Characters / The Walking Dead (2010): Daryl Dixon

aka: The Walking Dead TV Show Daryl Dixon

The Walking Dead Main Character Index
Rick's Group | The Grimes Family (Rick Grimes) | Georgia (Morgan Jones, Gabriel Stokes) | Atlanta | Atlanta Survivor Camp (Daryl Dixon, Carol Peletier) | Greene Family & Friends (Maggie Greene) | Prison Newcomers (Michonne Hawthorne) | Woodbury (The Governor) | Tyreese's Group | The Chambler Family | Abraham's Group | Terminus | The Coalition & Other Allies | Alexandria Safe-Zone | The Hilltop Colony (Gregory) | The Kingdom | Oceanside | The Saviors (Negan Smith, Savior Outposts, Former Saviors) | Magna's Group | The Whisperers (Alpha) | The Commonwealth | The Reapers | Other Antagonists | Other Survivors

Due to the Anyone Can Die nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. If you have not seen the first ten seasons read at your own risk!

Daryl Dixon

"We fight for our future. We don't fight for revenge."

Portrayed By: Norman Reedus^{Foreign voice actors} Claudio Serrano (Spanish, Seasons 1-3), Carlos Di Blasi (Spanish, Seasons 4-11), Rikiya Koyama (Japanese), Tommy Morgenstern (German), Emmanuel Karsen (French), Francesco Pezzulli (Italian), Martin Stránský (Czech), Zoltán Schmied (Hungarian)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 1-11) | The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

Debut: "Tell it to the Frogs"

"You want to know what I was before all this? I was nobody. Nothing."

An original character created for the show, Daryl Dixon is one of the main protagonists of The Walking Dead (2010) with enough examples of tropes to necessitate his own page.

Daryl is one of two redneck brothers who joined the Atlanta camp with the initial intent of robbing them, but Daryl grew away from the negative tendencies of his abrasive elder brother Merle when he went missing. Daryl proved himself to be a loyal, hard-working man who goes more than the extra mile to help the group when they're in trouble. Daryl took it upon himself to lead the search for Sophia, earning Carol's friendship in the process, and ultimately became the group's second-in-command after Shane's death.

After the group moved into the prison, Merle resurfaced as the tyrannical Governor's lieutenant. Daryl was reunited with his brother but realized he'd grown past him thanks to his new family, though he was forced to put him down after Merle sacrificed his life to attack The Governor's militia and reanimated. Daryl joined the governing council of the prison group but fled the prison with Beth when The Governor destroyed it. They grew close until she was abducted by Grady Memorial Hospital, but her eventual death in a stand-off devastated him.

When the group moved to Alexandria, Daryl found himself forming a murderous rivalry with Dwight, a lieutenant of the Saviors. As the two groups went to war, Daryl became embittered by his accidental part in the death of Glenn and a period of incarceration and torture at the Sanctuary. After Rick and Michonne decided to spare Negan upon defeating him at the end of the Savior War, Daryl plotted with Maggie to take vengeance on their own terms. However, nothing prepared Daryl for the apparent loss of Rick a year and a half later. Daryl resigned himself to living alone in the woods with his new companion Dog for six years, but ended up finding himself pulled back into the communities as a leader and warrior yet again when the threat of the Whisperers raised its head.

Daryl helped lead the Coalition through the Whisperer War and the Reaper conflict, disgusted by the feuds between groups of survivors after remembering Rick's wisdom about their real enemy. Stepping up as Judith and RJ's caretaker in Michonne's absence, Daryl helped the successful revolution at the Commonwealth. After the Coalition was rebuilt, Daryl set out on his own, having learned Rick was alive and Michonne was out trying to find him.

However, Daryl's journey hit a notable speedbump when he ended up in a conflict with hostile survivors that got him marooned on the other side of the world in France...

Daryl and Merle are also the protagonists of The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, a First-Person Shooter by Activision that tells the story of the brothers before they arrived at the Atlanta camp.

