World War Z Explored - Part 5 : Around the world, and above

[@williansnobre]

The story of the otaku and the old man alone could be made into a great series. It is unbelievable that they had so much good material to work with and the movie came out the way it did.

[@liuser]

Would make for an amazing episodic series rather than (a) movie(s)

[@drunkenhobo64]

@@liuser Each interview in the book could easily have been made into a contained episode of a series. Plus, it would probably be even easier to see the interconnected stories crossing over each other.

[@JesseHenderson-xc2kg]

I always felt like the people on the ISS watching from space would be a great way to frame an anthology series.

[@kruaser123]

Everything just stops and we cut to an island in the middle of the Pacific, where a group of fisherman are preparing to have a wonderful day, and one of them comments you know I only just realized we haven't seen a big ship in like 4 years. All well not our problem.

[@liuser]

reminds me of this Korean movie called "Welcome to Dongmakgol" where a really isolated Korean village is entirely indifferent to the group of soldiers from each Korea who come to their viklage wielding "long sticks" [guns] and "painted potatoes/rocks" [grenades]. Makes for a hilarious scene and pretty endearing cast lol

[@Thoralmir]

Up until a hoard of water-bloated zombies shamble up onto shore.

[@tabathacarruthers5122]

Some island populations were almost wiped out by 1918 flu while others never got it. Quarantine is very important.

[@m.streicher8286]

​​@@ThoralmirI think you're underestimating the distances involved in the Pacific. Human bodies don't float in one piece for very long when the water is 25c - not in the ocean.

[@ragemonkey117]

​@m.streicher8286 tell that to the millions of zombies still trolling around the ocean floor and floating up to attack.

[@telson1583]

This was the part I was waiting for the most, if nothing else just to hear a Brit's opinion on the British character and story. I think the biggest "plot hole" in the book though was the fact that zombies can survive under the ocean like pressure, and the corrosive properties didn't exist. I would normally be able to stretch my disbelief over this but the book full on points it out: in one of the final chapters a character goes something like "scientists know how, but I don't" which really seemed like Brooks shooting his worldbuilding in the foot.

[@davidegaruti2582]

Yeah , the zombies seem seriusly umbreakable tbh , Like sure i can accept a shockwave not killing them , But they are gonna get turned into a slurry still , Dehydration would become a problem , since they don't have any metabolic water production , And due to injuries and weatering they seem more likely to dry out , At that point i'd say any ability to move would go out the window ...

[@TheKain202]

It's called suspension of disbelief. NotLD Zombies are impossible. They bend over and go all Fleece Johnson on thermodynamics like it's nobody business. They are by definition - magic. The whole point of suspension of disbelief is to depict the people reacting in a grounded fashion to an outlandish, impossible situation.

[@hanneswiggenhorn2023]

The immune to pressure thing is not too bad for me I think, because as long as the pressure doesn't crush the skull, they are good. Collapsing lungs and that sort of thing wouldn't matter to them at all, and all they need is a single working muscle in their jar to be a threat

[@etcetera1995]

@@davidegaruti2582 That's. That's the point. That's what scares Brooks about zombies. That's the horror of an unfeeling, unnatural killing machine that won't stop until you obliterate it or it *gets you.*

[@benandrew21]

​@@davidegaruti2582well it's because none of that about the zombies really matters. They're a plot device, the point of the book is the human experience. If zombies were actually real then they'd need a functioning metabolism in order to move, which means after 3-4 days they're paralysed because all the water in their body ran out. Which means the heart stopped, which means no movement. Brooks could've written an excellent book about humanity desperately trying to hold out long enough for nature to wipe out the zombie threat but he didn't want to do that. He wanted to write about how humans react to crisis, survive it, and rebuild - some bury their heads in the sand, some try to make a quick buck, some fight back, some join the other side, some just plain give up etc. And to tell that story well, you kinda need the crisis to last longer than a couple of weeks. So the zombies wound up being whatever they needed to be in order to facilitate that. That's why the battle of Yonkers spends so much time talking about the philosophies and tactics of the idiots in charge and how they fall at the first hurdle. Brooks could have written Yonkers from the perspective of Rick Kickass describing how he fought off 50 zombies before being dragged out. But he doesn't because it's MUCH more interesting to read how a grunt is being ordered to do shit that doesn't make sense because the people giving the orders didn't stop to think about what would've made sense. Yonkers serves as a microcosm of the entire zombie war up to the Great Panic because it tells the story of the entire governing philosophy of the majority of governments in terms of how they approached and dealt with the zombie threat. Because that is far more interesting than 20 pages on how the zombies overpowered the soldiers.

[@Manabitlive]

A great chapter! The bit about animal wildlife numbers made me sad. The shifting baseline effect has been something thats depressed me ever since I heard of it. And even experts fall victim to it. The one silver lining is that it tells us that our current apocalyptically low wildlife numbers aren't necessarily signs of imminent total extinction. It can bounce back. But its definitely sad to think about the fact that real wildlife numbers would appear to be gross exaggerations because we're so used to large scale devastation. I also think back to how many insects used to splatter on car windshields when I was a kid. And how I can't remember the last time I saw that happen. I'm really enjoying the adaptation on your channel. The segment where you talked about how wildlife would react to zombies is great, and I'd be really curious to hear your take on a Solunum style virus that affects more than just humans, or perhaps one that only affects a different non human species. Whats a bird or cow zombie apocalypse look like? Chickens would be particularly horrific. Spec-evo in a world with something supernatural or basically supernatural in it is really intersting and something I'd love to see more of. Oh, and I am absolutely down for trying some Monster Hunter related art in the future. Looking forward to the next part.

[@genericcatgirl]

A late response, but the point about not seeing insects splatter on car windshields has really started to worry me for how bad wildlife loss has become. Similarly, I have barely seen any ducks on the river compared to 10-15 years ago. Now there's usually only a few geese or a merganser or 2 if we are lucky.

[@KingKhanate1997]

Anyone else who finds themselves curious about the North Korea situation in WWZ, I’d highly recommend reading “The Way is Shut.” It’s an online fanfiction where a joint American-South Korean team lead a small research/military team into the DMZ to try to scout out the area, and make some discoveries.

[@Sara3346]

Thank you for the heads up! Any other WWZ fanfic that you could reccomend?

[@KingKhanate1997]

Honestly? I haven’t read any good ones beyond “The Way is Shut.” There was an ok one that talked about American secessionists in North Dakota tho, Black Hills I think. If you’re looking for more WWZ-like content, I’d highly recommend the books “This is the Way the World Ends,” a book that follows the same general structure of global interviews in an apocalypse as well as the “Day by Day Armageddon” series. I especially love the latter as a veteran since it’s a more military centric approach to the zombie genre.

