Loopholes & Inconsistencies

[fridginators]

KC I've always wanted to ask how it is that in the first few chapters our heroes are able to drive around relatively easily even as there appear to be plenty of biters and you know, a normally functioning city only hours beforehand. I always felt that the transition is too sudden and in my opinion the weakest execution of the show. Only fractions of the population of millions are ever really accounted for, and the chaos on the road is greatly minimised. It's partially addressed with the we're alive banner and all, but it does seem a bit implausible in parts. Am I being pedantic?

Also do we ever find out what happened to the second Behemoth in chapter 35-36? Burt and co. killed Arrowhead but where did the second one disappear to?

[Kc]

KC I've always wanted to ask how it is that in the first few chapters our heroes are able to drive around relatively easily even as there appear to be plenty of biters and you know, a normally functioning city only hours beforehand. I always felt that the transition is too sudden and in my opinion the weakest execution of the show. Only fractions of the population of millions are ever really accounted for, and the chaos on the road is greatly minimised. It's partially addressed with the we're alive banner and all, but it does seem a bit implausible in parts. Am I being pedantic?

Also do we ever find out what happened to the second Behemoth in chapter 35-36? Burt and co. killed Arrowhead but where did the second one disappear to?

Your first point, well, has a point. To have that much population disappear that quickly is a bit far fetched... The one gray area I sort of tend to use to my defense is it's not explicitly said how long Saul, Angel and Michael were in the Armory before they got out. It could have been like more than half a day.

Is that realistically enough time to deal with all of LA? No, but it's better than 15 minutes, which is sometimes what's perceived. BUT, Maybe in a future version I can add in a spot of narration to say how long they were in there.

Oh, Behemoth #2? That one was mowed down by the helicopter. So arrowhead bled out, and that one got shot up. They ended up taking the bodies out of there, not sure where to off the top of my head. I think I mentioned it somewhere in there when Datu was using a bit of its skin.

[Litmaster]

Oh, Behemoth #2? That one was mowed down by the helicopter. So arrowhead bled out, and that one got shot up. They ended up taking the bodies out of there, not sure where to off the top of my head. I think I mentioned it somewhere in there when Datu was using a bit of its skin.

Yep, as a target for the Mata-Gun.

[Gnex]

Your first point, well, has a point. To have that much population disappear that quickly is a bit far fetched... The one gray area I sort of tend to use to my defense is it's not explicitly said how long Saul, Angel and Michael were in the Armory before they got out. It could have been like more than half a day.

Is that realistically enough time to deal with all of LA? No, but it's better than 15 minutes, which is sometimes what's perceived. BUT, Maybe in a future version I can add in a spot of narration to say how long they were in there.

Oh, Behemoth #2? That one was mowed down by the helicopter. So arrowhead bled out, and that one got shot up. They ended up taking the bodies out of there, not sure where to off the top of my head. I think I mentioned it somewhere in there when Datu was using a bit of its skin.

Wasn't it also stated though that not everyone was turned??? Some were basically just ripped to shreds or eaten??? I always just took it as like 1 in 20 or so were turned..... Maybe even less than that when you factor in children which were probably all killed in the attacks since we haven't seen any other than little ones which were "grown" by Ink.... So maybe even say 1 in 50 people became infected, the rest just kinda got mowed down in the process.......

The last population I saw for LA(quick net search) was 3.858 million..... If 1 in 50 became a turned that is like 77,000 turned/infected.

We also hear early on from Riley and Pegs that turning only takes a matter of second..... so it could be that the whole incident was over in just a matter of hours as it would in theory get exponentially faster and faster as more and more people turned.....

either way I think it is highly possible, I think as KC mentioned the armory scene needs a voice over or dialogue to indicate the passage of time.

[Kc]

either way I think it is highly possible, I think as KC mentioned the armory scene needs a voice over or dialogue to indicate the passage of time.

Yup. And this thread is where I'll be looking back at for the last and final remaster. So, if there's any last minute additions/changes you want, feel free. I may in fact even add in that one line from Tardust that people wanted in the Riley scene.

"She was at the colony and..."

Riley - "You're lying".

That's sort of the gist of it, but I'm still debating on whether or not it's necessary. I have time to think about it. The final remaster for everything isn't for a while.

[Grognaurd]

A thought...

There is a little bit of friction in a reserve Unit getting a call up so quickly. Is there a way to leverage the one weekend a month, two weeks a year? Hang a lantern on the idea that the unit was already scheduled to be active for training. Have Angel say something like could you come in a few hours or a day early or something? (1)

We have two dates, May 8th and Saul's "it's Friday." I do not know if training is a show up Friday evening or a Saturday morning, but it is something that is knowable and the dates could slide.

