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tubbytarchia · 3 months

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Traffic/Life series roster as dinosaurs

A lot of these don't make for very good hybrids unless you wanna get into freaky territory or full on centaur but... Hope it's a fun scroll nonetheless!

Grian - Novialoidea

A small birdie... The name also means "New wings" which I find fun. New lives and death games to be part of, new wings to accompany him... (Honorable mention to "Shuvuuia" the "desert bird" who unfortunately is not a pterosaur (doesn't fly)) (Yes we're including pterosaurs! Just using "dinosaur" as a conveient blanket term)

Tango - Aratasaurus / Pyroraptor

Fire raptor! Either works just fine and Tango as a skittery little raptor is perfect for a creature like him

Scar - Apatosaurus

"Deceptive Lizard" harkening back to Scar's scamming tendencies. Though I've always liked the idea of him being some larger gentler animal in any hybrid scenario and a long-neck fits the bill well. He can poke his nose into people's conversations easily to start marketing something useless to them and swishes his tail to ward off anyone who's about to stop him

Impulse - Nasutoceratops

Ren - Regaliceratops

Horns. COOL horns. I don't know what else you want from me ceratopses are just way too awesome. Nasutoceratops is a wicked cool dinosaur for having its horns point so forward much like a bull and I for one can jive with some Impulse bull symbolism. Bulls are often viewed as strong, sturdy and loyal, traits also assigned to Impulse a LOT of the time. But though he IS intensely loyal in many cases (+ Ceratopses are also known for how they defend their own!), and he's not very outward about the following traits, he can get quite petty and bitchy and hold grudges. Still, you don't think of that when you look at him and he seems to agree! Eg him feeling like he should be accepted into Cleo's alliance in 3rd life without actually proving himself when Cleo was rightfully hesitant, at which Impulse more or less rolled his eyes. And him proclaiming "betrayal!" when killed by Bdubs when their alliance was as firm as a rat's tail

(And I feel the need to point this out too just in case: "bulls are also known for their temper" yeah but they're not like that! Bulls like many animals become defensive when exposed to aggravating behavior or movement! Which you could work into Impulse's grudge holding and intense loyalty...? I don't know enough about him sorry but do with that what you will)

Regaliceratops! Regal!! Crown shaped frill!!! Need I say more?

Gem - Therizinosaurus

Theris are so bad bitch coated to me and I would love to have one as my wife I mean um I couldn't decide on a less generic specimen so Gem can just be a Theri! A herbivore - often associated with the belief that herbivores are gentle passive creatures, but far from it, especially with Gem! She bares her claws like it's no one's business

Martyn - Stygmoloch

A Pachy with a tough head and a tendency to bonk people - I think it fits Martyn's tendency to perpetuate drama haha. The Stygmoloch's name though more or less translates to "demon of the styx river", the river of the underworld representing loathing of death. To me this makes sense with all the watcher lore (that I have a hard time understanding but whatever!!) especially with how Martyn became in LL. The watchers themselves don't loathe death (??) of course. They're death games. But someone within the game trying to stay alive and win? Probably loathes the idea of themselves dying. I have no clue what Im saying

Pearl - Carnotaurus

Ok maybe a hot take not to make her into a pteradon or even a raptor with wing-like features but those just didn't fit that well in my opinion. Rather I wanted her to have some kind of horn motif in place of her wings as visual symbolism for her character. I'd like to imagine her having fine horns, to then have them damaged (one broken off) and simultaneously the other more grown out. Think of how domesticated goats for example have their horns trimmed. I think human hybrids with horns would do the same to keep them from becoming a bother but Pearl would neglect to after her heartbreak in DL. I was heavily considering the Diabloceratops for this, especially because of the name (Devil horned face - good ostracizing material) but Pearl strikes me a lot more as a carnivore and there are only two horned carnivores out there so... Carnotaurus it is haha. And even now I'm making her horns unrealistically big but.... We can suspend some belief

BigB - Oryctodromeus

"Digging Runner"! I've already talked plenty of why BigB is very rabbit behavior to me and my reasons for assigning this burrowing dinosaur to him are similar. Tldr he is fidgety and cautious yet clever and constantly buries himself underground

