Zombie Cliche Lookout: Dispensing with Niceties
There are a lot of different kinds of villains in zombie stories, and they all serve different roles. One of my favorites is the person who isn’t really a bad guy, but can’t quite hack it as a normal survivor and has to assert themselves in other ways. The go to example here is Cooper in Night of the Living Dead. There are, naturally, villains that are much more obviously bad as well. I already mentioned the biker gang from Dawn of the Dead, so let’s jump to another zombie mainstay: The Walking Dead.
On the show I have seen two major villains and a handful of smaller ones (the guys at Terminus, for instance). Our two main baddies, The Governor and Negan, contrast fairly nicely. The Governor being generally calm and forceful, where Negan is boisterous and crazy. Both have histories and goals that justify their villainy, and viewers can poke all sorts of holes in those justifications.
About this Episode:
I’m not sure if it’s entirely clear, especially after a comment in the previous episode, what’s going on in the background. Murphy’s friends are all on their knees, with Jess standing behind them with a gun. The threat is very clear: Murphy can behave, or be the cause of his buddies getting executed.
Discussion Question: Excuses for Bad Behaviour
I touched on this a bit in the Zombie Cliche Lookout, but people’s justifications for their villain-like behavior is something that always fascinates me. I especially like it when the excuse makes sense from a logical perspective, but a reasonable person can look at it and point out all the different ways they could have approached the problems without hurting other people. The villain simply doesn’t think this way.
That said, your mission today is to justify Ned, based on the little you know or can safely assume based on what’s happened in the comic thus far. Good luck.
Typo alert:
“I already mentioned the biker game from Dawn of the Dead,” game–>gang
“and views can poke all sorts of holes” views–>viewers 😀
Fixed both. Thanks!
I wonder what Ned is going to think if one of his men get shot at or killed? 😀
It will be extremely interesting to see how Wednesday’s comic plays out! 😀
I, for one, expect shots to be fired from someplace Ned isn’t expecting! 😀
Possibly a change in the attitude he’s currently exhibiting, too! 😀
Hah, we shall see.
Even more interesting will be is if Ned is the one that gets shot. I guess it depends on who Gus and Russell are targeting first! 😀
If you were Gus or Russell, who would you target first? Assuming you were there at all, of course.
I assumed you could read between the lines there mate. I’d be shooting Ned, seems like Gus has had a run-in with Ned, and doesn’t like the guy at all! 😀
Oh, no, I did. That was a rhetorical question.
Discussion Question: Should Murphy stand his ground a second time and start complaining, or insist on an explanation first, as if he’s dumber than anyone Ned ever knew? Or should he play along for now? I don’t rightly know what’s happening on Wednesday, so discuss this here and now if you want! 😀
We might be able to squeeze it in.
Nah, squeeze the trigger instead or let a zombie horde loose on this group! 😀 It’d be interesting to see how Ned deals with more zombies than even his current group could handle! 😀
Don’t know why, but I was redirected to brickcomicnetwork.com/dropdown/bcn.min.js where they asked for an auth. You should check your security, it was probably breached.
Can you tell me what you did to get redirected there? Did you click a link or something like that?
Well, for me at least, the BCN’s not even loading. I can’t even find it’s banner on your page! 😀
( did post about the fact that the BCN is closing, got a message from Tranquility about it. PM’ed her, and sure enough, it’s closing down.
If you had an account with the BCN it’s going to be deleted at the end of June along with most of the site and forum posts. If not, don’t worry about it too much.
Yeah, I got the same email and removed the drop-down. Looks like it was cached for some people.
exit stage, Ned. Enter the really nasty Bad guy Ned was keeping in check.
I’m sure Dave will be on stage when all else fails! 😀 He likes open and shut cases! 😉