Spear's mother/parents died protecting him.
Which is why he stops and realizes that Fang is not so different with her own young in the first trailer.- We don't know what happened to Spear's parents. He realizes Fang is not so different because he also tried (and failed) to protect his wife and children from the very same dinosaurs.
- Halfway confirmed as of "Echoes of Eternity": we learn in the opening scene (a flashback/dream that Spear is having) that when he was a boy his tribe was attacked by a pack of saber-toothed cats and the one who appears to be his father dies defending him from them, and Spear avenges him immediately after. (Incidentally, this also josses the idea that the flashback in "A Cold Death" is showing Spear being taught to hunt by his father instead of him teaching his son, since Spear's father is shown to not be near-identical to him.
Fang's children die and the show is about Spear and Fang getting revenge on their killers.
- Half confirmed, Fang's children are devoured by the same dinosaurs that killed Spear's family but the two of them team up and kill them in the first episode.
It isn't actually prehistoric times
Rather, it's in a another dimension where creatures of different time periods have been placed together, similar to Turok.- As the Season 1 finale suggests that bronze age civilizations exist in this world, this is entirely possible.
- "The Primal Theory" might joss this seeing as it appears to be set in the late Victorian era of our world, unless that episode occupies a different continuity entirely or the world of the show still eventually evolved into something more-or-less resembling our own.
The giant ape-monster that grabs Fang in the trailer is the leader of the ape-men.
He's Large and in Charge (after all, he's the size of King Kong), and the fact he's wearing a Triceratops skull as a helmet implies that he's more intelligent than a mindless beast. Since the ape-man episode will be the last one in Season 1, he'll be the Season's Final Boss.- Close enough. The tribe's leader is a shaman, but Krog, the skull-wearing gorilla-man, is a champion warrior chosen in combat to be worthy of drinking the strength-inducing potion.
The caveman punching the ape-man and tearing it in half is not Spear.
It's a slightly spoilery moment from the Season 1 finale, where other cavemen show up in a Big Damn Heroes moment, saving Spear and Fang after they are nearly defeated by the ape-men.- Jossed: That's Spear after he drinks some magic potion and the ape-men seemingly kill Fang. Those damn dirty apes!
The ultimate enemy of the franchise
Genndy has stated that as the series goes on, Spear and Fang will face challenges more and more dangerous and insane. In the end, their greatest challenge won't be a dinosaur, an ape, or any sort of animal. Instead, it will be a meteor strike, one that ends the age of dinosaurs. This is, logically, the most fearsome thing any prehistoric being can face, for no creature, no matter how strong, fast, or vicious, can compare to the sheer power of a natural disaster. The world itself is the greatest threat to the two.- A natural disaster could still happen, but the season 1 finale implies their greatest enemy will be man. Specifically, a bronze-age civilization that practices slave trading and is ruled by some horned king.
Fang will die in the final episode
She's described in the synopsys as "a dinosaur at the brink of extinction". Since the show is Darker and Edgier, it wouldn't be surprising if it ended with one of the protagonists' death, and Fang is a more likely choice than Spear. She probably would pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save the caveman.- She seems to be killed in Episode 5, but since there are 5 more episodes to be released, she'll probably turn out alive in Episode 6. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the series finale, though.
- Jossed. She survives, but Spear dies from the horrible burns he gets from fighting the Viking Chieftain.
Fang will turn out to be alive in the next 5 episodes
While so far only 5 episodes have been released that concluded with her dying at the hands of the ape-men, she will probably be back in later episodes as Genndy noted that here are actually 10 episodes with the first half released in fall of 2019 and the second half in a later date. There were some screenshots in earlier trailers and other media where Fang is seen with Spear in shots that were not shown in the past 5 episodes. She is more likely unconscious from the episode 5 battle and will come back as a suprise to Spear and the audience.- Confirmed:She's alive and well in Episode 6.
This series is on the same universe as Samurai Jack
Based on the finale having a black goo and a cult attached to it, which makes it similar to the Cult of Aku.- Not only that, but Spear could be the ancestor to Samurai Jack himself. If real-life genetics shows, Spear could also be the ancestor of almost all of mankind. It could be noted that in Samurai Jack's universe, Aku brought the end of the dinosaurs so maybe by the end of the season he could be the main Big Bad in the shape of an asteroid that will kill off the dinosaurs but bring in the rise of human evolution.
This series is in the same universe as The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
That black goo? That's not Aku. It's Chemical X! Undiluted by Sugar, Spice, or Anything Nice!Creatures featured in Episode 6-10
There are several iconic prehistoric animals that have yet to make an appearance, and will likely be featured in Episodes 6-10:- A Smilodon-like saber-toothed cat (likely exaggerated in size).
- "The Night Feeder" features a saber-toothed cat, though only as a victim of the titular monster in the cold open and it doesn't appear to be particularly oversized either.
- Terror birds.
- Cave bears.
- "Dawn of Man" features what appear to be (oversized) cave bears as mounts of the Viking-like warriors.
- A few more stock dinosaurs, such as sauropods and ceratopsians.
