I cant see there being anything other than a human villain, though? maybe some weather catastrophe that attracts walkers from miles around to their location and they cant move because of all the zombies coming their way? shrug

@Master_YODA said:

• make walkers a believable threat again... haha... ok that one will get difficult.

Make Walkers Great Again

@Master_YODA said: Exciting things to happen:

• making contact with people from all over the world via satellite ec.
• exploring the reason behind the virus
• find locations/areas where not everyone is a gunfighting, human hating monster (ok Alexandria was a start)
• show whats left of the government.
• build up communications again.
• make walkers a believable threat again... haha... ok that one will get difficult.
• not another human villain

feel free to add stuff ;)

Yes! All of these things. Well, except making the walkers a major threat again. Regrettably there have been too many scenes now where people surrounded by walkers have escaped without a scratch. For some reason they seemed to be waiting until their victim was completely boxed in and totally immobilized before they even tried biting them. The only way to make them scary again would be to have them start developing rudimentary intelligence. I don't know if you really want to go that route though.

I think they should seriously consider a multi-season final story arc. Something involving a solution to the zombie plague, the remnants of world governments (probably relocated to clearable islands), and distant communities. Some of which may be bigger than the ones where they are. All those evacuations of civilians may have led to a few major cities walled off and still functional. And we know from what Jenner was saying into his personal log in season 1 that nearly 60 days elapsed between North America being fully engulfed and the first appearance of undead on other continents. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia - all had two months to prepare and understood the nature of the threat before it hit. Stands to reason some of them must have fared better than the US, possibly a lot better.

Maybe they have the "cure" fall into the hands of the Alexandrians somehow. Then they're contacted by someone who says they're from the government, looking to bring it in to his superiors. But it turns out he's not from the government. They find out he's working for a hostile power, the North Koreans perhaps, and kill him. Not being sure who to trust they embark on a road trip to figure out where to take that cure, and then deliver it there. We'd get to see lots of other places. There'd be various competing interests chasing after them. At first, soldiers who have been garrisoned since the beginning would have real problems operating in the outside world. At least a few enemy teams would become zombie chow before they started to wise up. It would be two or three seasons of wall to wall craziness with a light at the end of the tunnel. Their role in helping to bring the world back from the brink would also answer, from a historical perspective, the question of why the lives of these particular survivors were chronicled in the first place.

There has to be quite a lot of preppers still alive in america too

@Xsploit said:

There has to be quite a lot of preppers still alive in america too

Oh, the survivalists and doomsday preppers would have the last laugh in this scenario. Most of them have secure living areas and a decade's worth of provisions. They're doing just fine.

@chrisjdel said:

I think they should seriously consider a multi-season final story arc. Something involving a solution to the zombie plague, the remnants of world governments (probably relocated to clearable islands), and distant communities. Some of which may be bigger than the ones where they are. All those evacuations of civilians may have led to a few major cities walled off and still functional. And we know from what Jenner was saying into his personal log in season 1 that nearly 60 days elapsed between North America being fully engulfed and the first appearance of undead on other continents. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia - all had two months to prepare and understood the nature of the threat before it hit. Stands to reason some of them must have fared better than the US, possibly a lot better.

I would love to watch that. If they couldn´t do it on the Walking Dead they should maybe consider a second Spin off. Fear the walking dead sadly didn't deliver on that part.

If they follow with the comic books storyline, then they should be able to make a rather large area liveable, but as I discussed with chrisdjel already, the problem is that unless you manage to get large groups of people to clear the zombie threat, it is going to be nearly impossible to definitely clear off an area large enough to be able to travel much without zombies taking your initial area over again. Plus, I won't get too much into it as I don't want to spoil anything, but some human villains are not necessarily gun crazed jerks. Some can be more of a sect, which is in my opinion a more than likely occurence in such situations, and the question is how many people can join a sect :P

I would personnally vouch for this combined effort to get rid of zombies, but :someone: didn't agree with me :P In any case, I think it would be quite nice to see more efforts in actual rebuilding too. But I don't think there is anything left of the government, or that there is a cure... unless it's something like 28 Days Later and the US (or North America, or America) are actually the only country infected... that's a scenario I'd personnally enjoy a lot.

But please, please, don't give us a WorldWar Z type scenario and turn this into some political propagandish crap about North Korea or whatever... please !

