Verbatim;
“ An issue with bringing back some very endangered animals is actually if they’ll be too inbred. I think that we’ve abandoned a species solely because of that danger on one occasion.
Bigfoot, if real, has a clearly undetermined range and breeding population. It’s not impossible to say that there’s a sizable amount, but I’d argue to say it’s around the amount humans and our close relatives have in situations of heavy isolation over millennia in an environment that limits population size.
In my opinion, Bigfoot is Australopithecus or Homo, maybe a Tchadensis or other early hominid. They shade the defining features we’ve had since Tchadensis, mostly upright posture, albeit hairier and larger than any known examples of these relatively small apes, and most definitely further specialized for stealth. If I had to guess, I’d say an early African exit of Homo Erectus or a previous/contemporary species that led it to convergently evolve with Paranthropus, leading to it able to grow larger in North America. The only other Bigfoot “species” I believe in is the Rock Apes of Vietnam, mostly because of the sightings from the Vietnam war which make sense to me.
I think that if these creatures share this origin, American ones would be rarer immediately. Paranthropus convergence makes sense for their mostly peaceful nature, and they definitely don’t eat much meat atleast. Their hairy covering is just an adaptation to mostly the Northern bits of North America, since they would have come from the Beiring land bridge. Their rareness would have been more of a mutually acknowledged environmental pressure that restricted their breeding habits, since they wouldn’t want to eat everything in a single area. Dispersal would be rare and over a large area to make sure tribes/families/individuals didn’t consume each other’s food and water supplies.
Pretty much, they have always been rare and we’ve probably killed very few. To me, they’re just extremely specialized hominids who live in a very strange way to us and are thusly not easy to find. I wouldn’t be surprised if they practiced funerary cannibalism, had designated areas to defecate at, and buried their dead in a ritualistic way, stemming from semi-sapient intelligence and knowledge of needing to hide from little men with no fur and thunder sticks. “
To add on, the Rock Ape is believable because during the Vietnam War, the sightings were short and always portrayed them in a territorial ape way. More aggressive, certainly, known to throw rocks during US Troop’s engagement with the VC mostly. They’re more chimp-like in description I guess is the term, being around the size of a man and a similar build to someone who works out for function instead of form.
I don’t believe in any other region’s reporting, Southeast Asia and most of North America is a perfect climate to stay hidden and also get some extremes out of humankind’s genetics.
There is also evidence Homo Erectus was in America before the Native American populations migrated here. Homo Erectus evolved 2 million years ago, it’s highly likely other culture groups of them have migrated previous to this very likely example. There were multiple “Out of Africa” events after all.
While native tribes have stories of “bigfoot”, there’s a video by Trey The Explainer that I find interesting going over why each of these stories are almost definitely reporting something else. I can see some being passed down long enough to muddy the water or just being based on an existing hominid, but most don’t have any grounds.

Burst Rex of Awakening

RUSH DUEL Etymology/Translation Corner
Tagline: "Executing a join and pairing of the azure skies with courage at ultra-high speeds! Fusion Summon! Time to come on out! Bluetech Burst Rex!!"
CM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfSMAg9axf0
Yuhi: "Yu-Gi-Oh! RUSH DUEL! Executing a join and pairing of the azure skies with courage at ultra-high speeds! Time to come on out! Fusion Summon! Bluetech Burst Rex!! There's new themes in here?! They both look interesting. These legendary dragons also get an Over Rush Rare! And there's still way more!"
This is a list of translated Japanese names for all of the cards in Burst Rex of Awakening. See below for further notes.
Each card name is linked to an image!! (Use an image-zooming extension like Imagus to view them instantly.)
Any questions or issues you may have about the translations are welcome.

• Five-God Dragon / F·G·D

1. Rocky Tank Jariot
2. Gray-Bronze Dragon
3. Hybridrive Scale
4. Hybridrive Tusk
5. Hybridrive Lizard
6. Hybridrive Screwdriver Full artwork
7. Stray Familiar Witch
8. Releaslayer
9. Chemispet Inko
10. Dice-Key Mekuru
11. Dice-Key Ku
12. Dice-Key Ribbon
13. Cyberspyce Hotpot
14. Cyberspyce Cinnamon
15. Cyberspyce Turmeric
16. Cyberspyce Cumin
17. Wheatcloth Demeter
18. Cyberspyce Nutmeg Alternate artwork
19. Cyberspyce Garam Masala
20. Dark Matter Dead-Yell
21. Dark Matter Lockdoll
22. Dark Matter Jelly
23. Dark Matter Craydoll
24. Dark Matter String
25. Dark Matter Knight
26. Dark Matter Hazardoll
27. Dark Matter Freya
28. Rocky Machine Gareking / Rocky Demon God - Gareking
29. Dragonic Geist
30. Twin-Edge Phantom Dragon
31. Imperial Guard of the Wise Emperor
32. Advance Form
33. Granmarg the Earth Emperor
34. Water-Mirror Serpent
35. Dragon Remover
36. Fusionic Tribern
37. Fadrawnir the Purehearted Full artwork
38. Data Eater
39. Defrostrooper V2
40. Sumskull
41. Swellskull
42. The Seven Treasure Gods - Beidai / The Seven Treasure Gods - Rice Supreme Full artwork
43. God Demon Beast - Garzett
44. Bluetech Burst Rex Full artwork
45. Sevens Road Ultima Witch Full artwork Alternate full artwork
46. Cyberspyce Queen Cinnamon
47. Cyberspyce Karipandrapery
48. Dark Matter Enigmata
49. Dark Matter Enigknight Zuwieger
50. Blue-Eyes Blazing Bright Dragon / Fiercely Shimmering Dragon with Blue Eyes Full artwork
51. Tribe-Mirror Dragon
52. Hybridrive Back Fusion Alternate artwork
53. Hybridrive Restruct
54. Blue-Tooth Reconnect
55. Spycecloth Mix
56. Dark Matter Storm
57. Dark Matter Force
58. But a Mere Jest of the Cosmos Princess Full artwork
59. Hybridrive Bumper
60. Spycecloth Secret Recipe
61. Spycecloth Black Pepper
62. Dark Matter Assassinate
63. JAM:P Catch! Alternate artwork
64. Dragonic Domination Alternate artwork
65. The Enkindling of Divine Doubt
66. Delirium Invitation Full artwork

Etymology and other trivia:

