Character from The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (comics), Frank Darabont (TV), Telltale Games
Daryl's older brother — a racist, drug-addicted, self-serving redneck who cut off his own hand to survive and proved in his final moments that even the worst people can make the best choice.
Merle is everything Daryl was supposed to become: violent, bigoted, self-serving, and loyal only to blood. He raised Daryl in their abusive household and taught him that the world was divided into predators and prey. The apocalypse confirmed his worldview. He served the Governor at Woodbury with enthusiastic brutality because the arrangement suited him — power, security, and someone else to blame. He hunted Michonne. He fought his own brother. He was everything the show defined as irredeemable. Then he drove a car full of walkers into the Saviors' position and died fighting alone, without telling anyone, without asking for credit. His sacrifice saved lives and cost him his. Daryl finding his walker and putting him down is the show's purest distillation of brotherhood and grief.
Stocky and muscular with cropped hair, cruel blue eyes, and a permanent sneer. After cutting off his hand on the Atlanta rooftop, he wears a metal prosthetic with an attached bayonet blade that he uses as both weapon and intimidation tool. He carries himself with aggressive, confrontational energy — chest forward, chin up, always looking for a fight.
Also known as: Merle, Merle Dixon