History Fridge / HumanxCommonwealth

** It seems like a babylike appearance would make it ''harder'' to recognise humans as equals. Consider humans discovering an alien species which have [[UncannyValley the faces of young children but the intellect and demeanour of adults]], attached to, say, [[TentacledTerror the body of an octopus]] - having previously met a species of sapient snails is unlikely to matter.

* The thranx were fighting the [=AAnn=] for generations before they encountered their first humans. Given that they already knew of one vertebrate race that had achieved interstellar travel, their level of astonishment about humans' having done the same seems a bit overstated: would hair vs. scales really seem like a significant difference, in light of all the other similarities between human and [=AAnn=] physiology? If someone's already met a talking ant, a talking beetle shouldn't cause as much of a shock, even though ants and beetles differ in many respects.
* The events of ''The End of the Matter'' are the universe throwing a practice run at Flinx, [[spoiler: saving three planets from a black hole using a designed key, a warm-up to saving the universe from [[OutsideContextProblem the Great Evil]] using himself, a similarly designed element.]]

!! FridgeNightmare:

* There are actually some subtle hints that Abalamahalamatandra is actually [[spoiler: a four-part gestalt creature]] well before ''The End Of The Matter'' offers any clear information on what he really is. First, there's [[spoiler: how one of his hands slaps another for slapping Flinx]] when Ab and Flinx first meet. This seems like proof of Ab's insanity, but it could just be [[spoiler: a minor disagreement between those two quarter-body segments of him]]. Also, the one time Ab shows anything approximating real empathy for Flinx, it's [[spoiler: right after Pip wanders off with Balthezaar, leaving Flinx alone in his own head for the first time since childhood: a deprivation which Ab, being a fusion of ''four'' body-segments' minds, can probably comprehend better than any single-minded creature]].

* There are actually some subtle hints that Abalamahalamatandra is actually [[spoiler: a four-part gestalt creature]] well before ''The End Of The Matter'' offers any clear information on what he really is. First, there's [[spoiler: how one of his hands slaps another for slapping Flinx]] when Ab and Flinx first meet. This seems like proof of Ab's insanity, but it could just be [[spoiler: a minor disagreement between those two quarter-Ab segments of him]]. Also, the one time Ab shows anything approximating real empathy for Flinx, it's [[spoiler: right after Pip wanders off with Balthezaar, leaving Flinx alone in his own head for the first time since childhood: a deprivation which Ab, being a fusion of ''four'' body-segments' minds, can probably comprehend better than any single-minded creature]].

* There are actually some subtle hints that Abalamahalamatandra is actually [[spoiler: a four-part gestalt creature]] well before ''The End Of The Matter'' offers any clear information on what he really is. First, there's [[spoiler: how one of his hands slaps another for slapping Flinx]] when Ab and Flinx first meet. Also, the one time Ab shows anything approximating real empathy for Flinx, it's [[spoiler: right after Pip wanders off with Balthezaar, leaving Flinx alone in his own head for the first time since childhood: a deprivation which Ab, being a fusion of ''four'' body-segments' minds, can probably comprehend better than any single-minded creature]].

* In the first novel set on Midworld, furcot dialogue is ''very'' limited and functional, and Ruumahum seems to see Muf's questions as a time-wasting nuisance. By the second, they're speaking in full sentences and having philosophical discussions of their own, in which Saalahan actively endeavors to teach the two youngsters. This inconsistency ''could'' be dismissed in several ways, both in-character (e.g. Born's Ruumahum could've just been very grumpy and terse) and out (e.g. Foster not wanting to reveal how smart furcots are too soon in the first story). But when you consider TheReveal at the end of ''Midworld'' about furcots' origins, it's more likely that [[spoiler: They-Who-Keep have been getting better at germinating ''smart'' furcots over generations, as they assimilate more human remains and improve their own botanical neural network]].

* SoIn the first novel set on Midworld, furcot dialogue is ''very'' limited and functional, and Ruumahum seems to see Muf's questions as a time-wasting nuisance. By the second, they're speaking in full sentences and having philosophical discussions of their own, in which Saalahan actively endeavors to teach the two youngsters. This inconsistency ''could'' be dismissed in several ways, both in-character (e.g. Born's Ruumahum could've just been very grumpy and terse) and out (e.g. Foster not wanting to reveal how smart furcots are too soon in the first story). But when you consider TheReveal at the end of ''Midworld'' about furcots' origins, it's more likely that [[spoiler: They-Who-Keep have been getting better at germinating ''smart'' furcots over generations, as they assimilate more human remains and improve their own botanical neural network]].

