Zombie Cliche Lookout: De-Escalation
With zombies, you only have a few choices for how you’ll deal with them. You can run away, fight them, or attempt to hide or divert them. With people, things are a bit more complicated in that you might actually be able to resolve a conflict with words, or at least without violence or flight. This can be more difficult than it sounds, especially in high tension situations where there is a lot on the line. Making the conscious choice to not rise to that tension is extremely difficult, especially since it also puts you in even greater danger until the other side chooses to stand down as well.
About this Episode:
So far in this comic, I believe I’ve made every character right handed. This wasn’t a deliberate choice by any means, it’s just sort of what I defaulted to as a right handed person myself. I didn’t really give it a whole lot of thought before today’s episode when Henry needed to grab Murphy’s weapon. In this case, I wanted to show Henry doing so with his non-dominant hand. Of course the audience has no idea which of his hands are dominant, so I’ll just point it out here. Henry is right handed, and took the gun in his left hand to demonstrate that he does not plan to use it.
Discussion Question: Drawing the Line
In the last episode, Henry made a demand, which Bill then followed up with a very clear threat. You can read this a few different ways, from Henry being reasonable and Bill trying to get Murphy to escalate, to Henry simply giving Bill the assist in trying to bring things to violence. Regardless, we see here that Murphy does not take the bait and disarms himself. If you were in Murphy’s shoes, what do you think the right course of action would be? Don’t forget, most of your friends are somewhere is, very possibly in danger.
Typo alert: bate–>bait 😀
Fixed!
Being a law enforcement officer, Murphy would be a logical choice for someone who knows when to back down. But what do you reckon would have happened had he chosen otherwise?
We still have no idea where Russell and Gus figure into this plan, yet! I’m hoping they took Gus with them, would be interesting to see how Bill and Henry handle having an unforseen snag in their current setup! 😀
Excellent point; I think it’s a truly underappreciated skill.
Also, just because one’s got a gun in their off hand doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t pull the trigger. If they haven’t received proper training in handling guns and other lethal weapons there’s a good chance they could misfire with it in their off hand.
What are the chances Henry accidentally shoots that gun and it does more damage than any of the people currently visible intended for it to do? 😀
That’s a good point. You can certainly shoot with either hand. I think I over-thought this one.
Also, let’s say Murphy had been a soldier in the army instead of a law enforcement officer. What would have happened had he handed Henry a live hand grenade and pulled the pin out, saying, “here hold onto this for me”? 😀 It’s interesting to note that guns are usually the main source of antagonistic behavior that leads to violence, but had Murphy had live ammunition experience, he might well have handed Henry something that would make both of them extremely nervous and willing to be cooperative! 😀
Movie grenades work like that real ones don’t. Modern grenades come with safety clips that also have to be removed before it will work, then the pin pulled, then the detonator activated by releasing the lever. Then it has a five second delay. This all means trying to hand some a live grenade means that they are blind and a little deaf and for some reason not able to move very fast for it to work. Fun Fact grenades if a grenade is on the ground close to you do not run away, get on the ground as fast as you can. Since the force of the detonation will mostly go up you can avoid most of the shrapnel even if you are very close. You will be deafened and shook severely but still mostly functional.
Wow, you’re very knowledgeable about grenades.
I have a potential discussion question: Here the main character had a chance to overpower some people who are most likely bandits out to rob and murder his friends.
So my question is, “Do you (the reader) prefer heroes who try to find a peacefull solution first or a hero who would immidietly resort to violence, viewing it as practical to strike the enemy first.
What would you do if given the chance?”
Oh man, this is a great one. I’m going to use it for Wednesday!