"The natives of Donarr have the not uncommon centauroid form, but their bodies are more like that of a rhinoceros than of a horse, hairless and slaty blue and enormously massive. The gorilla-armed torso ended in a round, muzzled, ape-like face, long-eared, heavy-jawed, with canine tusks hanging over the great gash of a mouth." (I, p. 372)
If the centauroid form is not uncommon, then why do we see so few quadrupeds and so many bipeds in the Technic History?
Quadrupeds
Donarrians
Wodenites
one Didonian unit is rhino-like
There is a Donarrian in a team led by Flandry. See image. There is a Donarrian settlement on Daedalus but Diana's journey bypasses it.
Wocha, Basil Donovan's Donarrian slave, is an asset in a bar fight. When the anti-Terran riot starts, some Ansans break the ends off bottles. No way. There is a world of difference between punching a guy's face and stabbing it with a bottle. Would you want to be responsible for the consequences of that? And of encouraging others to do it?
11 comments:
I've been in fights like that; and exited as quickly as possible!
Also, punching can be quite lethal. It depends -where- you punch. In the temple or the throat, quite likely to be very serious.
Granted punching can be lethal but might be justified if someone else starts the fight. Broken bottles just have to be ruled out.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: I agree, if you are not forced to defend yourself or a friend, leave the fight at once.
Paul: I agree.
Ad astra! Sean
Paul: Why? If someone attacks you, fair doesn't come into it. I carry a knife; fortunately, on the rare occasions I was threatened, just pulling it out has been a sufficient deterrent.
A bar fight involving a bunch of drunken locals, some of them ex-soldiers of the defeated force, including at least one with a significant war-related disability, and the victorious (and occupying) forces? That read pretty realistically to me, actually.
Nice way to evoke how hopeless the defeated could be in a polity created and expanding via unapologetically aggressive warfare.
Kaor, Dave!
Except all nations and states have blood on their hands, including the most loudly and ostentatiously "democratic."
Ad astra! Sean
I would not want to use a broken bottle on anyone. I suppose it is just a subjective value judgement.
Kaor, Paul!
But you have a right to defend yourself, up to and including lethal force, if necessary.
Ad astra! Sean
Pain is pain, damage is damage. A nuclear weapon can't kill you deader than a pike through the gut, and a broken bottle can't do more damage than a club or knife.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That is true.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean - Yeah, not really seeing how my comment above lead to your response.
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