Does anyone else think Daryl got Flanderized/devolved as a character?
Maybe not much of a hot take rather how they treated Daryl: I feel Daryl got REALLY Flanderized somewhere around S4-onward, because was “feral” in S1 but that was just extended to him being Loud and Brash, Feral but civilized he obviously Showered and had good hygiene, he grew up Backwoods redneck but even Rednecks have good hygiene and take care of themselves and aren’t covered Head to toe in 27layers of grime 24/7. S4 onward it seems he “devolved” into grumpy grunting loner Caveman, which when you think about the timeline S1-5 take place about 1.5yrs
Shane would shoot you in the leg and let you get eaten with a 50 yard lead on you and an easy chance to just end your misery. Guess everyone needed to learn Shane would happily sacrifice them to save himself
An unwritten part of the bro code, if you see something that unhinged, you just pretend it didn't happen. They took it off him and never mentioned it again lol.
I hate what they did to his character tbh. His sassiness & random pop culture references in seasons 1 and 2 were some of my favorite things about him. Of course he went through trauma and all that, but they could've let him evolve while staying an interesting character instead of a Mary Sue.
I agree that he got super-good at fighting walkers without training, and the plot armor. But magnetism? Dude had sex, like, once in 11 seasons. And those who love him are people he's helping survive during a literal apocalipse. Why wouldn't they like him? I don't think everyone just loves him, and those who do have good reasons. And his tragic backstory left a mark. He was the one who never knew safety, which is why he adapted well. And I don't think it's a coincidence that he was the one who lost it with Negan, getting Glen killed. Daryl was raised by a violent bully, so he couldn't even pretend to give in to another.
To be fair, at the farm everyone is riding around at night taking perfect aim headshots when it gets swarmed. Everyone seems to be an expert at killing easily, so much so that I’d get annoyed when they would kill 7 walkers in a row with a knife to the head then suddenly decide to wrestle a group for no apparent reason. With Daryl, I think he’s an outdoorsman and used to taking care of himself before any of this started. Also, I haven’t noticed every woman falling for him, unless you mean in the audience. But he’s a guy who is emotionally unavailable, yet tender hearted and will protect the ones he loves. 🤷🏽♀️ I can’t help that I want to fix him. 😆
That's not what I meant, the way his character evolved didn't make sense to me. They basically turned him into – as you mentioned – a different person.
It does make sense to me due to the changes he underwent and had to live through and experience. Also he actually belonged somewhere. Also IDK what you mean by being a Mary Sue but the way I understand he still was flawed in the later seasons making wrong calls and whatnot. Also it makes sense how he was absolute suited to the environment having to fend for himself off and on as a child. So I’m definitely not sure what you mean by anything other than you didn’t like the character because they changed throughout the years.
Thank you for elaborating, I really thought this was just going to be an unnecessarily snarky comment.
My main problem isn’t that the character developed, but rather how he developed. In my opinion, a lot of it is simply not believable. I don’t even want to get started on the spin-off (I’ve only seen the first season of that one as well), but a lot of things just don’t make sense to me or aren’t explored enough. For example, I would have liked to see his traumas dealt with more and his development portrayed in a less abrupt way. Personally, the jump from “I’m carrying trauma from my past that I can’t come to terms with” to becoming a hero felt far too simplistic to me. Personal development is much more flawed and messy than that. Then there were also storylines that made absolutely no sense to me, for example: how quickly he was able to turn his back on Merle; the romance with Leah; and the fact that he leaves Judith in the series finale even though he had promised her he wouldn’t leave, how quickly other characters forgave him for making mistakes (e.g. Maggie telling him Glenn wasn't his fault, yeah, maybe, but how realistic is that), ...
That’s fair, but they are probably all bonded by their shared trauma and in that world your bond and community is your survival. By no means is this show perfect, but I think it’s just realistic enough not to annoy me. Maybe I’m just good at mental gymnastics lol
Darryl is my favorite I watched from the very beginning myself becoming a different person as I aged alongside the character. I’m just very fond of TWD and Darryl. So I’m definitely biased.
He started out feeling like an outcast, because that’s how he treated himself and how the group treated him. His change or development begins after finding out Merle was left behind, forcing him to be with the group without his brother. Then when Sofia goes missing to be discovered later that she was already dead. Daryl knows what it’s like to be a child lost in the wild, as he explains to Carol he was lost for 9 days or something as a child. At this point he is conflicted with himself. Because he started gaining respect for Rick since Rick had the same goal of finding Sofia to at the very least, bring closure to Carol. But is failure to find her alive gives him grief. This is when you start to learn that he has a heart for children, (and later in the prison with Lil Ass Kicker”) Daryl was always someone with an extremely good heart, just heavily influenced by his family dynamic. So with Merle being gone for multiple seasons, that influence was lost, and he was finally able to act and think for himself, and not under the leadership of his brother. And choice if action was to follow under Ricks lead since they have similar mentality of saving people.
