Zombie Cliche Lookout: Cold Pragmatism
In the zombie apocalypse, you’re going to have to make some tough decisions. You simply won’t have the supplies, time, or strength to carry everything you think you need, or help everyone who needs help. And, of course, there’s also the question of safety. Those people who need help? Can you trust them? Perhaps they’ve been bitten. Maybe they’re just trying to put you at ease so they can rip off your supplies. It’s hard to say.
There are are couple of different approaches a person can take here. You can go Murphy’s route, and try to do the most possible for the most people, while still being relatively guarded. Or you can be like Inez and be coldly pragmatic. She’s looking out for herself, because she feels like she has to. She can’t trust people for one reason or another, so she’s not going to put herself into situations where she needs to.
About this Episode:
I wonder if Murphy and Inez think ol’ Lou is unconscious or something behind them? Or perhaps that his injury is also affecting his hearing? Either way, they’ve got some serious tunnel vision going on.
Discussion Question: What Sort of Questions Do You Like?
This one is a bit of a meta question, but it’s one that has me really curious. We have a few different types of questions around here, and I’m wondering what everyone’s favorite is, and why. Off the top of my head, I figure these are some of the more common question types (feel free to add any that I’ve missed):
- How do zombies work?
- What’s your favorite X?
- Here’s a hypothetical scenario, what do you do?
- Just for fun (e.g. pick a weapon, zombie killing theme song)
I’m absolutely certain I’ve missed a few here.
Inez in the last panel should really be saying either “Can it, Murphy” or “go to hell” – but she definitely has to be saying something that means she’s not going to put up with Murphy’s problem of trying to be helpful. Perhaps she should eve say that he’s on his own and there are bigger things to worry about right now.
Or, next episode, I predict she’ll walk up to Lou and finish him off with one or both weapons! 😀 Yes, that’ll help! 😉
That’s a bold prediction right there, BV.
You want the zombies to start chewing on their smorgasboard Monday or what? 😉
I can’t wait to find the true source of the tension regarding Lou, Murphy, and Inez. Does she have a problem? Did she see something? Does she just want to be the leader?
Hmm…
I can hardly wait until that lit firecracker between those two goes off, because when it does, it’ll be with a bang! 😀
EXCEPT, in this case it is Inez’s problem. She’s the one that came in the store, after Murphy told her to hang back. She’s the one that injured Lou. She’s the proximate cause of the shotgun blast that called in the zombies. The whole mess is her doing.
Pragmatism is one thing; but it in no way abrogates her responsibility, morally, ethically, and spiritually. Again, unless she found a brothel of zombie women chained up in Lou’s basement she is way off base here. She initiated the force that caused the collapse of Lou’s situation.
I like the mix of questions, it’s (some of) the questions I like, and not so much the category.
I wonder what would happen if Inez in the next panel would just whack Lou in the head with her axe and say “Problem solved”…
That could be the beginning of a fight for leadership of this group…
Do you think that Murphy would move to intervene? I think I would…
If he had the chance, yes. But she may be fast enough and/or clever enough to fool him. It’s not how she would do it that interests me… It’s what would happen after if she actually did it that interests me 🙂
He should hang her, gut her, or leave her for the zombies.
In that situation, justice would likely be swift, and Old Testament.
“He should hang her, gut her, or leave her for the zombies.
In that situation, justice would likely be swift, and Old Testament.”
That is one option of many… 🙂
He certainly can’t let her do it, or fail to bring her to some kind of judgment.
Should he bring her back to the group for trial, or do it himself?
If the group does kind her guilty, what should their sentence be? Execution? Imprisonment? Banishment?
That is your opinion (and mine to). But I still think there are a lot of people who will think different about this. Lou is a threat to the current (physical) strenght of the group… the group might have a better chance of survival without Lou and a quick blow to the head is certainly a more humane way to die (in a ZA), than being ripped apart by zombies…
Would you (Murphy) let the entire group be a greater danger because of the actions of Inez? I guess so… but still
There is no black and white… only (zombie)grey in the ZA 🙂
I might have to jettison Lou; but I wouldn’t let Inez get off for it. She sentenced him to death. Her punishment should be as severe, I think.
People are free to think and act differently. I think that Inez has abandoned her humanity, and sunk to the level of animal.
Around here we put down animals that can’t behave.
On topic: I like all of these discussion topics, and more. I’d have to say “How do zombies work” is probably my least favorite, mostly because I think that most folks decide how zombies work based upon their favorite video game or zombie movie.
I tend to like to actually think on ‘How do zombies work” because I tend to think biologically the body would mechanically work and how it would all fit to work.
Video games be damned, there’s way too many variables to zombies to put it in a simulator.. Yet.
I like thinking about anatomy and physiology, too. I just can’t wrap my head around how it could possibly work naturally (fast-acting rabies?); so I shift to the occult.
Yeah it’s difficult especially with all the processes that happen after death. Magic does make the most scientific sense.
I can see something like a rabies making folks into something like fast moving zombies. The problem is spreading the disease as quickly as is typical, with just a bite, scratch, or exchange of bodily fluids. Prions? Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is hard to catch, and takes a long time to manifest.
Plus, how do you justify saliva or blood in the mouth transfer to blood.. Especially a bacteria? I know it happens, but the speed in which would be required is super mega mutant bacteria.
Oh my I stated that all wrong. I was attempting to say that Bacteria transfer and time to effect take much longer than a virus. So having the ability and speed faster than a virus would be impressively destructive.
All bets would indeed have to be off. I’ve heard rumors of some varieties of hepatitis B (usually considered an STD) that have transmitted in contact sports, so you never know.
The wild card, for me, for the disease pathology is how long does it live outside the body? Are there nonhuman- or even nonliving vectors, for instance standing water?
Never know.
Hypothetical Scenarios are the best to respond too, but it’s always fun to read Just for funs.
Really, I miss the kids and their over-the-top plans. What happened to AC?
He probably tried to chainsaw down a cardboard zombie while riding around on a motorcycle. I have a friend who’d read over my shoulder every once in awhile and everytime we saw something AC had typed we’d say in unison
“Oh AC, oh AC…”
>.<
I know. I miss it, too.
I’ve made a new video using clips from the new Walking Dead episode. I will upload it on Sunday. The quality’s not great, but it’s the only footage I could find for download.