• Jariot is a portmanteau of jari (Japanese for "gravel") and chariot.
• The Gray in Gray-Bronze Dragon seems to be a contraction of great.
• Hybridrive is a portmanteau of hybrid and drive—a mass-storage hardware device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data.
• Releaslayer is a portmanteau of release (the OCG term for Tributing), Lilith, and slayer.
• Inko is the Japanese name for the true parrots
• Mekuru is Japanese for "to turn over" or "to flip over," and is the OCG term for excavating.
• Ku comes from baku—a Japanese supernatural being resembling a tapir that is said to devour nightmares.
• Cyberspyce is a portmanteau of Cyberse, cyberspace, spy, and spice.
• Hotpot is likely based on BellaBot—a versatile service robot with a cat-like appearance for serving guests in hotels, restaurants, bars, and events. A hotpot is a mixture of meat and vegetables, sometimes including sliced potatoes, cooked slowly in a covered dish inside an oven, or in a special heated pan.
• Demeter is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth.
• Garam masala is an aromatic mixture of ground spices used in Indian cuisine. The rest of the Cyberspyce monsters are mostly named after spices used in this mixture.
• Dark matter is a theoretical substance existing in space that does not give off any light.
• The yell used in Dead-Yell's name is Japanese wasei-eigo for cheering (esp. for a school sports team).
• Craydoll seems to be a portmanteau of cradle and doll.
• Hazardoll is a portmanteau of hazard and doll.
• Freya (Fureiya) is a pun on furē (the Japanese pronunciation of "hurray"), a phrase commonly shouted during cheering, and Freya or Freyja—one of the preeminent goddesses in Norse mythology.
• Gareking is a portmanteau of gareki (Japanese for "rubble" or "debris") and king. Machine (Mashin) is a pun on the Japanese word mashin (meaning "devil" or "demon god").
• Geist is German for "ghost."
• Imperial Guard of the Wise Emperor has a similar name and effect as the OCG's Imperial Guard of the Flame Emperor (Royal Firestorm Guards in the TCG).
• Tribern is a portmanteau of tribe (the OCG term for "Type") and wyvern.
• Fadrawnir is a portmanteau of Fafnir (a lindworm from Norse mythology) and draw.
• Sumskull (Tasudokuro) is a pun on the Japanese word tasu ("to add numbers").
• Swellskull (Masudokuro) is a pun on the Japanese idiom masumasu ("more and more").
• Beidai is based on Daikokuten—one of the Seven Lucky Gods and the god of commerce and prosperity. He is sometimes considered the patron of cooks, farmers and bankers, and a protector of crops. He is also often depicted as riding on a rice bale, hence the kanji for "rice" appearing in the card name. Beidai is also used in the Japanese phrase beidaitōryō, used to refer to the President of the United States of America, and fittingly this card's artwork is drawn in the style of an American comic book.
• God Demon Beast - Garzett is a reference to God Mazinger—an anime, manga, and novel series created by manga artist Go Nagai.
• Karipandrapery (Karīpandoraperī) is meant to sound like a typical name for a Hindu deity and is a portmanteau of Kali (a major Hindu goddess associated with time, change, creation, power, destruction, and death), karē-pan ("curry bread"), Pandora, and drapery (due to all the Cyberspyce cards also having a cloth motif).
• Enigmata is a plural form of the word enigma. It is also a pun on the Latin māter ("mother").
• Enigknight is a portmanteau of enigma and knight, while Zuwieger is a pun on Zuwijo (a character from the GO RUSH!! anime) and Sieger (German for "victor" or "champion").
• Tribe-Mirror Dragon's name in Japanese (Toraibumirā Doragon) is made up of sounds from the other FGD-related monsters in this set: Gray-Bronze Dragon (Gureiburonzu Doragon), Water-Mirror Serpent, and Fusionic Tribern.
• Spycecloth (Supaisukurōsu) is also a pun on cross.
• Hybridrive Bumper is a reference to Jointech Bumper, which has a similar effect.

Blue-Eyes Duel Set bonus card

1. Blue-Eyes Bright Dragon / Shimmering Dragon with Blue Eyes

Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! Blu-ray & DVD DUEL-7

• Elite Secret Investigator Miss-Tery

Saikyō Jump June 2024 Edition bonus card

• Mage Power

A lot of new fans are curious as to which order they should start watching the show, because they want to watch the best seasons and avoid spoilers. While watching from the beginning and making up your own mind would make sense in theory, true fans know that a complicated, nonsensical approach is the only way to really enjoy the show. As a fan who has been watching since the first season aired in 2000, it's unfortunate that I had no choice but to watch chronologically in real time. If I were fortunate enough to get struck with a blow to the head so hard that I lose my memory, this is the order in which I would watch Survivor:

1. Nicaragua (21) - You have to start with an HD season.
2. Heroes vs. Villains (20) - You've earned it.
3. Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers (35) - This way you can weigh in on the eternal fan debate of which Heroes tribe is more iconic, the one with Rupert and Cirie or the one with Katrina and JP.
4. Cagayan (28) - A lot of people think that Joe from HvHvH is the store brand version of Tony, but by watching in the correct order, you will see that Tony is in fact a retread of Joe.
5. South Pacific (23) - If you thought Coach was entertaining in HvV, you'll love seeing him here. If you thought Ozzy was entertaining in Cook Islands, then you have failed to follow the proper watch order. May God have mercy on your soul.
6. Winners at War (40) - It would be foolish to spoil the winners of 21 other seasons before you've seen them. By waiting to watch WaW 6th, you will only spoil the winners of 17 other seasons.
7. Ghost Island (36) - This season references a lot of memorable mistakes made by Survivor players. Watching Ghost Island means those moments won't catch you off guard when you eventually see them.
8. Caramoan (26) - This season includes Erik, who you'll recognize as one of the most prominent people featured in Ghost Island.
9. Micronesia (16) - It's time to see how Erik's mistake really went down. You've earned it.
10. Blood vs. Water (27) - See Colton quit for the second time.
11. Millennials vs. Gen X (33) - If you like David, don't worry, he comes back.
12. David vs. Goliath (37) - Surprisingly not in this season though.
13. All-Stars (8) - I was so hyped to watch this as the 8th season in 2004. I can only imagine how exciting it would be to watch it as the 13th season in 2024 having not seen any of the seasons that came before it. Don't make the same mistake I did.
14. Fiji (14) - This is the only season that aired in the exact position it's meant to be watched. An amazing coincidence.
15. One World (24) - See Colton......get medevaced???? Twist!!
16. Guatemala (11) - #16. Why not?
17. Palau (10) - In theory, Guatemala is a follow-up season to Palau, and the story makes a lot more sense when you know that Stephenie was really popular the first time she played. But she's a lot easier to root for in Palau so emotionally it's more satisfying to watch it after.
18. Edge of Extinction (38) - This is when David comes back. Your patience has paid off. There are three other returning players here who you haven't seen yet, but let me reiterate: this is the correct order. I'm not going to apologize for it.
19. Game Changers (34) - There are 20 returning players here, and you've seen 13 of them already. This season will offer concrete evidence that the other 7 are game-changing players in their earlier seasons. Players like Hali, Sierra, and Caleb may not seem very impactful when you get around to watching their first seasons, so watching Game Changers keeps you from making the incorrect assumption that they are not in fact among the most important players in Survivor history.
20. Cook Islands (13) - Candice is......not really a hero? The twists keep coming!!!
21. Samoa (19) - Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad that this racist Ben guy wasn't on Cook Islands? That would have been a disaster!
22. Thailand (5) - You've earned it.
23. Vanuatu (9) - Ok, you didn't hear this from me, but you can actually swap this season with the next one and it'll be totally fine.
24. Marquesas (4) - Shhhh.
25. 44
26. 41
27. 42
28. 43 - These last four seasons are all pretty much the same.
29. 45 - This is pretty much the same as the last four seasons except the episodes are longer.
30. Africa (3) - This is pretty much the same as the last five seasons, except it's not filmed in Fiji, it's 39 days long, there are no hidden immunity idols or advantages, there are two tribes, it doesn't have firemaking, there's a final 2, and the contestants don't always get along. Other than that, you won't notice much of a difference.
31. Redemption Island (22) - When this season aired, we had watched fan favorite Boston Rob lose three times, so seeing him win was a long time coming. By watching in the proper order, you've had the privilege of seeing him lose four times, so his win is 5% more impactful.
32. Tocantins (18) - It's an HD season with a pretty strong cast and relatively straightforward gameplay that a new viewer could easily follow. You'd think it would be a lot higher up on the watch order. You're wrong.
33. Borneo (1) - Yes, historically, it's important blah blah blah. But honestly, after you've seen 32 seasons where alliances are a normal part of the game, this season's going to seem really elementary and slow-paced. Don't blame me, blame the watch order.
34. Panama (12) - You've probably been wondering all this time how a popular player like Cirie didn't make the cut for Winners at War. Now it's time to finally put your uncertainty to rest: it's because she didn't win any of her previous seasons, including this one. Isn't it so much more rewarding to find out this way?
35. Philippines (25) - I think by now you should have a pretty good sense of whether you like the show or not. You can stop after this one if it's not your thing.
36. Outback (2) - In 2001, we watched this season and thought Jerri was the villain, not Colby. Thankfully, a 2024 viewer will realize otherwise. The fact that every other cast member besides Amber found Jerri irritating and difficult to live with? That's irrelevant. Did you see Colby throw that bucket of water at her?
37. Island of the Idols (39) - Half the season is just text on a screen. "The producers are monitoring the situation," "something happened off-camera," etc. I watch TV so I don't have to read. That makes this season pretty hard to follow for me, so I don't know much about what happens in it. Otherwise it would probably be a lot higher, I'm sure it's pretty popular.
38. Kaoh Rong (32) - Look, we all know the real reason why anyone wants to start watching Survivor. You wanna see somebody die. This is the closest you're gonna get, sorry to say.
39. Cambodia (31) - Despite airing first, this was filmed after Kaoh Rong, so it only makes sense to watch them in filming order.
40. China (15) - If you finish this season and wonder, "Why did that have to be the 40th season in the watch order?" watch it again before you move onto the next one. Trust me on that, it will not make sense otherwise.
41. China (15) -You know what, I'm just going to assume you'll need to watch it again.
42. Worlds Apart (30) - This one defin--
43. China (15) - Yep, you got two episodes into Worlds Apart and you have no idea what the fuck is going on. Watch China again.
44. Worlds Apart (30) - This one definitely do--
45. China (15) - Are you fucking serious? Can you get more than six episodes into Worlds Apart without needing China to explain everything to you again?
46. Worlds Apart (30) - Alright, now do you see what I mean? You got through it. Proud of you.
47. 46 - It's currently airing and almost finished, so you have about a week to get through all the previous seasons if you want to be caught up.
48. Pearl Islands (7) - Chronologically, this is the first season in which voted-out players return to the game. In the proper watch order, it's the last one. Sometimes I think about that in the shower.
49. Gabon (17) - Is this 46 2.0?
50. San Juan del Sur (29) - You've earned it.
51. The Amazon (6) - This is one of the most exciting and unpredictable seasons of all time. It's absolutely fantastic. However, Rob makes a lot of comments that haven't aged well, so it is at the bottom of the list.

