Zombie Cliche Lookout: Final Standoff
There comes a point in much of zombie fiction where the good guys are triumphant, and the human enemies stand before them, defenseless. All of the injustices and offenses committed by those bad guys are laid bare for the audience to consider while our heroes determine what happens next. Do they show mercy and perhaps reserve some of their humanity by letting the bad guys live? Do they ensure that the villains will harm no one else, and perhaps get a bit of vengeance by shooting them down? And what does that say about the nature of survival and the character of the survivors?
About this Episode:
Okay folks, we’re rapidly approaching the end of the comic. Since there’s only a couple of episodes left, I thought I’d toss out an idea that was suggested (possibly sarcastically) by BrickVoid a few weeks ago. Would you guys be interested in doing a question and answer session after the final episode. Ask me whatever, and I’ll do my best to answer.
I probably wouldn’t do it live, because that would be very difficult given that readers are in time zones all over the world. Instead, I’ll just ask you guys to start placing your questions in the comments and I’ll copy them over to a Q&A post that will go up a little after the last comic.
Other News:
Here in the US it’s a holiday (Independence Day), so I’m not going to be around to follow up on comments. I’ll jump on tomorrow to respond and fix my (numerous) typos. Thanks, as always.
Discussion Question: Capital Punishment?
This could be construed as a bit of a politically charged question, so keep in mind that I’m asking about a hypothetical situation during a zombie apocalypse. Disclaimer out of the way: would you support capital punishment for criminals in a post-apocalyptic environment? And, if so, what constraints would you put on that? Would it only apply to violent offenders? Is there are sort of appeals process? How would you ensure that justice had been fairly served?
In a dystopian future full of radical biker gangs facing off against undead critters I would say its a safe bet you will find capitol punishment somewhere for a lot of crimes that were once very, very less so.
After all, you have no where to put offenders, and banishment from the safety of your coloney is pretty much the same thing.
That said, I probibly would be against it, being the (hopefully) nice guy mutant mangler biker dude I would become.
Unless its for taking the last cup of coffee and not refilling the pot afterwards. That is a total banishment offense… Via catapult into the zombie hordes.
Because Im reasonable like that. 😀
That is indeed a vile crime.
I can’t see any typos, I looked carefully at “defenseless” and “offenses” and they both seem like US versions of words I’m familiar with.
As always, if anyone spots a typo please post it for Dave to fix! 😀
I’m shocked.
I think there could be an entire mini-series built around loose ends that need tying up in this comic. Therefore my question for Dave is this:
Would he like to come back at a later date and fix continuity errors and loose ends that need fixing ortying up?
I’d reckon the timeframe should be reasonable, say, one year after the ending of the comic, or something like that.
Is he going to finalize the character bios after the end of the comic?
I’d still like to see Dave get 1,000 episodes. Or a new storyline entirely. Would Dave be at all interested in coming back with a new format a year or more down the track? Zombie fiction seems pretty successful for a webcomic, so maybe he would feel he’d like to write zombie fiction once again at a later date. Up to Dave really.
I’m not ready to lose BotD. :'(
That is nice to hear.
I won’t rule it out, but it likely wouldn’t be anytime soon.
As for Cheryl wanting to shoot Ned: I reckon she should! 😀 He’s caused enough trouble for them and she’s got heaps of reasons to do so. But, as they say, it is in the capacity for all people to forgive. The question is, will Ned even bother with asking this of Cheryl? 😀
Right you are. Beyond the capacity to forgive is whether that person has the capacity to take a life. That’s not something everyone is able to do, which is probably a good thing.
And beyond the wilful taking of a life, there’s the accidental misfire caused by faulty guns. I wonder how those people feel when they took someone’s life even though that was never their intent?
Capital Punishment is a sensitive subject. Regardless of the side you choose, in a post-apocalyptic world, you don’t have the resources to keep people locked up and guarded.
If they were NOT to kill them, then the group would either A: come back and try and harm everyone else again, or B: do what they did to yet another group of individuals. I think their death is a must at that point.
The only real question is, how much do you let them suffer when you kill them. I’m for a quick death, but I won’t lie and say there isn’t a part of me that wants to shoot them in the stomach and let it take days for them to die…
Very well reasoned. I think you could take the argument a step further and say that, even if you did have the resources to lock someone up, doesn’t using those resources on a violent criminal put the rest of your group at risk? Isn’t that a poor survival strategy at least? I think you could even make the argument that it’s unethical.
I would have to say it is a must. You can have morals and ethics in a civilized world, or even a community. But this is life or death on a day to day basis. These types will come back if they survive banishment and they will get people killed. Also always make it a head shot, even though you think it might make you feel better or the bastard deserved it, you can’t risk either them somehow surviving, or adding another soldier to the army of undead.
Idk about this.
So…jess shot stew. But it was hard to tell what was going on. And now stew is…dying? And the good guys get control that easily. Idk.
I would have really liked to see you make this into a long term story arc. Maybe ending around the 1000 episode mark. It could be fantastic! Some ups and downs. Victories for the heroes and victories for the villains. But in the end, the heroes probably coming out on top.
But this just seems like a rushed conclusion to the series.
You always talk about the humans being the real villains of the zombie apocalypse. But you havent really had any longterm human villains.
You had Sam’s kidnappers:
They were killed instantly.
You had the prisoners:
They put up a good fight, but died.
You have lou (i think that was his name)
Met him. Paralyzed him. Found out he was bad. (Which I dont know if I believe) and he Died offscreen.
You have inez who could be an AMAZING villain. Would love to see her come back and fight our group. That would be epic. But i guess we wont see any more from her.
Clark was a coward. Now he’s gone.
These guys looked like they could be masterminds. Villains equal to our heroes. But it seems like that’s not gonna be the case. Unless they have some back-up.