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Tropes #-H

• 10-Minute Retirement: Daryl briefly loses the will to help others after failing to save Sophia. He goes back to his usual self once the situation escalates again. As detailed below, he usually lapses into this after the group takes a heavy loss.
• Abusive Parents: Daryl was beaten and neglected as a child, to the point that his back is badly scarred, as seen in "Home."
• The Ace: He's pretty much the best overall fighter in the group, able to do anything that he needs to and is a force to be reckoned with.
• Achilles in His Tent: After leaving the group in "The Suicide King", he spends most of "Home", away from them after leaving with Merle. He comes back. It happens almost once a season, to the point you could re-name this trope, "Daryl in the Woods".
• Alliterative Name: His first and last names both start with a D.
• The Aloner: He departs from Alexandria after Rick's apparent death and is shown living in the woods with only a pet dog for company.
• Anti-Hero: Daryl is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who will not hesitate to kill or delve into some morally grey areas for the good of the group, but is still a good man at his core.
• The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: Where all the other characters start out civilized and are forced to give it up, he starts out as a violent, racist redneck whose main saving grace is that, unlike his brother Merle, he will generally try to help other people—if he's not angry enough to attack them himself. After being separated from Merle's influence and being forced to work together with the group to survive, he gradually becomes a nicer, more steadfast and emotional, but still awkward person.
• Ascended Extra: Not as much as Carol, but it's easy to forget that Daryl was originally a supporting character intended to be killed off before becoming one of the main characters in Season 3, and eventually the main character in Season 9.
• Automatic Crossbows: Averted. It can be difficult to spot, but Daryl does occasionally nock another bolt.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Downplayed, as while the positives outweigh the negatives, Daryl's crossbow has its shortcomings. It needs a unique type of ammunition that only Daryl really knows how to make more of, and it's large and clunky as compared to Rick's personal Python which can be stored in his holster. Trying to pull out the clunky crossbow from a bag nearly costs Daryl his life in "Always Accountable". It was stolen by Dwight during the first half of Season 6 until Daryl got it back in "Twice as Far". Dwight stole it back again in "Last Day on Earth" after Daryl was taken prisoner by the Saviors.
  • His use of a motorcycle also counts. Sure he's a Badass Biker, but its engine is much louder than that of a normal car and it does leave him a bit more vulnerable to walkers and gunfire than he would be if he was in a car. According to Norman Reedus, "It's good on gas and Daryl doesn't give a fuck." Indeed, it ends up being one of the last motor vehicles to remain in use by the survivors before they give up on them entirely since it can be fueled by ethanol.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Merle in "The Suicide King".
• Badass Biker: Becomes one in late Season 1 and afterwards. Apparently the Cool Bike used to be Merle's, so he probably counts as one too.
• Badass Boast: He gives a short but nevertheless effective one to Dwight and Sherry when they steal his bike and crossbow.
  Sherry: We're sorry.
  Daryl: You're gonna be.
• Badass in Distress: For all his badassery, Daryl has been captured a total of seven times throughout the series, more than anyone else.
  • First, he's captured by Woodbury soldiers and made to fight his brother Merle in the gladiator ring.
  • Then he's placed in a train car at Terminus alongside Rick, Michonne, and Carl.
  • He is captured twice by the Saviors — the first time by Dwight in "East" and the second time in "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" when he is abducted by Negan to be held prisoner at the Sanctuary.
  • In "Scars", he and Michonne are bound and tortured by Jocelyn and her children.
  • In "The Calm Before", he, Michonne, Carol, and Yumiko are held by the Whisperers for a short while before being released by Alpha herself.
  • In "Rendition", he's taken to the Reapers' base and tortured for information about Maggie and the Wardens.
• Bash Brothers: With Merle. Although not much is shown, they've already played these roles since the apocalypse started. Since Season 3, Daryl is also Bash Brothers with Rick.
• Battle Trophy: Daryl begins a collection by making a necklace of the ears of the zombies he killed while searching for Sophia, as an indication to himself how tough and strong he is. It might also have had the practical use of masking his living scent.
• Bearer of Bad News: He is the one to inform the Hilltop refugees of Carl's passing.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: While Daryl never turns into a antagonist, he does become vengeful after his time of being mentally tortured by the Saviors, which causes him to go against Rick's orders and become a rogue.
• Berserk Button:
  • Never leave anybody behind on his watch. This issue is mostly because his brother Merle was left on a roof so Daryl commits to always save anyone in the group that has been lost or been captured.
  • Endangering his group in any way, shape, or form is a good way to get under his skin. As this happens, Daryl becomes more willing to kill than Rick is.
• Beware the Nice Ones: After Season 1, he mellows out into a fairly decent guy who's committed to helping everyone. That said, he's still capable of getting pissed off in many ways. Case in point, when he discovers Bob has smuggled a bottle of liquor into his bag instead of medicine to help people suffering from pandemic flu. When Daryl attempts to throw it away, Bob goes for his gun; Daryl quickly disarms him and threatens to beat his ass if he tries to take one sip of it before the people who are sick can get better.
• Big Damn Heroes: A few notable examples:
  • In the Season 2 opener, he saves T-Dog from becoming walker food by shooting the walker about to chomp on T-Dog and then dumping said walker's body on T-Dog to mask his scent.
  • Subverted late in Season 2 — he tackles down a walker that's about to eat Dale, but he's moments too late from saving him and he personally delivers the Mercy Kill as an apology.
  • Midlate in Season 3, he does it twice in one episode, once to save a group of Mexican strangers he didn't even know, and once to save Rick.
  • In mid-Season 6 he’s able to save Abraham and Sasha from Bud’s gang, and later causes a fire in the Alexandrian pond that distracts the herd enough for the Alexandrians to finally vanquish them.
  • In "A Certain Doom", he arrives just in time to save Negan from being killed by Beta by stabbing the latter in the eyes and leaving him to be devoured by walkers.
• Big Good: In Season 9, he begins showing shades of this after Rick’s disappearance and after returning to the communities. Everyone looks to him for guidance, even if others like Gabriel, Yumiko, Tara, and Ezekiel are the more official leaders. He also helps lead the Hilltop defenders during the Whisperer War.
• The Big Guy: Class 3. Becomes The Lancer after Shane is killed.
• Big "NO!": When he finds Merle's severed hand atop the building in Atlanta.