[@Xainfinen]

If I remember correctly "The Way is Shut" as been canonized by Max Brooks.

[@erynlasgalen1949]

​@Sara3346 I'm a little late, here, but I could recommend Don't Write Their Eulogies, by Thranduil Oropherion Redux on FanfictionNet.

[@jameshenke634]

Thanks for the recommendation. I just read The Way is Shut and holy crap that was such an amazing work.

[@TheTrueUltimateGenLifeform]

I was so in what you where saying that the words “Monster Hunter” just snapped me back into reality

[@MinecraftWorld1954]

I finally finished reading the book earlier this week and… This has surpassed The Last Of Us as my favorite piece of Zombie Media and Dune as my second favorite book I’ve ever read. It’s fantastic from start to finish Edit: For those who are curious, my favorite book is Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

It really is! Whilst zombies have never been huge as a literary genre, WWZ is still the best of them and a seminal text in the broader genre as a whole. Such a shame about how the adaptation went down...

[@MinecraftWorld1954]

@@unnaturalhistorychannelAgreed. I don’t actually hate the movie on it’s own, but the itch for a proper adaptation is still very much there.

[@spyderguy4567]

​@@MinecraftWorld1954Yeah, a series like Chernobyl from HBO would really fit the vibe of the book.

[@mellon4251]

So the obvious question is what is your favourite book?

[@MinecraftWorld1954]

@@mellon4251Project Nemesis, by Jeremy Robinson

[@Roughling]

the last section on megafauna is something you can't find anywhere else. I've liked the WWZ series so far, but this is where it *really* started to shine

[@BigBossMan538]

A speculative evolution project centered on a (post) zombie apocalypse would be interesting and I’m surprised that no one has made it yet

[@mandrakeblake-tw1uv]

Basically After Man or any other spec evo project.

[@lorcanmcloughlin3686]

Not really zombies whoud impact the earth alot more uniquely than whatever happened in after man​@@mandrakeblake-tw1uv

[@BigBossMan538]

@@mandrakeblake-tw1uvyes but I mean, like in WWZ, with some population of undead still present

[@liuser]

imo the amount of prior knowledge necessary is certainly a bit daunting lmao, but would be incredibly interesting nonetheless

[@dalekrenegade2596]

​@@BigBossMan538 Pretty sure even the undead wouldn't last that long.

[@1998topornik]

Gigantic suply energy of zombies is probably the biggest fuck you for megafauna. We as humans are already very good at exhausting our animal adversaries. With undead boost situation becomes nightmarish for them.

[@luizhenriquealves9755]

still no matter how much they bite, human teeth cant do enough damage to rhino, hypo and Elefant skin, they would have to go for the eyes and even their eyelids may be too much for human and zombie bite force

[@ASpaceOstrich]

Some added context on the Chinese bit with the Type 95's. The full interview explains that there were only two Type 95's on the planet. This wasn't an incredible coincidence. It was extremely likely. The moment they saw that the sub that was after them was a 95, the captain knew it was a 50-50 chance he was up against his son. And he believed he had killed his son right up until they met the other Type 95 and he discovered, mercifully, that he hadn't.

[@cruzaider5339]

The North Korea bit is a truly intriguing mystery 🤔

[@olhydra]

There is an amazing wwz fanfic about NK. I wish I could remember what it’s called.

[@Stands4Jinx]

I think i know the one, its called The Way Is Shut ​and its by Dark Scribbler @olhydra

[@xemiii]

welp at least the editing error is probably gone

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

I'm really hoping...

[@xemiii]

@@unnaturalhistorychannel good ending :)

[@cro-magnoncarol4017]

The fact NONE of this was adapted to film in the movie kinda pisses me off...

[@Rietto]

They filmmakers just wanted the rights to a cool title for their dumb action movie, and obviously didn't care about the actual book. Sadly.

[@Jwsponky]

@@Rietto Yes, that is an accurate statement you said.

[@beastmaster0934]

Yup. Instead we got Action-Filled Zombie movie #2748573

[@lightphoenixml7927]

Honestly this book wouldn’t make a good movie, but I think it’d make a great show. 1-2 episodes for each of the characters interviewed

[@happymonkeyfish]

​@lightphoenixml7927 100% agreed, the novel would make for a great anthology type show, if given the proper budget and appreciation for the source material

[@Animortar]

I am loving these dramatic retellings of World War Z. The only exposure to the franchise I have was from the movie so I didn't realize how in-depth It actually was. And It's great that we get to see perspectives of other countries not just America It makes the whole thing feel real.

[@aircraftcarrierwo-class]

I recommend the book, the movie is nothing like it.

[@thomaswillard6267]

I first read this book in 2009, when I was 14. At that time I didn't realize why the IR department at Radio Free Earth would be so bad. At the end of the world, hearing that pain should seem normal. Right? When I was 26, Russia invaded Ukraine and I found myself doing OSINT and helping organize civilian response. I spent 6 months sorting through war crimes footage, trying to help people flee through safe regions, a lot of people searching for missing relatives. I understand now.

[@holyherrerasaurus5728]

As someone whose island home is often besieged by ecological invaders I found the segment regarding the effects on wildlife quite cathartic. New Zealand to which I am home to has few terrestrial animals- of those most are nocturnal or possess meaningful camouflaged designed specifically against now extinct sight orientated predators. I like to entertain the idea that the true winners of a Zombie infestation are the birds; who do not need to worry as much about being pursued with the advantages of flight and treetops. In New Zealand specifically there's trees which have stood for centuries and endured tropical storms greater than any force capable by any person. A natural fortress for the native birds to which my nation is known for. I'm not sure I agree fully with the idea that humans could or would fully wipeout cetaceans, though. Even with the targeted killing of the whaling era the populations of whales still bounced back. There's also areas where maritime efforts become unviable (particularly without gasoline which many groups seem to lack) where whales and other large marine megafauna could take refuge. Whether or not those survivors would be able to sustain a genetically diverse population is a different story.

[@CrudDeposit]

Since birds benefit so greatly from the outbreaks, would it make sense for completely avian dinosaurs (in the traditional sense) to re-emerge after enough time?

[@holyherrerasaurus5728]

@@CrudDeposit Probably not. Although they'd likely see a resurgence on islands after terrestrial animals dwindle in the form of flightless birds I doubt a Zombie outbreak would create the conditions for something like a Velociraptor. Birds still need to eat after all. If all the niches on the ground suddenly became vacant it'd likely spell their doom as well.

