doodle || Shapeshifter AU Squirrel!Daryl

Well my dear adorkmadeinroc and snazzelle made this happen lolol.

Can we talk about the fact that Merle and Daryl (the rednecks worth no time to the original Atlanta group) are both avid readers?

Merle reading the Governor’s library and being able to quote obscure bible passages.

Daryl having his nose buried in a book while recovering on the farm.

They’re so quickly written off as inbred hicks at the beginning but they’re both damn smart. Team Woodbury and Team Prison would have been fucking lost without them.

That is all.

But what if the reason Daryl immediately calls Judith Lil Asskicker, is because he remembers Merle calling him that when he was younger?

And then Merle sees the name written on the box and just smirks.

I suppose you don’t know who I am.

Well, let me introduce myself - I was honored the title of “the anon slayer" by none else but our beautiful sanjamac whom we all look up to and my job as that is to defend my fellow shipmates and their Caryl feels from people like you who try to hurt us with words.

Just a warning ahead - you’ve already lost. Your messages didn’t do the purpose which you sent them with and they never will.

This isn’t the first time I had to defend my beliefs, and the beliefs of my fellow beautiful shipmates, to people like you.

Let me remind you of a time when the behind the scenes video of the shot with Daryl running to someone was released and many of us believed it was Carol he was running to. Of course, we were accused of being wrong, me included, but as you can see from the post, I presented logical arguments and in the end, it turned out I and my fellow shipmates were right. It was indeed Carol Daryl was running to.

I think it’s fair to say that this time around it won’t be any different.

I’m not trying to look like I know everything because I don’t. I have my theories and speculations based on the filming spoilers just like with the above mentioned example. If you scroll through that post, you will see I presented my arguments according to what we already knew, and this time is no different.

So I think my post about how Norman Reedus isn’t against Caryl struck a nerve on you.

Because what I presented clearly says he isn’t and that’s something you don’t want to be true.

As I said in that post, there are many many things Norman said both in favour and against Caryl. The same goes for your ship – he said things that can be considered as in favour and against it. That’s what he does. It’s his job. He can’t say something with certainty. He is under a contract and he can’t give anything away about any couple. So that surprises me that you seem to worship his every word… I don’t. I learned that whatever TPTB and actors say must be taken with a grain of salt. The best example is Mr Kirkman after the season premiere – he was asked about Gareth and said that Gareth looked pretty dead to him even though we knew he survived (because the trailer included scenes with Gareth that didn’t air in the premiere).

So I really wouldn’t trust anything anyone says unless it happens on the show. And I mean statements like these:

These 3 examples show you that you can’t believe every single word Norman says.

Why? Because in the first example he said that Carol is not a love interest to Daryl (but isn’t a mother figure either, and even adds that it’s so much more than just love interest – soulmates, anyone?) whereas in the second he says that “When Daryl and Carol happens, it’s going to be great.” Not if. WHEN. The third one also suggests “Never say never to Carol and Daryl” because it can very much happen.

So you see, he said two opposite things. Now which one is true? Which one suggests what is going to happen on the show?

None, anon. Norman is throwing statements like these for years and they mean nothing because he just can’t confirm whether it happens or not, whether Carol and Daryl can be more or in your case, whether B*th and Daryl can be more.  Thus relying on what he says is not going to help you none if it doesn’t happen on the show.

My post wasn’t supposed to say that Norman supports Caryl in his statements. It was meant to prove that even despite the things he said against it he seems to be very supportive of it.

Why?

Let’s take our ships’ hugs for the best example.

  Norman changed the hug between B*th and Daryl in the original script. He must have felt that a face-to-face hug wouldn’t be the right thing for Daryl to accept from B*th in that moment where Daryl was vulnerable and laying out his emotions. If Norman hadn’t been against the idea of B*th and Daryl being romantically involved, would have Norman changed the original script of the hug? Because a frontal hug would have been more intimate… would suggest so much more than a backwards hug. Just like Norman says here – that hug was about support. Daryl felt that B*th was trying to comfort him, be there for him, but that was it. He cried because of how overwhelmed he was with emotions of losing the prison, everyone he ever cared about.

