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Need some help with my mc and antagonist

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Old Hack

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Kate Atkinson's novel Life After Life has one main character who lives several different possible lives through the course of the book. It's a wonderful read and so very cleverly done.

As for bodyguards and height: I used to know a man who was a bodyguard, and he was only just taller than I am. I'm five feet six inches tall. He said that part of being a good bodyguard is being able to blend into the background when you're not needed.
 

indianroads

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I wonder what affect gravity has on how tall / big various life forms take? Larger animals tend to have bigger and sturdier bones - also, to accelerate a large mass takes a lot more energy than it does a smaller one. Bruce Lee was really fast, but he was only about 130 pounds and 5'7" tall... pro (american) football players are quick for short bursts, but not as fast as Bruce Lee. To create an 8 or 9 foot person that is blazingly fast will take some very serious genetic changes - how muscles store and use energy would be one thing to consider.
 

MapleTree889

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I wonder what affect gravity has on how tall / big various life forms take? Larger animals tend to have bigger and sturdier bones - also, to accelerate a large mass takes a lot more energy than it does a smaller one. Bruce Lee was really fast, but he was only about 130 pounds and 5'7" tall... pro (american) football players are quick for short bursts, but not as fast as Bruce Lee. To create an 8 or 9 foot person that is blazingly fast will take some very serious genetic changes - how muscles store and use energy would be one thing to consider.

What if this was the future 100 something years from jow and these guys used genetic manipulation gene therapy and implant enhancements so they could be 7 or 8 foot tall and move as fast as an average height person and stil be a powerhouse? Could that still be excusable?
 

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What if this was the future 100 something years from jow and these guys used genetic manipulation gene therapy and implant enhancements so they could be 7 or 8 foot tall and move as fast as an average height person and stil be a powerhouse? Could that still be excusable?

Consider what other effects genetic manipulation and implants are going to have on your futuristic society. It can't just be "make people eight feet tall".

Also, why is it so important to these people to be eight feet tall? If they feel that tall people are more commanding or intimidating or whatever, why not just select the tallest people in society to be bodyguards, rather than spending billions of dollars on the scientific research that will be needed to result in this sort of genetic manipulation and implants?
 
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MapleTree889

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Consider what other effects genetic manipulation and implants are going to have on your futuristic society. It can't just be "make people eight feet tall".

Also, why is it so important to these people to be eight feet tall? If they feel that tall people are more commanding or intimidating or whatever, why not just select the tallest people in society to be bodyguards, rather than spending billions of dollars on the scientific research that will be needed to result in this sort of genetic manipulation and implants?

I would have genetics and implants being used for other things besides just for height variables.

I'd be ok with that. Collecting as many of the tallest people in society as bodyguards but everyone keeps telling me that it's very rare and unrealistic to have 7 foot guys like that so the next step to make it plausible would be enhancements. I don't see why so many consider it to be such disbelief. There are top athletes that tall and if they had groups like that breeding over the years, couldn't that be a good enough excuse why so many 7 or 8 foot bodyguards would exist in the future?
 

neandermagnon

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What if this was the future 100 something years from jow and these guys used genetic manipulation gene therapy and implant enhancements so they could be 7 or 8 foot tall and move as fast as an average height person and stil be a powerhouse? Could that still be excusable?

Yes if you get the genetic engineering right. You'd have to do more than just change the genes for height in order to overcome the problems with someone whose body's otherwise designed to be around 6 foot growing to 8 foot. I wouldn't go into details about this though, just saying that people have been genetically engineered to be taller, stronger and more heavily built would be sufficient.

Not sure what you mean by implant enhancements though. Genetic engineering is sufficient to make people bigger.

You could also selectively breed humans to be bigger, as long as you're careful to avoid genetic illness caused by inbreeding (same as with dogs, horses etc) - it would take more than 100 years to do this. That's only about 4-5 generations in humans. Dogs can breed at two years old, so 100 years is around 50 generations of dogs, so changes from selective breeding happen much faster. (Although if the world isn't concerned about ethics at all, getting humans to breed at age 13/14 would give you more generations in a shorter time.) Or you could combine selective breeding with genetic engineering to speed things up a bit.

Note that all of these things are unethical on a massive scale. As far as plausibility goes for fiction, your world's political system would have to be sufficiently bad to explain why such things are allowed to go on. There is no way I'd find it plausible that a democratic society with human rights legislation would allow any of these things to happen. But if your world is dystopian, then yep, it's a good way to get your 8 foot tall humans and show the society's callous disregard for ethics at the same time.
 
