2013/07/08 [Matilda #19] Father may be a bit optimistic

[killpurakat]

Hopefully the hindsight the readers have won't play out like I'm thinking it might.

And hopefully Matilda's bro is better than we think (or the general impression I've been getting).

[tikitori]

Well, we already know Brother and her won't meet eye to eye soon...it's natural for her Father to think fondly of him-as fondly as his girls. He also seems to hint Matilda and/or Sister is older than Brother.  That might come into play later.

But I was more surprised that Matilda didn't seem to approve of Kesserk-or at least not when he's agitating her brother. That explains why she was frowning as he did that-I had thought it was because they were near him and she knew. Or both.

EDIT~Nope, forget the frowning bit, just reread and indeed she only frowned when Heshi appeared. Still a surprise! I'd think in Matilda's culture they would like being fought over...

[joshofspam]

Wow, kill a female because she gives a daughter before a son. Harsh land produces harsh people it would seem to be a big part of Matilda's people.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Indeed. Especially since, according to genetics (and hence entirely unrelated to how Ambaargh's creations work, I'll freely admit up front) the woman has no input into whether the child is a boy or a girl.

For those of you who are scratching their heads over this - each boy has an X and a Y gene, amongst 22 others; each girl has an X and an X. It follows then, that, since the genes are stored in pairs, and one of each pair ends up in each sperm or egg cell (randomly selected, so you don't end up with the same half of each of the 23 pairs in each cell - this is (in part) why you only get some traits from each parent, and not all of them from both), that every egg has an X; it's the sperm that decides if it's a boy or a girl. So, for example, if we tag the four parts into X(b), Y(b), X(g1), and X(g2), you end up with X(g1)Y(b), X(g2)Y(b), X(g1)X(b) or X(g2)X(b). This means 50-50 boy or girl, and the sperm decides. This calculation is based on the work of one Gregor Mendel, a monk who figured some of this out using two full-time assistants, more than four years, and over seven thousand pea plants, for those interested.


Erm. I seem to have strayed a little. Suffice it to say that I think the situation that Ma~ is explaining (as was explained to her by her father) is somewhat cruel, and not entirely optimal. But we'll let that slide. ;-]

[Kuzma Volkov]

It'd suck if she had my families curse.
"If you want a son you will have three daughters first."

[Jasae Bushae]

My hindsight caused me to wince repeatedly as i read this ^^;

[Starcat5]

My hindsight caused me to wince repeatedly as i read this ^^;

Since we are technically in the past, plot wise, wouldn't it be called foresight? 

Anyway, my foresight combined with this new comic, and a new possibility has emerged. Could her brother have engineered the fight, and deliberately lost, in order to keep her safe as an exile?

[joshofspam]

My hindsight caused me to wince repeatedly as i read this ^^;

Since we are technically in the past, plot wise, wouldn't it be called foresight? 

Anyway, my foresight combined with this new comic, and a new possibility has emerged. Could her brother have engineered the fight, and deliberately lost, in order to keep her safe as an exile?

Be pretty painful sacrifice to make....An arm and ones own person status view in the clan for a sisters safety.

But with what we've learned about Matilda's people thus far, it isn't something that could be outright discredited either.

[Starcat5]

Be pretty painful sacrifice to make....An arm and ones own person status view in the clan for a sisters safety.

But with what we've learned about Matilda's people thus far, it isn't something that could be outright discredited either.

It is only a loss of status until he rips the spine out of the next idiot who challenges him.

...while he is still regrowing his lost arm, and thus at a handicap. Amber did say that he can/will regrow that limb, right? I think it was mentioned somewhere.

[ishidan]

Indeed. Especially since, according to genetics (and hence entirely unrelated to how Ambaargh's creations work, I'll freely admit up front) the woman has no input into whether the child is a boy or a girl.

Science?  In a machismo-dominated culture?  It's less likely than you think.
Hint, Amber didn't just make that concept up.  It's been seen in some human cultures for a long time.  And a MAN would certainly not blame his own testicles for failing to produce a strapping young son, it must be someone else's fault...oh, I know, the one who gestated it!