TL;DR: A mostly-new viewer sharing her thoughts on S16, and hoping to continue to do so with the next seasons.
 
Previous posts:

Seasons 1-10	Seasons 11-20
Borneo	Guatemala
The Australian Outback	Exile Island
Africa	Cook Islands
Marquesas	Fiji
Thailand	China
The Amazon
Pearl Islands
All-Stars
Vanuatu
Palau

 
It has been… almost 1.5 years since the last time I watched Survivor. I can't believe it has been so long – the longest break I ever had between seasons since I first started this project (in 2020?? Woah). It has been so long, that even seeing James and Amanda felt nostalgic for me, even though they were fresh out from last season, lol. Another advantage – if I knew anything about this season before, I 100% forgot about it. Got to experience it as cleanly as one could – I literally knew nothing about who the winner or what the elimination order was. Let's get to it!
The game: not gonna lie, I was a little bit wary of the main gimmick of fans vs. favorites. I thought about how unfair it was, not just experience wise but also because the fans are probably just gonna be starstruck and unable to play against their faves. Luckily, I was wrong. It was actually way more balanced than I expected it to be. Sure, the faves had better shelter and better food and better everything, but I feel like this is a common situation in survivor, that one tribe is better off than the other, so that was okay.
Having 2 medical evacuations and 1 quit was wild. I feel like Survivor was always dangerous, so it should actually be surprising that something like that didn't happen until now. I really felt bad for Penner and James, hopefully they get to play again.
Having two people going to exile island each time in the pre-merge was an interesting choice, but nothing really interesting came out of it.
The end game though… oh boy. I actually thought that having 3 people leave would help production, because they had 20 people over 39 days. But ofc they were prepared and didn't like the quits, which is probably why we got the weird 8 jurors-2 finalist thing. I am not against the concept as a concept, but it did feel like a low blow that the contestants didn't know about it. And also as I said I think it should have been final 3 as always but they had to adjust.
So yeah let's talk about that FTC. I once again came in rooting for Amanda, and once again saw how bad at FTCs she is. Girl, please… at first I was a bit surprised that she lost, I felt like Parv had way more enemies in the jury. But then I read here in the subreddit about the full content of Eliza's question that we saw nothing from, and well… it made more sense. (Btw thank you Eliza for kind of bringing in fallen comrades, it was the best. Ah, I missed Eliza and I'm so glad she was in this season!)
So Amanda lost again, and Parv won, and I guess now I understand what's the big buzz around her that I didn't get when I watched cook islands, lol.
Might as well mention the blindside since this was all Jeff could think of. Idk personally I'm not too impressed with blindsides, like sure yeah it's a cool move but it's way less drama inducing than when the person actually knows they are going to go lol. Tbh I was so mad that Ozzy got rid of Ami and Eliza that I was happy he got blindsided, lol.
The challenges and set: I know I am nearing the time when the set doesn't matter, but I thought I had a few more seasons of grace, especially after how amazing China was. I guess I was wrong. Well, the set in general was very lacking and most of the challenges were super generic, but the huge money wheel was cool, as was that village visit. I'll take what I can get.
But when it comes to actual entertainment the challenges were gold. I think aside from that gun shooting one which was kinda boring, the others were fantastic. A challenge is what gave birth to the iconic Joel-Chet moment, Amanda showed once again that she is a challenge beast that can't win the actual game, we saw Ozzy being defeated by a fan etc etc. Also the one with the cage going underwater is definitely a favorite of mine that I will be happy to see again no matter what season.
The challenge with the survivor trivia questions felt kind of rigged though, lol. Of course Erik will win that one… or even just a fan in general. That wheel with the logos on it was super cool, though!
The cast: in this kind of season, this should be the core, right? Well, I don't think it was the strongest cast ever but they did very well. From the favorites, the only ones I was super excited about were Ami and Eliza (where are my Vanuatu comrades at?), and as I said earlier I was really bummed when they were voted out. I also liked seeing James, Amanda and Yau Man back. The rest I wasn't big about but it's basically because I almost never ended up liking the big names players, and the big names players are the ones that get to return, so… lol.
Also, is it just me or was Ami way less cut throat this time? Was it because Leann wasn't there? lol
Anyway, the fans had some highlights too, of course. I'd say mainly the Tracy-Chet-Kathy trio, the Natalise-Alexis duo the Erik and James the dummies. Each group had their own fun little storyline that also got woven brilliantly with the favorites, so it was definitely enjoyable to follow. I just feel like it was… more story driven than character driven, if it makes sense?
Though the small character moments we did get were gold. Jason and the f'ing stick, Erik giving up the necklace, Natalie opening up out of nowhere as an evil witch… over at the favorite side I actually feel it was more lacking – maybe it was because I already knew all of them before, I'm not sure. But I generally felt like their personality traits shone less, maybe aside from Parv who now I can realize got edited in a way she would be accepted as a winner (oh btw I'm definitely fine with her winning). I guess Cirie also got some of her usual Cirie-style confessionals, but she also got a lot of gameplay ones so yeah.
I wasn't attached to anyone personally so that's probably why I was slightly less invested, even though I enjoyed everyone a lot.
I read somewhere in the subreddit that this season was supposed to be AS2, but they didn't have enough big players to bring so they changed to fans vs. favorites. I think it was a good decision overall if I look at it objectively, but personally there are quite a few "smaller" players that I would have loved to see again lol.
Oh and I forgot to mention it earlier but I guess it also matches this category – once again I hated how they changed the opening for every ep and removed voted out people. Stop it. Stop doing it. Just put the full opening every time, it's not so hard!
 
