In this case, one of the two non-human sides are superior in one half of humanity and inferior in the other, while the other non-human side is the opposite.įirst we have “the body,” the biological, nature scifi creature. Often games and media incorporate both sides of humanity in separate entities as foils of each other, and humans serve as a middle-ground between the two. This creates conflict that is challenging and suspenseful, yet winnable. In the other half of humanity, human protagonists often find their advantage, along with their hope of victory. Generally, in the half of humanity that the new scifi creature takes the features of, it vastly exceeds human capability. The most memorable entities in scifi fiction tend to take one of these two halves of the human, throw it like a football, and see where it lands. The spiritual, or “soul” half, are things that set us outside of nature and make us distinctly different than other life around us: our technology, our concepts of morality and honor, and our complex methods of verbal and written communication. The physical, or “body” half, are things that mark us as a part of nature and make us the same as other life around us: our ability to breed, to be social, to cooperate, to specialize, to grow, to consume, and to self-repair. When deconstructing the human as a character, one comes up with two main descriptions to draw from. Once again, Zoroastrianism comes into play. How can one design something that can believably fight, live, and have a society as complex as humanity does, while being far away as possible from humanity itself?
Avp extinction predalien queen movie#
An easy choice is to design something with a more-or-less human shape, maybe with some altered proportions, fur, scales, or a color swap, like in the movie Avatar, but that, in my opinion, limits the potential use of one’s full creativity. When one designs a type of creature in scifi, there is an entire universe (literally) of possibilities to draw from. In the genre of scifi, I think the key reoccurring factions are reflection of the things that make us human. In the fantasy post, I note how the factions are reflections of specific existential threats that face us as humans. A while ago I wrote about what I called The Neapolitan Flavors of Fantasy Villain Factions, (a great read if you haven’t read it yet), and there’s a mirrored set of three flavors in scifi that I couldn’t help but notice while growing up.
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