  …but Norman felt it was perfectly in character for Daryl to run at Carol with the speed, force and intensity so that he tackled Mel to the ground a few times. That suggests Norman felt that Daryl was so happy, overwhelmed with feelings of relief and disbelief that he had to get to Carol as fast – and obviously with the biggest force as much – as possible. They had to do a RESTRAINED version of the hug. Norman was putting so much more to that hug than was allowed. He shed happy tears for getting Carol back, it had nothing to do with getting the group back, escaping Terminus or seeing Judith. It was CAROL that made him cry in happiness. It was Carol that he gave a romantic hug to. You will argue that it wasn’t romantic and no actor would confirm it – Norman or Melissa wouldn’t confirm it, but simply because they can’t – but all the details Norman as well as Melissa put into the hug suggest otherwise.

I’m using gifs butnevergrowup used in her hug breakdown post, hope you don’t mind :)

You want to tell me that you can’t see the feelings on his face? Okay I get it, his face would look like his heart stopped beating if he saw any other member of his family – like Tyreese and Judith RIGHT?

.

She was a few feet away from him. He didn’t have to run. But Daryl felt that he needed to run. He was so overwhelmed with seeing her he just had to scoop her up into his arms as fast as he could… giving the first frontal hug on the show. Something he hadn’t given to anyone else – not Merle (from what we’ve seen on screen), not B*th, not anyone.

Also… the smile he has on his face before embracing her…

That heavy breathing… his heart must have been racing pretty fast when he was catching his breath like that. Or it was just the need to exhale in short puffs because he couldn’t believe she was there. That she was real.

When he lifts her… he wants to get her closer than she already is. He is rocking her from side to side because he’s trying to show her what he can’t form with words – just how much it means to him to have her back. He is full of emotions, baring them for her to see – through his touch. His inexperience is obvious since he almost stumbles with her to the ground with the way he is trying to hold her, but it doesn’t matter. He just feels the urge to do it and he does.

He cradled her head…

Carol legs pop up, quoting darylsdiva: “And the lady leg. The leg pop—usually when your sweetie kisses you.” She does it maybe unintentionally, it’s her inner instinct that tells her to do it… something that usually happens in romantic embraces when the woman is kissed by the man she loves.

You could compare it to this because Carol is hugged like that for the first time EVER by the man she loves. Of course she is overwhelmed with happiness.

Carol is smiling that smile that we haven’t seen on her face since last season premiere. Having Daryl react to her like that makes her happy. She has probably never been hugged this way.

Carol seems to look at Daryl’s lips when she pulls away…

Daryl also looked at her lips before he nuzzled her…

Using one of my fellow Caryler’s headcanons – if the others weren’t there to interrupt their moment, they probably would have kissed.

And gosh the nuzzle. He didn’t have to go back for more. He already embraced her, touched her – he showed her what it meant to see her again to him. But he just had to go back for more… craved her touch, asked for more of it. This is probably the biggest indication that this hug was beyond friendly.

Rick hugs her afterwards – and Rick sees Carol only as a friend or sister if you wish (I could argue about that because Rick was an asshole to her but I’m not gonna bring that up now…) – and he doesn’t nuzzle her or come back for more after the hug. The hug doesn’t take so long. The intensity of emotions is very different from what Daryl was trying to express – there is just the embrace, no rocking, lifting, squeezing.

His lips quiver at the sight of Carol being embraced by their leader and thus accepted back even despite the last season events… Daryl is simply so overwhelmed he is still crying for her even after their hug was already over.

Yes, I do bet you’re not going to read my analysis of the hug. I’d be surprised if you were still scrolling through this post. But you  can’t deny this – all of this was canonically done and it was Norman acting out the hug this way. If he was against it, if he was against the idea of Caryl ever becoming romantic someday – he would have done something to act the hug differently. He could have changed the script, or well, attempted to change the script, like he did with B*th if he had had been so bothered by it.