[@baneofbanes]

Eh we came pretty close during the 1800’s. Add to that millions of people taking to the seas everywhere for years on end, I can see it happening. Not to mention that the oceans are stated to be heavily polluted and fish stocks depleted as well. However I will grant you that as good as it is WWZ isn’t really that realistic.

[@sheikhshit]

the fucking dinosaurs always win

[@Rietto]

After seeing those orcas in the Mediterranean and Scotland decide that attacking boats was a fun fad, I totally would believe that whales are smart enough to eventually learn that attacking smaller boats on sight would be a good idea. If people on grubby small craft armed with piddly things like guns could even bring a huge whale down to begin with, that is. Most likely it would just injure them enough to get labeled by the whales as dangerous as a whole and avoided if not outright attacked.

[@bodaciouschad]

That otaku was playing a dangerous game of CDDA project zomboid

[@flailsnail1546]

Much like the zombies, this video too now rises once more

[@willkatching9219]

Back from the dead and better than ever!

[@doverboi-lv3bb]

You and RoanokeGaming make the best videos on Zombie viruses, I do hope you’ll make more videos on other Zombie related media.

[@professorsimosuchus7954]

I think agresive or territorial large animals in fenced reserves could eventually become keystone species and even ecosystem engineers by developing strategies to “clean up” the ocational zombies that wandered in, steming from the same strategies of agression towards potential threats like lions with hyaenas or cape buffalo with lions, asuming the reserve has enough space & genetic variety to sustain a healthy population, mainly by the reduced amount of zombies allowing natural selection to favor animals less afraid but still cautious of the solenum smell and with more behaviors to facilitate a safe takedown, maybe this animals would patrol their territories regularly and take down stray zombies for their own safety, benefiting the whole ecosystem. Also, with the sheer amount of zombies and the tight proximity of the hordes, it is reasonable to asume that some kinfd of decomposing organism would take the niche rather quickly, i suspect the main reason why bacteria have such a hard time decomposing zombies, is because solenum is something very unique and also untill a few years ago very rare occurrence, so specializing & adapting to solenum infested bodies wasn’t really ecologically profitable, but with the sheer ammount of biomass in the hordes and virtually no competition for it, it’s not unreasonable to think some bacteria, fungi or even scavenging invertebrates would start to adapt quickly to exploit it, and maybe in even s few years since the rate of adaptation in microorganisms & mass reproducing widespread invertebrates is fairly quick, humanity could see both the average numbers & lifespan of zombies greatly decrease or at least stabilize to their number in ancient times

[@reshi606]

Organisms adapting to the hoards quickly was something I though seemed very probable too since it’s such a widely available resource. Solonim being basically impervious to nearly all biological life for long doesn’t seem realistic

[@davidegaruti2582]

​@@reshi606yeah , some kind of fly would just use that as free real estate ... I guess it partially makes sense within the lore however : Solenum parasitized humans wich existed in low densities , So it would have prioritized host endurance , in order to not get snuffed immediatly ... Within the wwz universe humans becoming soo populous was really the main cause of the infection spreading soo far and whide ...

[@beastmaster0934]

Vultures and other scavenging birds would have an absolute field day with all the corpses.

[@JuanGonzalez-iw1hi]

Mabye the us could've won the Yonkers battle if they had cultivated super bacteria against Solomin and just dumped them all over the hordes instead of wasting time trying to make lead work

[@professorsimosuchus7954]

@@JuanGonzalez-iw1hi well, the whole thing was about making a spectacle for the military to flex, so they probably wouldn’t have done it even if it had occurred to them

[@Ronythereditor]

Man it some of these chapters would just be fantastic to see on screen, I could just picture it now especially the Chinese submarine chapter

[@AmoniPaleo]

Is it silly to say that Your Videos help me fall asleep and still able to retain all the information you give? No really, I am always very Hype with the World War Z videos, I never got to read the books and or was interested in the Zombie Genre, you managed to make me so interested if not tense and scared during some parts. The world Building is amazing I shall see if I can get a copy.

[@screaminggecko7660]

The thing that bothers me about the "zombies kill all the animals" thing isn't that I think megafauna are death machines. Its that they tend to live in places where humans aren't, and zombies aren't smart. I don't think they'd radiate out of cities in hoards, I understand that they'd be milling about in search of food but as we have established most animals aren't going to approach a zombie filled city. You'd likely have 'dead zones' surrounding cities with no non-avian or insect life being willing to venture in past a certain point. There wouldn't be elephants and lions trumpeting and roaring outside cities to draw the zombies out. And the zombies aren't smart enough to plan an exit to search for food, AND its not like they have super senses and can tell an area is fully vacant. Most likely zombies leaving cities would be random individuals radiating out as the shuffle along or follow human survivors. Up against a hoard most animals would lose yes, but I don't think they'd likely be encountering many hoards mostly small trailing groups or individuals. Some animals might begin to target lone zombies in the same way large predators will kill smaller ones competing for resources or threatening their young. I really think the real threat is living humans hunting, not the dead swarming. Edit to expand my thoughts: I also think that the idea people wouldn't take full advantage of animals aversions to zombies is bizarre. Its established you don't even need to train a dog to be aggressive towards the bitten, they just ARE. That to me is the biggest plothole in everything, if tinkerbelle the mini pomeranian can sort your incoming survivors for your settlement that's pretty reassuring and a lot of people have companion animals. Sure a fair number would be turned into food especially in the case of unprepared campers and the like, but if you have even a half decent setup a dog or probably even better a cat (hissing and puffing in advance of coming zombies would likely be enough to warn humans without alerting the hoard) you could potentially get into position and take pot shots. I also think elephants might be able to fare well in this because of their hearing and intelligence working with people. An elephant would likely be able to tell a swarm is coming a long way off (even if I think they are unlikely to pop up in savannahs or jungles) and I could see humans using that and forming bands that travel with 'their' elephants and protect them as feircely as they do their own family. I think some very neat micro cultures could emerge through these partnerships. I also think people who live in rural areas that own horses, mules, or donkeys would have a much better chance than average. There is a saying I've heard that's "if a mule kicks you and you live, it didn't miss, it just wasn't aiming for your head". And again a single equine would only be able to take out one zombie at a time but if you factor in the low population density of areas where people tend to have those animals plus living humans working to eliminate threats as well, and horses being naturally alert prey animals. I think a lot of horses and their owners would have a lot more to fear in living humans than dead ones. Also A lot about the ocean zombies bothers me soooo much. Them not getting crushed at crush depths, them not decaying rapidly, marine scavengers not eating them, it all bugs me. I'm fine with the anti-microbial properties on land and I think its a neccessary part of the fiction to keep the threat going but there is no reason a hominid specialist virus should have adaptations to dealing with marine microorganisms. I feel like all microbes got shoved into one box here when comparing oceanic microbes to land microbes is as different as looking at fish vs people and the medium of water is much better at helping those microbes get where they are going. I don't think zombies would be washing up on shores unless they were coming from nearby ships or settlements. I don't see why they should decay any slower than any other corpse in water except to just make them more scary. I also don't buy that there wouldn't be marine scavengers eating them, nothing is toxic to everything and just cause a vulture wont eat you doesn't mean a fish cant or that all fish are the same basically interchangable things. Out of all the stuff in the ocean I just don't buy that *nothing* would flock to zombie swarms like a dinner buffet. It doesn't have to be sharks or something dramatic either, give me reef cleaner fish suddenly adapting to appear in shoals around the floating villages and abandoned ships because of the constant food dropping off the sides that they can endlessly nibble away at. You could have people learning which fish eat zombies and throwing those ones back instead of eating them or if there are plenty of zombie eating fish you could trail a zombie behind your boat as live bait. ALSO ALSO. I think while a lot of mammals would get fucked right up and either be kept to current ranges in non-human dense areas or hunted to extinction by living people (which I firmly believe to be the bigger threat). Birds and insect populations would probably explode. This might also be one of the few situations where the 'bats evolve into apex predator' trope might make sense (though obviously in the far far far future). The ability to just up and fly away and access arboreal roosts would be a major win. Again the human factor comes into play but the more destructive escaping humans are to the local area the easier I think it would be for zombies to take over. I think following the first year boom and bust of people camping and either dying of incompetence or getting overrun, birds would likely end up with some prime real estate. Year 2 onwards and the dead aren't threats and the living are dead AND if birds and insects are able to immediately colonize the ruined cities (which barring the nuclear wastes they absolutely should be able to do) there should be enough ambient noise of buzzing insects and fluttering wings to keep city zombies basically just milling in circles. I think pigeon numbers would probably decrease without fast food droppings feeding them (rip the skinny pigeons of covid) but I cant imagine them being more afraid of the slower dumber versions of the things they already just half-assedly waddle away from. Rats would probably also do pretty well in the city wastes even if they don't eat zombies, there should be plenty of general detritus to keep them going for a while until the plants come in and they are able to shift diets again. Rats would probably be the only true winners in all of this really. I think people would probably eat their neighbor before a rat even if they wouldn't admit it