- Both sauropods and ceratopsians are confirmed to exist in the universe (the former as one of Spear's shadow puppets, the latter both among the spider's prey and as the ape-man champion's helmet), but have yet to make an appearance alive.
- Sauropods (along with another stock dinosaur, Parasaurolophus) appear in the episode "Plague of Madness", with one of them catching a rabies-like disease and attacking its herd-mates.
- "The Night Feeder" features a herd of ceratopsians, somewhat resembling Styracosaurus, as victims of the eponymous creature.
- Woolly rhinos, or rhino-like beasts such as Megacerops, Arsinoitherium or Uintatherium.
- Arsinoitherium appears in "Shadow of Fate"
- Marine predators such as a megalodon, Mosasaurus, Liopleurodon or Elasmosaurus.
- "Slave of the Scorpion" features a pliosaur (possibly Liopleurodon judging by its size).
- Megalodon appears in "Sea of Despair".
- Giant arthropods such as Meganeura, Arthropleura and Pulmonoscorpius.
- "Scent of Prey" features a swarm of scavenging euthycarcinoids
about the size of a human's fist. - "Slave of the Scorpion" features large dragonflies that may be Meganeura.
- "Scent of Prey" features a swarm of scavenging euthycarcinoids
- Dire wolves.
- "Scent of Prey" features a pack of small but persistent scavenging wild dogs. In "Coven of the Damned", the witches' leader turns into a massive wolf-like beast. "Shadow of Fate" has a domesticated, wolf-like dog guarding the village of the Celtic tribe.
- Giant ground sloths.
- Dimetrodon
Some of the more monstrous creatures are under the influence of the same Super Serum that the ape-men use.
The giant spider and the demonic bats from Episode 4 were originally regular-sized animals, but they are consuming the black liquid and gain their horrifying forms and monstrous size as a result. Perhaps even the Tyrannosaurus rex from the first episode were more similar to Fang before, and became these enormous, horned beasts thanks to the serum.Spear is the distant ancestor of Brock Samson.
He is the first in a millennia-spanning lineage of overly violent ass-kickers that lives on in the present day through Brock.Spear is the Identical Grandson of the caveman Dexter took to the present day in "Old Flame".
The Reused Character Design is no coincidence, the two are related. Since the caveman Dexter met was the one who discovered how to use fire, and Spear uses fire regularly, it means Primal takes place slightly later than "Old Flame". However, Spear didn't inherit his grandfather's fondness of jumping rope.Primal, Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory all take place in the same universe.
Combining the above suggestions (Spear resembling the caveman Dexter meets, the Super Serum and the cult around it resembling the Cult of Aku), the three shows are all part of a greater "Genndyverse".The ape-men in the fifth episode have Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism.
Similarly to real-life gorillas and orangutans, as well as some early hominids like Paranthropus, fully-grown adult males are far larger and bulkier than females. This means that the five warriors are the only adult males we see, and the smaller apes are either females or adolescent males.- Who's to say that the big ones aren't the females?
The ape-men we see are different species.
Symbiotic relationships between different primate species are not unprecedented (red colobus and diana monkeys provide mutual protection against predators). So it's possible the ape-men we see are actually comprised of multiple species, with the gorilla-like warriors being a different species from the smaller, skinnier spectators. Maybe even the shaman is a separate third species, given how different he looks from the rest.- Perhaps the big ones are Gigantopithecus and the small ones are either australopithecines or dryopithecines of some sort.
- The shaman looks quite different from both big ones and small ones - he/she's more slender, more upright, has shorter fur, paler skin and longer snout. Perhaps he/she represents the third, smarter but less numerous species, and learned to control more primitive apemen with rituals.
The giant spider was created by Aku.
Continuing with the "Primal and Samurai Jack take place in the same universe" theory, it's possible that the giant spider is a minion of Aku. The spider is clearly an unnatural creature (breaking the Square-Cube Law and having Mind Control powers), probably created by dark magic, and Aku clearly has a preference for arthropod-like minions (in the Bad Future they're robots, but in this prehistory they might be magically-created organic monsters).Fang will save Spear's life by killing a giant Snake.
Conquering her fear of them.- Pseudo-confirmed as of "Echoes of Eternity": the Viking chieftain-turned-fire elemental finally catces up to Spear and Fang and, realizing they're outmatched, they retreat to higher ground and he transforms into a giant fire-snake to climb up after them, which seems to noticeably freak out Fang. He changes back into a "man" to continue the fight, though, scorching Fang and then Spear. Spear shoves the chieftain off the plateau to save Fang but is already fatally burned and the chieftain "wins". Nothing shown indicates that Fang is over her fear of snakes.
The Plague of Madness is the result of the Ape Men's black goo applied to sick, dying, or dead animals.
The black ooze that the Ape Men use makes them stronger, faster, and more violent, which the infected Camarasaurus also happens to be. What's to say that an Ape Man or someone else isn't using the black ooze on dying animals?- To go even further, they tried to use it on the recently deceased Krog, but he came back as a bloodthirsty zombie that ended up attacking that Parasaurolophus.
