This has really been hurting my brain....

[Dragongirl]

Ok I can't remember if we've had a thread on this before but anyway...

This concept/idea/whatever the hell has been beating up my poor brain for some time now...even more so lately since I've been tied down on my bed(No joke the doctor actually threatened to do that )

What if events on Pern didn't pan out the way they did in DF? What if Fax hadn't invaded Ruatha? Yet or never? What if F'lar and Lessa still met, but under different circumstances? Or even under similar circumstances, like the Search and all but...you get my idea. And there's a heap of other little things, like what if certain characters had been different....I'm sure you can all guess why my head is hurting SO MUCH!!

[granath]

That's called potential for fanfic. Lots of people write "what if" stories. I read a really interesting one where Jaxom didn't impress Ruth, but instead Menolly impressed a white dragon named Ruath. It's in the Exhibit Hall somewhere, I think.

[Dragongirl]

your right about fanfic potential but i may need a little help starting out this one....help me guys!

[Hans]

One thing will forever be in my mind: waht would have become of Pern en the Pernese had Lessa not gone back in time and the Oldtimers not come forward and going between times would have proevd impossible

Pupulation decimated? People living in caves? Southern Continent discovered sooner with mass migration following...: a Third Crossing?

[Dragongirl]

Eggshells I didn't think of that... Another thing just struck me, what if Mnementh didn't catch Ramoth in that first flight? How would that have affected everthing? I wonder if Lessa and F'lar would've still got together?
Ugh down plot bunny! NO bad plot bunny! I says DOWN!!

[Hans]

No stranger thing Hath happened.... (pun intended)

Well, that's an easy one; nothing would have been different as her training was concerned, she would have had the mating flight sex experience with experienced R'gul and right after that she would have started living with F'lar.

That again leaves the problem: wat would have happened after the first, valid Threadfall... Chaos! Would R'gul have picked up his sense or would he have been rejected as Weyrleader with F'lar taking his place?

[Brenda]

Hey Granath, I think the story you're looking for is Dragonsong: An Alternate Tune. Check my signature!

[Dragongirl]

Sooooo....who's brave enough to attempt a fanfic?

[Dragongirl]

Originally Posted by Hans

No stranger thing Hath happened.... (pun intended)

Well, that's an easy one; nothing would have been different as her training was concerned, she would have had the mating flight sex experience with experienced R'gul and right after that she would have started living with F'lar.

That again leaves the problem: wat would have happened after the first, valid Threadfall... Chaos! Would R'gul have picked up his sense or would he have been rejected as Weyrleader with F'lar taking his place?

Living with F'lar? I'm not quite sure about that...remember she didn't exactly LIKE him then ...it took Lessa a little longer than it did F'lar to get around the idea that they could 'be together' !for want of another way of putting it...DAMN PLOT BUNNY!! I SAID DOWN!!

[Hans]

Well, that's no ordinary plot bunny!
That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!

[Kath]

You want to watch those bunnies.

Believe me.


10 months and counting....

[Spaceman Spiff]

The Butterfly Effect: change one thing and it could potentially change the course of history. If Lessa hadn't gone back in time, the Weyrs would not be so severely unprepared for Thread in the 9th Pass, history would have changed so that Lessa might not even exist. So then Ramoth and Mnementh never would have mated and created a mass of inbred dragons with Ruth as one of them. Without Ruth and his unique ability to always tell exactly when he was in time, Aivas (assuming they found him at all, they probably would not have gone to the southern continent in a desperate attempt to build the dragon population) would not have the means to carry out his plan to rid Pern of Thread. So that ONE action, a stupid one at that, was actually saving the future of Pern.

