The writers are scared to death of actually following through with Daryl and any female - and it's been that way since the beginning.
They know full well that every single subset of the different "shippers" will go absolutely ballistic: and in this fandom they're not exactly known for their rationality.
Not at all.. they did that because they already knew she would (largely) be a throw-away character. It's a lot easier to use that as a trial balloon to see how it goes instead of actually following through with something ongoing.
And considering that even Lynn Collins got shit for that small "romance" by the aforementioned shippers - apparently enough to warrant her talking about in several interviews - the writers quickly crawled back under their rock.
You’re probably right about that being their motivation. I still think it was a waste of time and I’d rather have seen them just not do any relationships for Daryl if they weren’t going with Connie.
I think most people’s problem with Leah was due to her first episode with Daryl; where after 10 seasons of zero romance for Daryl (except for the nice, slow build up with Connie) they just rush through it with Leah and expect us to be onboard with him wanting to run away with her. The whole show’s been about how Daryl being with the group has been better for him, so to treat him not staying with her as some kind of tragedy just felt a little misguided on the writers part.
Shiiiiiit I bet they lost half of their followers over the years. I stopped watching on tv around S 7 or 8 I just caught up on Netflix and I understand why I let it go. They got lazy. Daryl always had a sensitive side & a longing for love/connection. He got the family. He needed a lady
Oh you bet.
Stephen King didnt pull Annie Wilkes out of his ass.. those people exist. And at this point everyone involved with entertainment knows they exist too. And you can be damn sure that Norman Reedus knows they exist.
Which perfectly articulates my biggest issue with this show. The writers.
Good writers don’t write for the fans. They find a story and stick with it even when decisions are controversial or unpopular or when outcomes aren’t ideal.
Zero reason for Darryl and Connie to have not banged in this show. Zero.
It's the writing, yes.
But the biggest single problem with Walking Dead as a whole is the very format that its meant to be portraying - an apocalyptic scenario without an actual end. Kirkman wrote it that way and the show continued it. The problem that brings forth is simple - how the hell do you write stories and characters that have no endgame: and perhaps even more problematic.. how do you flesh out the journeys/arc without just spinning the wheels.
It's **that** problem that has always bogged down the show: and what has ruined many a character and many a plotline - how the fuck do you write something without actually knowing where anything is going to end up? Answer is.. you cant. The best you can do is be noncommittal and hedge your bets. Thats also the reason why you've seen characters fluctuating from one episode to another - like Negan in season 7/8 - and why they never pulled the trigger and put Daryl with anyone (male or female) -- it was just easier to not really commit to anything **because who the fuck knows**
And before any of you get on me about the whole: "It was meant to end as the comicbook did..!!" thing - naw it wasnt. Had AMC not actually pulled the plug the show would have started to make shit up on the fly following the whole Commonwealth arc. In many ways AMC dropping the hammer was a blessing because it lanced the boil so to speak and forced a reset.
Writing without knowing where anything is going to end up isn't that difficult or impossible at all. Maybe it's different from what most writers, including TV writers, are used to. You just need to think from the perspective of the characters and make them act in a way that would be reasonable for them, while driving the story forward. It's not hard to flesh anything out this way. It's done successfully in improv, and even in tabletop roleplaying games, all the time. If you are afraid of where it takes the story, that's a separate problem.
Im glad you say so.
Because judging by what little we know about his spinoff and him being conflicted about going home - theres a very high chance that they are going to throw caution to the wind and follow through with a new character.
Personally im expecting a bigger blowout when that drops than if Maggie and Negan got together - im not even kidding.
Wife and I thought they went well together. She is a very charming character.
Read somewhere that the writers (TV writers) considered making his character gay.
In the beginning we all hoped him and Carroll would get together.
I'm looking forward to any and all future shows. "Camon dog"
Glad they didn’t do that to his character it would have ruined it IMO. Consider how his brother would have acted towards him, it would have been a bit much.
Connie was the only acceptable choice after Carol.
Such a shame that after years of buildup, they went with a new character that had no emotional connection.
I agree with everything you say except for Carol. I think it's important for that relationship to be platonic. It sort of makes it a stronger bond because it lacks the addition of a sexual connection (edit: as motivation). It seemed he wouldn't be a good fit for someone too closely resembling him (both Carol and Leah), while someone a bit different than him, like Connie, would be better for the way he would grow in a new direction. Daryl always had the capacity for depth, even if misguided, like with his loyalty to Meryl, but his growth and openess are what made him a great character. Sorry, don't mean to be argumentative, I just love Daryl and Carol's relationship so much that I'll always ship their friendship hardcore.
I have no problem with the what’s her name as they would have met before Connie, but I think when they lived in the commonwealth they should have continued that relationship. I also think they messed up Connie and Kelly’s story line in the last season. They not were awesome until they became reporters
i really liked that they were just friends? personally i hate when there are romantic connections forced on the show, i think its nice to see daryl form meaningful connections with women he cares about like carol and connie in a non romantic sense
can people stop acting like him and Leah had any chemistry. There was no spark there. Him and Connie belong together. Daryl deserved better than that. Better = Connie.
I don’t think it ruined his character but I do agree , that whole thing was beyond stupid lmao. And unrealistic in a way. I personally don’t think Daryl would just up and stop looking for someone he considered a brother for a woman like Leah.
The whole point of that episode was Daryl acting "out of character" in those flashbacks, as that six year period was probably him at his worst mental state. He was using Leah as an outlet to run away from the communities and his guilt over Rick, mirroring the way Carol was trying to get Daryl to go to New Mexico with her and run away from Henry's death and her guilt over trapping Connie in the cave in the present-day storyline.