There'll eventually be a dragon in Primal
Mostly a throwaway guess, but considering how there's giant spiders, zombie dinosaurs, and magic potions that cause hulking out... perhaps a dragon isn't too much a stretch anymore? Since the show has established supernatural creatures including witches and zombies exist in the Primal universe, it would not be too much of a stretch to have Spear and Fang battle a dragon for the Rule of Cool.- The Viking warship seen at the end of The Red Mist has the stereotypical dragon's-head prow which implies that, at the very least, dragons exist conceptually in the setting as mythical creatures. Whether or not a real, physical dragon will show up remains to be seen.
- Jossed for Season 2.
There will be civilized reptilians in one episode
The show features more and more fantasy elements as it goes on, and the stakes are escalating, so it is not so big of a stretch to imagine Spear and Fang getting captured by a tribe of civilized, probably magic-using beings in one of the last episodes. They won't be humans to keep the show's prehistoric feel, nor will they be apes because that would feel too much of a re-hash of Episode 5. Instead, they will be Lizard Folk, potentially with dinosaurs as beasts of burden.- Alternatively, they'll be Bird People and they'll be highly advanced.
- Or both could appear, leading to Spear and Fang being caught up in a war between the two species.
- Jossed for Season 2.
The ape men's elixir is Chemical X.
It's a black goo, it gives you super strength if you drink it, and to top it off, it turned a monkey green! Related to the above theory about Samurai Jack, Primal could take place in the prehistory of the entire broader Cartoon Network universe. The Plague is what ultimately causes the extinction of the dinosaurs in this universe.
Pretty self-explanatory. We only ever see it infect non-avian dinosaurs, with no evidence so far that it can be passed on to mammals (Spear only contracts it in a Nightmare Sequence). Spear and Fang will be joined by others.
During their journeys, they'll encounter other prehistoric beasts and/or primitive humans who have also lost their families and will choose to travel with them since they have nowhere else to go.- Confirmed, as of "Slave of the Socrpion". Spear and Fang are joined by a more modern-looking human named Mira.
The Plague of Madness has something to do with Aliens
It resembles no disease known to man, and otherwordly things aren't new to this show in the slightest. Perhaps it's some kinda weird alien bacteria that's driving the dinosaurs insane. Plague of Madness canonically takes place before Rage of the Ape Men
Which explains why there's no trace of Fang's brutal injuries from the previous episode.- Jossed. Instead, "Plague of Madness" takes place after "Scent of Prey", wich explains how Fang recovered from her injuries.
The giant spider, the black potion, and the Plague of Madness are all interconnected
- It's possible. Note the *speed* at which the disease progresses. No natural disease progresses that fast - there is always an incubation period of days to weeks, with very mild or no symptoms, before the disease spreads sufficiently far to create major pathology. It acted far more like a venom or toxin - spread was very rapid over the body and massive pathology started appearing immediately, quickly followed by intense agonizing pain and finally uncontrolled aggression. It's quite possible that such a venom could have ended up in the black potion of the ape men, considering that uncontrolled aggression was a side effect. The spider is more tenuous, but still possible, as it was far larger than a normal spider and very aggressive as well. Will be interesting to see if this bears out.
Spear's Wife was (more-or-less) a Homo Sapiens
Obviously Primal has a fairly light approach to evolutionary history given the mix around, but in our evolutionary history there is a bit of evidence that there were periods of interbreeding between "archaic" and "modern" humans, so it wouldn't be all that strange for Primal to have had a more Neanderthal/Heidelbergensis-like hominin (eg. Spear) get together with a more Cro-Magnon-like hominin (eg. his wife), with both quite likely already being the result of admixture to different degrees. Giant bats are actually evolved apes.
While their overall look suggests bats, they also have pretty big craniums and eyes for a carnivorous bat, their torsos and limbs look strangely hominid and some of the noises they make are clearly monkey noises. Perhaps they are descendants of apes who evolved into flying predators.- This is supported by the original animatics for the episode, which identify them as "Man Bats".
- Taking it to its logical conclusion, and considering their resemblance to similar creatures from another of Tartakovsky's works, the Bats are literally vampires, being the precursors of the original, monstrous vampires of folklore as opposed to the sinister and seductive predators of later literature.
Another red, horned Tyrannosaur will appear in a future episode as an ally.
It will at first seem like an enemy and bring back the trauma of Spear and Fang losing their families to its kind, but will turn out to be protecting its own family in a conflict against savage dinosaur-hunting cavemen. Ultimately, Spear will realize the parallels and the duo will help them and depart on good terms, Spear finally putting his demons to rest.- A red-headed male Tyrannosaurus with a small horn appears in "Shadow of Fate", and becomes an ally and lover of Fang when she gets separated from Spear. However, he still acts as a predator toward humans and tries to hunt down Spear, and ultimately gets killed by Fang as she tries to protect Spear from him.
The Plague of Madness was not a plague at all, but a toxin or venom.
