Okay, so I'm working on my LitRPG and my spouse (who's a little sauced since it's Labor Day and he's off) started asking me questions. He maintains that "do the prehistoric one because sabretooths are cooler" while I'm arguing that lions are pretty cool on their own! He's saying that I should ask the forum because "I bet they know what's cooler". So in an effort to please my SO, which do you think is a cooler animal/topic to read about? Lions? Sabretoothed Cats, such as Smilodons? Both? Neither! Help settle a silly, slightly drunk discussion of coolness!
Break @CheshirePhoenix's first commandment - ie No Time Travel and have modern tigers (who are sentient) go back in time and interact with saber tooth tigers who are also sentient?!
It's.... Tiger Time! Haha. In all seriousness, though, using both might be useful for world building? Since it's a game, it would be easier to fit having both of them.
You know that is true. Perhaps a "modern" rendition of Prehistoric cats? Like if they had survived to modern times; they nearly did. They've really only been extinct for around 10,000-15,000 years ago; a drop in the bucket really. There are quite a few theories that Smilodons were also social, although they're not sure if it was a mated pair in a scenario similar to wolves (two adults and their offspring) or if it was more a pride situation where there were a few males and more females. They do believe that males and females were physically very similar so both hunted equally. Definitely a lot of possibilities. A combination might be ideal.
I would say saber-toothed tigers, mostly because they seem more exotic, being extinct. I might feel differently if the saber-tooths were still alive and the big-maned lions were extinct.
I like lions! They're in the '(deadly) fluffy animals' category. Sabertoothed cats are in the 'fantasy creatures' category. In terms of coolness, sabertoothed cats kinda win, but lions are more... relatable.
Time travel just turns plot holes into plot sinkholes. Prophecies are pretty terrible, too. Time travel raises the question "why don't they just travel back in time and prevent the problem from ever being a problem to begin with?" among other problems, like over-complex plots and such. Prophecies remove agency from the characters, which is never a good thing, and it removes dramatic tension. Sort of like how in narrative first person past perspective, you just sort of know that anything the characters come across, the main POV character is going to survive - obviously, because he or she is narrating a story that happened to them in the past.
I was actually thinking that. Sort of a "combo" of saber-toothed cats that ended up being more lion-like in terms of behavior and build. Sort of an "in between" of the two.
I actually love cryptic prophecies, because it's more of a language game and I love to see how the author manages to mislead me into believing one thing and then at the end turn it into something else, like a different interpretation that also manages to make absolute perfect sense. I agree it's hard to do well, though. (Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion kinda does this brilliantly) It's like watching... plot acrobatics, if that makes sense. I like time travel in lighter stories, or stories where it's not about using time travel to fix real problems, but a human-focused what-if situation where you get a chance to meet your grandma when she was young and stuff. But yeah both can be done really badly. Sorry -- didn't mean to derail! >_<
No worries! It's literally a silly poll so I can prove to my SO which species is cooler. Not exactly a deep meaningful conversation that must be kept on track! Also an excuse to watch the rather silly 10,000 B.C. movie on Netflix since it has a Smildon. It's research!
There are some really bad reconstructions of Smilodons out there, but also some really nice ones. I want to find out what show or movie this one is from.
Nice! Thank you! Some of that is from Walking With Prehistoric Beasts, but I assume the rest is by the video's poster. Some excellent editing.
For me, sabertooths win. Lions aren't even the best of the big cats if you compare them to tigers. They just have the best PR department. Especially thanks to their manes, which the old Europeans took for regality. At the same time, how can you not go wrong with a name like "sabertoothed?" That's just asking to be seen as cool and savage. I wouldn't f**k with a sabertoothed bunny.
