#this doesn't even have a point. really im just obsessed with Liv's deranged cackle when Ravi says the rat will cause the apocalypse

[langernameohnebedeutung]

one thing I find interesting about izombie's (well) zombies is that "more feral" seems to equal "better at zombie-ing"?

In their most everyday zombie form, zombies are unable to differentiate humans from zombies based on anything other than looks. Once zombies get their hair dye and spray tan on, other zombies become unable to recognise them as not-human. (And humans are similarly unable to pick up on anything).

And yet, when they're hungry we get scenes like this:

so there is something about human brains that they pick up on once they get hungry (and like...really hungry. They're always hungry, after all. Liv once compared herself to just a stomach and we've also seen humans devour more than just brains when they were in a particularly frenzy, for example in the prison bus scene)

But then you also have this:

And I find this interesting for a variety reasons, especially: It's not just that zombies find human brains appetising when they get hungry (although Liv and Blaine both comment on how disgusting they find brains and later you can see them eat them raw and unseasoned so maybe it's also something that takes a while to 'grow in'?). They also find zombie brains specifically un-appetising. So on normal hunger levels, zombies don't recognise each other - but Romeros can happily shamble around each other and ignore other zombies but go bonkers the moment a living human is in reach. that means that their ability to recognise other zombies also becomes stronger when they're being starved. And it's also interesting because of Major's and Blaine's zombie sense in season 2 - which proved that they would eventually turn back bc the zombie radar isn't a completely new feature they got with the cure, but it's something that is dormant in all zombies and just stayed active in them.

You also have the rat, which is acting on a much more feral level than your ordinary non-Romero zombies: Not only does it go after the brain of another species, which the human zombies don't, but it can still differentiate between Ravi and Liv as human and zombie respectively.

And it's interesting bc basically, the zombie virus has its own means of maintaining itself, even if it's not the result of selective evolution. (For example, rabies makes infected creatures shy away from water so that they don't wash down the virus load in their mouth when they drink - and can more effectively infect others. The plague virus keeps the fleas it infects permanently hungry and unable to feed themselves - that way, they will bite even more than they usually would and the disease spreads even faster).

Now, the zombie virus as we encounter it in the show just spreads from human to human (or zombie to human). In their normal state, zombies should be able to recognise human from zombie visually - but in their Romero state, they cannot. Because they're dumb like that. And it's interesting that (despite the zombie virus being an artificial virus) there is a mechanism for that: they become able to distinguish zombie from human the more feral and erratic they get. And this is useful because the only way to kill a zombie (destroy the brain) is ironically also their food basis - so if there was no mechanism that would allow Romeros to tell human from zombie, they'd just effectively wipe each other out by going for each other's brains. And I know it's an obvious writing thing, but taken at face value...I dunno, I find it pretty neat.

#I mean if we think of it as a means of advancing the spread of the virus #then you could even argue that turning the host Romero is always the endgoal #the virus doesn't kill the host after all - in a way the human personality just withers away same as the flesh #until it's just the virus operating the body like a puppeteer #izombie #fandom #this doesn't even have a point. really im just obsessed with Liv's deranged cackle when Ravi says the rat will cause the apocalypse