With the off-season absence of The Walking Dead from my DVR, I’ve found myself hitting my trade paperback shelf to fill a one-handed, ultra-violent void in my weekends… Having reread most of the series in recent weeks, it seems clear that the characters of this series live in a world where our world’s zombie-related fictions can not exist. Watching the first twenty minutes of any George Romero flick would give you a clearer survival plan than Rick (a man who’s pre-shambling-monstrosity job consisted of tactical thinking and crisis control) exhibits in almost one hundred issues.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is asked with loving concern: Shouldn’t the protagonists of the Walking Dead be better at NOT getting routinely eaten by now?
I think that, yes, they should be better at not getting routinely eaten, and they are. That being said, I think this question doesn’t take into account that when the cast has been eaten by zombies for the last 50+ issues, it’s because some living human does something that distracts from the zombie danger or causes the zombie danger to increase a hundred fold.
I think this question doesn’t take into account that when the cast has been eaten by zombies for the last 50+ issues, it’s because some living human does something that distracts from the zombie danger or causes the zombie danger to increase a hundred fold.
Actually, no. That actually IS the question, in a nutshell… Why do people keep DOING those things, knowing from experience that their survival is in the balance?
Because the zombie genre REQUIRES it?
Because the zombie genre REQUIRES it?
Ben and Barbara didn’t act that stupid. Well, maybe Barbara, but certainly not Ben…
“Actually, no. That actually IS the question, in a nutshell… Why do people keep DOING those things, knowing from experience that their survival is in the balance?”
Yet we as a society do this all the time… we are always repeating the same mistakes. Why haven’t WE learned anything?
I think they’re actually doing quite well. They have (at least a few of them) been alive for over a year now. If you watch most zombie movies, it seems like most of the cast is dead in less than a month.
Most of the weak, stupid, clumsy, unlucky, etc. have been killed off. Those that remain (Rick, Michonne, Andrea, Carl & Glen) have all proven themselves to be quite efficient at killing zombies. Though we’ll see how they do as they pick a fight with some of the living next issue.