Lizzie - Anurognathidae

I don't even fucking know man it made me think of Lizzie and then I wasn't able to assign anything else to her. Lizzie often claims to be confused and if any dinosaur looks to be in a perpetual state of confusion then its this one. I know a lot of people like to portray Lizzie as a butterfly also so there you go, wings!!! And it's quite cat-like too for those who like to draw her as a cat

Mumbo - Leinkupal

I really struggled with Mumbo... So many different dinos fit him imo but I figured it should be at least something moderately large (so "Technosaurus" was out of the question lol). Then I rediscovered this dinosaur whose name translates to "vanishing family" and then I thought about LL and SL and how Mumbo went out quickly after the initial death/s and left a very felt absence in someone's alliance and then I became really emotional and forgot what I was doing

Joel - Nodocephalosaurus

Bdubs - Psittacosaurus

"Knob Headed Lizard"

Joel as an Ankylosaur has been stuck in my head from day one of assigning dinosaurs to the Lifers and I'm frustrated that I can't truly explain why. You'd view an Ankylosaur as a slow and docile creature, even compared to other herbivores, but...

1. Maybe not so much nowadays, I don't know what non-dino nerds think, but I feel like ankylosaurs were largely believed to be HUGE back in the day, much like velociraptors, when in reality they're not that big. The Nodocephalosaurus is especially small even among other ankylosaurs. But, well, we all know what Joel loves to say about himself

2. Joel is or likes to make himself look well in control, just as ankylosaurs have little to worry about as far as predators go. Especially in earlier series where he was content basing mostly by himself. It's always when things get dire and he enters his red life that he becomes very impulsive and erratic like an ankylosaur flipped on its back

3. I know there's a distinction between Traffic Joel and Empires Joel and whatever other Joel but... Even in death games his more charitable traits shine through here and there. He really becomes a dangerous rascal for a large majority of the time and he's very good at it, he's not putting on a mask or anything, but I like to remember that underneath that tough spiky armor is gentleness and caring. His care towards Lizzie and Pearl and Etho etc etc

4. The image of Joel as a hell of a spiky creature is just really fun to me. Yet heavy and blunt ones! And someone once proposed the idea of him having a club tail but having chiselled it to be sharp to mirror him being a menace. (Added benefit also that it's lighter that way haha) To me he's always been an obvious heavy hitter rather than stealthy or particularly creative etc. Him as a carnivore just doesn't work as well for me

The name bares no fitting meaning but when I look at Bdubs I think of Psittaco. All other species close to it in looks are already ceratopsians and we have like... 3 of those already lol. Im sorry Bdubs you look so stupid

Cleo - Lythronax

There's so few predators in this roster lol oops, but Cleo deserves to be an apex one! The name translates to "Gore King" because you know, zombies... and you know, Cleo is very king so true. If any of the Lifers should be able to boast rows of razor sharp teeth to gore others it should be ZombieCleo

Scott - Theiophytalia

I've been really struggling with Scott but how about the dinosaur whose name translates to "Belonging to the garden of Gods". There's only one known specimen of this species and it's an Iguanadon looking dinosaur which I think a lot of people would regard as the most basic, possibly boring type of dinosaur (if it weren't for the Allosaurus which already takes the title of "basic straight white guy") but that further fits Scott imo. It's always been a strong point of appeal to me how MUCH there is to his character that so often goes under the radar or unexplored, and how he's very often portrayed as just some handsome looking guy as opposed to a hybrid etc. He's not at all extravagant yet has mastered his craft of bending fate in his favor, he so often has things perfectly under his control just as he wants them, etc... reflective of the name "Theiophytalia" even if you wouldn't think such a dinosaur to sport one of the most prolific names a dinosaur can have. Also garden something something flower husbans. Basically whatever Bree's take on Scott is lol. I don't wanna blab for 5 paragraphs about that blue mf here but. I hope this makes sense