• Breakout Character: Daryl is one of the most popular characters. He was promoted to the main cast in Season 2 and given an entire episode to show his badass credentials. In Season 3, he's become the second-in-command to Rick and runs the group when he's not available. By Season 4, he's probably the show's Deuteragonist and in Season 5, it's safe to say that he's one of few characters on this show with Plot Armor. He took over from Rick as the new lead of the show starting in Season 9, and following its conclusion, began headling his own spin-off, aptly titled Daryl Dixon. Not bad for a guy who didn't even appear in the source material.
• Broken Ace: He is not the most well-adjusted individual.
• Broken Tears: When finding his brother Merle as a walker then Mercy Killing him.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: He's the Brooding Boy to Beth, Connie, and Isabelle's Gentle Girls.
• But Now I Must Go: He leaves to find Rick and Michonne in the series finale.
• Byronic Hero: He is cynical, determined, and brooding and also has a strict personal code with a lot of loyalty to his friends.
• Canon Foreigner: Fans of the show may be surprised to find that he and his brother are nowhere to be seen in the comics.
• Can't Stay Normal: Or at least what's normal for Daryl. Following Rick's "death" in Season 9, he retires to live in the woods for six years along with his pet dog. After returning to Hilltop for what is supposed to be a brief stay, events lead to him returning to his old life of dealing with new attackers.
• Catchphrase: Some variation of "That ain't you/us/her."
• Celibate Hero: Due to his abusive past, he has trouble with letting people get close or touching him. When Carol starts joking about the two of them having sex he gets real quiet and asks her to stop. He becomes more comfortable with physical contact as time goes on, though it's not until late Season 10 that the audience actually gets to see him in a real relationship. Even then, aside from a Sexy Discretion Shot that implies Daryl and Leah slept together, the two are never actually shown being physically affectionate on-screen.
• Character Development: Daryl is one of the characters who has changed the most out of the cast, highlighted in the episode "Home", where his new personality clashes with Merle's outdated perception of him. While Daryl was originally a mildly racist, belligerent redneck who only looked out for himself and his brother, as Merle dominated him through mild psychological bullying, Daryl chooses Rick's group over Merle in the episode. He's now a brave, compassionate and stronger man, who has bypassed Merle and can see his flaws. He hasn't completely left his old Hot-Blooded ways behind, just tempered them with something that looks suspiciously like maturity and civility.
• Character Tics: He bites his thumb when he's apprehensive, such as when he waits in the hall while Andrea shoots herself.
• The Chosen One: Laurent had a dream of Daryl washing up on a beach three weeks before Daryl arrived at the Abbey. According to Isabelle, this means he is the "messenger", the one prophecized to escort Laurent to Northern France where one day he will be called upon to lead the revival of humanity.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Starts growing into this in Season 2, fully cemented by Season 3, as shown in "Home", when he goes out of his way to rescue a family from walkers.
• Close-Call Haircut: In "Chupacabra", courtesy of a trigger-happy Andrea, who mistakes him for a walker.
• Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth: Fills the Combat role, with Rick commanding Diplomacy, and Glenn handling Stealth.
• Combat Pragmatist: Daryl at one point uses a walker's head as a melee weapon while desperate.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Brought to the fore in "The Suicide King", when he's forced to choose between Rick's group and his brother Merle, and ends up going with the latter. Then in "Home", he decides that Rick's group is his real family and goes back to them, with Merle reluctantly being forced to follow.
• Cool Uncle: To the Grimes children and Hershel Rhee. Judith and R.J. even call him "Uncle Daryl", and in "Silence the Whisperers", we see him join them and Michonne for dinner.
• Covered with Scars: Seen in the episode "Chupacabra". Norman Reedus states they're from Daryl's childhood abuse. "Home" confirms that both he and Merle were physically abused by their father.
• David vs. Goliath: He's the David in his fight with the hulking, monolithic Whisperer Beta.
• A Day in the Limelight: Several episodes in particular focus on Daryl's development or relationships with the rest of the cast.
  • Season 2's "Chupacabra": The episode mostly depicts Daryl's solo adventure trying to find Sophia and contending with a hallucination of his missing brother, and is by and large when he earns his place as an integral member of the group thanks to his sheer dedication to his mission.
  • Season 3's "Home": The episode revolves around Daryl after he leaves the group when they refuse to accept Merle into their fold, only to find that they had very good reasons not to do so given how much of an ass Merle still is. It also delves into the pair's unhappy childhood and lingering trauma from an abusive father, and it concludes with Daryl deciding he needs to stay with his family of choice as opposed to his blood brother who treats him like shit.
  • Season 4's "Still": We finally see Daryl deal with his grief from the loss of Hershel, the prison, and the others as he becomes close to Beth.
  • Season 5's "Consumed": The episode is a quiet, reflective buddy-episode and reunion of sorts for the inseparable duo of Daryl and Carol as they reflect on how far they've come since the beginning of the series.
  • Season 6's "Always Accountable" (shared with Sasha and Abraham): A good two-thirds of the episode is from Daryl's point of view as he encounters Dwight for the first time and his willingness to help others is taken advantage of, setting him up for a dark turn for the next few seasons.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mostly early on when he is a snide, Hot-Blooded Jerkass; tempered out somewhat as he takes a level in kindness.
  • When Jenner gives a pretty damn bleak exposition about the walker virus and how a person reanimates, Daryl mutters, "Damn I'm about to go get shit-faced again."
  • After a walker growls at him, he replies with a crossbow bolt through the head and "Shut up".
  • Instead of asking for help while he's bleeding from one of his own arrows on his way back to Hershel's farm, he simply notes to Rick that this is the third time Rick has pulled a gun on him at this point and then asked if Rick would pull the trigger this time. He is then shot by Andrea, who doesn't know it's him from afar. The bullet just barely grazes his head. Most would be unconscious or just plain dead, but Daryl, being... Daryl, still manages to mutter as the others pick him up, "I was kidding."
  • When the group elects to leave their temporary base in a barn to go to Alexandria with Aaron, despite Rick's reservations, Daryl agrees, as "this barn smells like horse shit."
• Decomposite Character:
  • While pretty much still a Canon Foreigner, he filled in most of Tyreese's role in the first two and a half seasons, specifically The Lancer (after Shane's death) and his close relationship with Carol, albeit in a platonic sense.
  • At the beginning of Season 9, he fills Dwight’s role as the new leader of the Saviors who abdicates the post, since he personally had TV Dwight Put on a Bus.
  • He takes Aaron's place as the one who mortally wounds Beta at the end of the Whisperer arc.
