Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Galladerotom on April 22, 2010, 09:09:17 PM
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This has been bugging me for a long time...
In the Ellimist chronicles during Ellimist's possession by a sponge he mentions that he had found a game in the mind of a non-spacefaring race who was kidnaped by the Skirt Na.
However we know that the Skrit Na still have the same behavioral patterns because of the Andalite chronicles.
Back to age. If my estimates are correct that the Skirt Na were space farring when earth was still in the jurassic period, and the Andalites were in their Paleolithic age (this brings up a whole new question which I am not even going to attempt to get into, involving the time beetween the earthlings and Andalites).
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so.....what's bugging you?
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I think he's wondering why the Skrit-Na aren't god-shakingly powerful if they've been around so much longer than the Andalites.
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I don't know. The Skrit Na don't really strike me as the sort who'd change that much. You know, like they've figured out something that worked for them, what's the point of changing?
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maybe its because of their life cycle...maybe something with cocooning prevents a constant growth that retards or stunts knowledge
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Not to mention not all species need to share the human ideal of constant progress...
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Dark Ages happen, too. Even in human history, there are large periods of time where nothing really changed for us.
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I agree that it's for the most part understandable. At least to the point of being able to ignore it. But it's also easy to shake your head and wonder how they managed to avoid tripping over ultimate power by now.
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I believe this has been discussed before. The fact is that we don't know for sure, but the Skirt Na, for whatever bizarre reason, seem content as they are and appear to have had no need to develop technologically or biologically. Sharks have been around for over 400 millions years, in which time they haven't changed that much because nature apparently decided they were fine as they were.
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I believe this has been discussed before. The fact is that we don't know for sure, but the Skirt Na, for whatever bizarre reason, seem content as they are and appear to have had no need to develop technologically or biologically. Sharks have been around for over 400 millions years, in which time they haven't changed that much because nature apparently decided they were fine as they were.
the words fat and happy come to mind
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Makes sense to me. It doesn't really bug me that much.
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The Skrit Na are like the sharks and crocodilians of the universe. They've been around for a long time, but they seem to have gotten it right early for the most part. They've likely changed some over the course of time, but they didn't need to change much.
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Even Ax commented on how quickly Humans were progressing, saying that it took Andalites millenia to make the progression from chemical-combustion fueled space travel to Z-Space theory/communication/travel, whereas we made the leaps in less than a century.
And the Skrit-Na aren't really fearing anyone in the galaxy. Even the Yeerks could care less about them. It's as if the rest of the galaxy has looked at them playing with their zoos and said "Well isn't that... special? You guys go have fun..."
Neccessity is the mother of all creation. And conflict is the mother of all neccessity. I don't think the Skrit-Na really had to worry too much about being bullied in the same way that the special kid at school doesn't worry about the same thing. Therefore, they probably didn't really need to advance beyond "galactic zoo filling" technology.
Think of it this way. If it Skrit-Na have been around with this tech for millions of years, imagine how long it took them to get as far as they did.
They probably only did it out of neccessity (escape a dying sun) or encountering another race (Hi, we're aliens. You're funny looking bugs... Want some tech?)... Who knows? Maybe they put all the other species on their planet into zoos and only became space-faring in order to find new creatures and items to put in their exhibits?
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i would have thought some race would have looked at their zoos and thought, "there's a treasure trove of knowledge there, why don't i bypass all my own work and take theirs?"
i wonder what the roach stage is for...
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I never really got the impression they were much for the "keeping records and knowledge" thing. Their "zoos" and basically everything else they ever did seem to have been more motivated by trade for immediate gain.
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After thinking back I have reached my conclusion:
either
1) K.A. Applegate wasn't thinking when she wrote that line in the book
2)Ellimist chronicles was ghost written and the ghost writer knew next to nothing about the animorphs timeline.
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First is more likely, because all the Chronicles were KAA-written. I like the idea of the Skrit Na being sort of a galactic constant, though.
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All chronicles, megamorphs, 1-24, 26, 32, 53, and 54 were KA written. The first idea is valid, though.
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I wouldn't even say that she wasn't thinking. It's stated multiple times in the books that different species acheive technology at different rates. Maybe the Skrit Na are just extremely slow at developing new things.
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but yeah, maybe they have no reason to advance. or....
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.... maybe there's a darker hidden secret....
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They never really struck me as a "darker hidden secret" type of species, though. Just as kind of useless and always present.
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My theory is they never really created anything themselves to begin with, and are pure scavengers, who probably got their space-faring tech from some other alien species that crash-landed on their planet long ago, and they figured out how to use it/modify it (read: forced the crash-landed people to teach them) and have been roaming the galaxy looking for free stuff to scavenge from other people ever since, and each time they take something from a planet, they take people from that planet who can teach them how to use it. That's just how it always seemed to me, anyway.
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I think that the possibility pointed out earlier, that they simply don't value progress by our definition, is a simple and elegant one. Out-of-story, I think it is a pretty good bit of humor on KA's part; when we hear about crop circles, anal probes and cow abductions from all these people and rational people are going "come on, aliens developed interplanetary travel to come all the way here, not make contact with us, and do these inscrutable things? I'm not buying it," KA is giving it her only bit of smiling nod with a knowing wink, I thought it was amusing.