This guy really shouldn’t have messed with her.

The Walking Dead is back for another spin-off, this time with The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, which reunites our hero, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) with the love of his life, Michonne (Danai Gurira). It’s going to be difficult to recapture the early seasons magic of the original show. It was the characters, and not the zombies, who made The Walking Dead must see TV every Sunday night. We have to care about the people on screen in order to be drawn in when the walkers or the bad guys attack.

You need to be a badass to survive the zombie apocalypse. The weak don’t last very long at the end of the world. Rick Grimes, the leader of the group, was one from start. Others, including the timid Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), learned to become strong through heartbreak. Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) doesn’t exist in creator Robert Kirkman‘s graphic novels, but with his crossbow skills, he becomes the coolest character in the series. No one is more of a badass, cool fighter, however, than Michonne, who is introduced in Season 2 alongside her chained-up walkers. One event, more than any other, shows us what Michonne is capable of in her effort to destroy evil and protect the people she loves.

Michonne Is One of ‘The Walking Dead’s Most Complex Characters

Michonne has an unforgettable entrance to The Walking Dead, first arriving to help Andrea (Laurie Holden) in the Season 2 finale, “Beside the Dying Fire.” With a hood pulled over her face, her katana, and two chained jawless zombies, she looks like a superhero, or maybe a supervillain. Michonne isn’t someone to be feared, but to be trusted and respected. Beneath her hardened warrior exterior, Michonne is just like any other survivor, one racked with pain through loss, just trying to make it through.

Michonne might have been a loner who didn’t say much, but she was so much more. Michonne had been in love, and she was a mother. She lost it all when the world ended, but through Andrea, she begins to feel good things for people again. She trusts her new friend and opens up. Fans might not have liked the Andrea character, but Michonne quickly grows close to her. That trust wasn’t blind, however, for when Andrea is taken in by the promises of a man not to be trusted, Michonne follows her instincts. This man was the Governor (David Morrissey), who wants to create the perfect community so badly that he’ll kill for it.

Michonne Stabs the Governor’s Eye Out on ‘The Walking Dead’

Andrea can’t see it, but Michonne knows there is something wrong with the Governor. She’s very observant, noticing the shot up army vehicles and walkers kept captive. Michonne isn’t afraid to talk to the Governor about the things she finds, and she isn’t afraid either to tell her new friend that they should leave. Andrea won’t do it, so Michonne goes away on her own, back to a life of solitude, after finally finding a friend to share the end of the world with. Michonne then discovers Rick’s community and is taken in. Her need to connect with other people despite her pain comes out in her attention to Carl (Chandler Riggs), who has just lost his own mother, and her growing friendship with Rick, who has just lost his wife. Michonne could have stayed on her own, but what makes her a badass is that she can be a warrior, and unlike someone such as Daryl, not want to be so alone either.

Michonne is determined to take out the Governor, even though she easily doesn’t have to be involved. When the Governor’s people kidnap Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Rick’s group goes into the community in the Season 3 mid-season finale, “Made to Suffer,” to rescue them. For Michonne, she wants more. The Governor is a man who has caused bloodshed and who has corrupted her friend. While others are only looking to make it out alive, she wants to stop the evil Woodbury leader where he stands.

She also wants to protect these new friends she’s just made, a family that makes her feel alive again. She goes alone in her search for him, and discovers that the Governor keeps his zombified young daughter chained up. Though she is not able to kill the Governor when he finds her and attacks her, Michonne fights valiantly and manages to stab the man’s eye out with a sharp shard of glass. She doesn’t do this because she’s a cool lone warrior, but because she’s still a human being with the desire to live and have hope for people.

Michonne Kills the Governor Before He Can Kill Rick

This act was a risky, yet hopeful move for Michonne. Rick and his group don’t trust her yet, meaning Michonne really doesn’t need to be fighting with these people who might not fight for her, but she is anyway. When Andrea turns and Michonne has to kill her, part of that promise of a better future is extinguished, but she dedicates herself to fitting in with her new home at the prison with Rick.

Season 4 of The Walking Dead sees Michonne not with a harder heart, but a softer one. She even smiles and jokes around, and when she holds Rick’s baby, Judith, she cries about her own loss. The group now trusts her, so much so that when she is kidnapped along with Hershel (Scott Wilson), the group goes after her in the Season 4 mid-season finale, “Too Far Gone.” It’s not just Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) dad who they’re trying to rescue, but this new woman who has become a valued member of the group, fighting by their side. Though Hershel can’t be saved, Michonne is. What follows is an all-out war between Rick and the Governor’s groups. At one point, the Governor has Rick pinned to the ground, and it looks like our hero is a goner, but then a katana blade shoots out of the Governor’s chest. Michonne has killed him just in time.

Her character would only grow after that. Michonne continues to be a warrior, but is also given the chance at a relatively normal life (by apocalypse standards). She and Rick fall in love and create their own family. It’s a storyline that’s given to Andrea in the comics, but in The Walking Dead TV series, it works perfectly for Michonne, because we can see how much love she has to give underneath the hardened pain and persona she’s created. Michonne isn’t a badass because she looks like one when she swings a katana. She’s a badass because she’s not simply fighting to survive, but to have a true life. Going after the Governor to protect the new people she cared about, after spending so much time alone, was the ultimate act of hope for a better life, and the realization of love for people she barely knew. What’s more badass than that?