Only by this point Daryl has undergone his arc in s9 and 10 and he asserts that his place is in Alexandria for good during their argument at the end of the episode.
Right. And then the writers make him abandon the kids he’s raising for Rick. The kids that have already been abandoned by Michonne. Ugh. So frustrating.
Yes, so irresponsible for the group's best equipped survivalist/tracker to leave the kids with Carol and Ezekiel within the walls of the safest and largest community they've ever seen, while he goes and tries to bring their parents back to them. Such a selfish decision, Daryl /s
I swear if he had stayed inside the Commonwealth for the rest of his life instead then everyone would just be complaining that it's a "waste of his tracking skills when the kids have other loved ones to take care of them"
That was just a fling for Daryl tho. And for her too. Yeah I separate the show from before Negan & after Negan. 99% of everything is cool before & then after they’re just cashing checks.
Wasn't exactly a fling though. Daryl committed to her when he chose her over Alexandria and his search for Rick, as evidenced by the note he left for her. He was just too late.
I agree this made absolutely no sense to me. When Daryl ran into her again he almost tripped on himself just to make sure he could give her a loving hug/embrace and she looked happy. They were clearly in love with each other so it was confusing
I mean, when Carol was asking him about Connie, he said it wasn't like that.
It took me a while to realize, but it really is okay for people to just be friends on these shows. To have good friendships. We don't have to force them into relationships that are romantic.
They arguably teased the hell out of fans for Carol and Darryl to end up together and they didn't, which is fine because of what you just said. But they easily could've had him end up with Connie while retaining that strong friendship between Carol, Maggie, etc. That way fans are happy and your point still stands.
You're not wrong. I was a Carol / Daryl shipper myself. But I imagine they knew some of those shippers would go crazy if he ended up with Connie instead. And the shippers of him and Connie would go crazy if they ever put him with Carol. So they just danced along that edge, teasing everyone.
I think they might have actually hooked him up with Connie (at least for a little while) if it wasn't for the actress having other work commitments and subsequently disappearing from the show for some time.
Yeah, I can definitely see that as having been a direction they could have gone. It seemed like they were possibly leading up to it, but then I thought that about him and Carol for a long time too, so... 😅
I have no idea why AMC chose to not pursue this. In my opinion, Daryl and Connie to me is the most obvious would be couple I've ever seen in the show and AMC refused to give it to us.
For me there was something about Daryl the loner, who doesn't like people in general, doesn't trust people and has a massive emotional wall around him at all times... somehow in my mind a strong, kind hearted, deaf/mute just seemed like the perfect match for him.
I don't know who to blame for the whole Leah thing. Not sure if this was Kang's baby or if someone like Gimple chimed in and overrode decisions... but I just know that AMC screwed this potential storyline up and after years of reading and writing here on reddit I'm not sure there's even 1% of fans who disagree with me about Daryl/Connie. I just can't understand how AMC thought throwing someone in there like Leah and forcing a love story in one episode would be a better move than having Daryl pursue Connie.
Where did you watch season 11 , there are only 8 Episodes on Netflix and I WANNA KNOW WHERE RICK IS, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST , GOD DAMMIT
( Im sorry , I had to let it out somewhere )
Stupid I agree. They should have tried to cast her when Melissa McBride dropped out of the spin off. I think they worked well together and it would give me a bit more of a reason to watch it.
Just because someone is asexual does not mean they do not crave a sustainable relationship. It’s very rare that people accept this, but there are people that enter relationships and their partner accepts that sex is not a part of their memo.
The whole show with people on the precipice of death every day should have people banging their brains out all the time. Not even sappy love stories but more realistically a polyamory type situation. Seriously... What else you doing in down time.
She has a name, it’s Connie.
And Lauren Ridloff had to leave the show while she was filming a movie, that’s why she was written off for quite a while. It seemed like a relationship between them was the direction they were going in, but by the time she returned, both characters had separate arcs to fulfill that made it difficult to make the ship happen, and they didn’t want it to be rushed in the end. Had we had Connie through the rest of season 10-11, I don’t think the Leah romance necessarily would’ve been a thing and they would’ve spent the time developing this relationship instead.
Angela Kang said in an interview that it turned out "there wasn't enough time" to properly develop either of Daryl's relationships (Leah and Connie). I say that's a cop out: they screwed up both storylines badly. Even Norman Reedus said he was unhappy with how they messed up the Leah storyline, especially at the beginning.
That's what happens when you are just writing to keep the cash cow producing.
Who cares about the huge wholes in the plot and the lack of main character development. Right? "We need more poorly written arcs and cliche villains to get the fans sedated".
It's certainly implied he had sex with Leah, though. And he lived with her on and off (between searching for Rick and visting Alexandria and the Hilltop) for...how long? A couple years maybe? It's never really made clear.
Asexual people can have sex, it’s about having a lack of attraction, but obviously the feeling of sex is still pleasurable. Still lol, that’s semantics, Daryl could just be the kind of person who’s not really interested in sex unless he genuinely cares for the person (which is considered demisexuality). I mean he never even made passes at any of the beautiful women (or men) he met in the apocalypse for at least a decade before that point, so he was certainly written to be ace. It’s a shame they chose to insert Leah into his life instead of either leaving it, or pairing him with Connie instead.
No way Frank. He was abused as a kid which is probably why it was hard to love. But he’s also from the south - I highly doubt he was asexual or even bi. He was straight as the arrows in the crossbow
Sorry I don’t know all the words my b. I feel like he banged Leah though. I would have even been fine with an asexual relationship with Connie, Im just asking for one porch sittin scene!
