Zombie Cliche Lookout: A Gesture of Trust
Now that the initial tensions have died down a little bit (okay, a very, very little bit, but bear with me here), it’s time for one party of zombie survivors to make a gesture of trust toward the others. Now, if either party wound up with the upper hand in the initial meeting, it should be them that makes the gesture. After all, they’re in a position of power, so they have less to lose. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way, and the overpowered party might have to take a bit of a gamble with these new people.
Either way, the gesture itself is what’s important. It’s the first step in forming a bond between two groups of people. Both parties have the same macro-level goal of surviving the zombie apocalypse, but to do so they need to be comfortable that the other group won’t endanger them with some of their other goals. Once one side makes a gesture, and shows that they’re willing to trust the other, things can start to progress forward toward an actual relationship. Of course, a lot can derail that process, but we’re making progress anyway.
About this Episode:
I don’t know why, but I’m having a hell of a time keeping Michael on his feet when shooting these episodes. It seems like any tiny wobble on the table sends him toppling over. Other than the pistol in his hand, he’s weighted just like Stewart, with the same backpack and a baseball hat. It’s bizarre.
Discussion Question: Making a Trusting Gesture?
If you just meet another group of survivors, and need to make some sort of gesture of trust to try to win them over, what would it be? How would you balance showing your trust with not putting yourself at too much risk? Or would you not be that willing, and dig in your heels to force the other side to take that first step?
Typo alerts, About this Episode, second sentence: time–>tiny 😉
Discussion Question, last sentence: heals–>heels 😀
Fixed both; thanks!
Regarding Michael toppling over, maybe it’s the baseball hat and gun doing it? I know for sure the baseball hat is different.
Have you tried getting him on a stud so that he’s held there by the friction of the connection to the position you put him in? That usually works for me if I have trouble posing any minifigs, I’ve never met one yet that didn’t want to grip onto a stud. 😀
The hat is slightly different, I wonder how much if affects the weight.
I try to use the studs as little as possible because that makes the figs to rigid looking. They can only stand at certain angles.
Regarding the studs, it is actually possible to get certain angles where a minifig could grip the stud sufficiently and prevent themselves from toppling over. It does however involve them being positioned on studs on one or both legs which is a little difficult when making standing positions.
Also, in most forest type situations, the following could be easily used for actually standing a minifig on:
1×1 round plate: green, brown, or black as short stumpy bush, short tree stump, or burnt tree stump, respectively. Greys or other rock like colors could also be used to represent small rocks. Just some thoughts! 😀
The round plate is a really good idea. I might just steal it.
Also 1×2 jumper tiles could have great effect, it does mean you have to build your baseplate a few layers thick if you want a flat woodland. I’m not sure if there are many leveled and truly flat woodland areas, most would in my opinion be undulating slightly or hilly in places! 😀 It really depends on how much time you can put into actually building the woods. 😉
Heh, live Dave! 😀 Hi from Australia! *waves* It’s 5:14AM here, yes I do tend to get up a bit early! 😀
I need to get back into getting up early. I’ve gotten lazy.
Well, after your leg heals up properly that is! Those bones will need lots of knitting to mend properly! 😉
I’m doing surprisingly well these days. No more doctor’s appointments until my next surgery, which is to remove the longest screw. I still have a lot of flexibility and strength to get back, but I can’t complain.
I should do a post-mortem blog post about the whole ordeal.
This is kind of a ‘did you know’ but I learned some time ago that our bodies are constantly taking apart and rebuilding our bone structure. There was a time-lapse video where they captured this happening over a long period of time. Apparently our bodies grow even if our bones don’t get broken and the bone is constantly regrown over a very long time period. So your leg in effect is constantly regrowing itself as it heals.
Wow, that’s pretty fascinating.
Making a trust gesture would vary depending on how the initial encounter goes. Just bumping into survivors while looking for supplies would be different from finding another groups base and scouting them out.
As a general rule starting with a nonconfrontational approach and finding out what the other group is after and negotiating slowly would be a start.
Unless they show up with a tank and an eviction notice.
Sounds like a pretty good approach to me.
Isn’t holding the machete with the sharp end of the blade into your palm kind of risky?
Maybe somewhat. Most machetes aren’t really razor sharp though.
Let’s just assume that since BotD is on a low budget it’s a $13 mechette from Walmart! 😛
Hah! Excellent point.
Give them a chocolate bar.
Everybody loves chocolate bars right?
Reminds me of the episode in Band of Brothers when the soldier comes across the father and his kid, gives the kid a chocolate bar and the reaction is awesome!
*sigh* going to have to go watch the series again I think. Fill in some of that void until TWD comes back.
God I loves me some Band of Brothers. The series and the book, although I prefer the series.
Make sure it doesn’t have nuts in it. Everyone is allergic to nuts these days. Think that is what will cause the zeds to start to appear.
Give them some kind of food. Also, not shooting at them first would be helpful.
Not shooting at people is the polite thing to do.
Trying to talk with other survivors would be my first gesture of trust. I guess this way I can check if we can match, test their reaction, what is their story, stuff like that…
Depending of the conversation, I think both parts can have a good idea where this is going and this way start building a trust relation… Or start shooting at each other.
Excellent point. If you can at least speak to the other people, you’re on the right track.
Sorry about the feet dave, my lego guys have a hell of a time at my, *ahem* “grafting centre” and may turn out to be a little weird after all the heat they are exposed to. My suggestion is just to put a little bit of blu-tac (sticky tack) on the inside of the foot. They should stay right up.
Hah, no worries, sir.