AMC-The Walking Dead

[Sapphire Silk]

Spoilers:
This may be different in the TV series, but that's how it is in the comics, at least.

I think it is different in the TV series because I've seen lots of dead bodies that didn't have head wounds in the TV show (though in the pilot a lot of people were shot in the head "just in case").

[ohsobitter]

I was wondering more why when they got stuck on the highway, when the girl got lost, some of the people mummified instead of turning into zombies. I guess that might be more for special effects instead of them decomposing.





Highlight for spoiler!
I still can't believe it about Otis!

[Antisocial_Worker]

why does there need to be a reason explained?
explanations are not always necessary, and tend to detract from the story in many cases. Life doesn't always hand the causes for things tied up in neat little packages, and I for one prefer stories that don't try to, it's slightly insulting IMHO.

I would prefer some more explanation because it could seriously affect the future plot. Let me explain.

We have zombies. The characters have remarked on how they all smell dead. Does that mean they're rotting even while they're lurching around? You never see flies swarming around them, though. You only see that with regular corpses. But if they are rotting, can you just wait them out? In Atlanta in the summer, they'll rot to the bare bones in a month, tops.

But if they're not rotting, can they starve to death? Surely they've chowed down on pretty much everyone and everything there was to eat already, so can we just give it a month until most of them shut down? I don't care if your brain stem is all that's working -- a body needs fuel of some kind to keep going. If they're not rotting, do they need water in addition to food? If so, they don't appear to drink anything, and in time their bodies will either shut down or lock up from lack of fluids.

In short, to coin a phrase, explanation is power.

[ohsobitter]

I've wondered that too, not just for this show, but for all the movies and things. They can't just go on forever, IMO. Once the food ran out, I would think they were turn on themselves. They did however eat the horse in the very first show, so maybe that would be the way for them to stay alive a lot longer.

[blas]

Pretty much the only zombies I've seen that actually starve to death and die that way were in the 28 Days/Weeks Later films. Every other movie or TV special, they just seem to keep living anyway, no matter how little there is to feed on or for how many years.

About how far are we since this all happened? A year or so?

[Mytical]

The feeding is instinctual only, a 'lower brain function'. They do not need food or water to survive, being dead, and only do so because it is an instinct. However, logically..if this was so..the zombies would have already turned on each other. If the need to feed was instinctual..then anything they encountered would be food..including others like them.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've wondered that too, not just for this show, but for all the movies and things. They can't just go on forever, IMO. Once the food ran out, I would think they were turn on themselves. They did however eat the horse in the very first show, so maybe that would be the way for them to stay alive a lot longer.

Eventually, the body would rot completely, leaving only bone. Without a brain to animate the body, the zombie would become non-functional.

Technically, the vast majority of zombies should shut down after a couple of months at the most unless there's some evidence that decomposition is slowed down. In the hot Georgia sun, bodies would rot, not mummify. Mummification requires dry heat, very little humidity. That's not Georgia!

The feeding is instinctual only, a 'lower brain function'. They do not need food or water to survive, being dead, and only do so because it is an instinct. However, logically..if this was so..the zombies would have already turned on each other. If the need to feed was instinctual..then anything they encountered would be food..including others like them.

Zombies seem to need living flesh to survive. There is something about living flesh, some kind of energy I suppose, that the zombies desire to maintain their function. They do seem to need the food they consume.

However, eating each other doesn't seem to work. Dead flesh lacks something they seem to need.

However, cities are full of vermin: rats, pigeons for example. Cats or dogs. Other forms of small animals kept as pets. Zoo animals. And of course, livestock.

The zombies wandering in the country seem to be able to catch deer and other woodland animals, which is odd considering the smell should frighten the animals far enough away to avoid it.

[Mytical]

I am only going on the information provided during the CDC base incident. Which suggests that like in Resident Evil, only the basic instincts are 'relit' when they come back. With everything that makes the being an individual gone. Implies that they do not feed for any reason, just that eating is genetically wired into them..and the reason they feed is only that. Only that would make little sense, as anything not themselves would be food. It can not be an instinct against cannibalism as they are already committing such.

There have been a few reasons given for the dead's desire for living flesh, like in Return of the Living dead they eat brains specifically because it provides some sort of enzyme that momentarily stops them from feeling the decay. It actually makes no sense however you cut it, as hardly any zombie movie has them attacking animals. If any living flesh would do, they would attack anything, and if it is about instinct they would avoid humans until everything else is exhausted. So there may indeed be a 'viable' reason they attack humans first and foremost, but none has ever been given (well besides in return of the living dead as apparently this enzyme only exists in living human brains).

Edit : Though in 28 days they seem to need food, from what I gather they really are not dead either. Just have a virus that makes them attack anything without the virus? I could be wrong though.

[ohsobitter]

Did anyone watch the Aftershow last night? I can't believe there is a Zombie society, or whatever that one guy said he was with. They've really thought this thing thru!

[Geek King]

One theory on why the zombies attack that I like is that the virus itself rewires the brain to spread itself to new hosts. Of course, only live hosts can circulate the virus, so zombies don't mess with already dead stuff. Also, other zombies don't need to be infected again, so they don't attack things that smell/look/act like zombie. The need to infect and spead also explains why the zombies would roam when food isn't detected in the near vicinity, or otherwise can't be gotten to.

There may also be some slight need by the rotting body to intake some food to keep going. Even virii need energy to replicate and keep the host body moving.

[Kisa]

I found this thread a while back but finally got time to catch up. Now that I got out of toxic hell and am on a real schedule, I found the time to watch my recordings piling up I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! It has zombies and science and zombies and drama and zombies and muscles and zombies and muscle guys with guns and zombies and muscle guys woth arrows and....did I mention zombies?

[Eireann]

Much to my surprise, especially after the first season, my favorite character, by far, is now Daryl.

[Kisa]

Much to my surprise, especially after the first season, my favorite character, by far, is now Daryl.

Me too! At first I considered him a rude redneck but after the flower bit I melted! I'm just gonna leave this here

[Eireann]

I loved the way he suddenly got self-conscious and covered himself when Carol entered the room, then squirmed like a little boy when she kissed him on the cheek.

[ohsobitter]

Spoiler alert, don't read if you haven't seen the mid season finale.....





What the heck with Sophia? I did not see that coming. I thought if the zombies got a hold of you they just ate you, like Otis. Does that mean she got bit and got away? Shane is seriously losing it too. Love it.
Daryl is my favorite too. I love me a redneck boy.