TWD 4x14 "The Grove" episode discussion... **SPOILERS WITHIN**

[zombieparanoia]

Something they have been doing which sort of bothers me is when they dispatch a small group of walkers in a hail of gunfire. I know, ammunition conservation isn't on their minds when they're all panicky like they always are, but still they seem to default to "spray and pray" quite a bit. Especially in cases like the scene at the fence, the walkers are slow and they had retrieved mika from the one that was a threat so now there was barbed wire between the walkers and the group, take your time and save bullets. I think part of it is that they portray characters as still getting really spooked by walkers when by this time they've been around them and surviving for almost a year(not sure on exact time) and some of them, like carol have been going it alone at times. Not that I think everyone should be frosty walker dispatching machines like michonne, but it seems weird sometimes that they are still so panicky about them.

[Moon Knight]

Something they have been doing which sort of bothers me is when they dispatch a small group of walkers in a hail of gunfire. I know, ammunition conservation isn't on their minds when they're all panicky like they always are, but still they seem to default to "spray and pray" quite a bit. Especially in cases like the scene at the fence, the walkers are slow and they had retrieved mika from the one that was a threat so now there was barbed wire between the walkers and the group, take your time and save bullets. I think part of it is that they portray characters as still getting really spooked by walkers when by this time they've been around them and surviving for almost a year(not sure on exact time) and some of them, like carol have been going it alone at times. Not that I think everyone should be frosty walker dispatching machines like michonne, but it seems weird sometimes that they are still so panicky about them. I understand what you mean but I really don't want the group members feeling comfortable in the zombie apocalypse. Once they lose that fear, the audience also loses interest.

[sandrock74]

Well, look at the people who were there with the guns: Tyreese, who isn't supposed to be good with a gun, two panicked young girls and Carol. I think their shooting went down as well as can be expected: each shot fired wasn't an automatic BOOM Headshot! Also, I wouldn't count on barbed wire to be an effective barrier against hungry walkers.

[Legion2213]

To be honest, there where what...half a dozen of them...Tyreese took out scores of them back when he was all angry and stuff. I suppose for "dramatic reasons" they still need a bit of gunplay...but if I am really honest, those walkers could have all been taken out with melee weapons without any sweat being broken.

[Wyldwraith]

This is a pet peeve of mine in the genre, Take Savini's remake of Night as a perfect example. Zombies so slow, and with such unwieldy turning radii that (this is obviously after the period of psychological shock stemming from confronting the reality of the living dead) it becomes obvious a halfway fit individual could easily, if not terminate the zombie or zombies, but render them ineffective as pursuers. Both the Zombie Survival and Combat Guides get this element right. The "Circle-Strafe Technique" they describe would work CONSISTENTLY against a foe substantially slower than you. All you need is something like a length of solid pipe, then you circle faster than the zombie turns, and finally once you've got its back to you, you swing as hard as you can at the side of the zombie's knee. A zombie with a shattered kneecap couldn't catch a human being who got down on all fours and crawled away from it. This comes up in TWD and various zombie movies quite a lot, where the protagonist is faced with say...a dozen zombies widely separate and at widely divergent distances from each other, approaching and then reaching the protagonist one or two at a time, with a 90-270 second interval until the next single or pair arrive. Couple this with the infuriating failure of characters depicted as world-wise zombie killing veterans of the apocalypse to COVER THEIR FOREARMS IN SOMETHING BITE-PROOF. I mean c'mon, in most climates a denim jacket with a few pieces of hard plastic sewn to the sleeves wouldn't be too arduous to wear. Protect the forearms, and you have an excellent defense against the rare zombie that manages to get you in a clinch. One element that does the genre no favors is portraying zombies as being able to EASILY bite through materials a human couldn't bite through period. Does that mean I expect every survivor to run around in riot gear? Of course not! I saw a relatively B-Grade zombie movie with V. Rhames in it...characters were trying to get to a zombie-free Catalina Island. When they picked up a new guy, one of the very first things they did when opportunity allowed was to hit a sporting goods store and scavenge sports gear for items that make good bite-guards...like football shoulderpads. We should see more of this kind of rough but effective improvised "armor" from the characters depicted as having survived in worlds crawling with zombies for years, and less of the "Oh sure, the zombie can easily bite through that guy's blue jeans in one bite as smooth as if the victim was wearing shorts. Show me a zombie worrying his way through the material after having bitten down with a side-to-side tearing sort of motion. I don't mind a pain-insensitive cannibal corpse being able to pierce some blue jeans with its jagged broken teeth, but I am SICK TO DEATH of action shots that make it seem as if undeath has increased the zombie's bite force by 500%. The scene where Herschel was bitten that necessitated the amputation of his leg was a perfect example of this. Riddle me this: If Zombies don't heal at all, and are insatiable consumers when human flesh is available, then why don't we EVER see a still-mobile zombie whose jaw muscles have literally been shredded to almost complete uselessness by the simple repeated act of ripping, tearing and chewing the flesh of their victims. Raw meat is rubbery and (with a few exceptions) nearly as tough as overcooked meat ironically. Yes, yes, I realize that this sort of reasoning is generally overlooked because the plot of this or that movie as written would be obstructed by such realistic elements....but tell me honestly you wouldn't like to see zombies that have been worn down to the point of complete ineffectiveness as predators interspersed amongst the zombies ready and able to get the job done....and NOT have it be some gratuitous mutilation shot, such as a zombie with its lower jaw completely gone. When is well-placed, reasonably interwoven into the plot, increased realism ever a bad thing in Survival Horror. The same logic goes for survivors firing shot after shot into a zombie torso, and never, never, EVER even NICKING the spine. Yes, I GET IT, shooting them anywhere but the brainpan doesn't kill them....but once again every so often a bullet should navigate past or ricochet off bone to render the zombie a crawler.

[Legion2213]

A walker with "shredded jaw muscles" should still technically want to feed and be a pest (pure motorized instinct). But as to your other point, a zombie with a severed spinal column should really be a head on a stick and just lie there chomping away, but offering no real threat.