Ryk E. Spoor
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All-Patron Reward: Less-Obvious References 7
🕑 Added 2020-05-10 15:34:09 +0000 UTCTime to kick off this month's rewards with some more refs that few readers would (or, in some cases, COULD) catch!
1) In Phoenix in Shadow, the Wanderer gives Poplock a crystal -- specifically a doubly-terminated quartz crystal -- in this way:
He reached inside his clothing and took out a strange ivory colored cylinder with peculiar writing on it below an outline of a sailing ship; the cylinder – a container of some sort – rattled. He unscrewed the top and poured many somethings that glittered into his hand, selected one, and poured the rest back, putting the container away.
Those who are both very detail oriented, and -- in general -- old enough, may just be able to identify that cylindrical container as an Old Spice deodorant container from the 1970s. Unlike the modern designs, these were made of a pretty rugged, ivory-colored plastic which had a push-up bottom; once empty and clean, they made extremely good storage containers for small objects, like screws, bolts, and so on. The other part of this reference is that a doubly-terminated quartz crystal of that type, found in this area of New York, is called a Herkimer Diamond, and I did indeed used to go with my father and brother to the Herkimer Diamond Mines located not far from my home... and to this day, all my Herkimer Diamonds are in exactly those Old Spice containers.
2) In Princess Holy Aura, Lady Nyarla's right-hand monster is named Arlaung, and is some kind of fish-man. Those aware that I am a fan of the ridiculously long-running anime and manga One Piece might possibly have recognized the name as a slightly-shifted spelling of "Arlong", one of the first major villains faced by the Straw Hat crew. In addition, when Arlaung does his "assume my final form" transformation, he ends up looking very much like the original Arlong.
3) In Castaway Planet and sequels, the nearest human settlement to the castaways is named Orado. Those familiar with the works of James Schmitz might recognize that name, as it is the home world of one of his most popular heroines, the psionic Telzey Amberdon.
4) In Castaway Odyssey, there is a sequence in which Sergeant Campbell has to deploy the satellites which end up forming their navigation and communications network. These satellites are described as follows:
...soccer-ball sized spheres with their strangely seamed sides out the airlock. Once clear, the greenish-painted satellites opened two small hatches and began preparing for orbital modification; Campbell couldn't help but grin faintly, because every time he saw an SC-178 deploy it looked like they'd suddenly grown little circular wings or flappy round ears, at least before the solar panels started to deploy; the lines and indicator LEDs gave the rest of the sphere a vaguely cheerful face between those ears.
Some readers have read the "flappy round ears" to make the SC-178 a reference to Mickey Mouse and Disney, but in fact, it's nothing like that. The SC-178s are, in fact, a reference to the ubiquitous robot Haro from the multibillion-dollar GUNDAM franchise.
5) Visually, several of the species in the Arenaverse are references to other creatures out of fiction. Perhaps the most obvious is Orphan, whose description is a point-for-point equivalent to Perfect Cell from Dragonball Z, with the addition of the tail from the Imperfect form. Similarly, Tunuvun of the Genasi looks very much like Final Form Freezer from the same anime. Less obvious to many, however, is that Sivvis Lissaturas, Tunuvun's opponent in the Challenge in Grand Central Arena, is also a reference: specifically, a reference to my own Digital Knight/Paradigms Lost. His description is very similar to that of the ur-Medusa creature called a Maelkodan in the section titled Mirror Image. And, of course, the name of Sivvis' species is Daelmokhan, just a scrambling of the original name.
