#zr season 4 spoilers

[wubbelwubbwubb]

Merry Christmas @grim-the-dog! I was your secret santa. I hope you like a bit Sam (5am?) angst. Thank you @notforconsumption and @delucadarling for organizing everything! I feel like ZR secret santa is a real Christmas tradition at this point.

[abeltownshipslittlebitch]

Five: Remember that time you tried to strangle Owen with cheese wire?

Tom: Yeah?

Five: That’s the moment I knew I was in love with you.

Tom: Oh.

Tom: Can we make it a different moment?

Five: No.

@dorkylittleweirdo

[pixeldinostorytelling]

omg i totally forgot about the cohen mayers baby

and for a moment there I worried they killed the girl guides but it’s not them phew

[i-will-go-with-you-five]

I am fuming.

I told my friend, who doesn't play ZR, but he knows a lot about it because he read a lot of the ZR wiki when I got into it, that I was adding Good Day by Twenty One Pilots to my Runner Five playlist because my Five is the kinda gal to put on a brave face and act like she's fine even when the world is breaking, and the juxtaposition of the dismal lyrics and the upbeat instrumentals described her mental state after character's deaths really well.

And he said to me, 'Oh, I thought it was cause the Moonchild mind control stuff.'

'WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT????'

'Uh... I thought you were on Season Three...'

'No!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN MIND CONTROL???'

'Spoilers.'

'YOU JUST GAVE ME ONE.'

WHO IS MOONCHILD

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME

WHY DID MY FRIEND DO THIS TO ME

[artist-issues]

Sometimes I interact with the tiny little Zombies, Run! Fandom and I wonder how some people can view the story the way they do.

Specifically, I keep seeing that Sam and Five are "drifting apart," and I keep seeing lots of attention for Peter. Like, going into Season 6, 7, and 8 (which is the one I'm on now) I kept waiting for something big to happen to suggest that Peter was as impactful to Five as Sam seems to be.

But there just isn't anything. I mean, if you tilt your head and squint, and take everything Simon did or said to Five before dying and coming back as "Peter," and combine that with Peter...you still only have a handful of moments where they even seem close.

Like. Sure. Peter was willing to die for Five several times since coming back, but...he was lowkey willing to die for literally everybody? Because he wanted to heroically sacrifice himself? He had a whole character arc about it?

And it's not like he knows Five better than anyone, either. He has one or two moments where he notices that Five is being asked to do dangerous things even though Five is not indestructible, but that's really it. He doesn't even seem to get more concerned for Five than he does for others; just that one time, in the catacombs or whatever, when he's like "IS FIVE ALL RIGHT?"

And sure, that was sweet, but also, the writers clearly put that line in there so that Colonel Sage could point out that Peter shouldn't sacrifice himself if he really cares about his friends' safety, in general, because he can do more for them alive than dead. It wasn't a line to communicate to us that Peter cares a special way about Five. It was a line to communicate to us that Peter cares about friends, conveniently placed so that Sage could use that to convince him not to sacrifice himself.

Guys, one time should not a strong connection make.

I guess I remember he also said, when Janine was hinting that he was Simon under a different name, that Peter said "I don't want to talk about it in front of Five!" But...again, that's just. Or enough for me to believe that Peter is replacing Sam in estimation.

And speaking of Janine, there is WAY more evidence that Five is getting closer to Janine, if any character. Janine is given much more story focus than Peter, throughout the most recent Seasons. She runs more missions with Five. She's present for moments when Five is given rare character beats, like being visibly distressed at the Glassdoor Monster chasing her or ANNIE playing Five's friends' screams.

Which, is another thing, by the way. When the player is meant to notice that Five is being emotionally traumatized by a demonic A.I., the writers choose to play clips of Simon screaming and dying--sure--but the A.I. also plays those same screams for Janine. And the A.I. spends MORE time replaying Sam's screams and taunting Five with the idea of Sam Yao's mortality.

AND SPEAKING of Sam, the other side of this conversation-coin is the idea that while Five and Peter "get closer" (which I see very little evidence for,) Sam and Five are "drifting apart."

