So here's what I'm thinking. Bean has a genetic disorder that must be deactivated if he is to survive. The descolada has the ability to rewrite a genetic code and intelligence enough to target specifically those areas they need to change. I have heard there will be at least one more book following Shadow of the Giant. Who else thinks it would be cool to reconcile the two series (Ender and Shadow) by having Bean meet up with the descolada and get cured?
Granted, there's that whole 3000 year time lag, but such things are not insurmountable. And if anyone can figure out a way to communicate with a virus, it's Bean. He could grab Petra and their kids, shoot off into the sunset, and become an 'adult' in the sense that his brain would finally stop expanding. Or maybe he could actually CREATE the descolada to cure himself, then set it free and voila! It could tell Ender all about it three thousand years down the road. I actually like this second idea better.
I think this would make an excellent finale. Of course, it might be that Bean realizes that death is not the great tragedy it's made out to be, and so on. But still. He could make the descolada to cure his kids! In the spirit of altruism of course.
Does anyone know how to get in touch with OSC? Does he post on this board? (I'm new.) I would love to hear his (and anyone else's) thoughts on the subject, its feasibility, etc.
Posted by LarvalBean (Member # 8764) on :
Petra is already dead (or at beast, around 70 years old). Odds are good that she won't be around.
As for Bean creating the descolada: its pretty clear that an alien race that the three raman species call the descolodores created the virus. Doubtful that the race will turn out to be Bean's decendants (remember that Bean himself wasn't smart enough in biochemistry to help the scientists on Earth find a cure).
While the descolada might cure Bean's children, by the time Bean would find out about the descolada odds are good that he is going to be too big for the cure to mean anything. He'd probably be too big to leave the ship through the airlock, let alone stand on a planet.
Searching past posts, OSC also said that the descolada only changes genes but not structures, so that fixing Bean's genes won't stop him from growing. I'm not entirely sure that I'd buy that from a biological point of view, but the fact is that he is past the point of puberty so any major hormonal changes are over for him.
Posted by Lagasek9114 (Member # 8779) on :
I meant that he could have created the descolodores. That's why I said it was intelligent...the descolada isn't intelligent. The descolodores operate the same way, but can control the changes they make. Sorry about the confusion on that.
Bean's brain is still expanding. He can learn entire langauges in less than a year. Surely he can gain proficiency in biochemistry in the four-plus years remaining him in subjective time.
The descolada does cause structural changes. It makes the piggies become trees, etc. That's the whole problem with people: it changes the structure of their cells, the way they grow, etc.
And maybe it would be too late for Bean. But it'd be fun to reconcile the two plotlines. Think about Ender finding out about Bean from the descoladores.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Mr. Card said that at the beginning of that book Bean will already be dead or he will kill him in the Prologue. Or something like that.
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
Lagasek, if you want to check out this thread, it has come discussion on the topic:
And I think there are some older threads where theories were suggested that you could try searching for, too.
Posted by Princess Leah (Member # 6026) on :
Also, Mr. Card has said somewhere that he already used the descolada as the "miracle cure" once already, and doesn't want to do it again. You could probably find the thread if you searched a little. I could look, but I'm a lazy bum. Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
And also, I don't mean to be rude, but people have been pitching the "Descolada as a cure for Bean"/"Bean invents the Descolada"/"Bean's decendents are the Descoladores" ideas pretty much since it was revealed that he was dying back in Ender's Shadow. Of course, each person thinks that they're the first to come up with it.
Other popular theories include: - Volescu somehow creates the Descolada - Volescu's research leads to the genetic engineering of the godspoken of Path - The godspoken of Path are Bean's decendents (yes, after 3000 years his decendents could be pure Chinese, for all intents and purposes) - The people of Lusitania are the decendents of Bean and Petra's normal children. (Remember the FPE was based in Brazil, and the Lusitanians are all of Brazilian decent)
There are probably others but they escape me at the moment.
Posted by accio (Member # 3040) on :
quote:i would suggest that seeing Bean alive again in any book, other than perhaps a prologue where he says good-bye to his children, is highly, highly unlikely. I pulled a rabbit out of a hat in Xen & CotM to save the world from the Descolada, but to use the same rabbit again to save Bean, for no better reason than that I like him, seems dishonest to me.
Everybody dies. Even heroes. So my vote is that you won't see Bean meet either version of Ender.
quote:The genetic change that was being fixed on Path was a simple one, a tiny splice. It could be fixed with a virus because it was a one-step alteration. (Even then, it would have to be a very FAST virus, and one exceptionally resistant to the body's immune system; and being so fast and resistant, it would be a dangerous thing to unleash on a population in case it mutated and did extra unintended things.)
Neither the original alteration nor the cure have the slightest thing to do with Bean; the technique could not cure his problem because his body already HAS the structures, etc., that his genes created. His body wouldn't suddenly start producing the growth inhibitors just because his genes changed. He already IS what he is.
quote:i would suggest that seeing Bean alive again in any book, other than perhaps a prologue where he says good-bye to his children, is highly, highly unlikely. I pulled a rabbit out of a hat in Xen & CotM to save the world from the Descolada, but to use the same rabbit again to save Bean, for no better reason than that I like him, seems dishonest to me.
