The Walking Dead Season 3

[MPH]

DarthTom wrote:

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That's true. The producers and writers on the series have said publicly they want the show to go on indefinitely. I'm not sure modern audiences will accept a story arc that has the characters forever living a more grim life. There has to be IMO at some point hope and a search for the "cure," or people will tire of new and existing characters simply getting killed off each and every season.

True! This series after the governor arc needs a goal as it will get boring really fast.
In the comics whats the next scenario? Heard alot about the prison arc but not much after.

[Derishton]

I'm delaying my purchase of the latest trade for the reasons cited above. I love this series, and I love the set-up in the current arc. But the "event" you're referring to leaves me cold: not delicious dread but a kind of ennui dread. It doesn't seem to lead to story possibilities. Maybe that's the point.

[Vendikarr]

MPH wrote:

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True! This series after the governor arc needs a goal as it will get boring really fast.
In the comics whats the next scenario? Heard alot about the prison arc but not much after.

After the prison arc, they are basically on the road for twenty or so issues. Each storyline lasts three to five issues. I would describe it as: Aftermath of the prison / Join scientist & ex-military Abraham and Rosita going to D.C. / Morgan and Dwayne / THE herd / The Minister / Cannibals / Alexandria. There is a lot left out but that gives you the gist of things.

[wissaboo]

I keep wondering why they aren't already killing every zombie they see. At some point they have to start trying to exterminate them

[RJDiogenes]

Daryl has mentioned in the past that they should be doing that. The other thing is, even if the decomposition process is slowed, these zombies are obviously rotting away-- how many months or years will it be before the zombie herds become completely unjustifiable?

[TREK_GOD_1]

RJDonner&Blitzen wrote:

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Daryl has mentioned in the past that they should be doing that.

That would be far too much common sense for this series, which features characters making irrational decisions every step of the way, as though they have learned nothing from surviving in a world overrun with zombies.

The producers continue to have the characters act this way for the sake of false drama. Some characters are interesting, but they end up suffering when the main plots must have most making assbrained mistakes or motivated by decisions anyone would see as a disaster in the making.

The other thing is, even if the decomposition process is slowed, these zombies are obviously rotting away-- how many months or years will it be before the zombie herds become completely unjustifiable?

The producer argument against that is "new zombies are created all the time," so when the older ghouls decompose beyond functionality, there's another generation to replace them.

[Scout101]

bad math, though. The BULK of new zombies would have been right at the start of the outbreak. They either turned or killed a huge percentage of the humans. From now on, the new zombie creation would be a trickle at best.

Especially since the zombies are just as likely to tear apart as to bite and turn a person, so they're not even making new zombies at a slow level, it's a very tiny number. Small human population, and really just getting the ones that die of non-zombie causes at this point, so they won't be replenishing the herd.

[PKerr]

I would be killing everyone I saw as well, especially the ones around the prison.

I know Rick said he wanted a bunch still lurking around the fence to make it look like the prison was still overrun and keep strangers away (the bad ones) but wouldn't that keep the people legitimately looking for help away too?
Has Rick totally abandoned his plan to look for other survivors and a safe haven?

He has the safe haven, so...

I just know that it would always be in the back of my mind that the Zombies might find a way in or one of them could potentially bite me or one of my group on the way in or out of the prison.

I would also think that if I killed all the ones around me that it would take days, weeks, months or even years for others to potentially reach me and I would want to deal with them on more of a one on one/two bases instead of a herd.


As far as making new ones... How many new ones could be made with the majority being made in the first days, weeks, months of the outbreak?

How many could be made with the majority consuming any potential new ones? OR
If you are bitten the other survivors "take care of you" either before or after you die.

Don't we see week after week all the abandoned cities that are overrun with zombies?
Aren't we lead to believe that there are only small pockets of survivors left here and there?

[PKerr]

Scout101 wrote:

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bad math, though. The BULK of new zombies would have been right at the start of the outbreak. They either turned or killed a huge percentage of the humans. From now on, the new zombie creation would be a trickle at best.

Especially since the zombies are just as likely to tear apart as to bite and turn a person, so they're not even making new zombies at a slow level, it's a very tiny number. Small human population, and really just getting the ones that die of non-zombie causes at this point, so they won't be replenishing the herd.

Right, beat me to it.

[TREK_GOD_1]

Scout101 wrote:

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bad math, though. The BULK of new zombies would have been right at the start of the outbreak. They either turned or killed a huge percentage of the humans. From now on, the new zombie creation would be a trickle at best.

That's the math the producers have cornered themselves into applying, otherwise, there is no zombie threat beyond a few months, as decomposition to the point where tendons, etc, rot away only takes a very short amount of time. Of course, the producers would argue that the laws of nature do not apply in their fantasy world, for the same reason zombies could not exist in the real world.