Jimmy - Yinlong

I struggled with this mf the most because he's another very hashtag deep character. I felt really bad to remove his bird motifs completely because the canary is so essential to him, but a raptor nor a pteradon fit my image of him at all. I spent so much time looking into various species but it just aint it, but Yinlong was possibly quilled and we can still cover him in feathers, even if he has nothing close to wings haha... BUT ANYWAY. Yinlong is a small kind of pathetic looking dinosaur, and Jimmy definitely isn't small but he'd sure be made to feel that way. Yinlong translates to "Hidden Dragon" however, a rather thought-provoking name for such a dinosaur. Given his character, it sure does feel like there's a soul of a dragon laying dormant somewhere in him, buried by all the self deprecation and curse labels. Honorable mention to Tianyulong, a very similar dinosaur who was named after a museum, but "Tianyu" also translates to peace and content. Something that Jimmy can't yet but deserves to be

Etho - undefined raptor

Already made a loong post about raptor Etho haha which I assume yall have seen since the support towards that post is the only reason I'm even making this post

Skizz - Olorotitan

"Titanic Swan" close enough to an angel right. I feel the whole angel thing is a bit overdone when Skizz can become a malicious little creature every now and then, but swans much like angels do get viewed as beautiful and taken as symbolism of love. Much like Skizz is largely viewed as an angel and often as someone who can do no wrong. But mostly I wanted Skizz to be a hadrosaur/duck-billed dinosaur, because those are dinosaurs known for their speculated vocalizations. And what is Skizz good at? Talking and voicing his love and appreciation? Yeah? Yeah... I'm so sorry Skizz btw this hybrid idea does not work out

Again, a lot of these don't work so well as hybrids... Some like the long-neck ones I cant imagine to have more than a spiky spine back and a tail, but! These picks aren't based on hybrid potential but rather what I think genuinely fits. I did really work on this all day looking through a bunch of dinosaurs and research haha, but I do love dinosaurs a lot... If you disagree with any hey thats cool! Feel free to give me your opinions if you've any and I hope this was fun to scroll through regardless

#oh boy here we go with the tags #grian #tangotek #impulsesv #rendog #I feel bad tagging these Im not gonna tag them all alright forgive me #zombiecleo #joel smallishbeans #geminitay #ldshadowlady #ok thats more than enough forgive me traffic gods #trafficblr #but also blabber?#rendog is my fave... and Joel but I have ankylosaur bias #ankylosaurus best animal sorry to every other animal #oh and Gem of course haha....... Theris are so cool man #second best animal #tubby art

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coeurdastronaute · 6 years

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Essays in Existentialism: Jurassic II

Could you pretty please write a Jurassic part 2? Because I'm actually in love with it. I'm in desperate need of some more. Clarke and Lexa fighting/running for their lives. Things getting steamy between them ;)

Previously on Jurassic

The water of the river was ice cold compared to the humidity that existed, even at the early hour. A hot, angry kind of buzzing could already be felt, even when the sun wasn’t even fully above the horizon. The sticky mist of the morning dew evaporating hung around the low leaves that littered the barely visible path that Clarke had come to know almost perfectly.

The rain from the previous night left the world fresh and new, washed clean with brute force and fresh water, turning dirt into mud and making the air feel thicker than normal. But still, they headed out before anyone else, following a hidden trail toward the herds.

Clarke filled her canteen and ran a hand full of chilled water along the back of her neck before righting herself and watching the doctor explore. On the edge of the Great Plateau, Lexa leaned against a downed tree and jotted notes between gazing through her binoculars as she took in the different animals.

The world was alive. From the large, monstrous long necks who’s footsteps cocked the world itself, slowly moving toward the edge of the treeline, to the tiniest pack of lizards that hopped and wove their way along tall legs and big feet, Clarke had been right, and it was the best place to see them all. Even though lexa still couldn’t believe that she was seeing dinosaurs. That part still didn’t seem right despite how enthralled she was.

For a few moments, Clarke jus twatched Lexa look out onto the world, forgetting that she should be taking notes, forgetting that she didn’t want to believe in it, and she saw her give into the majesty of the park, the same feeling that kept Clarke there, and she watched Lexa feel it all, and then pass.

“What do you think of our little park?” Clarke asked, handing over the canteen and drying off her face in her shirt.

