__It's an interesting question. I don't think they do experience "love" but they can clearly be concerned for a host, and they're attached in more than the physical sense. Perhaps they can experience it through the host...but it doesn't seem as if Eddie's other ever got involved with his feelings for Beck.
__They don't have anything like the structure of a human brain, let alone "brain" chemistry...
I dunno if you can define what Symbiotes feel towards their hosts as "love" in the human sense. In Separation Anxiety, the creature felt physical pain from being separated from Brock like it was... it's whole existence revolved around being linked to his body. (Which also proves my point that there ARE different stages of bonding with Symbiotes; linkage, intermediate-linkage, permanent bonding.)
The farther along a host is with their alien, the more likely a separation could hurt/kill the 2 individual beings if they were forcefully separated.
Anyways to get back to my point on "love"... in ALL relationships in the known universe there is a dominant and a recessive. I'd have to imagine that this would also be the case with a Symbiote/Host pairing... meaning if Brock was the male and dominant one, the Alien might take on a more recessive and feminine roll.
In the same vein, I've often wondered if Brock preferred the (sexual) company of the Alien over that of his ex-wife Ann... surely it could probably have pleased him in more ways then she could ever have. Just a thought...
To reply to the mentioning of "What would Naomi do" in Koto's stories...
I'm kinda hoping either 1. She dies off and the Symbiote gets a new host or 2. She lives and it just opts to leave her for whatever reason. Doing it like either of the 2 above options would allow Koto the luxury of introducing a new host if he so choosed... heck he could maybe even do what Tsunami's Venom PROMISED it'd do... have the creature go from host to host in each subsequent chapter.
(Dreams about the Symbiote loose in a Sororiety House). 👿
Sorority House Symbiote? OK, I just did an exhaustive google of that phrase...WHY is there no story with that title?!
__Dibs! No, kidding- it's Orange's plot bunny, and I have too much on my plate at the moment.
__Anyway, as to the modalities possible in a symbiote/host relationship...there seem to be lots. I would not say Brock was ever dominant. He had to do a LOT of negotiation with the "other," even at his strongest moments. Kasady totally owned Red in the beginning, but then Red was a "child." We saw that slip over time.
__As things go, in RL, not even "most" relationships pivot on a power differential (although sexual acts and fantasies do almost exclusively). This is why there's discussion and compromise before BDSM sessions. __When there is a clear dom and sub in the non-sexual arena (whether formalized as such or not- and usually it isn't), the dom can just as often be the female. So I wouldn't assign gender based on submissiveness or passivity. Actually, I know you understand this, Orange, since you once considered a plot of having the symbiote join with a sadistic female host. Asian, I think you said. I like that idea!
__As for Brock preferring the sexual company of the symbiote...I don't think so. It CAN, I'm sure, afford far more pleasure if you're confining the definition of pleasure to the nerve-endings...but it can't do for Brock's mind what a woman could. Nor could it smell like a woman, but if it did- you'd still know it wasn't one- not the real flesh that your body urgently seeks and always will seek. It wouldn't have the body you want to explore and embrace. None of those moments of revelation. You'd enjoy it (and often, I'd imagine)- but you would still knock down Mother Teresa just to get to Ann by a more direct route.
__By the way, Orange, it's good to see you back. You've been gone far too long. *considers* In fact, I'd say you've been BAD.
Originally posted by fever red
Hey, CJunkie, how's things? Specifically, your fic, your Carnage suit, and your RP? And, did I tell you there's a fourth chapter in the Easter egg now?
The fic is on hold for a few days 'cause I've been really busy. I sold a painting and got 40$ for more latex, so I'll be working on the costume a little more. RP? No time again... Fourth chapter!? Hell, I still need to read the third... thanks for the update.
The symbiotes don't have any love for their hosts as recently seen in the comics. Their more parasitic than mutual. Even when the symbiote was apart of Brock, it secretly desired Peter/Spider-Man more, even though Brock obviously cared for it more. And although Brock is into woman, even he admitted that the symbiote has "given him more than any girlfriend ever could."
__I agree with your assessment of current canon, VC21. However, the whole reason I like symbiotes is for that unique concept of symbiosis, NOT for parasitism...which has been done since the fifties in science fiction. I mean, the Puppetmasters is a classic novella, and it's all about parasitic aliens.
