I love the show, but can someone come up with a believable (or at least creative) explanation for these:

1) The gun and bullet problems people seem to have. Especially, in the American South. The numbers are something like 3 civilian owned firearms for every single man, woman, and child in the US. That's 900 million guns, not counting military hardware. How do they ever have trouble finding enough of them?

2) Even at say 1000 to 1 how does Ft. Benning go down to Walkers?  Major military base full of hardware with one of the highest %'s per capita in the world of the hardcore highly trained mofo's?

Feel free to add your own. =)

For 1) I am sure everyone wants one, or several, and have been using them quite frequently lately - and no one is making more.

For 2) I don't think our military is equipped to deal with absolute, total civilization collapse.

How about other loopholes?

In the last episode when Rick, Darryl, Glen, Maggie and Oscar are trapped in the store front.  Darryl says " There is no way out the back".  Really?  None?  No way to get to a 2nd story window?  I guess not - back out into the street!

Amidon37 wrote:

For 1) I am sure everyone wants one, or several, and have been using them quite frequently lately - and no one is making more.

For 2) I don't think our military is equipped to deal with absolute, total civilization collapse.

1) True, but since at least 9/10 people have seemed to go zombie that still leaves a minimum gun ratio of 30 to 1 and the ratio in the that part of America should be even higher.

2) Fair point, but Ft. Benning is not just some National Guard base. It's a training and SOF base. It's got the US Armor School, US Infantry School,  3rd brigade of the 3rd Infantry and the F'g 75th Army Rangers, not to mention WHINSEC aka "School of the Americas" 

Been to Afghanistan lately? Or, Iraq in the last decade? They have, and it wasn't to far from civ collapse there at times. I can't think of an urban area MORE prepared for total civ collapse.

Can anyone argue for a better base? Other than maybe Coronado after they drop the bridge?

The whole job of the Rangers is to get dropped into the shit in less than 18 hours with supply set up a 360 defense and start achieving objectives. How about a short list of:

1  Hold Ft. Benning (Home to all spouses and dependents) at all costs.

With the combo of training, organization, motivation, and firepower that should be literally the last Urban area in the US to go down.

People at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse would be very uninformed.  In the walking dead everyone has the virus, so anyone who dies is reanimated.  On a big military base there could easily be people who turn from the inside who start a wave of biting and attacks. Not to mention all the people who would flee to a military base as a safe haven, especially to help those with them that are seriously injured. 

So I watched the first season of TWD a while back...and wasn't that impressed, or at least as impressed as it sounded.  I think I know the reason though and it's that I didn't care about anyone, so if they went all zombie or died then *shrug*, no big deal.  Perhaps it gets better, but from the snippets/spoilers that I've read I'm not really sure it does :P

No, it's a big melo-drama.  You gotta care about them. 

Yeah character building is a huge part of it. 

Yertle wrote:

So I watched the first season of TWD a while back...and wasn't that impressed, or at least as impressed as it sounded.  I think I know the reason though and it's that I didn't care about anyone, so if they went all zombie or died then *shrug*, no big deal.  Perhaps it gets better, but from the snippets/spoilers that I've read I'm not really sure it does :P

So heartless...Yertle would do well in the zombie apocalypse :)

i do't think they didn't start out infected, think it was an evolved thing from absorbing all the walker's blood? at least characters in season 1 didn't come back after [first] death.

3EyedTitan wrote:

People at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse would be very uninformed.  In the walking dead everyone has the virus, so anyone who dies is reanimated.  On a big military base there could easily be people who turn from the inside who start a wave of biting and attacks. Not to mention all the people who would flee to a military base as a safe haven, especially to help those with them that are seriously injured. 

Fair enough, but again I'd like to go back to my "not the normal" base argument.

#1 Command & Control: This is the home of the infantry, armor, airborne, and ranger schools. The people who teach our soldiers what to do when everything goes to shit. Not too mention:

• 3BDE, 3RD Inf Division
• 1/15th Infantry
• 1/30th Infantry
• 11th Infantry Regt
• 29th Infantry Regt
• 1/10th Field Artillery
• 75th Infantry (Ranger) Regiment
• 5th Ranger Battalion
• 2d BN, 69th Armor
• 36th Engineer Group
• 317th Engineer BN
• 608th Ordnance Co
• 498th Medical Company
• 690th Medical Company
• Basic Training Brigade
• Infantry Training Brigade
• Ranger Training Brigade
• 598th Maintenance CO
• 13th S & S Battalion
• School of the Americas

Think how much supply and munitions that means. Even if they just took out a few hundred Abrahms and Bradleys out for a spin, they could just run over 90% of the zombies in a few hours.

Let's just talk rangers:

#2 SOF types tend to be nerds (Badass nerds to be sure, but still nerds), you think they haven't "What if'd" the Zombie Apocolypse in an operational sense?

#3 In the last decade, of constant combat ops the 75th Rangers have lost 32 men. Let me repeat that.  32! 32 combat fatalities since 2001.  That includes losses to chopper crashes, IED's, RPG's everything. They die hard! 

#4 Even if they were overrun and Command & Control completely disappears. The individual units and platoons would still find places to hold even if they were down to entrenching tools and combat knives no way a few thousand of them go lights out in a few weeks. 

Retires and Wives: 

#5 You think WWII, Korea, and Vietnam veterans living near the base's VA don't know how to deal with "human" wave attacks?

