Printer-friendly version
Author:
Blog About:
The Film "Avatar" has just lots of six legged animals. It makes me wonder why there Navi are not six legged?
I've also been re-reading David Weber, where the birds, mammals (?) are Hexapods. They have Treecats that are 6 limbed and live in the trees.
How did the makers of "Avatar" copy David Weber's Heptapods and not be in trouble?
Comments
Maybe they copied ERB
The green Martians in the Barsoom books had six limbs. Those books are now in the public domain I believe. If I searched my sci-fi collection I'm sure I'd find more.
So, no big deal?
I had forgotten about that. Anne Mccaffrey probably did some too.
Thanks
Gwen
Actually 6 limbed creatures...
go back much further than that in fantasy. Think about European stories of dragons, Pegasus and centaurs, all have 6 limbs.
Then of course we have insects which also have 6 limbs.
So fantasy creatures with 6 limbs is not something that could be considered stealing or copying from another writer.
Where most writers fail in creatures with multiple appendages is making the world's evolution make sense of such creatures. In other words, if 90% of the mammals in your story have 4 limbs, why does this one mammal have 6? Or the opposite, if most all your mammals have a combination of 6 limbs, (6 legs, 4 legs 2 wings, 2 legs 4 wings, etc.) Why didn't your intelligent human-like race evolve similarly?
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Six limbs
Six limbs? Darn Markovians... and their RPG hexagonal battlemaps!
(Paging Mr. Brazil, your gate is ready...)
two possibilities
Two separate evolutionary paths on same world or some creatures brought in from elsewhere by some power such as intelligent bipeds being from a lost colony. Of course, space operas have never been known for scientific rigor. I don't recall seeing that kind of thing in science based authors like Arthur C. Clark.
Somewhere Else Entirely didn't fail at this.
It turned out there was a perfectly good reason why there were two lines of similar evolution, one with four limbs and one with six. Penny Lane used the most commonly used reason for this. They evolved on different planets.
And if there is anyone here who hasn't read SEE yet, I highly recommend you do so. It is an awesome story.
Heptapods?
That would be seven limbs, not six. The aliens in "Arrival" were heptapods.
I remember an SF story back in the 50s or 60s in which an alien race described human females as being heptapods while human males were hexapods. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
A certain BC author...
released book earlier this year, that includes aliens that have 3 legs and 3 arms.
hint: Initials are T.A.