This takes away R’s agency by a tremendous amount, leaving him with only the occasional uttering of a single word. An excellent example of this lack of agency can be found in the pivotal scene in which R kills Julie’s boyfriend, Perry, and proceeds to consume his brain. R addresses the audience directly through internal monologue as he is doing so. While grabbing Perry’s head and smashing it against the ground R says “Now I’m not proud of this. In fact, I would appreciate it if you might look away for a moment here. I don’t like hurting people, but this is the world now. The New Hunger is a very powerful thing.” In this scene, R separates himself from the zombie virus, which he calls the “New Hunger”, referring to his recently acquired and unshakable hunger for human brains. He addresses the audience directly to explain that it is not actually him that is killing Perry, in fact R would rather not kill him. The entity that is performing the murder is in fact the “New Hunger”, R is simply an empty vessel under its