A Plot Hole in The Walking Dead(TV Series)

[bigfatcarp93]

I think that walker bites are supposed to be poisonous, rather than a transmission vector for the virus. I mean, if it's in everyone, you wouldn't NEED a vector. The bite kills someone, and then the virus that is already in them causes them to change.

 

[Cowabungaa]

You want to know the real plot hole? How do they keep finding and using ammunition against the undead horde when a spear and shield would be far more effective?

S3 answers that. They like themselves some melee combat.

Why do they wear simple civilian clothes when they can fashion some primitive armor to stick between them and the teeth of certain death?

Better yet; why haven't they looked for motorcycle suits? Those kevlar babies are modern day armor, perfect versus biting.

 

[JayDig]

That's true, but then why do they still worry about getting cleaner water after finding out they're all infected anyway?

Well, zombie-poison or not, corpses rotting into your drinking water is bad.

 

[Denamic]

A plothole is something impossible, not something that isn't explicitly explained or doesn't seem to be rational.

 

[Vausch]

Well the standard idea for zombie stories goes like this:

The virus or cause of the zombie is infecting the dead, IE it only affects things that are dead but does not mean it's not in living things.

Zombie bites may not quite spread the infection itself in this case because it's in everybody, but instead they cause a rapid and dangerous infection that kills much quicker by causing it to lead to an infection in the heart or brain, let's say. It's a similar effect to how the komodo dragon kills.

This again is assuming we're talking Day of the Dead style, where you become a zombie simply by dying. I wouldn't know, I don't watch Walking Dead.

As for why it just now activated, well viruses can mutate very rapidly. It's why we can't cure the common cold or flu yet.

 

[AntiChri5]

I think it's like the commodo dragon effect; the bite is toxic enough to kill within hours plus there are such things as anti-biotic resistant bacteria which may result as a byproduct of being bitten by the equivalent of a corpse (whom, of course, has who knows what else festering in its mought for days/weeks/months).

Seems plausible to me, a much better transmission method than simple bites alone (seriously, how many of you would let the average person close enough to bite you, let alone a shambling undead one?)

You want to know the real plot hole? How do they keep finding and using ammunition against the undead horde when a spear and shield would be far more effective? Why do they wear simple civilian clothes when they can fashion some primitive armor to stick between them and the teeth of certain death?

Actually, in season 3 they are relying much more on melee combat (one of the characters is even using a spear and shield) with guns as a fallback emergency. At one point, when talking to a group who has been long out of the loop the leader of the group says not to shoot unless out of other options. And they......aqcuired a type of armour. At least a few of them.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Robert Kirkman has said that the bite is fatal due to the number of diseases that a rotting corpse has. It infects with bacteria and what not. It doesn't trigger the virus, so much as allows it to have a chance to turn you once you die from other diseases. Once again, the bites are fatal due to the diseases they carry! Not the virus being triggered!

I understand that much, but the infection, those diseases, would be bacterial, which is why antibiotics should be able to save a person.

And it does save people...It's just that antibiotics are in severely short supply and that the infection spreads SO fast. Antibiotics aren't some super drug.

 

[Olrod]

His name's Edwin Jenner [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner], huh?

I see what they did there. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MeaningfulName]

 

[Jfswift]

The walkers may have a mutated strain of the virus which is still dangerous. That's my best guess.

 

[NinjaSocks333]

Because the writers didn't think that far in advance? Kind of a simple explanation.

 

[espilcEkraD]

I assume they went with the normal zombie movie logic where a bite causes a Fever and that ends up killing you. You still turn into a walker when you die but the bites are supposed to kill you faster.

 

[Arakasi]

I'm going to have to assume that the airborn infection is different to the one that manifests once the person becomes a walker.
As such, when someone is bitten, this strengthened version then takes over the bitten one.

 

[CheckD3]

Just because you're a carrier doesn't mean that it's strong enough to overtake you. We all carry small diseases in us I'm sure, but our bodies can fight them off and don't require the need to make us feel ill, or are overtaken by them. The bite from the Walkers come from the disease being too over powering probably, which is why healthy people take longer to turn that either extremely injured people, or dead people, who have no immunities at all. Could also explain how an airborne disease only overtakes a few when it first takes shape and infects.

In short, the virus infects everyone, but only a few don't have the immune system to fight it off. When bit by the Walkers, the disease is strengthened, and body can't fight it back. It easily explains why virus started slow and grows and grows.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

I agree that the 'bites/scratches are fatal' thing is a bit of a plothole.

For one thing, the survivors get splashed with Walker blood so often they all would certainly be exposed to any viruses or bacteria common to Walkers (anyone remember that scene from 28 Days Later where the guy gets a single drop in his eye and is screwed?).

And if it IS just a matter of bites/scratches being dangerous solely due to standard infection, it seems like all you'd need is a bottle of iodine or a heap of salt to immediately rub into the wound and you'd be grand. Or hell, even a bottle of urine would serve as a disinfectant. If amputation works, it seems like any of those other options would.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

In short, the virus infects everyone, but only a few don't have the immune system to fight it off. When bit by the Walkers, the disease is strengthened, and body can't fight it back. It easily explains why virus started slow and grows and grows.

That doesn't really make sense. If you're HIV positive, and you're exposed to HIV again, you don't become more HIV positive.

Plus, there's been otherwise healthy characters who get a little nick and then inevitably turn. It doesn't seem to matter how much of an exposure you get (huge chunk ripped out of your leg, or a scrape on the arm), you're buggered either way.

 

[Olrod]

The virus is suppressed by a living person's immune system, so it's dormant although still there.

When the person dies the virus is no longer suppressed, and so it becomes superactive, reanimating the corpse.

Being bitten by a Walker infects the victim with this already-superactive virus, which then proceeds to kill the person.

 

[CheckD3]

In short, the virus infects everyone, but only a few don't have the immune system to fight it off. When bit by the Walkers, the disease is strengthened, and body can't fight it back. It easily explains why virus started slow and grows and grows.

That doesn't really make sense. If you're HIV positive, and you're exposed to HIV again, you don't become more HIV positive.

Plus, there's been otherwise healthy characters who get a little nick and then inevitably turn. It doesn't seem to matter how much of an exposure you get (huge chunk ripped out of your leg, or a scrape on the arm), you're buggered either way.

I can only assume all diseases/viruses are different, and HIV is just that strong a virus that your body has a very low chance of fighting it off. The zombie virus could be weak enough that your body can fight it until more is added.

And who knows how much the disease needs to take over. If you think about the remake of Dawn of the Dead,

Spoiler

the pregnant Russian woman gets a small scratch and it takes her months to turn, where as that dick Steve gets bit bad and turns pretty quickly

I re-read your post, and probably worded it wrong, and agree. Any amount could overpower the virus, hard to tell really without it being actually happening, in which case I think why it's happening would be least of our worries

 

[FrozenCones]

This is a bit of an off topic post but is about The Walking Dead so it has some relevance to this thread.

Question: How much time has elapsed between the second and third series?

 

[Caedus]

IMO, the series is great. Though there's something that's been bothering me for a while.

In the first season, Rick's all "don't let their blood touch your pores, you'll absorb the bad shit in it and turn walkers". But very quickly, they start bashing them almost happily, getting spatters on the face and such.

Why don't they turn zombie? I know they're all infected but when bashing open the head of a walker, there's bound to be a drop of blood going into your eyes/nose/mouth. Just like in 28 Days Later with the crow drooling fresh zombie blood.

Other than that, the CDC thing and "y'all contaminated" makes a nice goal for the overall story. I'm less bothered by that than the infection thing.