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On species names in Mass Effect (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/curatedtumblr@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 30 points 1 month ago* (4 children)

That's because all sci-fi alien species are monocultures (Mass Effect included though).

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  • [–] 17 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    My head canon is that the shows simply show the aliens from a human perspective. A Klingon would laugh if you told them Klingons are a monoculture. In fact, they would probably pull out a knife and threaten to slit your throat:

    DO ALL KLINGONS LOOK ALIKE TO YOU??

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Sometimes it's also acknowledged in universe. Like that early Babylon 5 episode when there is a day of Earth culture or something and they showcase their hundreds of religions, and all the aliens are like "holy shit we only have one!".

    Mass Effect is also kida guilty of that, though it's more of "human genetic diversity" that makes them special (not sure if it's better or worse).

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    That’s because all sci-fi alien species are monocultures

    And all sci-fi planets have exactly one type of terrain/biome.

    You got desert planets, swamp planets, forest planets, ice planets, hell -- even city planets ... but you never see any planet that has similar diversity to Earth ... or even similar diversity to California. In sci-fi, every planet looks the same across its entire surface.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    Desert planets and, to a lesser extent, ice planets, are actually pretty realistic. We have more desert planets in our own star system than Earth-like planets. Of course, they're not habitable like sci-fi desert planets.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    They also usually have one place of origin, or if there are multiple, it's just vaguely in a direction (lots of planets have a north), or an off-world colony, so the whole species is named for the planet they came from.

    Martians are from Mars, Vulcans are from Vulcan, Humans are from Hume, etc. You don't tend to have them mention any more specific regions than that. Where on Earth do Earthlings come from? Why, the Earthling city, of course.

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