See above. The speed of pathogenesis once the hadrosaur bit the Argentinosaurus is far, far faster than any disease, which would have a long incubation period and more gradual onset of symptoms. But a poison would spread just that quickly, even through a sauropod's body, and pathogenesis would be instant in whatever target tissues it spread to. Many toxins and venoms also cause agonizing pain, which (along with central nervous system effects) would produce the 'zombie aggressiveness.'
- The Concept of a venom that grants the victim the ability to inject the same venom themselves honestly makes just as little sense as non-supernatural zombies do.
The Plague was made by the witches from 'Coven of the Damned'.
Self-explanatory. Granted, it seems to go against their MO, so in this case it was probably created by accident.
The Plague of Madness is what happens when the Super Serum is applied to dinosaur (and possibly other reptilian) subjects.
Related to several entries above. Whatever the serum actually is, the dinosaur body is utterly unable to properly acclimate to its effects and this is the result of attempting to administer it to them.
A future episode will feature one or more feathered dinosaurs.
Word of God has indicated that they did originally want to give feathers to the raptors in episode 4 after all, so it's hardly out of the question (especially given how fond the show seems of subtly showing their work every now and again).
- Confirmed—"Slave of the Scorpion" has an appearance by a feathered oviraptor of some kind and a couple of smaller, more ambiguous feathered dinosaurs (identified as Anzu and Kulindadromeus, respectively, by Word of God).
The Night Feeder is a small theropod that drank the ape-men's potion.
It's unusually strong and unusually bloodthirsty, slaughtering large animals for apparently no good reason - exactly like Krog and Spear under the potion's effect.- Alternatively, the potion is made from Night Feeder blood.
The Ape-Men are being set up as the ultimate Big Bad of the series
Notice how so many of the WMG's above refer back to them and their black serum? That might not be a coincidence. They're the only antagonists so far who have appeared in more than one episode (they debut in "Rage of the Ape-Men", and members of the same species appear in "Slave of the Scorpion"), and in the latter episode they're established as the ones who kidnapped Spear's new ally Mira.Logically, then, the story arc of season 2 will revolve around Spear and Fang tracking down the ape-men and rescuing Mira, while possibly also learning the true nature of their plans.- Probably unlikely since, towards the end of Slave of the Scorpion, the group of Ape-Men who kidnapped Mira are later found dead, pelted with arrows, while Mira's screams can be heard from a boat sailing away, presumably crewed by whoever killed the Ape-Men from earlier.
The main antagonist of the second season, and presumably the series as a whole, is the leader of Mira's slavers
When Mira explains her origins to Spear and how she came to cross paths with him she draws an image of a massive humanoid with horns on his head, who commands his followers to attack and enslave others for his own purposes. Spear will find a way across the sea to find Mira, and eventually confront this Horned Humanoid at some point.- The trailer for Season 2 seems to support this, as one shot shows Spear standing in front of a gigantic Horned Humanoid sitting on a throne.
- Confirmed. While it turns out that the leader of Mira's slavers is actually a Viking chieftain who has no connection with the horned demon in the trailer, he still serves as the main Big Bad of the second half of the season, pursuing Spear and Fang in vengeance for their slaughter of his entire village in the process of rescuing Mira (and later for the death of his eldest son). The demon also does have a significant role to play in a Greater-Scope Villain way, returning the Chieftain to life with new powers after he's killed, so he can fulfill his revenge (and presumably further the demon's mysterious agenda in the process).
"The Scorpion" is an expy of Scorpion II
Simply put, the leader of the civilization that enslaved Mira's is going to turn out to not be an actual scorpion but is known as such and will have similarities to the Protodynastic Egyptian ruler known as Scorpion II, aka King Scorpion, aka the namesake of the Scorpion King from The Mummy.- Mira herself does look vaguely Egyptian, so this isn't without support.
- Jossed—the Scorpion isn't human at all, but an analogue to Satan. Funnily enough, though, an Egyptian-inspired culture does appear.
Humans that appear in season 2 will not speak English
If more humans are going to appear on season 2, it wouldn't be surprising if they speak languages other than English, like how Mira spoke in Arabic. It would keep the immersion of not using regular language to tell a story.- Confirmed so far, but there are still episodes remaining to potentially joss this. A second speaking role occurs with the chief of a pseudo-Celtic tribe who, like Mira, speaks in an untranslated non-English langauge, this time appearing to be Irish.
- Jossed for the show as a whole. "The Primal Theory" takes place in Victorian England and features English dialogue, but seeing as it presumably takes place millions of years after the events of the show this could still be true for Spear and Fang's world.
Fang is actually a Godzillasaurus.
Fang's head looks suspiciously identical to the Godzillasaurus seen in the lower right corner in a piece of official artwork from a Japanese Rebirth of Mothra book featuring prehistoric-era Japanese monsters and dinosaurs battling Death Ghidorah. Fang's intelligence and badassery are certainly Godzilla-ian in nature. The Plague of Madness is the result of Nurgle wanting pet dinosaurs
Hey, someone had to say it eventually. The setting of the show isn't really prehistory or another dimension.
