Hi all, I'm just here to answer some questions you have regarding the Androsynth

A few years ago me and some other members at the SCDB were wondering about the whole "gay" thing (mostly regarding the pink triangles), and so I eventually wrote a letter to Paul Reiche via email and he eventually wrote me back saying the following, copy and pasted from the original letter:

Hi Maria,

Good question!  My initial intention was that, yes, they were gay, or more properly, strictly monosexual.  About the time Fred and I were working on Star Control II, I had my first friendships with openly gay folks.  It always has felt good to me to discard a prejudice and I hoped to share that opportunity in teeny-weeny little way with the people who played my games.  BUT, when I shared this notion with our publisher, some folks took this to mean that they should use stereotypes for humor, as for instance the "fashion designers of space" crap that ended-up in the manual.  I feel like I should have been more courageous getting that comment edited out and if it offended anyone, I feel really bad about that.

Hopefully as the future unfolds, we will find our species more accepting of others and more appreciative of individual expression... either that or we should all get jetpacks.  I'm cool either way.

Sincerely,

- Paul Reiche

Ps.  By the way, now I am not so sure that all the Androsynth are male.  I imagine they might descend from a few clonal lines, so I expect there would be both male and female and perhaps some neutrals.

So in the end Paul himself wasn't even sure what to make of it, since he was uncomfortable about the whole situation.

But mainly, yes, the original notion and/or idea was that the Androsynth are based off of gay culture and were (male) homosexuals. The small pink triangles (which are a common symbol of homosexual community) were a way of showing gratitude to his openly gay friends who played the game.

mmmyep

Thanks for backing me up, Maria. Sorry for being pissy -- I've been stressed out with various RL things recently.

No problem, same thing happens to me, and pretty much everyone else.

He's entitled to his opinion. I don't think anybody will be offended because their favorite pretend SC3 plot predictions got shot down.

Yea, but that's why it's fanfiction. Only the original writer(s) can add true sequels to stories.

Agreed, I don’t have anything to say in conflict with this. Or something. I tend to get wound up in certain things. Meh.

If it were my choice, I'd give the synth the axe. I always thought they sucked.

D’aww, you don’t like the ‘Synth? I always thought their guardian ships and bizarre Ace Ventura hairdos were oddly unique in their own way.

You can't kill the ilwrath, they were a long standing part of the SC universe. Nobody could ever be more evil.

I liked the Ilwrath too, and I don’t think they would be completely wiped out; severely weakened, yes.  Same might apply to the Thraddash. Granted, some people chose for each race to make mass genocide towards each other, some people didn’t. So just to play it safe, I think it would be in best intentions to keep both races around for the sequel.

I’d like to thank Frank for the insight on the lost and/or surviving peoples, it makes for an very interesting read. I don't really have anything to add to it, being honest.

The idea that the world (defined however broadly or narrowly as one wants) extends beyond the confines of the story being told is part of what defines good fantasy / science fiction.  When every loose end is tied up, it makes the world seem small and contrived, existing only for the story that was told and nothing else.

Here here, I couldn’t agree more. There wouldn’t be anything left for us to talk about if that were the case.

Peace

Wow, Art, you sound pretty pissed. I highly suggest you take a chill pill and maybe lay off the highly theorized thoughts about the SC universe for a while, no offense.

Firstly, I find this statement of yours confusing:

The Androsynth resurfaced? News to me.

The Androsynth weren't thought *destroyed* in the Exodus, if that's what you mean. It was pretty obvious to the Humans that they'd fled using some kind of advanced technology to go somewhere else. Sure enough, somewhere else was where they were.

Now the Androsynth are all gone and there are only Orz.

and later, at the last part of your post:

Major tragedies like that should not be undoable. It was very gutsy of TFB to do something like kill off all the Androsynth in SC2, and I'd prefer SC3 to take the same kinds of risks.

I’m not sure whether or not I’m misinterpreting, or you’ve accidentally contradicted yourself, but to explicitly say something, the Androsynth (with the whole Arilou/Andro/Orz fiasco as fragile enough as it is) race in this case, was completely killed off as if it was fact written in stone?  I always figured they were simply “taken” or absorbed by the Orz. I think TFB tried their best to shift away from the fact that they where either killed or just “destroyed”. No, I don’t think there any surviving Androsynth left in the home dimension, or “heavy space”, hence the much quoted Arilou (“There are no more Androsynth now, only Orz”), but I think it was beyond their intentions to kill off the race as a whole. Even the Melnorme don’t know about their true whereabouts. Unless I’ve misunderstood you, which, of course, would make my entire argument pointless.