And that's it for FvF! I might be a little rusty in summarizing my thoughts, but I'm sure I'll get right on track for the next season. THE NEXT SEASON!!! GABON!!!
Haha I might as well mention again that Gabon was actually kind of the only season I watched fully before, around the time it aired (maybe a little bit later because I watched it on cable TV in my country, and I'm sure we weren't 100% caught up, but the timeline match). I don't remember it in full details obviously but I do remember quite a lot – and I'm excited to see if it holds up and how much nostalgia I have for it lol. I'm definitely excited to see Sugar again!
Thanks for reading!
^{*English is not my native language.}

A bit curious about how inheritance is shared in nigeria. I want to know how different tribes share their inheritance, for context I grew up in South Africa but I am of Igbo heritage, I only recently became more aware of how intense things like tribalism is in Nigeria. Growing up in South Africa I was raise with a mindset of tolerance as you know the country has so many social issues. I want to know if say the father of the household dies, who is responsible for the inheritance sharing and how is it partitioned, what happens in the case the deceased lefts orphans and a step mother, what if the orphan is a first son but is younger than the step mother who also has other kids. I just want to learn how things work in Nigeria, Do we use a federal government system or do we use traditional systems. Nigeria is such a confusing country with so many things going on. I want to learn about the Igbo culture with regards to this since it's very relevant to me.

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⚠️ WARNING: Maasverse Spoilers—Proceed with Caution ⚠️

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Part 1: Characters and Courts
Part 2: World Map, Items, Terms & Other - YOU ARE HERE
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If this is the first post you've landed on, see Part 1 above for an introductory explanation to this two part post.

​
https://preview.redd.it/tblspn7am90d1.png?width=832&format=png&auto=webp&s=0e1c5d11b53736e3ac49b29e6734dba821f44e4e

UK + IRELAND

PRYTHIAN

A combination of Prydain, the old Welsh name for Britain, and Brython, which translates to “Ancient Britons” from Welsh.

HYBERN

A riff of Hibernia, the Classical Latin name for Ireland.

​
Artist of Prythian map: P-dulcis on redbubble

ADDITIONAL EUROPEAN-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

ILLYRIA

The Ancient Greeks used the term Illyria to define a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The numerous peoples who populated those areas were known collectively as the Illyrians. The region itself is quite mountainous.

THE MIDDLE

May refer to the Midlands, the central part of England, though geographically the Prythian map places the Middle central to Prythian, not central to England; with the Prythian inclusion of Scotland, the Middle on Prythian maps is located further north than the actual Midlands of England.

UNDER THE MOUNTAIN

A potential nod to the Schiehallion, a cone-shaped mountain often referred to as the center of Scotland. It's name comes from the Gaelic Sìth Chailleann, meaning "fairy hill of the Caledonians." On the southwestern side of the mountain is said to lie the well-concealed Uamh Tom a' Mhòr-fhir, a cave serving as an entrance to the underworld.
Note: As the Schiehallion lies in the middle of Scotland (the Night Court) and not the middle of mainland UK (Prythian), the Sciehallion could instead be representative of Ramiel.

THE WESTERN ISLES

May refer to the Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, which is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. They are also sometimes known as Innse Gall, a Gaelic term meaning "islands of the foreigners/strangers" which was originally used by mainland Highlanders when the islands were ruled by the Norse.
ACOTAR role: The Prison is located in the Western Isles.

THE PRISON

Though located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland rather than the Outer, the Prison may be a nod to Beinn Shiantaidh, which is Scottish Gaelic for "holy mountain." It is located on the western side of the Island of Jura and is the second highest peak of the Paps of Jura.
Fun fact: Pap is of Old Norse origin and means breast.

VALLAHAN

Valhalla is the hall of slain warriors in Norse mythology, located in Asgard, where those who die in combat live in peace under the leadership of the god, Odin. They are said to dwell in Valhalla until the events of Ragnarök, where they will then march out to fight in aid of Odin against the jötnar, a type of being in Germanic mythology.
ACOTAR role: A faerie territory located in the northwest portion of the Continent.

ADRIATA

The Adriatic Sea is located in Southern Europe and separates the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. It contains more than 1,300 islands.

BOG OF OORID

The Oorid Lough is a freshwater lake in the west of Ireland.

CRETEA

Crete is the largest and southernmost island in Greece.
ACOTAR role: Where Miryam and Drakon's people lived following the War.

LAPPLUND

Lapland is a geographic region in Northern Fennoscandia which covers much of the Nordic countries. It is also a province of Sweden and the largest region of Finland.
ACOTAR role: Where the Cauldron was hidden.

ITICA

Ithaca is an island featured in the Odyssey and was the island home of Odysseus. It is also a real island in Greece. The Kathara Monastery is located in Ithaca.
ACOTAR role: Itica is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

MONTESERE

Montserrat is a mountain range near Barcelona.
ACOTAR role: Montesere is a fae territory located in the Continent's NW and is considered generally wealthy. They allied with the loyalists in the War.

RAVENNIA

Ravenna is located in Northern Italy and was the capital of the Western Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: Ravenna is a fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

DUNMERE

Dunmere is a hamlet in Cornwall, England.
ACOTAR role: Dunmere is a town located within the Night Court, between Velaris and the sea.

NEVA

The Neva is the fourth-largest river in Europe and is located in northwestern Russia.
ACOTAR role: One of the largest human cities on the Continent and is where the Archeron sisters' father travels to trade.

SCYTHIA

The Scythians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who migrated from Central Asia to the steppes of modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia.
ACOTAR role: One of the territories of the human lands on the Continent, ruled by Queen Vassa. They are said to be a horse loving people.

ROSEHALL

Rosehall is the name of a remote hamlet in the Scottish Highlands.
Fun fact: The 2nd Duke of Westminster acquired the Rosehall estate and his mistress at the time, Coco Chanel, redecorated the interior to her own liking. Winston Churchill, a close friend of the Duke, also visited the estate.
ACOTAR role: Mentioned in ACOFAS and is theorized to be the place where Azriel's mother resides.

AFRICA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

THE BLACK LAND

Black Land translates from Kemet, a popular ancient name for Egypt, which is derived from the color of the fertile black soil along the cultivated area of the Nile valley.
ACOTAR role: A region of the continent where human slaves were ruled over by a High Fae queen. Miryam and Drakon joined the mortals in the War and freed Miryam's people by crossing the desert and eventually the sea.

THE ERYTHRIAN SEA

The Erythraean Sea, originally an Ancient Greek geographical designation, has been used as a name for the Red Sea which lies between Africa and Asia.
ACOTAR role: Drakon used his magic to split the Erythian Sea.

ASIA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

XIAN

Xi'an is the the most populous city in Northwest China snd the second most popular tourist destination in China.
ACOTAR role: A Fae territory on the Continent that allied with the Loyalists during the War. A large majority of the Dawn Court is made of Fae from Xian, including Thesan's mother. Feyre remarks that Amren may have molded her mortal body after their peoples.

BHARAT

Bhārat is one of the two principal official short names for the Republic of India.
ACOTAR role: The Archerons lost their fortune when their father's ships sank on the way to Bharat.

RASK

May refer to Rask, a city in Iran, that serves as both capital of its county and district.
ACOTAR role: A Fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS

VELARIS

Possibly derived from the Latin vēlo, meaning "to veil, cover, wrap" along with "to hide, conceal" and "to clothe in." Could also derive from the Latin vēlum, meaning "to veil, curtain" and also indicates a tarpaulin acting as cover for outdoor spaces.

