Zombie Cliche Lookout: On Your Feet
This trope is a staple in both horror and war fiction. When a character is injured in the zombie apocalypse (or in a war), they simply don’t have the luxury of taking it easy until they can heal up properly. Instead, they’re forced to get back on their feet and get moving, despite the pain. This does two things. First, it establishes the urgency of the situation. There is a real danger here, and even though you’re injured, you still have to move or be killed. Second, it demonstrates the toughness of the character. Sure, they’ve just been horribly injured, but they’re not going to let that slow them down.
While I didn’t use it in today’s episode, I particularly like it when this trope is used along with the line “On your feet!” or “On your feet, soldier!” I know it’s a terribly cliche line, but it just works for me. Probably because it reminds me of The Terminator.
About this Episode:
I don’t know how well it comes across, but I wanted to give a bit of a non-verbal hint about Murphy’s condition here. He’s able to get up with a bit of help, but he’s certainly not happy about it. Whether he’s able to walk, with or without assistance, is left to be seen.
Other News:
You might notice some things looking a bit different around here. Well, they are. Last week I installed a major update to the software that makes Bricks of the Dead work. Unfortunately, that broke the comic navigation. After a fair bit of research, I found a way to fix it, but that meant redoing my theme a bit. I think I’ve got almost everything back into place, but I’m still reviewing.
Discussion Question: Broken Stuff?
This episode’s question is a bit self-serving. After the update, do you notice anything that is either not working, or missing? Is so, please let me know and I’ll work on correcting it.
Yay! No typos today! 😀 Another +1 for Dave! 😉
Excellent!
The “Related Comics” seem pretty well thought out so far. Is that Your doing, Dave, or is that something your software does for you automatically? 😀
That’s automatically added; one of the new changes.
Funny that you mention that you liked it, because I was considering turning it off.
If you are considering turning it off, you should probably do a popularity poll, something like, please respond to Dave’s post here with ‘yes, keep it’ or ‘no, turn it off’ replies. 😀 They probably don’t need to go into detail why they’re for or against it, although some people might do that anyway. 😉
Fair enough. If you guys think it’s useful, let me know and I’ll keep it.
As for today’s episode itself, I wonder how much more seriously wounded would Murphy have to be before he was incapacitated beyond the point where the will to move would work to get him inside where it’s safer?
Good question. I imagine a guy like Murphy would have to be pretty badly hurt, otherwise he’d crawl inside.
By the way, I remember Murphy saying during his speech that they were either survivors or ‘them’, and when he said them he pointed out towards the woods. Does that mean that zombies are on the way?
Oh, and the new site design is amazing, Dave! Good job!
Thanks, although these are just minor changes.
As far as Murphy’s gesture goes, it wasn’t meant to be a point, just him talking with his hands.
Ah, okay, that had me confused. I thought zombies were gonna appear and I was sure someone was gonna die. My mind’s soothed.
Did you also update the background picture? I used to have all the zombies being the same from the Collectible Series 1, but now they are all different (much better btw).
Not sure about the related comic, they seem a bit random to me. They would perhaps incite new comers to check the rest of the story but for the regulars I don’t see the point.
I did indeed change the background. I figured it was about time to roll out version two.’
That’s kind of my thought on the related comics. I wonder effective it is.
I so far see one for and against with Dave having the deciding vote … The main reason I was hoping Dave would keep the annotations around is because it’s easier to keep track of where the characters appear with this system. But if it’s too much work for Dave to go through 522 comics and properly annotate and maintain the database for it, then he should really remove it. It’s his choice, of course! 😀