The Krell

[kmosiman]

Any thoughts on the mysterious enemy?

It seems strange that they don't leave bodies. Their ships a rigged to explode, which makes sense if they are trying to deprive the humans of materials to build more ships. The burnt out armor makes me wonder what their physical forms are like. It seems like no one knows or remembers what they actually look like. Do they burst into flames when they die or is this another fail safe against capture?

[Overlord Jebus]

The body thing definitely clicked with me as something important.

I'm of the opinion that the Krell might be in a similar position to the humans but in space. Their actions aren't the actions of an overwhelming space force. These bit and bob attacks with only a few ships attacking locations with lifebusters and such, the almost half complete ships. I reckon the Krell fleet (If it can even be called that) is in just as bad a state as the human ships.

I think they are most likely scavenging material from the debris ring and building ad hoc ships as they need them. I'm also wondering that if the ship that Spensa found has an AI, maybe AI tech is something that was a bit more prevalent pre-detritus landing (Do we have a name for the battle that resulted in the humans getting into this situation yet?) and that the Krell could be an AI enemy, flying AI ships it's thrown together in some futile attempt to complete it's mission parameters.

And finally, whilst I'm feeling pretty good about this theory, it provides no explanation for why they can't take the fight to the Krell in space. That ones a big mystery to me.

[Scion of the Mists]

The "wicked armor they wore" could refer to exoskeletons that the Varvax (from Defending Elysium) use.  

Also, something's up with the Lifebuster bombs - how do the humans know what they are/what they're capable of?  Ironsides is super sketchy.  

[MitchBade he/him]

I agree that something is fishy about there only ever being "wicked armor" left over and no actual bodies. It leaves a lot of options open for Sanderson as to the real identity of the enemies coming from space, and I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up being other humans. Justifying a multigenerational war in which your side makes no real attempt to end the conflict is easier when the other side are aliens bent on your destruction. Perhaps there was some sort of civil war or rebellious faction and they were chased into space, eventually crashing in Detritus. All speculation of course.

[Angsos]

Only having listened to Firstborn once and never having read DE, I think it likely the Krell are humans or something made or controlled by humans. My guess is her father was chased away because he found all or part of the back story out. He could also have gone away searching for something or someone. None of this means the Krell can't be aliens, I just find it less likely.

[king of nowhere]

their attack patterns especially don't make any sense.

Supposedly, there was this giant human fleet, and this fleet lost against the krell, and crashed on this planet. So now the krell, the force that took down this huge armada, that had further 70 years to recover while humans were living in caves, is defeated by a bunch of fighters? Doesn't make any sense. Seems one of those videogames where the enemy is always sending waves just big enough to be challenging. Also, I have a hard time thinking that in 20 years of trying to nuke the base, they didn't succeed once.

Basically, the krell don't look like they actually want to win this war. If they did, then it would require a large number of coincidences to explain how they came from knocking a fleet down from space, to losing to a handful of fighters.

From other, sloppier media, I could just believe that's how the story works, for story reasons. This being sanderson, I'm sure there are reasons for it. I can't fathom them with the  info we have, though.

[Subvisual Haze]

On 10/18/2018 at 10:29 AM, Scion of the Mists said:

The "wicked armor they wore" could refer to exoskeletons that the Varvax (from Defending Elysium) use.  

Agree, and after reading Defending Elysium and seeing this line

Quote

"the Varvax were actually small creatures that floated in a nutrient bath sealed within their inorganic shells."

I think the colorful teleporting slug is actually a shell-less Varvax.

[JPark317]

26 minutes ago, Subvisual Haze said:

Agree, and after reading Defending Elysium and seeing this line

I think the colorful teleporting slug is actually a shell-less Varvax.

My only concern with Doomslug being a Varvax is that in DE Write specifically points out how the Varvax communicate with clicks and clacks and gestures, so I don't know that the sounds Doomslug makes can be made by the Varvax (All this based on the relatively limited info we have from DE).

[kmosiman]

I wonder at what point the Krell switched over from manned ships to all drones. There was some mention of slight changes in their ship design. Either that or the bomer or escourt are manned which is why they are more likely to retreat. 

[RShara she/her]

6 hours ago, JPark317 said:

My only concern with Doomslug being a Varvax is that in DE Write specifically points out how the Varvax communicate with clicks and clacks and gestures, so I don't know that the sounds Doomslug makes can be made by the Varvax (All this based on the relatively limited info we have from DE).

Also, they floated in nutrient baths, right? Would they even be able to survive without it?

[JPark317]

9 hours ago, RShara said:

Also, they floated in nutrient baths, right? Would they even be able to survive without it?

Hard to say. When Write was figuring out what was wrong with Denise, he said or seemed to imply that at least one of the reasons they have the exoskeleton/nutrient bath shell was because of the harsher sun on their planet, but I can see it being possible they need it to survive generally as well.

[kmosiman]

I'd assume from this that they are either amphibious or aquatic. The exoskeleton could only be needed to interact with land dwelling species, their own vessels would probably be designed so they didn't need them.

[Aeshdan he/him]

23 hours ago, kmosiman said:

I wonder at what point the Krell switched over from manned ships to all drones. There was some mention of slight changes in their ship design. Either that or the bomer or escourt are manned which is why they are more likely to retreat. 

Also, the bomber and its escorts are specifically noted as being the only ships Spensa can't "hear", which further implies that they are manned. Or, well, Krelled. 

[king of nowhere]

well, turns out i was right that the krell weren't actually trying to win. though "prison" wasn't very high in my list of scenarios.

It reminds me of vetinari's prisons in discworld: the prisons contain a lot of possible escape routes, and each one has been accounted for and properly blocked; but the prisoner doesn't know it, and loses valuable time chasing a false hope, thus preventing him from concocting a truly successful escape. the krells were doing the same. Along with the planet's name, I wonder if it is an intentional homage to discworld.

By the way, them containing humans as "dangerous barbarians" would actually have a better moral standing if they hadn't nuked a civilian population.

[sprtstr14 he/him]

On 11/9/2018 at 7:05 PM, king of nowhere said:

By the way, them containing humans as "dangerous barbarians" would actually have a better moral standing if they hadn't nuked a civilian population.

In their eyes it's kill or be killed though. I can't blame them for that, from the history that we learned.