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MapleTree889

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Yes if you get the genetic engineering right. You'd have to do more than just change the genes for height in order to overcome the problems with someone whose body's otherwise designed to be around 6 foot growing to 8 foot. I wouldn't go into details about this though, just saying that people have been genetically engineered to be taller, stronger and more heavily built would be sufficient.

Not sure what you mean by implant enhancements though. Genetic engineering is sufficient to make people bigger.

You could also selectively breed humans to be bigger, as long as you're careful to avoid genetic illness caused by inbreeding (same as with dogs, horses etc) - it would take more than 100 years to do this. That's only about 4-5 generations in humans. Dogs can breed at two years old, so 100 years is around 50 generations of dogs, so changes from selective breeding happen much faster. (Although if the world isn't concerned about ethics at all, getting humans to breed at age 13/14 would give you more generations in a shorter time.) Or you could combine selective breeding with genetic engineering to speed things up a bit.

Note that all of these things are unethical on a massive scale. As far as plausibility goes for fiction, your world's political system would have to be sufficiently bad to explain why such things are allowed to go on. There is no way I'd find it plausible that a democratic society with human rights legislation would allow any of these things to happen. But if your world is dystopian, then yep, it's a good way to get your 8 foot tall humans and show the society's callous disregard for ethics at the same time.

Well say the antagonist was originally supposed to be 6 foot 2 but he used genetic engineering to make himself taller so he eventually got in the high 6 foot something range or close to 7 feet. Same could be said for his bodyguards, though everyone keeps telling me that it still would be unrealistic due to being 7 feet tall, would be almost so difficult for a guy to move around as opposed to a guy that's 6 foot or 6 foot 2, which is more believable. I looked up some 7 foot guys like wrestlers and found guys Big Show and Big Cass who are 7 feet. Big Cass looks like he moves fine and is able to jump in and out of the ring and he's not using any genetic engineering as far as I know. But I could be wrong about his mobility or any of those big wrestlers being able to move that fast cause camera tricks does say a lot.

Breeding might be a more bigger challenge. Sure the antagonist or society would have to breed tall people, starting at a very young age to get those generations going but all these ideas could all fit in my dystopian fascist era. Genetically engineering could fit fine in that world too. But if we have guys today like wrestlers, athletes, worlds strongest men and actors like Mountain of GOT, I don't see why guys like this can't be recruited or just exist in my story without an explanation.

There's a game out there called Wolfenstein, if anyones familiar with it, which takes place in a dystopian 60's era run by nazis and one of the main antagonists is 6 foot 8 and far as I know he has no body genetic engineering done.
 
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Marian Perera

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I don't see why so many consider it to be such disbelief. There are top athletes that tall and if they had groups like that breeding over the years, couldn't that be a good enough excuse why so many 7 or 8 foot bodyguards would exist in the future?

I personally don't find it convincing, but if it helps you write the story... sure, go with that.
 

Bufty

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I posed my hair question way back with tongue-in-cheek but it was taken literally.

For goodness sake, it's fiction - go write it and see what happens.

Good luck :Hug2:
 
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MapleTree889

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I personally don't find it convincing, but if it helps you write the story... sure, go with that.

But haven't you heard of Julius Bjornsson? Dwayne Johnson? Undertaker? Big Show? Brawn Shauman? These guys are extremely tall and huge, people this size exist to this very day.
 

Bufty

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But haven't you heard of Julius Bjornsson? Dwayne Johnson? Undertaker? Big Show? Brawn Shauman? These guys are extremely tall and huge, people this size exist [to this very day?].



I wouldn't call Dwayne Johnson 'extremely tall and huge'. He's a fine specimen of a man, an athlete.

You don't have to be huge or tall to be impressive physically or to have presence.
 
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MapleTree889

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I wouldn't call Dwayne Johnson 'extremely tall and huge'. He's a fine specimen of a man, an athlete.

You don't have to be huge or tall to be impressive physically or to have presence.

I know that, it's just for my story. Isn't Hulk Hogan like close to 7 feet and just as athletic (or used to be) just as much as Dwayne Johnson?
 

Bufty

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Now...how about the footwear? That would no doubt affect the relative height of bodyguard and employer. Sandals versus 6" heeled jackboots. :e2thud:
 
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MapleTree889

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Now...how about the footwear? That would no doubt affect the relative height of bodyguard and employer.:e2thud:

If they're a giant, then yeah but my future could make bigger clothes fit for them I guess :shrugs:
 
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