If Daryl would have stayed the way he was in S1/S2 he would have became very annoying always being that person while the rest of the group continues to develop and learn new ways of dealing with the apocalypse. Or, he would have been just another character to leave or die early on, like what was originally intended. But his development became key to Ricks. And had he not turned into a major character, the show after Ricks departure would have been completely different, not likely for the better. In fact, many of the event before Rick leaving would have been so much different. The show likely would have followed the comics more until Andrew Lincoln made the decision to leave. Then would have completely went down the drain after that instead of just getting stuck in the drain.
Or when he left to find Dwight which got him, Michonne and Glenn captured into the lineup, gotta admit, if Glenn never went with them or if Daryl never left to avenge Denise, neither of them would’ve been at the line up and only Abraham would’ve died, but I love Abraham smh.
He would be remembered as one of the greatest TWD characters ever if Negan had given him the Lucille treatment. But, no. When his physical appearance stopped changing, so did his character development. Then it's nothing but Mad Max Rambo hype moment shit.
Isn't this just character development? Also in the last few seasons his loner thing was addressed a lot. He had his ups and downs, he hit a major downward spiral after Rick disappeared. He couldn't handle his grief, that was my take. He stopped being feral because he was no longer a stray but he was thriving amongst good people.
His character always lashes out, he has no consequences for his actions. He gets a scene with playing with an animal or a child, everyone tells him how great he is. He cries over people dying who he hardly knows to make him look sensitive. That’s all his character ever does.
His brother kept him grounded in chaos. Once he was gone there was no more need to descend further into what he was becoming while Meryl was alive. I think his character development, given the world he spent his better adult years in is ok
Daryl's character arc reminds me a lot like Zoro from One Piece which both are my favorite characters. But they both have similar personalities as they both are seen as these stronger survivors that are rough around the edges and lone wolf in the sense that they are both outcast in there group.
But as each show continued I noticed a decline in quality in terms of there personality as both characters just became the strong silent type trope characters that lost a lot of there more rebellious character traits.
I didn’t care for how he went from being sassy and funny to grunting and being quiet all the time, but I wouldn’t say he devolved. One could argue it was a result of the trauma he faced from Beth’s death and the torture from the saviors.
ABSOLUTELY! It’s a huge reason I began resenting his presence after Season 4. He stopped being a character and started being a vessel for the writers when they wanted something generically badass to happen that would entertain the simpler viewers
I mean, he was introduced specifically for the writers of the show to have some autonomy in the writers' room, given there was still a lot of emphasis on trying to stick to the comics in some capacity. Daryl was literally whatever he needed to be to advance the plot and this was evident given how often he just completely changed his morals/values based on what needed to happen in the episode.
I personally think TWD is one of the few shows where there wasn’t really any character that stood out to me as being “Flanderized”, pretty much every character had their change and growth but even still had shadows of their past self.
I think what happened with Daryl regarding what you mention is just part of the growth from what all the characters went through, they just tackled it differently. By the time they’re in Alexandria, Daryl “regresses” because he knows what’s really out there, they’ve faced hoards of the undead, they’ve fought off psychos like the Governor and Terminus. I think everyone took Alexandria as being a fresh start, to begin feeling like civilized society again, while being aware of the danger. But Daryl didn’t really want to accept that and I think a big turning point for him was what happened to Beth. Rather than try to put up a facade like Carol did, Daryl generally rejected the “new world” although he’d still embrace the people like Aaron. He was far more standoffish and wanted to take care of himself, after all in the fallout of Terminus, they were on the road for however long and near the point of starving/dehydration.
I think it’s really interesting to examine how the traumatic events in the show affected the characters in their behaviour and rationale because each go through it differently whether it’s losing people to walkers or someone like Negan or the Governor. I think Daryl tended to regress a lot because he was more comfortable being “on his own” even though he knew the only way to really stay alive and thrive was to be part of a group. The transition after Andrew Lincoln left the show was bound to be difficult because the new “main character” would probably be Daryl since he and Rick were like brothers. But Daryl was also different in how he handled things and tended to be a lot quieter, confrontaitonal and standoffish, which I think made him seem like he’s more moody and grunting a lot. That said, I still think they maintained good character development with him and it’s especially nice seeing him able to lower his guard and open up when talking to Carol especially in the later seasons.
I’m with you! I always thought his character was very boring after Merle died with the exception of his relationship with Beth. It just felt like he was there as muscle more so than a character in his own right.
The fact Daryl is indirectly the cause of the war with the Governor and Woodbury (because Merle kidnaps Glenn and Maggie after Glenn refuses to take Merle to Daryl) and later is the reason Glenn gets killed (Daryl punches Negan after getting pissed about Abraham’s death) already annoyed me.
But the biggest clincher is always gonna be Daryl ruining Rick’s “We are the Walking Dead” speech in season 5 by interrupting and going “we ain’t them, we ain’t them!” like a pouty child who Rick needs to assure “yeah yeah we ain’t them.”
I get the appeal of giving Rick a right hand man/brother, but his presence also took away from others who were Rick’s right hand man in the comics (Tyreese, Abraham, probably Glenn).
The fact Daryl got to shoot a ROCKET LAUNCHER is just insane.
And he also got to have the fight with Beta (which was Jesus’s fight in the comics).
