Just caught up. Great so far. Never played the games so I don’t have context.
Some super nerd questions:
- Do they ever explain in any media how the parasites so effectively command the human body? These aren’t slow moving zombies. They’re pretty damn coordinated. Since the show is kinda going for realism, this stuck out to me as a little unrealistic. I know, it doesn’t really matter.
- How are the infected able to at times do super human or at least peak human feats? Especially when some haven’t eaten for what seems like years. Biology and physics have to take over at some point right?
- Why are the infected so violent? Isn’t the point to spread the fungus. At times they’re eating the whole damn body or ripping a head off.
[*]Do they ever explain in any media how the parasites so effectively command the human body? These aren’t slow moving zombies. They’re pretty damn coordinated. Since the show is kinda going for realism, this stuck out to me as a little unrealistic. I know, it doesn’t really matter.
well they arent zombies - everyone is still alive - zombies are dead
the fungus isnt a parasite its purpose isnt to kill you or cause your death which is what a parasite does - its a fungus - and in the simplist terms it makes people do the thing they need to do to spread it to other people just like with ants ,the cordyceps bends the ant behavior to the purpose of spreading the fungus to other ants
rabies is a virus ( about as simple a pathogen as a fungus ) and with rabies it causes the infected creature to become more aggressive by turning off certain portions of the brain that cause inhibition this animals with rabies exhibit erratic behavior - it physiologically causes the host to salivate which means that it is likely to be passed in a bite - and of course rabies is spread by animals that primarily bite because saliva ( a fluid) is a great medium to transmit the infection from the infected to the uninfected.
just because a dog or cat or raccon or possum is infected doesnt mean they are less physiologically capable of functioning - they can run fight and everything as well as they ever did before infection - and to make sure that infection is passed the infected have to move and make an effort at the highest level.
there are theory several theories about why the infected are violent - but firstly violence ( meaning aggression ) is the surest way to make sure that the infection is passed to the uninfected - so just like a dog or fox or cat will attack when rabid - a person to spread the fungus would need to get control of another human being and that control is accomplished by "attacking"
they dont eat anyone and none of the infected in TLOU eat people - they bite them to transfer the fungus - but likely they will attack until the person is either subdued ( but alive at which point they infect them ) or that person becomes incapable of any more of an attack because they are dead or about to die.
some people have theorized that the infected still have some of their previous consciousness IE they know what is going on - but its like alternate state where they can see things but have no physiological control since they are trapped in the stew of chemicals the fungus causes the body and brain to make it useful ONLY for the purpose to spread the fungus.
so all that yelling and screaming they are doing as runners is because they still are sort of conscious of what their body is doing but by the time they become stalkers and clickers only the rudimentary lower brain portions are left ( the part of the brain which controls how you breathe your heart rate etc ) .. the higher thinking communication and memory parts on the upper part of the mind are gone; you dont need to communicate since you have no real thoughts after all your only exist to infect other people who are uninfected. and that fungus increases the durability of the head/skull by making plates in weird shapes to make it harder to injure the deeper more useful center of the brain so that blows deflect off of it..
It gets -20 windchill regularly and Joel got on a damn denim coat and no hat.
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