Ask Pangaea

Pangaea · **Reply #100 on:** November 16, 2009, 01:03:10 AM

That’s actually a really hard question to answer, as I don’t think I can pick a single favorite character. I’m guessing you’re thinking of Guido, and he’s definitely up there, along with Mr. Thicknose (the reason for both characters being that I identify with them a lot) and the entire gang of seven (though I didn’t like Chomper and Littlefoot so much in the TV series). I love how the gang’s (particularly the gang of five) respective quirks and personalities complement each other so well, making them a very well-rounded group (something I’m struggling to accomplish in my own written work).

However, if I were to choose a “favorite” based on the character I’d most like to see receive more attention in both the LBT canon and fanfiction (probably wishful thinking in the case of the former), I would have to say Ducky. Not only has she, in my opinion, received too few central and/or heroic roles in the series, but I think she’s been overly stereotyped as a helpless, naÔve character who can’t accomplish anything on her own. (This thread describes the issue pretty much as I see it, though I have my own views on the controversial “Search for the Sky Color Stones” TV episode, which can be read here.) Ducky seems to me to be the most underused of the gang, and I’d like to see more done with her character.

For the record, if you had asked me this same question fifteen years ago, I would have said that my favorite character was Petrie. That was mainly because I liked Pteranodon the best of all the gang’s species, though.

Nowadays my interests are much broader, and the characters' personalities are more influential in determining how much I like them.

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #101 on:** November 18, 2009, 04:52:02 PM

I read your post about your history of bein' an LBT fan, and I see you've read through the "Fanart and Fanfiction" section of the GOF. This leads me to ask:

What were your thoughts on my one-shot fanfic, "A Day of Remembrance"?

I know it was a one-shot, and it was my first published fanfic. I usually write long stories. I hope to write longer fanfics, especially once I'm done with school, but I was just wonderin' what your thoughts are

.

Pangaea · **Reply #102 on:** November 25, 2009, 09:32:27 PM

Gah...sorry I took so long to respond.

I’ve had a lot of work to get done these last few days, and admittedly this thread has fallen low on my list of priorities.

I thought "A Day of Remembrance" was very good, definitely among my favorite one-shot LBT fanfics.

I actually read it on FanFiction.net before I saw it on the GOF; I have noticed that they are slightly different. I think I like the FF.net version a little better, with the exception of the detail of it being only one year since Littlefoot’s mother’s death (as opposed to three years in the GOF edition); I don’t think it’s possible for all of the first twelve LBT movies to have taken place within that time.

Even though your story is short, there’s a lot of things I liked about it. For starters, your descriptive writing style made it very enjoyable to read. Also, in addition to your impressively accurate character portrayals, your depiction of the relationships between Cera and Tria, and Cera and Littlefoot, felt “just right” to me (I’m not sure how else to put it

). With all due respect to the fanfiction writers who use this theme in their stories, I’ve never liked the idea of a romance between Littlefoot and Cera. Not only do I greatly prefer the brother-sister relationship highlighted in your fanfic, but also feel it compatible with the canon series, in which it is established that the gang view themselves as a family.

In conclusion, let me just say that if "A Day Of Remembrance" is any indicator of your fanfiction writing abilities, then I’ll be immensely eager to read whatever LBT stories you have to offer in the future.

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #103 on:** November 26, 2009, 12:25:00 AM

Thanks

!

BTW, how's Sasquatch?

Pangaea · **Reply #104 on:** November 26, 2009, 12:55:53 AM

Same as always: hyperactive, constantly getting underfoot, and incessantly exploring every nook and cranny in the house. He’s gotten pretty big, too, so he’s even more of a handful than before (in every sense of the word

) and as a result of his increased weight, his attempts at scaling precariously piled miniature mountains of household objects have been resulting in small avalanches with increasing frequency.