To her credit, Lexa took it and tried to figure out the right thing to say, though that felt impossible. She wiped her forearm across her forehead and handed back the canteen.

“It’s beautiful. It’s… It’s everything I ever wished for as a child.

“Jaha wants you to tell him that it’s safe, that the dinosaurs are healthy and behaving normally.”

“I haven’t even begun to figure out the implic--”

“I need you to tell him that the park is unsustainable, and you can’t predict the behavior of ancient animals.”

Clarke adjusted her sunglasses and stared at the confused scientist. Lexa began to talk a few times before taking a deep breath.

“I believe I’ve already done that.”

“I need you to mean it.”

“The scientific discovery… the fact that the science exists for something on this magnitude changes everything, you know that, right?” Lexa shook her head.

“And you know that he can’t open this park.”

“Are you going to show me the predators?” she challenged.

Clarke smirked and shook her head this time before shifting her gaze back to the field and the herds of animals roaming around, as they might have millions of years before. It was a thing of beauty that she’d almost started to view as normal until Lexa appeared.

“Do you want to see the babies?”

“I’m supposed to meet Dr. Lima to look into more of the samples they’ve found in--”

Beside her, a snore erupted as the handler let her head drop, mocking. Lexa pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, waiting for the show to be over. She crossed her arms when Clarke finally woke herself up from the boredom induced nap.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Clarke cleared her throat. “I just thought you’d like to spend time with actual dinosaurs. But if you’d rather go to the lab and look at--”

Lexa nudged Clarke with her shoulder before turned around as she walked away.

“Are you going to show me or not?” she taunted.

Clarke just smiled and adjusted her glasses before following quickly toward the Jeep.

The first rumble of thunder came as the Jeep rumbled its way toward the small ranch-like establishment on the far end of an old, still muddy, dirty road about two miles from the main campus of the park. As it was slapped in park, Lexa hopped out and covered her eyes as she peered toward the sky, and from the edge of the island, watched a large thunderhead grumble about in the far eastern corner of the horizon. Clouds circled closer to it as it seemed to chug along, complaining the entire way.

“Another storm?”

“We get them almost every other day,” Clarke promised. “One good one per week is a good rule of thumb.” She saw Lexa’s frown grow a little more. “Don’t worry. Raven has the fences and secondary system running sometimes.”

With that, the handler made her way toward the barn looking structure and the paddocks filled with animals. Everything looked like it was done in miniature compared to the inhabitants.

“Wait. Sometimes?” Lexa yelped, stuck stark still as she watched Clarke saunter away, amused at herself.

It was almost too easy for Lexa to spend most of the day with Clarke. It wasn’t just because of the baby dinosaurs, or the fact that Clarke cooed and melted with the animals, or that she kind of blossomed as a person when there were less people around, and she could just be herself. None of those were reasons that she realized, but it was true.

Somehow, Lexa found herself sitting in a stall full of baby Ankylosaurus, wobbly legged and waddling with their long, heavy tails dragging around behind them, eyes barely open. One curled up, right in her lap, and Lexa sighed, amazed and happy and not wanting to ever move again.

The rain came at some point, yelling against the windows.

“Storms finally here,” Clarke observed, not moving at all.

“We can stay, can’t we?”

Clarke smiled at how innocent it sounded, and she waited until a rumble of thunder reminded her that the road might wash out or be impassible, and they still had things to do.

“We should leave soon.”

“My whole entire career was spent studying, hypothesizing, and now look at me,” Lexa shook her head and surveyed the dinosaurs. “What is left for me?”

“I’m sure there’s a place that’ll hire you.”

“I know that you’re right,” she continued. “I know that this is dangerous. But I can’t imagine not sharing the awe with everyone else, of seeing one of them, alive. It’s a miracle.”

“You don’t think I think the same thing?”

“I know you do.”

“I love my job, but this is unsustainable, and I don’t know how to help them, long term,” Clarke confessed. “I’m not even sure what else this island is going to be used for.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, this is an island, with seemingly little government control, who is perfecting cloning dangerous weapons,” Clarke explained. “I’m just an animal handler, but I know things are never this good unless there’s a catch.”