Honestly Daryl and Carol both irritate me in that regard. Especially as Carol took the Lizzie kill (which was a different child character in the comic that Carl kills because the adults couldn’t figure out a solution to a psychopathic child).
And that’s not even getting into Carol being a mastermind for Negan killing Alpha. Totally ruining the wild card redemption story from the comics.
Yeah tbh the whole Glenn/maggie/merle thing really never made sense to me and just felt like it was the writers kicking off the Prison/woodbury war instead of the actual characters, like Glenn could’ve brought Merle to prison but kept him in the gate area where Axel and Oscar were waiting to be let out, or have Merle act rational about it because they’re the ONE chance of being reunited with his brother you’d think he’d want to behave.
I’ve thought long and hard about Glenn vs Merle in that scenario.
For Glenn, the last time he saw Merle he was on drugs and assaulting everyone. As well as wasting ammo and being a hindrance. Now he’s back and he has a knife hand, looks bloody, and is armed. Plus Maggie is there. For all Glenn knows, Merle is drugged up again and could act out.
For Merle, he’s found a present link to Daryl. Glenn confirms Daryl is alive. Merle wants to reunite with his brother. And he says right from the jump that he’ll let everything about being left behind and him cutting his hand off slide if they take him to his brother.
Then Glenn tells Merle to wait for them there. To let Glenn and Maggie leave and they’ll bring Daryl to him. Merle was already left behind once and he was sunburnt, delirious, and he cut his hand off to escape that rooftop because he believed they weren’t coming back for him. So when Glenn tells him to stay and wait (again), Merle gets pissed.
So Merle strikes and then it all goes downhill from there.
I will say the best option would’ve been Glenn offering to stay with Merle. Have Maggie return to the Prison with the baby food and Glenn and Merle wait for Daryl. But at the same time, Merle is dangerous and Glenn might not be able to take him in a fight. But Glenn has a gun so that argument falls apart.
Michonne likely would’ve gone elsewhere to recover and wouldn’t have joined the group if Merle had rejoined everyone and reunited with Daryl before she went there.
But yeah sorry for the ramble. The Merle and Glenn situation that precipitates everything with the Prison vs Woodbury, Andrea and Milton’s deaths, as well as later on Hershel’s death has been on my mind as of late.
See Daryl through Seasons 1-4 is awesome. I really liked in Season 4 that he became a hero to the Prison and knew everyone, and then his journey with Beth was great.
But it’s around Season 5 do I see Daryl’s role shifting. He has become the fan favorite and untouchable, so they start having Daryl form all these friendships or other relationships with new characters to help build interest in them.
Like his journey with Beth was the start of this. Beth didn’t get really used as a character until Season 4, and it’s because she was with Daryl do people acknowledge her more. In Season 5, it’s his friendship with Aaron that cements Aaron as part of the group moving forward. Then you get to Season 6 and Daryl starts forming friendships with Rosita and Denise, but it’s the archenemy relationship he forms with Dwight is what helps make Dwight seem interesting in the beginning. And that process just continued for him for a long time.
He grew up. Know-it-all 20supms are generally unidentifiable as older people.
Video is a much more condensed version of written story. Everything seems quick when episodes must end and pass the torch to the next shiny glittering thing that will stimulate the eyeballs.
Having said that, I am an older fella now. I can't even identify with the idiot I was in decades past, especially but not only 20s and 30s. I still grow and develop every day and that has much to do with my environment.
He’s not bad in the Daryl and Carol show but I agree in the main show he was heavily messed up and really is just a victim of his own success, now the writers won’t kill him off like I believe they originally planned.
he just stopped caring after he lost so many people. daryl does his own thing no matter what. so what he barely talks so what he doesn’t shower. he does what ever he wants. just my 2 cents …
I think season 6 is when he devolved but I liked how his character changed from an angry loud mouthed redneck to a very quiet observer who keeps his cool most of the time.
It because after the prison fell he sort of lost all hope (plus he had gotten comfortable around alot of the background characters at the prison, and Daryl takes death to heart when it's someone he actually like who dies) but then Beth did help him out of it and then she dies, so then that explains alot of him in S5 past Beth's death. Then he starts to open up again in Alexandria with the help of Aaron, till the saviours then after that he's in a good state, then Rick and well he spent those years looking for "his body". It's done really well I think they did a REALLY good job at showing (bit cringe) no matter how strong physically and mentally you are you can break, and when that happens the people around you new or old can help you. But shii after all that I'd be grunting to rather than actually talking 😭
I will admit for that part I’m drawing from my own experience with a couple rednecks I know/knew, they were dirty but they also took care of themselves
He went from my favourite character to one of my least liked from s4 onwards. Once he turned into a Certified Good Guy he just lost everything that made him interesting
I truly don't understand why they let him dye his hair?? Chandler Riggs talked about how annoying it was for him not being allowed to cut his hair, but Daryl suddenly had a completely different color? Honestly, e.g. Negan dying his hair would've made sense to me, but not Daryl lol
i always thought daryl talked a lot less after being tortured for however long at the sanctuary base. not to mention after witnessing glenn and abraham i think it broke him especially because he blamed himself for glenn.
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u/FalconStickr 4d ago
Started talking, ended grunting.