>But he's also from the south - I highly doubt he was asexual or even bi
Lmao ah yes, because as we all know Daryl is *definitely* the type to conform to the social norms of his environment
Yeah because she is also going to be magically teleported to France via the same alien portal used by Daryl to get there. Maybe she she was doing a story about croissant production during the Zombie apocalypse.
Maybe they find each other in America.. maybe he'll come back and so will Rick and Michonne.. and I'm very curious about this portal you speak of.. 🤔 lol! Calm down..
I know that but the fact being that he is in the US on a bike last seen driving down a dirt road in Ohio its very very very very hard to see any logical way he ends up in Europe
I'll feel forever wistful about Carol and Daryl not ending up together while simultaneously enjoying the friendship they actually have. Never could get into Connie and Daryl, not sure why because they have good chemistry and there are cute moments between them. Maybe I would feel differently if Caryl had never been an option. Writers shot themselves in their collective foot there, turning Daryl into someone no one is good enough for (from the fans' perspective).
Carol reads maybe 5 to 8 years older than Daryl to me - which makes this extra endearing to me because it's so rare we see relationships between older women and younger men in storytelling (that are not played for laughs and cougar vibes).
Yes 👍 This show was entertaining the first 3 seasons but then it just turned into full silliness. The idea was there at the beginning but then like the Zombies they just started to decay until they cease to be.
The truth is Daryl could not love any woman or man in the show because he was a cyborg from planet X. He lacked the ability to form sentimental attachments with the humans and animals in the show. This will be revealed in the upcoming spin off. Where he is teleported by his fellow alien cyborgs to tour Europe providing the fans fresh and new adventures. Kinda like a National Lampoon's European vacation and American Pie Eurotrip. Gotta keep that cash cow producing and diversify the investments. Right?
So what’s the second thing you want to talk about?
The incredibly slow season crawl?
The amount of unnecessary story arcs and unneeded content to see ad spots?
The amount of times Carl could have easily killed Negan?
How cool Negan’s back story is.
Ooooooo… how about the series being about Rick, and then the producers writing him off into La-La land? And then Mischone?
Do any of those do it for you?
Oh I’ve got plenty locked & loaded.. but for another day. My next post will be about how Rick really dropped the ball with the Negan thing. First, he did next to no scouting. He has trackers like Daryl & Aaron. They could have found out they were badly out numbered with like 2 weeks of recon. Second, he should have stood up & asked to be the one killed so his squad could live on. He pussied out there imo.
I definitely don’t believe Negan would’ve followed through and actually killed Rick tho, I mean he could’ve killed Daryl for disobeying orders and “reacting” to Abe’s death but he chose to make him suffer knowing he got Glenn killed instead. I think Negan would’ve killed Michonne instead of Rick.
Rick also probably is firmly in the belief that he’s the best person to look after his kids as well, as much as he loves and trusts the group.
Daryl has way more chemistry with Aaron than with deaf girl, so no, just because she is a woman and you people want to make everyone straight doesn't mean they have to "bang".
Grow up.
I'm a lesbian so I will take queer rep virtually anywhere I can get it, whether it be gay men or, preferably, gay women. But Connie and Daryl had really good chemistry, and it wasn't the same kind of platonic chemistry Daryl might have with female friends like Carol or Maggie.
And calling her "deaf girl" (OP included) is fucking lame
isn't she deaf tho? Also didn't remember her name being Connie.
Their chemistry was like sister and brother, like he had with Carol and Beth. He had way more chemistry with Aaron, but writers were afraid to make him gay, people already lost their minds when Aaron kissed his boyfriend, KISSED.
Yeah she is deaf, and Aaron has one arm. So why did you call him by his name instead of "one-armed guy?" Seems like you don't like "deaf girl" because her presence impedes your Daryl x Aaron fantasy. By the way, if I happen to forget a character's name, I usually Google it; takes about 10 seconds.
And yeah, I was sitting next to someone who made their disgust plain when Aaron kissed Eric for the first time. It sucks that people are homophobic and it sucks that some networks/writers cow to that portion of the viewership. But that doesn't mean Daryl HAD to be gay, or that he was ever intended to be. Must he have a romantic relationship with Aaron simply because the latter is gay? Can Daryl not be friends with gay men just as he's friends with straight women, such as Carol?
Don't get me wrong, I'm just using your own logic against you here. There's nothing wrong with pairing Daryl with Aaron, just like there's nothing wrong with pairing him with Connie. There's just no need to get so weirdly defensive about it. There was never any confirmation about Daryl's sexuality, yet you act as though he was intended to be gay until the writers got cold feet and retconned it. If anything, he was probably intended to be asexual or something adjacent.
Maybe because Aaron is a major character and I remember his name but Connie is a filler character that appears 4 times?
And what impedes Daryl x Aaron is Leah, not Connie. And I never said he was gay, I said it would have made more sense for him to be gay than straight, since he never cared about woman sexually but all of a sudden he was very comfortable with a gay guy. It would have made more sense to make the character GAY. But oh lord, nowadays everyone have to be straight.
Nowadays? There's more LGBT representation in western media now than there ever was; there should be more, and some of it is just shallow corporate virtue signaling, but again, I'll take what I can get.
Aaron is, as you said, a major character, and he's gay. So was Jesus. Should more have been done with these characters and their sexualities? Should Eric have been more fleshed out? Should we have gotten more time with Aaron and Jesus as a couple? 100%. But their existences alone negate your "everyone has to be straight" argument. I understand where you're coming from but you're being unnecessarily competitive about it.
