Why was it destroyed?** spoiler alert
Why did Jennifer need to destroy earth?
shareIn theory (I forget if the book was specific) the energy required for the final merging of the children with the over mind destroyed the planet.
In any event there was no actual harm because by that point earth had become a barren planet - all human, plant and animal life had completely ceased to exist, so all that was destroyed was a lifeless rock.
Hmm in the series, plant life at least, seemed to be around still
shareI could be mistaken about the plant life as I read the book a long time ago, but animals and humans were extinct before the planet was destroyed.
I remember the passage in the book where all the animal life on earth just vanished, and I believe it happened before the children departed. It was all part of the process preparing earth for its eventual end.
If anything, the overlords actually felt empathy for the animals, because the animals (like the overlords themselves) could never join the overmind. In fact, the overlords forbid the abuse of animals, and there's an excellent sequence in the book that involves a bullfight.
An overlord ship hovers over a bullfight arena and when the bull is stabbed all the people in the arena are made to feel the bulls physical pain. Needless to say, it was the last bullfight on planet earth!
They should've added that bull scene in the series, that would've been awesome.
There was one thing I didn't understand in the series, it was the near the end, when Korellen (can never remember the spelling) was on TV saying no more children will be born on earth
That woman wakes up clutching her stomach, hysterical, and says "My baby!"
Did they simply, well, remove her baby?
.....saying no more children will be born on earthI could be wrong, but to the best of my recollection none of that happened in the book - another example of why I consider the screenplay so inexcusably and needlessly different from the source material. share
That woman wakes up clutching her stomach, hysterical, and says "My baby!"
Did they simply, well, remove her baby?
I thought as much, heh
Got the book today, will be reading that on my flight to the USA!
I hope you enjoy the book. I'm pretty sure you will. Also, if any of my recollections posted here prove faulty or incorrect by all means feel free to set me straight. As I said, I read the book a long time ago!!
shareI remember the passage in the book where all the animal life on earth just vanished, and I believe it happened before the children departed.That's an interesting departure from the book then. I was somewhat disturbed when all the children ascended and their devastated parents were still on earth to live out however many days they had left. Except for New Athens, it seems the parents had nothing much to live for except for their children/families because all their art, scientific curiosity, and other such creative outlets had been eliminated from their lives. share
From what I remember in the book, the non human flora and fauna carried on as normal (at least the non domesticated ones not reliant on humans). The only thing they do mention is that when they return to earth one of the Overlords tells Milo what has been happening. He says that all of the animals on the continent where the children went were wiped out by the children because they interfered with the childrens' evolving thought processes, the plants, as far as we know were left alone though (although plants that needed animals to cross pollinate them probably suffered as a result). Animals on other continents, as far as we know, just carried on as normal.
shareThat's one of the critical reasons the story should have been extensively rewritten. Back in 1953 fewer people cared about destroying an entire biosphere than today. This gives the end a darker feeling today.
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