So how do the aliens reproduce at all? If two aliens in a human body mate and procreate, do they kill the human baby to insert a baby alien soul on it? If so, where the baby alien soul comes from to begin with? Or do they insert an adult alien soul into a baby human body?
Did anyone else think it was odd that there was no mention of any race except humans to be possessed? seeing as in the planet where Burns comes from, once they found out that the plants they were burning were sentient, they stopped doing so, and immediately started possessing the plants. also seeing as humans have the most emotions of any race they already knew, animals would be a viable option too.
Did anyone else expect the love/body dilemmas toward the end to play out completely differently? I was sure the book was building to Ian asking Wanderer to live in his body, after which Kyle would ask Sunny to enter him. As it was, it was almost like the possibility didn't occur to Meyer.
I thought it was fairly obvious why that wasn't a viable option: the human soul may be suppressed by the Soul. If that wasn't an issue to contend with, I thought a threesome (foursome) would have worked.
From what I recall of Ian and Kyle's mindsets at that point, they'd happily have accepted being "suppressed" rather than let the people they cared about die or be exiled, which were the only alternatives they had until the final chapter.
Why did Wanda have to lie about her age? Melanie is a human - her mental maturity and physical maturity are roughly the same, so issues with age difference between her and Jared make sense. Wanda's body is sixteen, but why does that matter? As an alien, she's significantly older mentally. Age of consent laws are based on mental maturity - the age a person can reasonably be assumed to understand the implications of having sex. Why does it matter how old her body is when Wanda the soul has lived several lifetimes?
Wanda didn't actually have to lie about her age. She was just remembering how it happened with Melanie and Jared: even though it was the Apocalypse, Jared didn't feel comfortable doing anything with Mel because she was underage. Knowing Ian is ever the Gentleman, and could get hung up in these details, she lied to avoid him fretting over her age. Basically, she just wanted to have sex.
Why didn't the humans think of locating the ruling Souls in the world and remove the Soul from their bodies? If the humans wanted to defeat the aliens, why weren't the humans trying to take out the leaders?
Did the Souls have leaders? I don't remember that. I thought they were just so altruistic and trusting of each other that no one needed to be in charge.
As Wanda explains it, there are councils that make decisions about distribution of food and that sort of thing, but there is no permanent ruling body.
A good example was the Seeker. The other Souls clearly thought she was nuts for obsessively searching for Wanda, but nobody pulled her off the case; she was free to do what she wanted. The only limitation she was seen to have was she had to return a helicopter after using it for so long, and that only so other Souls could use it.
How did we LOSE?!? I understand that the Souls infiltrated us, but they could NOT have infiltrated us very effectively since 1. They are naturally altruistic and helpful, and can't lie for crap, even when they are supposed to 2. They require a special medical procedure to get the Soul in the body and 3. THEY HAVE GLOWING SILVER EYES. Unless their tech has some sort of mobile rapid conversion center, it wouldn't be too hard for someone to notice the takeover.
They took over covertly, which implies they aren't bad at lying, so much as lying on the spot, also spotting a liar generally requires you to at least know something about the person lying in the first place, perhaps things got easier once Souls started taking over medical professionals, then they could say "hey, we have invented the panacea come in now to get your free vaccine", as is mentioned their medical stuff cures everything, all it would take is a few cancer infested family members suddenly being free and clear, and other family members would be lining up at clinics to get the meds, the actual procedure to implant a Soul takes only a few minutes, easy to claim side effects such as eye shine and an imbalance causing more "happy" personalities for a while, by the time you realise this isn't uncle bob anymore, there is already a crowd of nice people knocking at your door politely informing you it is time to join them.
The Stephenie Meyer movie:
As if it wasn't already sketchy enough to accept the Souls taking over humanity so efficiently despite the clunky way they take over bodies (via a surgical procedure) in the source material, in the movie it becomes worse since it's barely even explained.
Why did Wanda lie about what happened in the water area? She could have explained that while she was almost killed by him, she wanted to make the humane choice by saving him.
So these aliens don't know how to barricade a door, and yet we're supposed to believe that they solved all the world's problems?
With all the ridiculous resources the human resistance managed to gather up over the years, why didn't they consider stealing or learning to make contact lenses that emulate the glow of the hosts' eyes? It's not like the fate of humanity depends on this. This wouldn't just help the survivors blend in more easily during supply transport missions, but it can also be used against the Souls by taking advantage of their friendliness towards their own kind in order to organize a counter-attack.
