Sir Will wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 4:35 am
Wait, 2 months!? How the fuck...?
Yeah its a bit weird ain't it. According to everything I've read online the official timeline released for TWD has Rick waking up 59 days after the outbreak. And apparently he'd been unattended in the hospital since day 14 of the outbreak making me wonder whether that old fan theory of Rick being a type of walker held some water.
Also apparently the virus had been spreading around for over a hundred days before the official outbreak.
So they clearly have no idea how biology works, got it. I mean, zombies don't make sense but suspension of disbelief. But you can't live for 45 days without food and water even setting aside the fact that he should have been eaten.
You didn't see the IV connected to the tank of glucose solution to see him through the nearly two months? Plus I'm sure he had a hearty burger meal before going into the hospital.
TheStarWarsTrek wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:49 pm
As for Merle, yeah he's a jerkass, racist, violent crack addict . . . dosn't change the fact that being left to either starve to death or be eaten alive is a terrible fate. I'm not arguing about the morality of leaving him there. I'm just saying some ways to die are so terrible I'd feel a slight twinge of sympathy even if it was happening to the nastiest man on Earth.
Yeah, that's one of those 'hand him a loaded pistol and tell him to save a round for himself' moments. No one deserves dying by dehydration and/or cannibalism.
Yeah, I absolutely don't wish the situation on him, and I feel bad that a human is left to experience it. I'm just saying that it's ultimately the direct result of his own actions. For me, that assuages the guilt component for watching the group be forced to leave him, even though I know it won't do anything to make the man who dropped the key feel any better.
Sir Will wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 4:35 am
Wait, 2 months!? How the fuck...?
Yeah its a bit weird ain't it. According to everything I've read online the official timeline released for TWD has Rick waking up 59 days after the outbreak. And apparently he'd been unattended in the hospital since day 14 of the outbreak making me wonder whether that old fan theory of Rick being a type of walker held some water.
Also apparently the virus had been spreading around for over a hundred days before the official outbreak.
So they clearly have no idea how biology works, got it. I mean, zombies don't make sense but suspension of disbelief. But you can't live for 45 days without food and water even setting aside the fact that he should have been eaten.
That struck me immediately when watching him wake up. The scene is clearly meant to communicate months if not more time has passed. But Rick is alive, and implied to have been unconscious and bedridden the entire duration of that time, unattended. I can forgive the lack of soiled clothing and sheets, because who wants to see that? Yet the fact that he's just "pretty thirsty" is not simply unrealistic, it requires more suspension of disbelief than the idea that somehow the dead have risen to walk and devour the living.
TheStarWarsTrek wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:49 pm
As for Merle, yeah he's a jerkass, racist, violent crack addict . . . dosn't change the fact that being left to either starve to death or be eaten alive is a terrible fate. I'm not arguing about the morality of leaving him there. I'm just saying some ways to die are so terrible I'd feel a slight twinge of sympathy even if it was happening to the nastiest man on Earth.
Yeah, that's one of those 'hand him a loaded pistol and tell him to save a round for himself' moments. No one deserves dying by dehydration and/or cannibalism.
Yeah, I absolutely don't wish the situation on him, and I feel bad that a human is left to experience it. I'm just saying that it's ultimately the direct result of his own actions. For me, that assuages the guilt component for watching the group be forced to leave him, even though I know it won't do anything to make the man who dropped the key feel any better.
Sir Will wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 4:35 am
Wait, 2 months!? How the fuck...?
Yeah its a bit weird ain't it. According to everything I've read online the official timeline released for TWD has Rick waking up 59 days after the outbreak. And apparently he'd been unattended in the hospital since day 14 of the outbreak making me wonder whether that old fan theory of Rick being a type of walker held some water.
Also apparently the virus had been spreading around for over a hundred days before the official outbreak.
So they clearly have no idea how biology works, got it. I mean, zombies don't make sense but suspension of disbelief. But you can't live for 45 days without food and water even setting aside the fact that he should have been eaten.
That struck me immediately when watching him wake up. The scene is clearly meant to communicate months if not more time has passed. But Rick is alive, and implied to have been unconscious and bedridden the entire duration of that time, unattended. I can forgive the lack of soiled clothing and sheets, because who wants to see that? Yet the fact that he's just "pretty thirsty" is not simply unrealistic, it requires more suspension of disbelief than the idea that somehow the dead have risen to walk and devour the living.
