Current Events > The word ''zombie" was banned on the set of TLoU

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1625869324593364993?s=20

The action sequences deal with survivors fighting the Infected, which most people would call zombies. How did you deal with those battle scenes?

We werent allowed to say the Z word on set. It was like a banned word. They were the Infected. We werent a zombie show. Of course, theres tension building and jump scares but the shows really about our characters; The Infected are an obstacle they have to deal with. For example in Episode Three, Ellie hears an Infected trapped under some rubble. Initially, shes scared, but then you see her grow in confidence, cutting open the Infected and looking at the fibers. Through that interest, you see what the Infected means in Ellies own life. She was born into this world thats completely gone to hell because of this thing and now, maybe she has inside her a solution to this thing. We see Bellas performance as she goes from wonder to hate and you start to think, wow what is this girl capable of? Theres darkness and anger in there. So [even in scenes featuring the Infected], its character first and then just tell the story.

VeggetaX posted...

We werent a zombie show.

Every zombie show says this about themselves when, in fact, they are zombie shows lol

so its the z-word now?

This is some stupid hyper turbonerd shit to want to differentiate infected from zombies. Infected is a subgenre of zombies. Without zombie media there prolly wouldn't be any infected media.

Can't believe people would be still be butthurt about this kinda nerd shit in 2023. I remember this kinda thing being super rampant years and years ago. I think it was around the time the first L4D came out(or was it 28 Days later?). Way too many people cared too much about "infected" zombie-like monsters being called zombies. They went on and on about how zombies are technically dead and are reanimated corps while the monsters from 28 Days Later or L4D were not dead, they're just infected with some kinda virus that transform them into what they are.

I guess being informal and educational about it is one thing but who the fuck cares after that? "Infected" is a sub genre of zombies so I see no problem calling them zombies.

I wonder if they ban p zombie discourse in AP

Smashingpmkns posted...

Every zombie show says this about themselves when, in fact, they are zombie shows lol

Really dunno why this is a big deal to them when they directly acknowledges that infected are just things to move the plot.

It seems like he's moreso saying that they're not a zombie show because it's more about the humans/survivors and their story in the world. Which is like what 99% of zombie media has been about since the inception of zombie media lol so he's just ignorant of the genre.

I feel like it makes less sense in TLoU world because unlike in the TWD world, zombie as a term must exist already.

Somebody seeing the infected and not immediately thinking zombie seems silly.

Smashingpmkns posted...

It seems like he's moreso saying that they're not a zombie show because it's more about the humans/survivors and their story in the world. Which is like what 99% of zombie media has been about since the inception of zombie media lol so he's just ignorant of the genre.

Still stupid to me because their bait to viewers is that they are a zombie show.

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

so its the z-word now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqNQbdD3kLw

Even if the show is good, I swear, what is it about people who make zombie media think they are truly the enlightened zombie show?

It's not an insult against them, but more so, zombie media has actually been among the best of the horror staples. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a zombie show when I wouldn't even call that an insult.

PiOverlord posted...

what is it about people who make zombie media think they are truly the enlightened zombie show?

For real. Almost nothing is original about TLoU.

VeggetaX posted...

Can't believe people would be still be butthurt about this kinda nerd shit in 2023

And you ranting about it is different how

Calling out BS is different from the BS.

Zombie: person that's dead that comes back through reanimation.
Infected in Last of Us: cordyceps keep the host alive and eventually dies without a food source.

It's a meaningless distinction. They function in almost exactly the same way, down to TLoU infected apparently being able to survive indefinitely without food or water.

TheOtherMike posted...

It's a meaningless distinction. They function in almost exactly the same way, down to TLoU infected apparently being able to survive indefinitely without food or water.

Not true, we seen in the very first episode that one died in the tunnels where it decayed to the wall. They even mentioned that it wasn't there the last time they went through there. Plus, it was said in episode two that some only live a month or two while others can survive twenty years. It all comes down to if they're in environment where they can thrive.

Gamingsince1989 posted...

Zombie: person that's dead that comes back through reanimation.
Infected in Last of Us: cordyceps keep the host alive and eventually dies without a food source.

A distinction for someone who is omniscient like a viewer, sure. In world, people would absolutely be calling them zombies.

Most virus zombies can die without food too. They're not really magically reanimated corpses either.

TheOtherMike posted...

It's a meaningless distinction. They function in almost exactly the same way, down to TLoU infected apparently being able to survive indefinitely without food or water.

They actually do die, the body will attach to the floor or a wall and the fungus will fruit out of the corpse to try and spread more spores. If they have access to whatever food they need they can live for years.