  • Season 10 and 11 sees him fully step into the Big Good position that Rick had in the comics, frequently rallying his companions behind him whether it’s the Battle of Hilltop or the Reaper conflict. Season 11 also sees him also finally begin to take Rick’s words to heart and take the path of peace if he can, such as when he pleads for decency during the final stand-off with the Reapers. In the Grand Finale, he is also the one who successfully sues for peace among the living in the Commonwealth, complete with his own take on “we are not the walking dead”.
• Deconfirmed Bachelor: He goes ten seasons without showing overt romantic or sexual interest in anyone, barring the examples mentioned under Ship Tease below. "Find Me" reveals he had a full-fledged relationship with a woman named Leah while he was living in the woods mourning Rick.
• Defrosting Ice King: Initially hostile to everyone else in the group, he slowly grows closer to each group member and becomes loyal to them. History repeats itself when the crew move into Alexandria, where Daryl is clearly uncomfortable with this new lifestyle. Aaron (and a little bit of Eric) eventually get him to warm up again by the end of "Forget", saying that Daryl knows the difference between a good person and a bad person and appoint him the new recruiter of the safe zone.
• Determinator: One of his defining character traits.
  • Even after being thrown from a horse into a ravine and stabbed in the side by one of his own crossbow bolts, he still manages to make it back to the camp on his own.
  • After running all day, he spends an entire night keeping watch for walkers while inside the trunk of a car.
• Deuteragonist: Begins occupying this role from the third season onward, and later begins sharing it with Carol. This is no longer the case as of Season 9, when he becomes The Protagonist.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The crossbow can actually be harder to aim with and use than a conventional gun, but mastering it offers Daryl a lot of advantages. He can both hunt food for the group and silently stealth kill any walkers he encounters without bringing a dozen more down on his head. In addition, to overcome its low ammunition limitations, Daryl has learned to always retrieve bolts, and even knows how to make new ones if he needs to.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: After the group finds and shoots the undead Sophia, Daryl separates himself from the others in frustration. Carol, who knows how hard Daryl searched for Sophia, tells him he can't just shut the others out and that the group needs him. Daryl angrily tells her that he was better off on his own to begin with, that Sophia wasn't his problem, and that he doesn't need her to try and take care of him. Knowing that this is Daryl's way of handling what happened, Carol stands there and lets him vent as long as he needs.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: Invoked when he and Rosita become police officers at the Commonwealth and she sees him eating a donut, causing her to playfully chide him for "living up to that stereotype".
• Et Tu, Brute?: His subdued reaction to killing Morales indicates he wasn’t pleased that one of their former allies became an enemy, and takes no pleasure in executing him.
• Everyone Can See It: Kelly and Carol both take note of Daryl's growing closeness to Connie (and vice versa).
• Excellent Judge of Character: It's stated by Aaron to be one of Daryl's most invaluable qualities. Michonne leaves it up to him to decide Lydia's fate on the grounds that Daryl is, in her words, "the best damn judge of character I know". The sole exception is Dwight, who Daryl continues to insist until the end of the war is actually setting them up despite all evidence to the contrary. However, it's implied this is more out of bitterness for Dwight's previous betrayals and Daryl ultimately does let him live when Dwight directly apologizes.
• Failure Knight: Daryl has a tendency to blame himself for almost any tragedy that befalls the group.
• Fake Guest Star: In Season 1. He graduates to main cast member in Season 2 and has stuck around ever since.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • Surviving alongside the other Atlanta camp members eventually sees him ingratiate himself in the group as one of their leaders.
  • In Season 10, while “friend” is too strong a word to use, he comes to form a bond of mutual trust and respect with Negan once he proves that his Heel–Face Turn is genuine. The two start having each other’s backs, Daryl gives the other tips on how to stay with the group, and they are able to turn their backs to each other safely. Even earlier in the season, Daryl recognizes that Negan truly was trying to help Lydia out of altruism and vouches for him. Though he can't resist roasting Negan while claiming to Leah he doesn't know him, calling his frenemy a "tall, skinny guy [who] never shuts up."
• Fish out of Water:
  • To say that Daryl doesn't fit in well at Alexandria is an understatement. He's even more out of place at the Commonwealth, which is the closest that the group has seen to recapturing society before the apocalypse.
  • Taken up to eleven in his spinoff series, where he winds up in France, of all places. His first battle in the that series nearly ends poorly when a walker variant burns Daryl's arm just by grabbing it.
• Foil: To Shane. In Season 2, Shane is the most adamant that Sophia is probably dead while Daryl is the most convinced that she is actually still alive. When Dale has been ripped open by a walker and is declared by Hershel to be beyond saving, it's Daryl who steps in to spare Rick from having to Mercy Kill him, in contrast to Rick's then-lancer, Shane (who had more beef with Dale than Daryl ever did). Also compare Shane's transformation from a loyal friend of Rick to an Ax-Crazy traitor who tries more than once to kill him, to Daryl going from a Hot-Blooded prick out for Rick's blood who is revealed to be a heck of a lot nicer and much more noble and pure of heart than originally thought. When Rick is apparently blown up in an explosion, Daryl spends the next six years looking for Rick's body to give his fallen friend a proper burial, unlike Shane who left the comatose Rick for dead a few weeks into the apocalypse and started an affair with his wife.
• Former Bigot: He initially shares his brother's views towards the minorities in the group, referring to the Korean Glenn as a "Chinaman". He grows out of this by the end of Season 2.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: In the first season. Much like his brother, he's a confrontational Jerkass (albeit he's far less hostile to the people of color the group than his brother). However, the search for Sophia begins to integrate him deeper into the group and prove that he is a reliable, loyal member of the group. He replaces Shane as the Number Two of the group and becomes one of the most beloved members of the gang (best seen in the Season 4 premiere when it's shown he's become very popular among the prison community) thanks to his immense Character Development.
• Friend to All Children: Willing to look for Sophia in Season 2, bonds with Carl, and cares for the newborn Judith Grimes and even calls her Little Asskicker. His main reason for saving a random Mexican family in Season 3 is that he can hear their crying baby. In Season 5, despite being extremely against the new posh lifestyle of Alexandria, he admits that it's good that the group has come because Carl and Judith deserve a roof over their heads. In Season 8, when the Alexandrians are holed up in the sewers, he personally takes Judith in his arms to hold her like his own daughter.