[@baneofbanes]

Wouldn’t really take an entire cities worth of zombies to wipe out animal populations though. Even if it’s just a few thousand trialing out of cities that would probably wipe out entire ecosystems.

[@peakethecat7415]

I think you're forgetting that Iran and Pakistan had a nuclear war and the resulting fallout

[@aircraftcarrierwo-class]

Solanum's tendency to make the flesh highly toxic to everything is what keeps sea creatures from ripping them apart, I think. No doubt there are some species that resist it, but I'm not sure what would be suitable nor how plentiful or widespread they would be. Also, since zombies tend to sink to the bottom, they're primarily entering the habitats of sea creatures with very slow metabolisms who don't eat much, and with how cold it is down there, it likely hinders what microbes are able to consume the infected flesh. WWZ Zombies _do_ seem to decay faster in the ocean, just not as fast as a non-infected corpse.

[@screaminggecko7660]

@@peakethecat7415 ok this is a good point. I did forget that

[@b.p.879]

The Chinese Rebel-Sub crew and the Pacific Continent i think are my favorite parts of this entire novel. I highly recommend the full unabridged "with movie tie-in" audio book of WWZ. It's one of the most amazing audiobooks I've ever heard, featuring dozens of famous screen and voice actors.

[@aircraftcarrierwo-class]

Oh the one with a full cast for all the characters being interviewed? Yeah that audiobook is amazing.

[@bilboswaggins9058]

"A heard of elephants could pull a pelannor fields" line had me laughing like crazy! Much respect for that epic reference.

[@TheBitingBat]

You bet I'm gonna rewatch this from the very beginning

[@stormie597]

After Part 3, I finished the entire audiobook, and I've got to say it's one of my favorite books. IMO it felt like it dragged at the end, but overall I really enjoyed it. The whole book is really well thought out. Yea it has aged, but I never felt it got in the way of what Brooks was going for. The dangers between warm and cold months, real people in a zombie-like psychosis, ecological devastations, and all of the political and social reorganizations makes the zombies feel as they should: an extinction event for life on Earth.

[@elmjojokes7782]

It aged pretty well honestly

[@Oscarthegecko]

The part of the video that really got me scratching my head in disbelief is the "Zombie v Nature" part. Also, the people in the Submarine mentioning "Zombie Variants" makes the scenarios even more confusing for me. The reason I say that is because Zombies are ALWAYS STUPID STRONG. Not like Elder Dragon or Godzilla levels of strong, but its the fact that Zombies are not only durable as hell, they can also mutate (though thankfully it happens to the "Infected", and not the "Resurrected"). This video was great, in fact all 4 other parts of this are great, but thanks for giving me the hypothetical of: 100 Zombies vs 1 Anjanath

[@TheTrueUltimateGenLifeform]

Well zombie virus has to compete with the Frenzy and Quiro virus now, Once more, those two actually power up the monsters they infect

[@davidegaruti2582]

​@@TheTrueUltimateGenLifeformfiction has a decent amount of super bugs : My two favourites are "the infection" from children of ruin , Wich is a sophont bacteria that can just hijack any nervous system and spread itself to everywhere almost ... And the heliophage from "project hail mary" Wich was straight up able to almost end several stars and who can store enough energy in the form of mass and convert it back to ir radiation to make termonuclear explosions look like firecrackers , It uses the ir radiation to spread itself across the vacuum of space , and it can legit survive swandiving into the sun ... It's lifecycle and anatomy is explained almost to the depth of somenum , and the uses humans makes of it are wonderful

[@TomatoApe-hx6by]

Aswering the anjanath part: the monster starts having a field day with all the meat, suddenly feels itchy from the bites, and leaves before coming back later for dinner.

[@TheTrueUltimateGenLifeform]

@@TomatoApe-hx6by Those rocks that hit Anjanath in the head would kill any creature on our planet, living or extinct and Anja tanked it

[@TomatoApe-hx6by]

@@TheTrueUltimateGenLifeform Damn... Like Imagine being such a fanboy that someone gives your "character" a relatively good win and you still come back for more. Like to the point you argue with the *gameplay mechanics of a videogame where a turtle ankylosaur knockoff has less health than a glorified oviraptor with a tucan for a face.*

[@tedstapleton5561]

Great content as always mate. Would love to see you cover other zombie media or at least plagues seen in them like the Green Flu from Left 4 Dead.

