pandashr00m

[pandashr00m]

[pandashr00m]

comic about driving i guess

[pandashr00m]

I know exploring the Metaverse gotta be fun in the same way exploring an abandoned mall with your friends is fun.

Wandering through disheveled places, messing around with broken things, having the place all to yourself, maybe messing around with broken arcade machines.

[pandashr00m]

One problem I've always had with zombie apocalypse media particularly from 10~ years ago, is that it's always during the set in the same initial outbreak, and is always about how humans 'are the real monsters'.

Of course bad people will always be present in any society, that much is a given. But when that is the majority of the types of stories in a genre, the audience will only learn the lesson that; 'once things go bad, there's no coming back'.

Especially, after living through a pandemic (so far), growing up in a wolrd with a climate catastrophe, and the now almost ignored threat of nuclear holocaust, the stories that have really gotten through to me are the ones that cut past despair. Stories about people surviving isolation, loss, societal collapse, yet still living in hope, no matter how hopeless the situation may seem they find a way to rebuild and live better lives.

Something about having anxiety and being really trapped inside the internet these past 2 years, has really caused me a sense of doom about the world but, its these tales that are the only thing I feel, that actually recognize the fears I have and reassure me that things can be better.

And most zombie stuff doesnt do this!

Zombie apocalypse stuff is all about guns and murder and lootin', and how bad people can be -which again, isn't inherently a 'wrong' but, too often those types of story just leave you feeling shitty, with no resolution or way out. It's just despair porn.

I personally, would really love to see zombie apocalypse media that follows characters you wouldn't usually see depicted as survivors i.e, those with disabilities, the homeless, and very socially oriented uplifting people. Because not everyone can survive solo or in a small family unit, some people need a stationary base of operations and, everyone NEEDS friends and family in the apocalypse. Usually, encampments of people trying rebuild society in the genre are a very pessimistic look at parts of our current societies.

I've seen teen oriented zombie stories where zombie factions are based off of stereotypical high school cliches, where focal character will be a socially avoidant gamer, and everyone but his party as a 'bad' way of forming groups. Whether it be jocks, band kids, teachers, other less cool nerds, -all of then can't compare to the mc and his close knit band. The problem here lies with authors writing characters that reflect their introverted ways of forming friendships and neglecting the benefits of other organisations of social connection.

For sure, the 6 or less group of survivors with the main character will have an easier time moving around and being sneaky but, the encampment of survivors in the hundreds has better odds of weathering zombies until they decay and stop being a threat, and surviving after the initial outbreak.

Raiding stores and warehouses will help at the start but eventually you'll need your own renewable food source after all the canned beans run out. At which point the main character will have to settle somewhere to get them sorted, but the encampment just down the river has a head start in that department!

Its not like these clustering of people are not immune to hubris being their downfall or a broken fence but, in disaster stories it is important to show humans being good to each other, coming together to compliment each others strengths, and surviving the initial threat. All roads of human organisation lead to the formations of society, it is especially important with tales of those societies 'collapsing', to show what the fundamentals of why we band together in the first place.

Imagine if rather than shows and books about a white man raiding walmarts and shooting anyone he wants, they were replaced with optimistic stories about the value of working together when fear might urge a 'every man for himself' mentality.

I think that would've helped our sort of global reaction to the covid pandemic, so many of us where scared for ourselves only and where quick to drop the safety of others for our own comfort. Having these types of stories are important and respectable because they give us the strength and understanding to face specific types of adversity that we might never had thought we'd face.

Individually, but somewhat unrelated, there where to books that helped me out during this time. With my mental health struggles and emotions about the pandemic. They were "year of wonders" by Geraldine Brooks. A story about an English town that volunatarily self isolates when the black death appears. And Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura a story initially about revenge and war and then about, redemption and building a better life for those you love.

[pandashr00m]

Call me Big Mac, cause I McFucked™ your wife,

Gonna take her out, cause its Mac Tonight,