Fuzzy Necromancer wrote: ↑Sat Aug 25, 2018 7:57 pm
I want aliens that ARE alien, whether they look it or not. That have more fundamental differences the the culture they come from or whether they can fly.
Few and far between because it's very difficult to pull off convincingly (easy enough to do superficially).
My response to that is, in the immortal words of Cranky Kong, "Git gud"
Sure, but try doing it. It isn't at all easy. That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be attempted, far from it. It means it's all the more impressive when someone makes a good stab at it.
One thing to be considered is where there'll be similarities as well as differences. Making things different for the sake of it fails just as much (remember Chuck's comments on the Tak-Tak, even if that was about physical rather than mental aspects?) The odds are that just about any species will evolve in an environment where food isn't always easily available and there's something else lurking around to make dinner out of them for example. This will probably result in some similar instincts and behaviours being present as there are in humans.
Fuzzy Necromancer wrote: ↑Sat Aug 25, 2018 7:57 pm
I want aliens that ARE alien, whether they look it or not. That have more fundamental differences the the culture they come from or whether they can fly.
Few and far between because it's very difficult to pull off convincingly (easy enough to do superficially).
My response to that is, in the immortal words of Cranky Kong, "Git gud"
Sure, but try doing it. It isn't at all easy.
I am trying. I think a lot of people don't try hard enough, especially when they have the budget and resources of big name brands.
"Believe me, there’s nothing so terrible that someone won’t support it."
— Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
Dare I say it though the problem with making aliens ''seem more alien'' is the fact that we don't actually know how ''alien'' the actual real life aliens are going to be. I honestly do not see how lifeforms that evolve on planets similar to ours wouldn't go down similar evolutionary paths to us. I'm not talking about aliens that look exactly like humans; i'm talking about things like opposable thumbs, legs, senses, the need to extract energy from the environment in the form of food or sunlight, the need to reproduce etc. should be universal constants for any form of life that both resembles ours and reaches anywhere near our last 3000 years of technological development.
Imo Species 8472 is actually a good stab at a lifeform that looks nothing like us but fits all of these criteria.
Clearspira, Species 8472 might be a gold standard of what I'm looking for, but most offers in popular media don't even place for the olympics, much less qualify for a bronze.
Also I'm a sucker for "alien but sweet-hearted/cute" stuff. And the kind of stuff that works, well, I see it turn up in fricking tumblr posts by people with no professional screenwriting experience at ALL.
"Believe me, there’s nothing so terrible that someone won’t support it."
— Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
