Muse Food – Woolly Bear Caterpillars And Creating Alien Creatures
When we talk about caterpillars, we tend to think of the smooth, hairless, often green kind.
But, in Canada, there is a caterpillar called the Woolly Bear. These caterpillars look like they’re wearing a fur coat and are ideally suited for cold climates.
If you don’t come from a cold climate, you might view the Woolly Bear as an alien-like creature.
And this is an easy ‘trick’ for creating alien creatures.
Writers take an existing creature here on Earth and ask “What if?”
What if the snake lived on an ice planet? What if the pufferfish lived in a lava sea? What if the giraffe lived on a planet with floating trees?
How might they adapt to that environment?
Take an already fantastical Earth creature and make it more fantastical!
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Predator: Badlands And Intelligent Adversaries
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Predator: Badlands and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this SciFi Action Movie set on a fantastical alien world, you might wish to skip this post.
I LOVED Predator: Badlands and yes, I have enjoyed ALL of the Predator movies (my favorite being the first Alien vs Predator movie, which I would consider to be a romance if the hero’s fate wasn’t what it was – dang it).
But Predator: Badlands is special.
Because the alien world it is set in is absolutely amazing. It is worth viewing for this alone.
There are magical little details like the razor grass, which could very well have ancestors in common with our Earth vegetation. Grass cuts on our planet are extremely painful (they are similar to deep paper cuts, yet with the increased possibility of infection). And there are plants that are silver in color.
Every plant and/or creature in this alien world has possible relatives here on Earth. As someone who loves world building AND evolutionary biology, this level of care is impressive.
Another reason to watch Predator: Badlands is the big baddie.
The unkillable creature the Predator is hunting has earned its place at the top of this hostile planet’s extensive food chain.
One of my pet peeves are dumb big baddies. Yes, underlings can be idiots. That is highly likely. (grins) And yes, villains can make mistakes (one common human mistake is overconfidence).
But you don’t get to the top by being dumb (So NEVER dismiss a real life big baddie because you feel they lack intelligence. They don’t. You’re underestimating them.).
In Predator: Badlands, we are shown that the Big Baddie, the alien creature the Predator is hunting, can learn. Quickly. It can communicate. It can problem solve.
It is formidable opponent.
And that makes this already action-packed movie even more thrilling. And interesting.
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