[@rookhobbes9055]

I am already filled with despair at the idea of an environmental collapse caused by human industry and climate change. The idea of surviving a zombie apocalypse just to exist in a world bereft of animal life...I don't think I could do it.

[@TomatoApe-hx6by]

It would be just the death of one of many ecological status quos. Find solace in the fact that life will aways move on. Besides, where the hell to you think all that stolen biomass is going back to once the zombies finish rotting out?

[@leonidaspereirafilho499]

Jesus, man, grow a pair

[@mandrakeblake-tw1uv]

It'd be interesting to think that, while the world is in chaos and trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, places like the interior of the Amazon and the North Sentinel Island are probably living just another day.

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

'Crazy how there's been less planes than usual?'

[@baneofbanes]

Eh there’s a lot of population centers to the north and south of the Amazon, I’m sure some zombies made it in. Would probably still be safer than the other regions of South America save for the Andes.

[@mandrakeblake-tw1uv]

@@baneofbanes What I meant by the interior of the Amazon is about the isolated and uncontacted indigenous communities living in remote regions of Acré.

[@baneofbanes]

@@mandrakeblake-tw1uv I’d think that Acre would have zombies coming in form Bolivia no? Still wouldn’t be anywhere near the more open spaces like the Pampas but I doubt that even the contacted tribes would be unaffected by a zombie plague even in the deepest parts of the Amazon.

[@Jwsponky]

@@mandrakeblake-tw1uv ...There are still uncontacted tribes? Honestly did not know that, thought that was a relic of the late 1800's.

[@navarrofamilyproject]

This is phenomenal series and work. Well done sir.

[@yetipotato8567]

Blind old gardener winning the apocalypse with a otaku disciple is metal af story

[@spiderking203]

The astronaut one always makes me tear up a bit. Him and the rest that stayed were heroes.

[@hanneswiggenhorn2023]

1:10:17 the way I interpreted it is that the virus basically turns the zombie self sufficient in that it uses the water and tissue still in the host to get the energy, basically the host is eating itself slowly from the inside and that is what causes the slow decay

[@melikwalker296]

I've watched basically every episode that released on your lore on the World War Z series and let me tell you it is amazing when you're done you should do the last of us next

[@jackevans5854]

This would be such a good story to adapt into an anthology series, similar to black mirror

[@kingnothing5678]

Read the book a few years back. The Chinese submarine arc was my personal favorite.

[@poké-ODIN]

Another banger as always

[@rita6355]

I love that verbal thing where you say "having none of it" I wonder if the book also says that, it's kinda endearing

[@NicNac723]

This is your best one yet!

[@Thoralmir]

The part of Brits having no guns should only really apply to major cities like London. Any Brit can tell you that the folks in the rural countryside are all armed to the teeth, and keep their armories secret.

[@Orber1154]

Woooo new viddfd

[@FirithPanda]

This book aged something with the mention of the Three Gorges Dam breaking, huh?

[@HungNguyen-sy4oz]

Speaking of insects, there's also the chance the species itself, while eating and destroying the zeek, in said process, somehow become a carrier for solanum a la mosquitoes and malaria. If that happens, say adios to any strategy demanding the elimination of every last carrier.

[@Mr_Blah]

Another thing on the animal part, taking out a human is very different from taking out a zombie, every single animal would be learning the lessons of Yonkers every single time they try to kill a zombie by biting its neck or using blunt force.

[@BalmungMP5]

This book came out during the peak of zombie saturation in media and caused me to avoid it for years. I think its an interesting deconstruction of the genre in many ways, and its disappointing what happened with the film adaptation.

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

Yeah, I don't blame zoomers and those in general who missed the boom of high quality zombie media - before it became a sludge pipe of low quality zombie media - for writing it off as 'another' bit of zombie lore. The film adaptation was probably a huge contributor to that.

[@baneofbanes]

@@unnaturalhistorychannelcough cough TWD after season 5 or so.

[@QazwerDave]

Sailing tourists to Iceland ?! From where ?! Europe has infinite islands of their own !

[@godzillakingofthemonsters5812]

It's fair once at the point of no return the hordes would trounce the might of the already damaged megafauna herds. Maybe in their hayday they'd have crushed the undead swarm. The jaws and arms of the zombies wouldn't do much to large animal hides, but enough punishment would eventually give way. Africa would probably still put up a huge fight though. Elephants, rhinos, hippos and buffalo make for a hard force to trounce, the scavengers too if they learned to stomach solanem. For the large carnivores, the cats and bears will take some numbers for food, but mostly in retaliation. Many more people get maimed and killed by carnivores fighting back or being startled than for lunch. There's also the hyenas and crocodiles, which do seem to just view people as food. Hyenas have learned to beware people with objects, but unarmed people they will try. As for crocodiles, them and hippos guard the waterways. The zombies in the ocean though I see no reason why they wouldn't be dealt with. Marine pressure and scavengers should handle them. As for people, yeah, I see that as the bigger factor.

[@randallbesch2424]

Why are the undead called "megafauna" when they are essentially an alien thing most unnatural?

[@godzillakingofthemonsters5812]

@@randallbesch2424 Was pretty apparent I meant stuff like bison, buffalo, elephants, etc

[@Swatman170]

The only question I really have now is: How do Zombies make it over large bodies of water like was mentioned earlier on? I figure these Zombies wouldn't float in water for terribly long, not for more than a week anyway. Wouldn't any Zombie sinking into the ocean have its brain thoroughly destroyed by the pressure. I also figure most large fish would nip away at zombies over time, with seabirds being smart enough to stay away when the Zombie moves. The movement of Zombies over large bodies of water was the only big hangup I had, and I very well could be wrong on some of these.

[@BBP-OMO]

The virus is said to not be pleasant to most animals and a lot of waters keeping people separated arent deep enough to obliterate a person entirely. That said most of the waterways the zombies would have to get past are rivers, lakes, straights and canals or under the sea through relatively shallow waters between islands

[@tamonk9054]

@@BBP-OMO Honestly even ignoring marine life, I doubt zombies have any real hope of crossing over any remotely large amount of water. Their only hope would be getting lucky enough to wash up somewhere before their body is either destroyed from being smashed into rocks or from simply being eroded by water peeling off skin and flesh. They'd also have no sense of direction once under water, no sound, no smell, and very limited sight that'd soon be robbed from their always open eyes. Even in shallow water let's say 10ft, they'd be completely at the mercy of the water and would either be washed up back to wherever they came from or sucked out to sea by currents never to be seen again. Maybe if you have millions of zombies crossing a small, shallow, and calm body of water, enough might be able to wash up to be considered a threat. My point being aside from extreme luck zombies have no means of crossing any water deeper than waist height.

