Walking Dead Season Two

[Mord]

About the stink of rotting flesh being a dead give-away issue, has anyone pondered the possibility that these are a more sophisticated, better groomed breed of  zombies that have discovered perfume somehow? Just another point to consider.

[frankenstein73]

Im pretty sure the whole world smells at this point, and they are used to it. It s like smelling a can of rotten tuna in a pile of rotting fish!

[Anton Phibes]

Zombies would only poop if there was an active digestive system. I thought only the brain was functioning.

[Sean]

Zombies would only poop if there was an active digestive system. I thought only the brain was functioning.

All kinds of muscle groups are deployed by zombies.  How do they chew?  Swallow?  My guess is that they poop... but that they are chronically constipated and that issues of impaction are prevalent.

[Sean]

Here's an incongruency that presents a problem:  The Walking Dead zombies don't breathe.  They even went through the painstaking task of removing their visible breath from the last episode... BUT... Walking Dead zombies DO vocalize... and air/ breath is needed to generate even utterances.  Zombies that don't breathe CANNOT make vocal sounds.  Period.

[zombiehorror]

Here's an incongruency that presents a problem:  The Walking Dead zombies don't breathe.  They even went through the painstaking task of removing their visible breath from the last episode... BUT... Walking Dead zombies DO vocalize... and air/ breath is needed to generate even utterances.  Zombies that don't breathe CANNOT make vocal sounds.  Period.

Yep, yet another suspension of disbelief present in most zombie flicks!  One that has always stood out to me is when reanimated heads talk; Return of the Living Dead 2, Re-Animator, Cemetery Man, etc.! 

I remember reading about the video game Dead Island and part of the article mentioned there were going to be several ways to dispatch zombies, one of which would be drowning them?!?!

[Moonshadow]

Yep, yet another suspension of disbelief present in most zombie flicks!  One that has always stood out to me is when reanimated heads talk; Return of the Living Dead 2, Re-Animator, Cemetery Man, etc.! 

I remember reading about the video game Dead Island and part of the article mentioned there were going to be several ways to dispatch zombies, one of which would be drowning them?!?!

It seems incongruous, doesn't it? That's why I lean towards a supernatural explanation with zombies. Most supernatural critters have some sort of specialized -in some cases, ritualized -way of dispatching them. Think of vampires and werewolves. You could shoot a werewolf  repeatedly to no effect, but you can beat him to death with a silver tipped cane! Makes no sense, but, hey, it's magic. With zombies, you can blow them apart and yet they keep moving. But take out the brain and down they go, which again makes little sense -unless it's all magical. Modern zombies in film seem to owe less to the voodoo cults and more to the legends of revenants and ghouls. There were certain ways to ensure that these creatures stayed dead. What we've lost nowadays in films is the idea that religious symbolism or the involvement of clergy could stop these monsters. I can imagine a priest standing before a mob of zombies, commanding them back to their graves - he'd quickly become a zombie picnic.

[Unknown Primate]

I like your style, Moonshadow.

[zombiehorror]

That's why I lean towards a supernatural explanation with zombies.

That's why I lean toward just ignoring such inconsistencies!

If there were any supernatural element to them it would surely be included in the plot of a given film; Modern zombie films have all but gotten rid of any supernatural explanation; virus, contagion, chemical and biological reasons are used as the catalyst for zombies.  Surely in the zombie days of old if you fatally shot a somnambulist-voodoo zombie in any part of its body it would take them out?!

[Moonshadow]

That's why I lean toward just ignoring such inconsistencies!

If there were any supernatural element to them it would surely be included in the plot of a given film; Modern zombie films have all but gotten rid of any supernatural explanation; virus, contagion, chemical and biological reasons are used as the catalyst for zombies.  Surely in the zombie days of old if you fatally shot a somnambulist-voodoo zombie in any part of its body it would take them out?!

I just like thinking about this stuff, just like wondering about super-hero powers or faster than light travel, anything that doesn't have a solid explanation. But I do expect a book or movie to have some sort of internal consistency; that is, if they say you can only kill a zombie by a brain shot, then they better stick to it.

Nowadays it seems like zombies have been mostly removed from purely supernatural origins, but I think many films leave a bit of a mystery as to how  and why the zombies are there. After all, even in Dawn of the Dead, we were told, "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead shall walk the earth!" I like a little ambiguity. Who's to say that the zombie virus might not be the work of the infernal regions?

I like your style, Moonshadow.

Right back atcha buddy!

[Toy Ranch]

I think zombies just eat until they bust, and after that it all just falls out the hole(s).

[frankenstein73]

As far as the explination of the zombies for the walking dead comics. I know in the letters section in the early WD comics Kirkman mentioned several times that his story isnt focused on the zombies, and he hadn't planned on explaining what caused the outbreak., its about the people in the situation and how they survive. Part of the story was them not knowing how it happened. Left wondering.  we the audience dont know any more than the characters do. which alot of zombie movies etc.. often showed us what happened ie. chemical release, God version, monkey attack,etc... the comic was written in 2004 which seemed like a fresh concept at that time. Even the nicknames for the zombies came through the caracters trying to understand what they were. walkers, roamers, etc. This is a phenominal comic and if you havent read it, I strongly urge you to. the back issues are very expensive but you can get the compiled hardbacks 10 issues per book for a reasonable sum. You wont be dissapointed.

[Mord]

Can we get a doctor, scientist, or priest to answer our pressing questions (or, at the very least, a comic book writer).

[Mord]

  BTW, if zombies did poop, wouldn't they be stepping in it every time they walked in a field? It would be a dead giveaway to the zombies location. I mean, I would think that undead poop would smell way worse than regular poop.

[Anton Phibes]

I  really don't wish to get too technical in real life/actual  death vs. zombies. Because if we went "by the book" and didn't just use the Star Trek method of "making this crap up as we go"....... all of the male zombies would be frightfully embarrassed.  Thats all I'm sayin'.