@velvet_roses said:

If they follow with the comic books storyline, then they should be able to make a rather large area liveable, but as I discussed with chrisdjel already, the problem is that unless you manage to get large groups of people to clear the zombie threat, it is going to be nearly impossible to definitely clear off an area large enough to be able to travel much without zombies taking your initial area over again. Plus, I won't get too much into it as I don't want to spoil anything, but some human villains are not necessarily gun crazed jerks. Some can be more of a sect, which is in my opinion a more than likely occurence in such situations, and the question is how many people can join a sect :P

I would personnally vouch for this combined effort to get rid of zombies, but :someone: didn't agree with me :P In any case, I think it would be quite nice to see more efforts in actual rebuilding too. But I don't think there is anything left of the government, or that there is a cure... unless it's something like 28 Days Later and the US (or North America, or America) are actually the only country infected... that's a scenario I'd personnally enjoy a lot.

But please, please, don't give us a WorldWar Z type scenario and turn this into some political propagandish crap about North Korea or whatever... please !

Insane dictator types who had a bioweapons research program before the ZA (and assuming those scientists were still alive) would love the opportunity to examine any potential cure. If Kim Jong-Un had an airborne pathogen that could wipe out everyone on Earth, and a vaccine he could give to anyone he chose, he'd definitely use it and rebuild humanity in his image. I wouldn't actually show figures like him in the series. You just need foreign powers that would believably do something like that to explain where the enemy commandos are coming from. The alternative is to invent an imaginary country, and it always strikes me as a little cheesy when they do that.

Jenner's timeline gave a 60 day gap between the wildfire declaration (basically an epidemic related martial law) and the time when "the disease abruptly went global" as he put it. So we can assume that people in Europe and Asia were watching the broadcasts from North and South America in horror and fascination until they stopped, then had perhaps four to six weeks before dead people started getting up and walking around where they lived. I'm also betting that while the disease appeared contained, boats and planes coming from the infected region were warned to turn back or face destruction. With the advance warning we never got, governments would've put plans in motion and the public briefed on most of what they knew. There'd be some fear when it started of course, but not the kind of full tilt panic that makes things a lot worse. When people understand what they're dealing with and how to protect themselves they tend to keep their wits about them. In some areas things may still have gotten out of control, but overall it's reasonable to assume the situation is much better overseas than the total devastation in the Americas.

I don't know why they haven't set up any shortwave or ham radios and at least monitored for broadcasts. If any large cities remain intact in North America, you'd have to get within a hundred miles or so to pick up FM radio but other bands can be received worldwide (depending on listening conditions). You'd want to be careful who you revealed your location to, but just listening could give you valuable intel. Suppose that, say, Philadelphia or New York had been successfully walled and millions of people were still alive. They'd probably set up shortwave stations to let survivors in the wastelands know to come there. If you monitor for a while and hear nothing like this ... well that's important information too. You're bound to pick up something though. Military transmissions, stuff from overseas, etc. If London, Paris, or Madrid were broadcasting to the world you might consider whether finding people who can sail and a couple of intact ships in a port somewhere might be worth your while.

I definitely think they should change gears and introduce us to what's happening in the rest of the world. In terms of human enemies, yeah - a nutty religious cult is something we haven't seen yet. The garbage people are kinda weird. They've developed their own Yoda-like way of speaking in just a few short years. But aside from that, they're basically just a band of scrappy opportunistic survivors. Pretty benign next to the Saviors. Thieves but not killers. What would be interesting is a doomsday cult that goes around quoting scripture and telling everyone the rapture is here. The apocalypse is God's way of testing us, and it is His wish that others be converted to the true faith - voluntarily or not. They might have one area that's more or less their territory but you'd run into them in a lot of places. If there are walled-off big cities they may have occasional problems with some of them infiltrating as refugees and carrying out suicide bombings. You know, the sinful and decadent civilization that brought this upon us must be destroyed. I could see this sort of thing happening, given the events in TWD. The Wolves almost seemed to be giving off a similar vibe but they never really delved into that.

@Xsploit said:

I cant see there being anything other than a human villain, though? maybe some weather catastrophe that attracts walkers from miles around to their location and they cant move because of all the zombies coming their way? shrug

wasn't that a plot from a Z-Nation episode? ha

Probably, Z Nation is a far superior show :)

@Xsploit said:

Probably, Z Nation is a far superior show :)

I've only seen a couple of episodes but enjoyed it way more the TWD. (But I did like the first season of TWD, so I will have to wait and see how Z Nation develops. It's just a lot funnier.)

@chrisjdel said:

There'd be some fear when it started of course, but not the kind of full tilt panic that makes things a lot worse. When people understand what they're dealing with and how to protect themselves they tend to keep their wits about them. In some areas things may still have gotten out of control, but overall it's reasonable to assume the situation is much better overseas than the total devastation in the Americas.

You have more faith in human nature than I do. I think once it becomes clear exactly what the threat is, all hell will break loose, especially in the more 'developed' countries. 'Our' wealth and welfare will be threatened, and I believe the 'rich' won't be that willing to share and others will start rioting, I guess. I really think things will turn ugly real quick. Of course I hope I'm wrong.