But he wasn’t.

The hug is the best indication that despite what Norman said many times about Caryl not being a thing, he is delivering us a very different message as Daryl.

·   “It’s also been said that Daryl developed feelings for B*th.”

I didn’t mean to parade on your ship beliefs.

But if you want to play this game…

It’s also been said many times that what Daryl and B*th shared was not romantic.

I suggest you watch this video where Gimple very expressively says he doesn’t even entertain the idea that “B*th held on to Daryl for like a second too long,” which suggests he is against the idea that the embrace between Daryl and B*th in season 4 premiere suggested something more than what was presented on screen.

Greg Nicotero confirmed that even if he thought the scenes Daryl and B*th had were romantic, the script clearly wasn’t written that way. It wasn’t confirmed on the show their interaction was romantic, it was just Nicotero’s and yours personal interpretation. When the actors read the script, when Norman and Emily played their scenes – they didn’t know whether it was romantic or not because the script didn’t tell them it was.

So tell me, which of these Norman statements confirm Daryl had feelings for B*th? All I see is “IF HE HAD THEM…” “IF” IF IF IF, not that HE HAD THEM. “He might have felt them, MIGHT HAVE, but it WASN’T A THING.” You could say Normie confirmed it was NOT a thing in this statement.

Norman cannot confirm or deny anything plus he is kinda a troll and that’s why his statements are ambiguous. I’d suggest you learn the meaning of second conditionals – they refer to the unreal present. If + past participle means something that is NOT TRUE. Beyonce’s song “If I were boy” says that she is not a boy. Same goes here. Don’t mean to be harsh but you leave me no choice.

Daryl and B*th romance was neither confirmed on the show or by actors/TPTB. That’s the goddamn truth.

I don’t disagree, he sees Carol as a very much part of his family. She has been his family for a long time now.

But according to my opinion, last two episodes suggested Daryl sees her as more than that, despite what Norman said many times.

I already said why I think the hug says it. But the second episode only supports that belief…

Out of all the people from the group, he chooses to stick close to Carol. Whoever was given the watch – whether it was Daryl or Carol and they joined one another – we don’t know, but just the fact he either chooses to take watch with her or asks her to take watch with him instead of getting some sleep says a lot.

The first time they encounter walkers, it’s Carol his instincts tell him to protect. Not any other group member.

He is opting to stay close to Carol when they meet Father Gabriel. He is shielding her from him too, in case danger arises.

He chooses to collect water with Carol – to be by her side – instead of going to a run with Rick, something he would have done in season 4 since he was in charge of runs.

He isn’t far from Carol even at the church. He is giving her space, but stays close to her.

…and he is the one coming to get her back when she is attempting to leave. He is the one keeping a close eye on her, not anyone else. It is her he is keeping a close eye on. Why would he be doing all of that if what he felt for her wasn’t something more than friendship? All of the group members are his friends, but he doesn’t do any of what he’s doing for Carol this episode.

Because he knows it is a miracle he got her back and like hell he will let her out of his sight again.

He was forced to stay with B*th thanks to circumstances, whereas he opts to be with Carol willingly. That makes me wonder… Would he be doing this for B*th too if she was there with them? Or if she was there instead of Carol? I don’t know, but I’m willing to guess not because what he feels for these two women is completely different. The way I interpret the show, it’s clear Daryl feels more for Carol, he just hasn’t done something that can be considered as “canon” yet.

I never said it wasn’t important. In the post above I said:

“I have to give credit to B*th that she was the one in that moment to restore hope for him – something he was in desperate need of when you think of all that was heaving on his mind. Perhaps the fact that B*th was the one who still believed others were alive was what made it so much more intensive for Daryl to learn that she was right – with the group and with Carol as well.”

