In its heyday, “The Walking Dead” had millions of viewers tuning in weekly to the show, which also means it had millions of nitpickers. Viewers would point out that the slow-moving zombies on the series would actually be pretty easy for the U.S. military to contain in real-life, as well as that the mechanics of this virus (where everyone’s already infected but getting bitten still matters) don’t make much sense.
Perhaps the most nitpick-y (but understandable) complaint of all is there’s a curious lack of obese walkers roaming around. Georgia, where “The Walking Dead” takes place, has a higher obesity rate than the rest of the U.S., yet every walker the main characters come across has a slim physique. What’s interesting is that the original comics do better when it comes to plus-sized zombie representation, so the show can’t even pass the buck on this issue. Maybe that’s why the comics’ creator, Robert Kirkman, felt compelled to explain this apparent plot hole on the series in 2017. As he told a fan in the letter column for “The Walking Dead” #111 (via ComicBook.com):
“There are tons of fat zombies in the comic … less so in the show, as, frankly, it’s hard to ADD to big people to make them look like zombies. Keep in mind, to make those walkers look real, you have to build stuff, on top of real people … you start adding to people my size, and well … we start to look a bit too padded, if that makes sense.”
In other words, it requires more effort to make a fat zombie feel realistic on TV than it does in comic books. Not all fans may buy this explanation, but luckily, Kirkman has also provided another potential reason for the slim walkers.
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Perhaps walkers are skinny because their digestive systems are a mess
A walker with its mouth hanging open in The Walking Dead – AMC
In that same letter column, Kirkman was asked about how the zombies’ bodies in his story functioned, and he responded, “I’ve covered this before, I like to think they’re always pooping … undigested bits of flesh … it just passed right through. Fun!”
So, basically, while the walkers’ brains stay alive to help them feed, a lot of the living microbes in their stomachs and intestines are still dead, meaning their digestive system is borderline useless, and they’re not absorbing most of the calories they consume. This would certainly explain why walkers in this universe, especially the ones that have been infected for a long time, almost always tend to be skinny: They’re trapped in a state of constant decay.
The big exception on the “Walking Dead” TV show is the walker in season 2, which the show’s heroes find in a well and appears to be bloated on account of being stuck in water for months on end. It’s also worth noting that walking all day is great exercise, and the poor bloated well walker is one of the only zombies in the series who’s been denied that opportunity.
The other famously fat walker in “The Walking Dead” showed up in season 3. In that case, the series’ then-protagonist Rick (Andrew Lincoln) discovered them shortly after his wife Lori’s (Sarah Wayne Callies) death in the preceding episode, and it’s strongly implied that this walker ate Lori’s entire body. It’s a disturbing scene, but it’s also interesting because it’s rare for walkers on the series to eat people completely. (Usually they’re at least splitting the meal with a fellow walker.) It seems that this season 3 walker has a different metabolism than the others. Either that or maybe all walkers would be this size if they ever had the opportunity to eat a proper meal.
Whatever the case, it’s clear that being a walker is rough. Rick may have blown some fans’ minds with his season 5 monologue declaring, “We are the Walking Dead,” but let’s be real: The walkers have earned that title through all their suffering over the years, and it’s rude of Rick to try to take it away from them.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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