To her credit, Lexa nodded and inhaled a deep breath.

“I don’t think my recommendation is going to do anything.”

“Break your non-disclosure. Tell the world about the potential problems--”

“Clarke, they’ll own me. I can’t just--”

The lights flickered as another crack of thunder interrupted their conversation. Lexa looked to the handler who just set her jaw and surveyed the lights.

“We should head back. The roads will wash out, and then we’ll be stuck.”

“You were joking, earlier, weren’t you? About the fence?” Lexa asked.

“Yeah, of course. You think we’d open up an island with predators with no back up generator?”

“No.”

Clarke nodded to herself, hoping Raven had everything fixed so that her statement was true. She said things with confidence though, so she was certain the pretty doctor didn’t catch onto it. She shook her head at the idea that Lexa was pretty. That was a stupid thought.

“Come on, Doc. I’ll bring you again before you leave if you’d like.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Clarke shrugged, offering her hands to help pull Lexa to her feet. “You can help me train them.”

“You train them all?”

“I run a team that works on behavior modification. Think of it like whales in aquariums. Makes our job easier when it comes to routine check ups and moving them around the enclosure.”

“Is it effective.”

“Would someone hire me to train massive living tanks if I wasn’t good?” Clarke asked, cocky and sure of herself, all swagger and annoying to Lexa.

“I haven’t seen you in action, so I’m not sure.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“What?” Lexa asked.

“To see me in action.”

“I doubt it’d be interesting,” she shrugged, grabbing her coat from the entrance.

Before Clarke could respond, Lexa opened the door and made her way out into the rain, fearless and impatient. She just smiled to herself and followed.

The rain came down in a monsoon. A wall of water made it nearly impossible to do anything other than creep along the old muddy road toward the main compound. Everything was wet, everything felt wet, and there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it. All at once, despite not even being dinner time, the sky grew dark and a heavy, deep grey.

“It looks pretty bad out there,” Lexa ventured as she tried to find a dry spot of shirt to clean her glasses. She squinted through the windshield as the wipers worked at a maniacal pace.

“As long as there isn’t any flooding and the generators keep, they won’t evacuate,” Clarke swallowed as she gripped the wheel a bit tighter.

“Have you had to evacuate before?”

“Twice,” she sighed. “Took us three weeks to get the pens back and the grid back up.”

From her seat, Lexa furrowed.

“I don’t like boats. Especially in weather like this.”

“Not much of a swimmer?”

“No.”

Sensing the worry, and perhaps understanding the little bit of fear the doctor must have, Clarke tried to think of something to do or say. It was easier with animals. If they were scared or afraid, they either whimpered or lashed out. They just needed kind sounds and patience. Lexa, though, she was realizing, needed something that Clarke couldn’t figure out.

A flash of lightning illuminated the world outside for an incident before a loud crack of thunder echoed across the acreage.

“Don’t worry. It’s not going to come to that. We’ve put in some upgrades since then,” Clarke tried, earning a small nod of thanks.

“I would hope so.”

“And they would have already made that call by now. We’d have heard the alar--”

Before she could finish, a loud air horn wailed somewhere in the distance, slicing through the storm, muted only by the constant whir of the heavy rain and rumble of thunder. The normally dormant radio attached to the dashboard of the Jeep crackled to life, cutting in and out. Lexa watched the driver’s brow grow heavy as she reached forward to grab the walkie.

“This is a -- call -- to -- -- REPEAT -- Code -- Return to main campus -- leaving in t-minus forty --” the robotic voice on the radio called out in a frantic message, broken up by distance and weather.

“Rover 15 requesting a repeat on the code. I repeat,” Clarke muttered into the phone. “Roughly four clicks out with no visibility. Requesting coordinates for launch.”

“Launch?”

“Remember when I told you about the boats?”

“You just told me everything was fine!”

“I was being supportive!”

“What does this mean?” Lexa yelped, her heartbeat increasing exponentially.

“It means we have to get to the docks.”

“What about the generators?”

“I don’t know.”

“The emergency system?”

“I don’t know.”

