Daryl Dixon

"Shoot me again? You best pray I'm dead."

- Daryl to Andrea Daryl Dixon is one of the main protagonists and survivors of the zombie apocalypse in AMC's The Walking Dead. He can also be considered as the tritagonist of the show. He is the younger brother to Merle Dixon and makes his debut appearance in "Tell It to the Frogs". Daryl is an expert at hunting, tracking, and navigating. Due to his survival skills, Rick Grimes values him as an important member of the group, him being his right-hand man. Following the deaths of Ed and Sophia Peletier, Daryl has developed a close bond with fellow survivor Carol Peletier. He later formed a brief bond with fellow survivor Beth Greene. His weapon of choice is the Crossbow. He is also the main (playable) protagonist in the AMC Video Game and prequel to the TV Series, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.

Appearance and Personality
Daryl is a slim built Caucasian man with brown hair and commonly keeps facial hair on his lip and chin. His eyes are green.

Daryl is a both physically and emotionally strong man. He is often volatile, but he is still significantly more level-headed and rational than his older brother, Merle Dixon. Though he is usually distant, Daryl has often shown to be caring and selfless. All on his own, he risks his life in an attempt to find the lost Sophia Peletier on multiple occasions, one of which nearly cost him his life, and immediately takes initiative to go back to find Andrea when she gets separated from the group.

Daryl has also proven to be an incredibly honest individual and hardly ever lies, a characteristic he shares with his leader and close friend, Rick Grimes, thus making him a very respected and trusted right-hand man to Rick. He is much more clever than he looks, even more so than his erratic brother, Merle. Although he is not as tough as his brother, who is an experienced bruiser and has military experience, Daryl is just as aggressive and agile and can hold his own against the dead and the living.

In addition, Daryl has a keen sense of intuition, especially when it comes to meeting new people. Like his group mateMichonne, Daryl can tell almost immediately who can be trusted and who cannot. This is pointed out by Aaron in "Forget", when Aaron states that Daryl can tell the difference between "a good guy and a bad guy", something that Daryl's leader, Rick, is not much of an expert at. In many ways, Aaron's theory can be considered correct, given that despite Rick's long time distrusting Aaron, Aaron proves all along to have been telling the truth about the existence of a safe haven for Rick and his people, something that Michonne and Daryl were the first to believe was true. Due to having more fluidity than Rick, Daryl tries his best to be an advisor to the slightly mentally unstable Rick, with the help of Michonne, Glenn Rhee, Maggie Greene, and a few others.

On rare occasions, Daryl shows his very vulnerable side, particularly crying, when he loses someone very close to him. The best examples are when the only family member he has left, Merle, is killed, and Daryl himself is forced to put down zombified Merle. The other instance is when Beth Greene is killed; Daryl had grown close to Beth due to her sweet and innocent personality and her restoring his faith that there are still good people left in the harsh, new world. Although he loses two of the closest people he has in his life, he tries his best not to believe that the world has gone into complete darkness, especially since he still has his other friends, including his close companions Rick, Carol Peletier, Michonne, and even Aaron.

An experienced tracker and hunter, he has deadly accuracy with his crossbow. Daryl is also highly skilled with various firearms and knives. He has taken a prominent role in safeguarding the members of his group. Rick trusts Daryl completely by the end of the second season, and by the third season, Daryl replaces Shane Walsh as Rick's right-hand man. Although he is shown to be the lone wolf of the group early on in the series, he starts to gradually integrate himself into the group, particularly in his friendship with Rick and his growing relationship with Carol. By the end of the third season, he is well-liked and respected by the entire group.

Season 1

 * 1x03: "Tell It to the Frogs"
 * 1x04: "Vatos"
 * 1x05: "Wildfire"
 * 1x06: "TS-19"

Season 2

 * 2x01: "What Lies Ahead"
 * 2x02: "Bloodletting"
 * 2x03: "Save the Last One"
 * 2x04: "Cherokee Rose"
 * 2x05: "Chupacabra"
 * 2x06: "Secrets"
 * 2x07: "Pretty Much Dead Already"
 * 2x08: "Nebraska"
 * 2x09: "Triggerfinger"
 * 2x11: "Judge, Jury, Executioner"
 * 2x12: "Better Angels"
 * 2x13: "Beside the Dying Fire"

Season 3

 * 3x01: "Seed"
 * 3x02: "Sick"
 * 3x04: "Killer Within"
 * 3x05: "Say the Word"
 * 3x06: "Hounded"
 * 3x07: "When the Dead Come Knocking"
 * 3x08: "Made to Suffer"
 * 3x09: "The Suicide King"
 * 3x10: "Home"
 * 3x11: "I Ain't a Judas"
 * 3x13: "Arrow on the Doorpost"
 * 3x15: "This Sorrowful Life"
 * 3x16: "Welcome to the Tombs"

Season 4

 * 4x01: "30 Days Without an Accident"
 * 4x02: "Infected"
 * 4x03: "Isolation"
 * 4x04: "Indifference"
 * 4x05: "Internment"
 * 4x08: "Too Far Gone"
 * 4x10: "Inmates"
 * 4x12: "Still"
 * 4x13: "Alone"
 * 4x15: "Us"
 * 4x16: "A"

Season 5

 * 5x01: "No Sanctuary"
 * 5x02: "Strangers"
 * 5x03: "Four Walls and a Roof"
 * 5x06: "Consumed"
 * 5x07: "Crossed"
 * 5x08: "Coda"
 * 5x09: "What Happened and What's Going On" (No Lines)
 * 5x10: "Them"
 * 5x11: "The Distance"
 * 5x12: "Remember"
 * 5x13: "Forget"
 * 5x14: "Spend" (No Lines)
 * 5x15: "Try"
 * 5x16: "Conquer"

Season 6

 * 6x01: "First Time Again"
 * 6x03: "Thank You"
 * 6x06: "Always Accountable"
 * 6x08: "Start to Finish"
 * 6x09: "No Way Out"
 * 6x10: "The Next World"
 * 6x11: "Knots Untie"
 * 6x12: "Not Tomorrow Yet"
 * 6x13: "The Same Boat"
 * 6x14: "Twice as Far"
 * 6x15: "East"
 * 6x16: "Last Day on Earth" (No Lines)

Season 7

 * 7x01: "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be"

Trivia

 * Daryl Dixon is one of the characters that were in the TV Series, but not the Comic Series.
 * Daryl is the longest serving original character in the TV Series.
 * Daryl holds the third most appearances in the TV Series, behind Carl Grimes and Rick Grimes.
 * Daryl is one of the five surviving characters that first appeared in Season 1, the others being Rick Grimes, Carl Grimes, Carol Peletier, and Morgan Jones.
 * Out of all of them, Daryl is the only one not to have a Comic Series counterpart.
 * Daryl won IGN's "Best TV Hero" of 2012.
 * Daryl was never originally planned for the TV Show. After the actor Norman Reedus auditioned for the role of Merle Dixon, they liked his audition so much they created Daryl Dixon specifically for Norman.
 * An April Fools Joke was done in where Daryl would appear in the Comic Series in Issue 129.
 * Though a fan favorite on the show, Kirkman confirmed that he has no interest in including Daryl in the comics.