It's actually set in historical times, probably at least the Bronze Age if not later, and Spear and Fang's prehistoric home is in fact an isolated Lost World undiscovered by mainstream civilization (at least until Mira shows up).- Jossed. While the other continent where Spear and Fang end up in Season 2 houses Bronze Age civilizations (specifically Celts), it is still home to various prehistoric animals (both Tyrannosaurus and various mammals).
The setting is actually a game of Civilization
It was already an Anachronism Stew with dinosaurs, Neanderthals and whatnot. What we have now with the Scorpion is a player faction a full era ahead of Spear and Fang's world discovering them. In this spirit, the series finale will see Spear going against Gandhi's army of nuclear-powered death robots.- Heck, why not go a step further? I'll raise you and say Gandhi is the Scorpion. Mira's never actually seen him in person, which is why she depicts him as a towering demon-man.
- Jossed. The climax is a face-off between Spear and the Viking chieftain who has been empowered by a demonic entity. There is a Slave Liberation plot in "The Colossaeus" arc, but it takes place on a giant ship rather than among pyramids.
The virus that causes the Plague of Madness will eventually mutate into the Crossed Virus
The resemblance isn't perfect, since only humans can catch the Crossed virus, while the Plague of Madness is capable of infecting dinosaurs. The symptoms, however, are eerily similar— those affected become extremely impulsive, driven to act on their most violent instincts and attack anyone around themselves. But the similarity is enough that they probably come from a very similar source. Perhaps, after the dinosaurs became extinct (for whatever reason they did in the Primal universe), a form of the virus that caused the Plague of Madness mutated to infect mammals, ultimately evolving to attack humans. Even if "Homo Tortor" isn't canon, we still have cover art in Crossed showing cave paintings of people with the virus, so it must have happened a long time ago. Tyrannosaurus in the Primalverse exhibit Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism.
Adult males have horns (the number and size of which vary between individuals) and striking black-on-red colouration, while females like Fang have a duller greenish pigment and no horns. We can therefore presume that the "villainous" tyrannosaur pack from the pilot episode was an all-male group.- All but confirmed. Fang's son, in the epilogue, develops similar horns to them in adolescense - horns that his mother, sister and Red, his father, all lack.
There will be an episode with Livyatan and megalodon.
Spear and Fang have fought sea creatures before, and the very last scene of Season 1 shows the two staring at Mira's captors sailing away into the sun. They would likely have to travel overseas (perhaps via their own boat) if they want to free her, leaving the door wide open to fighting various sea monsters. Remember those two marine reptiles from Ice Age? Imagine that, but replace them with Livyatan and Otodus megalodon.- Megalodon, yes, as of "Sea of Despair". Livyatan...not yet (instead docile, non-predatory whales show up in the same episode).
There are time anomalies in place.
Primal has already proven their are supernatural elements in play, such as witchcraft, plagues and enhancement serums, so time anomalies aren't too impossible to imagine. Especially since the entire series runs on Anachronism Stew, with dinosaurs of different periods living alongside humans, especially with different regions appearing to be of different time periods altogether, such as Vikings, Celts and Prehistoric Man. Red is a different (but closely-related) tyrannosaurid species from Fang.
Adding to the fact that Red looks different enough from Fang to make this a possibility, it's rather improbable that the exact same species of large terrestrial theropod would range across two clearly separate continents. Nevertheless, the fact that they showed romantic interest in one another clearly suggests that the two species are close enough to be interfertile. If Fang is a T. rex, maybe he's a Tarbosaurus. A "late game" threat will be the Greeks, Romans or someone inspired by them
Geographically, we've already met the Celts, so we're close to Rome; the season 2 trailer showed Spear battling what looked like Assyrian/Persian archers and Mira speaks Persian, so they'll be presumably in the Eastern Mediterranean at some point. In either case, the discipline and teamwork of the phalanx or legion will physically challenge Spear but even more, they will mentally challenge him by making him realize that no matter what he does, the primal world—HIS world—will lose to what they represent: civilization itself.- Addendum: If they go this "represents civilization" route, expect the soldiers seem more like machines than men; concealed faces, moving/marching in sync, staying in silent ranks when Spear roars a challenge at them (that last one would be Truth in Television if they're Romans)
- Half-confirmed: a clearly Roman-inspired civilization as well as a vaguely Greek one appear in "The Colossaeus, Part 2", but they don't line up to the idea of being almost robotic.
The Viking chieftain and his son will have a Heel–Face Turn.
They'll come to realize that, in spite of their actions at the Viking village, Spear and Fang have suffered exactly what they've suffered, and despite initially seeking vengeance they'll gradually come to view our protagonists as kindred spirits (not before coming to blows with them a few times, of course). Additionally, Spear and Fang will make them realize that the loss the Vikings have endured is exactly what they've inflicted on countless other civilizations. With this in mind, they'll ultimately leave the heroes in peace and may even aid them on their quest.- Presumably jossed: the elder son is apparently dead after the events of "Vidarr" and the chieftain seems to have decided to let himself drown out of grief rather than continue seeking revenge, but we'll obviously need to wait until at least the next episode to see if this sticks for either of them.
