just checked the recently uploaded higher quality sprites for wh:aco on the narrative declaration website (here) just wanted to note:
sefice is wearing a FUCKING COLLAR???? bro i thought that was part of his neck and he was just spiky like a pufferfish. but it has the little loop at the front and everything. what
lypho's skull patterns are so much more complicated than i thought 😔 there's a whole dragon(?) on there???
looks like the skulls at the ends of yvgeny's braids are rat skulls now that i can see the front incisors. good to know
bethael's left (yes, left, that's the correct flip) forearm scars are way more clear now
hello wh:aco fans the truth comes out. i have no idea how to draw space marine power armor...
does anybody have recommendations on what reference pictures/websites/specific minis/figures/anything else to reference that i should be using for byzanti/sefice/lyphos/bethael?
especially for 1. the leg armor. and 2. turnarounds/back of the armor/pack. i have been avoiding those since there's provided portraits waist-up to reference but the sooner i bite the bullet and try to learn the rest of the parts the better
This is a pretty simple explanation of the topic, and does not cover every detail, but hopefully it is a nice overview!
Slide text in text form, and reference and image source URLs under the cut:
Title Card: Cloning Mercenaries 101: How Real-Life Cloning Works
CW: Mentions of animal death (in a research context)
Slide 1: Foreword
If you're into TF2, chances are you've come across fanworks depicting the "clone theory" to explain why there's more than one of each mercenary.
Clone theories generally fall into the categories of either respawn/teleportation cloning, or biological cloning. Today, we'll focus on real-life biological cloning.
"But TF2 is a Looney-Tunes comedy! Why bother with the science of a fairly common, but minimally supported headcanon?"
It's always worth understanding how the real-life version of something really works!
Slide 2: What is Cloning?
"Cloning" broadly refers to the process of producing individuals who are genetically identical to another individual. It can include single- and multi-cellular organisms.
Cloning includes both natural cloning (like plant cuttings, asexual reproduction) and artificial cloning (like cloning DNA fragments, cells, and organisms).
"Reproductive cloning", is the cloning of a multicellular organism to create a new genetically identical individual.
Engie speech bubble: Natural cloning is more common than you may think: for example, plants grown from cuttings are clones of their "parent"!
Slide 3: Reproductive Cloning
There are 2 methods of reproductive cloning for mammals:
Embryo Splitting
- Used to create identical twins from 1 egg and 1 sperm cell after in-vitro fertilization (IVF)
- Not really for cloning an existing adult so we won't focus on it.
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT)
- Used to create a number of clones of an individual organism from 1 body cell (somatic cell) from the organism and 1 donor egg cell
Engie speech bubble: We’ll be focusing on SCNT here!
Slide 4: Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (Diagram)
1. Nucleus removed from body (somatic) cell of individual to be cloned (by pipette)
2. Nucleus removed from donor egg cell
3. Somatic nucleus placed into empty donor egg cell
4. Resulting egg stimulated and begins to divide
5. Resulting embryo transferred to uterus of a surrogate mother to develop.
Slide 5: Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer
The resulting clone embryo is not 100% identical to that of the individual to be cloned.
- The body (somatic) cell's nucleus may have contained mutations
- The mitochondria (powerhouse of the cell) of the resulting clone embryo will be the donor egg's mitochondria
That's right! If the donor egg is NOT from the individual or their matenal line (mitochondria are passed down maternally) the resulting clone embryo will NOT be 100% identical.
Engie speech bubble: With different mitochondria, a clone may have differences in body parts with high energy demand, like muscles, heart, eyes, or brain.
Slide 6: Dolly the Sheep
Some methods using the principles of SCNT were used as early as the 1950s (based on earlier work in the 1920s) to clone amphibians.
The first successful mammalian clone using SCNT was Dolly, a cloned sheep born in 1996 in Scotland, and announced to the public in 1997.
Dolly eventually developed severe arthritis and a progressive lung disease and was
euthanized at age 6 despite sheep's average lifespan being 11-12 years.
Engie speech bubble: Dolly was named after Dolly Parton!
Slide 7: Some Downsides
Inefficiency & Failure Rate:
SCNT has a high failure rate - many clones die during gestation, and newborn clones may die of abnormalities. For example, for Dolly, 277 fertilized eggs -> 29 embryos -> 3 lambs born -> only Dolly survived.
Advanced Aging(?):
Due to Dolly's age-related diseases it was speculated her DNA was already genetically "old". Later studies of further clones found no evidence of having age-related diseases, but the idea of "advanced" or "accelerated" aging of clones made its way into pop culture.
Engie speech bubble: More recent cloning using SCNT have reported higher success rates, but still have many failures.
Slide 8: What Does this Mean in TF2?
A resulting baby born from SCNT will, in fact, be a baby. The baby will NOT have the memories, experiences, muscle mass, or, well... anything past genetics, of the individual they were cloned from.
In terms of TF2, a lot of time and money would need to be spent raising, feeding, and teaching the resulting baby for the next 18 or so years to get anywhere close to a useful mercenary. Not very efficient...
Engie speech bubble: In short, you'd need to look beyond realistic cloning
and take some sci-fi shortcuts to get already-adult clones as often portrayed in fandom.
REFERENCE URLs
(Removed the hyper links since Tumblr likes to hide posts with hyperlinks)
I mainly referenced these while writing (Yes, Wikipedia unreliable, I know, but this slideshow is a for-funsies TF2-themed general explanation and not an academic essay):
god its been forever since i actually watched it but hey. listen to me tf2 fans who like inflicting angst upon everybody's favorite little war criminals, i am talking directly into your ear now. i need you to do me a favor. i need you to go watch Moon (2009 film directed by Duncan Jones) right now. don't look it up beforehand so u don't spoil the twist.
unfortunately i can't tell you why it's relevant to tf2 because doing that would also kind of spoil the movie. anyways its free on Pluto TV (does have ads but i use an adblocker)
does anyone have any links to TF2 clone theory posts. or fics or fanworks with particularly detailed or thought out implementations
there is also an older infographic post i remember seeing with respawn cloning using a punch card system that i can't find now, so if anyone has that it would be Much appreciated
(im like 6 pages into a draft document about how real life cloning works (for funsies) but i wanna see what other people think)