Everybody dies. Even heroes. So my vote is that you won't see Bean meet either version of Ender.
*weeps quietly* I'll miss you Bean.
Still, can't we at least have Bean talk to Ender-as-Peter once, over the ansible even, before he lands on planetside and collapses under his own weight?
quote:The genetic change that was being fixed on Path was a simple one, a tiny splice. It could be fixed with a virus because it was a one-step alteration. (Even then, it would have to be a very FAST virus, and one exceptionally resistant to the body's immune system; and being so fast and resistant, it would be a dangerous thing to unleash on a population in case it mutated and did extra unintended things.)
Neither the original alteration nor the cure have the slightest thing to do with Bean; the technique could not cure his problem because his body already HAS the structures, etc., that his genes created. His body wouldn't suddenly start producing the growth inhibitors just because his genes changed. He already IS what he is.
Again, not sure if I completely agree with this. Actually, it seems to contradict what happened with SkySplitter - he was a normal piggy pre-descolada but the virus still managed to turn him into a tree. Clearly the virus managed to modify his structures.
Of course, it is easy to side step the problem in the comming book. Either make it so Bean is dead before we can use the descolada cure or make it so that hes so large that the cure would be too late to save him. The descolada could cure his children, though, so this point still needs to be addressed.
Posted by Lagasek9114 (Member # 8779) on :
After three days, Bean will rise from the dead. All hail Bean.
Mmm....or maybe Bean's philotic core is so strong that he will become something akin to Jane, scurrying along philotic connections and living without any body at all. Clap if you believe! Don't let Bean die!
I would share my body with Bean's philote. Anybody else?
And thanks for the above link, CRash.
Posted by LarvalBean (Member # 8764) on :
Forgive me for not seeing the obvious solution.
The descolada CAN cure Bean, turn off Anton's key. There is absoutely no doubt about that.
But no one knows enough abut human development, about those structures, to reprogram the virus correctly. Which are set up before birth, so by the time a human is born it is already too late.
That's why the descolada cure won't work. Because no one knows how to do it.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Genes make proteins and proteins make structures. How else does a gene harm or help anyone? And, yeah, I was also a "discoverer" of this possible plot once. Though I certainly can see the point that if it cures everything, it is not interesting. But it doesn't cure everything. It only cured the one thing and went on to become a curse for everything else it came into contact with. I guess the interesting question is whether anyone besides Ela can make modifications to the descolada. What would such power do to her? And the new race of supersmart people on Path? Do they get along with the human race or what? I imagine there might be some bad blood between them and the Japanese influenced rulers of Starways Congress. But likely Card will go over into some other culture to explore.
Posted by archon (Member # 8008) on :
I think I'm the only one that wants Bean to die. It's not that I hate or even dislike his character, just that it's time to move on. His story is done and he's made his place in history many times over.
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
I agree. I generally liked the ending of SotG, but I felt a bit cheated for not getting the touching death scene that seemed inevitable. I was thinking to myself, "Hey! Didn't OSC promise that he'd kick the bucket in this one?" Since Ender "died" at the end of his quartet, it seems unfair that Bean got to live.
Hey, here's a crazy thought. Bean should travel "outside" and accidentally create Petra like how how Ender made Peter and Val. Then, when Bean dies, his Aiua can go to Petra's body. Peter can then dump Wang-mu, and Peter and Petra can get married again! Of course, on a spiritual level it'd really be Ender marrying Bean, which is somewhat... um... weird.
Posted by LarvalBean (Member # 8764) on :
quote:Originally posted by pooka: Genes make proteins and proteins make structures. How else does a gene harm or help anyone?
It doesn't, of course. Things are actually more complicated than that, since some genes arent used at all, and (liek Anton's Key) some genes don't really code for anything but having certain alleles causes them to turn on other genes (which would otherwise have been ignored).
Turning the Key off in Bean won't do anything because the other genes are already there, making the proteins and the structures. But the descolada seems to be able to modify proteins and higher level structures directly. So this is not a technical barrier.
Posted by Lagasek9114 (Member # 8779) on :
Whoa! I'm with neo-dragon on this one. Bean and Ender should wind up together. It would be almost as fun as finding out that Draco is a gay pedophile in Harry Potter. I mean, really....he could have turned his thugs into anything at all, and he chooses ten-year-old girls? What's with that?
Wang-mu gets a raw deal though. Who does she wind up with?
Posted by Princess Leah (Member # 6026) on :
Um, Ender. I think she's lucky.
STOP SAVING BEAN!!! You all want him to die with dignity before his story is just "huh, he's still here." He's dead, his part is through, so it goes, let's move on. Die Bean Die! *stab*
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Yeah, I agree with the princess.
As OSC said, "Everybody dies. Even heroes."
Just because you like someone doesn't mean they'll live forever.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
From a technical standpoint, it's impossible for Bean to meet up with Ender-as-Peter: given the math of how much time passes in starflight at the time of Bean's launch vs the amount of time that has passed until Ender-as-Peter exists, there's no way Bean would still be alive, especially since in SotG they make specific mention of Bean not surviving beyond 6 more months in planetside gravity.
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