Basically, every alpha male in this culture fancies himself to be Henry VIII.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Indeed. Especially since, according to genetics (and hence entirely unrelated to how Ambaargh's creations work, I'll freely admit up front) the woman has no input into whether the child is a boy or a girl.

Science?  In a machismo-dominated culture?  It's less likely than you think.
Hint, Amber didn't just make that concept up.  It's been seen in some human cultures for a long time.  And a MAN would certainly not blame his own testicles for failing to produce a strapping young son, it must be someone else's fault...oh, I know, the one who gestated it!

Basically, every alpha male in this culture fancies himself to be Henry VIII.

I wasn't speaking of how they'd approach it - it's clearly seen that the males _will_ blame the women in such a culture, no matter how obvious it is that the blame is misplaced. Human nature is to find someone else to blame for your own problems, as seen by, for example, the Diaspora of the Jewish people. No arguments here at all.

I think your last statement needs work, too. It's not every alpha male; it's every male, alpha or otherwise.  Not that there are too many non-alpha males, given the size (or lack thereof) of the population and the way it's been described to work. ;-]

[Tuyu]

Wow, kill a female because she gives a daughter before a son. Harsh land produces harsh people it would seem to be a big part of Matilda's people.

It also would tend to create a population with more males than females (if there is pressure that makes it more likely for the first child to be male, that also means every child is more likely to be male). If you then also kill second daughters, and kill mates who produce daughters first, you end up with a lot of extra males having to kill each other off to achieve parity with the remaining females.

[ArchTeryx]

It also would tend to create a population with more males than females (if there is pressure that makes it more likely for the first child to be male, that also means every child is more likely to be male). If you then also kill second daughters, and kill mates who produce daughters first, you end up with a lot of extra males having to kill each other off to achieve parity with the remaining females.

It's actually quite a bit worse then that.  Each male is supposed to take on at least two wives, as is typical in many polygamous species: very few males actually get to breed, and those few that do make as many kids with as many females as possible - only the extreme environment keeps a male from typically taking more then two wives.

What you end up is a few males getting lucky and all the rest skulking about in the background, plotting, since unlike a normal habitat, you can't just kick out the losing males.  So the best way is for most dominance fights to actually end in death - the direct OPPOSITE of what typically happens in the outside world - and males to kill themselves off until females outnumber them nearly two to one.

It could be worse.  They could be lions.  (When a new male takes over a pride, the first thing he does is kill all the cubs, so the females immediately come into heat and he can substitute his genes for his vanquished rival's).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

It's actually quite a bit worse then that.  Each male is supposed to take on at least two wives, as is typical in many polygamous species: very few males actually get to breed, and those few that do make as many kids with as many females as possible - only the extreme environment keeps a male from typically taking more then two wives.

Plain numbers on that means at least 3 males out of every 4 will die before having any progeny.

That's pretty harsh. And that's purely for replacement - no population growth here at all. So if the pop grows, then someone has to die to balance that.


Suffice it to say - I do not envy Matilda at all. And I'm wondering what's supporting her now that she's not hanging about the crystal...

[Tuyu]

What you end up is a few males getting lucky and all the rest skulking about in the background, plotting, since unlike a normal habitat, you can't just kick out the losing males.

And some males spending  all their time digging new tunnels in hopes of finding a new home crystal and founding their own cavern.

[joshofspam]

What you end up is a few males getting lucky and all the rest skulking about in the background, plotting, since unlike a normal habitat, you can't just kick out the losing males.

And some males spending  all their time digging new tunnels in hopes of finding a new home crystal and founding their own cavern.

Which could eventually lead to cave-ins and unstable caverns. The harsh environment keeps on getting harsher.

Suffice it to say - I do not envy Matilda at all. And I'm wondering what's supporting her now that she's not hanging about the crystal...

My guess would be what supports most anyone else without a magical source of sustenance.
liquids, food, sleep and Television.

Their reliant on the crystal to go without food. But seeing what she had with Dan when they went out on that dinner date, I'd have to say she has a high liquid diet.....A highly flammable liquid diet.....