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Re: Wow. Just wow. *SP*
Posted By: scarab	Date: 11/21/09 9:50 a.m.
: Cosmetic only, not really important. Exactly! We are watching painted humans and not aliens. : Will they? Evolution itself promises eventual convergence. No it doesn't. : There is no : guarentee things would be fundamentally different just because its a : different planet. In theory, there should only be evolutionary differences : if there is reason for it. Such as different gravity or atmosphere. No, we know that evolutionary trajectories are contingent, that outcomes are shaped by random events and are based on what came before. Richard Llenski has demonstrated this with his E. coli experiments. We don't know for a fact that the first bauplans were not inevitable, there may be unknown constraints that make them inevitable but even if they were that does not mean that something like a human is inevitable. : Culture wise, depends. Given all the varieties in culture out there. : Like I said, I don't like the idea of making something alien just for the : sake of it. They ARE aliens so want them to be alien isn't a gratuitous request. : So I have no issue with 'aliens' having what some refer to as : a 'human' culture. In the end, when you strip away the qualities we : consider human, you aren't left with an alien, you're left with an animal. Not at all. Are Pierson's Puppeteers just animals? Kzin? the Axons? Moya and Pilot? Daleks? The Flood? The Horta? Take the Horta as an example. This was a race that gave birth to millions of eggs and then all adults but one died. One adult lived on the guard the eggs. The Horta were silicon blobs that ate through rock using super strong acids. Their wounds could be bandaged with quick drying concrete. Yet the Horta was a sympathetic character. The episode was titled The Devil in the Dark. But it was the humans that were the devils from the Horta's perspective. Yet it all ended happily, the humans changed their ways once they understood the Horta, her biology and her needs. I think that is an excellent example of how an alien's alien biology can make an excellent story. : An Alien, in the form of Extraterrestrial life, doesn't have to be : significantly different in all ways. : Doing so for no real reason is, in my view, no better than 'humanising' them. She was far too close. Elites have never looked like mammals, now we know that they are mammals. Not good. Going back to Elites: I often wondered how their jaws worked. It looks like the answer is: not well. But that was before I came across Moray Eels and their pharyngeal jaws. I now think that the visible mandibles are part of an atrophied capture apparatus and that there are pharyngeal teeth inside the 'throat' that do the chewing. Anyway, some time ago I speculated that their jaws were adapted for latching onto larger animals for feeding on their blood. I was thinking that the Elites would be like the Masai, they would be warriors that tended cattle. they would eat the meat of the cattle and drink their blood. The Elites young would be born small with only their jaws properly developed and they would be attached to the necks of the, rather large cattle. In time their young would develop limbs and could detach themselves and adopt a mobile lifestyle. The Elites would depend entirely on the cattle for their livelihoods. They would own them and guard them from predators and other Elites. They would be husbanders and warriors. This wouldn't just be a cultural think. It would be part of their basic nature. I also wondered why the Elites accepted the more subservient role to the Prophets. From CH it seems that the Elites were even more religiously conservative and devout than the Prophets. Why would the Elites assume the role of guards so easily? I thought, 'If its in their nature to be husbanders and protectors then assuming that role in the Covenant would come naturally to them. They may accept the role even without thinking much about it.' The Prophets look like herbivores to me (its the teeth). They look like cattle or something weak that need protection. If the Elites saw their role as being the protectors then it would be even more of a blow to be stripped of that status, more of a blow than simply losing a position of power. The loss would strike at their innate self image, how they fundamentally saw themselves. If they saw themselves as protectors then that may shape future relations with the former members of the Covenant. There is a mixture of protection/service and ownership with their protection. Their protective role isn't seen by them as a subservient role. and you have the selfless aspect of service which is a form of honor that appeals to me. I liked the idea that the members of the Covenant saw each other as brothers. They looked beyond the skin. That is one think about the Covenant that was good. It would be nice to see something like that preserved. If the Elites saw their honor as being more about selfless service and less about personal importance then I would like them more and would see a more optimistic outlook for the Halo civilizations post Halo 3. And Elite biology good be the key to this. : Actually, I was referring to all the female characters, but especially to : Miranda Keyes and to a lesser extent Dare. : They tried too hard to make them strong women and it shows. : Best female character in the Halo universe? I'd say First Lieutenant Melissa : McKay. I like my women to have spunk but not balls. :-)

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