“The perime--”

“I know as much as you do at this point!” Clarke barked, gritting her teeth. “But I’m going to get us to a building, reach out to Raven, and see what comes next, so calm down and we’ll figure it out.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! I’m allowed to be upset right now! I was brought to a crazy island with gigantic creatures and apparently lethal predators and it’s crumbling in front of my eyes!” Lexa ranted, shaking her head and breathing heavily. “You don’t get to tell me to calm down. In this situation, I feel as if I’m acting appropriately.”

If she hadn’t been driving, and hadn’t been annoyed, Clarke knew she would have found Lexa insanely attractive when she yelled and got angry. She knew it was not the time for such things, but still, she couldn’t help it. Raven was right; again.

“Everything is going to be fine. We’re not more than ten minutes from the dock. There is no way we’re going to miss--”

“Clarke!”

Before she could finish her promises that they’d make it, Clarke snapped her eyes back toward the road to see the headlights shine on a tree as it was about to fall.

All at once, they weren’t moving any longer. Clarke veered the Jeep as best she could, but failed to avoid it completely. With the mud and the road, they started rolling, and the fear and Lexa’s scream that was caught in her throat were the last things the handler remembered before her head hit the steering wheel and everything went black.

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous – A Parents’ Guide

https://ift.tt/3iW8hT3

The following contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

The Jurassic World franchise is known for its PG-13 level of violence and thrill-factor, but Camp Cretaceous seems aimed for a younger audience, as evidenced by the PG rating and the current McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys. But is it right for your kids? From one parent to another, here are the things I noticed that might be triggers for your kids, as well as my experience watching the season with both of mine.

What Will Appeal to Kids

Let’s start with the good. This show is full of dinosaurs, and the animators clearly enjoyed luxuriating on the sheer awesomeness that these prehistoric titans embody. The campers get to ride among them in gyrospheres—the see-through, ball-like vehicles that are possibly the coolest conceit of the franchise—and zipline past the necks of the tallest sauropods. While in an underground kayaking river, they see bioluminescent parasaurolophuses. Several of the campers are present when a baby ankylosaurus hatches from an egg (which is a little heart melting, even for the most cynical viewer).

The cast of campers is largely likeable, and while viewers might not identify with all of them, there’s likely to be at least one member of the cast who they empathize with. Dino Nerd Darius, the first camper viewers meet, is an excellent viewpoint character for watchers who are entering this world, especially those who are as excited about dinosaurs as he is. In a familiar trope, the campers overcome their differences to work together as a team—and become friends. The trope is familiar because it works; we’re rooting for these scrappy underdogs to make it off the island and get back home.

The Cliffhangers

But it’s important to know that season one does not end with a conclusion to the story. Spoiler: The kids do not make it off the island. They’ve been abandoned by the adults and left to fend for themselves, because despite their best efforts, they miss the last ferry.

Despite this uncertain fate, the season finale does feel like it wraps up the larger arc of the season. It closes with assurances that the campers believe they’re going to make it, that adults are determined to come back for them, and that a missing camper survived (more on that below). The season certainly feels finished, even if the story is left completely open-ended.

But while the season finale isn’t a true cliffhanger, a large chunk of the episodes are. This is not a one-a-night before-bed TV show. This is a show that’s designed for binge watching. Episodes 2 and 4 end at relatively safe places, where the action isn’t imminent, but those are about the only two that offer a decent pause. If you’re planning to watch this as a family, leave more time than you think you need. (Parents like me will be just as eager as their kids to see what happens next!)

The Jump Scare

In the tradition of Jurassic Park movies starting with the very first one, Camp Cretaceous relies heavily on the adrenaline pumping of the jump scare. The opening scene of the first episode places viewers in a first-person video game perspective as Darius plays the official Jurassic World game—something not revealed to the viewer until a T-Rex’s jaws come closing down to black out the screen, just before a “Game Over” symbol.

There are plenty of moments throughout the series where the main characters think they’re safe, and danger appears out of nowhere, threatening everything. Sometimes the viewers share the sudden revelation of danger—that surprising shock of teeth and claws right at the forefront of the screen. Some kids thrive on this type of action; mine (five and ten) ended up attached to one arm on each side as we binge watched the last four episodes. Compared to superhero action, where the impact always affects someone else, Camp Cretaceous’s intensity comes from putting the viewer right at the center of the action.