• Guilt Complex: It's revealed in "Still" that he feels responsible for Hershel's death and the destruction of the prison, as he gave up looking for the Governor and later talked Michonne into doing the same. Sophia's name also comes up.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: In Season 1. It takes very little to rile him up and he'll outright attack anyone who antagonizes him.
• Hallucinations: After two falls down a riverbank and a pretty severe injury, Daryl starts having hallucinations of his brother Merle, mocking him and egging him on to survive.
• Handicapped Badass: Or, in this case, an injured one. After being badly injured after a fall and impaled on one of his own crossbow bolts, Daryl wakes up with a walker attempting to eat his (thankfully booted) foot. He kills it with a stick, and then pulls the aforementioned bolt out of his own body and uses it to shoot another.
• Hates Being Touched:
  • Flinches back when Carol (probably the least threatening member of the group at the time) leans in to give him a motherly kiss on the forehead. The showrunner stated that Daryl is "constantly expecting to be hit" due to his childhood abuse. A Call-Back in "Them" has Carol kiss his forehead again — this time, Daryl lets her.
  • By Season 4, he is openly more physically affectionate with many people — including Rick, Carol, and Beth — and even around people he does not know very well.
  • Come Season 10, he's the one to actually initiate the touching, as shown when he tells Connie a story about Merle and puts his arm around her to act out the scene, then holding her hand to comfort her about Kelly being missing.
• The Hermit: It's no big surprise that he would enjoy being alone, but the circumstances at hand make it tragic. After Rick seemingly sacrifices himself to destroy a massive walker herd, a heartbroken Daryl retreats into the woods to live as a recluse for six years, with only a dog for company. Carol of all people tries to rouse him from this, telling him that he doesn't always have to be alone and can't simply hide out with his dog forever.
• Hero Antagonist: In early Season 9, he and Maggie plot to kill Negan behind Rick's back despite knowing Rick is keeping him alive to honor the late Carl's wishes. They take preventive measures to keep Rick from reaching Alexandria to stop Maggie and further defy Rick's vision of a peaceful society by letting Oceanside kill Arat, the last of the Saviors responsible for the massacre that claimed the lives of their men and sent them into hiding. Maggie's reasons for wanting Negan dead are extremely justified, however, given Glenn's death and how Rick basically pulled a My Way or the Highway in his decision to spare Negan's life while ignoring how Maggie really felt about the situation.
• Heroes Love Dogs: He adopts a dog while living in the woods and trains him to attack foes and fetch arrows.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • He shuts down almost completely for a time after the loss of the prison, hunting for food and killing walkers when necessary, but mostly following Beth around and communicating in monosyllables. He eventually snaps out of it after getting into a drunken argument with Beth that leads to him breaking down and opening up to her, only to lapse into another one in the very next episode when Beth is kidnapped and he falls in with the Claimers.
  • He goes through another one in Season 7 after his actions inadvertently cause Glenn's death, though it's also partly for his own safety and to prevent Negan from harming his friends in Alexandria.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Rick starting Season 3. When Merle makes Daryl choose between his loyalty to his kin and his loyalty to Rick, Daryl chooses Rick, and in Season 4, Rick outright calls Daryl his "brother". In Season 7, following Daryl's escape from the Sanctuary, they share a hug. Even their brawl in Season 8 is really nothing more than a brotherly tussle, with neither taking it personally afterward and even apologizing to each other. When he believes that Rick has died in Season 9, he cries and walks off by himself afterward.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Shown to have this side to him in Season 2. He's the most confident that they will find Sophia alive and even comforts Carol. The Cherokee Rose scene won him a lot of fans.
  • "Alouette" reveals that he and Merle used to watch Mork & Mindy as kids.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Daryl actually has a compassionate side to him, but on the rare occasion it is observed he will brush it off or try to change the subject.
• Honorary Uncle: To the Grimes children. He helps look after Carl’s well-being whenever Rick isn’t around and thinks of him, and later Judith and RJ, as his own. The latter two even call him “Uncle Daryl” sometimes, with Daryl outright taking care of them if Michonne is absent.
• Hot-Blooded: He learns to keep his temper in check by Season 3, to the point of having switched roles with Rick, who in Season 1 was calm and level-headed while Daryl was more unpredictable.
  • Season 4 shows that alcohol brings out Daryl's hot-blooded Jerkass side, to the point where he shouts quite loudly at Beth despite having walkers within earshot. Ironically in the first season, when the group indulged in some of Jenner's alcohol, he was one of the jolliest drunks in the group.
  • He still has his moments of weakness, however, such as when he attacks Negan for killing Abraham and taunting Rosita.

