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Slowing down the problem





Sight and sound

Hitting the beach. Credit: D-Day Overlord.com




Distracted Thoughts

Credit: wot.wikia.com Rand al’Thor






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Autumn Grayson

One time I was listening to a documentary or two about eyes, and they were talking about how the animal’s pupil shape affects the focus of their eyes. Ours are round, which partly explains why we see so sharp and clear right in front of us, but the edges of our vision are a bit blurred in comparison. I wonder how pupil shape affects tunnel vision, since according to the documentary, animals with other pupil shapes have different areas of focus and can even see wider views(If I recall correctly, animals with those thick horizontal line style pupils can often see to the side and even behind themselves a bit). The problem with eye structures that allow for a wider field of vision is that it may also mean sacrificing other visual skills, like depth perception and how clear the view is. But eye structure of a creature may be something to keep in mind and research when it comes to tunnel vision.

I would also wonder how having to fight and operate alone/in small groups affects stress reactions, compared to regular soldiers that are working in large groups. Especially when it comes to assassins. Kiritsugu from Fate Zero kind of seems like an interesting case study of being shaped by fighting alone, at least in terms of fiction. He’s rarely outwardly terrified. The primary times when he is shown that afraid is when he was a child(this was before he became an assassin and was being attacked by some super scary ghoul zombie vampire things), and another time when he was an adult and thinking about the implications of the war he was fighting.

At that point, there was another assassin that seemed to be on par with him, and Kiritsugu was confiding to his wife about how shaken up he was about the whole war, and he even suggested that they take their daughter and run far away from the whole mess. She reassures him, reminding him of their goal to end all conflict so their daughter could live a full and happy life, and Kiritsugu continues fighting. That’s interesting since, when he actually ends up fighting that assassin he was afraid of, he seems calm and confident on the outside, probably because he knows that fear doesn’t matter right then, only surviving the fight, and the fact that this opponent is so strong means he can’t be spending much time fearing. In fact, the show has brief glimpses of them thinking through strategies during their final conflict. This seems to be something he learned partly through having to fight and struggle alone so much of his life. There were even one or two times when he was like ‘Once again, I’m alone’, and so much of his behavior(knowing what to do and calmly performing those tasks regardless of everything else) reminds me a bit of how I’ve reacted in every day life when I feel like I’ve had to deal with things by myself.

The thing you mentioned with the sailboat, about being so calm that not everyone realizes there’s a problem, would be an interesting thing to explore in fiction. One time there was a pipe leaking in our house, and my sister calmly told my parents that over the phone. She said it so calmly that they thought the leak was small and negligible enough that they could take their time coming home. My sister isn’t exactly calm when it comes to a lot of things, but I guess that one time she was and it miscommunicated the type of action that needed to be taken right then. Maybe that could be detrimental in the battlefield now and then, too?

Another creature specific thing to explore could be where the creatures shares many of our stress reactions, but will only have them in response to certain stimuli. Like, my angel descendant chars are pretty powerful, so they don’t have nearly as much of a stress reaction to battle as we do, even when they know they can die. It takes a lot of specific circumstances for them to actually feel panicky, like if the specific being they are fighting terrifies them because they had a psychological hold on them in the past(like if the person abused them during their childhood). Other things happening around that time could affect their stress, too. If they feel like they’re going to lose something important, like they know they have a high chance of losing the battle and losing means that their mate and children will probably get killed, then that has a different effect than their normal territorial squabbles and such.

Lelia Rose Foreman

I am enjoying this series a great deal. Thank you for posting them.