Although now that I’ve asked the question, it occurs to me that it would make a useful skill to develop if one wanted to exchange information with another Saturnian without fear of telepathic eavesdropping… Hmmm. Yeah, definitely start off with Imra never speaking, then teaching herself to do so for the times when pragmatism dictates that it’s needed.

1) I just read Volume Two of ‘Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes’, and I really have considered making a drinking game for the series in which you take a sip every time Saturn Girl is present and fails to use her telepathy when such a thing would be useful. But I don’t want people to die of alcohol poisoning.

2) Actually, I do want a robot tail. Tell me that wouldn’t be cool.

1. Because even in the 30th century, I’m not sure if everything is voice activated? As an example, her tail isn’t long enough to, say, operate what would be a eye-level touchpad for a human, without mashing her face into the ground.

2. Because while the rest of her race seems to get by having anthropomorhic racoon servants to do their lifting, Jeka was characterised as wanting a more independent lifestyle, and the arms are both a practical and symbolic step towards that?

Heck, I thought that Jeka-the-Snake was a nice way of diversifying the Legion, along with Gates. If they’re supposed to be a gathering of aliens from all over, it’s nice to see more than just minor variations on the standard humanoid bodyshape.

*sigh*

Brainiac knows EXACTLY where pragmatism can lead.

Sapient, please. Sentient means “responds to sensory input” and includes common insects, for example.

And also, I now wish I had a robot tail a little bit.

One of the built-in advantages of the Legion is that while a shared Humanity is the uniting focus of the group they are all very much aliens. Often when the LSH is really cooking (and a lot of elements that Chris seizes on in his posts) is when you focus on the fact that the team members aren’t us-with-powers, they can have a completely different frame of reference… moral, philosophic, or experiential.

Most of the X-psych’s (and I guess, Max to some extent… although I have trouble reconciling “Crisis” Max with JLI-Max) are based around the “power corrupts” Marvel trope (powers just amplify who you are, if’ you’re a “good” person – you have to be better, and if you’re “bad” it’ll make you worse). But still earthlings.

Titanians (like Coluans are, and Tromians… would be… if they’d stop getting massacred) come from a completely different social paradigm that’s evolved to champion entirely different physiologies and philosophies. Since parts of the UP, like Star Trek, doesn’t have traditional wants and needs in a “survival” sense, they progress along an entirely different path, and therefore their Legionnaires bring entirely different moral viewpoints to the team.

If I have any major regrets about the last ten years of LSH cannon – it’s that writers seem to shy away from embracing that potential, and instead just making everyone share the same, limited perspective (Heck, the turned Jeckie into a giant snake… and then gave her arms, so we could read her body language better… why would a giant snake want robot arms? I don’t want a robot tail?* Jan isn’t somewhat spacy because he’s flaky… he’s somewhat spacy because he perceives matter differently, and has a hard time even remotely grasphing concepts of possession, or permanance, or death.

Saturn Girl isn’t pragmatic, because it’s an extention of her desire for control, or peace, or some kind of moral imperitive – she’s just been raised in a society that’s to some extent a psychic open-book. Much of our laws about freedom and rights (and justice) are because we can’t ever know what someone’s actual intent is behind their actions or what their capacity to act on those intents are. Titanians have no such limitations.

Put another way, wouldn’t a *better* gun control legislation be to just refuse to sell guns to anyone who is going to (or has the mental capability of) using them to commit a crime? If you can know intent – or capability – there’s a lot less need for freedom or law (which is essentially, a codified system for determining intent and capability retroactively).

(Incidentally this is why I don’t mind the “thought-bubble” that Greg alludes to above… it’s at least a physical reminder that all the Legionnaires aren’t just “humans with funny foreheads”).

If Shooter writes him that way, I’ll soon end up liking him as much as you do. (And I already think a lot of Brainy.)