Tropes I-P

• Iconic Item: His crossbow.
• Iconic Outfit: His wing-embroidered vest.
• The Idealist: During the search for Sophia. Aside from Rick, he is the one most confident they will find Sophia alive. Sadly, he is wrong.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: While no one else blames him for it, Daryl feels responsible for the deaths of Maggie's family, saying that if he hadn't stopped looking for the Governor, Hershel would still be alive; if he had stayed by Beth's side, she wouldn't have been abducted by Grady Memorial Hospital; and finally, if he hadn't punched Negan, Glenn would not have been killed.
• In Vino Veritas: A little moonshine helps Daryl let out all the frustration and anger he's been keeping inside.
• Ironic Name: "Daryl" means "open", something Mr. Dixon decidely isn't.
• It's Personal: Even after Dwight's Heel–Face Turn, Daryl is justifiably skeptical of him, thanks to Dwight having betrayed, shot, and tortured him, in that order, as well as his casual murder of Daryl's friend Denise. After the end of the Savior War, Daryl is willing to spare him due to Dwight genuinely repenting and feeling remorseful, but still exiles him (and tasks him to find Sherry in the process) and warns him to never return lest he be killed.
• I Work Alone:
  • Used to believe this, but grows used to working with the other survivors and in "This Sorrowful Life" he tells Merle that they can't survive without people anymore. Tends to slip back into this whenever something bad happens to someone in the group, most noticeably after the deaths of Sophia and later Beth.
  • He still has a rough time working with people he doesn't know, which comes up when he and Rosita are undergoing basic training at the Commonwealth. Daryl fails Mercer's training exercise because he doesn't put in more effort to work with his assigned team partner.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: On Randall in "Judge, Jury, and Executioner". He also tortures Frost for show in "On the Inside".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Originally a mildly racist redneck like his brother Merle, but he repeatedly goes out of his way to help others in the group, such as helping Rick rescue Glenn from the Vatos, saving T-Dog's life several times, and even revealing Merle's secret drug stash when T-Dog gets a nasty infection. He also cares about finding Sophia far more than any of the other members of the group besides Carol. By the end of Season 2, he is firmly in this territory, but soon after he becomes a full on Nice Guy with rarely any moments of belligerence.
• Kill the Ones You Love: He's ultimately the one to shoot Leah, his ex-girlfriend who had gone off the deep end and was in the process of attempting to stab Daryl's surrogate sister, Maggie, to death.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: His first encounter with a French variant walker causes Daryl to leap overboard the ship he's on, knowing full well he'll likely get ripped to pieces trying to fight it head-on.
• The Lancer: As tension between Rick and Shane rapidly escalates towards the end of Season 2, Daryl gradually becomes Rick's right-hand man. Following Shane's death, Daryl officially becomes this starting in Season 3, before graduating to The Hero in Season 9.
• The Leader: Shares the role with Gabriel in "A Certain Doom". Gabriel commands from the Tower while Daryl is the field team leader and is more directly involved in the action.
• Lethal Chef: Discussed by Judith, who says Daryl can't cook for shit if a campfire is not involved.
• Licked by the Dog: He's the first person who is able to stop baby Judith from crying at a time when both her parents are MIA (Lori is dead and Rick is undergoing some severe Sanity Slippage). He even affectionately calls her "Lil' Asskicker".
• Lightning Bruiser: Since his arrows can be reused, he has quicker reload time than his allies. He is well adapted to close-range combat, too.
• Lonely Together: Implied to be the base of his relationship with Leah. She lost her adopted family in a walker attack, while Daryl is still stinging from the loss of his best friend and surrogate brother, Rick.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: For a long time, he alienated himself from the group and preferred avoiding human intimacy as much as possible. Eventually, he becomes one of the group's most loyal members.
• Made of Iron:
  • In "Chupacabra", he falls down a steep slope and impales himself on one of his crossbow bolts. He then climbs up the slope, falls, then tries again, eventually limping back to camp, where not even being grazed on the head by a rifle shot keeps him down.
  • After being shot at the end of "East" and spending the better part of a day bleeding out from the wound, he still has enough strength to leap up and punch Negan in the face. Even then, it takes several Saviors to restrain him from continuing to attack.
  • In "Stalker", Alpha stabs him in the leg and he manages to run a great distance with the knife still in his leg, pull it out, have blood spew from the wound, and spend most of a day drifting in and out of consciousness before finally being patched up by Lydia. The very next night he is fully able to participate in the Hilltop battle with only a limp slowing him down.
• Manly Tears:
  • Some prominent examples were when he discovered Merle's Heroic Sacrifice and subsequent zombification, reuniting with Carol in the Season 5 premiere, and after Beth's death in "Coda".
  • He also has them when his outburst against Negan ends up costing Glenn his life. He has a full crying session two episodes later after Dwight presents him with a picture of Glenn's remains, and later breaks down apologizing to Maggie (who didn't blame him anyway).
  • He cries after Rick sacrifices himself to blow up a bridge full of walkers, though unbeknownst to him or anyone else, Rick survived.
  • He almost cries when Connie is presumed dead in a cave-in and Carol breaks down pleading for Daryl to blame her for what happened.
• The Mole: After being captured by the Reapers he begins operating as a double agent while simultaneously trying to convince Leah to change sides.
• Morality Pet: He is quite possibly the only person Merle cares about.
• Mr. Fanservice: He has quite the following due to his Troubled, but Cute nature and penchant for wearing sleeveless shirts.
• Multi-Ranged Master: While he's often seen with a crossbow, he also occasionally uses guns and knives.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Daryl has a look of pure horror on his face when Negan makes good on his word that he will "shut that shit down" after Daryl punches him in the face and he smashes Glenn's head in as punishment, just a few minutes after he killed Abraham.
  • He is clearly shaken when the Saviors attack Alexandria after escaping the Sanctuary after his rogue strike, after insisting his attack worked.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • He considers both Beth and Glenn's deaths as this for him. Beth because he made a careless mistake that resulted in her eventual abduction, and Glenn because his attempt to defy Negan resulted in Negan choosing Glenn to die. He can't even bring himself to speak to Maggie for almost the entirety of the rest of the season.
  • He also blames himself for Rick's apparent demise, refusing to return to Alexandria without finding his friend's body and giving him a proper burial.
• Mythology Gag: He gets shot in the head in the same place Andrea was in the comics. Ironically this wound comes from Andrea herself.
• Nerves of Steel: Not a man easily shaken by anything. Negan is impressed when he pretends to strike Daryl with Lucille to test him and Daryl doesn't even blink.
  Negan: Wow! You don't scare easy!
• Never Be Hurt Again: It's implied Daryl likes to keep his distance from others because he's afraid of the pain he'll feel should he lose them.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He is triggered by Negan's abuse and manipulation of the group and punches Negan after he brutally beats Abraham to death with Lucille and taunts Rosita with the bloody bat. Negan's response? Not only does he punish Daryl by proceeding to beat Glenn's head in as well, but he's also impressed with Daryl's bravery and decides to force him to work for him.
• The Nicknamer: Called Glenn Chinaman in Season 1 and coined Lori's newborn baby as "Little Asskicker" before being named Judith by Carl.
• Noble Bigot: In the first two seasons. While no fan of Glenn or T-Dog, he won't stand by and withhold assistance if either one of them is in need, even if it means putting his life on the line. Used to demonstrate his character development in Season 3 when Merle calls Glenn Chinese. While Daryl had called Glenn a Chinaman in the past, this time he responds by telling Merle that Glenn is Korean.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: While going out of his way to search for a missing Sophia alone, Daryl ends up falling down a cliff twice, the initial fall causing one of his arrows to impale him, the second when he's trying to get back up. Then he is nearly eaten by walkers and when attempting to (successfully) climb back the second time, he had hallucinations of Merle mocking and berating him. Once he got back in the farm, his friends mistook him as a walker and was nearly killed when one of them (Andrea) shot him. This all happened in a single episode.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Simply put, when Daryl wants someone dead, he'll kill them without talking and making a big scene of it. When Mitch Dolgen has the gall to surrender after using his tank to destroy the prison, Daryl quickly puts an arrow in his chest without a single word. He also shoots an arrow in Morales' skull after catching him holding Rick at gunpoint and realizing he's now a Savior; this despite Morales having once been an ally and trusted member of the Atlanta camp. After getting his ass kicked by Beta once before, Daryl takes the lesson to heart next time they cross paths by running up behind Beta and driving a pair of knives into his skull while he's distracted. When Leah is about to kill Maggie, Daryl quietly accepts that she's gone off the deep end and shoots her in the back of the head without first attempting to make contact with his ex-girlfriend.
