Michonne has a warning about anger on The Walking Dead

Michonne keeps a level head when navigating threats and that helps to explain why she is still standing. In the season 10 premiere of The Walking Dead, she warns Aaron of how dangerous reckless anger can be. 

Michonne’s earliest days on The Walking Dead showed just how tough and capable she is. It also showed deep and underlying anger which caused friction between herself, Andrea, the Governor, and the residents of Woodbury.

Even when she came to the Prison and met Rick, there was a closed off and angry exterior that Michonne gave off which made people uneasy. As her backstory was revealed, the reasoning for Michonne’s anger and ruthlessness became more understandable. She experienced trauma and couldn’t let herself go through anything similar again.

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

When season 4 begins, Michonne has embraced life at the Prison with her new family. Still, there is a sense of anger left over from the death of Andrea and a lack of closure with the Governor. Plus, when Tyreese’s girlfriend Karen is killed by Carol to prevent the spread of the sickness, we see Michonne come face to face with the danger of anger. Tyreese becomes extremely reckless and careless, which threatens his own safety and that of the group. Michonne calls him out on this, but he turns it around on her and points out that she is clearly still letting her anger be in control due to the fact that she is still looking for the Governor.

In the season 10 premiere, this quote that Michonne said to Tyreese comes back around as she tries to show Aaron that he is headed down a dangerous path. Everyone is understandably angry about what Alpha and the Whisperers did, but Aaron is visibly livid at this new reality he is having to live in. For the longest time, he was the diplomatic and calm voice that tried to find what was best for everyone. Now, he just wants Whisperer blood. He wants Alpha and her people dead. They took way too much from him.

The conversation between Michonne and Aaron on the bridge about letting anger get out of control really showcases the different approaches characters have to loss and threats. Michonne insists that if they lose their cool, the Whisperers will have already won. She lays out the fact that being nice or likable isn’t what matters, and that being smart is. As she previously stated to Tyreese, rage can hinder one’s ability to make wise decisions. That is when people die.

One of the reasons Michonne is still standing after roughly a decade of the apocalypse is because she learns from her mistakes and the mistakes of others. She has seen what anger can do to a person. She has seen what it can do to herself. If she slips back to her old ways, people will suffer. If smart survivors like Aaron let their anger come out in dangerous ways, people will suffer.

It is good that Michonne and Aaron have one another. They have a very special relationship that has been forged in trust since their meeting in season 5. The conversation they had on the bridge needed to happen between them. It shows that Michonne respects Aaron enough to point out his weakness. Michonne has been where he is now, and she doesn’t want him to continue down the dark path he is headed.

It looks as though this will be a major point of division between the characters during this season of The Walking Dead. Will Aaron take Michonne’s warning and reassess how he deals with the Whisperers? Or will his anger get the best of him?