I keep looking for a big falling out, or a difference in the character of Sam Yao's reactions when Five is in danger or has to do something hard or is in an emotional situation, etc. But like...I'm halfway through Season 8 and zip. Zilch. Nada.

There's just as many instances of Sam insisting on helping Five, or appealing to Five, or hinting that he knows Five better than everybody else, or exhibiting special concern for Five, as there have been in any other season. The only thing I could maybe say is that the writers no longer put Sam on every single mission...but that's still not saying much. And all the post-mission email material? It's all still Sam writing to Five. I get maybe one or two letters from other characters, but literally only like, two letters from Peter, at most.

DISPROPORTIONATELY, Sam is still the closest character to Five. No matter how you spin it. And Peter is no closer to Five than Janine, or Jody, or even Veronica.

Now.

I'm not trying to start a shipping war or anything. If you want to say Sam and Five are drifting apart in your specific, in-between-canon-missions headcanon, go right ahead. If you LIKE Peter more than Sam for some reason, go right ahead.

But unless something happens further on in Season 8 or 9 or some extra-mission stuff I haven't unlocked yet, why are you saying they're drifting apart in-canon? Are you just...projecting that on it, because you find Peter more interesting, or because Sam's character has more going on than just "radio guy directing Five and missing his dead girlfriend" in later seasons?

This has been a niche rant that basically nobody but the teeny tiny ZR fandom will bother reading all of, but it felt good to get off my chest. Cuz sometimes, with the self-indulgence/self-insert trends of modern fandom, I think we're losing the ability to understand story. And we just blur the lines between what's actually in the story, and what we like to imagine ABOUT the story.

[rogue-bard]

Zombies Run, season 4, episode 1: Get yourself a man who'll write a strongly worded letter for you.

(Transcription under the cut)

FIVE!

I don't care what that Builder bloke says about “protocol” or “orders” or “bioweapons”, if he pulls a gun on you or any of my other runners again, I'll… I'll… gah, I don’t know! Write a strongly worded letter or something, I suppose. I know, I know, hardly a threat to the man lugging around what looked like a duffel bag full of grenades, but boy did he make a poor first impression. Makes sense that he'd be working with Amelia Spens, doesn't it?

Good work keeping your cool out there today too, especially with that thing grabbing Veronica. We still don't have enough intel to know exactly what it was, but she's going to be okay. She's her father's daughter- she has to be okay. We're going to get her back, I just know it.

Love,

Sam

[stressedspidergirlsfitnessblog]

Finally put new batteries in the scale. Not shocked to see I'm at 137lbs. :/ I'd prefer to be under 130lbs, closer to the 120-125 area, but I haven't been active, I haven't been eating healthy, I haven't been doing much to take care of myself.

I ran yesterday, it was miserably humid. I went out today because even though I was sore it was nicer out and if I'm being completely honest I didn't feel too out of it to run. I shaved a minute off each mile, (only did 2.4) and added .2 miles to my usual distance in a 30 min run.

I am sad to see I'm no longer even close to a 25min 5k, but I will do my best to take a rest day tomorrow and do some yoga or just walk the dogs with no run, and then get back again with a run Friday if I'm not hurting. I can get back to it, and I can use this summer to get myself back into shape before things get crazy again in August.

(Tiny spoilers for ZR season 4, when Moonbeam was talking to me I totally for some reason thought it was Loki since they kept referring to her as y'know, her and then there was a female voice on my comms. Took me a hot minute.)

[fortheloveofrunning]

I did my jog! It went okay. 36 F, so pretty cold. I jogged 1.5 miles, pretty slowly but still.

ZR Season 10 Mission 4 spoilers below

Completed a mission for Valmont which could have deadly repurcussions! #ZombiesRun

Horray! I’m Runner 5 again!! I forgot Valmont had captured me. (Genuinely, I should re-listen to season 9 bc it’s clear I remember nothing.)

I knew it was gonna be the Eda. Good to know Catholicism has survived the apocalypse.

I thought the bit where he complained about how terrible his mother was for donating to charity was pretty funny. When an evil villain starts to complain about their mom, she’s either the worst mother in the world or she’s a saint. No in between.

