Talk:Talking Pet

This should be incorporated into the "Talking Pet (Device)" article (or vice versa), but I do agree with the categorization, so that's cool. Anyone feel like handling the cut and paste?

How about using a "See also..."? -SamYeager 07:33, 7 Oct 2004 (CEST)

"The Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah share a cultural conviction that they are superior to all other species and that, alone among sentients, the Ur-Quan have the right to freedom; this is the basis for the Kzer-Za's pattern of conquest and the Kohr-Ah's pattern of genocide. One consequence of this belief is their extreme resistance to adopting any cultural practices from other species for their own use, especially language."

^^You see there's a problem with that. When you fight the Ur-Quan Dreadnaughts, you can clearly hear them saying "launch fighters" in plain english. I doubt it's the talking pets since they only need their crew, not their opponents to hear it. That and they say it when fighting non-human ships.

Telepathic transmission

Are Talking Pets creating audio samples that are then transferred to the listener or are they actually using their mind control abilities to convey the meaning? Perhaps not just as 'voice in my head'? That would be Voldemort level creepy. This may still be true even if Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm would be immune to it seeing they are similar to the Taalo, and force the Ur-Quan in using another method of communication without mentioning it. Also there is the Spathi case: 'Spathi on board at the time were curled tightly in their shellcases, and couldn't hear [the Ur-Quan] very well'.

I see it is a 'No' from the Star Control 1 manual: "telepathically interpret Ur-Quan commands into the spoken languages of subordinate species, and reverse the procedure when receiving extra-special transmissions", while Star Control 2 manual doesn't give an actual confirmation: "telepathic/empathic ability to translate all languages". I guess it could be that having someone else's thoughts pushed in your head would be objectionable to someone that had experienced it like the Ur-Quan. Pendrokar (talk) 16:58, 23 February 2016 (CET)

Multilingual

Hey Val, I just reverted that last of edit of yours because IMO it goes a bit too far. Just to make sure we're looking at the same thing, the statement from the SC1 manual is (in the Ilwrath section) "One multilingual Ur-Quan Talking Pet inscribed the following note in shorthand...", right? While I think I see you're interpretation, it's not the only one and it doesn't jive well with everything else we know about the Talking Pets (that they are not linguistically challenged in any way). To me, the "multilingual" is just a further descriptor of the Talking Pets, but not an indication that there are non-multilingual Talking Pets. To contrast this with another insight you drew in a previous edit, you added that HyperWave Casters can be shielded based on a statement that the Chenjesu detected unshielded HW broadcasts. The "un-" necessarily implies that both cases, shielded and unshielded, exist. However, simply saying "a multilingual Talking Pet" is far more ambiguous - it's not clear whether this is to distinguish it from other Talking Pets or if this is a trait that all Talking Pets share, like the phrases "warm-blooded mammals" or "cowardly Spathi" (OK, maybe that last one is up for debate, especially if the BSS actually exist). --Fyzixfighter 17:59, 14 February 2008 (CET)

Mmm, yes, it might well be so... though I'm not quite sure whether someone who can (telepathically) comprehend any language (not multiple languages) qualifies as multilingual. Anyway, the SC1 manual was written before the creation of the Dnyarri... before it was established that the Talking Pets' ancestors (at least) had psychic powers... so the multilingual thing is anyway obsolete canon, I guess. Valaggar 18:33, 14 February 2008 (CET)