El Goonish ShiVe: Look! Squirrel!

[Celestia]

Surviving in space is fine and dandy, however the real problem is living in space. As in, for example, finding the energy and matter one needs in order to keep one's metabolism active and grow. There's not much in the way of nutrients in space. It's a vacuum. Not a perfect vacuum, but it's not like you're going to get your fill with one microscopic mote of dust per cubic kilometer or whatever. And there's the problem of moving around. You can't swim in space. And even if you could, it'd be a really, really, really, really long way to go.

The only ways it could work is 1: a creature that subsists on minerals and can just eat asteroids, or 2: a creature that can metabolize sunlight into matter. Neither of those make sense given our understanding of biology, but they are conceivable for sci-fi.

[JeenLeen]

Magic was restricted for Uruyuom-descendant persons due to the assault on the Library of Magic. (https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2018-05-04)
That is hardly 'hard-coded', since it clearly was lifted.

"But you cannot have the library. It is entwined in the destiny of humans and magic."

I take "it" to mean the library, so the library is entwined in the destiny of humans and magic.

From the rest of the conversation, it sounds like magic itself doesn't necessarily have a special "bond" with humans. It likely "cares more" about humans, since there are more humans (presumably) than uryuoms, and thus magic usage is more important for humans than uryuoms.

However, the statement "We have magic of our own on this world"... I don't think it implies that don't have magic elsewhere, but it does seem to imply that magic, or at least the aspect of magic the Library focuses on, is just to earth.
I'm unclear if that means magic is itself an earth thing or not. I don't think we know for certain one way or the other. Is there any evidence of non-uryuom 'aliens' having magic? Have we seen any beyond the death-dudes that Tedd's dad persuaded to not destroy earth in that one cut-away scene to him "on a business trip"?

NOTE: and I meant hard-coded in the sense of a hard-coded patch on the magic system, like a line of code added to mean "if uryuom, then null magic"... so magic lifting its restrictions and safeguards meant removing that patch as well... but I realize that was terribly unclear and not explained well. Sorry!

[Vinyadan]

I like that there now is an unifying theory for uryioms and magic, in spite of the fact that I generally gloss over the technobubble.

[Windscion]

... it sounds like magic itself doesn't necessarily have a special "bond" with humans. It likely "cares more" about humans, since there are more humans (presumably) than uryuoms, and thus magic usage is more important for humans than uryuoms.

I take the restriction to be due entirely to this world being the humans homeworld.
(I cannot see any plausible reason for magic to be limited to one planet, but that's partly because I dislike the idea of terran exceptionalism. I can forgive its use in space games or space stories to enable terran protagonists to be involved in high stakes (galactic scale) affairs, but this is a much more grounded story, and it is utterly unnecessary here.)

Also, magic may have a strict policy of not permitting cross-species magical research (via other species accessing the library of human magic). Example: One species tries to get all possible racial magic types, becomes a threat, is wiped out by a coalition of weaker races. Magic is then strictly forbidden, forcing it underground. This runs contrary to magic's desire to be used.

[Fyraltari]

(I cannot see any plausible reason for magic to be limited to one planet, but that's partly because I dislike the idea of terran exceptionalism.

Maybe every inhabited planet has its own magic and what everybody calls magic would be more accurately called "Earth's magic".

[Maat Mons]

Maybe "magic" is a member of species unlike anything we can fathom. Maybe it's decided to hang around on Earth for what it perceives to be a short amount of time. Maybe humanity, or even all life on Earth, is something it created because it was bored.

[Celestia]

Maybe "magic" is a member of species unlike anything we can fathom. Maybe it's decided to hang around on Earth for what it perceives to be a short amount of time. Maybe humanity, or even all life on Earth, is something it created because it was bored.

Magic seems to need to be used, presumably for its own survival, so if it is responsible for humanity's creation, it wasn't because magic was "bored."

[Windscion]

Magic seems to need to be used, presumably for its own survival, so if it is responsible for humanity's creation, it wasn't because magic was "bored."

Given that magic perceives the human world thru humanity's use of magic, I suspect the desire to be used is more a matter of wanting to have vision than needing to be fed. But who knows. I mean, it's not like magic would just admit a weakness.

[Lizard Lord]

I was going to post how it was ironic that they are dressing as Pokemon while talking about how they don't like spiders in video games, but I suppose they are dressing as gen one Pokemon and the earliest spider Pokemon is from gen two.

[Celestia]

I was going to post how it was iconic that they are dressing as Pokemon while talking about how they don't like spiders in video games, but I suppose they are dressing as gen one Pokemon and the earliest spider Pokemon is from gen two.

Spider Pokémon are also cutesy enough that they typically don't set off people's arachnaphobia.

[Rater202]

Spider Pokémon are also cutesy enough that they typically don't set off people's arachnaphobia.

Most of them don't even have enough legs to be spiders.

[Celestia]

Most of them don't even have enough legs to be spiders.

None of them do, actually. Araquanid has six legs, and all the rest have four.

[Maat Mons]

I feel this link may be relevant.

I wonder what it is about spiders that sets people off. Why not crabs? Would spiders suddenly become less scary to people if we gave them giant pincers?

Or maybe it's the eyes? Would spiders with only two eyes be less scary? Would it help if the eyes were human-style?

Is it the pedipalps? Would, for example, humans suddenly become scary if we had tiny arms on either side of our mouths to help us grasp food? Hmm, now I really want to see that.

[Rater202]

I think it's a combination of factors.

Spiders due to the unique combination of traits look like little itty tiny eldritch monsters.

[Ibrinar]

While they do look special I think much is just that some are poisonous whereas crabs just aren't a serious danger. Same for snakes, non poisonous, non giant ones aren't a threat and aside from having fangs they aren't much weirder than big earthworms. But some have poison so they get a higher base wariness. And once there is a base wariness more people with extreme reactions will exist.

