The Governor (The Walking Dead)

Background
As a child, the Governor and his older brother were often beaten. Despite his brother's attempts to shield him, the Governor was beaten anyway. His childhood experiences with his brother's futile attempts to protect him convinced him that heroes were just fools who would get everyone hurt. As he grew older, the Governor married and had a child named Penny. The Governor worked as an officer worker for a boss who was younger than him and had often. Eighteen months before the outbreak, his wife was killed in a car accident, leaving him only his daughter When the outbreak did hit, the Governor and his family hid in their apartment for some time. When they emerged from their apartments, they secured the town of Woodbury. From there, the Governor gained a leadership role and was nicknamed "The Governor."

Season 3
The Governor and his men arrive at a spot of a crashed helicopter. There, they salvage the supplies from the plane. They also find Andrea and Michonne snooping behind the bushes. The Governor's men take Andrea and Michonne back to their town of Woodbury. Once at the town, Andrea decides to stay while Michonne decides to leave. The Governor orders Merle to go after Michonne. Merle does not find Michonne, but he instead captures Glenn and Maggie. Later, Woodbury is attacked by a group of survivors lead by Rick Grimes. During the attack, Michonne returns and kills The Governor's undead daughter. Rick's group leaves after they rescue Glenn and Maggie. After the attack, the Governor rounds up his men and retaliates by attacking Rick's homebase, "The Prison."

Andrea, who learns that the invading part were her former group, tries to negotiate a peace between Rick's group and Woodbury. The two groups meet at an abandoned house. The Governor asks Rick to hand over Michonne if his group wants peace. However, when the Governor returns to Woodbury, he tells Milton that he plans to attack the prison group regardless of what happens. Andrea, catches wind of the plan to invade the prison and escapes Woodbury to warn the prison group. She is caught by the Governor before reaching the prison and brought back to his torture chamber. There, the Governor kills Milton for telling Andrea about his plans and sabotaging his plan to release walkers into the prison.

The Governor leaves Milton's body in the torture chamber so his reanimated form can kill Andrea. With all his traitors taken care of, the Governor prepares the town for war. He takes every available person with him and stages an invasion on the prison. The invasion fails when the Governor is ambushed at the prison and is repelled. Furious, the Governor kills almost every person with him with the except of Martinez and Shumpert. Together, the three drive away from the massacre the Governor inflicted on his men.

Season 4
The Governor, Martinez and Shumpert make camp and spend the night in the field. When the Governor wakes up, he finds that his men have abandoned him. Broken, the Governor spends the next few months traveling from place to place. One day, he spots a little girl in a building. Heading inside to investigate, he finds that the little girl is hiding in an apartment with her family. The family allows the Governor to spend the night at their apartment building. During his stay, the Governor bonds with the family and gains their trust by doing tasks for them. In particular, he becomes fond with the little girl named Meghan and his bond with her revives him from his lifeless state. After their father dies, Meghan's mother, Lilly, asks the Governor if he can take her sister, Tara, and Meghan away to a safer place. The Governor reluctantly agrees.

On their travels, the Governor grows closer to Lilly and the two develop a romantic relationship. After close encounter with walker the Governor and his new family are found by Martinez and his new group. Martin's new group takes the Governor and his family into the group. Later, while golfing with Martinez, the Governor learns that Shumpert was killed by walkers. Not wanting to leave any witnesses to his massacre, the Governor beats Martinez and takes him to a pit of walkers where he is devoured. The group assumes that Martinez's death was accidental since he was drinking at the time of his death. Pete Doglen is made the new leader with his brother, Mitch Doglen as his right hand man. After one supply run with the new leader, the Governor becomes convinced that they don't have it takes to protect the group.

Unable the leave the group because of surrounding walkers, the Governor takes matters into his own hands. He kills Pete and coerces Mitch to support him as the new leader. Then he sets his sights on the prison. He finds Hershel and Michonne nearby and takes them prisoner. Afterward, he convinces his group that they need to take over the prison because their place is unsafe. After securing his family in a safe place, the Governor and his army head for the prison. Using his hostages, he demands that the prison group leave before sundown or he will fire on them. Rick pleads for a compromise. However, the Governor does not yield and kills Hershel. A firefight ensues as soon as Hershel's body hits the ground.

Lilly comes to the Governor '' s side with Meghan's dead body. Meghan was killed by a walker hiding in the location the Governor had placed his family at. Callously the Governor shoots the body to prevent reanimation. Then he goes off to fight in the prison. The Governor is ambushed by Rick and they have a brawl. The brawl ends with the Governor's hands around Rick's throat, but the Governor is killed by Michonne, who had escaped captivity and regained her sword. Lilly finds the Governor as he is dying and finishes him off with a gunshot.

Personality and Traits
Mutilated by a fight with Michonne, the Governor's most noticeable physical trait is his scarred, blind eye which he keeps hidden with his eye patch. The Governor is a ruthless, but charismatic man who is willing to do anything to in order to protect the ones he loves to to survive in general. To this end, the Governor is willing to cross moral boundaries such as the killing of innocent people to get supplies for his people. To the Governor, there is no right or wrong, only something that has to be done. The Governor believes that heroes are fools who only cause suffering for themselves and others. This belief was fueled by a childhood memory where despite his brother's attempts to shield him from his father's beatings, the Governor still got beaten anyway.

Despite these beliefs the Governor became a man who treasured family. In particular, he was very close with his daughter, Penny. When she died, he held onto her body even as she became a walker. From there, he spent his time and the city's research finding a cure for the disease. After his city was abandoned, the Governor's spirit became broken. It was only through his new family and especially through his new adopted daughter, Megham Chambler that he was able to find new life.

After Michonne had killed the Governor's undead daughter, his sanity snapped and he went on a warpath to get his revenge. Once the Governor has a grudge against someone, it has difficulty letting it go. This can be seen in how he decides to attack the once again after he regains power. The Governor demonstrates this stubbornness once again when he turns down Rick's offer coexist in the prison for a war instead. The Governor has also been known for charismatic and manipulative. Having a gift for leadership skills, the Governor can convince strangers that he met to go to battle through lies and manipulation by playing on people's feelings and expectations. Though, the Governor is not beyond the use of force. In several cases, violence is the preferred method that the Governor wants. For example, when he has peace talks with Rick, the Governor knew that no matter what happened, he was not going to let the prison group survive.