THE WALL

No singular reference, but the presence of a wall separating one race from another, often humans from mythical beings, is rife throughout history, mythology, and fantasy.
One from each category that has loose ties to ACOTAR: (1) Hadrian's Wall, ie the Roman Wall, a defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia. It spanned from coast to coast, cutting across the entire width of Northern England. (2) In Norse mythology, the Master Builder asking for the hand of the goddess Freyja as payment for constructing a wall around Asgard to defend the gods. (3) The English village of Wall in Neil Gaiman's Stardust, named after the wall separating the land of Faerie from the mortal realm, highly guarded and cautioned against for mortals seeking to pass through.

THE MOONSTONE PALACE

Romans linked moonstone to the moon goddess Diana (goddess of wild animals and the hunt) and Ancient Greeks linked it to their lunar deities Artemis, Hecate, and Selene.

SIDRA RIVER

Sidra is a name of Latin origin and means "Goddess of the stars" or "like a star."

RAMIEL

Ramiel is a fallen Watcher, a type of Biblical angel, one of the 20 Watchers that rebelled against God by mating with mortal women, therefore creating the Nephilim (Shadowhunters, anyone?). Ramiel means "God has thundered." Ramiel is sometimes conflated with Remiel, also known as Jeremiel, meaning "God shall have mercy," as is listed as one of the seven Holy Angels. He is the archangel of hope and is responsible for divine visions and guiding the souls of the faithful into Heaven.

POOL OF STARLIGHT

No plausible connection found, though there is a famous pool in Greek mythology—a pool Mnemosyne presided over in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe. Dead souls would drink from Lethe to wipe their past lives from remembrance when reincarnated. Those who drank from Mnemosyne's pool remembered and halted their transmigration of the soul.

ATHELWOOD

Ethel (also aethel) is an Old English word meaning "noble." Athelwood can mean "noblewood."
ACOTAR role: Morrigan's estate located in the Night Court.

GOLLIAN MOUNTAINS

Göll is one of the named Valkyries from Norse mythology. Her name means "tumult," or "noise, battle."
ACOTAR role: Where the Valkyries were slain during the War.

MYRMIDONS

In Ancient Greek mythology, the Myrmidons were an Ancient Greek tribe. In the Iliad, they are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Myrmidon has also come to mean "a follower or subordinate of a powerful person, typically one who is unscrupulous or carries out orders unquestioningly."
ACOTAR role: A set of mountains serving as the border between the Day Court and the Night Court from which the Illyrians migrated.

CESERA

No direct reference found, but may allude to Caesarea, the name of numerous cities and locations throughout the Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: One of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

SANGRAVAH

No direct reference found (and I lost my mind searching for one). Closest I came to was the similarly sounding Angharad, a feminine Welsh name, long associated with Welsh royalty, history, and myth, including Arthurian legend.
ACOTAR role: One of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

GREENFIELD VILLAGE

No direct connection found, though Greenfield is the name of several villages of England.
ACOTAR role: A neighboring village to where Feyre grew up and where Isaac Hale's wife is from.

WINDHAVEN CAMP

No connection found, though a separate Windhaven also appears in Tower of Dawn in the TOG series. Altun—Windhaven being the rough translation—is located in a three-peaked mountain range and is the home of Sartaq's hearth-mother and family.
Fun fact: Windhaven is the name of a science-fiction novel by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle following a group of humans who crash-landed on a foreign planet and learned to craft their own wings out of the spaceship wreckage.

THE WOLF'S DEN

No connection found, BUT fun fact: there is a named Wolf's Den castle in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones) that now serves as a prison. "All the days were much the same inside the Wolf's Den, and any change was usually for the worse." A Dance with Dragons, Ch 29
ACOTAR role: The name of the worst tavern in Velaris that Nesta is known to frequent.

SILVERSPRING CREEK

No plausible connection found, BUT fun fact: "Silver Springs" is a song written by Stevie Nicks, performed by Fleetwood Mac, and is so strongly ACOTAR-coded even my non-loving playlist-to-book self can't deny it. If you want more bread crumbles that SJM is a Stevie Nicks fan, "Rhiannon" and it's lyric origins have potential ties to the Rhiannon of TOG.
You could be my silver spring
Blue-green colors flashin'
I would be your only dream
Your shinin' autumn ocean crashin'
Time cas t a spell on you,
but you won't forget me
I know I could have loved you
But you would not let me
ACOTAR role: Silverspring Creek is a stream running through Feyre's human village, near where she hunted rabbits.

STRYGA'S CASTLE

No direct reference found, but due to Stryga/the Weaver resembling a female demon akin to a vampire in Slavic mythology (see the Monster section above), it is possible Stryga's former home, before she was confined to her cottage, is reminiscent of Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula and the Transylvanian Castle complete with three vampiric sister brides who entice men with their beauty and charm before proceeding to feed upon them.

The Night Sky

ARKTOS

Arktos, also written Arctus, means "bear" in Ancient Greek. Arktos was a centaur who fought against the Lapith spearmen. The Arktos Megale (aka Ursa Major, the Great Bear) is one of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy who drew on earlier works by Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian astronomers.
ACOTAR role: One of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest left star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Arktosian is reserved for Illyrians who survive the Blood Right but fail to reach Ramiel.

CARYNTH

May refer to Corinth, an ancient city that was one of the largest and most important of Greece, or Carinthia, the southernmost Austrian state in the Eastern Alps, noted for its mountains and lakes.
ACOTAR role: One of the three regarded holy stars (the middle star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Carynthian is reserved for Illyrians who scale the summit of Ramiel during the Blood Rite and are considered elite warriors.

ORISTES

Orestes (also spelled Orestes) means "stands on a mountain" and he is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and myths concerning his madness and purification.
ACOTAR role: One of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest right star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Oristian is reserved for Illyrians who make it to the Ramiel during the Blood Rite but don't reach the top.

Locations not listed: A slew of various more minor locations have not been listed, including the Four Market Squares of Velaris, certain cottages and houses, and even the Ironcrest Illyrian war-camp.
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THE CAULDRON

There are many magical cauldrons present in various mythologies, one being the Pair Dadeni in Welsh mythology, a magical cauldron able to resurrect the dead, and the coire ansic of Irish mythology, the cauldron of the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which never ran empty.

TRUTH-TELLER

Possibly inspired by Fragarach, an Irish mythological sword known as "The Whisperer" or "The Answerer." It was the sword of Nuada, the first high king; it was said that no one could tell a lie with Fragarach at their throat and that the sword inflicting wounds from which no one could recover.

THE HARP

May refer to the uaithne, the magical harp of the Dagda, the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology. It could control men's emotions and change the seasons.

THE MASK

In Egyptian culture, death masks were designed to guide the spirits of those mummified into the next world.

THE UNKNOWN 4th TROVE ITEM

Seen in a vision by Nesta via Lathys, which we now know to be the Horn, and may refer to the Gjallarhorn of Norse mythology, the sound of which is said to herald the beginning of Ragnarok.

ATARAXIA

Ataraxia, in Ancient Greek philosophy, was a state of calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet, ie tranquility of the mind. It was considered the ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle.
ACOTAR Role: Nesta's Made sword.

GWYDION

Gwydion is a name meaning "born of the trees" and is the given name of Gwydion fab Dôn, a magician, hero, and trickster of Welsh mythology. Caer Wydion, the castle of Gwydion, was the traditional Welsh name for the Milky Way.
ACOTAR role: The Starsword and twin to Truth-Teller.

NARBEN

No direct reference found, though narben in German means "scar."
ACOTAR role: A lost sword from the Dread Trove.

OUROBOROS MIRROR

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent or a dragon eating its own tale, first present in ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition, the term itself deriving from Ancient Greek. It has been used frequently and extensively throughout fantasy literature. It often symbolizes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

BOOK OF BREATHINGS

The Books of Breathing are a set of ancient Egyptian funerary texts that are intended to enable those deceased to continue their existence in the afterlife. It is a simplified form of the Book of the Dead.

