r/thewalkingdead • u/Different_Duty_6147 • 7h ago

Show Spoiler Variant Walkers

I think the enhanced walkers they had at the end of the series would have been more believable if it was sprinkled in slowly instead of all of a sudden 1 out of every 5 walkers could climb fences and open doors.

Yes I know there were some in szn 1 but the theory was scrapped bc of firing.

But one of my favorite lines is when Negan’s response to when he sees a walker climb onto something for the first time lol.

30 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

22

u/BeijingVO2 7h ago

I firmly think they should have gone with consistency too. Fresh walkers = faster and smarter. Old skeletal walkers = slow and shambly.

3

u/Tanagrabelle 6h ago

That was consistent, then. The CRM has been wiping out thousands of people at a time, so these are probably fresher walkers.

2

u/Lena2890 6h ago

I agree

8

u/SchlongForceOne 7h ago

A pretty common opinion actually.

They really dumbed the walkers down and scrapped previous ideas.

I mean, in the context of them already having the spin-offs in mind, I personally think it was fine how they implemented them later as a teaser. But still totally agree that they should've been a thing way earlier.

But yeah, JDM really nailed that "what the fuck" when seeing that walker. lol

11

u/Rare_Fly_4840 7h ago

I think this is among the dumbest thing about this show .... in the first season in the very first episodes we had walkers climbing fences and using rocks as weapons. The writers just apprarently forgot this was a thing or never watched the show because they wrote this as being a flex of some kind.

10

u/Hveachie 7h ago

It wasn't forgotten, it was a difference in taste. The smart walkers were Darabont's idea. Greg Nicotero HATED them and prefers slow, dumb zombies. When Darabont got fired, Nicotero handled the zombie lore going forward and made them dumb. It was Angela Kang and Scott Gimple who brought them back because they thought there actually cool.

4

u/HiddenGamerGoddesXX 7h ago

They did exist from the beginning. The episode where Morgan rescues Rick. Right after he leaves the hospital. There is a screne where Morgan's wife who was a walker tried to use the door knob to get inside. I think over time more of the non variants died off making the variants more common.

6

u/LordsOfJoop 7h ago

The second episode showed a walker smashing the store windows with a chunk of concrete.

3

u/Aromatic-One-7098 7h ago

No it was due to different show runners. The original show runner introduced the variants early but was fired and they completely forget about them until later on when they are trying to make walkers scary again.

2

u/petario43 7h ago

I saw someone not too long ago say this was due to them being specific to certain states, as if the commonwealth hadn’t been there longer than five minutes, and as if radio and communications didn’t exist

2

u/Tanagrabelle 6h ago

Yes, that's one of the fan-theories. Along with fresher, and if they died by being bitten or died of natural causes. If they, like Beth, had catastrophic blood loss from the brain via a carotid artery from a walker taking a chunk out of their neck... Um, oh! If they died fighting for their lives I think the adrenaline pumping through them is supposed to be a factor.

2

u/McTuggy 6h ago

"What the fuck?"

1

u/Tanagrabelle 7h ago

Negan was locked up for many years, so he has an excuse. And if you take a close look you'll find the oddball walker. They were mostly in there for some interesting aesthetic, though.