(1) whatever is most appropriate to match what normally occurs in real life.

[Kc]

A thought...

There is a little bit of friction in a reserve Unit getting a call up so quickly. Is there a way to leverage the one weekend a month, two weeks a year? Hang a lantern on the idea that the unit was already scheduled to be active for training. Have Angel say something like could you come in a few hours or a day early or something? (1)

We have two dates, May 8th and Saul's "it's Friday." I do not know if training is a show up Friday evening or a Saturday morning, but it is something that is knowable and the dates could slide.

(1) whatever is most appropriate to match what normally occurs in real life.

The "Friday" thing is a very stupid early oops...

But, if a commander is being proactive, he can do what he feels is necessary. Their mission could just be humanitarian relief or even command support to bring other units in. It's purposely left unclear because the devil is in the details.

[GamerGirl]

Another sugestion for the time line of the 1st episode - give Michael a short voice over about "not knowing how long he stood there staring at the tv in the commons room" or have the news caster say something about "your watching new fotage from x long ago"nor "re-enforcements are just arriving in the scene since the riot broke out y long ago".

Since angle is the one who makes the call, this should crumple some of the family did it tinfoil hat theories..,,,,,

[Red Shirt]

Is that realistically enough time to deal with all of LA? No, but it's better than 15 minutes, which is sometimes what's perceived. BUT, Maybe in a future version I can add in a spot of narration to say how long they were in there.

That and the time interval between the first explosion and when Michael gets the call from Angel. 65.2 seconds... yeah, I timed it because I'm that kind of weirdo.

The general consensus among the fans... which I agree with is that time was compressed between leaving the class, walking down he hall, probably down a couple flights of stairs, muscling his way into the crowd of people gathered around the TV... maybe the crowd parting for him because they know he's a Reservist and Civvies looks to us at times like this, ect.

We have two dates, May 8th and Saul's "it's Friday." I do not know if training is a show up Friday evening or a Saturday morning, but it is something that is knowable and the dates could slide.

That depends on the unit and the training that is scheduled for that weekend. Reserve drills are divided into "MUTAs" which are equal to 1/2 of a day. Most drill weekends are Four MUTAs, Saturday and Sunday (Sat. morning, Sat. Afternoon, Sun. Morning and Sun. Afternoon). In my first reserve unit, most of the training weekends were Five MUTAs where we would report on Friday night.

It is perfectly plausible that the 223rd had a Range scheduled for that weekend, hence the ammo in the vault and it could have even been a MUTA Five drill.

It is unusual for Reserve units to have ammunition in their vault, but not unheard of. A quick "Hey Sarge, it's good thing we were going to the range this weekend, huh?" from Saul would seal it, I think.

There is a little bit of friction in a reserve Unit getting a call up so quickly. Is there a way to leverage the one weekend a month, two weeks a year? Hang a lantern on the idea that the unit was already scheduled to be active for training. Have Angel say something like could you come in a few hours or a day early or something?

But, if a commander is being proactive, he can do what he feels is necessary. Their mission could just be humanitarian relief or even command support to bring other units in. It's purposely left unclear because the devil is in the details.

That was something that I came across when I was researching Title 10 and the Posse Comitatus Act. I read somewhere that unit commanders are given the liberty to proactively act to defend Federal Property in times of unrest. Given the above mention "time compression," it is within the realm of possibility that the CO of the 223rd and/or Base/Facilities Commander for the Bell Reserve Center to call in the troops when SHTF. It is better to gather them early, rather than wait for things to get really bad and have them not be able to get there at all.

I say "read somewhere" because while i was doing the research for that post, that particular statement got lost somewhere in the some odd three dozen tabs I had open.

Since angle is the one who makes the call, this should crumple some of the family did it tinfoil hat theories..,,,,,

I gotta tell you though, chasing those ideas down the rabbit hole was incredibly fun.

Taking into consideration the nature of narrative delivery, time compression, ect. a lot of the foil hats do get crumpled. I now mine did... that's why a fair few of my harebrained ideas were prefaced with a whole lotta "If's."
However, we have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight being caught up on the series, as well as having Kc dispel a few things here and there as he saw fit. Future first time listeners will likely not have that benefit. Clarification and refinement in a final mastering seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Turns out we were Kc's beta testers before he unleashed this on the world. Hows that for foil hat?

[Kc]

Turns out we were Kc's beta testers before he unleashed this on the world. Hows that for foil hat?

Well, in some ways this is all an experiment. This medium is so rigid/flexible/experimental, that sometimes it's hard to know what comes across and what doesn't. We did get a lot right in the beginning, but we are far more clearer in the end.