Mike and Evals: Can They Survive?

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Rafe
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Mike and Evals: Can They Survive?

#1 Post by Rafe »

We know the universe they live in is a very cruel and unforgiving one, especially for a couple of recently freed slaves (who would like to stay that way). They have little in the way of resources, and only minimal skills. They're also, with the exception of actual slaves, as low in the social order as they can get. Now it looks like they have to give up one of the only things they have - each other. Thinking of just how critical their situation is, and how emotionally heartbreaking, it's possible they might decide that the best thing to do is to pool their meager resources, and try to survive together. It just might work. Or at least it might give them a better chance.

Thinking about this possibility, and the planning and almost certain hardships they would have to go through, I realized I'd seen this plot before (or something very close to it). Maybe some of you know what it is. Just imagine Mike and Evals as a couple of itinerant workers, helping and protecting each other, making plans for their future, but facing some emotionally crushing obstacles. Here's an image for a reference:

Image

If you're like me, you're already hearing Evals using Lon Chaney Jr.'s voice, and Mike as a young Burgess Meredith.

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Him
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Re: Mike and Evals: Can They Survive?

#2 Post by Him »

So Mike is going to shoot Evals in the head, huh? Thanks for that image.

In all reality I don't think they can survive. Evals wants to return to dog territory- but it isn't even on the map. Either it's somewhere we can't see, Tom didn't I include it on the version I'm looking at, or... it isn't there anymore. But with how close they are to Tiger territory, which is known to be pretty insular, it's unlikely they are close to Dog land.

In the end it's more likely that Evals will have a change of heart at some point.

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Re: Mike and Evals: Can They Survive?

#3 Post by Warrl »

Sure, they can survive. Whether together or separately, they have lots of options. There's usually a need for casual labor in farm country (which, in a pseudo-medieval setting, is pretty much everywhere except the hearts of cities), and also in seaports and on ships, and in construction.

And considering they (arguably, plus Eric and/or Katherine) are the only crew of the Na'rella that we ever saw, and there've been several situations where we should have seen some other crew if there are any (when the Basitin were searching the ship, on the docks after the fire, seeking support for a mutiny, are three such) they must both be competent sailors.

However...

Mike definitely is human-acculturated. And he knows it. He would struggle, at least initially, in fox territory, let alone in dog territory. And aren't wolves known to take foxes as slaves? Might want to stay away from them too.

Evals seems to have some fairly idealistic notions of what life is like in dog territory. I suspect that he's more human-acculturated, and less dog-acculturated, than he realizes.

I think both of them would be better off staying in human territory, and if they're doing that they might as well stay together.

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Rafe
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Re: Mike and Evals: Can They Survive?

#4 Post by Rafe »

Him wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 12:33 am So Mike is going to shoot Evals in the head, huh? Thanks for that image
I'm sure Mike would only kill Evals out of love for him, because it he couldn't bear to see poor Evals chained and dragged off to prison or execution for accidentally killing someone.

There're other similar literary scenarios we could see them in. Maybe they could try escaping their situation by rafting downriver like Huckleberry Finn and Ni... uh, that is, Escaped Slave Jim. They could have harrowing adventures and still live to tell about it. Maybe something from Dickens, or Herman Melville... Yeah, they end up back on a ship like Ishmael and his friend Queequeg in Moby-Dick... but, that didn't go that well either. But anyway, you get the idea. Mike and Evals have all kinds of possibilities - and so much emotional baggage and dramatic potential (and even room for comedy), that their adventures, fortunate or not, could make for some seriously heart-grabbing stories.

EDIT:
Some people might know more about all the "George and Lennie" characters from Warner Brothers and MGM cartoons than the 1939 movie version of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Here's a still from WB's "Of Fox and Hounds" coincidentally featuring a fox and a dog named George and Willoughby. It came out in 1940, only a few months after the movie it borrowed the characters from. Tex Avery not only directed it but did the voice of Willoughby.

Image

I'm guessing Tex Avery was responsible for using the same George and Lennie characters at MGM when he was working there. Here's a link if you want to watch it: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37ewa

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