The Governor
Philip Blake is the husband of Sarah Blake, the father of Penny Blake, and the brother of Brian Blake. In the comic series, The Governor is referred to as Philip. However, the novel "The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor" explains that Philip Blake dies and his brother, Brian Blake, adopts his name and becomes The Governor.
Pre-ApocalypseEdit
As a teenager Philip went to highschool at Burke County, Georgia with his two friends Bobby and Nick. He married a woman named Sarah whom he had his child Penny with. After she passed away Philip became a single parent and started grow apart from his friends, whom he drank alcohol with often since their freshman year in highschool. It is known after his wife's death he worked in a muffler shop, and drove a freightliner, all while being a single parent. When the zombies reached his town Waynesboro, Georgia he took his daughter and picked up his two friends to find a safer place.
After-Apocalypse
When the dead began to rise, Philip, his two friends Nick Parsons and Bobby Marsh, his daughter Penny Blake, and his brother Brian Blake leave Waynesboro and find shelter at Wiltshire Estates: an upper class gated golfing community. Rick and his group also pass through Wiltshire Estates a few months after Philip and his crew leave. After Bobby dies of blood loss due to a zombie bite, Philip, Nick, Penny, and Brian leave with weapons and supplies loaded up into Philip's car. On their way out, Brian leaves a sign at the entrance of Wiltshire Estates that reads: "ALL DEAD DO NOT ENTER." Ironically, the sign that the future Governor creates alerts Rick to the dangers of Wiltshire Estates. Philip and his family make their way to Atlanta through wrecks and walkers. They find a temporary safe haven with the Chalmers family in an apartment in Atlanta. David, Tara, and April Chalmers are travelling musicians who are eking out a living in the first floor of an apartment building. Philip and his group help them expand into the upper levels of the apartment and get food and supplies from nearby stores. The living arrangement is perfect until Philip takes his blossoming romance with April too far. As they begin to have sex April tells Philip to stop and that its too soon. Philip, in the heat of the moment, is unable to stop himself. He realizes what he's done immediately after but thinks he might still be able to salvage the relationship. The next morning All of his group's weapons are gone. Tara tells them, at gunpoint, to get out now. They leave and make their way via motorcycle to an abandoned old plantation house. The house is secure and free of walkers, for the most part. They have food to last them through winter and the house itself is on an orchard. Brian suspects that they were followed to the house and are now being staked out. His suspicions are confirmed when a drug-addled and heavily armed gang come to take the house away from them. Philip makes a deal with the group's leader to let them walk away but Philip realizes that the gang plans to kill them as soon as they're out of the house. They sprint down the orchard where Philip tells Brian to hide with Penny and keep her safe at all costs. Philip and Nick stealthily take out several of the gang members. However, one slips past them and shoots Penny. Just as the shooter is about to execute Brian, Philip arrives and kills the gang member. Enraged at his daughter's death, Philip begins mercilessly kicking Brian and severely injuring him. Philip cannot bring himself to put Penny down so he keeps her tied to a tree. They leave the plantation house and come across Woodbury: a beat up old town with a fairly large group of survivors. Philip and his crew take residence in an apartment there. Philip sneaks Penny into the apartment and begins feeding her appendeges from bodies that he claims he didn't kill. One night Nick spots Philip dragging a girl out to the woods against her will. He sets out to stop Philip with a shotgun while Brian tries to convince him that whatever it is going on with Philip can be fixed. Nick kills Philip and accidentally kills the girl Philip abducted. Brian, almost instinctually, kills Nick on the spot. Philip dies in Brian's arms. The next day there is a town meeting about the rising number of deaths. A group of National Guard soldiers are terrorizing the citizens of Woodbury into obeying their every command. When one older man tries to leave, their leader, Gavin, shoots him in the back of the head. Brian, who always relied on Philip for protection since childhood, begins wondering what Philip would do in this situation. While Gavin's followers are outside Brian has an out of body experience in which he carries out his vision of what his brother would do, and kills Gavin. Brian encourages the people of Woodbury to help him take out the remaining National Guard soldiers. Martinez, the man who eventually helps Rick, Michonne, and Glenn escape from Woodbury, asks Brian his name. Brian tells Martinez that his name is Phillip Blake.
Merle Dixon is a survivor first encountered in "Guts", the second episode of the Walking Dead TV series. He has a younger brother named Daryl Dixon. The Dixon brothers appear only in the TV series and do not exist in the continuity of the comic series. He is more than likely a neo-Nazi with his views of non-white races and Waffen SS markings found on his motorcycle.Merle Dixon, often called by either his first or last name, is a survivor who left the refugee camp to gather supplies in Atlanta with Glenn, Andrea, Jacqui, T-Dog and Morales.
After Rick meets the survivors in the department building, gunshots are heard from the rooftop, revealing it is Dixon firing his rifle. T-Dog demands that he stops firing as it will draw more walkers. Merle provokes a fight with him by referring to him as a "[racial slur]" and the two begin to brawl. Though Rick, Morales and Glenn attempt to intervene, Merle single-handedly knocks them down and viciously beats T-Dog, establishing his dominance by spitting on the man. After declaring himself leader he is blind-sided by Rick who punches him out and handcuffs him to a pipe, before Dixon can cause further harm. He is then put under the watch of T-Dog while the other survivors attempt to find a way out of the city. When the survivors do find a way out, T-Dog attempts to save the man but accidentally drops the handcuff keys into a vent, forcing him to abandon Dixon on the rooftop, as he flees after locking the rooftop door shut with chains. He is left behind as the survivors escape Atlanta.
Left alone, he begins the stages of accepting his fate(praying, bargaining, etc.), until he begins to fight again, this time with the pipe he is cuffed to. As zombies invade the building and reach the chained door to the rooftop, Merle struggles harder until he notices the spilled tools that the others had left behind. He uses his belt to attempt reaching a hack-saw.
Back at the camp, the survivors return and Rick learns of Merle's brother Daryl who is out hunting in the woods. Upon Daryl's return, they inform him of his brothers fate and he goes ballistic. Eventually, Rick decides that some of them should return to the city to fetch his bag of guns and if they do so they will go back for Merle. Daryl, Rick, Glenn and T-Dog return to retrieve the guns and Merle, the latter attempting to make things right for abandoning the man.
Upon their return to rescue him, Merle is found missing except for his hand, bloody handcuffs, and a bloody hacksaw. It is assumed he cut his own hand off in order to escape from the rooftop. Two walkers are found with their heads bashed in by a hammer, indicating Merle killed them. Also there is a hot iron covered in burned flesh found indicating he cauterized his wound and an open window, where it is assumed he escaped.
Although his whereabouts are currently unknown, Rick, Glenn, T-Dog and Daryl notice the van they parked near the department store was stolen. Merle is assumed to be the culprit and Daryl expresses concern that he would return to camp with a vengence. However, upon the duration of their stay at the camp, the survivors would not run into the missing man again.
THE QUESTION IS WHO WILL WIN IN A FIGHT!!??? COMMENT BELOW