#if we go with 1 or 3 than the idea of firelizards going back to where they were laid to clutch doesn't make sense

[kariachi]

You just wanna take McCaffrey and shake her. They’ve got a perfectly viable strategy going on- lay many eggs and leave them to their fate is a wonderful concept for a prey animal specifically, especially since they likely breed year-round on Southern given the climate seems to be very accommodating, like at most I could see firelizards not breeding during hurricane season but otherwise things seem suitable for year-round breeding- but no, no they have to be going with it because they’re the stupidest things to ever grace the planet. Full 50% of firelizards apparently have absolute fluff for brains, amazing the species has survived.

Because somehow it never occurred to Anne that if only 1% of your population is making babies, and you are a wild animal, your species isn’t going to last. But somehow, those firelizards~ Just, every green egg is nonviable or not even worth looking at because it make, greens, and blues, but mostly because they make greens horror of horrors.

The worst part is, the greens’ ‘lay ‘em and leave ‘em’ strategy is extra effective for their species, because we’ve already seen that firelizards can tell when eggs are going to hatch or babies are going to be born and that they flock to join in and help. So it’s low care while they’re egg with all but a guarantee that if they survive to hatch they’ll be immediately made part of one fair or another. They’re a social species for whom leaving their eggs alone doesn’t stop the young from being raised in safety of the fair from hatching! So the best case scenario is that your eggs survive and get taken in by a fair, and the worst case scenario is they get eaten in which case they’re still acting as a distraction from the eggs of the other dams in your fair to whom you’re probably related! Plus, the constant egg loss helps prevent overpopulation! It fucking works!

But no, Anne couldn’t have with that, she had to keep her Super Special critters super special, and just wasn’t capable of doing that without tearing other fuckers down. Which, having read her heroes, I can see how she got into the habit, but still.

Anne McCaffrey's classism and misogyny are almost indescribable. Specifically in regards to green fire lizards. It's like a perfect combination of classism and misogyny and it just becomes so fucking absurd. Like rich people staring in offended horror and clutching their pearls because a poor person has an iphone or something. but more absurd.