I don't remember where, but somebody said that they'd heard from PR3 that androsynth were going to be in SC3

I believe there was a quote from Fred Ford / Paul Reiche (?) in the creators chat about it, but it doesn’t explicitly say that they’d make them come back, just that it would be a possible part of the story:

<LordR-man> Fwiffo- What really happened to the Androsynth in sc2?
<Fwiffo> In regards to the Androsynth: They were snagged by the entity who/which projected its fingers into our dimension (which looked to us as the Orz.)

http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/history/files/scchatlog.txt

<_Stilgar> <ORZ> Q:What was your ideas for the hypothetical Sequal?
<Fwiffo> We never had to settle on an idea, because we never got that close.  But we were thinking about those missing Androsynth.

www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/history/files/scchatlog.txt

I will, however, wholeheartedly agree with you on the rest of the races they were explicitly killed off or already destroyed. I don’t want to see an Agolite family suddenly pop out of a Spathi’s anus and say they’ve been living in there for the past 300 years for mere survival. I don’t want to see a lone Zebranky suddenly pop out of nowhere piloting a deadly shuttle and claiming he learned how to fly by watching the Zot-Fot-Pik build spaceships while he was peeking out of a crack while hiding in a closet. I wouldn’t say the Dramya would be completely wiped out, but the Melnorme certainly kicked their sorry asses into oblivion during sometime in the past. And, well, I’m certainly not going against what you said about the Sentient Milieu being dead.

Which is good, because if SC2 really did openly claim and confirm that a species had been killed but then brought them back, it'd be guilty of horrible storytelling. When you tell a good story, you don't jerk the reader around all the time by seeming to make it absolutely clear that someone is dead and then suddenly bringing them back with an after-the-fact explanation.

Which is exactly why we don’t know about certain races (Taalo OR Androsynth) and if they’re actually DEAD as a doornail.

I’m not going to bother with the brown Ur-Quan argument, seeing how I’m in agreement with the fact that it’s just not logical, considering how both races are incredibly full of themselves and I can’t see them going back to being one specie without major conflict.

I don’t particularly like fanfiction either, with the whole corny and overdone “surviving race outpost” that most seem to aim for, so I’d agree with you there too.

That’s all I really half to say, thank god. Consider it shitty or stupid, since I'm shitty and stupid.

MM> Yeah, I swiped it. Where is the avatar from?

I forgot, unfortunately, because I don't have the original picture I made it from. It just appeared on some random image generator. It depicted some cutesy underwater scene with the cat (bear?) riding a sea turtle, racing with another cute animal I can't remember. I believe it was from an anime or something similar (think some hello kitty-like product), unless I'm mistaken.

That's the best I can do for description or where it may have came from. I pretty much suck at those. Sorry. But I'll try to find it again if I can.

Haha, space kitty, I love it! I'm assuming you referenced my icon for that idea, or at least something like it. Couldn't help but notice the similarities. Very kick-ass man

Cheers!

Ah. Although not a bad guess, it's a "marsupial lion", at least according to the website he got the reference image from.

Those things always look alike to me, so generally I have the worst time ever finding out what they actually are.

EDIT: Oh, and sorry for dragging this into off-topic land. Continue if you may.

Well, I don't have anything to add to the whole starbase discussion. (I'm pathetic)

I just came here to asspat Arne for all the great art. That Shofixti is something else. Reminds me of a mix between Taz and master Splinter from ninja turtles.

R.I.P, Santa.

http://website.lineone.net/~mac3759/machome/Dead%20Santa.jpg

Wow, I leave for a month, and this whole topic is filled with new art. Excellent work. I also really like the coloring style. The colors you provide make the drawings, literally, “pop” out, giving a cool three-dimensional look to it. Sorry for the seemingly lame and amateurish observation, but I particularly enjoy this aspect in your pictures.

I give you HAPPYHEARTS. As for your drawings, yes, I give them happyhearts too. A winner is you, Arne, and for once I'm using that phrase in a non-sarcastic sort of way.

hahaha I'm so stupid.

One more day, supposedly. I really hope it comes back soon.

Damn you, Gamespy. I miss my beloved PNF.

No complaints here. Great work, Shiver.

I have a .pdf file of the SC1 manual (from http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/files/sc1.shtml I think). Unless the paper manual is significantly different, that Mycon is not from the SC1 manual.

Actually, I do have the original manual for SC1 (Amiga Version) and the Mycon art peice in question is indeed there.

The linked pdf file on PNF is also alot different than the actual manual that I have. It does contain the original text from the SC1 manual, but all the artwork there was used from SC2. I'm not sure if the pdf file was a fan-made one or a different, more recent version of my own.

Not sure I agree with the linked Elfwood drawing of a full-body Spathi. Paul and Fred did say that Spathi, like clams, have a single muscular foot, and I just think the idea of a Spathi slithering around madly on a sluglike lower body is funny.

Aye, you're right. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I wonder if that's from one of the original Sc2 manual authors... It seems like it is, because of the "Kick Me"  sign looking rather.. edited..  The Umgah also looks like it's edited in, so it seems as if this is the number 1 evidence of how a Spathi looks like from below.. You might want to ask Fred Ford of Paul Reiche III for help on this, though..

The image is art from the SC1 manual, and the original unaltered version can be found here. So I assume that it can give a good idea for what a Spathi moves on or how it gets around.

But anyways, great new art. I like the Utwig design and the ZFP concepts.

Well, I just wanted say that your work is amazing! I really like how detailed the sketches and concepts are. Great coloring, too. My favorites are the Spathi peices.

As for what exactly the spathi look like (or what I imagine they would look like) is pictured here ,which is really well illustrated by another artist. Personally should I ever see a full profile of a Spathi, I'd imagine that's what one would look like.

Anyways, awesome stuff. It's always great to see more artists around here.

Wow, very cool. Amazingly rendered. Looks like it came out of a professional 3D animated cartoon.