Death

It should be no surprise to anyone familiar with the franchise that people get eaten by dinosaurs in Camp Cretaceous. The animation is handled very delicately. Viewers never see any of the details of the fates of these usually unnamed park employees. The one named adult who is eaten, Eddie, has just stolen a vehicle from the campers, which is likely to make viewers feel substantially less sorry for him. His scene is fairly dramatic: viewers watch him try to escape from the Indominus rex, who ultimately prevails in getting a human meal, and his screams, though quiet and faraway, are certainly audible.

How Camp Cretaceous Connects to the Jurassic World Canon

By Jennifer Lee Rossman

But it’s not just seeing people get eaten, or knowing that the kids are finding what’s left of those who were attacked, that makes death loom large over the series. Much of Darius’s motivation comes from losing his father to an illness. The pair had promised to visit Jurassic World together, until Darius’s father’s sickness got the better of him. In one of the most touching episodes in the season, viewers see Darius’s father in his hospital bed, fighting for his life—but losing. Viewers don’t see his death, but Darius’s loss feels palpable. We needed a box of tissues to deal with those scenes, but for kids who fear losing parents to illness—particularly in the midst of a worldwide pandemic—it’s important parents are ready for those scenes going in.

There’s also the tease of the death of one of the campers. In the last episode, camper Ben plummets from a monorail into the jungle below, his fate unknown to the other campers. By this point in the series, the campers have survived a number of long falls before this—zip lines are supposed to be one of the fun features of the camp, but when the campers are using one to escape the Indominus rex, the fun gives way to fear. In one episode, Camper Yaz jury rigs a zip line to evade a leaping Mosasaurus in a horror version of a Sea World aquarium. So it’s not a certain thing that Ben died in the fall—and the fact that the campers choose to continue their escape without looking for him is one of the big, ethical moments in the series, where the kids choose the chance that the five of them will survive over the likelihood that, if they search for Ben, all six of them could die.

Ultimately, Ben survives; his fingers twitching as his companion dinosaur discovers him are the last things viewers see in season one. But that moral question has no easy answer, and sometimes it’s those bigger questions that challenge younger viewers, even more than the scary parts.

Romance

There’s no explicit romance in season one, which is more focused on friendship than other teen drama. Kenji, the oldest and richest of the campers, makes several comments about impressing girls, and once claims to describe himself as a “tall hot drink,” a comment met with groans and one, “Gross.” (Brooklynn, a social media star who has a deep love for her espresso machine, tells Kenji, “You could never be coffee.”)

One close friendship does develop between two girls, and while fans of other Dreamworks shows like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power may start shipping them, budding romance at this point is only wishful thinking.

My Family’s Takeaway

All kids are different. My ten year old found the intensity and the jump scares much more upsetting than my five year old, who was all about the cool dinosaurs. Both relied on me to assure them that things were going to be all right at the end, which was a bit of a leap of faith on my part, since I was also watching the series for the first time. Thankfully, Dreamworks did not let me down: all the kids made it out alive, and if all of us dropped our jaws that the kids actually failed to get off the island, it just whet our appetites for a second season.

Some kids, especially those who have watched other parts of this franchise, will handle the show’s intensity like champs. There’s almost no gore (the kids get dirty, but I can’t recall seeing any blood in the entire first season), which makes it slightly tamer than the cinematic parts of the franchise. The trailer is a good indication of the tone of the show, giving examples of how the music heightens the tension, and how danger lurks around every corner. If you’re still not sure, the first episode makes good use of all of those elements, and while the stakes are absolutely higher as the season goes on, if you think your kids can handle the first episode, they’ll probably be fine for the whole season.

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That said, I’m really glad my kids didn’t watch the show on their own. We’ve had no nightmares, but I think that’s in part because they watched it with a parent, who could help them feel safe in spite of the intensity. As it turned out, watching it with them really enhanced my experience as well. My vote? Make this a family night watch and share in the awe and wonder of dinosaurs together.

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