Carl and Rick. In "Scars", Michonne is forced to kill several children, most of them younger than Ron, in self-defense after they kidnap Judith and try to kill Michonne while she is pregnant with Rick's son.
• You Are in Command Now: Discussed in Season 7. Rick tells her that if he dies in the war against the Saviors, he wants her to take command of Alexandria. It comes to fruition in Season 9 when Rick is apparently killed in an explosion.

Variants

Hallucination Michonne (10x13)

Hallucination Michonne

"Welcome to the new world."

Portrayed By: Danai Gurira

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 10)

"You didn't know who they were... or where they were from. You didn't know shit about them. But you came in the dead of night and slaughtered them anyway in their sleep. Like cowards."

Michonne is drugged by Virgil when he takes her to his island base and spends a large chunk of the episode experiencing a terrifying hallucination that spans her entire time on the series, and shows her making different choices throughout. This includes choosing not to save Andrea, joining the Saviors, killing Glenn and Heath, and wielding Lucille during the infamous "Eeeny Meeny Miney Mo" scene, before finally being killed by Daryl and Rick during the Savior War.

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• Adaptational Villainy: The real Michonne is a heroic character who started out as an anti-social Ice Queen but nevertheless chose to save Andrea. This version leaves her to die and eventually joins the Saviors, remaining an unrepentant minion of Negan until the very end.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: She pleads for Daryl and Rick to stop and pick her up off the side of the road. They don't.
• Alternate Self: A hallucination experienced by the real-world Michonne after she's been poisoned by Virgil.
• Asshole Victim: She's a Savior and kills Glenn and Heath in this version of events, so she had it coming.
• Batter Up!: She's given the dubious honor of wielding Lucille, the only Savior besides Negan to do so.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Rick executes her.
• Breaking Speech: Gives one to Rick's group in the woods, calling them cowards for slaughtering an unknown enemy in their sleep.
• Crazy-Prepared: She sleeps with a gun under her pillow. This allows her to get the drop on Glenn and Heath when they break into her room with the intent of killing her in her sleep.
• Dark Action Girl: The Michonne we know, but as a villain.
• Death by Adaptation: Since Michonne didn't die in either the comics or the real world version of the Savior War.
• The Dragon: She becomes Negan's right-hand woman (outranking even Simon) and is given the honor of selecting which of Rick's group will be executed for the attack on the satellite outpost.
• Evil Costume Switch: Starts wearing darker clothing after joining the Saviors.
• For Want Of A Nail: These hallucinations emphasize that it was Michonne's choice to save Andrea that ultimately prevented her from going down a darker path she could have never recovered from.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: As a member of the Saviors, she wears a leather vest.
• Hero Killer: Kills Glenn and Heath at the satellite outpost.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gets an arrow to the chest from Daryl during the Savior War.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Both on the giving and receiving end of this. She doesn't save Andrea (one of Rick's group) from walkers, and later is left on the side of the road by Daryl and presumably Rick and Carl. A year or so after that she gets vengeance by killing Glenn and Heath... only to then be shot in the head by Rick during the Savior War.
• Murder by Inaction: Coldly leaves a struggling Andrea to be Eaten Alive by walkers.
• Robbing the Dead: Takes Andrea's knife and canteen off her mutilated corpse.
• Sole Survivor: The only Savior to survive Rick's group's raid on the satellite outpost.
• Villainous Friendship: Seems to have a good rapport with Negan after she joins the Saviors and works her way up the ranks. He even lets her handle Lucille!
• We Can Rule Together: Negan offers her a spot in his ranks after being impressed by her toughness and ferocity.
• What Could Have Been: In-universe. This version of Michonne is basically her pondering what her life might have been like in a world where she didn't join Rick's group.

Others

Pet Walkers

For tropes pertaining to them when they were alive, see Atlanta

Michonne's Pet Walkers

Portrayed By: Moses J. Moseley and Theshay West

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 2-3, 4^note Dream, 10^note Hallucination)

A pair of walkers Michonne uses to camouflage herself among the dead.

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• Dead Guy on Display: Their heads end up in one of the Governor's fish tanks at Woodbury, and are incinerated when the Governor burns the town to the ground in Season 4.
• Jawbreaker: Michonne removed their arms and lower jaws to keep them from attacking her.
• Off with His Head!: Michonne beheads them to keep from being discovered by the Governor's scouting party. It's for naught, as she and Andrea are then ambushed by Merle anyway.
• The Reveal: It's not until "After" that we finally learn who they used to be in life. They were Michonne's boyfriend and his best friend, who she blamed for causing the death of her son.

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"Love doesn't die. Watch."