Night of the Living Dead Revision

[Mr. Bambu]

The zombies are treated poorly currently, their page is misleading at points. This revision aims to change that with a few tweaks that seem uncontroversial.

Intelligence
Straightforward. Zombies are listed as "Average" intelligence as of their Third Generation. Two examples are given to justify this- Big Daddy, and Bub. It's true that of the standard zombies, Big Daddy and Bub display significant intelligence- relative to all other zombies. This trait is indeed what makes them notable, other zombies display a level of difficulty emulating these habits. It is shown that zombies can learn to become intelligent again- this is displayed outside of these two as well, such as in the novel The Living Dead.

However, the issues are twofold: firstly, this is not a trait of the average instance of these zombies. They are self evidently far, far below average intelligence, and practically all activities they perform are purely instinctual. Normal zombies will do things they did in life- this is a point hammered in throughout the entire series. They go to places they did in life and they do things they did in life, or at least crude facsimiles of them- mailmen will open mailboxes and shut them, residents of suburbia will mow the same lawn with a mower long out of fuel, etc. This applies even to the "exceptional" zombies mentioned above- Big Daddy implicitly only knows how to do things like operate a fuel pump because he was a gas station technician in life, judging by his outfit.

The second issue is that even these exceptional zombies are not intelligent. They are slow on the uptake. When Bub shoots a human, he lacks the immediate object permanence to go the way that human went, instead just staring at the bloodstain (1:00). He requires a mirror to evoke the memory of how to use a razor, or at least how to move it in the same way he used to (1:39). In Land of the Dead (the film with Big Daddy), zombies are specifically distracted by the loud sounds and lights of fireworks. The first sign of Big Daddy's intelligence is the fact that he can overcome this with focus- so it is a matter of intelligence. They will be so distracted by this that enemies in front of them will be able to walk up to them and beat them to death with practically no resistance. It requires Big Daddy to teach them to not stare at fireworks to negate this, and even then, later in the movie, they still get briefly distracted by them.

Now, in movies, we don't have access to whatever thoughts these zombies have, but we do in the form of the book. Zombies do think, for the most part- examples from the book The Living Dead that come to mind in establishing zombies as significantly less intelligent than an average human:

• They must be taught over an extended period of time to wield basic farm equipment such as a hoe.
• Not all zombies can regain communication even after fifteen years- the ones that can are hailed as exceptional.
• One zombie spends the entire book searching for someone they knew in life, and upon seeing them again, takes several minutes to realize it is them.
• The book explicitly goes on about a mind-fog that occurs for zombies, as if the world is clouded.
• Two people who killed themselves in the novel awaken and only recognize one another after some time.

There's more, obviously- it's quite a long book- but that provides enough framework, one feels, to make it clear that these zombies obviously are not of average intelligence. I propose Below Average, as they do legitimately think (or, at least, the best of them do).

Weaknesses
This was mentioned in the Intelligence section, but zombies have a particular weakness for sensory information. Loud noises and bright lights- sensory juxtaposition, essentially, cause them to be functionally "stunned", they can't help but witness it. This is a matter of intelligence, but it isn't something inherent to intelligence across all species, so it should be noted as a particular weakness- a weakness they can learn to overcome, provided time and a large enough sample size to include one of their more exceptional members.

Lifting Strength
There are enough anti-feats on this front to render it moot- zombies failing to instantly overturn or knock over barricades is a consistent feature of the series. Furthermore, the feat itself is vague- given the shadow, he may well have ripped it out by weakening the back, tearing through the flesh rather than what the Class K calc is for. I would like to hear suggestions, but my recommendation is simply Athletic Human for now.

I think there's other things that are questionable but this is everything I believe is objectively incorrect on the profile.

Tallies
Agree: 5 (Mr. Bambu, DMUA, LordGriffin1000, DarkDragonMedeus, ByAsura)
Disagree: 0

 

[DMUA]

he may well have ripped it out by weakening the back, tearing through the flesh rather than what the Class K calc is for

I think even just doing this with raw force and no setup still is within the purfew of the calc, but you could also just safely call it an outlier given Zombies clearly can't just flip vehicles or tear doors off their hinges or whatever

 

[LordGriffin1000]

The suggested changes look alright to me. I haven't seen anything related to it in a billion years but right now, I agree with the OP given the evidence.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

I think even just doing this with raw force and no setup still is within the purfew of the calc, but you could also just safely call it an outlier given Zombies clearly can't just flip vehicles or tear doors off their hinges or whatever

What I mean by this is (visual painted by me):

Divergent path:

or

Given that we only see the silhouette, it's not possible to decidedly say which of these happened. From the angle of the shot, I'd even go so far as to say it is less likely it was just straight pulled, and more likely that the spine was simply bent to the point of breaking.

Still, we're in agreement that it is an outlier either way.

 

[DarkDragonMedeus]

Looks good to me.

 

[ByAsura]

As someone who's watched all these films, I completely agree.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Grace period has lapsed on this'n, so I'm gonna put this through and close it. Thanks all.