All I said was that I think it wasn’t romantic. The fact is Daryl needed B*th in that moment because if he had been all alone instead of B*th, he wouldn’t have probably made it so far. Without B*th, he could have met Joe and his group and that’s who he would have become (unless they encountered Rick later). He clearly gave up on everything and it was her who made him go on. I know that. He connected her to her and she is important to him and he wants to get her back to the group because he feels responsible for her – and moreover, he would have done it for anyone if he lost them like he lost B*th. He would have wanted to search for Carl, Maggie, Glenn, Rick, Michonne… any of their family members. Because that’s who Daryl is, and you can see it from the way he offered himself to the marauders when they wanted to kill Rick and Michonne (and Carl). He was willing to die for them if it saved them.

I just think that his feelings for her are not of romantic kind. We never had any proof of that on the show, either – the “kitchen scene” very well could have meant that he had trouble wording that it was B*th that changed his mind for the better and she is so surprised because she realized she managed to get through him, which was really difficult given the way he behaved and treated her in the episode before.

I guess you could say that yes, it was beautiful that Daryl connected emotionally to someone he had spoken one sentence to before although he knew her for 2 years.

The thing is that Daryl is capable of that with someone like B*th (someone so different from him and someone he never sought out until he had to inform her of her dead boyfriend which was his responsibility) and that’s what makes the actors say it’s beautiful.

I have a different opinion on it… but I’m not gonna write about that.

He carried her faith into season 5… in some way you could say. He believes B*th is still alive when he found the group in the train car. But what he told Rick in 4x16 was “She’s just gone.” Why didn’t he tell Rick as well he believed B*th was alive? I don’t know how I feel about that. I’d say now that he was reunited with Maggie, he must hope for reuniting her back with her sister. Because it happened under his watch. He thinks it is his fault. And since he found almost his whole group by that point… even though he told B*th they were all dead and that she was never gonna see them again… he has to hope for something.

But he clearly didn’t have that hope when he lost her near the end of season 4. He got that hope back when he reunited with most of his family, and Carol, of course.

Their search will be about so much more than just about finding B*th.

I’m planning to make a whole different post about how your theory sounds wrong in terms of the way the writers’ would be treating Carol’s character – simply said, if their search was all about B*th, then having Carol paired up with Daryl just to search for her would be really dull and would make Carol as a “third wheel” to Daryl’s journey to save the damsel in distress he “supposedly loves”. It would be nothing but painful to Carol to have the man she loves – yes, she loves, ya read that right – talk about nothing else but getting B*th back. She would listen to him, no doubt about that. But inside, she would suffer even more than she already does. The pain of dealing with Lizzie and Mika and Karen and David is too much for her already, no need to be adding more pain associated with Daryl to that.

I think the show clearly proves that’s not what they have in store for Carol.

Carol shone during the season premiere. She was accepted by the group back. It’s her demons that she is dealing with, not the fear of being rejected by her family.

She thinks they have become too good for her. That she doesn’t deserve a place among them anymore.

…and guess who is there during the whole episode 2 to prove her wrong?

That’s right, Daryl. And the fact they paired Carol and Daryl for the search of B*th is no coincidence – episode 2 suggests what their journey is going to be about. Carol attempted to leave because she feels like she doesn’t deserve to be with the group anymore… and Daryl was there to stop her, tried to make her open up to him when she closed off, tried to convince her she can start over. They all can start over.

That she can start over with Daryl. That he isn’t holding any bad feelings to her after all that happened.

The Caryl scenes thrown in episode 2 weren’t there just “because”. They foreshadow Daryl and Carol’s next storyline, especially in this first half of season 5. All of this will come to play later on their journey…

I am forced to use spoilers for this one. More under the cut

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Requested by missgreene​

Hello dinner.

daryl d attributes: 1. observant

Daryl finger-licking.

My hero

Norman Reedus on the possibility of Daryl Dixon being a virgin [x]

daryl showing off in front of rick getting his big knife out 

(*Requested: Bloodletting x A)

This was all I could think about in that scene. I think it’s significant cause at first, Shane was his best friend and brother and now Daryl is.