- Fully jossed as of "Echoes of Eternity". The Chieftain finally tracks down Spear and Fang and has no reservations about killing either, and inflicts mortal burns on Spear. Afterwards, the Scorpion's giant hand bursts out of the ground and drags him back down into Hell.
The Scorpion is the Primal equivalent of Satan.
Not simply that the Scorpion is a Satanic Archetype sort of character, it's that he is literally Satan, or at least the closest thing the world of Primal has or viewed through primitive eyes. We've seen the equivalents of a zombie plague and witchcraft, so the Devil himself making an appearance wouldn't be too unexpected. If the Scorpion is indeed the massive figure in the promos, then he's certainly being billed as a Big Red Devil at the very least.It would also work in terms of symbolism. Whilst the world of Primal is very much a Death World, it's, well, primeval presentation can be considered synonymous with the Garden of Eden, alongside how there really isn't sinful acts, so to speak, as much as their is just instinct to survive. But the Scorpion being the Knight of Cerebus can reflect the Devil, in the form of the Snake, causing the fall of Paradise with his presence.
- Essentially confirmed—the teased appearance by him in the Season 2 trailer occurs in "The Colossaeus, Part I" and shows beyond any reasonable doubt that it's not just some creepy place, it's definitely Hell.
- Further confirmed by Word of God, according to which he's a "demi-god of Hell".
Spear will get a second chance at a family with Mira.
There is evidence that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred thousands of years ago. Plus it would make for a heartwarming finale.- Confirmed: In "Echoes of Eternity", Mira and Spear mated while the latter was dying and later conceived a daughter. Though unfortunately Spear does not live to raise her.
The Scorpion is Aku.
Tying into the above WMG regarding Primal being set in the same universe as Samurai Jack. Granted, the physical resemblance between Aku and the Scorpion isn't perfect, but they're still similar enough that the latter could be Hand Waved as another one of Aku's forms. And of course, we know Aku has been around since prehistoric times. If the Scorpion ends up being responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, then we'll likely know for sure. Lord Darlington is Spear's distant descendant.
A guess less based on any real evidence (aside from Darlington's skill in hand-to-hand and melee combat, which approaches Spear's own), but it would provide a more obvious link between "The Primal Theory" and the rest of the series and make his reverting to primitive instincts near the end even more meaningful. It would furthermore serve as foreshadowing that Spear will indeed get a second chance at a family.- If Lord Darlington's not a descendant of Spear, then Charles very well could be, especially since (facial-wise at least) he looks pretty similar to Spear. Or Charles and Lord Darlington could both be descendants of Spear, making the two men related (albeit very, very distantly).
- Considering that a thousand years if not more have passed since Spear and Fang's time, there's a high chance that, if Spear has surviving children for example, from Mira, as suggested above, by modern times he has many distantly related descendants.
- Jossed by Genndy in an Entertainment Weekly interview.
The Madman has gone mad from the ape-men's Psycho Serum.
He doesn't look too different from Spear's hulked-out form; he's a large muscular man with an unusual skin colour (though grey rather than blue), eyes that glow red in the dark, and he demonstrates superhuman strength, endurance and an uncontrollable bloodlust. It is possible that whatever magic source the ape-men used for their rage potion survived into the 19th century and this man got exposed to it, turning him both physically and mentally into a raging monster.Genndy grew up watching the works of Hanna-Barbera and eventually ended up working for them, so he probably watched Dino-Boy and loosely based Primal on that show. Primal is essentially a darker and edgier deconstruction of Dino-Boy. Spear=Ugh, Fang=Bronty, and Tod doesn't exist.- Primal was supposedly originally pitched as a (presumably less violent) kids' show, about a teenage caveman and his dinosaur friend going on various adventures. The idea to make it a show for adults came after the fifth season of Samurai Jack. It seems entirely possible that the original pitch was, in fact, inspired by Dino-Boy.
The war elephants in "The Colossaeus" pertain to an extinct species.
They're far larger than any modern elephant (far larger than any extinct elephant too, but that's hardly unprecedented for the series), and appear to be on a similar scale to the woolly mammoths from "A Cold Death". Best guess: they might be Palaeoloxodon namadicus. The Egyptian Queen will be killed by Kamau by being torn apart.
The next episode will have the Queen fight against Kamau and use her acrobatic skills to seemingly win the battle. But out of nowhere, Kamau will catch her mid-fight and tear her apart.- Partially jossed—while Ima (the Egyptian Queen) is ultimately killed by Kamau, especially once he and the rest of his people finally muster up the courage to fight back and defend themselves against her and the rest of the Egyptians, Kamau doesn't tear her apart limb-from-limb. In actuality, he ends up tossing her off the side of the city-ship in their ensuing fight, and Ima has a (graphically gory) Disney Villain Death after falling onto a smaller ship.
Mira's moon deity will show up and defeat the Viking chieftain.