• No-One Could Have Survived That: In Season 8, he is rather quickly confident that his plan to ram a truck into the Sanctuary successfully dealt a crippling blow to the Saviors. He even insists to the others that it worked despite not sticking around to watch it play out. Unfortunately, that night Alexandria learns the hard way that it didn’t work, and Daryl questions if he was responsible for the Saviors’ freedom (Simon and Dwight say it was Eugene, who was inspired by watching the Saviors handle the walkers Daryl unleashed on the Sanctuary).
• No One Gets Left Behind:
  • This is a big issue for him, possibly because of what happened to Merle. Whenever someone goes missing, he will be the first to volunteer to look for them. The only time he refused was shortly after the barn massacre and Sophia being found as a walker, as he was too torn up about his failure. He also is the most insistent on returning to search for Andrea when the farm is overrun and she is separated from the group. In Season 3, when Glenn and Maggie are kidnapped, he immediately volunteers to go after them.
  • He brings this up as a big reason for why he leaves the group in "The Suicide King". He isn't willing to abandon Merle a second time. However, he realizes that they parted ways in how they think a long time ago and decides to return to the group, followed in shock by his brother.
  • Despite his strong disapproval of Bob's actions in Season 4's "Indifference", Daryl doesn't even threaten to leave him behind.
  • Eventually subverted in "Too Far Gone", when he and Beth are forced to flee the prison without the others after the defenses are lost and the group is scattered during the final battle with the Governor.
  • When Connie and Magna are trapped by a massive cave-in, Daryl refuses to believe they died and tells everyone else to go home while he strikes off on his own to look for another entrance.
• No Social Skills: He's never been terribly good at interacting with others, but he slowly improves over the course of the series.
• No Sympathy: When the group considers booting out the inmate survivors, Daryl compares himself to them, stating that while they're degenerates, they're not monsters. Regardless, he still thinks they should hit the road.
• Not So Stoic: Daryl may be one of the toughest people around, but even he has his limits. He violently lurches when Negan strikes Abraham (and later Glenn) with Lucille, and in Season 9 is pretty understandably grossed out when Aaron’s left arm is mangled and painfully amputated.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Most obviously with Rick, with whom Daryl was initially deeply at odds with. (What with the whole cop-who-left-my-brother-to-die thing going on.) By Season 4, Rick says Daryl is his brother.
  • With Carol, who becomes an important figure for him during Season 2 and beyond. Carol jokes about the idea of them being attracted to each other, and it's obvious that they're both devoted to each other, but beyond that, nothing definitive has been shown in canon. The relationship becomes less "odd" over time as Daryl becomes more empathetic and Carol becomes more of a badass.
  • Starting with "Still", he developed this with Beth, despite their outlooks and pre-apocalypse lives being complete polar opposites.
  • He also forms one with Aaron in "Forget" after the latter offers him a job as a recruiter for Alexandria.
  • He forms one, yet again, with Denise in the second half of Season 6. She even tells Daryl that he reminds her of her brother.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: He at one point tries to sleep in a coffin, calling it the most comfortable bed he's had in years. He also initially refuses to sleep in a prison cell, choosing instead to sleep in the upstairs hall.
• Official Couple: He eventually became this with Leah during the six-year Time Skip in Season 9. She left him when he refused to choose between her and going out to look for Rick's body, and he doesn't know what became of her until Season 11.
• Older and Wiser: After the six-year Time Skip he's become less impulsive and more even-tempered, as well as taken on leadership qualities that would make Rick proud.
• One-Man Army: Only Rick and Carol rival him in this regard. In Season 4, he takes down a tank alone.
• Out of Focus: He has a jarringly reduced role the first half of Season 6 since he spends most of it leading the herd away from Alexandria with Abraham and Sasha. It's not until the sixth episode of the season that he finally gets a starring role in an episode. He returns to the spotlight in the second half of the season.
• Papa Wolf: To the Grimes children and Lydia. When Sebastian implies he'd be willing to use Judith and RJ as leverage against Daryl, Daryl puts a knife to his throat and threatens to gut him on the spot.
• Parental Substitute: For Lydia, and also for Judith and RJ as of Michonne's departure in "What We Become". In "New Haunts", it's implied he went to Commonwealth to give the Grimes kids a vacation while Alexandria is being cleaned up; the three are seen living together in an apartment with Daryl keeping an eye on them as if they were his own children. Daryl is clearly uncomfortable with the environment of the Commonwealth and his new job as a uniformed trooper, but powers through it because Judith and RJ are enjoying themselves there and having a chance to grow up as normal kids for once.
• Perpetual Frowner: Almost never seen smiling.
• Phrase Catcher: A minor example. He gets called that "Robin Hood cat" on two separate occasions by unrelated characters: Tomas in Season 3 and Tony in Season 4.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With the exception of Rick, most of Daryl's closest relationships on the show have been with women.
  • With Carol. In Season 9, he tells her he's happy she and Ezekiel are together, and Henry mentions that Carol told him she considers Daryl to be her best friend. In the aftermath of Henry's death, Daryl does whatever he can to support Carol and spends much of the season trying to keep her self-destructive tendencies in check.
    Daryl: Sorry if I didn't want my best friend to spend her whole life on a boat.
    Carol: Best friend? What are you, ten?
    • Even after Carol betrays his trust and gets Connie, who she knows Daryl cares for, possibly killed and Daryl spends the better part of "Morning Star" avoiding her, he nevertheless reaffirms their bond and shoots down any notion that he could ever stay mad at her. Their relationship appears to be on its way to mending by "A Certain Doom", only to take a nose dive in "Find Me" when Carol pushes too far as he's still not quite ready to forgive her. Daryl blames Carol for what happened to Connie and wanting to run from her troubles while Carol calls him out for his Failure Knight tendencies. They've reconciled as of Season 11, and Daryl's last words to Carol before he leaves in the finale are, "I love you."
  • He's also this with Michonne, to a lesser extent. Unlike Rick's previous Heterosexual Life Partner, he does not attempt to comfort the widow after Rick's apparent death, and is genuinely consoling as the two of them bond over losing one of the most important people in their lives.
  • And with Maggie as well. He pretty much always has her back, and is genuinely torn up over feeling like he caused the deaths of her father, sister, and husband. Maggie assures him that Glenn’s death was not his fault and doesn’t hold her other losses against him either, and he is completely supportive of her plans to one day take vengeance out on the man who actually did kill Glenn. When Maggie breaks the deal to let Daryl's ex-girlfriend Leah and her remaining people leave with their lives, only sparing Leah, Daryl is a little miffed and gives himself some space from Maggie but is not at all hostile towards her. "Acts of God" shows that, when the chips are down, Daryl will always have Maggie's back no matter what. When he comes upon a vengeance-crazy Leah throttling Maggie and about to stab her to death, he shoots Leah in the back of the head with zero hesitation and no attempt to talk her down. In the following episode, Daryl tells Maggie not to apologize for what happened to Leah.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: At first, though he grows out of it, eventually counting a Korean man, three black people, a Hispanic woman, two gay men, and a lesbian among his best friends. Not to mention having Ship Tease with a deaf black woman.
• Precision F-Strike: In "Trust", during the middle of a tense standoff with Hornsby and the Commonwealth soldiers.
  Daryl: So unless you want to die for nothing, tell them to lower their guns before something really fucking bad happens.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When he leaves a wounded Armand to be torn to bits by walkers.
  Daryl: Bon appetit.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Beginning in Season 2. Impressively, he goes from being the last billed to having the first spot in the credits by the sixth episode of Season 9.
• Properly Paranoid: Daryl's skepticism of Rick's plan to surround the Sanctuary with walkers to make Negan surrender is not unjustifiable, considering that Rick's plans haven't always worked out in the past and that Zia's plan to lead the walkers away from the Sanctuary with a truck and speakers proves that the Saviors did have contingency plans for this kind of situation.