VERITAS ORB

Veritas is of Latin origin meaning "truth." It is the name for the Roman virtue of truthfulness and in Roman mythology, Veritas is the Goddess of Truth. Universities and colleges such as Harvard use the term veritas as their motto.

SYMPHONIA

Symphonia is Greek in origin and was used to denote a variety of musical instruments.

AMARANTHA'S NECKLACE AND RING (JURIAN'S FINGER AND EYE)

Jurian's finger bone and eye, kept by Amarantha, are reminiscent of relics and reliquaries, often religious in nature. Relics typically consist of the physical remains or personal affects of a saint and the reliquary is the container that holds them.

FAEBANE

Possibly inspired by wolfsbane (aka aconite or monkshood), a poisonous flower ancient Greeks would poison arrows and bait with to hunt wolves. It is lethal and often fatal and is an oft-used plant and poison within the fantasy genre.
Fun fact: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet himself was killed with an aconite-laced blade.

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DAEMATI

Potentially a combination of the Greek word dae (to give) and the concept of mati, labeled as "the evil eye" in Greek classical antiquity. Daemati may effectively mean "to give the evil eye."

THE WEAVER'S SONG

The Weaver's song, sung when Feyre was stealing Rhysand's ring from her cottage, is similar to "The Twa Sisters," a traditional murder ballad dating back to mid 17th century England. It tells of two sisters who travel down to a body of water where the older one pushes the younger one in. A harp or a fiddle is then made out of the murdered sister's body, which plays itself and sings about her murder.

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To revisit Part 1: Characters & Courts, click HERE

The Palestinian people after 60+ years of colonial rule by the British, with the help of the USA, left the Palestinian people in a very bad place. A serious wrong was in the making... White European Jews with a colonial agenda, invaded Palestine under the guise that the god of the bible, promised the Jews a land of their own and since the bible mentions the Israelites being in Palestine, these Jewish people actually think that they are the Israelites from the African history and therefor the rightful owners of the land of Palestine which they want to turn into Israel. Why do they not identify as Hebrew Israelite? but instead call themselves Jews ! Maybe its because they know it just wouldn't fly as the history of the Hebrew Israelites is well documented and it is no secret that these people were black Africans so, instead these white Europeans decided to go with their own creation called Jew and went about changing history. With their money and influence; the face of the white European Jews; became the poster child for the Lost children of Israel. The European has sought to take everything away from the African including their history, only the African history has been well preserved and is now being recognised.
Here's the thing. 1; The information found in these ancient scrolls came from Africa so, it is African history. 2; Nobody in this African history were, Jews or Christians as these religions were created hundreds of years after these biblical figures had died so neither Moses or Yoshua was a Jew or Christian. 3; In this day and age we would all look foolish trying to claim anything based on the bible and the word of god as the bible is a work of fiction and cannot prove the existence of a god let alone prove that god had said such things. 4. Saying that god said, is one thing, but making such moves to take land that does not belong to you in such a manner is not only scary but very dangerous to the global community.
To witness colonization taking place in 2024 is a; in your face reminder of what can happen to any country since the people who are doing this are too powerful to be stopped and seek to do what they want, when they want and to whom ever they want; 5; The lies that are being upheld by the global West in regards to who these Jews really are. A simple blood test will prove that little to none of these people have any blood relations to that region of the world; yet, here they are, claiming to be descendants of the book. These white European Jews have fabricated history to suit their own requirements. As usual, the European likes to covet what does not belong to them. These Europeans painted themselves into a history that is far older than they are as a race. Such is their jealousy and envy; 6; The identity of being a Jew is a white European creation.
The bible never referred to the Israelite as a Jew, that is a misconception and a deliberate fabrication by those who wrote the modern day bibles. The so called Jew from the bible were called Hebrews who were a black nomadic tribe of people. A select few were called Israelites who came from a Tribe called Judah who today would of came from the region they now call Nigeria. Judaism and Jew are White European creations that were created around African history. Can you see where I'm going with this. If god had really said those things in regards to some promise of a home land for the Jews, then there wouldn't of been any bloodshed involved but the reason why Israel is in turmoil right now is because if such a promise does exist and is true then this promise is for the Israelites not the Jew as the Jew is a European creation and as such is not recognised by the god of the bible;
8; Judaism is a religion not an ethnicity and as a religion, it does not need its own country to exist. Could you imagine if the Christians demanded their own country because god promised them their own home land? that would be absurd, so why is it different for the Jews who are from Europe. Some of them are from a German bloodline or a Slovakian heritage. Most are Russian or Ashkenazi. If any Arab or African blood exists in the Jewish community, it is only through interbreeding.
And finally; The Name Israel was never the name of a place or the name of Ancient Palestine. Yakub otherwise known as Jacob from the bible was later on renamed by god and was given the name Israel. Israel was never the name of a Jewish homeland, this has been fabricated and holds know truth to it and is a construct of colonialism.
We are now moving into an era of enlightenment; were what was once hidden, will now be revealed. What was in the dark, will now see the light. An era were secrets, lies and the truth meet head on.
Share your thoughts in the comments section below. And if you found this analysis insightful, don't forget to hit the subscribe button. Stay informed, stay engaged, and be a part of the conversation. This is Channel Zero, the channel that brings a brutal; but honest perspective on current affairs. Thanks you for your time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaiOhquap2w

In the bustling city of Rochester, New York, an unexpected mutation took root: the Super Mutant X Gene, dubbed "The Catalyst," began spreading rapidly, altering the genetic makeup of those it touched. But its influence didn't end there. Across the ocean, in the heart of Africa, a parallel phenomenon unfolded.
On the plains of Africa, amidst a dazzle of zebras, the mutation struck with equal force. These majestic creatures underwent a startling transformation, evolving into humanoid beings with intelligence and abilities beyond comprehension. Dubbed "Zealers" by the bewildered onlookers, they formed a new society, led by a female of extraordinary wisdom and strength, known as Nia, the Spirit Guardian.
Nia's daughter, Amani, inherited her mother's gift of healing, a power that became increasingly crucial in the face of the changing world. As the Anthropoids navigated this new reality, they discovered a hidden sanctuary beneath the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, a place of wonder and safety they named "Maji ya Moyo," the River of Life.
Within Maji ya Moyo, amidst the sparkling waters and abundant food, the Anthropoids found solace and solidarity. They learned that hiding underground offered protection against the dangers lurking above. But their newfound haven was not without its challenges.
Amani, curious and compassionate, ventured beyond Maji ya Moyo's confines and encountered other animals transformed by The Catalyst. Each species had formed its own tribes and clans, led by powerful female leaders:

• The Elephants, known as the Kifaru Tribe, led by Malaika, the Ivory Guardian.
  
• The Antelopes, called the Pembe Clan, led by Zahra, the Swift Huntress.
  
• The Meerkats, known as the Tandala Clan, led by Kali, the Watchful Sentinel.
  
• The Warthogs, called the Nguru Clan, led by Sanaa, the Fierce Protector.
  

As Amani welcomed these diverse tribes into Maji ya Moyo, she discovered a grim reality: they were hunted by both poachers and transformed predators. Lions, under the banner of the Simba Clan, led by Shujaa, the Ruthless Sovereign, prowled the savannah. Cheetahs, known as the Duma Tribe, led by Bahati, the Fleetfooted Stalker, raced across the grasslands. Tigers, called the Chui Clan, led by Jengo, the Silent Shadow, lurked in the dense jungles. Hyenas, known as the Fisi Tribe, led by Nuru, the Cunning Matriarch, scavenged for prey. Jaguars, called the Chui Paka Clan, led by Zuri, the Deadly Beauty, stalked through the dense undergrowth.
Faced with this dual threat, Amani and her fellow Anthropoids vowed to protect their sanctuary and all who sought refuge within its shimmering walls. But as the shadows of Kilimanjaro stretched long over the African plains, they knew that their greatest challenges were yet to come.