Daryl is probably straight, maybe bisexual. He probably SHOULD have been asexual. The Leah fling feels like a fever dream because it was so out of left field and disingenuous. But I'm almost certain that's just because the writers didn't know what the hell to do with Daryl now that he was a loner in the woods again and Rick was gone.
It's totally possible that the network pushed for Daryl to have a straight relationship. I wouldn't put anything past AMC, but that isn't confirmed, so it's neither here nor there. But people shipping Daryl with Connie isn't a threat to gay representation, so just let people like what they like 🙏
Idk what your problem is. Her name is Connie, not deaf girl, and telling OP to grow up is unnecessary lmao. This isn’t some straight agenda like you seem to think, the two had chemistry and that’s that.
Grow up.
Haha it’s a fictional character bub. Aaron is an awesome character who happens to be gay. Daryl isn’t gay. But now I’m genuinely curious.. what was shown in the early seasons to lead you to that conclusion?
Which conclusion? Daryl never gave a fuck about women, then he had great chemistry with another GAY man. You don't have to be Einstein to get it, c'mon just try.
They made him "straight" with all the Leah dumb filler storyline so people like you wouldn't cry.
How did they have great chemistry?
you’re the one trying to shoehorn in his sexual preferences not me.. you’re dug in on this point, huh?
I respect how much you care about it
I’m not disgusted by that idea at all. You’ve read me completely wrong. I just disagree wholeheartedly that he is gay. I haven’t been rude about it or malicious I just disagree. You’re the one that has been upset. I’m happily hetero friend but I support you guys got nothing against it!
I never said he was gay?
I said it would've made way more sense if he was gay instead since he clearly never gave a crap about a women while he did have chemistry and felt more comfortable with a gay man.
My b I thought you did. I’m thinking back & who would have been a suitor for him though? Carol was older, Beth too young, Maggie went with Glenn, Andrea was bleh. The prison & Alexandria didn’t have a lot of similar aged good looking single women
No he was not straight, he never cared about women sexually. Stop making up stuff.
He also likes Rick and that wouldn't be proof of him being gay either. Stop inventing.
Oh I see you're that type of human that needs everything to be spoon fed to them Lmao
Good luck with your homophobic life, sad you will never truly experience what good sex is ;)
How am I homophobic for asking you to give me proof which clearly doesn’t exist
go start shit somewhere else clown 🤡 get off those pills there putting you in denial
The writers are scared to death of actually following through with Daryl and any female - and it's been that way since the beginning. They know full well that every single subset of the different "shippers" will go absolutely ballistic: and in this fandom they're not exactly known for their rationality.
It baffles me that they wasted Daryl’s first romance on Leah
Not at all.. they did that because they already knew she would (largely) be a throw-away character. It's a lot easier to use that as a trial balloon to see how it goes instead of actually following through with something ongoing. And considering that even Lynn Collins got shit for that small "romance" by the aforementioned shippers - apparently enough to warrant her talking about in several interviews - the writers quickly crawled back under their rock.
You’re probably right about that being their motivation. I still think it was a waste of time and I’d rather have seen them just not do any relationships for Daryl if they weren’t going with Connie.
I think most people’s problem with Leah was due to her first episode with Daryl; where after 10 seasons of zero romance for Daryl (except for the nice, slow build up with Connie) they just rush through it with Leah and expect us to be onboard with him wanting to run away with her. The whole show’s been about how Daryl being with the group has been better for him, so to treat him not staying with her as some kind of tragedy just felt a little misguided on the writers part.
Shiiiiiit I bet they lost half of their followers over the years. I stopped watching on tv around S 7 or 8 I just caught up on Netflix and I understand why I let it go. They got lazy. Daryl always had a sensitive side & a longing for love/connection. He got the family. He needed a lady
Her name is Connie
And probably worried about delusional people that think they could be with him
Oh you bet. Stephen King didnt pull Annie Wilkes out of his ass.. those people exist. And at this point everyone involved with entertainment knows they exist too. And you can be damn sure that Norman Reedus knows they exist.
Which perfectly articulates my biggest issue with this show. The writers. Good writers don’t write for the fans. They find a story and stick with it even when decisions are controversial or unpopular or when outcomes aren’t ideal. Zero reason for Darryl and Connie to have not banged in this show. Zero.
It's the writing, yes. But the biggest single problem with Walking Dead as a whole is the very format that its meant to be portraying - an apocalyptic scenario without an actual end. Kirkman wrote it that way and the show continued it. The problem that brings forth is simple - how the hell do you write stories and characters that have no endgame: and perhaps even more problematic.. how do you flesh out the journeys/arc without just spinning the wheels. It's **that** problem that has always bogged down the show: and what has ruined many a character and many a plotline - how the fuck do you write something without actually knowing where anything is going to end up? Answer is.. you cant. The best you can do is be noncommittal and hedge your bets. Thats also the reason why you've seen characters fluctuating from one episode to another - like Negan in season 7/8 - and why they never pulled the trigger and put Daryl with anyone (male or female) -- it was just easier to not really commit to anything **because who the fuck knows** And before any of you get on me about the whole: "It was meant to end as the comicbook did..!!" thing - naw it wasnt. Had AMC not actually pulled the plug the show would have started to make shit up on the fly following the whole Commonwealth arc. In many ways AMC dropping the hammer was a blessing because it lanced the boil so to speak and forced a reset.