#6 I don't know about you, but I'd rather face a zombie than an officer's wife armed with a meat cleaver and her kids behind her.

Just saying...

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Yertle wrote:

So I watched the first season of TWD a while back...and wasn't that impressed, or at least as impressed as it sounded.  I think I know the reason though and it's that I didn't care about anyone, so if they went all zombie or died then *shrug*, no big deal.  Perhaps it gets better, but from the snippets/spoilers that I've read I'm not really sure it does :P

So heartless...Yertle would do well in the zombie apocalypse :)

I see Yertle's point though, season 1 no one was that lovable. They were just "normal" people.  The longer they live and the more development their characters get the more you start to care. By season 3, every loss sucks.

weathertop wrote:

i do't think they didn't start out infected, think it was an evolved thing from absorbing all the walker's blood? at least characters in season 1 didn't come back after [first] death.

According to the theory, almost everyone still alive was exposed with the zombie virus, only those who died before catching the virus or from head trauma didn't turn.

The zombie virus (probably airborne) kills a certain % outright, the rest have a form of immunity (probably genetic), but stay permanent carriers.  So that when anyone who has the virus dies (without massive head trauma), they should reanimate as a zombie.

Hospitals, mortuaries, old folks homes and anywhere people were more likely to die were probably the epicenters of walker outbreaks. 

itsnotatumor wrote:

weathertop wrote:

i do't think they didn't start out infected, think it was an evolved thing from absorbing all the walker's blood? at least characters in season 1 didn't come back after [first] death.

According to the theory, almost everyone still alive was exposed with the zombie virus, only those who died before catching the virus or from head trauma didn't turn.

The zombie virus (probably airborne) kills a certain % outright, the rest have a form of immunity (probably genetic), but stay permanent carriers.  So that when anyone who has the virus dies (without massive head trauma), they should reanimate as a zombie.

Hospitals, mortuaries, old folks homes and anywhere people were more likely to die were probably the epicenters of walker outbreaks. 

 

This is correct. Also Zombies outnumber humans 5000 to 1 from the virus having a stronger immediate effect on most.

http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/Zombies

Random zombie question:  Do you think the zombie's obsession with eating brains and the fact they only die-die with head trauma are related?

hmmmm...maybe the life force that animates all beings originates and is concentrated in the brain.  Normally this life force spreads throughout the rest of the body infusing vitatlity.  Upon death the life force is extinguished, except in rare cases where the original spark remains - a zombie is born (or doesn't die...whatever).  Now, this fearsome undead craves more life force to distribute throughout his body so he searches longingly for brains.  The only way to kill the zombie is to extinguish the spark of life essence that remains in his head, so you must destroy his brain.

or.....maybe brains just taste  good

To bring the point back to the military base: another reason where I could see the situation falling apart is that there is well over 100,000 people living in the base that you would have to manage.  It seems like the smaller the group the better is a good rule for the zombie apocalypse.  Also, in times of stability everyone is all hunkey dorey and united. During an apocalypse I could see greed and selfishness taking over, due to distrust, and many factions arising.  I imagine that most of the force there would be called to go outside the safety of the base to combat, leaving both groups more vulnerable.

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Random zombie question:  Do you think the zombie's obsession with eating brains and the fact they only die-die with head trauma are related?

Umm never really thought about it.  It seems like zombies are ok with eating whatever bit of warm flesh they can sink their teeth into.  I do know that zombies starve at a lot slower pace then humans which is why they can last for so long.  It is weird to think about how if zombies just feasted on every human they came across they would never add to their numbers.

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Random zombie question:  Do you think the zombie's obsession with eating brains and the fact they only die-die with head trauma are related?

The brain thing is relatively new. Hollywood in the 60's or 70's. The old voodoo style had no brain fetish...

3EyedTitan wrote:

To bring the point back to the military base: another reason where I could see the situation falling apart is that there is well over 100,000 people living in the base that you would have to manage.  It seems like the smaller the group the better is a good rule for the zombie apocalypse.  Also, in times of stability everyone is all hunkey dorey and united. During an apocalypse I could see greed and selfishness taking over, due to distrust, and many factions arising.  I imagine that most of the force there would be called to go outside the safety of the base to combat, leaving both groups more vulnerable.

Good point about manageability, for the greater urban area yeah I can see it going to shit. It's not exactly economically affluent, but the units themselves?  Those guys have done multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and already seen some ungodly shit.  I don't see them folding like a lawn chair.

Especially the Rangers, only a 3rd of the rangers are deployed at any one time, and the training commands would only get deployed in self defense.  Leaving a ton of hardware. Even if 99% of the soldiers turned or bugged out, that remaining 1% would sneak on over to the armory and motor pool (where there's at least 80 Abrams sitting around) pick up a few essentials, and hold whatever F'g perimeter they chose for as long as they chose to do it.

See how a herd does against HE and Willie Pete, and it's kind of hard to bite you through 30 inches of armor.  You don't even need to drive them around much, just park them and whatever Bradleys or Strykers are around end to end in a big box around whatever buildings you want weld some armor plate in the gaps, and ain't no walkers getting through that.

I'm pretty sure one or two engineers would stick around and get creative in the defenses. Lot you can do with a few dozen cases of claymores and plastic. 

These are the same types of guys who held at Bastogne, and I still call "Nuts!"

Nothing says there aren't groups of rangers etc. holed up somewhere -