Honestly, the first time most of us saw a woman in a fluffy pink coat waving an M249 SAW at Eugene, Ezekiel, and Yumiko, we thought the show had finally lost its mind. It was weird. Like, "custom character in a gritty cutscene" weird. But Juanita Sanchez, better known as Princess, ended up being exactly what The Walking Dead needed during its long trek toward the Commonwealth.
She wasn't just some wacky addition for the sake of comic relief.
The Mystery of Juanita The Walking Dead
Most fans just call her Princess. She prefers it because, as she puts it, "Queen" makes her sound old and pretentious. When she first popped up in Season 10, specifically in the episode "Look at the Flowers," she was living a lonely, bizarre existence in a deserted city. In the comics, this was Pittsburgh. The show kept it a bit more vague, but the vibe was the same: a ghost town filled with "art installations" made of walkers dressed in tea-party clothes.
Isolation does things to people. Juanita hadn't seen a living soul in over a year. Think about that for a second. No talking, no laughing, no one to tell you your jokes aren't funny. Just you, your goggles, and a massive gun.
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She’s a powerhouse of energy. Sometimes it’s too much. Her introduction involved her accidentally scaring off the group’s horses because she wanted to show off her walker-slaying skills. It was a mess. But underneath that "loopy" exterior—her words, not mine—there’s a backstory that is actually pretty devastating.
What You Probably Missed About Her Past
Princess isn't just "quirky." She is a survivor of a different kind of apocalypse that started way before the dead rose.
During the episode "Splinter," we got a deep look into her head. She carries a heavy load of neurodivergence and trauma: ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, and depression. She literally lists them out like a grocery list. For Juanita, her "active imagination" isn't just a hobby; it’s a survival mechanism. It’s how she coped when her stepfather, Dougie, used to lock her in a dark closet and her mother did nothing to stop it.
That pink jacket? It’s armor.
Paola Lázaro, the actress who brought Juanita to life, has talked about how she felt like an outcast growing up, which helped her tap into that raw vulnerability. It makes the character feel human in a world that often feels like it's made of cardboard and grit.
The Comic vs. Show Divide
If you only watch the show, you might not know that Juanita's path was slightly different in the source material. In Robert Kirkman’s comics, she meets the group in Pittsburgh. In the show, the geography shifts, but her role as the gateway to the Commonwealth remains the same.
- Weapons: In the comics, she’s known for using a spear. In the show, she’s all about that heavy machinery and automatic firepower.
- Relationships: Her bond with Mercer is a highlight of the final season. It’s one of those "opposites attract" deals that actually works. He’s the rigid, armored general; she’s the chaotic, pink-furred firecracker. They balance each other.
- Kill Count: Here is a wild fact. In the comics, Juanita is one of the very few main characters who never actually kills a living person on-panel. She’s a "Chaotic Survivor" who manages to keep her hands relatively clean of human blood, which is saying a lot for this series.
Why Representation Actually Mattered Here
There was a lot of chatter online when she first debuted. Some people found her annoying. "Cringe," they said. But for a huge segment of the audience, seeing a character openly talk about ADHD and PTSD was a massive deal.
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The show didn't treat her like a "crazy person" trope. Instead, it showed how her brain works differently to keep her safe. When she’s in that train car in "Splinter," and she’s talking to Yumiko through the wall, we later find out she’s hallucinating. She’s disassociating to handle the stress of being caged again. It’s a sophisticated portrayal of mental health that you don't usually see in a show about rotting corpses.
She’s observant, too. Because of her ADHD, she notices the tiny details—the way two Commonwealth guards look at each other, realizing they’re in a secret relationship. She’s smart. She’s just loud.
The Actionable Takeaway for Fans
If you’re revisiting the series or just catching up, don’t write off Juanita as a side character. She represents the "new world" the show tried to build toward the end.
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- Watch "Splinter" again. It’s essentially a one-woman play. Notice the lighting and how it shifts as her reality cracks.
- Look at the Commonwealth transition. Princess is the literal bridge between the survivalist era and the "trying to be a society again" era.
- Check out Paola Lázaro’s other work. She’s a playwright in real life, which explains why she was able to handle those long, manic monologues so well.
Juanita Sanchez is a reminder that even when the world ends, you don't have to lose your color. You might have to carry a bigger gun, and you might have to talk to yourself sometimes, but you can still choose to be the person who offers a hand first.
Stick with the characters who have "too much" personality. Usually, they're the ones hiding the most interesting stories.
To see how Juanita's journey compares to other late-stage survivors, you can look into the specific character arcs of Mercer or Yumiko during the Commonwealth summit.