The good news is, he hasn’t climbed on window screens for a while. The bad news is, he’s developed an even more worrisome habit of climbing on top of my brother’s pet leopard gecko’s tank and pawing at him (the gecko) through the glass. We’ve tried just about everything to deter him from doing it, from blocking off the most direct path to the tank with a foam board, to clanging a metal dust pan, to spraying him with the water bottle we use for misting the tank.

But he still keeps climbing back up there.

Amaranthine · **Reply #105 on:** November 26, 2009, 01:20:29 AM

^Pangaea, can I have your kitty? Pwease?????????? *makes doey, cutesy eyes*

Actually my real question is, as far as your kitty, have you ever tried just distracting him with a toy to get away from the gecko? If you do that consistantly, Sasquatch might stop that behavior.

Pangaea · **Reply #106 on:** November 26, 2009, 01:40:12 AM

I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the advice.

P.S. Technically, he's my sister's cat, since she's the one who takes care of him (and the one who had the idea to adopt a new cat in the first place), and I doubt she'll be willing to give him up.

Serris · **Reply #107 on:** November 26, 2009, 01:49:38 AM

How great do you think the upheaval in the paleontology community would be if artifacts and bones from Twilight Valley were found?

Seriously though, have you played History Channel's Turf Wars? It is a "classical" fighting game with dinosaurs.

Pangaea · **Reply #108 on:** November 26, 2009, 02:01:18 AM

I've watched my younger brother play it, but I've never played it myself.

Serris · **Reply #109 on:** November 26, 2009, 02:14:37 AM

It is actually quite fun.

How great do you think the upheaval in the paleontology community would be if artifacts and bones from Twilight Valley were found?

Pangaea · **Reply #110 on:** November 26, 2009, 02:43:10 AM

(Oh, sorry;

I thought you were asking the question jokingly the last time.

)

I imagine it would be hugely controversial, with widespread suspicions that it was a hoax (even after the remains had been checked and re-checked, dated and re-dated, several times over), but that once the scientific community confirmed that the find was genuine, it would be hailed as the most significant paleontological discovery of all time. Humans would no longer be the only or the first technologically advanced species known to have existed, and science would have to completely reconfigure its perceptions of dinosaur intelligence and culture (the latter of which would not even have been a seriously considered concept beforehand).

Serris · **Reply #111 on:** November 26, 2009, 03:05:24 AM

Heh. I figured it would be insanely controversial. Even physicists discovering that superluminal travel was possible would not cause as much of a fuss.

So controversial this find maybe that it may not even be in museums. Speaking of that, I did dream about a TWV exhibit in the Smithsonian. Admittedly that would be a quite a cool exhibit.

pokeplayer984 · **Reply #112 on:** November 26, 2009, 03:09:45 AM

If you were able to go back in time, what time period would you go to and why?

Amaranthine · **Reply #113 on:** November 27, 2009, 03:41:21 AM

How was your Thanksgiving?

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #114 on:** November 28, 2009, 01:36:44 AM

Ever think about havin' a pet bird someday

?

Pangaea · **Reply #115 on:** November 28, 2009, 08:07:18 AM

pokeplayer984:

Just one time period, you mean? Just one trip? Wow, I don’t think I can choose.

If I did go, I would want to have adequate protection against any predators of the time period in question (not to mention parasites and diseases). Assuming I was safe from creating any temporal paradoxes,

I’d also want to make it a full-fledged scientific expedition, bringing back photographs, specimens, and DNA samples for further research. I would also be inclined to not limit my paleo-safari to a single locality, but to travel all around the world, viewing and cataloguing as much prehistoric wildlife as I could.

The late Cretaceous (~70 million years ago) is definitely a major candidate for a period I’d like to visit. North America, of course, had Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and duck-billed, bone-headed, and egg stealer-type dinosaurs at that time. Recent studies have suggested that some of these dinosaurs changed dramatically as they grew (Triceratops’s horns apparently changed shape with age, and boneheads may have grown crowns of spikes on their heads, and then lost them as their skull domes grew in); an opportunity to chart the growth of the living animals would be unmissable.