Let's face it: there's no way Spear and Fang are going to be able to fight the Viking chieftain-turned-fire golem. The duo may be very formidable, but the chieftain has very clearly become supernatural. As a previous episode has shown, our protagonists are not equipped to fight such forces. The only currently known characters who might have a shot at defeating the fire golem are the witches from episode 8. But since they're an ocean away and are enemies, a fight between these two entities is obviously not going to happen. However, we see a glimpse of Mira's religion in episode 10. Maybe Mira will pray to her moon deity, who will then intervene and stop the fire golem.- Jossed. Spear and Fang DO physically fight the chieftain themselves, seemingly at the cost of the former's life. The chieftain is finally done for when the Scorpion drags him back down to the underworld. God damn.
"The Primal Theory" was intended as a Backdoor Pilot for a spinoff anthology series.
It's more or less confirmed that Spear and Fang's story will be ending after Season 2, thanks to an Instagram post from Genndy showing the last storyboard panel of the season. However, he has also said he would like to continue the show as an anthology series in the future. This might explain why "The Primal Theory" was made, and why it aired when it did. It doesn't have anything to do with the show's main story, true, but it's intended to give an idea of what the third season might be like, should one be forthcoming. It was placed in the middle of Season 2 because at that point, the show's main story is beginning to wrap up, and they want to give both the company and audiences a hint at what the future could hold for Primal.- Pretty much confirmed, as it's been verified by Word of God that season 3 will be going in the anthology direction.
The Egyptian queen is not a queen at all but in fact a High Priestess.
If you look closely at the structure of the Colossaeus, it in fact has the structure of an ancient Egyptian temple, which tends to be a huge, flat structure held up by rows of columns. The ship itself has a classic Eye of Ra on its bow. It would make a lot of sense that the Egyptian ship would in fact be a mobile Temple of Ra, and that would make the "queen" a high priestess of Ra, which would give her the same level of authority as a pharaoh on the ship. It would also make them direct opponents of Mira's people, since Ra is the Egyptian sun god and Mira's people worship the moon.The Scorpion is ultimately the source of all supernatural evil in the series.
The horned giant demon that we call "the Scorpion" is pretty much the setting's equivalent of Satan. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that, beside turning the Viking chief into a fire demon, he's also responsible for giving the Ape-Men the rage potion, starting the zombie plague that infected the dinosaurs, creating the Coven of the Damned's matriarch (maybe she was initially a cave-woman who made a Deal with the Devil the same way the Viking chief did?), turning the Night Feeder into a sadistic were-dinosaur; perhaps even unleashing the giant spider and the man-bats on the world. And if "The Primal Theory" is part of the same continuity, maybe he was the one driving the Madman insane.- Taking this even further, the Scorpion is the creator of the show's entire setting. He's a God of Evil with power over time and space, who took a random assortment of creatures and civilizations from across the Earth's history (peppered with a few of his own creations, like the man-bats and giant spider), dropped them all together into another world of his own creation, and sat back to watch them fight and struggle for his own entertainment, occasionally intervening directly in events when it will lead to an outcome of maximum suffering.
The Scorpion won't be physically fought
Building off the above WMG, we might also conclude that, while he is the Greater-Scope Villain of the series, Spear and Fang will not confront the Scorpion himself. Given that he's essentially an equivalent of Satan who resides in a Hell-like dimension, there's no way Spear can defeat him short of a massive deus ex machina. But that's not going to happen. In the context of an omnipotent, seemingly omniscient being who is apparently the embodiment of pure evil, the idea of what counts as a happy ending for the heroes has to be seriously re-evaluated. They aren't going to punch out Cthulhu— even for someone as powerful as Spear, the difference in scale is just too big. Instead, the demon-possessed Viking leader will serve as the de-facto "final boss" for the heroes, the final and most difficult obstacle for them to overcome. The most the heroes can do is to deny the Scorpion a pawn in the physical world, a small victory in the cosmic sense but a significant one from their personal perspectives. The Scorpion himself will continue to exist As Long as There Is Evil.- Confirmed as far as Spear is concerned, at least.
One of the giants is Kamau's brother and Amal's uncle.
"The Colossaeus, Part III" focuses briefly on a certain giant: once when he's surrendering to the Egyptians, and again when he leads the other giants in rising up against the Egyptians. It's possible that this giant may be of some relation to Kamau, given that the episode focuses on him more than the others. It's not out of the question that he might return in a later episode along with Kamau and the others.Kamau is the chief of his tribe.
It's not impossible, given that he was the only one that could inspire his fellow giants to rise up against the Egyptians. At any rate, he'll likely be popular among them in the aftermath, and could end up leading them in the future. The Colossaeus will need a new captain and crew now that Ima and the Egyptians are dead. Amara is Mira's sister.
Mira completely breaks down when she thinks the Vikings have killed her. Plus, they do look a little alike. Spear was destined to father a line of Tyrannosaur tamers/riders that will one day bring about the Scorpion's true and final defeat
Hence why the Scorpion takes such an interest in the Chieftain's quest for revenge against Spear
If the series successfully becomes an anthology, the Scorpion will be the overarching main antagonist of all time periods depicted in the show.
The Grand Finale of the series will be a scenario similar to the ending of Live A Live, with all of the main protagonists, plus a few other characters making Heel-Face Turns banding together in the after-life to finally defeat the Scorpion.
