I saw one of your posts and I’m wondering, what’s your OC’s relationship with Daryl like?
Because he did back them up with Shane in the mushroom post, but he didn’t actually think it was safe? And he misgendered them too?
[Content Warning: Bigotry is discussed and censored & uncensored racial and transphobic slurs are used.]
Yeah, in seasons 1 & 2 the pair have a really complicated, and really confusing, relationship where there’s a lot tension between them that boils over in season 2.
It does end in them actually talking about things and making up though, so they end on a good note.
I figured that, before meeting Chris, Daryl hasn’t actually interacted with anyone that he knew was trans before.
I do think he knew what being transgender was, at least in the binary sense, and had probably seen some people that he assumed was trans, but that’s about it. And on top of that, he grew up in a rural area in the 70-80’s and then stuck with Merle for the next twenty years, everything he knew about trans people would’ve been limited to stereotypes and misinformation, so he already doesn’t view them in any positive or neutral ways.
But even then, his issues with Chris’ identity goes deeper than him just being transphobic. Because even though that’s part of it, there’s a misguided sense of care there as well.
On the transphobia end, he really just doesn't understand them being genderless because, to him, you're either a man or a woman, you can’t be nothing, and you sure as hell can’t be an *it*. That’s not to say he wouldn't be transphobic towards Chris if they were a trans man who used only he/him pronouns, because he would, but I think it’d take him less time to come around, and it would’ve been less of a shit show.
On the other end, he sees it as just another one of Chris’ self destructive behaviours, and he’s not going to enable it. He sees how they're constantly nursing something alcoholic, how they’ll readily take massive risks, and how they downplay their issues. So when they say that they're genderless and use they/them and it/it pronouns, he sees that as them as lacking a sense of self and leaning into it rather than addressing it.
All in all, he’s caught between “you’re being stupid, you're obviously a woman,” and “I’m not going to treat you like you’re less of a person just because you have issues,” while he’s actively doing that last one.
Unfortunately they're used to it, they’ve been dealing with different forms of bigotry; racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, etc, their entire life. They grew up in a rural, predominantly white and Christian town in late 80’s-mid 2000s Ireland and they know the drill, and can usually tell what kind of bigotry they’re dealing; being flat out hated, being tolerated, or being “liked” despite their traits. And they’re are at a point where they don’t react and just play nice unless they're *really* not in the mood for it.
Though with Daryl, they actually can’t tell what his deal is because he’s so hot and cold with them.
Like, if he knows they’re coming around he’ll bring back mushrooms for their portion of stew since they don’t eat meat, but he always misgenders them, has called them a tranny a few times (I feel like he would), and is generally an asshole, but then there’s also been a few times where they’ve run into each other in the woods and he asks them if they wanted to tag along, and the few times they’ve said yes and they just walk around in this weird silence while Daryl hunts and they forage.
But as confusing as it is for Chris, and everyone else, I figured it’d at least be consistent given how he is with Glenn early on.
It always comes back to Glenn,
In Vatos, there’s a scene where Daryl says something racist to him, and while I do think it reflected what he thought, like he was genuinely thinking, “huh, you’re a lot braver than I thought you were… and I thought you wouldn’t be that brave because you’re Chinese”, I also think it’s not what what he wanted to say to him.
Like, I think he wanted to say something nice, he wanted to compliment Glenn, but couldn’t bring himself to actually do it.
And I think this because as much as he grew up around and became desensitised to this kind of talk, there’s no way anyone can convince me he genuinely thought “you’ve got balls for a chinaman,” would go over well. Like, that’s three different types of racism in one comment; assuming his ethnicity, because he’s not Chinese, he’s Korean, using a slur, and making Glenn out be an exception and reinforcing the stereotype that asian men are generally weak and cowardly.
It’s just not a term the average adult in his forties, or thirties depending on what source you use for his age, would use without knowing it’s offensive, especially when he has a brother like Merle.
And also because when Glenn gets kidnapped, Daryl completely looses it and is willing to stand off against a gang twice to get him back. (Though he does question Rick about whether Glenn’s worth the guns, and I can’t tell if he was just trying to figure Rick out, if he actually meant any of it, or both.)
With the mushroom thing specifically, I feel like, in general, Daryl just doesn’t like Shane and has no issue knocking him down a peg out of spite, but he still errs on the side of caution with Chris, because yeah, they know what they’re doing, but he saw that beer can and isn’t going to take any chances.