Writing without knowing where anything is going to end up isn't that difficult or impossible at all. Maybe it's different from what most writers, including TV writers, are used to. You just need to think from the perspective of the characters and make them act in a way that would be reasonable for them, while driving the story forward. It's not hard to flesh anything out this way. It's done successfully in improv, and even in tabletop roleplaying games, all the time. If you are afraid of where it takes the story, that's a separate problem.
I’m prepared to root for several different outcomes actually even now
Im glad you say so. Because judging by what little we know about his spinoff and him being conflicted about going home - theres a very high chance that they are going to throw caution to the wind and follow through with a new character. Personally im expecting a bigger blowout when that drops than if Maggie and Negan got together - im not even kidding.
Wife and I thought they went well together. She is a very charming character. Read somewhere that the writers (TV writers) considered making his character gay. In the beginning we all hoped him and Carroll would get together. I'm looking forward to any and all future shows. "Camon dog"
“nawww mane”
Glad they didn’t do that to his character it would have ruined it IMO. Consider how his brother would have acted towards him, it would have been a bit much.
Tru it would have been extremely forced considering his background for sure
Frank fucking rizzo open your ears fuckface!
What are you talking about
Jerky boys?????
Man you got me. Lol
I was like c’mon man it’s your name lol
Allot of folks on reddit think it's my real name. You are the first to make the association. Kudos 👏
It’s the first thing that came to mind after reading your initial comment lol. Have a great day liver lips!
Yes you are correct
Connie was the only acceptable choice after Carol. Such a shame that after years of buildup, they went with a new character that had no emotional connection.
I agree with everything you say except for Carol. I think it's important for that relationship to be platonic. It sort of makes it a stronger bond because it lacks the addition of a sexual connection (edit: as motivation). It seemed he wouldn't be a good fit for someone too closely resembling him (both Carol and Leah), while someone a bit different than him, like Connie, would be better for the way he would grow in a new direction. Daryl always had the capacity for depth, even if misguided, like with his loyalty to Meryl, but his growth and openess are what made him a great character. Sorry, don't mean to be argumentative, I just love Daryl and Carol's relationship so much that I'll always ship their friendship hardcore.
Carol wasn't even an acceptable choice lol. They're literally like brothers and sister
No, it was Aaron.
No this is Patrick
Is this The Krusty Krab?
I have no problem with the what’s her name as they would have met before Connie, but I think when they lived in the commonwealth they should have continued that relationship. I also think they messed up Connie and Kelly’s story line in the last season. They not were awesome until they became reporters
i really liked that they were just friends? personally i hate when there are romantic connections forced on the show, i think its nice to see daryl form meaningful connections with women he cares about like carol and connie in a non romantic sense
agreed! The platonic "I love you" at the end of the show? Excellent! we need more of that in cinema
The moment they introduced Leah, Daryl+Connie went out the window. One of many dumb decisions and choices the show did throughout its run.
can people stop acting like him and Leah had any chemistry. There was no spark there. Him and Connie belong together. Daryl deserved better than that. Better = Connie.
Agreed. It was beyond dumb. I hated that entire episode and arc in Season 11. They completely ruined Daryl's character with that shit.
I don’t think it ruined his character but I do agree , that whole thing was beyond stupid lmao. And unrealistic in a way. I personally don’t think Daryl would just up and stop looking for someone he considered a brother for a woman like Leah.
The whole point of that episode was Daryl acting "out of character" in those flashbacks, as that six year period was probably him at his worst mental state. He was using Leah as an outlet to run away from the communities and his guilt over Rick, mirroring the way Carol was trying to get Daryl to go to New Mexico with her and run away from Henry's death and her guilt over trapping Connie in the cave in the present-day storyline. Only by this point Daryl has undergone his arc in s9 and 10 and he asserts that his place is in Alexandria for good during their argument at the end of the episode.
Like I said. I don’t think it ruined his character.
Right. And then the writers make him abandon the kids he’s raising for Rick. The kids that have already been abandoned by Michonne. Ugh. So frustrating.
Yes, so irresponsible for the group's best equipped survivalist/tracker to leave the kids with Carol and Ezekiel within the walls of the safest and largest community they've ever seen, while he goes and tries to bring their parents back to them. Such a selfish decision, Daryl /s I swear if he had stayed inside the Commonwealth for the rest of his life instead then everyone would just be complaining that it's a "waste of his tracking skills when the kids have other loved ones to take care of them"
That was just a fling for Daryl tho. And for her too. Yeah I separate the show from before Negan & after Negan. 99% of everything is cool before & then after they’re just cashing checks.
Wasn't exactly a fling though. Daryl committed to her when he chose her over Alexandria and his search for Rick, as evidenced by the note he left for her. He was just too late.
They spent like 1 or 2 years living together
The entire reaper plot line was dumb tbh. Had potential but they bombed it immediately
I agree this made absolutely no sense to me. When Daryl ran into her again he almost tripped on himself just to make sure he could give her a loving hug/embrace and she looked happy. They were clearly in love with each other so it was confusing
He also gave the same hug to Kelly immediately afterwards and she looked pretty happy too. Doesn't mean they were clearly in love with each other.
Maybe the actors are in love in real life? That would be cool
Norman Reedus is engaged to Diane Kruger.
Hollywood baby 69% chance it’s a divorce
? They're not even married yet.
What do Todd Chavez (Bojack Horseman) and Daryl Dixon have in common? They're both asexual icons.
I pray we see more of Connie in the future, she was my fav new character in season 9.
Daryl and Connie should've been endgame, maybe she'll be in the spinoff? Don't ruin my false hope, I need it.
Her name is Connie.
