No Zombie Cannibals/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Basic Trope: Zombies will not attack other zombies.
  • Played Straight: Bob attacks humans, but never once attacks his fellow zombies.
  • Exaggerated: There are no humans left, and Bob still doesn't attack the other zombies.
  • Inverted: Bob attacks only other zombies.
    • Bob is human and attacks other humans.
    • Bob is human and doesn't attack other humans.
  • Justified: The "zombies" are not really zombies.
    • Rotting flesh (for whatever reason(s)) is unappealing to zombies; they need something fresh.
    • Even Evil Has Standards; cannibalism was a major taboo when they were human (but of course killing zombies was not); the rules have not changed now that they're not quite humans anymore. (That is, it's OK to attack living humans, but not OK to attack zombies.)
      • Zombies still retain relationships with each other. (i.e. if Alice and Bob were husband and wife before becoming zombies, they are still husband and wife as zombies.)
  • Subverted: Bob attacks someone that looks to be a living person.
    • Bob attacks another zombie.
  • Double Subverted: Only to find that he/she is actually a zombie and leaves him/her alone.
    • But not in order to eat him/her, rather because they are competing over resources.
  • Deconstructed:
  • Reconstructed:
  • Parodied: The zombies have a pleasant, civilized dinner party with other zombies.
    • Someone tries to Pass as a zombie, only to be found out and turned on.
    • When the food runs out, one zombie suggests attacking the weaker zombies, and the other zombies are horrified.
    • The zombies get hungry and even more ornery, and fight each other over the scraps.
  • Lampshaded: "I wonder why they don't attack each other?"
  • Averted: The zombies attack anything that moves, indiscriminately.
    • No zombies in this setting.
  • Enforced: "We need this Zombie Apocalypse to be zombies vs. humans, Us vs. Them."
  • Invoked: Even though food is running low, Bob cannot bring himself to attack Alice.
  • Defied: But he needs food, and all the fresh meat is taken, and eventually survival instincts (and diminishing capacity to feel) take over.
  • Exploited: Alice and Bob are humans, who tear their clothes, shamble along, fake injuries (or injure themselves deliberately), and rub rotten meat on their skin to make themselves look like zombies so as not to be attacked.
  • Discussed:
  • Conversed:
  • Played For Laughs: See "Parodied"
  • Played For Drama: See "Justified" and "Enforced"

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