Suppose that, say, Philadelphia or New York had been successfully walled and millions of people were still alive.

I think that's impossible just because of water and food problems. Perhaps I haven't thought it through but to me it seems unlikely that cities will be able to feed their population, especially in the long run. All of society has come to a standstill, Labour, transport, communication, government, and I guess the US is just as dependent of imported products/food as we Europeans are.

I definitely think they should change gears and introduce us to what's happening in the rest of the world. In terms of human enemies, yeah - a nutty religious cult is something we haven't seen yet. (...) I could see this sort of thing happening, given the events in TWD. The Wolves almost seemed to be giving off a similar vibe but they never really delved into that.

Agreed. (I'm not caught up yet. I've yet to see season 7. And I'm way behind on the comics.)

@Xsploit said:

Probably, Z Nation is a far superior show :)

I loved the first season of it, but it got less and less exciting. Anyway. It is so over the top, that anything can happen. Sometimes it is almost like a satire on the Zombie genre. So I feel less connected to the characters. Still watching though ;) Hoping for a better season 4.

@seven_houses7 said: I think that's impossible just because of water and food problems. Perhaps I haven't thought it through but to me it seems unlikely that cities will be able to feed their population, especially in the long run. All of society has come to a standstill, Labour, transport, communication, government, and I guess the US is just as dependent of imported products/food as we Europeans are.

If an urban area were sealed off, you'd have two options. Include enough land to feed everyone or use islands (or walled areas elsewhere) to grow crops and livestock and ship the food in by water. Coastal cities were built where they were largely because they provide access to the sea, in an age where that was the only way large scale trade was possible. If, say, the UK and other European countries are in much better shape it's possible some of the food comes from there as well. Everyone would have ration cards and mealtimes wouldn't be a feast but no one would go hungry. Cities that had nuclear power plants would be preferable to ones that didn't, because fuel rods could be stockpiled early in the disaster, ensuring a steady supply of electricity for decades. Public transportation might be the only option if gasoline was in limited supply. They might even have laws against using personal vehicles - unless those vehicles were electric, and maybe even then depending on the capacity of their power plants.

A lot would depend on exactly how many people were living there. The pre-zombie population might be unsustainable but a lot of people would have fled before the walls were built so it might be, say, 20% of what it once was. It would be interesting to plot out a scenario for a real city and see how well the numbers could be made to work, and for what size population. Needless to say some cities would be much better candidates than others. Sealing off only part of the original area of a city would allow you to use high rises as part of your wall, so you'd only have to block the streets, drastically reducing both the material and time requirements (speed is critical during the early days of the apocalypse).

@seven_houses7 said: You have more faith in human nature than I do. I think once it becomes clear exactly what the threat is, all hell will break loose, especially in the more 'developed' countries. 'Our' wealth and welfare will be threatened, and I believe the 'rich' won't be that willing to share and others will start rioting, I guess. I really think things will turn ugly real quick. Of course I hope I'm wrong.

Like I said there'd be some fear. What I meant was, a population that doesn't know what the hell is happening except that one day dead people are coming alive and attacking them is going to absolutely freak out. Things are very different if they have advance warning and know the rules. This is not a traditional disease that spreads by proximity to infected. Only the recently dead come back. A head strike puts them down, which also means stabbing a person in the head after they die keeps them from coming back. Do not let a walker bite you. They are very stupid, attracted by signs of activity like light and noise, etc. All the stuff the show's survivors had to figure out the hard way, they'd already know from several weeks' worth of insanity being broadcast out of North America. If the population doesn't panic governments could stay ahead of the zombie outbreak.

The biggest problem would be incursions of large herds from adjacent poorer countries that didn't have the resources to mobilize the same kind of effort, and lost control. But there'd be strategies and public drills for this scenario. People would batten down the hatches and stay indoors while the military staged a herd management operation, lure and burn, to get rid of the zombies. Eventually large border walls might be completed but in the meantime, life and civilization would go on (if not entirely as usual). With everyone knowing exactly what to do, a collapse could be avoided. Occasionally ugly incidents would happen - for example, a family where one of the parents died in their sleep and then attacked the other. People get used to life in war zones. They can certainly adapt to stuff like that. Locking the door to your room at night might become standard practice just in case. Stillbirths could be a bigger problem, depending. If blood to blood contact with a zombie fetus is equivalent to a bite, pregnancy would become a lot riskier. Otherwise they'd just have to do a C-section and remove the dead baby; an infant is born with soft fingernails and no teeth, so it couldn't hurt the mother like a regular walker.

@chrisjdel I love your optimism. Let's hope we'll never have to discover just how vulnerable our Western society is and who knows, maybe TWD will give us a clue as to what is happening in the rest of the world.