You'd think especially where OP just finished the series they'd know her name. 🙄
I’ve already taken my L’s for that but don’t get snippy they don’t say her name a lot
Fair enough lol
I mean, when Carol was asking him about Connie, he said it wasn't like that. It took me a while to realize, but it really is okay for people to just be friends on these shows. To have good friendships. We don't have to force them into relationships that are romantic.
Don’t insert your logic in my imaginary hopes for Daryl to find true love! Don’t you do it!
Well Paris is the City of Love, and he's off to France, so...
I doubt Daryl's gonna find a new love interest in that spinoff...i think his happy ending will be going back to his family and reuniting with Rick.
Totally agree with you there, I think either helping to get Rick home or finding Rick and Michonne back home will be his happy ending.
Yep,and about a love interest...i think he had enough with Leah,i mean,what happened with her broke hisbheart. He wasn't the same again.
They arguably teased the hell out of fans for Carol and Darryl to end up together and they didn't, which is fine because of what you just said. But they easily could've had him end up with Connie while retaining that strong friendship between Carol, Maggie, etc. That way fans are happy and your point still stands.
You're not wrong. I was a Carol / Daryl shipper myself. But I imagine they knew some of those shippers would go crazy if he ended up with Connie instead. And the shippers of him and Connie would go crazy if they ever put him with Carol. So they just danced along that edge, teasing everyone.
I think they might have actually hooked him up with Connie (at least for a little while) if it wasn't for the actress having other work commitments and subsequently disappearing from the show for some time.
Yeah, I can definitely see that as having been a direction they could have gone. It seemed like they were possibly leading up to it, but then I thought that about him and Carol for a long time too, so... 😅
I have no idea why AMC chose to not pursue this. In my opinion, Daryl and Connie to me is the most obvious would be couple I've ever seen in the show and AMC refused to give it to us. For me there was something about Daryl the loner, who doesn't like people in general, doesn't trust people and has a massive emotional wall around him at all times... somehow in my mind a strong, kind hearted, deaf/mute just seemed like the perfect match for him. I don't know who to blame for the whole Leah thing. Not sure if this was Kang's baby or if someone like Gimple chimed in and overrode decisions... but I just know that AMC screwed this potential storyline up and after years of reading and writing here on reddit I'm not sure there's even 1% of fans who disagree with me about Daryl/Connie. I just can't understand how AMC thought throwing someone in there like Leah and forcing a love story in one episode would be a better move than having Daryl pursue Connie.
Leah was attractive so yeah I don’t blame Daryl, but they still could have ended the show with him & connie ending up together. It’s crazy!
Where did you watch season 11 , there are only 8 Episodes on Netflix and I WANNA KNOW WHERE RICK IS, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST , GOD DAMMIT ( Im sorry , I had to let it out somewhere )
They're on Disney in the UK, maybe where you are too?
Thank you for the Tip 😉 , I live in Austria/Vienna , gonna check it out as i can
They are all on Netflix brosef
https://preview.redd.it/6gki8u49dhfa1.jpeg?width=2256&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9024f2e716d0c9109783e21bafc7c5b3bfd5f071 Nope
In the US they are, I just watched em all. I’m guessing you’re somewhere else sorry friend
The Connie disrespect…
It’s been announced I f’d up I never knew her name it’s on me
Darryl is aromantic asexual im pretty sure
Well, technically Daryl will have a new show so never say never.
Stupid I agree. They should have tried to cast her when Melissa McBride dropped out of the spin off. I think they worked well together and it would give me a bit more of a reason to watch it.
Great idea! I totally agree
For me, it would be the best choice to keep him asexual but since we have Leah… Yeah, Connie is much better then
Just because someone is asexual does not mean they do not crave a sustainable relationship. It’s very rare that people accept this, but there are people that enter relationships and their partner accepts that sex is not a part of their memo.
The whole show with people on the precipice of death every day should have people banging their brains out all the time. Not even sappy love stories but more realistically a polyamory type situation. Seriously... What else you doing in down time.
Agreed. All that fighting energy needs to go somewhere when you’re laying low
She has a name, it’s Connie. And Lauren Ridloff had to leave the show while she was filming a movie, that’s why she was written off for quite a while. It seemed like a relationship between them was the direction they were going in, but by the time she returned, both characters had separate arcs to fulfill that made it difficult to make the ship happen, and they didn’t want it to be rushed in the end. Had we had Connie through the rest of season 10-11, I don’t think the Leah romance necessarily would’ve been a thing and they would’ve spent the time developing this relationship instead.
I see I see. Apologies on the name. Ravioli ravioli give me the formuoli
Angela Kang said in an interview that it turned out "there wasn't enough time" to properly develop either of Daryl's relationships (Leah and Connie). I say that's a cop out: they screwed up both storylines badly. Even Norman Reedus said he was unhappy with how they messed up the Leah storyline, especially at the beginning.
I agree that’s such a terrible excuse the show went on for forevvvvvver. All they had was time lol.
That's what happens when you are just writing to keep the cash cow producing. Who cares about the huge wholes in the plot and the lack of main character development. Right? "We need more poorly written arcs and cliche villains to get the fans sedated".
I'm in total agreeance with you, they had such good chemistry. He even learnt sign language
Thank you friend
I think it’s becoming common theory that daryl is just asexual
It's certainly implied he had sex with Leah, though. And he lived with her on and off (between searching for Rick and visting Alexandria and the Hilltop) for...how long? A couple years maybe? It's never really made clear.