Maps California -Coin From I600s
I stumbled upon this article, California as Island on Maps Mistake claiming that California being shown as an Island was jus a mistake made for HUNDREDS of years. This is nonsense, like claiming they made maps with both mythical & historical Kingdoms. Smh As you'll see In this thread, i give an accurate historical account, and the actual Seal of the Island of California. California you can see that all across the planet it was known & acknowledged. Look at rhe maps, whats called California today isn't the same piece of land, one was submerged.
You can see San Francisco, with the Island of California next to it. Forum
Understand that alot of the dates have been changed, and 1000yr was added to our timeline. I'll show you.
Early maps, coins, buildings, gravestones et a; ALL have a certain dating system that is a clue to the added 1000 years to out time-line. This map is dated by the maker as such, i450 The 'I' was used upto the j550s [1550s] when the letter 'j' was invented so..The 'I' stands for Iesus The 'j' stands for Jesus....You would read the date as such: Iesus the year of our lord 450
Heres a text from a few centuries back showing many Examples of this. There are 1000s of examples of this across time. It is a hint to the transition. Here are the signatures of the great writers, painters and engravers. J 573, Aº j 647, i 666, Ao j 679, Anno J 669,etc
Notice European writers who discuss California as an island, talk about its bein connected to the terrestrial paradise. As i said, America is the true old world. You can see in other threads that there were 7 Kingdoms in the Grand Canyon area & the West coast was called "Granada Land". Remember these were Moors(Ma Ur- Egyptian anu high priest) hence the sophisticated architecture.
In Cali & Mexico is Baja. Or Punta Baja (Bahia) in North Mexico. Theres also a Baja in Brazil. Punta Baja is also a coastal city. Baja is Bahia.Bahia’s capital is the city of Salvador (formerly known as “Cidade do São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos”, literally “City of the Saint Savior of the Bay of All the Saints”) Punt was known as land of the gods by Egyptians right?
Bahia is bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, which was originally called the Ethiopian Ocean (see map below). Ethiopia wasnt jus 1 area in Africa, it was once what ALL of Africa, the Atlantic Ocean , and South America were called. Greek writers tell you they were the most civilized nation & recieved the gods from them.(Zues Aethiops-burnt faced) Interestingly, Bahia literally means Bay, which is just code for Bey. Moor Bey is a Moorish/Turkish surname that means lord, governor, and/or Chieftain. You can see on most maps all the way up til the 1600s. Map 1600s from French textbook 'Description de I’Univers. Vol V,” in 1683.
Elongation In Utero .... As you can see here The earliest inhabitants of the Americas were naturally Dolicocephalic . Huari monuments are called Huanca or Huari. This is almost the same sound as Harari, a name for one of the Semitic speaking tribes of Ethiopia. The forefathers of the Huari are only known from legend as a bearded people. Near the town of Palpa, 12 miles north east of Nazca, Peru there are inscriptions, that can be be read using the Ge’ez language of Ethiopia.
Add: this was shared on X, Photos I think this is the land submerged. You can see that lots of areas werent the same before this period, Here. Grand Canyons Kingdoms

Imma be honest, this is an analysis I feel a bit too touchy on touching because I might get some suspicious stares for some of what I am going to say but I feel it's important for me to express something I personally felt and understood when looking at this movie which I found interesting. So stick with me here, okie?
First of all, I really, really like this movie. The animation, just like always with Disney, looks pretty gorgeous but I also like how it uses the jungle to show some pretty nice action and choreography for Tarzan's abilities in the wild.
The soundtrack is an absolute banger all thanks to Phil Collins. That nigga went so hard with it and it's some of the best music I've ever heard for a Disney film. "Son of Man" is such an uplifting and I think it beautifully describes Tarzan's character of self-discovery. The music in general not only sounds great but it perfectly expresses the themes/messages of the film and adds up to the emotions of the scenes where it plays.
Jane is also like really great as a love interest. She's genuinely very funny and the way she expresses her feelings is something I found to be quite relatable. Like fuck yeah, girl. Who wouldn't wanna climb up the tree house with the hot monke man? Hell yes. Go for it.
Also, I really liked how this film handled its dark elements. It was genuinely uncomfortable looking at the hidden corpses of Tarzan's parents who just got killed. Idk, the subtle way it is presented worked so effectively along with some good use of ominous music. The death of Gideon is so fucking brutal and it's crazy that even though you don't see it directly, you can actually notice the shadow of his body being hanged by the vines on his neck. And what's even worse is that he technically did kill himself in his fit of rage. Very good death scene. I think it did a good job at exemplifying some of the ways the jungle can be a unforgiving and cruel.
Also, I think this one does actually have some of the most tolerable comedic relief characters in a Disney films. Usually, they tend to be annoying and funny while at the same time getting in the way of the more emotional scenes but they were fine here. In fact, I thought Terk was pretty likable, funny and the voice acting for her was pretty good surprisingly. She was cool. The elephant less so but I thought he was pretty okay.
The movie also never drags and it doesn't feel like it goes too fast. My criticisms for a lot of Disney films I saw is that that they keep reminding me that it just wants to get straight to the point of the message and like time doesn't flow naturally in the world of the film. It also prevents me from further connecting with the more emotional stuff of the movie. I appreciate that it did use the time right and the characters felt well developed enough.
I also really liked Kala. She did really gave off that motherly warmth extremely well and that's not something I see very often with a lot of these Disney movies. The scene where she sings to baby Tarzan and where she tries to make him feel like he fits in Gorilla Tribe are some really lovely scenes. This whole movie in general is very solid and it does multiple things that are very great.
The only problems I have with it is a few of comedic moments but otherwise, not any big issues with it at all.
But anyways, I'm not typing this post just to express how much I liked some of the more technical stuff about the film but give my personal interpretation about the film which I think elevates it in a unique way for me in contrasts from other Disney movies.
I think this movie works as a kind of racial allegory. A discovery of your heritage. The desire to fit in the culture you're either raised in and trying to find connection with culture you have felt has been hidden from you. And as we can see in the movie, Tarzan is a human raised by gorillas. But not just human but a white person of British descent as implied with the flag and his parents.
When Tarzan is shown as a baby, we can see that his skin is pretty white and his hair is shown to be straight. However, as we later see in the film, his skin becomes noticeably much more tan, which kinda makes sense since he must be out often in the sun as he travels and hunts in the wild. He also does wear long dreadlocks, which were likely done by his gorilla mother. And from what I checked, in much of the old art and covers for the original Tarzan, Tarzan does look whiter and he keeps his hair straight, which I think it's interesting as it reveals a pretty deliberate choice to make his hair different.
Honestly, if I saw this movie without any context of who his parents were, it could be argued that Tarzan looks like a pretty mixed/light-skinned black guy in a way. But no, in this movie, he's meant to be white but I think the choice of his design and also being raised in this new environment does create a situation in which Tarzan becomes "mixed" in the metaphorical sense. Not just in his design but also literally in his cultural heritage as someone born from British parents but raised for most of his life by Gorillas. And as you can start to notice, the gorillas, are in a way, his black family. And I know, I know! That sounds very bad understanding the ancient history of Africans being compared to apes but I can't help look at the movie and feel like it is creating this subtext. Tarzan is a white person, raised by gorillas in Africa and as said by Kerchak, he cannot consider him his son because he's... different. And that difference is not exactly explicitly said what but obviously, his problem is that he's a man and they are gorillas. But it also could be understood that Tarzan is rejected because of his race. Not just him being a human person but also a white person. Like if you were to design the gorillas to be actual Black African people and kept the subtext like how it is with some minor changes, it would be clear to notice the racial element of Tarzan's relationship with his adopted family. His whole conflict is that he wants be trusted and accepted by his community despite of his race. If he fails to protect them and brings them closer to the human hunters, it means he's no longer part of it and is instead, like the men. The white men seeking to hunt and capture the gorillas.
This movie's main theme is also about self-discovery. Tarzan gets to meet humans for the very first time, which leads him to not only realize that there creatures that look more like him but that he comes from those kind of people and that his appearance is different for a reason. For this reason, he feels like exploring more and finding out all of the ways these people live which is so different from what he has seen before. This makes realize and question about his parents to his gorilla family. And for this reason, he feels at first that he needs to come with these outsiders. To find his "real home". He's choosing to live as a white man over his black side. However, it is not as simple as that. He doesn't fully let go of his life living with his gorilla family but he actually desires to have both his relationship with Jane, a white human woman and his mother, his gorilla mother. He wants to be able to embrace both aspects of his heritage and culture. Giving the lyrics, 'Two worlds; one family', a whole new meaning.
But the unfortunate thing of it all is that he isn't allowed to choose. The gorillas, especially Kerchak, does not trust the humans and the humans want to take him away from them as they wanna raise him as a human living in a human environment. Trying to unite these two at first gets his family in danger and him in a lot of trouble as Kerchak tries to attack Clayton and Clayton tries to kill him with his shotgun. This conflict also motivates him further to catch the gorillas rather than just leave without him.
In the final fight, we see Tarzan protect his people from Clayton and eventually, he's able to disarm him and point at him with his own gun but instead or just being afraid, he encourages him to shoot so he gets to kill him like a man, furthering the colonalization subtext of the film with him using his weapon as a sign of him becoming one of those very men who tried to invade the homes of his family and somebody who feels has the power and advantage on killing them. But instead, Tarzan rejects to be that kind of man and instead, is able to defeat him by using vines of the jungles and leading Clayton to create his own death in his desire to see Tarzan dead. In the end, he decided to defeat Clayton not as a white man but as the man of the jungle.
In the end, Tarzan decides to stay with the family who raised him this whole time knowing that in his father's last words, he is now considered his son and part of the Tribe. He is no longer rejected. But Tarzan is also allowed to be with Jane, embracing both side of himself. Him as a man and as a gorilla. As white and black. And they get to share that experience with the celebration of what histrue family raised him to be while also accepting the other side of himself.
I am myself a Latina. Both my parents are Latin people but the difference is that I was raised for most of my life by my mom, a black Latina and often, I would visit my dad, a white-passing Latino. So my relationship with my race has confusing and complex for me in some ways. I am not able to pass as someone light-skinned like my dad due to my hair, my tanned skinned and somewhat thicker lips but I also have enough of his traits for some folks to not see me as necessarily black. However, some do often see me as Black. And others as just a Latina. I personally identify myself as a Afro-Latina and I am proud of embracing the parts about myself but there's also the reality that people will look at me differently because I am mixed. Because I am neither fully white or fully Black. And it can be rather alienating at times because I find myself lost in that part of my identity and I wanna be able to be accepted from the side of my mother. But just like with Tarzan, some will not consider you part of the tribe but an outsider and one of those men. But also, I cannot fit in with those men nor do I feel that way. So I am left unsure of where I am at all. In that sense, I thought the movie really spoke to me and like it was presenting something very real.
I personally find myself being a lot more connected to the gorillas than most of the humans in "Tarzan". To me, they really feel like a family to me and like the people who raised me and who represents me more. But at the same time, I can accept that in some ways, I am different. And even still, I can still be just okay having those sides running through my bloodstreams.

