Be Excellent To Each Other

I've got it on the Kindle. And, in all fairness, tracing a family tree whilst reading a novel isn't great fun.

Oh come on, TK - it's not shite. It's not the comic books, no, but it's still one of the better things on telly at the moment.

To be honest I'm glad they've departed from the storylines of the comics, as otherwise I'd hsve no suspense at all.

What they should have done is based the show on a completely different set of characters, then I wouldn't have a problem with it.

I've got it on the Kindle. And, in all fairness, tracing a family tree whilst reading a novel isn't great fun.

You should try Steven Erikson if you want to keep track of a squillion people. It's like working for the Borders Agency.

OH MY GOD THIS IS GOOD.

EDIT - FAR BETTER THAN, SAY, ANY STUPID ELFY BOLLOCKS GAME.

Read the comics. I recently realised that Waterstones don't mind if you sit there reading them all.

HANG ON ?

Then they were taking the piss. Fair enough the guy was fat, but fuck off.

OF THE FONZ

Why must it be sooo sloooooow?

Because running zombies are NON CANON.

<narrows eyes>

As it was explained to be in World War Z, or the companion to it: the degradation of the cadavar is going to continue post transformation. Why not, upon the transformation, the victim would retain all of the physical prowess (plus about 10% as the feedback the body would give saying "stop this, you're fucking up your ligaments" would not be present) but have none of the living's repair mechanisms in place? The more time that has elapsed from transformation, the more damaged it would be .

Following on from this, in a world such as The Walking Dead, so much time has elapsed that there are a tiny minority of freshly transformed zombies. The chances of seeing one of them are low, given the ocean of broken, shambling animated corpses that surround them. And then, they would trip and fall over a lot, further destroying any remaining tissues, and become a slow zombie very quickly.

WWZ wasn't a particularly great book though.

Also, the reason they'd be shambling wrecks from day 1 is the same reason that, for example, someone with alzheimers or parkinson's is - the brain's fucked, innit. That's why they're still strong, but not fast. Or something.

Also, and I hate to break out the big guns here, Romero says so.

Although this does work too, of course.

I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist, but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can't fly; zombies do not run. It's a misconception, a bastardisation that diminishes a classic movie monster. The best phantasmagoria uses reality to render the inconceivable conceivable. The speedy zombie seems implausible to me, even within the fantastic realm it inhabits. A biological agent, I'll buy. Some sort of super-virus? Sure, why not. But death? Death is a disability, not a superpower. It's hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.

More significantly, the fast zombie is bereft of poetic subtlety. As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster. Where their pointy-toothed cousins are all about sex and bestial savagery, the zombie trumps all by personifying our deepest fear: death. Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable.

However (and herein lies the sublime artfulness of the slow zombie), their ineptitude actually makes them avoidable, at least for a while. If you're careful, if you keep your wits about you, you can stave them off, even outstrip them - much as we strive to outstrip death. Drink less, cut out red meat, exercise, practice safe sex; these are our shotguns, our cricket bats, our farmhouses, our shopping malls. However, none of these things fully insulates us from the creeping dread that something so witless, so elemental may yet catch us unawares - the drunk driver, the cancer sleeping in the double helix, the legless ghoul dragging itself through the darkness towards our ankles.

Another thing: speed simplifies the zombie, clarifying the threat and reducing any response to an emotional reflex. It's the difference between someone shouting "Boo!" and hearing the sound of the floorboards creaking in an upstairs room: a quick thrill at the expense of a more profound sense of dread. The absence of rage or aggression in slow zombies makes them oddly sympathetic, a detail that enabled Romero to project depth on to their blankness, to create tragic anti-heroes; his were figures to be pitied, empathised with, even rooted for. The moment they appear angry or petulant, the second they emit furious velociraptor screeches (as opposed to the correct mournful moans of longing), they cease to possess any ambiguity. They are simply mean.

I think [WWZ] could have done with better editing. I think we've got two copies in the house, at present, for some reason. The Zombie Survival Guide was quite good, up until the end, with teh accounts. Then it lost the spark of inventiveness that made it so funny.

Granted, running is locomotively more tricky that walking, but a zombie should be able to maintain a brisk walk up until such a point as the damage it gets from falling over means it cannot move its limbs at such a frequency any more.

I'm really fucking pleased I didn't grow up with him. "The instructions on the LEGO say it makes a fire engine. NOT A FUCKING ROBOT". He's killing creative play.

I'm pleased that we live in such an age where we can have a rational discussion about the ambulatory prowess of the undead without fear of ridicule.

I really can’t see why, from a biomechanical point of view, it wouldn’t also retain its speed, at least initially, as you say. Also, of course, if one postulates that it loses its speed due to deterioration of the body, then it would also, presumably, lose strength as well, unless something other than simple mechanics of muscle tissue is granting them their strength, and then you’re into the world of the zombies being caused by something related to the afterlife or some other such mumbo jumbo, which is shit. Zombies are caused by viruses, full stop. I can happily go along with the idea of infected carriers who don’t display symptoms until they die, but corpses coming back from the dead because hell’s full is just silly, and also wouldn’t explain why they then infect people they bite.

The "walking" dead tend to move at a slouch or limp. Even without injuries or advanced decomposition, their lack of coordination makes for an unsteady stride. Speed is mainly determined by leg length...Zombies appear incapable of running....the dead's advantage over the living is their tirelessness.

Ghouls posses the same brute force as the living. What muscle mass a person has in life would be all he possesses in death. [pain and exhaustion] do not apply to the dead. They will continue an act, with the same dynamic energy, until the muscles supporting it literally disintegrate

Zombies are caused by viruses, full stop.

At least stay logically consistent.

Apart from those reanimated through necromancy and humans under voodoo spells.

You .

Voodoo spells and necromancy come under the heading of "daft-ass mumbo jumbo", and will not be tolerated.

I don't mind a couple of weeks break mid-season, but several months is just irritating.

What a fucking ending! Brilliant episode. Moist between the eyes, me.

INORITE!?!?

I was close to greeting too. Fantastic ending.

Jeez oh! I've really enjoyed this series, I don't mind it not being all action. I like just seeing people trying to survive and the storyline has been good. Don't read the spoiler if you're not caught up to the mid season break.