Some raptor squad & co. observations

Originally posted to tumblr on October 22 2018. Reposted here for archiving of posts I want to keep.

Latest somewhat random raptor squad & co. observations made while looking up references for something else about them:

• Barry is left-handed (and Owen and Hoskins are not. Noticed while staring at people’s watches in a scene all three of them are in, for reasons of drawing Hoskins’s watch and ring dangling bloodied from Delta’s mouth. Besides which wrist he wears his watch on, Barry uses his left hand in his other scenes the way I as a right-handed person would use my right, so, seems canon). I don’t know if Omar Sy is left-handed, too, or if it’s an acting choice.

•  The raptor charge at Owen at the gate when he turns and runs is a bluff. I kind of just suggested it on a whim in my raptor jaw-snapping post and thought the main thing going on there was that the raptors weren’t keeping in mind as clearly as usually how breakable Owen is compared to a misbehaving packmate of their own species. But now I think they actually never intended to catch up to him, counting on that he’d run away instead of being foolish enough to still stand his ground and keep defying Blue until she’d feel pressured to do something more serious to him than just stare him down angrily. That charge was as much all bark and no bite as the jaw snapping, just a notch more intense.

Why do I think that?

Because of Echo showing up after staying away for most of the action, right before the charge.

She’s to Owen’s right and behind him, where he wouldn’t see her, as he’s focusing on the three raptors in front of him. I don’t think Barry sees her, either, at least at first.

She’s at a perfect spot to execute the trap Dr. Grant describes to the kid at the beginning of JP1 (side note, yes I know about the fanon that the kid was Owen as a child and that’s why he got interested in learning about raptors. I like it, though I’m not sure if I want to adopt it as my hc personally). Echo could cut Owen off before he reaches the gate, and Barry could do nothing even if he did notice her in time, besides shout “look out, behind you” just before she leaps.

But Echo is the last to move, despite being closest. She doesn’t when Owen runs, or when Blue chases after him, giving the other raptors a cue/permission to do so, too, not until he’s already getting away from her reach and diving under the gate. I believe she’s quick and observant enough that this is deliberate.

I don’t know if Owen realized that (or if he might have eventually, with more time to think about it - it was kind of a busy day from there forward). Though it’s good of him to be wary, I think he does overestimate the raptors’ eagerness to hurt him, as much as they like to test their boundaries with him.

Which has consequences, as I think it contributes to how, when the raptors go rogue during the hunt for the Indominus, he instantly behaves like they’ve betrayed him, too, just because they’ve turned on the InGen troops (not that I blame him or Barry, because yeah these are predatory wild animals, it’s not exactly a farfetched conclusion - and anyway, what were they going to do, start shooting the InGen guys to show the raptors they’re on their side?), but looking at the situation from the raptors’ point of view, they might actually be unsure at worst about whether they should now count their human packmate(s), too, as “human” over “packmate”. If they did come to the conclusion that they maybe should, it’s probably not because they’ve been waiting for an opportunity to do so, but because they’re out in an unfamiliar world, with humans all around them who make them uncomfortable and who they can tell don’t intend to have their backs and are only using them, and so the raptors need more than ever reassurance that dad(s) will keep them safe in this new, scary situation. And, they don’t get it.

Isn’t dramatic miscommunication fun.