[Yuki Akuma]

I feel this link may be relevant.

I wonder what it is about spiders that sets people off. Why not crabs?

As an arachnophobe I would like to inform you that crabs are ****ing creepy and I cannot understand why anyone thinks otherwise.

[Lord Raziere]

I mean.....I feel as if we're past the point where spiders not being a common videogame enemy is reasonable or achievable. but then I don't get afraid or have a reaction to spiders in a videogame, and in videogames they're often easily killable anyways. guess I'm not that afraid of spiders? in videogames they're just another moving thing that I can't talk to, therefore I kill it, mostly in games like Skyrim or Dragon Age, as well as a lot of them in WoW back in the day.

like the opinions about romance options make sense to me, at least for dating sims because most of them are just male dude protagonists with lots of girls. we really need more variation there.

but I don't think anyone is going to be asking whether spiders need to be in a game or not any time soon no matter how many agoraphobic people there are. its an easily recognizable enemy in rpgs, and in horror games feeling fear and dread is kind of the point.

[Silly Name]

I mean.....I feel as if we're past the point where spiders not being a common videogame enemy is reasonable or achievable. but then I don't get afraid or have a reaction to spiders in a videogame, and in videogames they're often easily killable anyways. guess I'm not that afraid of spiders? in videogames they're just another moving thing that I can't talk to, therefore I kill it, mostly in games like Skyrim or Dragon Age, as well as a lot of them in WoW back in the day.

like the opinions about romance options make sense to me, at least for dating sims because most of them are just male dude protagonists with lots of girls. we really need more variation there.

but I don't think anyone is going to be asking whether spiders need to be in a game or not any time soon no matter how many agoraphobic people there are. its an easily recognizable enemy in rpgs, and in horror games feeling fear and dread is kind of the point.

Not my own experience, but I know some people who legitimately had to drop a game they were otherwise enjoying because their aracnophobia was that bad. Especially since RPGs tend to go all in on the "giant spider" type which only makes things worse.

Giant spiders are also a very common enemy outside of the horror genre, where the logic of "it's supposed to scare you" doesn't necessarily hold. I doubt many non-aracnophobic people feel that generic, weak spiders in games like Skyrim or Neverwinter Nights are in any way scary. As you said, they often are just a simple enemy to be beaten down.

[Maat Mons]

@Yuki Akuma: Fascinating. Are crabs still creepy when they're cooked and on a plate? Are lobsters creepy?

[Yuki Akuma]

Yes. I cannot eat crabs or lobsters. They gross me out.

Crab paste is fine though. It doesn't look like a crab.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Growing up with Asian shore crabs probably helps; those little guys are the perfect kid-friendly trifecta of adorable, harmless, and easy to catch.

[Celestia]

I'm not even an arachnaphobe, and I still think crabs look kinda creepy. I mean, have you ever seen a coconut crab? Those things are terrifying.

[Windscion]

I'm not even an arachnaphobe, and I still think crabs look kinda creepy. I mean, have you ever seen a coconut crab? Those things are terrifying.

Okay, now I want a shotgun to protect myself from those things.

[Gez]

I feel this link may be relevant.

I wonder what it is about spiders that sets people off. Why not crabs? Would spiders suddenly become less scary to people if we gave them giant pincers?

Or maybe it's the eyes? Would spiders with only two eyes be less scary? Would it help if the eyes were human-style?

Is it the pedipalps? Would, for example, humans suddenly become scary if we had tiny arms on either side of our mouths to help us grasp food? Hmm, now I really want to see that.

It's not any specific trait.

I know several arachnophobic people (it kinda runs in my family, even if I am not affected). Some are also afraid of scorpions, others aren't. Some are only afraid of certain types of spiders but are fine with others. One even finds some particular spiders (namely the maratus or peacock spider) to be frankly adorable but would shiver and recoil from a simple photo of a black widow.

[Vinyadan]

Now that I think about it, DCSS also has a whole branch made up of all kinds of spiders and spider-related enemies, and Divinity OS 1 had a desert with giant spiders in it.

I think they are so common because they are well-known predators that live both in buildings (and thrive in the old ones like a dungeon) and in forests and nature in general, with many variants for different environments. Plus they have a venomous bite. Or maybe it's the result of old movies with giant spiders.

[Lissou]

Also an arachnophobe, and I used to be afraid of the word too. It still creeps me out a bit, but less than before. I stayed clear of Spider-Man as a kid and teenager, I'm better about that now too.
Crabs, lobsters, and even other arachnids such as scorpions are fine for me. I don't know what terrifies me, I can't explain it. I doubt it's the eyes or the mouth things, I can't see either most of the time, spiders tend to be small where I live, thankfully.

[Kish]

Meanwhile, as someone who quite likes spiders but hates insects, and has never played a Pokemon game, I actually shuddered on reading that the faux spider pokemon sometimes have six legs and never the proper eight.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Meanwhile, as someone who quite likes spiders but hates insects, and has never played a Pokemon game, I actually shuddered on reading that the faux spider pokemon sometimes have six legs and never the proper eight.

That's pretty much just Araquanid with six legs (unless you count Galvantula's pedipalp-arms). Very nearly every other Bug-type pokemon actually only have four limbs.

[Qwertystop]

Ariados has those weird things on its back that look sort of like its legs but without a joint? They move around only stiffly in the main games (not sure about in the earlier 3D ones or the anime), and no dex entry has ever explained what they're supposed to be. I'm not sure if that counts as six limbs or not.

[Windscion]

I've figured out what Bishop reminds me of. The female characters in the Shivering Isles // the daedric realm of madness.