[@BBP-OMO]

@@tamonk9054I disagree. 1 example in this video can at least partially explain the point about direction. The example of a zombie digging for 5 days because it sensed a mole. If something that small and quiet can draw the attention of a zombie to dig straight down for days (the mole most likely long gone by day 2 at least) I see no reason a zombie couldn't hear a horn at sea and walked just as long in a roughly straight line, even then thats assuming no small fish swims by to keep them motivated. As for the water part, most waterways in the world are nowhere near dangerous enough to tear a grown man apart and even if they are, all a zombie needs is 1 semi-functional limb and the brain. Even the more dangerous bodies of water that'd be dangerous enough to tear off limbs and crack bones on jagged rocks might as well mean nothing if they dont score a lucky break and shove a stone a good few inches into the skull. To add to that every zombie impaled on jagged rocks or falling down undersea trenches makes it easier for the couple thosand behind it to keep going. Not to mention a lot of currents just lead to coasts. A zombie with no skin or lower half held together by nothing but spit and bone can still bite you or contaminate any waters you'd be fishing in and youll only realise that after a few years or after a small child out for a swim kicks something without a 2nd thought and cuts their foot on the decaying corpse of the undead whos stench is covered by the sand and broken glass. Don't get me wrong, most zombies who'd go out to sea would never be seen again, but when the counter of monsters under the waves might be messured in hundreds of millions if not cracking 9 digits, even 10% of those making landfall is a problem.

[@tamonk9054]

@@BBP-OMO The zombie didn't "sense" the mole it smelt it, and the zombie stopped digging as soon as it lost the mole's scent. As soon as a zombie is submerged it loses it's ability to sniff things out. We as humans aren't all that good at figuring out exactly where sounds come from and doubly so when submerged underwater but even if a zombie can discern a specific sound made by humans and keep focused on it while ignoring all other sounds underwater and not changing direction because it got distracted by a fish, it would barely be able to get anywhere, because you can not just walk underwater. Water in the ocean is constantly moving, even with weights it's difficult to simply sit down without being moved around by the water. A zombie without the ability to properly orientate itself and focus on a distant goal would be completely at the mercy of even the slightest currents, and likely end up stuck in a meandering purgatory never being able to move in a direction long to get anywhere until it's body finally gets eroded by the constant movements of the water. As for the few that wash ashore well if they get even luckier and wash up on a sandy beach instead of some rocks that they would be repeatedly smashed against by the tide until their bodies are pulverized with no hope of escape unless they yet again got lucky and were pulled back out to sea or got snagged on a rock. So let's say our prospective zombies did wash up on a sandy shore, they would still need to some reason to leave the water, as without some noise or movement coming from land I don't see why they'd actually try to leave the water and even that's assuming they don't just get pulled back out again by the tide. If the virus is capable of contaminating large bodies of water then it becomes an issue of the spread of information and that's a whole other can of worms. The virus surviving on the jagged sun bleached bones of a long redeceased zombie is probably extremely unlikely in any realistic scenario. I should say that I agree about the few zombie who wash up being a problem especially with the potential of causing another outbreak. You'd probably want people constantly watching the coastline and beaches where zombies might emerge from. However the idea that a horde of intact functioning zombies could just wash up on a beach all carried by some unfortunate current is extremely unlikely, though I suppose it isn't zero.

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

Lore wise it seems they either walk across the bottom ala Pirates of the Caribbean or float from either gasses or them wearing life jackets at the time.

[@m.streicher8286]

I think an active approach to dealing with the virus is the only morally justifiable position. The goal is to minimize suffering.

[@vardiganxpl1698]

Really, watching this made mw realize that the primary reason why the zombie pandemic was so devastating in the WWZ world is because of how overpopulated and concentrated populations if humanity. The zombies are so dangerous BECAUSE they overwhelmed the world.

[@bens1cultist405]

Theres definitely a bit of bs for the doom and gloom of the setting with the lethality of the virus to animals (thats not how pathogens work) and how/why zombies would end up in the wilderness attacking animals in the first place. Like humans are stamina predators, we run things down, but zombies walk after something, if they loose sight, aka, the "stimulus" of a creature, I doubt they have the skill to track it back down. Zombies would be horrible for any creature near urban areas but unless they are deliberately shuffling into nowhere to go on a safari I dont think they'd bother animals that much. Though WWZ zombies run on rule of cool as evidenced by the submarine getting mobbed for some reason, if they hit the sea floor, that could make sense but they were near crush depth of the SUB, a zombies brain should have imploded by that point.

[@user-ik8yw8eo6s]

Love your video!

[@kunturkusilla1933]

Man i hope someone does a wwz south América

[@screaminggecko7660]

You could get some really cool stories from that. Have a really tense and scary section in the heart of Rio then cut to some Chilean farmer chillin in the andes

[@leonicle4473]

I’m confused on your point about zombies vs animals; breaking the skin is definitely a way to take them down, but how are zombies supposed to break the skin of something like a rhino or elephant? A healthy human has no chance of breaking the skin with their teeth or nails, much less a rotting mobile corpse

[@mandrakeblake-tw1uv]

Maybe the elephants and other animals which were not killed by the zombies died of ecossystem related reasons. With the zombies managing to make large carnivores like lions extinct, many elephants would thrive in the absence of large predators, which in turn would lead to overpopulation and overgrazing, which would lead to a poor soil and less plants, causing the extinction of large fauna. As for flying birds and migratory bird species, I think that they may have a chance to survive the initial zombie led mass extinction, and even thrive with a non-predator world, albeit, they would go extinct in the same manner as the aformentioned elephants. Humans would also be helpful in the extinction of large megafauna and birds. Only deep sea organisms, some species of fish which haven't been mass overfished or were despized due to their meat, some species of arctic birds such as terns, burrowing mammals, reptiles and amphibians, some adaptable rodents, cave amphibians and other cave organisms, some primates ( albeit the book mention the Yanomami building house in trees, so I don't think they'll survive in large quantities ), insects, specially maggots, ants, termites and other insects, various species of bacterium, bryophites, fungi, and only a few species or so of trees would manage to survive the mass extinction. Basically a more drastic After Man.

[@baneofbanes]

Those with exposed bone could stab them.

[@mandrakeblake-tw1uv]

@@baneofbanes Good thinking.

[@elmjojokes7782]

You're talking about millions of zombies swarming these animals all at once. It's not unrealistic to think they could overpower it and kill it.

[@Sara3346]

They coulld bit them inside the mouth / anus, zombies have no compunction ano self preservation.