I mean Sam could have told us not to comply with Valmont but he didn’t? Which is so much funnier than the alternative.

[curly5runs]

A look into my Zombies Run world 😌

✨Siblings✨

A prompt I've had for a hot minute but didn't draw because babies are HARD to draw

@chaoscatty you get tagged since you've gotten all the baby HC dump😌😌

[xx-lethalexposure-xx]

"𝓟𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓮 𝓽𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓶𝓮 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓘'𝓵𝓵 ��𝓽 𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓽 𝓫𝓮 𝓪𝓫𝓵𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓼𝓵𝓮𝓮𝓹."

hoo! silly lil fake tarot card i finished a while back for season 4 runner red bc it was fitting, with 2 versions bc i like the filters lol

[littlelionmay]

I don't care if my friends won't face the truth, Sam's immunity isn't genetic it comes from his anti-zombie butt tattoo and that is the hill I will die on.

[abeltownshipslittlebitch]

Sigrid: This is impossible! You’re an idiot! An idiot!

Five: Yeah, but I’m an idiot who beat you.

[runner5ive]

Just finished S4M34

The more zr missions I do the more I think I have a TERRIBLE judge of character.

[voidedlight]

just finished zr season 4

DONT TOUCH ME DONT LOOK AT ME IM SCREAM AAAAAAAAAAA

[abeltownshipslittlebitch]

If that happened, my Five would have become Runner 21 or something and instead of crushing on and then dating Sam, she’d have eventually dated Peter in later seasons.

Also since she wouldn’t have had a crush on Sam, season 3 would have just been Sam and Five screaming at each other because she went easier on him for being mean to Kefilwe (she still told him off but she held back a bit) only because she had a crush on him. But if she hadn’t have had a crush on him... season 3 would just be really really bad for the both of them.

Also Moonchild would have sent Five to try to kill Alice before making her attack Sam. Five would have never made it to Sam but instead be fist fighting Alice when Simon gave her that drug that breaks the mind control.

Zombies run alternate timeline?

What if Alice was turned back and safely got home, instead of turning into a zombie trying to get that CDC box but Runner Five still crashed in the helicopter and was still assigned to project Greenshoot? 

[artist-issues]

I’ve been running frequently and must catch up on reactions, though I’m sure art will follow:

— I WISH FIVE HAD BEEN THE ONE TO SHOOT IAN.

— Peter is Simon?! How? How, how, how??  — Where do you think you’re going, Janine, you’re the only counterbalance for all the straight-up goofiness the other characters bring to the table.

— PETER IS SIMON! SIMON’S ALIVE! YESS!

—On Season 6 now and I like the new politics-and-cold-war plotline they’re running with. Lots of “characters fighting their inner demons” tropes, too.

— Aw, Jody and Tom! That was weird when they were hinting at it before. Maybe because she’s the panicky runner who likes to knit and he’s a half-insane war veteran who once kidnapped an infant and tried to carve words into his sister’s arm with a knife, but now their little love story is growing on me.

— SIMON! IS STILL! AROUND! I missed that guy!

— Still don’t like Amelia.  — STILL hate Moonchild. Keep thinking we’re done with her hippy-dippy crap, and she keeps popping into Five’s head at the worst moments, and now they’ve apparently CONFIRMED that it’s really her?? She’s not just a post-traumatic stress reaction or a hallucination? Five has “Moonchild Syndrome?” Do you know what this MEANS?

IT MEANS I HAVE TO KEEP LISTENING TO HER STUPID INANE COMMENTARY.

It also interestingly means Five, as a character, has some more autonomous character development going on. Like, Runner Fuve can’t just be going through this Moonchild thing ambiguously, however the player wants to interpret it. In-canon, Moonchild is really in the character’s brain and is affecting the plot directly. So. Neat. But annoying.

— People keep mentioning Five and Sam “drifting apart” but I am sensing literally none of that so far.

— HOW is Simon alive? I mean, I’m not complaining or anything. But can we establish how? And how the new face? And why everyone at Noah Base just…vaguely gradually realized it was him, without any bug reveals or conversations, but Jaimie didn’t recognize him? I’m confused but just happy he’s around