PSA: Snakes don't have eyelids

[conuly]

And if you think this is about fanfic, you're right. But also it's an interesting fact, and getting this wrong is right up there with potatoes and peppers in pre-Columbian Afro-Eurasia. And listen, the same person who wrote that snake eyeblink in the first place is an outspoken bigot, so really, who cares about canon? Just add that to the list of things she's clearly wrong about and stop having your chatty snakes blink and wink at people or, in the case of basilisks, close their eyes to keep from harming them.

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Comments

[jessie_c]

One could make a case for Basilisks having eyelids, given that they're entirely fictional anyway.

[conuly]

Fictional snakes!

[jessie_c]

Can it really be a snake when it hatches from a chicken's egg brooded by a toad? (and how does that work, anyway? Toads are exothermic; they couldn't possibly keep an egg warm enough to hatch.)

[conuly]

Yes they can, and it works like magic!

[jessie_c]

Magic: Where the eyelids come from :P

[conuly]

No eyelids!

Unless you wanna play it as an effect of speaking to snakes, you interpret their body language the same way you hear their spoken language as your own.

[jessie_c]

My magical snake will have magical eyelids or it will be bullshit.

[ioplokon]

How dare you cast aspersions on her skills at observing Nature and Biology!

[conuly]

Honestly, it was pretty easy to do. I just started typing and there it was.

[minoanmiss]

snerk

[kshandra]

no, snake. ;-)

[siliconshaman]

You've heard of snakes that are actually limbless lizards haven't you? Well, most lizards have eyelids, and thus can blink. Ego, a Basilisk is not a snake, but a case of convergent evolution. It's a lizard that looks snake like.

[mildred_of_midgard]

In one of my academic publications is a similar explanation of why Shelob has a stinger.

Also, you can have potatoes and tobacco in your pre-Columbian Afro-Eurasia if you have Numenoreans to bring them back.

[siliconshaman]

Well, in our world the pre-dynastic Egyptians had cocoa and cocaine, as evidenced by preserved remains in tomb. So it's not that much of a stretch!

[conuly]

What?

[siliconshaman]

Ancient Egyptian cocaine mummies. Nicotine and hash mummies

Can't find the one for cocoa at present, but none the less, evidence that intercontinental travel goes way back. Thus, not really much of stretch to invent a fictional pre-history race of Númenóreans in Middle earth doing the same thing as the Phoneticians did in our world.

Yeah, reality is every bit as strange as fiction.

[conuly]

"Dear Voldemort,

Enclosed you will find a detailed explanation of why legless lizards aren't snakes and you should not be able to speak to them, much less control them. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Me."

[siliconshaman]

IIRC, we didn't actually ever see him do that with the Basilisk. You should address that letter to young Mr Potter, who did at least try to talk to it... it didn't obey him though.

Pasel tongue, like everything else in the wizarding world, makes no sense!

[smokingboot]

The author's fiction, the author's snakes, the author's rules. The reader's choice whether to carry on reading. If snakes can talk and we're fine with that, why should we suddenly be precise about their eyelids?

[conuly]

That’s not an argument that’s even a little persuasive to me.

[swingandswirl]

as someone who grew up in comics fandom, the idea that canon is some sort of weird uncontradictable sacred cow is SO weird to me.

[conuly]

Oh, well, comics.