History Headscratchers / TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy

::But mostly the only thing that passes between them that could be construed as showing affection is that they spend time in each other's company even when they could avoid it. Did they get along better on Earth? Did Ford think exploring the galaxy would make Arthur more fun to be around? Did he not have any more agreeable friends? Is he just very reserved about his presumable friendliness toward Arthur? Or are they just stuck together by authorial fiat[[hottip:*:[[StealthPun dohohoho]] in order to have a StraightManAndWiseGuy? And what's the deal with the fact they seem to increasingly dislike each other throughout the series?

** Two possibilities: either she's saying that women can already understand others' perspectives, or s

** Two possibilities: either she's saying that women can already understand others' perspectives, or she's saying Zaphod is a big sissy girl. I think she said she's "already a woman", suggesting the latter. But aside from the fact he wears nail polish and was shouting from offscreen that he was wearing her underwear at some point, your guess is as good as mine why she'd say that.
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** MAybe they mated with those humans and also evolution?

** There's actually several instances across books of Arthur reading alien text just fine--"Do not press this button again", the novels on the depressing planet in ''MostlyHarmless'', etc--my personal theory is that for whatever reason the Babel fish just can't do cursive.

*** Send Arthur ''et al'' to the Restaurant At The End Of The universe, where they discover that the Krikkitmen are plotting to destroy the universe early and disrupt causality. As the gang tries to stop the plot, toss them across time and space, the B Ark, Slartibartfast, etc.

* The rundown of the universe's statistics in ''TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'' is funny, but it has a very basic math mistake. It says that if the universe is infinitely large, it should contain an infinite number of planets, but that since not all planets are inhabited, there must be a finite number of inhabited planets, and thus a finite total population. Dividing a finite number by infinity gets you "as near to nothing as makes no odds," so the average population of each world in the universe is zero; therefore, "any people you may meet from time to time are merely the product of a deranged imagination." This would certainly explain a lot about the universe, but it's fundamentally flawed. It's true (as we here on Earth can easily see) that not all planets are inhabited, but that doesn't mean a finite population in an infinite universe. Consider the natural numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, and so on.) There are, of course, infinitely many of them. Not all of them are even, and yet there are still infinitely many even natural numbers. So a universe with infinitely many planets could have both infinitely many inhabited ones and infinitely many uninhabited ones, for an infinite total population.

-->"Hey, will you get this, Earthman," interrupted Zaphod. "You are a last generation product of that computer matrix, right, and you were there right up to the moment your planet got the finger, yeah?"
-->"Er ..."
-->"So your brain was an organic part of the penultimate configuration of the computer programme," said Ford, rather lucidly he thought.
:::Basically, to continue the computer thing, Arthur represents the last known good configuration of the Earth. Trillian might be missing some information since she's been out and about in the galaxy for the past six months. They're trying to be completionists about it, I guess. But I don't know why they didn't go for her brain before they knew Arthur's was an option. I'd have to assume that it's just that they like her. She takes care of them, and even Marvin apparently likes her, so maybe she's just very likable.

::Basically, to continue the computer thing, Arthur represents the last known good configuration of the Earth. Trillian might be missing some information since she's been out and about in the galaxy for the past six months. They're trying to be completionists about it, I guess. But I don't know why they didn't go for her brain before they knew Arthur's was an option. I'd have to assume that it's just that they like her. She takes care of them, and even Marvin apparently likes her, so maybe she's just very likable.

** VitriolicBestBuds, OppositesAttract, something along those lines. I can only presume that, back on Earth, Ford was okay with having a few quiet moments and Arthur was fine being dragged to the occasional party, and mostly meeting each other somewhere in the middle. Out in space, though, Ford has limitless and increasingly bizarre options he can act on after years stranded on dull old Earth, and Arthur doesn't have much in the way of chances to opt out. I can see how that could build some resentment--especially given that twice Arthur had a shot at peace and contentment and twice it got thoroughly wrecked when Ford showed up.
:: Given, though, that that's a load of WMG, the simple, Doylist explanation is that Adams didn't give characterization a whole lot of thought when writing this franchise.

: Given, though, that that's a load of WMG, the simple, Doylist explanation is that Adams didn't give characterization a whole lot of thought when writing this franchise.

* The one part of the series which really, genuinely makes me scratch my head the most is that Ford went to the bother of rescuing Arthur from the demise of the Earth, suggesting that Arthur was the best friend he had while on Earth, despite generally acting as though he really just doesn't like him very much. They seem like they ''should'' be HeterosexualLifePartners, but they aren't. Admittedly, they do have a few {{Friendship Moment}}s...

* It could simply be that non of this is Trillian's fault: The guide 2.0 explicitly has the power to abusively retcon reality. The Guide 2.0 needed a emotional cripple to work with so it ensured Random's life was pure crapsack. Whatever bad (or unforgivably horrible) decisions Trillian made were the result of every possible variable leading to those decisions being made. Or at least, that's how I'd handwave it.

* On a related note, how could deducing that Black = White result in anyone getting killed at a zebra crossing? A zebra crossing with its black and white bars inverted would ''still'' look like a zebra crossing, and still indicate where it's safe to cross the road.

* How did the Golgafrinchams manage to survive long enough to overtake pre-historic humans if they were as utterly incompetent as they seem to be, they have no survival skills, no technology, no leadership and Ford states that most of them died in the first winter.