So for their own ends, large numbers of zombies will continue to be produced forever.

[Scout101]

That IS the big problem with trying to do a zombie show that's long lasting. That's why the majority pretty much show the initial outbreak, or a short time thereafter, so you can skip a lot of the logistics that drag you down later. Zombies only really make sense in a short-term way.

So to make the show work, kinda HAVE to be stuck in a perpetual '1 month after outbreak' timeframe.

Otherwise, the zombies die/fall apart, the human defenses get too built up, zombies become commonplace enough that no one's afraid anymore, etc.

You NEED the fresh threat of zombie herds, and the certain amount of fright or at least overwhelming numbers, or the concept just doesn't work. Then it's just random post-appocolypse show, and whenever anyone dies, you stab them in the head and move on with your day...

[Morpheus 02]

Thee's a couple of ways to stretch the show

1. Have one season by flashbacks of other survivors (so say, end of season 4 end with our heroes meeting one or two other groups and it looks like a standoff. Season 5 gives us the flashbacks of the "The Others", so we see what they are REALLY about (i.e. burnt out heroes like our own, or devious villains). Season 6 resumes the fight, and see who survives

2. Parallel stories around the world with, with a season where they all join together. That could make some interesting spin-off series, where say Korea (who are experts in arced dramas ) gives their own perspective.


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As for "new" zombies...there could have been larger groups of survivors for a while that get decimated.

perhaps some wars happen whee many people die (and they don't get bodies for fear of being shot).

Maybe a plague happens, and many die before a cure is found.

Not everyone knows that ANY death makes one a zombie, so people find out too late.

Also, the winter might have been particularly cold, so decomposition process was literally frozen for a good long while (the opposite of Chicago's last winter).

[TREK_GOD_1]

Scout101 wrote:

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You NEED the fresh threat of zombie herds, and the certain amount of fright or at least overwhelming numbers, or the concept just doesn't work. Then it's just random post-appocolypse show, and whenever anyone dies, you stab them in the head and move on with your day...

Unfortunately, the comic set that "random post-apocolypse show" in motion, which is why the best zombie stories are short--as in the movies: there's a beginning, middle and end, because as you say, if it continues, its just a retread of the same survivor vs. zombie conflicts or survivor vs. survivor bickering/fights week after week, no matter the location, change of characters or bloodshed.

I believe the opposite is the reason the creators of the Resident Evil videogames have been so wildly successful: they created a zombie outbreak, but added science and mysticism to the mix to expand the kind of threats the protagonists will face. The film versions did not execute this well, but the games opened the path to making the zombie plot something more complicated than what we see in TWD.

[wissaboo]

Morpheus 02 wrote:

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Thee's a couple of ways to stretch the show

1. Have one season by flashbacks of other survivors (so say, end of season 4 end with our heroes meeting one or two other groups and it looks like a standoff. Season 5 gives us the flashbacks of the "The Others", so we see what they are REALLY about (i.e. burnt out heroes like our own, or devious villains). Season 6 resumes the fight, and see who survives

2. Parallel stories around the world with, with a season where they all join together. That could make some interesting spin-off series, where say Korea (who are experts in arced dramas ) gives their own perspective.


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As for "new" zombies...there could have been larger groups of survivors for a while that get decimated.

perhaps some wars happen whee many people die (and they don't get bodies for fear of being shot).

Maybe a plague happens, and many die before a cure is found.

Not everyone knows that ANY death makes one a zombie, so people find out too late.

Also, the winter might have been particularly cold, so decomposition process was literally frozen for a good long while (the opposite of Chicago's last winter).

they could kill everyone in this show and start up fresh at the origional point societal breakdown with a whole new group and have just as compelling a show.

[Gotham Central]

I think that you folks are dramatically underestimating how many people there are in the world at this point.

There are seven billion people on this planet. Its a good bet that the zombie apocalypse only took care of about a quarter of that in the first year.

The thing is this particular ZA comes with the added problem that EVERYONE will become a zombie. Thus even in communities that thought that they were safe and made it through the first year, the could still fall if someone drops dead and they don't expect them to change. That could bring down even well fortified communities and thus create brand new waves of walkers. Hell that National Guard group was from a site that was only recently overrun...more than a year after the initial outbreak.

Add to that survivor communities where folks will inevitably die more slowly due to starvation, disease and tribal warfare...its going to take a while to bring down those billions. The herds that we saw in Atlanta cannot even come close to the actual population of that city. The group we are following could be in a location with a fairly sparse population.

I hate to bring up WWZ, but that book painted pretty grim but elaborate picture of the difficulty in reclaming the planet after a ZA. It took 10 years to win the war....and it took that long in a ZA where everyone was not infected and thus were not guaranteed to turn.