One thing I never understood about a Zombie Apocalypse.

[happyninja42]

Humans are instinctively driven to avoid eating old/rotting/infected meat. Since classic "plague zombies" lose all higher brain functions, maybe that instinctive aversion is amplified.

I lost any respect for Max Brooks when he claimed that the best hand weapon to have in a zombie apocalypse is a katana. Really? Let's see you pry open a locked door or a crate of supplies with a katana. The best weapon to have in an apocalyptic scenario was already demonstrated to us by a scientist.

Ok so I'm assuming you're mostly speaking in jest, but WEAPON and "All Purpose Utility Device" are different things. If the objective is "cut off zombie heads", under the impression this is the most efficient way to stop them...well a crowbar isn't really great at decapitation. And before you try the "yeah but you can brain a zombie with it", you're also likely to get it stuck in the skull, and thus be deprived of your weapon for zombie #2+

I mean none of this shit is to be taken seriously, but that seems like a petty thing to lose all respect for someone over

 

[Agema]

I lost any respect for Max Brooks when he claimed that the best hand weapon to have in a zombie apocalypse is a katana.

Surely not.

The katana is a cutting blade. If you want to disrupt the brain, you mostly need to hack through the skull, and almost no swords are ideal for that, except maybe some particularly heavy, chopping-centric ones like a falchion. Plus, fair chance it might split the skull but get stuck, and maintaining that edge would be a right pain in the arse. I'd suggest even a simple fire axe would be better (albeit also a risk of it getting stuck), and perhaps even better still a mace to crush the skull instead. Although I guess you can't lop limbs, which might be handy against a zombie.

 

[Gordon_4]

Surely not.

The katana is a cutting blade. If you want to disrupt the brain, you mostly need to hack through the skull, and almost no swords are ideal for that, except maybe some particularly heavy, chopping-centric ones like a falchion. Plus, fair chance it might split the skull but get stuck, and maintaining that edge would be a right pain in the arse. I'd suggest even a simple fire axe would be better (albeit also a risk of it getting stuck), and perhaps even better still a mace to crush the skull instead. Although I guess you can't lop limbs, which might be handy against a zombie.

And very specifically taught to students to treat the top six or so inches as the cutting edge. It’s a fine weapon to cut down the odd unruly peasant and duel with like minded souls but for the proverbial zombie apocalypse I’ll take a gladius or a long handled claw hammer.

 

[Xprimentyl]

My question got swallowed up in some quick back-and-forth on the last page, so I'll ask again, because I'm actually really curious.

Back ON topic, next question should be why do zombies STOP eating once they've got someone? Why do we find zombies walking around with only chunks of flesh or limb missing? You'd think a swarm of mindless hunger machines would skeletonize anyone they managed to get their hands on (and this is coming from someone who once almost choked on a buffalo chicken wing; I don't want to think I'm dumber than a zombie, but Baffle makes an intriguing point.)

 

[Agema]

My question got swallowed up in some quick back-and-forth on the last page, so I'll ask again, because I'm actually really curious.

Presumably, a lot of zombies were humans that took injuries form zombies but escaped immediate consumption, or many of their injuries were inflicted by humans, whether before or after transition.

And very specifically taught to students to treat the top six or so inches as the cutting edge. It’s a fine weapon to cut down the odd unruly peasant and duel with like minded souls but for the proverbial zombie apocalypse I’ll take a gladius or a long handled claw hammer.

Yes. My take on the katana is that it was a weapon for a country where virtually no-one had metal armour. I don't even know if it was good for duelling: or at least, not the sort of sword-on-sword duelling we're used to in the west - it's a hard and brittle sword, and clashing against hard objects (like another blade or metal armour) would readily chip and severely impair that cutting edge.

 

[Gordon_4]

Presumably, a lot of zombies were humans that took injuries form zombies but escaped immediate consumption, or many of their injuries were inflicted by humans, whether before or after transition.



Yes. My take on the katana is that it was a weapon for a country where virtually no-one had metal armour. I don't even know if it was good for duelling: or at least, not the sort of sword-on-sword duelling we're used to in the west - it's a hard and brittle sword, and clashing against hard objects (like another blade or metal armour) would readily chip and severely impair that cutting edge.

I think that may be the logic in teaching students to only use the top six or seven inches as the cutting edge so all your hard blocks and parrying is done with the half of the blade you can afford to get nicked and chipped.