Two Sides to Every Story

Two Sides to Every Story

Making Assumptions Causes Problems

A major theme in "Strange the Dreamer" is that both sides within an argument/hostile situation often do not completely understand each other's reasons for resentment, leading to even more conflict.

More specifically, Lazlo and Sarai come from rival groups (humans and godspawn). These two groups have resentment towards each other because the gods had raped the humans in order to create godspawn. In return, the humans killed the vast majority of gods and godspawn, not considering that the godspawn had nothing to do with the unspeakable actions of their godly parents. Each side has valid arguments but also misunderstandings.

Lazlo and Sarai have no reason to hate each other as individuals, although society says that they are supposed to because of what the races they are part of had done to each other.

This tumultuous kind of relationship reminds me of how Christians and Muslims often interact which as of recently has been really bad, especially with the recent mosque bombing. Many Christians and people of other faiths hold resentment towards all Muslims because of the terrorist attacks they hear about in the media such as 9/11. Yes, these terrorist attacks are horrible but its important to remember that most Muslims are disgusted by the actions of those terrorists. However, in response, some people of other faiths have retaliated by killing Muslims at random, seeming to think that they're preventing terrorism.

This can be compared to how Eril-Fane thought that killing godspawn would stop the rape of more humans. Neither case is true; killing Muslims does not prevent terrorism and killing godspawn does not prevent rape. In both cases you can often understand why some people act the way they do, although it does not justify their actions. Clearly the people were just distraught from being raped or having people they love killed by terrorists but it does not make it right to kill innocent godspawn or Muslims. Killing the gods and the terrorists is justified but there is no reason to take out innocent beings just because of the actions of some of their kind. It's also reasonable for the innocent Muslims and godspawn to feel resentful towards the humans or people of other faiths as a whole because of what the select few have done to them in responds to what a select few of their own kind did. However, once again, this does not make it right to hate everyone of a certain group, it's just more understandable. Due to all this resentment, hurtful actions towards each group seem to occur in a never-ending cycle of violence and misunderstanding.

In sum, it is best to just not make assumptions about people and their motivations in life simply based on their beliefs or race. It's especially horrible to take action against someone who hasn't done anything to hurt you just because you think they might due to their background. Just be nice and treat people on an individual basis. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Walking Dread

The Walking Dread

Zombies as Social Commentary

As an ex-Walking Dead fanatic, while I read Dread Nation, I found many similarities between the two. The most obvious similarity is how zombies are used to show how damaging and ridiculous it is for people in a society to not work together, especially in times of hardship.

In The Walking Dead there have been many instances where the main group has encountered and had all out warfare with another group, usually because they like to live and handle the dead in different ways. In some cases there are valid reasons for warfare, but many of the reasons are just petty. Some members of opposing groups want nothing to do with fighting and still get wrapped up in it anyways.

While the group was temporarily staying with the Greene family, one of the group members (Shane) discovered that he was keeping zombies, that were once his friends and family, captive in the barn.

Instead of trying to reason with him or accept it so they can continue together as a united force, Shane decided to kill all of the zombies, turning Hershel Greene against the entire group.

Similarly, in Dread Nation, the powerful white Summerland residents would rather offer useless weapons and poor nutrition to black residents so they can't adequately fight the dead, than treat them as equals so that they can protect everyone. They are so fixated on race and maintaining inequality that they essentially allow themselves to be attacked and taken over by "shamblers" even though it could have been prevented. Much like in The Walking Dead, some white citizens such as the tinkerer did not agree with the way things were but could not do much to stop the fighting.

Both The Walking Dead and Dread Nation use zombies as a way to comment on how we as a society do not work together as much as we should, even in times where teamwork is vital. They also mention the struggle of individuals to overcome the will of the majority and work together regardless of what others want them to do. There is no use fighting over reasons as petty as race and thoughts about the dead when there are much larger issues to deal with in life. People are much more powerful when they are united and more vulnerable when they are fighting. While there are plenty of things in life to fight about, it's often better to let the little things go, especially in life or death situations.

Summing up my points in one gif: