#daryl and Isabelle

[darabellelove]

Daryl and Isabelle

[mysecretattic0]

THESE ARE PARALLEL AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME DIFFERENT!!!

[gneebee]

Norman and Clemence on the set of Daryl Dixon S2

[nerdyduckrants]

I'm working on drawing this scene from Daryl Dixon. I also refuse to accept Isabelles death. It was completely pointless and she deserved better.

[thrudthorsdottir]

THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON 2.02 | "Moulin Rouge"

[thisisntmytardis]

Isabelle shippers: This is an outrage! She was just starting to shine! How could they kill her off?!

Bethyl shippers:

[reedusmcbridedaily]

THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON - THE BOOK OF CAROL official characters bios

[darylscigarettesmoke]

Daryl is weak.

Okay, bold headline. I’m a journalist I know how clickbait works. Jokes aside, hear me out.

A lot of fans say that Daryl acts totally out of character in the second season of his spin-off. Getting close to a woman that quickly. Kissing her. Not thinking about going home anymore or not fighting tooth and nail to get there anymore.

And while I very much agree and the Daryl from the Spin-Off doesn’t feel like the Daryl from the flagship show anymore, there’s a pattern I’ve noticed throughout the series.

The word Daryl gets described the most is probably “loyal”. But what if he’s not that “loyal” man, everyone makes him out to be?

Daryl’s not good alone. He needs people. He latches on to them. First it was Merle, his bad influence of a brother. Then it was Rick and the group. He needs a role model. Someone to follow.

what happens though if you take away his role model, is always the same thing. He falls into despair, latches onto someone else and forgets where he came from.

Remember the arc after the prison fell? He was stuck with Beth, thought the group is dead. But instead of making use of his tracking abilities, determination, pure willpower to prove himself wrong and see that most folks are still alive or just whatever to find out if the other’s are really dead, he succumbs to pessimism and suggests to Beth to just stay at the funeral home, doing nothing but playing house. He would’ve stayed there for much longer if Beth hadn’t gone kidnapped. Once Beth was gone, he stucked to the Claimers until Rick came along again…

Same thing with Leah. He believed his leader (Rick) to be dead, his guilt made him shy away from his family, he lived in the woods until Leah came along. It took him longer than with Beth to finally give in and decide to stay with Leah, but still - he isolated himself from the thoughts of his family and stayed with a woman - and yet again, he would have stayed there, away from his family, if Leah hadn’t left herself. He didn’t have a clue about what’s happening in Alexandria, with the Whisperers, with Rick’s kids and probably didn’t wanna know either.

Rinse and repeat we got Isabelle. In this case, it’s even worse because Daryl’s stuck in another country. But again he’s far away from his family, again there is a woman, again he’s latching onto her and yet again he is forgetting about his people back home to the point where he’s almost not considering to go back anymore at all.

Daryl always needs a circumstance, a death, a kidnapping, or a person (Carol?) to pull him back to reality and to remind him who he is and what he might’ve left behind.

It’s also highly ironic to me that the Villain of the season, that cult leader, describes what’s going on with Daryl in Episode 2x03 perfectly:

“Must be hard living without a semblance of faith. No organizing principle, nothing to cling to [….] a man alone it’s a sad state.”

Daryl always believes he is alone, that his group has given up on him. His low self-esteem and the thing’s he had to endure prevent him from seeing how loved he is. But he’s never been truly alone, after he found Rick’s group.

Having to fend for himself as a kid has left his mark on him, so he’s clinging onto people, desperate of not wanting to be alone.

Now that doesn’t go without saying that I don’t believe Daryl didn’t find something in France. He found what he wishes for - a family of his own and to not be the “lonely man” anymore. But it’s time to come back from Neverland, to achieve that dream.

With all of these things considered I start to believe the Daryl we all know and love is still there - he just needs to be reminded that he is loved, cared for and so, so missed.

Edit: Some more notes. That is just a poor explanation/interpretation of bad writing in the Spin-Off. When Daryl said he wasn’t sure of what he was looking for when he left the Commonwealth, that made it clear as day the writers absolutely intend to retcon this beloved character and all of his core characteristics to pretend Daryl’s this blank page, a character without history. But this doesn’t work and I hope they’ll notice it soon enough.

[cultofdixon]

Daryl: I don’t think my partner would like this very much

Isabelle: I don’t do this romantically. Just cleaning your wounds

Daryl: Alright then. I ain’t stopping them

Isabelle: Wha—-?

Y/N: *enters the room seeing Daryl in the bath and Isabelle washing him* Woah. I thought I called dibs on flirting with her

Daryl: WHAT

[thegeorgiahuntsman]

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

The Book of Carol: Moulin Rouge (S02E02)

Spoilers below cut

E01

[mymanreedus]

[darylsgarden]

Daryl : *cooking fish over a campfire*

Leah : I don't want fish

Daryl : Starve and die then

Isabelle : I dont want fish Daryl

Daryl : *scratches head* well I could make some mushrooms

Connie : *signing* I dont want fish :(

Daryl : *signs back* Lemme just a hunt a deer real quick babe .

[swannscroft]

man fuck the daryl show. isabelle is by far the best character they've introduced in years. they spent so much time dedicated to her backstory just to kill her off like that??? she deserved better than this slop.

[illusianation]

Isabelle: tropes, misogyny, and the recurring problem in TWD

This is exhausting, y'all. Isabelle's treatment in The Book of Carol is an old, tired, repetitive textbook example of how female characters have been so often mishandled to push male narratives forward in The Walking Dead Universe.

The show's history of using women as emotional props for male character pain and growth is glaring (HAS BEEN for over a decade) and Isabelle's arc-with such a talented actor and Queen of the Beauxbatons Clémence Poésy-just reinforces this issue.

The rest is under the cut for references and spoilers for season 2.

Instead of giving Isabelle her own rich and fully realized storyline, the show has decided to lean into well-worn tropes: reducing her to a manipulative guide whose primary function is to "heal" Daryl emotionally and make him feel worthy, while simultaneously suggesting that her own worth is diminished in comparison.

The narrative centers around his pain, his growth, while she fades into the background or worse, becomes a tool for shipbaiting-dangling potential romantic tension without real payoff, only to discard her once that tension has served its purpose.

It's particularly painful when the show teases us with the potential for rich character development, and/or friendship development only to quickly revert to tired tropes. Isabelle's m emotional manipulation of Daryl as part of her "role" not only diminishes her worth but also plays into a damaging stereotype that women need to manipulate or "fix" men.

It creates a power imbalance, suggesting that Daryl's growth and self-worth come at the expense of Isabelle's agency, and apparently her life. That her worth is completely diminished by the importance of his pain.

It's a huge missed opportunity and speaks to the deeper issues that The Walking Dead franchise continues to struggle with women being used as plot devices or emotional springboards for men. Isabelle deserved better. Clémence Poésy deserved better and Daryl deserved better. This pattern is tiring, and the show needs to move beyond it if it wants to give its female characters the respect they deserve.

How many times does it have to be said?!!?

DO BETTER, AMC.

[thrudthorsdottir]

THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON 2.03 "L'Invisible"