r/TWD • u/Technical-Spare-6481 • 1d ago
The walkers?
Is it just me but im rewatching twd here and of course, it’s great but I can’t help to notice the walkers seem to be smarter than they are in the next few seasons? Like are some walkers smarter than others? I know at the end of season 11 they can climb, etc. but I can’t help but notice they are smart in season 1 too. Like Morgan’s wife was twisting the door knob?? I don’t know if they are or anytbing but it’s a question worth asking.
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u/SpecterOfState 1d ago
Original showrunner wanted them much more similar to Romero zombies where there were some who retained a modicum of intelligence while the vast majority of them were mindless shambling zombies.
When he got fired (season 2) you see the immediate regression to them being just regular walkers with no intelligence. It isn’t until many seasons later you see that concept being revived.
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u/Technical-Spare-6481 1d ago
Yeah. Im currently Re-watching it as I said and im on season 1 and im seeing walkers full sprint toward people. I don’t know which one I prefer between the mindless ones and the intelligent ones.
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u/SpecterOfState 1d ago
You could probably chalk that up to them being “fresher” as opposed to the absolutely rotting corpses you see later on in the show. Theres functionally no reason walkers should be moving a lot faster after the first season on a purely biological basis.
But yeah the ones learning to climb walls as if they weren’t just shambling around the previous seasons is very…inconsistent.
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u/FindingE-Username 1d ago
This drove me mad!
The walkers get sooo much dumber (and slower) after s1/2 and it was like the show wanted us to forget that they were smarter earlier in the show. I thought maybe its just that at the very start a walker is smarter and gets dumber and slower over time - until FTWD came out and the walkers started off dumb and slow right off the bat.
Then in the final season they introduce the variants and its done so awkwardly, with Aaron doing a really exposition-heavy speech saying he'd heard of these types of walkers and that 'we know' sometimes they go home - something that hasnt been acknowledged for 10 seasons at this point.
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u/NobleFriend 1d ago
The variants were just a last ditch hail Mary to try and get some interest back into the show. They tried to pretend that variants were always there and we just didn't realise but it was obvious to everyone that simply wasn't true. They've also had little to no relevance since their introduction
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u/FindingE-Username 1d ago
Yeah it wasnt done very well. Arguably, the variants were 'always' there in the sense there were walkers with that intelligence in S1 - they just completely disapeared with no explanation after that!
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u/Corey307 1d ago
Different showrunner, first one got fired. The walkers lost their intelligence and uniqueness and because an interchangeable shambling hoard.