Comments | lkh_lashouts: Thoughts

rodentfanatic in lkh_lashouts

Thoughts

Oct 11, 2012 11:47

I know, I know, I post here too much. I made myself promise that I'd wait for someone else to post here before I put this up. It's just I love this world and have so many thoughts about it and I love having a bunch of people who can talk back to me about it. Anyway, there's no one topic to this post, rather a bunch of un-related thoughts that I'd ( Read more... )

anitaverse, groups: therianthropes, groups: vampires

Comments 42

world_dancer October 11 2012, 17:06:43 UTC

rodentfanatic October 11 2012, 17:21:56 UTC

First, I want to say that you don't post "too much" and that coming up with topics to post about keeps this community going. Therefore frequent posters are essentially pillars the community is built upon. :)

Aw, thank you! I guess I'm just one of those self-conscious sorts who worries that she's bugging people >>

Only in the hands of the US army. Just like they don't hand out anti-tank guns to everyone.

Ah, that's true, I didn't think about that at all! You're right, back in the day everyone who could get their hands on one might have something for dealing with monsters in the night, but in modern times it most likely is much more regulated, especially now that vampires and werebeasts are legal citizens.

Yes, exactly. A child being violated is a horrible, horrible thing, so I don't blame her for approaching it with abhorrence, but, as you say, extending this abhorrence to all her characters, including the ones who *are* abhorrent and do abhorrent things, makes them look inconsistent.

I never got why his father was Indian but his ( ... )

world_dancer October 11 2012, 17:33:59 UTC

I seem to remember similar race fail with The Darkness in the Merry books, though I've only read 3-4. He's dark and therefore um... "big" I think. Though I could be wrong. He is certainly "the token black guy."

Oh, I forgot to mention with the rats, WHY would Rafael be doing the infecting? It's a horrible disease according to everyone in the books I read. Only sexual extremists seem to have gone for voluntary infection. Is there any reason to think Rafael picked who to give the lupis plague to?

rodentfanatic October 11 2012, 18:05:08 UTC

Yeah, at first I wondered if maybe Rafael deliberately *chose* to infect buddies of his from the Hispanic population or even his own family, but that doesn't really seem to fit his character to me. Maybe they themselves wanted it for the extra power bonuses? Either way, no, to my knowledge it's never been brought up and there's nothing in canon to imply that the other Hispanic male rats were infected by Rafael himself or under his command; the fact that all the background rats (Lillian, Claudia, and Louis being the most featured ones...which still isn't much screentime) seem to Hispanic men is never actually brought up or talked about in-universe at all, it just is ( ... )

Thread 9

igenlode October 11 2012, 18:04:48 UTC

Speaking as a fellow rat-fan(!) I would assume that the answer to this question is as simple as the original were-rat character, Rafael, being created pretty much at random as Hispanic, and LKH subliminally assuming that all other members of his 'clan' must therefore be related to him -- without specifically considering the mechanics of lycanthrope creation. She wants a consistent cultural reference and has happened to end up with that one. (I once created a whole raft of characters with Ukrainian names simply because I wanted people who sounded vaguely alien to an Anglophone audience without being recognisably Russian: I wanted non-explicit 'snowbound' connotations, and never mind that the Ukraine isn't anywhere near the tundra!)

rodentfanatic October 11 2012, 18:09:02 UTC

That idea crossed my mind too. As I said, I don't think she consciously intended any racefail, but she should have stopped to at least think 'hey, what are the odds of ALL the rats being Hispanic?' considering that she's the one who came up with the mechanics of the lycanthropy-as-virus deal, even without considering the implications of rats=Hispanic men. So, author-fail either way, because in addition to said implications, it doesn't make much sense in-universe either.

And YES, YAY FOR RATTIES! I think the wererats showing up in the first book was a big pull for me to keep reading, actually, hahaha.

igenlode October 11 2012, 23:35:03 UTC

Well, they're not entirely the same as the hand-licking, wild-tail-windmilling, scrambling, claw-sliding, insatiably curious, food-obsessed, squishy softrats that we know :-)

Oddly enough I heard today that wild rats are 'neophobic', i.e. wary of everything new. It makes sense as a survival characteristic, but the pet line obviously lost it!

rodentfanatic October 12 2012, 00:07:21 UTC

Hahaha, yes, judging by mine, I would say so!

subtle_shades October 11 2012, 20:10:03 UTC

I had to break this up into parts... Apparently, I had ALL THE FEELS...

I know, I know, I post here too much. I made myself promise that I'd wait for someone else to post here before I put this up.

I love that you post so much! I think it's awesome-sauce! You're exactly the person I'd want to be in a book club with because, when I say things like "The Hunger Games are basically a more modern rewrite of the Jason mythos," you'd probably argue with me rather than getting snitty. (I'm using that for an example since, generally, I agree with your views of the LKH-verse. But it's nice to talk over tin-hat theories and fail!moments with someone you agree on the big stuff with!)

Also, I've been sporking Skin Trade for some friends...if I were to get a public blog of some type for said sporkings, would anyone here be interested in following?

Yes!

Why are there no anti-supernatural weapons in the Anitaverse? Sure, shotguns and flamethrowers and a good punch to a jaw can all be utilized, even effectively so, against supernaturals, but in a ( ... )

subtle_shades October 11 2012, 20:12:23 UTC

Belle Morte calls [Valentina] "Petite Morte" as a nickname. --> O_o

I say unto everyone GOOGLE. It's not perfect but it's better than that! And it often provides links to info that IS more right.

* Okay, so as if the 5-colored tiger clans weren't enough, apparently there were once hundreds of clans, one for each tiger color, and correspondingly there were also real natural regular animal tigers in each of these colors too.I'd be okay with there being more tiger clans in the past if only to show that there was a steep population drop but HUNDREDS is a bit much and the colors thing is ludicrous. Perhaps no one told her that unique coloring in actual tigers is the product of mutations that, if the tiger lives to reproduce, are passed on as useful genetic variations. Tigers themselves don't tend to worry about, uh, 'protecting their coloring,' however. (It kind of reminds me about how a childhood acquaintance from a particular island brought home a man from another island and her parents Disapproved Greatly. They named several other ( ... )

subtle_shades October 11 2012, 20:13:33 UTC

Dark Crown Clan (St. Louis rodere), their males (the only females known are Claudia and Dr. Lillian) are Rafael, Cisco, Cris, Dino, Emmanuel, Fredo, Godofredo, Igor, Juanito, Lisandro, and of course Louis Fane.I think LKH went with a matching thing since, as far as I can remember, Shang Da and Jamil are the only token Not White Werewolves and (I think) werewolves are just as prolific as wererats. (I don't think this was conscious on her part, however ( ... )