Tropes R-Z

• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Merle's Red. He starts out as the Red to Rick and Carol's Blues, but by Season 3 it's been swapped.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Daryl has since dropped his Jerkass and racist ways, but he's as easily riled up as ever.
• Restrained Revenge: After spending the last two and a half seasons wanting to kill Dwight, Daryl mercifully exiles him instead, while also encouraging him to find Sherry.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: During the Savior War, this is Daryl’s approach to his enemies after enduring the loss of his friends, as well as torture and imprisonment.
• Save the Villain: Even after Leah declares war on his friends and frames Daryl for her leader's murder, Daryl still tries to arrange for her survival by giving Leah a chance to leave Meridian in peace with what's left of her family. Unfortunately for Daryl and Leah, Maggie takes Negan's advice about what to do with the Reapers to heart...
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Shown when he and Rick look for Sophia at the start of Season 2.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After he and Merle are rescued by Rick's group from Woodbury, Daryl abandons Rick and the group to stay with his brother. The next episode, he pulls this on Merle and heads back to the group, deciding that they are his real family. Merle is forced to follow along so he doesn't get left alone.
• Second Episode Introduction: Well, third episode introduction, but it's a little surprising that one of the show's most popular and recognizable characters, as well as the eventual lead, doesn't actually appear in the pilot.
• Secular Hero: When Pope asks if he believes in God, Daryl tells him, "not anymore." It comes up again in his spin-off, where he tells Isabelle that he's never really been one for religion and scoffs at the flier she puts up that reads, "God is with you."
• Sherlock Scan: Twice. He figured out that Shane killed Otis due to the fact that Shane had Otis' gun when he supposedly did a Heroic Sacrifice, and the second time when he determined Shane killed Randall by noting their footprints were walking together, the tree which Shane banged his face against to make it seem like Randall had attacked him, and Randall's broken neck.
• Ship Sinking: His relationship with Leah goes down in flames after she frames him for Pope's murder. Daryl is later forced to kill Leah to save Maggie, putting an end to any hope at reconciliation.
• Ship Tease:
  • With Carol in the early seasons. They eventually settle into Platonic Life-Partners and Carol gets married to Ezekiel.
  • With Beth in Season 4. They become quite close after escaping the prison together, and are shown holding hands in “Alone”. She is kidnapped and then killed before anything can come of it.
  • With Connie in Seasons 9-11. They quickly form a bond while working together to rescue Henry and Lydia from the Whisperers, and Daryl later begins learning ASL in order to better communicate with her. They also hold hands when Kelly goes missing and Daryl tries to cheer her up with a funny story about Merle. Carol playfully notes that something is going on between them and Daryl himself remains evasive on the subject. While they share a few more flirty moments throughout the series and Daryl is clearly very concerned about her well-being, they ultimately don't end up together by the series finale and Daryl leaves on a journey to find Rick.
  • With Isabelle in his spin-off series. Much like with Connie above, Sylvie teases Isabelle about the idea of something happening between them, but Isabelle assures her they're just friends. The Season 1 finale has the two share a few tender moments together, but it's still ambiguous.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: His relationship with Merle has him as the one more willing to help out others without insisting on payment, which he gets called on by Merle.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His signature look, though he dons sleeves when winter blows through.
• Smoking Is Cool: Daryl is a smoker, as seen in Season 3's "Arrow on the Doorpost", Season 4's "Indifference", and Season 5's "Them".
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: His popularity with fans and role as Rick's primary lieutenant likely contributed to the roles of Tyreese, Abraham, and Jesus being comparatively smaller in the show than in the comics.
• Staking the Loved One: He tearfully puts down his zombified brother, Merle.
• Suicide is Shameful: Daryl has no sympathy for people who give up and take the easy way out (besides those who put themselves down before they can reanimate like the bitten Andrea).
• Sympathy for the Devil: While it doesn't stop him from wanting to kill Dwight, Daryl admits he at least understands why Dwight took the deal working as Negan's lieutenant in exchange for his and his wife's (relative) safety.
• Take Me Instead: Tries to do this in the Season 4 finale by offering his own life in exchange for the Claimers letting Rick, Carl, and Michonne go free. It doesn't work, as they just decide to kill him as well.
• Taught by Experience: Daryl grew up with mostly himself to rely on, and as such was a self-taught survivalist when the apocalypse hit. Even though he has no formal combat training (unlike his brother, who was in the military), he manages to hold his own in a fight with a Reaper named Carver (who did several tours in Afghanistan) in "Rendition".
• Terrifying Rescuer: According to Shane, anyway.
  Shane: If [Sophia] was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction, man!
• Terse Talker: After the first two seasons, this is his default speech mode. He'll say just enough to get his point across; otherwise, don't expect much in the way of conversation from him.
• Think Nothing of It: When Carol thanks him for trying to save Sophia, he only responds by insisting Rick and Shane would have done the same. Likewise, when Carol notes his efforts to bring in refugees in S4, Daryl notes that Rick saved many as well. When Aaron reminds him of how he saved his group from a storm that eventually spawned a tornado, Daryl tries to shrug it off.
• Token Good Teammate: When he joins the Claimers in Season 4. Also in his small coalition with Rick and Carol when the group reaches Alexandria; he refuses to take part in their scheme to overthrow the community if its denizens prove too weak to survive on their own.
• Token White: In Season 4, he goes on a medicine retrieval arc being accompanied by Michonne, Bob, and Tyreese.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Daryl's Character Development since the first season is very evident, to say the least.
• Tragic Keepsake: Daryl eventually receives ownership of Beth's knife after the latter is killed, keeping it at his side.
• Translator Buddy: He eventually becomes fluent enough in ASL that he takes over as Connie's translator in Kelly's absence.
• Troubled, but Cute: Daryl grew up in a poor and abusive family, and is an aloof and brooding loner, as well as a tough and aggressive fighter. However, he is extremely loyal and caring towards the people who are close to him, and often shows his kind and vulnerable side. He becomes the show's Breakout Character, especially after his Character Development in Season 2.
• Unable to Cry: For a long time after Beth's death. After several weeks, while all alone, he finally cries.
• Undying Loyalty: Towards Rick, from the end of Season 2 onwards. Even when Merle comes back into the picture in Season 3, Daryl ends up choosing Rick. Their relationship comes under some friction during Seasons 5 and 6 as Rick becomes more and more hostile and willing to go to extremes for the group. Daryl often ends up voting in favor of a more peaceful solution, such as during the standoff with Grady Memorial Hospital and Alexandria's recruiting campaign. Eventually, despite making it clear that he does not like some of Rick's orders, he confirms that he will always follow his lead no matter what. Unfortunately, their relationship takes a nosedive in Season 8 during the Savior War when the two men disagree over their next course of action. He even comes to blows with Rick when he's ordered to stop. The two men end up parting ways for a time due to being unable to cooperate, but reconcile in "The Key", with Daryl comforting Rick over Carl's death and Rick defending Daryl's actions at the Sanctuary. In Season 9, they once again clash over Rick’s mercy, but Daryl affirms that he would die for his brother. When Rick is apparently killed in the next episode, it's enough for Daryl to leave Alexandria and go off on his own.
• Villain Killer: Among his notable kills are the Governor's Dragon, Mitch Dolgen; the leader of the Grady Memorial hospital cops, Dawn Lerner, and the ex-leader of the Reapers, Leah Shaw. He also directly causes the death of the new leader of the Whisperers, Beta.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice is a lot less raspy in the early seasons than it is from about Season 4 on.
• Warrior Poet: In "Cherokee Rose", describing the myth about the plant.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Daryl uses a crossbow, representing his simple, country-folk nature.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Carol constantly reassures Daryl that he's more than just a killer, and has more good in him than he'd like to admit. Aaron also takes up this job when Daryl arrives in Alexandria.

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"We got one enemy. We ain't the walkin' dead."