__For that reason, when I talk about a symbiote or symbiosis, I look only at the older storylines, in which the name of "symbiote" fit the charactor! I should probably clarify that more often.
__The new storylines are an interesting twist for their consequences to Brock and to Peter. However, beyond that little bang, they fizzle out. What they ultimately accomplish is to strip the uniqueness from these aliens, and make the name of "symbiote" a lie.
__Where can they go with the story now? Only backwards, I suspect...until they're dredging up old science fiction, stealing from old movies.
__It didn't even need to be done. If anyone wanted a parasitic version of the Other, all they had to do was read Planet of the Symbiotes.
__It would be more interesting if they showed that the Other did want to be with Eddie, healthy and free of its addictions, but it couldn't help itself. That would deepen and change the charactor, allowing them to move it on to new hosts, but it wouldn't destroy the concept of a "symbiote." It also wouldn't retcon the partnership Brock had with his Other at one time.
Originally posted by fever red
__Where can they go with the story now? Only backwards, I suspect...until they're dredging up old science fiction, stealing from old movies.
Myself, I am old-school. I remember what little I know of symbiotic EARTH organisms.
All symbiotic organisms I know of are NOT and I say NOT higher life-forms. They are not capable of thought or direction of the host, because.... they do not have brains! They don't have personalities. They don't talk, or call their hosts "buses," or in essence write their hosts Dear John letters like the Venom symbiote did in the 90s Hunger arc. If the host meets their needs, they settle in and get cozy. That's it.
If the host "fails" them.... they usually die.
So... I can accept the idea that an ET symbiotic organism might be a bit more aware and be at least partially sentient. It might have marginal emotions, be somewhat more advanced intelligence-wise. It might even jump hosts, I can accept that. But as far as calling the shots, I dont see it. So you'll never see me use that as a plot-point unless I am collaborating with someone and they want to use that. Or I will accept it in a well-written fic.
But should MARVEL be telling us "boss"-symbiotes are the norm now? IMO, NO!!!! This should not be canon.
I've always thought it would be interesting to have the symbiote need something really awful that the host has to provide or LOSE their "other," as in, what if the symbiote forced the host to become a cannibal to get some special enzyme or something ONLY present in humans, and that the host cannot provide enough of? So in essence the host would be FORCED to commit atrocities... or that would explain the symbiotic penchant for truly nasty people. Nasty people are less likely to mind committing crimes, look at Kasady. Why exactly IS he a cannibal? Both personal proclivity and maybe his symbiote *needs* something...? That would be a neat plot-twist, but I admit I do like horror to begin with.
The symbiote could be like some horrible addiction, forcing the host to get that "fix" of human chemical they need.
I am twisted :-)
They can't even do that yet until they get on the right track and start being more consistent. With each writer that does a new Venom/Carnage storyarc, those writers completely ignore the way these characters have been built up and create new aspects to their character/development and thus the stories are horrible and inconsistent, as if this new Venom was never the original Venom we knew.
WORD.
UP.
Interesting points about Symbiotes, Symbiotica...
It kinda brings up a thought process I once had: Spiderman got the Venom suit on a planetoid CREATED by the Beyonder... from a machine that spitted out costumes.
NOW, is it reasonable to assume that the Venom Symbiote was simply modeled after the race that appeared in the Symbiote Invasion storyline and really legitimately had NOTHING to do with them? Kinda like the Beyonder used the race as a stencil but adding in his own "data" for how the creature would behave and act towards it's hosts? If that is the case like I've thought for awhile now, then comparing the Venom/Carnage/Hybrid Symbiotes we've all known and loved to typical world-conquering "parasites" like their outer-space cousins... is like comparing apples and oranges. I doubt that they are closely related; the Venom line of Symbiotes has ALWAYS wanted nothing more then to coexist... whereas the Parasite Symbiotes have used their Symbiotic powers to CONQUER worlds for quite some time... (at least according to the Rune Vs. Venom 1-shot.)
Oh and I also DO remember Brock saying something like "It's given me more then a girlfriend ever could." in regards to his alien in the books. If you take that statement as a whole, I'd imagine he was also referring to it pleasing him sexually. I don't care how driven you are, if you are a man and you have a living costume that feels good and will obey your commands... you ARE going to do something nasty with it sometime. Maybe the costume itself "helped him out" like it saw Peter doing himself with the Black Cat when he wore it. 😉