Alien Philosophy
My general thoughts on aliens
or, Nobody wants to kiss a space slug

     The problem with the Bentrine is that they are a water-born being. I've always pictured them having long and fluid bodies, like maybe a dolphin but with appendages. While that would work in certain evironments, it would be hard to adapt them to the common play field. They can't always just be stuck in a fish tank. I thought of special environment suits, but every idea I had just "looked" stupid. I also thought of cybernetic reconstruction, but that kind of drastic change doesn't fit well with how I viewed the Bentrine psyche and philosophy of life.

     After watching Hellboy and seeing "Abe Sapien" it occurred to me that I could get by without making the Bentrine look truly fishlike, but at the same time something was eating at me that while that would work, it doesn't sit well with how I pictured a "natural" evolution of an aquatic being. I guess in my mind I want aliens to look "alien". Yes I know, not all my races are truly "alien", but in order to help people connect to their toon I took a page out of anime.

     You ever wonder why so many villians in Anime look human and are often very beautiful? It's called "Pathos", the writers want you to be able to connect to the villian in some way. That in a way, is why most of my aliens are more humanoid than totally alien. It's reasonable to assume that real "aliens" could be so alien to us that we wouldn't recognize them as intelligent life. It's reasonable that we'd not understnad their motivations as anything other than animalistic, and for them we'd appear the same way. Other than math, it's completely reasonable that we'd have no idea how to translate their language, it's also reasonable that even simple things like 2+2 wouldn't translate well.

     As for translating ancient human languages, keep in mind that if it weren't for the "Rosetta Stone" we'd still not understand a lot of the ancient Egyptian languages. So with that being said, it's entirely feasible that any "alien" we come across that they'd be so alien that we'd not be able to translate their language.

     Give myself a headache on that stuff, and I've lost the point I was trying to make as well. I know my aliens aren't really all that alien. Nobody wants to kiss a slug but for the Bentrine, I feel I just can't give up their "alien-ness".

Thoughts, comments, I can be reached at coldheartzero@yahoo.com