Current Events > Anyone else hate the humans are the real monsters trope

(+) Yeah! (+)

In zombie and post apocalyptic media..Like how would civilization be built and be maintained for so long in the first place if most humans were cutthroat bastards lacking empathy and compassion?

the Black Mirror episode Men Against Fire, I thought they did that pretty well.

It's pretty cliche and overdone to death now

We didn't start as monsters, civilization primed us to turn into monsters at the first opportunity.

or some such shit

No because it still hasn't properly sunk in.

Is civilization built and maintained well in those stories anyways? Most zombie fiction has a small group of people that grew to survive with eachother against a bunch of odds, then they usually face some mutual enemy that is worse than any of them.

I think it's more annoying that the protagonists are usually the objectively good guys in these scenarios. Something that TWD tried to flip around at one point but failed at imo. And something TLOU supposedly pulls off but the gameplay held me back from experiencing.

Eh I get where you're coming from, it can be pretty hamfisted, but it's what makes stories like that relatable. What's the alternative? If it's just strictly humans vs. zombies you risk it being mindless fantasy spectacle

'Cause when there's no rules, people start doing dumb things.

Its pretty tired ya

Look at the bullshit we're doing today and tell me it isn't true.

Yes it's true that there are people capable of working together, but many people with most of the power are the heartless bastards that would see this world burn if it meant they benefited(Or if the alternative meant they couldn't directly benefit).

Slayerblade11 posted...

Like how would civilization be built and be maintained for so long in the first place if most humans were cutthroat bastards lacking empathy and compassion?

Slaves. Which is still technically legal in this 'first world' country.

Slayerblade11 posted...

In zombie and post apocalyptic media..Like how would civilization be built and be maintained for so long in the first place if most humans were cutthroat bastards lacking empathy and compassion?

Most humans crave some sense of stability and order, even if many of them are heartless bastards.

But in an apocalyptic scenario where there is no stability or order, there's nothing to lose by being the most shitty person you could possibly be.

CoorsLight posted...

Eh I get where you're coming from, it can be pretty hamfisted, but it's what makes stories like that relatable. What's the alternative? If it's just strictly humans vs. zombies you risk it being mindless fantasy spectacle

And to add on to this, the "humans are the real monsters" trope is a natural consequence of any zombie story. Because zombies are literally mindless creatures. They operate off of pure animalistic instinct and morality can't be applied to them because of what they are. They're incapable of acting selfishly or cruel because they literally lack the intellectual capacity for it. For that reason, you simply can't hold a zombie to the same moral standard that you would a human. By definition they can't be "evil" like self-aware, sentient beings can.