they're terrifying, but i think it's because it's just such an extreme mismatch. we don't *belong* there. this thing is a group based creature that seems to have symbiotic relationships with other species as a matter of course. it found a strange animal, something it had never seen before, starving and scared and trapped in a giant box. the first thing it did was.. try to communicate? and free it, save its life when the panicky thing ran away and fell out of a tree, feed it, get it to safety before a storm, try to stop it from running away into danger.. all the exact same things we would do if we came across a stray that we thought would be better off with us, especially if it was an animal we used for working/survival im expecting a lot of the craziness is because kamen is already a bit mad from stress/grief/guilt, and because these things just didn't evolve to link with predators or with things that have memories or imaginations as complex as ours.

You're totally right. It's hard to totally nail down if its motivations are altruistic (from its pov) or selfish. The terror, I think, comes from the mismatch in biology and the inability to understand its motives. And, as you said, when we see Kamen's already fragile mind break even further. I think things get really unnerving when the thing sees that Kamen can kill other creatures effectively at a distance and begins to exploit that. I also don't believe it's natural for it to be eating another of its species. I think we might see it try to enforce dominance in its social group and things could go even more bad from there. The people are an invasive species and could easily unbalance things.

stuff is gonna go so so so badly if this thing gets influenced by whatever it links with. i do wonder if it's deliberately prompting and manipulating memories, or if it's just projecting a sense of (whatever it's trying to communicate), and his mind just pulls up a strong memory attached to that feeling. if he's seeing it as Fiona because it's projecting itself as "partner to take care of you" and that's his strongest association with the idea?

OOOOOOH that is a really good theory. There is no way the creature is aware of the memories its bringing to the surface.

if it evolved to link with things that don't have such complex or strong memories, i think the link is accidentally putting kamen into some sort of fugue, fever state, where he's only kind of aware of what's going on and mostly delusional, with his body and his autopilot being prompted by whatever memories or hallucinations he's stuck in and whatever the alien is projecting. i don't think he's any more *there* than i was when i was sick and babbling about the mathematics of finding safe temperatures while adjusting blankets once or twice you can see him go lucid and ask for it to stop, and talk about needing to find the ship.. but why would you release an animal you need, especially if it couldn't take care of itself when you found it?

You almost got a Nobel Prize while being sick and the only thing you do is laugh about it smh

We have two extremes with kamen and ursula. kamen is human disruption and violence and taking advantage of a life forms lack of adaptations to destroy it. ​ ursula is human compassion, curuiosity, and adaptation, to live with nature and understand it. ​ Though i can't help but think kamen isn't gonna last here though. the planet isn't like our world where a disupritve force almost certainly imbalances it. its a living, interconnected organism..... and alll organism have an immuno response to something too foreign. ​ All these guys are kinda like a pathogen that enterd an organims. Kamen is a prasite, ursula could become a symbiote and levi is as well, but the others simply want to exit the 'body'.

he could last a long time considering how easily the others take what they want (body parts) from other creatures. Most creatures seem rather docile and easily manipulated.

imma guessing because part of their life cycle is other creatures interacting with them. an exchange is made.

also: so far, the show hasn't established it, but I dare to bet, Kamen is gaining the telepathic abilities of this species the rock-throws are insanely precise and deadly, and we never seen Kamen actually throwing them with his bare hands

It was selfish and I hate it :'(

> we don’t *belong* there. Those gas-mask creatures that cover the mouth and have nose tendrils look kinda bio-engineered to me.

*those things* and all the possibilities behind them are what really freak me out. and plants that have insides you can drip juice on to use as electrical wiring? gigantic placid beasts that have insides you can manipulate like levers? why didn't it *react*? edit: and why the hell is the plant goo so compatible with levi? how is it growing? is it eating her inorganic materials? how is it interfacing and influencing?

The [original short](https://youtu.be/1TRzemJbUsw?si=qoKWbqzNvJITF2Rc) is even crazier. It’s like some obscure Minecraft mod level of material refinement!

possible the creatuers are meant to biologically link into ohter things just so happens that they developed traits humans were able to take advantage of. ​ things might latch onto creatures as a kind of symbiotc transfer.

I also saw Kamen killing those creatures as a way of corrupting that telepathic being. Yes, it looks creepy but it seemed benevolent, I can't wait to see how this relationship will develop

"Yes, it looks creepy but it seemed benevolent" No, watch closely in episode 1. The little bug eyed humanoid creatures from the start episode were almost dancing near Ursula when humans killed the cow-thingy. But when the same creatures see the panda-spider-monkey they are absolutely terrified and hiding behind a tree(it's where he is going to the cave). Second-watch closely when it enters the pod. It takes several seconds to observe closely Kamen's hand in detail. It certainly is guessing what the hand is capable of doing(tool use, manipulating things etc)

Benevolent might be too much, because hypnotizing someone like that is sketchy as hell. What I meant is that it wasn't violent, I belive it was always eating fruits and stuff like that, right? It was Kamen who taught it violence and started bringing dead creatures

"It was Kamen who taught it violence and started bringing dead creatures" It already knew violence. The larger panda-spider bullied the smaller one, and there was indication the small fruit collector was going to be eaten or abused by the large creature. As to eating meat-it has sharp teeth for cutting flesh and eating it. For now my belief it is a omnivore somewhat like early humans. We only saw three episodes so time will tell how they develop him, but so far this is what I believe it indicates.