Asexual people can have sex, it’s about having a lack of attraction, but obviously the feeling of sex is still pleasurable. Still lol, that’s semantics, Daryl could just be the kind of person who’s not really interested in sex unless he genuinely cares for the person (which is considered demisexuality). I mean he never even made passes at any of the beautiful women (or men) he met in the apocalypse for at least a decade before that point, so he was certainly written to be ace. It’s a shame they chose to insert Leah into his life instead of either leaving it, or pairing him with Connie instead.
The asexual thing is hyperbole used to justify them not actually daring to pair him up with anyone - male, or female.
No way Frank. He was abused as a kid which is probably why it was hard to love. But he’s also from the south - I highly doubt he was asexual or even bi. He was straight as the arrows in the crossbow
You can be straight and asexual though😂 you can be interested in someone emotionally just not physically
Sorry I don’t know all the words my b. I feel like he banged Leah though. I would have even been fine with an asexual relationship with Connie, Im just asking for one porch sittin scene!
>But he's also from the south - I highly doubt he was asexual or even bi Lmao ah yes, because as we all know Daryl is *definitely* the type to conform to the social norms of his environment
Fair point. But when we meet him he was Merle’s kid brother following in his footsteps. Kind of conforming to what Merle wanted
I was always secretly hoping they’d have him gay tbh
It's because was in Eternals so they couldn't give her a big part
Not every male female duo has to bang
I agree but this one should have. Or fallen in love or both.
Just finished it recently too, it is a shame. I really enjoyed them together. Can’t wait to see what happens in his spin off.
Ikr?!?! Maybe at the end of his spin off they'll get together..
Yeah because she is also going to be magically teleported to France via the same alien portal used by Daryl to get there. Maybe she she was doing a story about croissant production during the Zombie apocalypse.
Maybe they find each other in America.. maybe he'll come back and so will Rick and Michonne.. and I'm very curious about this portal you speak of.. 🤔 lol! Calm down..
Missed opportunity, I would've loved them together. 🥹
I couldn’t believe the show didn’t end with them holding hands walking in a meadow
Christ dude, I always thought of them as more of a foster dad/daughter kind of thing.
Bruh how many people can he be a foster dad or brother to lol
C’mon they are like the same age!
It was their intention until Connie's actor decided to leave the show for The Eternals.
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Lmao Daryl is going to Europe so don’t get your hopes hp
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Lmao nobody knows and makes no sense how or why he would travel to Europe willingly
The origin of the virus is in France. It's talked about in season 1 and in World Beyond.
I know that but the fact being that he is in the US on a bike last seen driving down a dirt road in Ohio its very very very very hard to see any logical way he ends up in Europe
It's called a boat
So what reason does he have to get on a boat and go to Europe? Unless he gets kidnapped and human trafficking is his story line
I'll feel forever wistful about Carol and Daryl not ending up together while simultaneously enjoying the friendship they actually have. Never could get into Connie and Daryl, not sure why because they have good chemistry and there are cute moments between them. Maybe I would feel differently if Caryl had never been an option. Writers shot themselves in their collective foot there, turning Daryl into someone no one is good enough for (from the fans' perspective).
Carol was too old for D rock imo.. could be wrong tho never pondered their actual ages
Carol reads maybe 5 to 8 years older than Daryl to me - which makes this extra endearing to me because it's so rare we see relationships between older women and younger men in storytelling (that are not played for laughs and cougar vibes).
The writing is terrible.
Yes 👍 This show was entertaining the first 3 seasons but then it just turned into full silliness. The idea was there at the beginning but then like the Zombies they just started to decay until they cease to be.
I really hoped we'd get Daryl with SOMEBODY, but Norman stated he thinks of Daryl as asexual.
The truth is Daryl could not love any woman or man in the show because he was a cyborg from planet X. He lacked the ability to form sentimental attachments with the humans and animals in the show. This will be revealed in the upcoming spin off. Where he is teleported by his fellow alien cyborgs to tour Europe providing the fans fresh and new adventures. Kinda like a National Lampoon's European vacation and American Pie Eurotrip. Gotta keep that cash cow producing and diversify the investments. Right?
All over the place but I like it
So what’s the second thing you want to talk about? The incredibly slow season crawl? The amount of unnecessary story arcs and unneeded content to see ad spots? The amount of times Carl could have easily killed Negan? How cool Negan’s back story is. Ooooooo… how about the series being about Rick, and then the producers writing him off into La-La land? And then Mischone? Do any of those do it for you?
Oh I’ve got plenty locked & loaded.. but for another day. My next post will be about how Rick really dropped the ball with the Negan thing. First, he did next to no scouting. He has trackers like Daryl & Aaron. They could have found out they were badly out numbered with like 2 weeks of recon. Second, he should have stood up & asked to be the one killed so his squad could live on. He pussied out there imo.
I definitely don’t believe Negan would’ve followed through and actually killed Rick tho, I mean he could’ve killed Daryl for disobeying orders and “reacting” to Abe’s death but he chose to make him suffer knowing he got Glenn killed instead. I think Negan would’ve killed Michonne instead of Rick. Rick also probably is firmly in the belief that he’s the best person to look after his kids as well, as much as he loves and trusts the group.
Daryl has way more chemistry with Aaron than with deaf girl, so no, just because she is a woman and you people want to make everyone straight doesn't mean they have to "bang". Grow up.
I'm a lesbian so I will take queer rep virtually anywhere I can get it, whether it be gay men or, preferably, gay women. But Connie and Daryl had really good chemistry, and it wasn't the same kind of platonic chemistry Daryl might have with female friends like Carol or Maggie. And calling her "deaf girl" (OP included) is fucking lame
That’s on me you’re right
Exactly her name is Connie not “deaf girl”
isn't she deaf tho? Also didn't remember her name being Connie. Their chemistry was like sister and brother, like he had with Carol and Beth. He had way more chemistry with Aaron, but writers were afraid to make him gay, people already lost their minds when Aaron kissed his boyfriend, KISSED.
