Plastic Misting Posted April 5, 2016 Posted April 5, 2016 (edited) Hey!When it was revealed that the Calamity star is really the International Space Station I felt a bit cheated. I always got the impression from the books that it appeared like any regular star. The ISS wouldn't appear like a star, even to casual observation without a telescope: It orbits earth around 16 times a day. That a lot faster than a star (from our point of view). However there was never a mention of that in the book. Or was there? Was there ever a mention of Calamity having odd properties? Other than the red colour, obviously. I don't have digital copies of the books handy otherwise I'd figure it out myself with the power of ctrl+f Edited April 5, 2016 by Plastic Misting
Pathfinder Posted April 5, 2016 Posted April 5, 2016 Hey! When it was revealed that the Calamity star is really the International Space Station I felt a bit cheated. I always got the impression from the books that it appeared like any regular star. The ISS wouldn't appear like a star, even to casual observation without a telescope: It orbits earth around 16 times a day. That a lot faster than a star (from our point of view). However there was never a mention of that in the book. Or was there? Was there ever a mention of Calamity having odd properties? Other than the red colour, obviously. I don't have digital copies of the books handy otherwise I'd figure it out myself with the power of ctrl+f The glowing was from calamity himself, and the reason it shown was like steelheart turning chicago into steel, he turned the space station into glass. So the radiance of the red "star" was calamity himself. Now regarding the orbit, it could be that he kept it in place preventing it from orbiting the planet. But that is my own guess, not anything specifically stated in the book that I can recall off the top of my head. 1
baby he/him Posted April 5, 2016 Posted April 5, 2016 He probably altered the orbit himself, yeah. No other way to explain how it stayed in the exact same spot for over 10 years. 1
lordofsoup Posted April 5, 2016 Posted April 5, 2016 Along with the altered orbit, I believe that he glowed brightly enough that it was difficult to distinguish any particular features. 1
Plastic Misting Posted April 6, 2016 Author Posted April 6, 2016 No other way to explain how it stayed in the exact same spot for over 10 years. Was that mentioned in the book? I also got the impression of it being stationary but I'm not sure why.
natc Posted April 6, 2016 Posted April 6, 2016 The idea of the sky being devoid of Calamity is apparently an alien concept to the cast. Plus, it is definitely not the original orbit, as it nosedived into Earth immediately without Calamity. Even Prof figured the orbit seemed off. 1
Treamayne Posted April 11, 2016 Posted April 11, 2016 The idea of the sky being devoid of Calamity is apparently an alien concept to the cast. Plus, it is definitely not the original orbit, as it nosedived into Earth immediately without Calamity. Even Prof figured the orbit seemed off. Yes, Prof says after Calamity leaves that the orbit has been degraded and that only Calamity kept the ISS from re-entering the atmosphere. My impression was that Calamity put it in a Stationary position on Earth's Dark Side (so it was always visible at night and hidden during the day - Obliteration mentions that he must charge the bomb where Calamity can't see because he hasn't "risen" yet. This also jives with Calamity's nightmare aversion to "Loud" and "Bright"). Combined with the change to glass and his own glow the result is as you see through the books. Also, with no orbital velocity, it would degrade and fall into the atmosphere rather quickly (sans Epic interference). 2
Nyali she/her Posted May 6, 2016 Posted May 6, 2016 Calamity is definitely mentioned as having odd properties. The text states more than once that it orbits the earth and is always located on the exact opposite side of the earth as the sun. My interpretation of that is that Calamity kept the ISS positioned such that he could always see the sunrise, 24/7, which he was trying so hard to understand. He just couldn't get what people found so beautiful about it, so he put himself in a place where he could stare at it forever. I'm fairly certain it's mentioned very early on that Calamity is too close to the Earth to be a normal star, that it rose into the sky one day and stayed there.
Alfa he/him Posted July 11, 2016 Posted July 11, 2016 It's also stated short before the Prof/Megan battle; when David sees the sun rise and calamity set. BTW: I still don't understand why Megan is reborn on Sunrise/Calamityset rather than Calamityrise/Sunset.
HonorIsDead he/him Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 (edited) On 2016-07-11 at 6:59 PM, Alfa said: It's also stated short before the Prof/Megan battle; when David sees the sun rise and calamity set. BTW: I still don't understand why Megan is reborn on Sunrise/Calamityset rather than Calamityrise/Sunset. yep did it say that she was only reborn at sunrise? i always thought it was more a time thing, after she died she needed, say 12 hours, to fully return/be brought entirely out of the other dimension. Edited July 23, 2016 by The_God_King
Blackhoof Posted August 20, 2016 Posted August 20, 2016 Afaik it is indeed on the dawn that she resurrects.
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