#not least of which is that only in the tail end of the Neanderthal era did they start to change technology because they met Homo sapiens

[lightdancer1]

Nobody's ever really addressed THIS part but

For all that people are really invested now that white people are shown to have 3% Neanderthal DNA in miraculously giving Neanderthals the powers of speech and art that they didn't have prior to the DNA based purely on the bones and the evidence of actual tangible things, the bones still count. And the bones say even if modern humans with more flexible shoulders can throw the things, Neanderthals were incapable of doing that because their shoulders and arms were designed for close-in hunting. This is also why they were super-strong by our standards, because that was how they made a living.

Neanderthals were fairly alien in certain crucial ways. So is Homo naledi, which is a semi-arboreal species retaining more than a few Australopithecine traits and co-existing with the earliest Homo sapiens (meaning we have at least two human evolutionary strands that lasted until fairly recent times and will probably find more). The insular species like Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis have traits even more like those of Australopithecines and the earliest Homo erectus subspecies, from which they descend from two different species.

Australopithecines (and Ardipithecines before them) and Paranthropines also have these differences as well. An Australopithecine was a short squat creature that would have in all probability been more human-like than a bonobo on two legs in a manner to be very disturbing were modern humans to encounter one. Paranthropines had gorilla heads on human-like bodies are the closest reality has ever come to making a real life sasquatch.

Archaic Homo species were not human, nor are they obligated to be because people react to the discoveries of DNA by trying to claim things that evidence does not, in actual fact, actually support.

[mathewryf]

Sonic the hedgehog!!

OOOOOOOOOOH BOY! Here we go:

1: Bring back other characters. I share this sentiment with you and so many others, for as much as I enjoy the themes of frienship it bums me that it’s been so long since someone other than Sonic has been playable, and sooooooooo daaaaaaaamn looooooooong since even Tails, Amy, and Knux have had time to shine on their own. Not to mention we haven’t seen the bulk of anyone else since Generations (it’s been 5 years, no sign of the Chaotix, Team Dark and Cream since), before that Colors DS (the then new cast... didin’t really get a chance to voice them, and it was the last time Big, the wisps and some chao were given a significant role) and before THAT, Sonic 06 was the last time a lot of them were given anything to do, with the rest being relegated to Sonic Rush (Cream and Blaze), Rush Adventure (Blaze and Marine, who hasn’t been seen since), Sonic Rivals 1 and 2 (Silver, Shadow, Knuckles, Rouge’s last playable appearance in the main canon), and the Sonic Riders games where applicable (Vector, Cream, Shadow, Rouge, Metal Sonic, and the Babylon Rogues’ last real significance in a story, was Sonic Free Riders, which came out around the time of Colors). I’m hoping Project Sonic 2017 helps to rectify this in some capacity, because I miss seeing the other characters be awesome and fun. I want to fly high as Tails, let’s throw some blows with Knux, give the Chaotix a reason to bust some baddies, give Cream some problems to solve, let Rouge steal some jewels, give Omega stuff to blow up, let’s see what Shadow has been up to, give Silver some love, check in on Blaze in her dimension as she deals with the responsibility of Guardianship, let us fish with Big for a quick break back in Sonic’s world, heck, let’s even check up on Chaos Gamma since he’s apparently wandering around. We could even see characters that didn’t get any sort of love in their debut, or in the modern era at all like Marine, Vanilla, Gemerl, Mighty, Ray, Heavy, Bomb, Bean, Bark, Fang, the Witchcarters, Battle Bird Armada (assuming Tails didn’t accidentally drown them) and Honey. Even another Riders game would be nice.

2: Get back to trying to keep a consistent continuity. You had something going in the Adventure games, heck you remembered to keep Tails’ victory of over Dr. Robotnik at the end of his story AND made that the basis for a plot point in SA2! You remembered the point of the Master Emerald and Knux’s role as its guardian instead of making him a wandering neanderthal. Heck you even made mention of a lot of both Sonic 3 & Knuckles’ and Sonic Adventure’s locations in Heroes! What happened to that?

3: Return to exploring the relationship between characters. Now at least in Colors and Colors DS we got plenty of Sonic and Tails, and Eggman has had plenty with Orbot and Cubot, but even with the likes of Sonic Boom there hasn’t really been much depth shown for interactions. This is really disappointing, especially considering how much the theme of friendship had been prevalent from Sonic Adventure to Sonic Unleashed. The character that has probably been shortchanged the most by this is the newest to be added to the cast: Sticks! I understand that in what’s supposed to be a comedic show depth isn’t always expected, but some of the best comedies can delve into humor to explore a deeper message. ESPECIALLY for comedies based around friendships (Friends is a good example). And that’s what bums me the most about Sticks, she has a wonderful design, the actress does great in delivery, heck it’s always nice to have another female added to the cast, especially one whom is as ripe with potential for exploring already established themes in the franchise in a unique way (friendship, co-operating with different mindsets, abandonment, paranoia, fear of the unknown) and even themes that not only haven’t been explored, but also aren’t typically tackled by media aimed at kids (and, I will argue to a more prominent extent for everything up to Colors, teenagers). Being that she was presumably left in the jungle by herself for her childhood, I’m certain there are a lot of things she would have to learn about beyond the usual friendship stuff. For example, it’s been mentioned she’s not good with people as is, but what about learning other important life skills like how to take care of yourself? I can elaborate more on this later.

4: Treat Knuckles with some respect. Stop making him everyone’s punching bag, he has always been better that some dead brained cave man. Like, he guards the Master Emerald, the literal most powerful object in the franchise. THE FIRST THING HE DID ON SCREEN WAS UPPERCUT THE SUPER OUT OF SUPER SONIC. Stop treating him like a moron.

5: Make Sonic less of an apparently overpowered infallible badass. I get the sense this happened in part due to a lack of other playable characters, because up until now whenever sonic couldn’t handle something on his own, he wasn’t afraid to ask for help (well, barring the leadup to Sonic Adventure’s climax, because that was when thematically he had to learn to open his heart enough to his friends to realize he wasn’t alone in facing Eggman. He later taught this to Blaze along with Cream when she really needed it). Again, more examples: SA2, he lead the Police away and trusted Tails and Amy to get to safety, at the end of Pyramid cave he coerced Knux to getting the keys because he knew he was better for the job, he stopped what he was doing in the control room and turned around to go save Amy because her life was more of a priority to him, Eggman sprung his trap and for the first time he gave Tails the task of finishing the mission and comforted both his best friend and Amy before getting launched, after using chaos control he asked Knux to make sure Tails and Amy were safe, he worked with everyone to get the the Cannon’s Core and let Shadow fight the Biolizard while Knux stopped the Chaos Emeralds, he and Shadow mutually agreed to fight the Biolizard together in their Super Forms and was noticeably shook when Shadow didn’t make it. Also, Sonic Heroes, despite how annoying the chatter in the levels can be, in both the normal missions and especially Super Hard Mode he was always communicating with the team and dishing out praise and punchlines as needed, leading to some banter between him and Knuckles before thanking him and Tails for the help. He also relied on every other team to stall Metal Madness so he could prep his team for the transformation and oncoming fight. I could go on and on, but I’ve made my point clear as is.