‘i’ve always kinda played… merle as a character who was really kind of insecure about his place on the team … i made the choice that merle would always feel so insecure that, you know, what do they need him for ? he’s a failed cleric, he’s short, 90% of the spells he casts are failures, so anytime anybody came along with any level of confidence, he saw that character as a threat to his position in the group.’