I can buy the dead rising and shambling around more than I can buy a man with two months of muscle atrophy rising from his bed too. By all rights, even if somehow Rick survived the dehydration and starvation, and the catheter infection or pressure sore infections he'd have from lying in soiled bed clothes and unattended to hygiene; even if he survived all that, the only thing he should be capable of is falling flat on his face if he tried to get out of that bed unassisted. He should be needing months of physiotherapy to even get out the hospital, much less be up to riding a horse within the week. In a show with the dead rising from their graves, Rick's survival is the single most unrealistic thing in it.
For the record: Rick wakes up about a month after the apocalypse kicks off. I've sometimes wondered if that bit was a reference/homage to '28 Days Later', which had this same plot point, but in London and with technically-alive, Rabies-based, zombies.
oh, The Walking Dead. Mearl's appearance was the moment I clocked out. lazy hack writing "but it's realistic that bigots surivive, too!" oh, fuck off. it's just cheap tension and drama. this kind of shit is why I believe the answer is indeed aliens, the writer is just too embarassed to admit it after all those years of feedback.
Rawbeard wrote: ↑Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:28 pm
oh, The Walking Dead. Mearl's appearance was the moment I clocked out. lazy hack writing "but it's realistic that bigots surivive, too!" oh, fuck off. it's just cheap tension and drama. this kind of shit is why I believe the answer is indeed aliens, the writer is just too embarassed to admit it after all those years of feedback.
Can you explain why you think it's lazy or cheap writing? I mean, I know you just mocked the idea that "it's realistic that bigots survive too" . . . but it *is* realistic. Is the idea that one of these survivors might be racist really the thing that shatters your suspension of disbelief in this story about the dead coming back to live to eat the living?
As Chuck pointed out, Merle is a bigot, but he is also a former soldier. He is absolutely a guy you want on your side especially when the rest of the group are mostly hapless civilians. Before Rick turned up, the only other people who knew anything at all about living a 19th century lifestyle with danger on all sides was Shane and Daryl - and this was before Daryl became a badass BTW.
Frankly the idea that bigots won't survive the apocalypse is odd to say the least.
clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:53 pm
As Chuck pointed out, Merle is a bigot, but he is also a former soldier. He is absolutely a guy you want on your side especially when the rest of the group are mostly hapless civilians. Before Rick turned up, the only other people who knew anything at all about living a 19th century lifestyle with danger on all sides was Shane and Daryl - and this was before Daryl became a badass BTW.
Frankly the idea that bigots won't survive the apocalypse is odd to say the least.
Survive until one of their fellow survivors smothers them in their sleep, because no matter how military badass they might be, they are still a liability to the wellbeing of any group they are part of that is not 100% other bigots with the same type of bigotry. Bigots create division, and disharmony, and damage morale and unit cohesion. And all of those are bigger killers in a crisis than whatever the situation or opponent will be. Bigots get people killed, including themselves. Bigots only survive until the downsides of their bigotry outweighs their usefulness, and that always comes a lot quicker than bigots think it will.
clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:53 pm
As Chuck pointed out, Merle is a bigot, but he is also a former soldier. He is absolutely a guy you want on your side especially when the rest of the group are mostly hapless civilians. Before Rick turned up, the only other people who knew anything at all about living a 19th century lifestyle with danger on all sides was Shane and Daryl - and this was before Daryl became a badass BTW.
Frankly the idea that bigots won't survive the apocalypse is odd to say the least.
Survive until one of their fellow survivors smothers them in their sleep, because no matter how military badass they might be, they are still a liability to the wellbeing of any group they are part of that is not 100% other bigots with the same type of bigotry. Bigots create division, and disharmony, and damage morale and unit cohesion. And all of those are bigger killers in a crisis than whatever the situation or opponent will be. Bigots get people killed, including themselves. Bigots only survive until the downsides of their bigotry outweighs their usefulness, and that always comes a lot quicker than bigots think it will.
Doesn't that depend entirely on how many black people are in the group? In an all-white group he wouldn't have a problem.
In Merle's case, the issue isn't so much that he's a bigot, as it is we never see him doing anything that isn't actively detrimental to group survival or morale. If he always acts this way, it does make you wonder how he lasted this long. By contrast, his brother Daryl is also a bigot, but one who seems capable of functioning in society.