[@benperez6454]

My only thought for animals is that earth is absolutely massive. Like every human standing can fit into la county. I honestly just think most animals would be able to avoid even some of the biggest hordes just because earth is so massive and how slow zombies are. I mean even a horde that's miles wide is fractions of what an animal would be willing to travel. Yeah humans are persistent hunters and that's how we caught most but we also ran not shuffled along

[@Tehstampede]

That part about what happened to whales always makes me sad

[@Firebringer121]

@8:05 well it looks like the CIA survived yaaaaay *screams internaly*

[@colonelhammerhead3025]

Why was the original video deleted?

[@Father_Zimbabwe]

about an hour in the audio overlapped for a minuet

[@austinames9340]

In regards to the aftermath of the war, do you think Earth’s ecology will EVER bounce back after such a catastrophe? I know this isn’t exactly Permian in scale but the results will definitely show.

[@baneofbanes]

Over the course of millions of years of course. But not on the scale of human civilization.

[@jromero9795]

I don't remember if Ijiro ever mentioned where his brother lived but I wonder if by some sheer coincidence he ended up being the zombie Kondo got his katana from.

[@PennitentOne]

I feel like you’re not the first person to mention this but it’s suppose to be coincidental as far as we know

[@AFancyApe]

nahhh, Australia is perfectly fine, the Zombies were actually outcompeted from the local lifeforms who also use humans as hosts

[@takenname8053]

If an Otaku can make it, then I can make it! (If I don't unalive before the outbreak) But dam, the whole animal/nature vs zombies got me into a doom and gloom mood. And made my speculative head turning trying to think what animal would start to dominate the planet. Birds? Rats?(lol) Ants?

[@screaminggecko7660]

Birds 🐦 I honestly think any species that make it through the first year would probably be fine or better than fine though. I don't see why zombies would leave cities in hoards. It's not like they can figure out that the humans are gone. And I firmly believe insects and birds would be able to recolonize the cities almost immediately and that should give the zombies enough ambient buzzing and flapping to keep them milling in circles. I think if a pigeon will barely do a half assed waddle away from living thinking humans capable of sprinting or jumping then they have zero reason to fear the shuffling brain dead ones

[@matteolucarelli4615]

So, with regular animals accounted for, and given this is UHC ... which monster would you want to have by your side during a zombie apocalypse? :P (please don't just say something that can fly away from the hordes...)

[@treadingwater86]

Oh, that is a really tough question. The issue comes in not only defending/escaping the hordes (even if it is pretty well established that most wyverns have pretty tough hides in general) but keeping your new monster buddy fed as well given their size. Scavengers like Bazelgeuse or Deviljho would be a good pick for other forms of zombie-apocalypses, but it was established in World War Z that they don't like Solenum so you won't be able to rely on the hordes for sustenance. There might be other corpses they can feed on, but the zombies will have most likely eaten the majority of the flesh anyway. The better solution for World War Z specifically would probably be something herbivorous that you won't have to hunt in order to feed, the ore-eaters would also be an interesting choice if volcanoes weren't such a hostile environment for humans. A Pukie-Pukie is primarily a fruit-eater and while you don't really have Scatternuts in real life, assuming that it can adapt to the fruits available it would probably be a pretty good companion with its ability to fly as well as having night-vision going by its eyes and as such being able to both detect and effectively flee from hordes.

[@screaminggecko7660]

Diablos if the fliers are out and assuming we are 100% buddies and I'm not going get fucked right up as soon as the hormones hit. The desert environment would keep most zombies and human scavengers and those that come in would probably be quickly dealt with or not bother. (In the case of the living). Assuming we are in the monster hunter world I think finding watering holes and food in the desert would be much easier than in real life

[@francovlla]

Please keep doing this

[@The1rust]

Imagine having the balls to willingly go face to face with a nuclear bomb, survive and then be treated as some kind of pariah.

[@crimsonshadowjj7935]

Yay!

[@NerdAlert42]

1:06:08 can someone help me out and tell me what movie that is?!

[@mkstarstorm8822]

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

[@Jwsponky]

If I were to hazard a guess the notion that 'carnivores are chomping at the bit to attack humans' comes from the logic process "Carnivores eat meat. Humans are made of meat. Ergo, carnivores eat humans."... Granted a similar train of thought has been one of my biggest quibbles about zombies all together, 'Zombies eat humans. Zombies are made of humans. Ergo, zombies should eat zombies.' Why do the hordes never seem to turn on each other after exhausting all other readily available food sources?

[@DominionSorcerer]

If we go by Walking Dead standards zombies recognise each other via scent and have a preference for warm meat, which is why so many people are turned despite being cornered by a horde of them and why so many bodies are left just lying around - the zombies eat, but grow disinterested as the body turns cold so they leave on search for fresh meat.

[@Jwsponky]

@@DominionSorcerer Heard of that show, but never watched it. Sat through many a commercial for it though declaring "This is the final season!"... for at least a good three different seasons of it.

[@baneofbanes]

I mean zombies aren’t exactly a realistic entity, so why expect them to follow logic?

[@JuanGonzalez-iw1hi]

If the zombies freeze during the colder months why didn't the northern places just wait for winter and send teams to Find and destroy as many zombies as they could while they could literally do nothing? Also why did noone do the same thing as the romans and funnel the zombies into places where they could be easily killed. If they had time to prepare the whole spectacle of yonkers they could've made trenches aswell. I think so at least

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

They did do the zomb-smashing in colder countries, the problem was the amount of zombies + difficulty in travelling in the snow after a societal breakdown.

[@TomatoApe-hx6by]

​@@unnaturalhistorychannel so as is the case with the 'fire of the gods', it's handy but never war-wining.

[@yetipotato8567]

Frozen zombies would be under snow. And if weather is over 0°c or it's sunny enough to partially re mobilize zombies that would absorbe the snow that would be dangerous job

[@PrueferAuge]

1:09:42 yo, my zombie produces antibiotics

[@farbol2348]

is there something that hurts me more about this universe is the dead of the big whales :c

[@oteris2924]

What do people think Animals are gonna do? Pumas riding Bear Calvary with Wolves acting as infantry? Lions, Hyenas, Wild Dogs, Cheetas, and all the other animals in Africa gonna put aside their differences to form a grand army to meet the undead hoards in battle? Sloth Bears and Tigers gonna stop beefing to maul some shamblers in jolly cooperation?

[@davidegaruti2582]

I guess it's the trope of zombies not attacking animals , And of zombies being unpalatable , I think a more plausible scenario could be dogs learning they can nibble off of them and opportunistically doing so

[@baneofbanes]

@@davidegaruti2582more likely animals would avoid zombies like the plague.

