Thargoids: Starfish Aliens Trope Taken Literally?

Aldaris

A
That has to be the dumbest trope I've ever read. It isn't even a trope because it doesn't even happen that often.

As for your post itself, what would you have them do? You either have human aliens, or you don't.
 

Anubite

Anubite
You seem to have read a bit little and limited the scope to the single trope. Going down the rabbit hole of tropes from the basis of the Fermi Paradox and the two types of alien, humanoid or not (guardians/goids), you will encounter what appear to be clear tropes and aversions; deliberately blurring the line of cliche A or B into all-new AB is still story being formed by the same tropes. I don't want to look back at this rabbit hole two years down and be like "yep, saw that coming" or "oh, it was both, not either or." I'd like to say "how did no one connect those dots" or "omg this is (&*^(* WOW!" I have patience to see it though before I assume. I could write stacks of episodic sci-fi novels off the pages there, so it worries.

TLDR lol@starfish alien pun. Please don't be using writers who read trope indexes/pay homage to tropes for all their inspiration. My grandmother could predict a Star Trek episode as it aired new, I'd like her current expectations for this game not to be met.
 
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Aldaris

A
Anubite said:
You seem to have read a bit little and limited the scope to the single trope. Going down the rabbit hole of tropes from the basis of the Fermi Paradox and the two types of alien, humanoid or not (guardians/goids), you will encounter what appear to be clear tropes and aversions; deliberately blurring the line of cliche A or B into all-new AB is still story being formed by the same tropes. I don't want to look back at this rabbit hole two years down and be like "yep, saw that coming" or "oh, it was both, not either or." I'd like to say "how did no one connect those dots" or "omg this is (&*^(* WOW!" I have patience to see it though before I assume. I could write stacks of episodic sci-fi novels off the pages there, so it worries.

TLDR lol@starfish alien pun. Please don't be using writers who read trope indexes/pay homage to tropes for all their inspiration. My grandmother could predict a Star Trek episode as it aired new, I'd like her current expectations for this game not to be met.
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What?
 

Daniel Cloudsifter

Daniel Cloudsifter
Anubite said:
So I stumbled upon the Starfish Aliens trope, after thinking goids were like starfish. Dropped my wowed-factor 3-fold. I hope this is a legit play on the trope and that we won't see an endless series of tropes past the absent/invisible aliens and phlebotinum we already have.

For your reference. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StarfishAliens
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This trope doesn't fully apply, since the Thargoids themselves are larger than human bugs (I think about 8 ft tall, and I think six legs). They are actually "seen" in one of the Official ED books.

However, these new ships (Cyclops, Basilisk) might be evolution similar to the Cylons in BSG (2004) in that they may now be using sentient ships instead of piloting them. That's just a possibility. I've not seen any hard evidence to suggest this change.

Also... ugh, tropes. They are useful to discuss writing structure of fiction, but as there is a trope for everything, use of tropes shouldn't equal disappointment.
 

Anubite

Anubite
Daniel Cloudsifter said:
This trope doesn't fully apply, since the Thargoids themselves are larger than human bugs (I think about 8 ft tall, and I think six legs). They are actually "seen" in one of the Official ED books.

However, these new ships (Cyclops, Basilisk) might be evolution similar to the Cylons in BSG (2004) in that they may now be using sentient ships instead of piloting them. That's just a possibility. I've not seen any hard evidence to suggest this change.

Also... ugh, tropes. They are useful to discuss writing structure of fiction, but as there is a trope for everything, use of tropes shouldn't equal disappointment.
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Thank you for the constructive counter, I appreciate the perspective. It's really hard to define what constitutes a mere writing trope from actively altering others' success to save effort and ensure sales, and in popular usage the two are one in the same. I just hope things don't stay so "unknown."

A/B/AB choices need more succinct words for their deficits in unpredictability or depth of origin/background story. I'll use more tact when and if I discuss this again.
 
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Aldaris

A
Anubite said:
Thank you for the constructive counter, I appreciate the perspective. It's really hard to define what constitutes a mere writing trope from actively altering others' success to save effort and ensure sales, and in popular usage the two are one in the same. I just hope things don't stay so "unknown."

A/B/AB choices need more succinct words for their deficits in unpredictability or depth of origin/background story. I'll use more tact when and if I discuss this again.
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What exactly are you expecting? Either they're human like, or they're not. There is no AB. It's a binary thing.

What is AB to you? Humanoid but thinking utterly different?
 
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