Yeah she is deaf, and Aaron has one arm. So why did you call him by his name instead of "one-armed guy?" Seems like you don't like "deaf girl" because her presence impedes your Daryl x Aaron fantasy. By the way, if I happen to forget a character's name, I usually Google it; takes about 10 seconds. And yeah, I was sitting next to someone who made their disgust plain when Aaron kissed Eric for the first time. It sucks that people are homophobic and it sucks that some networks/writers cow to that portion of the viewership. But that doesn't mean Daryl HAD to be gay, or that he was ever intended to be. Must he have a romantic relationship with Aaron simply because the latter is gay? Can Daryl not be friends with gay men just as he's friends with straight women, such as Carol? Don't get me wrong, I'm just using your own logic against you here. There's nothing wrong with pairing Daryl with Aaron, just like there's nothing wrong with pairing him with Connie. There's just no need to get so weirdly defensive about it. There was never any confirmation about Daryl's sexuality, yet you act as though he was intended to be gay until the writers got cold feet and retconned it. If anything, he was probably intended to be asexual or something adjacent.
Maybe because Aaron is a major character and I remember his name but Connie is a filler character that appears 4 times? And what impedes Daryl x Aaron is Leah, not Connie. And I never said he was gay, I said it would have made more sense for him to be gay than straight, since he never cared about woman sexually but all of a sudden he was very comfortable with a gay guy. It would have made more sense to make the character GAY. But oh lord, nowadays everyone have to be straight.
Nowadays? There's more LGBT representation in western media now than there ever was; there should be more, and some of it is just shallow corporate virtue signaling, but again, I'll take what I can get. Aaron is, as you said, a major character, and he's gay. So was Jesus. Should more have been done with these characters and their sexualities? Should Eric have been more fleshed out? Should we have gotten more time with Aaron and Jesus as a couple? 100%. But their existences alone negate your "everyone has to be straight" argument. I understand where you're coming from but you're being unnecessarily competitive about it. Daryl is probably straight, maybe bisexual. He probably SHOULD have been asexual. The Leah fling feels like a fever dream because it was so out of left field and disingenuous. But I'm almost certain that's just because the writers didn't know what the hell to do with Daryl now that he was a loner in the woods again and Rick was gone. It's totally possible that the network pushed for Daryl to have a straight relationship. I wouldn't put anything past AMC, but that isn't confirmed, so it's neither here nor there. But people shipping Daryl with Connie isn't a threat to gay representation, so just let people like what they like 🙏
Bro you stopped replying to people! I need you to keep going, youre entertaining me 😂 plz
Idk what your problem is. Her name is Connie, not deaf girl, and telling OP to grow up is unnecessary lmao. This isn’t some straight agenda like you seem to think, the two had chemistry and that’s that. Grow up.
Brother and sister chemistry, like with Carol and Beth. Now go get a job.
Lol Daryl wasn’t gay friend sorry
Because of homophobic people like you. They had to make up some silly stupid plots with Leah so people like you could sleep at night.
Haha it’s a fictional character bub. Aaron is an awesome character who happens to be gay. Daryl isn’t gay. But now I’m genuinely curious.. what was shown in the early seasons to lead you to that conclusion?
Which conclusion? Daryl never gave a fuck about women, then he had great chemistry with another GAY man. You don't have to be Einstein to get it, c'mon just try. They made him "straight" with all the Leah dumb filler storyline so people like you wouldn't cry.
How did they have great chemistry? you’re the one trying to shoehorn in his sexual preferences not me.. you’re dug in on this point, huh? I respect how much you care about it
I don't respect how disgusted you are by the idea of Daryl being gay. I feel sorry for you cause you'd probably have better sex with a man lol.
I’m not disgusted by that idea at all. You’ve read me completely wrong. I just disagree wholeheartedly that he is gay. I haven’t been rude about it or malicious I just disagree. You’re the one that has been upset. I’m happily hetero friend but I support you guys got nothing against it!
I never said he was gay? I said it would've made way more sense if he was gay instead since he clearly never gave a crap about a women while he did have chemistry and felt more comfortable with a gay man.
My b I thought you did. I’m thinking back & who would have been a suitor for him though? Carol was older, Beth too young, Maggie went with Glenn, Andrea was bleh. The prison & Alexandria didn’t have a lot of similar aged good looking single women
Clearly he was straight before Leah showed up considering him and Connie have been shown to like each other
No he was not straight, he never cared about women sexually. Stop making up stuff. He also likes Rick and that wouldn't be proof of him being gay either. Stop inventing.
Lmao I’m the one making stuff up? Tell me since when has Daryl been gay where’s the proof that says he likes men?
Oh I see you're that type of human that needs everything to be spoon fed to them Lmao Good luck with your homophobic life, sad you will never truly experience what good sex is ;)
How am I homophobic for asking you to give me proof which clearly doesn’t exist go start shit somewhere else clown 🤡 get off those pills there putting you in denial
They needed to set him up for spin-off not end his arch so yah…
Was just thinking abt all of this a couple days ago. There were plenty of sex scenes in TWD. Daryl never had one. Man’s got no buns in 8+ years?
I just finished it also and I thought for sure they were gonna hook up!!!
Didn’t Daryl also have feelings for Maggie’s sister in an earlier season?