Question: Has there been any explanation (in-show or by show creators) about the inconsistency of what attracts Walkers? They've shown that people who cover themselves in Walker guts aren't detected or attacked. When it rained, the rain washed off the guts and then the Walkers do try to attack. But if people hide under cars or don't make noises, the Walkers don't detect them. But it's also been shown that people under a pile of "dead" walkers are still attacked. So what causes a Walker to attack?
Answer: Walkers use sight and sound to find their prey, with sound being their first choice. When the characters cover themselves in guts, they aren't attacking because they can't "see" them and they're not making any noise. The same goes for when they're hiding under cars - walkers can't hear or see them. They'll go for anything that makes a noise, regardless of what it is. It's also very likely that walkers don't have the ability to smell, since they can't find people hiding under cars. Nor can they smell the Whispers who walk amongst them.
Question: Spencer wasn't bitten. He died by knifing, but he turned into a walker. I thought you had to be bitten?
Answer: In the season 2 finale we find out that everyone is infected therefore you turn no matter what happens to you (which proves that Dr Jenner was right, we see it happen when Rick stabs Shane).
Answer: It's been established that everyone is infected with the zombie virus, albeit in a dormant state, so that when anyone dies, by whatever means, the virus turns the dead into zombies (walkers). Being bitten or scratched injects live viruses into the system that quickly turns a living person into a zombie, without having to die first.
Question: Why exactly do Negan's followers have to call themselves "Negan"?
Answer: They were scared of him and probably had no other choice to follow the rules. It's kill or be killed.
Question: How is it that the U.S. military was unable to contain the original zombie outbreak? The zombies on this show are demonstrably easy to kill, and unlike a foreign adversary, they are unarmed and unorganized.
Answer: It is not know for sure but some of the reasons could be the number of walkers. This was not just happening in one place but the entire world. If this was just happening in Atlanta then troops and equipment could be sent from other places to help, but since this was happening everywhere overwhelmed troops had no help. This wold does not have zombie movies. They have no idea how to handle this and have to learn everything like only head shot, bites kill and everyone turns.
Question: The following puzzles me: 1. Why don't the survivors try leaving on a boat and finding an island? 2. Why wouldn't the zombies just eat each other? 3. Why do they seem surprised when the zombies show up when they can smell their decaying smell? 4. Why do the zombies need to eat since they still walk around anyway? 5. Why can't the zombies climb ladders? 6. How can they feel hunger with their brains and nerve system gone?
Answer: Some of these questions address general zombie lore (or at least, post-Romero zombie lore) and are thus usually accepted that they just "are" a certain way. 1. That's easier said than done if you don't know how to operate a boat, which the average person does not. They're also in the middle of America, nowhere near the sea. 2. There is not a single example of zombie fiction in which the zombies consume one another; they always feed on living humans. No reason other than it wouldn't be scary if they just ate one another. 3. Can you tell the exact source/direction/distance of every smell, even a powerful one? 4. In all media, zombies are driven by primordial hunger for living flesh, which almost never serves any physiological purpose. 5. Lack of physical coordination. It's also why they can't run, swim, dance, etc. 6. Again, it's just how they "are" in the fictional world they inhabit.
I want to add that "finding an island" is not guaranteed anyway. They could end up getting lost at sea and dying of starvation or dehydration. And if they do find an island, they don't know what they will be dealing with: natives who became zombies, natives who don't want them there, unfamiliar plants that might be poisonous, etc. It makes more sense to "start over" where they are.
Question: Maybe I missed a full explanation or it's a plot hole for the show, but how do Michonne's armless, jawless walkers on a leash help mask her scent or let her walk among the walkers?
Answer: The other walkers see the two already upon her, figure that she's already taken, and move on.
What do you mean "upon her" if they're in front of her and walking forward?
A satisfactory answer hasn't really been given. The general consensus on Reddit is that having the two tame rotting zombies close by overpowers her own smell and the zombies can't detect her. In my previous answer, I was thinking that it was a psychological tactic. The other zombies see that they're about to eat her and about to attack, figure "that one's taken," and move on. This time, I'll go with the internet's answer.
I broke this question up into 2 because I ran out of room. But, yeah, I thought the idea was either mask her smell or make other Walkers think she's "taken." But in the show, those options don't seem to work for other characters.
"Upon" as in "They are about to descend down on their prey."
Yes, but I was asking about times when they're in front of her and she's following, not that ever showed any signs of descending down on her.
Well, zombies don't look that carefully to distinguish "Oh, those guys are walking in front of her instead of about to throw her on the ground and eat her. Let's get really hung up on the word "upon" now, shall we?"
It was my polite way of letting you admit you didn't know what you were talking about and were guessing with a total BS answer.
Ah. Well, I DID admit that earlier.
Answer: Walkers are attracted to noise, they can tell who's dead and who isn't dead, in S1 when Rick and Glenn cover themselves in walkers' guts they're able to get far by walking through the herd of walkers because they smell like they're dead, but as soon as the guts get washed off by the rain the walkers immediately attack them, if you draw attention to yourself they will attack you which we've seen that many times throughout the series that it's not always successful. Whether you're covered in guts hiding under dead corpses or under a car.