The Walking Dead” is not necessarily a show about zombies but rather a show about the characters living in the zombie-infested world. The zombies are essentially the cause of the world ending, but the theme of the show is survival, displaying how characters change and adjust in the post-apocalyptic world. That is the essence of the show, which is what makes it so great.

Carol being abused

Out of all the characters that we’ve seen on the show, Carol has perhaps had the best development. In season 1, Carol was weak and an incapable fighter. She was trapped in a shell created by her abusive husband, who beat her for tedious reasons.

Probably the best thing that happened to Carol was her husband, Ed, dying in season 1.

The loss of Sophia

After losing her husband, Carol seemed to have more freedom to become an independent woman, but she was still weak in season 2, mainly because her daughter was lost in the woods for the first half of the season. She didn’t know how to fight yet and had to count on other people from the group to find her missing daughter, Sophia. Daryl Dixon was the main one looking for Sophia but was unable to locate her. Eventually, Sophia was found in Hershel Greene’s barn in the form of a walker.

The second half of season 2, Carol was grieving over Sophia’s death and was trying to isolate herself from the group.

When a huge walker herd arrived at Hershel’s farm, Carol was still too weak to protect herself and was saved by Andrea and later by Daryl.

Slowly breaking out of her shell

Season 3 started off by skipping the entire winter period, progressing about six months in the story. Therefore, Carol was already fully over her losses and was slowly adapting to the world.

She finally started learning how to use guns and other combat weapons in this season but wasn’t completely ready to become a true fighter.

In season 3, Carol was mainly the caretaker of Rick’s newborn daughter, Judith. She was also the one who fed the group and made sure everything within the prison was kept in order. Most importantly, she finally had a voice in the group.

She wasn’t the scared, quiet woman we saw in the first two seasons.

Becoming a fighter

With more time being skipped between seasons 3 and 4, we saw more changes in Carol. In season 4, she was introduced to two young girls, Lizzy and Mika, and she treated them as her own after their father died. Carol transformed into a fighter and decision maker in season 4, killing two members of her own group to prevent a virus that was spreading within the prison. She was also secretly showing the youngsters of the group how to use weapons.

Carol was ultimately kicked out of the group by Rick for killing Karen and David, the two infected members she murdered to stop the virus. By this time, it wasn’t an issue for Carol to be on her own because she was a capable fighter.

She did, however, return to the group, traveling with Tyrese, Lizzy, and Mika to Terminus.

Bad-to-the-bone Carol

When Carol found out that Terminus was a trap and her friends had been captured, she turned into a total assassin. Camouflaging herself as a walker, Carol completely destructed Terminus, killed many of its people to free Rick and the others, and officially rejoined the group. By this time, she was just as strong as Rick, Daryl and some of the others.

From this point on, Carol became excellent at the art of masquerading herself. When the group stumbled upon Alexandria, she disguised herself as a homemaker but turned into a killing machine again when The Wolves attacked the community. She did the same to a few members of the Saviors when she and Maggie were captured during the latter half of season 6.

Isolated Carol

In season 7, Carol separated herself from the group because she was tired of killing people for them. She just wanted to be left alone in her cottage that was located near the Kingdom community. However, she is currently participating in the all-out war against the Saviors after finding out that Glenn and Abraham were brutally murdered by Negan.

Carol has had the biggest transformation of the show. She went from a useless, frightened woman with very little capabilities, to becoming a major asset to the group by acquiring combat skills and strategies that help protect the group from villains and walkers.