Fang's first mate was killed by human hunters.
Would provide a further bit of symmetry between Spear and Fang's already mirrored life stories, and could explain why, unlike Red, Fang doesn't generally view humans as prey...her previous experience of losing her mate led her to fear and respect humans as rival predators rather than viewing them as an easy source of meat. The world is a post-apocalyptic one, set in the wake of a war involving time travel and the ensuing Time Crash.
This explains the convergence of wildlife and human cultures from across unimaginably vast spans of time, from the Paleozoic all the way up to the medieval era... and why it notably stops there. The sole exception to this seems to be The Primal Theory, but should the show continue, the events of that episode will serve as the lead-in to the invention of time travel and the revelation that our 'Charles' isn't Charles Darwin (despite the resemblance), but rather the unnamed protagonist from The Time Machine—note that the episode takes place in 1890, closer to the date that book was written, 1895, than the life of the real Darwin, who himself died nearly a decade earlier—and his invention will end up having far more dire consequences than it ever did in the book. A few other points may play into this:- Why don't we see anything from beyond the medieval era? It was effectively erased by proximity to the war and its devastation, which primarily centered around the late Victorian era.
- The presence of what appear to be Morlocks, albeit peaceful ones, is an early hint. They're from far enough into the future that they escaped destruction but still got pulled into the aftermath.
- For that matter, the man-bats and giant spider might also be creatures from a similar or contemporary time period to the Morlocks that got pulled into the Time Crash alongside them. This might even explain why they were able to ravage the ecosystem to as much of an extent as they did, given that they're essentially invasive species from a distant future dropped into an environment consisting predominantly of prehistoric creatures that never had a chance to evolve any defenses against them.
- Relatively smaller anachronisms like the taxidermy Smilodon are a hint at what's about to happen; even "before" the war, things are retroactively unravelling.
- And, somewhat more off-the-wall, The Scorpion is an eldritch being who sensed the barriers of reality weakening under the strain and slipped its tendrils in to meddle in mortal affairs.
- The above could in fact be taken to explain all the transparently supernatural elements of the series. The strain of time travel may have weakened the fabric of reality to enough of a degree that either the laws of physics themselves have been altered or elements of other supernatural dimensions have been allowed to seep into our own (or even a combination of the two).
Spear's upbringing was a case of Interspecies Adoption.
- Notice, judging by the flashback at the beginning of Echoes of Eternity, how much more physically primitive Spear's father (and the rest of his tribe, for that matter) looks than himself. With this in mind, it seems unlikely that they could both be members of the same species. Considering the world Spear lives in, it's not out of the question that he already lost his biological Neanderthal family before this point and was subsequently taken in and looked after by a benevolent tribe of Frazetta Men.
Spear's daughter is also named Spear
- Or rather, her name is "Spear" in the language of Mira's people, assuming that she'll be the protagonist of the third season.
Creatures and ancient civilizations that might make an appearance in the third season (assuming we get one).
- Spinosaurus (bonus points if it does battle with Fang and/or her offspring)
- A generic Mayincatec-type civilization, may or may not be antagonistic
- Ancient Polynesians, to continue the trend of seafaring civilizations seen in season 2.
- Feudal Japan, partially as a Shout-Out to Samurai Jack.
- A peaceful tribe of ape-men, to subvert the Always Chaotic Evil portrayal of them set up by the first season
- A giant azhdarchid pterosaur such as Hatzegopteryx or Quetzalcoatlus
- Some small, cute pterosaur such as Anurognathus or Dimorphodon
- A large dromaeosaurid such as Dakotaraptor or Utahraptor, accurately-feathered in contrast to the fourth episode's JP-style raptors
- Microraptor
- Megalania, or some fictional species of giant predatory lizard done in homage to the Slurpasaur trope
- Ankylosaurus and/or Stegosaurus
- Ceratosaurus, due to its prevalence in Hollywood Prehistory films from the 20th century
- A powerful angelic being introduced as an antithesis to the demonic entity we've taken to calling "the Scorpion". Might even be the Moon Deity of Mira's civilization, as mentioned in an above entry
- Yutyrannus, because you can never have enough feathers
- Glyptodonts, likely Doedicurus on account of its distinctive spiky tail
- Macrauchenia
- An ancient equid such as Eohippus or Hipparion
- Ichthyosaurs and/or long-necked plesiosaurs of some kind
- Entelodonts
- Dodo birds
- Pelagornis
Mira conceiving a child with the dying Spear is normal in her culture.
As Spear lays dying, Mira lays with him and conceives a daughter that we see in the season 2 finale's epilogue. It's possible that doing this is a way that her culture honors a Heroic Sacrifice, ensuring the her savior's bloodline continues through her own. This could explain how she seemed suddenly down with doing this despite their relationship seeming fairly platonic throughout the rest of the series.Spear and Fang will have cameo appearances in future episodes.
Despite the show switching to an anthology format with stories largely unconnected to the first two seasons, it would still be cool to see our heroes show up in some form every now and again.