[@KC-kl6qc]

​@@davidegaruti2582According to the Zombie Survival Guide (written by the same author and the two are heavily linked), zombie flesh is highly toxic to animals due to the Z virus, it only makes zombies out of humans, corpses from everything elsw

[@zt1marquez]

God help me, I was only nineteen

[@momsberettas9576]

Of course animals that don't attack humans would attack zombies when the zombies are attacking them!!

[@hoffenwurdig1356]

In my opinion, Max Brooks arrived at the name of the Chinese Admiral in "World War Z" by simply reversing the order of the sounds in the name of the Chinese Admiral in the novel "The Shark Mutiny" by Patrick Robinson. I believe that this was a lazy choice, and it disappoints me.

[@reshi606]

Wouldn’t organisms begin to develop resistences to it if it spread across the globe for years? A selective pressure for greater resistence to infection?

[@ctshaffer1999]

I always assumed Solanum was alien in origin, a virus specifically designed to target humans but equally fatal for all forms of animal life. It’s too perfect not to have been intentionally designed.

[@baneofbanes]

Solanum was extremely rare up until the zombie war so there wouldn’t really be much if need for diseases to become resistant to it, just like how diseases didn’t really start becoming antibiotic resistant until we started using them enmasse.

[@TheKain202]

@@ctshaffer1999 Is it really tho? It only exploded into a full blown apocalypse, because of the insane population densities in XXI century, and global transportation network making the planet feel tiny. According to the Survival Guide, the thing was around for tens of thousands of years, but didn't amount to anything but an occasional nuisance in a world where people formed hunter gatherer groups, not nations of densely packed millions.

[@abrahamamador2676]

.... This basically means Juan de los Muertos could be cannon

[@paxluporum4447]

Comment for the comment gods!

[@kutkuknight]

Nahhhh why was the fucking weeb kid and the blind guy the most EPIC fucking story imaginable omg

[@lorcanmcloughlin3686]

I wounder if a long time after the war life choud kind of be restored using genetic engineering cloning etc obviously it whoud be a nightmare but i think we could try atlest

[@tabathacarruthers5122]

Zombies wouldn't be able to eat elephants and rhinos because human teeth can't get through their skin. Same with alligators and crocodiles. Not sure if they could eat scorpions. Think underwater zombies would decay fastest.

[@D3NL1LL3P]

Denmark is "narrow" peninsula and two major islands, the German border (like most of denmark) is flat so i think Jutland (the peninsula) would be hard to defend but blowing up 2 small bridges and the tunnel to Sweden would be easy. Also, we have a very low population density so big hordes need to immigrate from Germany in the narrow-ish border Already most land is used for agriculture and animal husbandry and our cost lines are filled with windmills and we got solar panels for days. Denmark could ride this shiet out.

[@yetipotato8567]

But 100 million Germans, French, Dutch, Belgians would make things hairy

[@therealgeneralMacArthur]

Zombie hordes can walk along the bottom of the sea, remember?

[@jwb_666]

The most realistic part was the reaction of the ccp

[@PennitentOne]

Fun fact: the book was banned in china cause it ragged on the CCP too much

[@EtherialofNowhere]

People talking about large predators or predators at all, on zombies are totaly wrong for the obviously stated reason. Predators fight by scratching and biting, and as soon as one bites a zombie, it has already sealed its fate, solanum saturated flesh would infect and kill them in return.

[@projectarduino2295]

Oxygen less desperation does exist, but the material consumption is far less efficient, so if the body had no way of securing more nutrients, the body would consume all of its biomass in just a few days, and terminate far sooner. Not to mention all the desperation byproducts not being flushed from the system impeding desperation and muscle use in only a manner of minutes.

[@reshi606]

What about how they can survive years without a functional metabolism getting frozen and defroasted multiple times and walking it off

[@thecurlyheaddude]

Listening to your videos makes me believe the movie was likely as good as the book, which is to say not very good.

[@dagoodboy6424]

Animals prob get screwed more than ppl do.

[@randallbesch2424]

TWD it seems they have shown just falling apart and non govt agencies springing up. We have yet to see anyone reorganized into a new polity like China.

[@thehatcaseonyoutube]

The silliest part of this entire book is the silly assumption human teeth and bite force can actually break or damage shit like bear or moose hide, let along fucking elephant skin

[@sabotabby3372]

Man revisiting WWZ years later the racism and classism are pretty noticeable.... You can really tell this was written by a well off American prepper.

[@Sara3346]

I know I am late but I do want to point out ask about the bison numbers really being natural? I was under the impression that bison herds only really became huge for a few hundred years due to European plagues reducing predation pressure on them?

[@transnewt]

disregard a SEVERE amount of my previous comment. fuck

[@transnewt]

maybe the texas population of panthera could beat all the zombies there but... but naaah im doubting even that fuckshow would work, considering lack of experience in particular.

[@edwardhisse2687]

A reminder there's too many people on this planet

[@sabotabby3372]

That's Malthusian bullshit, the issue isn't the needs of the many but the greed of the few

[@edwardhisse2687]

@@sabotabby3372 I'm not talking about people being poor. I believe we could fix powerty (On paper at least) There's just too many. Edit 3: If anything food production will become a problem exactly the moment we fix poverty. Right now the whole system relies on poor people not being able to begin affording all the protein and micronutrient dense foods they need.

[@evankimori]

34:14 - Forgot the mic on in the background? XD Fantastic stuff here. I've read the books multiple times but I like formats like this where it's sort of a summary but a critique as well.

[@SpookeyGael]

I get it's sort of the central conceit of the story but it's hard to get over just how utterly ridiculous and fantastical the zombies are, violating basically every law of thermodynamics, biology, or basic physics.

[@SpookeyGael]

Like when you're talking about a real-life carnivore or large herbivore against a horde of zombies you're talking about a real animal with real behavior and constraints vs. an all-but-supernatural being that can produce energy from nothing, has nigh superhuman strength and durability, and has body fluids that magically kill nearly all other life. It's a bit farcical to speak of it in terms of "realism". Saying "Solanum evolved to do that" just replaces magic with evolution, as it requires that A: no other living creature on Earth evolved alongside Solanum, and B: Solanum somehow despite being a virus evolved a better immune system specifically for humans than humans themselves. This is all fine if you simply accept that Solanum is magic, but it becomes a problem when every other aspect of the story's world is adamantly realistic. Like you'd think people would want to study and harness this random virus's ability to generate free energy out of literally nothing.

[@screaminggecko7660]

I was fully expecting a twist that it was actually introduced by aliens as part of a human (and lesser extent megafauna) eradication plan that would leave less clean up than something like nukes. But no it evolved and the Romans beat lmao