I’d also want to visit Mongolia, home of Deinocheirus and Therizinosaurus, both huge dinosaurs with giant claws, each known only from a pair of fossilized arms and a few other skeletal fragments. I’d love to see what they looked like in life.

Madagascar also has some critters I’d like to see, including the thick-skulled sharptooth Majungasaurus; the orthodonty-defying theropod Masiakasaurus, the flying raptor Rahonavis, and the burrowing, herbivorous, pug-nosed crocodile :! Simosuchus.

While prehistoric creatures don’t have to be large to hold my interest, there were a quite a few animals scattered around the world in the Late Cretaceous that were among the largest of their respective kinds, all of which I’d want to make a point of seeing. These include Mauisaurus (a more-than-50-foot plesiosaur) in New Zealand, Hatzegopteryx (a pterosaur that could stare down a giraffe at ground level) in Romania, Mosasaurus (a giant marine lizard that would have made a Komodo dragon look like a gecko) in the Netherlands, and, in Argentina, Puertasaurus, a longneck known from only four fossil vertebrae, but estimated to have been one of the most gargantuan land animals that ever lived. It is speculatively reconstructed here in comparison with Giganotosaurus (one of the biggest known sharpteeth) and a human. Even as a jaded dinosaur fanatic, this illustrationóspecifically, the obscene humongousness of its principal subjectómade me go

:blink:

.

There are TONS of other times that I’d love to visit, but considering the length of the description I’ve given for just one, I think I’ll stop here. (Unless you WANT me to give more examples.

)

Rat Lady:

Well...the Thanksgiving celebration (which we held on Friday, so that my brother could join us for it) was pretty good, but the “official” Thanksgiving Day wasn’t so great.

Cancerian Tiger:

I love birds, and have certainly thought that it might be nice to own one, but I can’t see it happening anytime soon. (Sasquatch, of course, is one of the chief reasons why not.)

Amaranthine · **Reply #116 on:** December 04, 2009, 01:45:38 AM

How are you doing Panagea?

Pangaea · **Reply #117 on:** December 06, 2009, 12:52:39 AM

At the moment, I'm in a bit of a daze, due to the events of the last day or so.

Turns out the reason I was cold last night is because the furnace was off. :blink: (I live in northern Minnesota. It's December. You can see why that would make a difference.)

Despite my 10:58 PM post in the "Good Night GOF" thread, I didn't end up going to bed until after midnight. Then I woke up again just before 3 AM, my teeth chattering like crazy. I took the opportunity to go down to the computer to check my dragons' progress, and posted in the RP before going back to bed at some point after 4 AM. I had a singularly uncomfortable sleep because it was so cold, but when I woke up again, it was 4 in the afternoon. :blink: At that point we got the issue of the furnace sorted out (incredibly, I had not been aware of it before

), and now the heat's back on, though I'm still wearing a coat.

I have also been procrastinating excessively on the assignments I need to have done next week.

P.S. All times noted are based on what the clocks in my house are set to, which is an hour slower than the time given on the GOF for my area because of Daylight Savings Time.

Amaranthine · **Reply #118 on:** December 09, 2009, 01:46:36 AM

When going over finals and all that, how do you usually study?

Pangaea · **Reply #119 on:** December 09, 2009, 03:57:30 AM

Well, whenever I’m given a study guide or there is a review day before the test, I make sure to write down everything that’s likely to be on that test. Then, on the day of the test itself, I take out the notes between an hour and a half hour beforehand, and read over them repeatedly until it’s time to take the test. I have a memory like a sieve when it comes to tests, so it's best that I have the needed information as fresh in my mind as possible when I take one. (Unfortunately, I can never memorize everything, and it usually seems that the notes I focus most intently on memorizing turn out to be of lesser importance.

: Also, I HATE essay questions. <_<)