That said idgaf about calling them zombies, they fit the bill just fine.

Gamingsince1989 posted...

Not true, we seen in the very first episode that one died in the tunnels where it decayed to the wall. They even mentioned that it wasn't there the last time they went through there. Plus, it was said in episode two that some only live a month or two while others can survive twenty years. It all comes down to if they're in environment where they can thrive.

And in episode 3 we see one buried to the neck in rubble but it's still alive, despite its chest being too crushed to breathe. In the last episode we saw hundreds of infected that had been trapped under KC for 20 years with no food or water come pouring out. What they say and what they show aren't always in agreement.

Smashingpmkns posted...

It seems like he's moreso saying that they're not a zombie show because it's more about the humans/survivors and their story in the world. Which is like what 99% of zombie media has been about since the inception of zombie media lol so he's just ignorant of the genre.

It's hilarious how often zombie things are like "this one's different. it's not about the zombies - but rather about how people would interact with each other in the face of the zombies" when that's literally Night of the Living Dead from the very beginning.

If they remade Jaws, would they ban the use of the word shark?

who gives a damn what they call things on set?

these articles are so stupid

An utterly pedantic distinction that even the most turbo neckbeard of nerds would feel ashamed at tbh.

But their show and doesn't really change anything if they don't want to say it on set. They're still zombies in the end, and still doing the same beats as any good zombie film/show does - how the survivors cope/deal with it. Whatever form the zombies take should always play second fiddle to that.

TheOtherMike posted...

And in episode 3 we see one buried to the neck in rubble but it's still alive, despite its chest being too crushed to breathe. In the last episode we saw hundreds of infected that had been trapped under KC for 20 years with no food or water come pouring out. What they say and what they show aren't always in agreement.

For the first one, do we even know if they breath with their lungs? The fungus is alive and controlling the body and it doeant need lungs to breathe. Plus, there's no way to tell how long it had been there. Someone could have trapped it there last week for all we know.

For the KC ones, they were sealed underground, but that doesn't mean that whatever conditions they need to survive weren't there. Last I checked there's plenty of water underground, and even in the source material we're shown constantly that these tunnels are full of burst pipes that flood rooms.

codey posted...

For the first one, do we even know if they breath with their lungs? The fungus is alive and controlling the body and it doeant need lungs to breathe. Plus, there's no way to tell how long it had been there. Someone could have trapped it there last week for all we know.

Yes, they breathe with their lungs. The human body needs oxygen to support itself, cordyceps don't replace organs and their functions. With that kind of compression on his chest he would have asphyxiated within minutes. Even barring that, within 3 days he'd be dead from dehydration.

codey posted...

For the KC ones, they were sealed underground, but that doesn't mean that whatever conditions they need to survive weren't there. Last I checked there's plenty of water underground, and even in the source material we're shown constantly that these tunnels are full of burst pipes that flood rooms.

Assuming enough fresh water entered the underground area to support hundreds of people consistently for nearly twenty years (basically impossible, if for no other reason than winter freezes and summer droughts) that still leaves them without food for all that time.

I'm not criticizing the show here. I'm just pointing out that the infected basically function almost exactly like traditional zombies, even to the point of ignoring human biology and resilience in similar ways.

I still think that this aversion to calling things zombies in fiction is pretty dumb. If a grotesque humanesque type horde of things was ravaging the planet, everybody would call them zombies. Calling them anything else is dumb, unless the scenario is set say a 100+ years ago before the word entered the common parlance.

At least it's not as dumb as the walking dead, where they were something inanely dumb like walkers or something like that.

They're doing this cliche in real life
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NotUsingTheZWord

Clickers aren't zombies.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


https://youtu.be/i8CJ1KcXzF4

What's also dumb is that a zombie in pop culture is vastly different from what a technical zombie is and where it originally come from.

This is like certain deathcore bands not wanting to be labeled deathcore

EmbraceOfDeath posted...

A distinction for someone who is omniscient like a viewer, sure. In world, people would absolutely be calling them zombies.

maybe at first but not 20 years later when they know exactly what they actually are

also gotta remember that world ended in 2003 so the whole renewed zombie craze never happened. Ellie probably doesnt even know what a zombie is

I wonder who the "real monsters" are going to be.

Were_Wyrm posted...

I wonder who the "real monsters" are going to be.

Humans of course

If it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its a duck. Infected are zombies. The distinction between infected and risen dead is meaningless

Sounds about as dumb as the Anthem team not being allowed to mention "Destiny"

If an infected doesn't fight a shark underwater idgaf