I guess I was looking forward to you creating a group for our characters to go to war with. And a villain that’s still human. Where you can understand where they’re coming from and feel for them a bit. I think you could have done that really well. I trust you to make a good story, more than Twd. Lol.
And I hope you still will. Hoping, some day in the future, you see some Legos, and get the itch to revisit this little comic! Either way, I’ve loved both reading this comic, and interacting with the community! You guys are great! 😀
Yeah, I was worried things would seem rushed. It wasn’t really my intent. What I’m shooting for here is to show the escalation of the threat. Our group so far has faced off against zombies, and very poorly organized human bad guys (except for Sam, who just plain got lucky). This is the first time they’re up against and organized threat. Yes, they managed to turn the tabled quickly, but not without cost and only because they had the dumb luck to happen across an ally.
My idea was to show that they’re capable of overcoming challenges, but that the challenges they’re going to be facing are going to get bigger and bigger. I want to close out the comic not with an ending, but as the beginning of an unwritten chapter of the story.
As always, I have no idea if it works they way I intended it.
Dave: “I want to close out the comic not with an ending, but as the beginning of an unwritten chapter of the story.”
This is just what I don’t like to see. It’s called a Cliffhanger Ending which is anything that avoids really providing a proper ending and outcome.
I really want you to write this unwritten ending, because now it’s going to get stuck forever in my head how things would have ended. I really thought better of you, Dave, but a cliffhanger? Please, say no you won’t do that to us! 😀
I still have yet to see this beginning of an unwritten chapter, and I will categorically demand you write and finish it. 😀
It won’t be a cliffhanger. This story-arc will be resolved. What is unstated is whatever happens next. How do these events change the characters over time? What other problems do they run into.
The zombie problem, in other words, won’t be solved. They’re still surviving. The immediate crisis is over, but there will always be others on the horizon.
Again, I suspect this won’t make everyone happy.
I guess it’s something to look forward to then. We shall see how badly your continuity checker and part-time scriptwriter fudged the rest of this story-arc! 😀
Also, “this” story arc? What about the other story arcs? I still am not satisfied at all with the way in which you did away with Vicky and her two kids. It was far too open-ended, and didn’t provide proper resolution of the story line, which is something you should have aimed for.
It also leaves the fates of both Clark and Barb just hanging there unfinished. Unfinished storyline is unfinished. 😀
You’re right. I’m not going to be addressing everything. I didn’t intend to because I think a story suffers when you explain what happens to everything and why. Clark ran off. He thought he was a badass, but ended up being a coward. Barb found her strength, and will use that to continue to survive.
Vicky and the kids? We don’t know. People simply disappear in disasters, and some of them are never found. It’s tragic, and that’s what I was trying to conjure for them.
I know people aren’t happy about that, and I’m sure my ending isn’t going to please everyone. That sucks, but it is what it is.
You are asking a resource question. Caring for prisoners takes people away from other tasks. If your group cannot afford to do this you must either kill the criminals or let them go. If they are as dangerous as Ned proved to be letting them go is not really an option. Saving Private Ryan had this dilemma when they captured the German soldier. Killing him is against the Laws of War but letting him live presented a real threat to their mission and lives. BTW the German soldier did nothing wrong or against the Laws of War. Once released he rejoined his army and continued the fight, exactly as soldiers are taught to do.
Oh, nice analogy. Didn’t that soldier show back up at the end and kill several people?
Yes the German Soldier did come back but as I said that is what soldiers are supposed to do.
I like the idea of the Q&A!
I am reading a interesting post apoc book called ” one second after”. Short synopsis is the US get hit by an EMP ans it’s back to medieval times. Story takes place in a small town of NC. Martial law is quickly enforced and early on the town official condemn some looters to a firing squad. The martial law is used as justification for this sentence… Anyone knows if that is possible/realistic?
I just read those books a couple of months back, Greg. What a coincidence.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really care for them. I read the whole series because they were a personal recommendation.
I am almost done with the first one and I have not yet made up my mind about it. I find that the story aspect is very weak but I am intrigued by other things. The near-scientific deconstruction of the society strikes me as well researched. There’s a doctor in the story that explains the various health hazards that will arise after TSHTF, almost providing a timeline of the population deaths along with the different causes. The fact that the story takes place about 3hrs drive from where I live is also another interesting aspect…
Overall I fell like the author wrote some sort of theoretical analysis on the collapse of society based on the simple premise of an EMP strike… And as an afterthought decided to write a story around it.
I had very similar thoughts. The characters are very one-dimensional and the plot it light. It’s all there to service the goal of talking about EMPs as potential large-scale disasters.
The concept is very interesting, but I think I would have read an essay or two on it instead of a novel. At least in this case.
Under martial law the military is simply in charge–now this doesn’t mean that they get to do whatever they want just because some guy is a solider. He needs orders from higher on up the command chain and if someone even higher complains, his ass is grass.
The real problem I have with such stories is that it involves switch-flipping. I use this term to describe any scenario where peoples attitudes and beliefs change quickly; like at the flip of a switch. We loose power and everyone turns violent murdering each other for can peaches. Doesn’t matter if scenarios like loosing power happen in real life and everyone remains calm, the story needed that to happen so it happens.
Many writers try to justify that by having bad guys force others hand, but that just mean those antagonists switch-flipped them selves. Our current set of baddies went through months of such problems so it wasn’t so quick with them.
Gotta have transitions to make things work. Sorry for going off on a tangent, it just REALLY annoys me…
Not exactly, under martial law a higher government takes control of more of daily life than usual. While military units, mostly reservists are brought in the regular forces such as police are also used and put under direct control of the higher government. Hollywood likes to show a military officer in charge that officer still reports to the civilian government.