[Hans]

Ha! Not true if you're dealing with fiction

If Lessa had not gone back 400 Turns, the Oldtimers had been bored out of their skulls in the Ninth Interval. A mysterious desease would have decimated the number of dragons (they all suicided and went between, mostly with their riders still on their backs), a fact that only the the current Weyrleader F'smart acknowledged in time. He put his Weyr under self imposed quarantaine but died unexpectedly while fighting over possession of a knife. His Weyrwoman comitted suicide and much of historical knowledge was wiped out, especially after fire destroyed most of Benden's Records (the younger weyrwoman in charge covered up this disaster). The Lords Holder joined in an uprising and cleaned out all the Weyrs, trying to wipe out the memory uf the hateful and unneeded Dragonriders. Thread would come no more, which was proved when it didn't appear at the appointed time... Only Benden persevered because a few of its Wingleaders believed the old tales...

Ah well...

[Spaceman Spiff]

Dragonriders survived other Intervals just fine

But... :blink: How would the Red Star not return? I know you're just kidding around, but I'm picky If Lessa hadn't gone back, etc. etc. until Ruth didn't exist, and he wouldn't have gone back with the anti-matter engines and anti-thread virus (I forget the name of it) to blast the Red Star and there would have been no Long intervals at all. So with the RS on its normal cycle and no virus working against thread, how would it suddenly not return?

[edith]

hmmm....
eeek!
....

ask Kath- she's the astrophysisist- all these comets are scrambling my brains!

[Dragongirl]

Thats the real problem with attempting to re-write this...so much change...AAAHH!! IT'S TRYING TO EAT MY BRAIN!! *picks up rifle* DAMNED PLOT BUNNY GO AWAY!!!

[Hans]

Who knows, Spiff (and yes, I'm fooling around but not without reason...)maybe an asteroid bumped into the Red Star who isn't?

I know the theory you mentioned but that only works if you apply it to the existing storyline; something that Dragongirl's bunny is desperately trying to get her away from

[jube]

Too many what if's? Probables? Variables? After all, we can say one thing then another probability comes up. I did read the alternate story (Menolly Impressing Ruth as opposed to Jaxom) and it is a very real alternate storyline that would be just as easily plausible as Jaxom Impressing Ruth. By introducing a character in lieu of another whom we always liked in that position, is it possible for the time lines to be changed or will they continue as is? Anything's possible!

[Spaceman Spiff]

Very true Hans! I stink at thinking up all the minor plot-lines that interconnect everything, it's the major stuff that sticks out to me

The way things go can all be drastically changed by ONE person's choices. If that person doesn't exist at all, especially an influential person, it massively alters everything. It doesn't take much change in the past to make it so that the parents don't have that one special night at that exact time. Make it any other time and the "Lessa" sperm is either hasn't existed yet or is already dead. Take such a phenomenal change as the Oldtimers staying in the past, and you can kiss everyone as we know them in the Ninth Pass goodbye.

The asteroid... I'm not sure, it'd have to be a sharding big asteroid to cause that much shift in orbit. It took an anti-matter engine to even bump it (and enough antimatter to fuel a ship for 15 years+ would make Hiroshima look like the a flash of a lightbulb. It's true that if Ruth's Antimatter installations never happened, the course of orbit would be different and could possibly bring it on a collision course with an asteroid/s, I just find it unlikely that one of such massive size would.

Aaaaaand I'm taking this way too seriously Ain'y scientific scepticism fun?

You really don't want to get me started on the whole "blow the red-star into a new orbit" thing. Trust me.

[Hans]

Not if you can't talk about it in terms even I can understand... but maybe...

[Cheryl]

It would be nice to get a real astronomer's perspective on that Kath, but in a new topic.

[edith]

ooh yes please Kath- it's been bothering me too!

[Spaceman Spiff]

*raises hand as well*

[c_ris]

*adds call*

[Kath]

*adds ATWOP to top of re-read list*

Okay, I'll get on to it later this month.

[edith]

Do you want my ATWOP quotes- I haven't quite got that far on the access file of all the bits of info I've found. I got a little bored after the 1st 60 references!

[Dragongirl]

*raises hand to new Thread while pushing dead bunny under ketchup bottle*
I second the idea!

[Shalyn]

I have a plotbunny...or maybe it's a plot-jackalope that's been eating at at my brain.

Since I'm done with Dragonsue, I can maybe do that one.

Also while I'm doing a story from Mardra's POV.