Zombie Cliche Lookout: Well, Duh
Once again, today’s cliche is much broader than the zombie genre, and is a staple of fiction in general. I’m referring to the multi-stage reveal, in which a piece of crucial information is laid out in a series of gradually more obvious steps. I think the best description of this comes from George RR Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire (AKA A Game of Thrones). He calls it his Three-Fold Revelation Strategy, which his editor describes thusly:
“…it is easier to tell when he’s overplaying a hand and revealing things too early if you don’t actually know going in what will happen. That said, now that I’ve realized his three-fold revelation strategy, I see it in play almost every time. The first, subtle hint for the really astute readers, followed later by the more blatant hint for the less attentive, followed by just spelling it out for everyone else. It’s a brilliant strategy, and highly effective.”
If you’re interested, here’s a pretty cool discussion on Reddit, although be aware that there are spoilers aplenty. Essentially, the writer doesn’t just drop a big plot point on the audience. He or she will first hint at it, and then foreshadow a bit more directly, and eventually make it obvious. This allows deep readers to figure things out earlier, but ensures the more casual members of the audience don’t miss out.
About this Episode:
I love that Russell is taking the news in good spirit. He always seems to have a sort of wry smile on his face, doesn’t he?
Discussion Question: Am I Full of Shit?
Recently, the comments have put forth the notion that my description of Gus is being deliberately misleading, and that he will in fact be just as evil as Jess, Bill, et al have suggested. What do you think? Am I going for the double fake out? What evidence leads you to believe this way?
I suppose we have to wait a few more episodes before the big reveal, but does Dave have any idea how long this buildup is going to take? I’ve said what was on my mind, but I can’t help but think maybe there’s something to what Dave is saying. Part, well most, really, of me wants to just get on with the story and see what happens. Another part of me wants more plot to develop, so I guess there’s that.
We’ll be meeting Gus next week.
Wow
It will be interesting to see what Murphy comes up with to deal with this situation. My best guess is that he’s going to see if he can let Gus know of these people trying to off him without putting himself in a compromising position. My second best guess is that they’re going to go back to the people they were just talking to and call the whole damn thing off. 😀
Both seem like solid options.
Third best guess is like the second best guess, except that one or both of them will talk to this guy on the radio. He might be their leader, or he might simply be the person in charge of covert ops whenever they have to go for supplies or to meet new people.
That’s definitely one area where the main characters are lacking. Over the winter, they didn’t source radios and a way of keeping them charged and operational. That would be pretty handy right now.
Or… Both parties could be right!
There could indeed be a nice friendly biker dude named Gus…
Or Gus could be a popular name for bikers and they are about to visit the OTHER Gus…
You didn’t Google that and come up with “Gus Fring” on “Breaking Bad” did you, by any chance? I haven’t seen “Breaking Bad” or at least I don’t remember it.
Personally I feel as if there could most certainly be more than one “Gus” out there, the good one Murphy is thinking of, or this concoction Dave thought up, which is right out of scum and villainy territory! 😀
Oh, you should definitely watch Breaking Bad. Gus Fring, aka Pollos, was a great character on there.
Hah, I like that idea, especially since Gus is a pretty uncommon name here in the US. The idea that, among bikers, it’s very prevalent amuses me.
Idea for biker gang title: “Friends among Gus” 😀
Ooh.. plot twist! I like it Dave! I did not see it coming, I was convinced the others were trying to play our heroes but Murphy knowing Gus was not something I considered. I am sure this Gus dude is a scary looking guy with a heart of gold.. lol.
Spoiler alert!
Idk if you guys have watched the horribly horrifying “back story” episode of Negan on TWD, but he was the “Humblest, lowest of lows, and then something snapped”.
besides, you already told us you were looking for the biggest, meanest, and etc motley mug of a Lego figure, so I’m going to lean towards – some form of mentally snapped, high charm, biggest muscled, and usually rides for “put a charity name here”, people would have avoided him, but he has the “Rednecks survive all the social collapsed, apocalyptic stuff” rally around anti-plot device/decoy.
By the way, I’m having motherboard issues atm so if i miss a few days of BotD it’s because the PC is in the shop awaiting repairs/payment for whatever the cause is. I’m hoping it’s just a simple battery replacement, though, as it seems fine otherwise. I had a look in the motherboard this morning and I think the battery for the motherboard is a soldered in type which could mean someone actually has to look at it and take apart the PC to get to the battery.
Dave will, of course, receive any typo alerts anyone else doesn’t spot once I get around to taking my PC to the shop and it gets fixed. It may be a few days though! So if this PC breaks down meantime and starts refusing to boot, you’ll know by about Tuesday, if I don’t post typo alerts. I’m confident, however, that the other commenters here will post typos in my absence, if it is forced on me by PC breakdowns.
Could be a different Gus.
Also, maybe Gus is working with Jess and Bill. And this is a trap, or some sort of test.
Also, yes, even the horrors of the zombie apocalypse can’t knock the smile off of Russell’s face! He’s one happy dude! 🙂
I just had an interesting question pop into my mind, not a discussion question, though, more of a technical one, maybe it’s been answered already.
It’s possible someone with a long range weapon could shoot a zombie in the head and not become their target because they would only hear the bullet from the gunshot hitting the targeted zombie. Question: Could this be exploited to lead zombies into a trap that effectively kills them?
This might be a question that got posed a while back – I’m interested to know if anyone remembers it or has come across something like it in a comment in this comic somewhere.
Depends on distance of target(s) zed/ human / etc. even a gun with a silencer makes a lot of noise. Plus what type of place would you be firing? A prairie, where sound will travel forever, a forest where sound will echo forever, a cliff that echos, on a loud car or motorcycle, near the water, where the crashing waves will draw in the foe? I believe most of you have watched original myth-busters, yes/no and have heard what real guns sound like?
In my head I picture two set ups: 1) a gun that is hitting something a crowd of targets is attracted to, the crowd stays in one place due to the sounds of the impacting bullets, movement of stuff, and other little things. However a group of roaming targets would be coming down on the firing position.
2) a really great echoing location, where the specially made paths to the firing position have been made “unsafe” for all but the shooter to go through.
I just figured something out: In all of the discussion they had about Gus the biker, we never got to hear about what, if anything, Gus was offering in exchange for items he demanded from this group. It reads like they got little or nothing out of the deal and are a bit soured by it all. Is anyone else reading this from the recently posted comics featuring the meet, and Murphy and Russell’s discussion afterwards?
This sounds more and more like a case of a confused larger group that doesn’t know exactly who they’re dealing with, and hopefully Murphy knows this, or has at least partially figured it out, and will try to set things right. Monday’s comic just became a lot more interesting to see! 😀