4 unrelated things, including ramblings about Trigun

[edenfalling]

1) Have been singularly uninspired this week. Nevertheless, I wrote about 300 words of "Guardian," 1/3 of "Lemonade" chapter 4, and another 600 words or so of "Finding Marea," bringing that to 7,150 total at the moment.

2) Am still unemployed. *sigh* Am still applying for jobs. Have even lowered my standards enough to try part-time minimum wage clerk positions. We shall see how this goes.

3) Tried to work on "Secrets" and realized I'd lost the flow of the story. Must reread chapters 1-9 soon, so I recall the right 'feel' for chapter 10.

4) Spent far too much time yesterday trying to figure out a workable solar system model and planetary environment for Trigun. Eventually concluded that Yasuhiro Nightow has no fucking clue about anything technical that doesn't involve guns (with the possible exception of motor vehicles). Also concluded that there must be other energy sources besides the Plants, and liquid water somewhere underground. Although the Plants, as written, must use whacked-out physics theories to draw energy from extra dimensions or something, because otherwise the power conversion rates are scientifically impossible.

Furthermore, the political system makes no sense either. If people live in a bunch of city-states, who the hell has the authority to rescind Vash's bounty? And if there is a central government of some sort, why does it never seem to appear except in the form of bounties and the occasional throwaway 'federal' marshall?

If I think about this too hard, I get pounding headaches. *sigh*

Comments

[edenfalling]

If the moons' sizes are exaggerated for effect, that makes things much more workable. I have been wondering if Fifth Moon has a captured rotation, since it only seems to be shown with that crater visible, which implies that it always presents the same hemisphere toward the planet.

(I've read Catherine Asaro's books. I tend to skim the more military sections, but I love the bizarre physics and mathematical theories she uses to justify telepathy and whatnot.)

The problem with the desert planet issue is that Nightow doesn't show how the ecology functions. I can think of three native animals offhand -- sandworms, thomases (weird mix of mule, elephant, and camel), and toma (cross between chicken and vulture). There don't seem to be any native plants, though, and no surface water. So how do the animals survive? And if they can find water, why aren't there towns built near those sources, or giant pipelines carrying water to the cities? Clearly, there's a lot that Nightow isn't showing.

I think that Meryl says it's the government that rescinded Vash's bounty.

Anyway, once I realized there were two suns, I kept wanting him to do interesting things with double shadows and so on in the artwork, but he didn't make use of that. Also, I started wondering if the planet has a strong magnetic field, since when Meryl and Millie get lost in the first chapter, Meryl tries to establish directions from the suns' positions, not by using a compass. (This could be because she's not used to traveling and didn't think to bring one, but it's fun to speculate about things.)

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

If the moons' sizes are exaggerated for effect, that makes things much more workable. I have been wondering if Fifth Moon has a captured rotation, since it only seems to be shown with that crater visible, which implies that it always presents the same hemisphere toward the planet.

Quite possibly they all do - even just casually checking an overview of the Solar System (http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/overview.html) turns up that, out of the seven largest moons in these parts, six are tidelocked - so it's a fairly common thing.

(I've read Catherine Asaro's books. I tend to skim the more military sections, but I love the bizarre physics and mathematical theories she uses to justify telepathy and whatnot.)

Well, personally, I actually like watching things explode, but the best part, for me, has always been knowing that she knows exactly what she's talking about, you know? With the repeated insulin shocks falling in a close second...

The problem with the desert planet issue is that Nightow doesn't show how the ecology functions. I can think of three native animals offhand -- sandworms, thomases (weird mix of mule, elephant, and camel), and toma (cross between chicken and vulture). There don't seem to be any native plants, though, and no surface water. So how do the animals survive? And if they can find water, why aren't there towns built near those sources, or giant pipelines carrying water to the cities? Clearly, there's a lot that Nightow isn't showing.

Or, quite possibly, even thinking about. Resolving the issue...

My immediate guesses would be that -
1.) the plant life is non-photosynthetic, although it does give off oxygen, and spends its entire life-cycle deep down out of reach, where the water is. As you go higher up the food-chain, though, you start getting closer to the surface - I'm picturing the primary herbivore as something of about the same size and habits as a golden mole - cold blooded, and it comes to the surface to breath or to breed or something, out away from the real competition down in the deeps, at which point thomases and other surface dwellers start gleaning their numbers...

2.) photosynthesis takes place in the upper atmosphere, from floating algae-things, which are brought down to the surface with dew and frost when the temperature plummets at night.

3.) Gunsmoke's native plant life is ahydrous - water, in quantities above trace, poisons it - and so you never see any of it in the parts of the planet that humans have settled on.

4.) The local plants don't use clorophyl, and their substitute doesn't work at temperatures below about fifty, sixty degrees centigrade - which means that humans (who would, naturally, want to live someplace a lot cooler), still wouldn't see it.

I don't remember seeing any bird-things in the anime, but the sandworms looked like pure predators (unlike their Arrakian counterparts, which were filter-feeders) and the thomases... honestly remind me of bipedal anteaters.

Anyway, once I realized there were two suns, I kept wanting him to do interesting things with double shadows and so on in the artwork, but he didn't make use of that. Also, I started wondering if the planet has a strong magnetic field, since when Meryl and Millie get lost in the first chapter, Meryl tries to establish directions from the suns' positions, not by using a compass. (This could be because she's not used to traveling and didn't think to bring one, but it's fun to speculate about things.)

IIRC, the absence of a magnetosphere would be perfectly plausible - I'm pretty sure Earth's the only solid world that has one worth noting - and make things like solar flares pretty significant news, with real repercussions for the people living there.

The anime never mentions Vash's bounty being dropped at all, so I can't help you there. ^_^;

Ja, -n

[edenfalling]

I like exploding things. I just got kind of tired of the back-and-forth message exchanges, and in one book I remember being massively confused about the use of Kline bottles, or something along those lines. *shrug* Frankly, space battles are somewhat impersonal for my taste.

The toma appear in the manga, when Meryl and Milly hitch a ride with a guy who's transporting a truck full of them. IIRC, he mentions that they're farmed. The sandworms really ought to be called sand-dragons -- that's clearly what the head designs are based on!

I started coming up with theories where a lot of the basic life -- bacteria and other single celled creatures -- are sulfur based (like some earth organisms that live around deep sea vents) or leach energy from geothermal processes deep within the earth. I also started thinking that maybe some of the 'animal' life is photosynthetic to some degree. Like, say, maybe the sandworms have photo-sensitive areas (normally covered, for protection as they burrow), which they can expose while resting. That would explain how they can get so large in such a resource-poor environment, and would fit in nicely with reptile basking behaviors as well, if they display those in the anime or later in the manga. :-)

Or, quite possibly, even thinking about. Resolving the issue...

Clearly, the issues can be resolved. It's just kind of sad that it takes so much work and handwaving to do so. I'm biased toward authors who explain some of this stuff within their stories; it lends a certain weight of realism to the plot.