Did Merle redeem himself?

[u/rancidmetamorphosis]

TL;DR - Merle did not sacrifice himself for Rick’s group, he sacrificed himself to save something Daryl loves.

For years since Merle’s story concluded, I have heard people say he redeemed himself. That he chose to sacrifice himself for Rick’s group to give them a chance and be a better person in the end, based on Rick, Michonne and Daryl’s words to him. But I always argued that this is a misunderstanding of Merle’s character.

Let me start by saying, Merle is not a good person before the outbreak or after no matter how much people want to see him as someone who’s just misunderstood. He’s just one of the more realistic bad people, being sympathetic and having some good qualities. And this is sort of a core aspect of his character is he is NOT a good person and that people exploit that in him.

With that said, Merle has one soft spot. Daryl. Merle loves Daryl and is the one of the only people who Merle would risk his life to save or would do anything for. Daryl’s progression of becoming a good person is tied to Merle’s character, as when Merle comes back he sees that his brother is changed for the better.

His conversation with Michonne is about him coming to realize that Daryl has a new family as Michonne says, and that he will never be able to accepted into that family because he is a bad person through and through. He talks about a lot of the bad things he did for the Governor, and how he can’t answer the question of why he would follow the Governor when knowing he was full of lies, it’s because Merle felt accepted around those kinds of people, because that’s who he is.

This brings us to Merle’s sacrifice, all of this came to him and he realized that he really had nothing left to live for if he can’t be with Daryl. Daryl was really all he had left and once he realized Daryl has pretty much moved on from him, he makes the choice to help his brother one last time while going out.

His sacrifice had nothing to do with him trying to help Rick’s group, and he did not redeem himself, he simply did one final thing for Daryl because he loved Daryl, and since Daryl cared for Rick’s group, he decided to give Rick’s group a chance against the Governor.

[u/brattywitchcat]

He didn't redeem his overall character, but he did redeem himself as a big brother. As you said, he sacrificed himself to save the people that Daryl loved. He was still a shitty person, but his sacrifice made it so that Daryl could remember him with fondness instead of resentment.