* Some FridgeBrilliance about Midworld: In the first novel set there, furcot dialogue is ''very'' limited and functional, and Ruumahum seems to see Muf's questions as a time-wasting nuisance. By the second, they're speaking in full sentences and having philosophical discussions of their own, in which Saalahan actively endeavors to teach the two youngsters. This inconsistency ''could'' be dismissed in several ways, both in-character (e.g. Born's Ruumahum could've just been very grumpy and terse) and out (e.g. Foster not wanting to reveal how smart furcots are too soon in the first story). But when you consider TheReveal at the end of ''Midworld'' about furcots' origins, it's more likely that [[spoiler: They-Who-Keep have been getting better at germinating ''smart'' furcots over generations, as they assimilate more human remains and improve their own botanical neural network]].

* The events of ''The End of the Matter'' are the universe throwing a practice run at Flinx, [[spoiler: saving three planets from a black hole using a designed key, a warm-up to saving the universe from [[OutsideContextVillain the Great Evil]] using himself, a similarly designed element.]]

* Some FridgeBrilliance about Midworld: In the first novel set there, furcot dialogue is ''very'' limited and functional, with no evident attempt at grammar or abstraction. By the second, they're speaking in full sentences and having philosophical discussions of their own. This inconsistency ''could'' be dismissed in several ways, both in-character (e.g. Born's Ruumahum could've just been very terse) and out (e.g. Foster not wanting to reveal how smart furcots are too soon in the first story). But when you consider TheReveal at the end of ''Midworld'' about furcots' origins, it's more likely that [[spoiler: They-Who-Keep have been getting better at germinating ''smart'' furcots over generations, as they assimilate more human remains and improve their own botanical neural network]].

* Some FridgeBrilliance about Midworld: In the first novel set there, furcot dialogue is very limited and functional, with no attempt at grammar or abstraction. By the second, they're speaking in full sentences and having philosophical discussions of their own. This inconsistency ''could'' be dismissed in several ways, both in-character (e.g. Born's Ruumahum could've just been very terse) and out (e.g. Foster not wanting to reveal how smart furcots are too soon in the first story). But when you consider TheReveal at the end of ''Midworld'' about furcots' origins, it's more likely that [[spoiler: They-Who-Keep have been getting better at germinating ''smart'' furcots over generations, as they assimilate more human remains and improve their own botanical neural network]].

* In ''Mid-Flinx'', when she's told that their captors are summoning a shuttle to take Flinx off-planet, Teal searches for a comprehensible translation for "shuttle", and comes up with "skyboat". Why would a Midworld native have the slightest clue what a "boat" is? She's probably never seen a body of standing water bigger than a bromeliad's captured puddle in her life, and even a ''Midworld'' bromeliad wouldn't be large enough to need a boat to navigate. If anything, you'd think her people would retain a concept of aircraft -- they see flying animals every day -- while forgetting watercraft completely.

* The events of ''The End of the Matter'' are the universe throwing a practice run at Flinx, [[spoiler: saving three planets from a black hole using a designed key, a warm-up to saving the universe from [[OutsideContextVillain the Great Evil]] using himself, a similarly designed element.]]

* The thranx were fighting the [=AAnn=] for generations before they encountered their first humans. Given that they already knew of one vertebrate race that had achieved interstellar travel, their level of astonishment about humans' having done the same seems a bit overstated: would hair vs. scales really seem like a significant difference, in light of all the other similarities between human and [=AAnn=] physiology? If someone's already met a talking ant, a talking beetle shouldn't cause as much of a shock, even though ants and beetles differ in many respects.

* The thranx were fighting the [=AAnn=] for generations before they encountered their first humans. Given that they already knew of one vertebrate race that had achieved interstellar travel, their level of astonishment about humans' having done the same seems a bit overstated: would hair vs. scales really seem like a significant difference, in light of all the other similarities between human and [=AAnn=] physiology? If someone's already met a talking ant, a talking beetle shouldn't cause as much of a shock.

* The thranx were fighting the AAnn for generations before they encountered their first humans. Given that they already knew of one vertebrate race that had achieved interstellar travel, their level of astonishment about humans' having done the same seems a bit overstated: would hair vs. scales really seem like a significant difference, in light of all the other similarities between human and AAnn physiology? If someone's already met a talking ant, a talking beetle shouldn't cause as much of a shock.

** The Tar-Aiym were ambitious conquerors in their own right. Possibly they'd wanted to avoid destroying the Hur'rikku-occupied planets altogether, having had designs on that region of space for themselves. By the time they realized the plague had jumped species and was wiping out more than just its target race, it was already too late to burn the border zone's planets as a quarantine measure.

* Why did the Tar-Aiym, if they were able to build a weapons platform capable of affecting other ''galaxies'', feel the need to develop and unleash an uncontrollable plague? Earlier exposition makes it sound like some kind of ResidentEvil style lab accident, but seriously, the weapons platform from ''Flinx Transcendent'' could have wiped out the Hur'rikku in one or two shots!