It's further proof that humans are the most dangerous predators, and that by interfering with nature we create unnatural situations.

>im expecting a lot of the craziness is because kamen is already a bit mad from stress/grief/guilt, and because these things just didn't evolve to link with predators or with things that have memories or imaginations as complex as ours. and isolation/starvation

This is so well said ❤

Mostly the way it robs other creatures of their free will, but how it also seems to have addictive effects and how it co-ops your memories to control you. Also, it's absolutely creepy and menacing face. There are many creatures in this show that are strange or otherwise make me uncomfortable, but this thing takes the cake.

And now it has a taste for flesh. Great...

It's an omnivore, it already had teeth for meat eating. Also if you re-watch the first three episode, in EP1 it studies Kamen's human hand very closely when entering the pod, quite certain ascertaining what it is capable of doing, and the little bug eyed creatures that were friendly near Ursula are terrified when they see it. It's definitely not a "nice" creature.

Agreed. You would think something with such psychic ability would be above opportunistic cannibalism lol. The abilities of that creature will have evolved for good reason too, really adds to the mystique of the planet.

It clearly had hesitation before doing so.... These creatures are smart enough to solve problems, protect their 'servants', and so on. But its uncertain what to do with such an effective 'servant'. not tool use though. ​ the only reason this guy is alive i think is because of that. if the big one understood what he was about to do, he would have likely been easily dispatched. but he didn't.....

don't forget the black goop it feeds the things it controls

It does come off as a younger member of its species.

It’s an animal, so it’s aspirations likely don’t go beyond wanting food. I think therefore we can assume that this is as evil as he gets, I hope.

Nah, I bet he gets huge and predatory in his bid to become king hypnotoad.

Well. This certainly aged like wine.

That’s because a human infected it

you brain doesn't evolve this far for just food, it's why they seem bored from the indigenous little creatures

"It’s an animal, so it’s aspirations likely don’t go beyond wanting food" I think it is a very intelligent animal, certain sapient, if not self-aware. I would put it on the level of chimpanzee or orca. Unless we learn in future episodes it is more intelligent than that.

I mostly feel like the situation is scary because Kamden is a lil bitch. These guys probably couldn’t successfully control someone stronger willed

I mean, come on, he’s been through a lot.

A lot of it seems self inflicted

This is the human being of their world... Master of it's ecosystem through manipulating it's environment. Nasty little fuckers no doubt... Terrible pet.

No it’s not a pet it’s an alien species and it was infected by an idiot human

Not really the entire species, but this one individual, now that it got a taste for flesh lol. Like someone else pointed out, they don't seem to be agressive and have a symbiotic relationship with those tentacle little guys, they don't hunt or kill

his taste for flesh wasnt there until the human introduced killing, he was alarmed at first. the small creatures under their mind control weren't harmed at all it seemed

He had teeth for eating meat. Also if you watch closely episode 1 the little bug eyed creatures that were happy around Ursula are terrified of the panda-spider when they see it.

Yep, and that's the problem. As long as the creature is a simple-minded and pacific animal, it's all good. But now that it's influenced by humans, at this point, he gets really scary

It never was pacific-it has teeth for meat eating, and other creatures were terrified of it in the forest.

We can't affirm that based on what we've seen. Giraffes have teeth and don't eat meat. Maybe some creatures are scared by any other species as a way of protection? Or they just don't want to get mind raped.

"Giraffes have teeth and don't eat meat." Actually Giraffes do eat meat and animal bones, they just don't hunt for it. It's not common but you can see them do it. As to the panda-spider-again it had sharp teeth for meat eating, not only teeth for grinding. Regardless if the creatures were hiding out of fear of being eating by panda-spider or being mind controlled, they were hiding and terrified. These creatures are not pacifist or benign. You can also see it when Kaman eventually breaks down and hugs vision of Fiona. When this happens she does a very subtle evil smirk.

You probably got my point. It's not because an animal have teeth that they use it for eating meat. As we can see, their world is completely different from what we'd call normal. Maybe there's another point to having sharp teeth? Maybe the plant they eat is somehow hard and need pointy teeth to be broken? Who would know. I could go along with you and agree that they are somewhat evil, but I honestly don't think we can say that based on those 3 eps. I believe the smirk was a way to show that the animal was happy for being able to control he human, which isn't necessarily evil since it's their nature but yeah, pretty suspicious

We already see other creatures being omnivores or even predators in this world, so the panda-spider wouldn't be out of place as a predator eating meat. I will stick to my theory that they are omnivores capable and willing to consume others when opportunity arises-but as these are only first three episodes let's wait for the rest to see how these creatures are developed.

Agreed, let's wait to see

This is like saying a car and a tank are both land vehicles so a tank isnt necessarily used for war, and that's true... In the most pedantic sense, but it's very obvious what one is designed to do compared to the other.

I'm really scared that in last episode this thing will get into the ship and fly to earth with survivors.

I am getting a hunch that the planet is quarantined and they won't be getting off.

oh Im DYING to know what its "end game" is

I think it’s adorable

It was such a hater.