Imma be honest, this is an analysis I feel a bit too touchy on touching because I might get some suspicious stares for some of what I am going to say but I feel it's important for me to express something I personally felt and understood when looking at this movie which I found interesting. So stick with me here, okie?
First of all, I really, really like this movie. The animation, just like always with Disney, looks pretty gorgeous but I also like how it uses the jungle to show some pretty nice action and choreography for Tarzan's abilities in the wild.
The soundtrack is an absolute banger all thanks to Phil Collins. That nigga went so hard with it and it's some of the best music I've ever heard for a Disney film. "Son of Man" is such an uplifting and I think it beautifully describes Tarzan's character of self-discovery. The music in general not only sounds great but it perfectly expresses the themes/messages of the film and adds up to the emotions of the scenes where it plays.
Jane is also like really great as a love interest. She's genuinely very funny and the way she expresses her feelings is something I found to be quite relatable. Like fuck yeah, girl. Who wouldn't wanna climb up the tree house with the hot monke man? Hell yes. Go for it.
Also, I really liked how this film handled its dark elements. It was genuinely uncomfortable looking at the hidden corpses of Tarzan's parents who just got killed. Idk, the subtle way it is presented worked so effectively along with some good use of ominous music. The death of Gideon is so fucking brutal and it's crazy that even though you don't see it directly, you can actually notice the shadow of his body being hanged by the vines on his neck. And what's even worse is that he technically did kill himself in his fit of rage. Very good death scene. I think it did a good job at exemplifying some of the ways the jungle can be a unforgiving and cruel.
Also, I think this one does actually have some of the most tolerable comedic relief characters in a Disney films. Usually, they tend to be annoying and funny while at the same time getting in the way of the more emotional scenes but they were fine here. In fact, I thought Terk was pretty likable, funny and the voice acting for her was pretty good surprisingly. She was cool. The elephant less so but I thought he was pretty okay.
The movie also never drags and it doesn't feel like it goes too fast. My criticisms for a lot of Disney films I saw is that that they keep reminding me that it just wants to get straight to the point of the message and like time doesn't flow naturally in the world of the film. It also prevents me from further connecting with the more emotional stuff of the movie. I appreciate that it did use the time right and the characters felt well developed enough.
I also really liked Kala. She did really gave off that motherly warmth extremely well and that's not something I see very often with a lot of these Disney movies. The scene where she sings to baby Tarzan and where she tries to make him feel like he fits in Gorilla Tribe are some really lovely scenes. This whole movie in general is very solid and it does multiple things that are very great.
The only problems I have with it is a few of comedic moments but otherwise, not any big issues with it at all.
But anyways, I'm not typing this post just to express how much I liked some of the more technical stuff about the film but give my personal interpretation about the film which I think elevates it in a unique way for me in contrasts from other Disney movies.
I think this movie works as a kind of racial allegory. A discovery of your heritage. The desire to fit in the culture you're either raised in and trying to find connection with culture you have felt has been hidden from you. And as we can see in the movie, Tarzan is a human raised by gorillas. But not just human but a white person of British descent as implied with the flag and his parents.
When Tarzan is shown as a baby, we can see that his skin is pretty white and his hair is shown to be straight. However, as we later see in the film, his skin becomes noticeably much more tan, which kinda makes sense since he must be out often in the sun as he travels and hunts in the wild. He also does wear long dreadlocks, which were likely done by his gorilla mother. And from what I checked, in much of the old art and covers for the original Tarzan, Tarzan does look whiter and he keeps his hair straight, which I think it's interesting as it reveals a pretty deliberate choice to make his hair different.
Honestly, if I saw this movie without any context of who his parents were, it could be argued that Tarzan looks like a pretty mixed/light-skinned black guy in a way. But no, in this movie, he's meant to be white but I think the choice of his design and also being raised in this new environment does create a situation in which Tarzan becomes "mixed" in the metaphorical sense. Not just in his design but also literally in his cultural heritage as someone born from British parents but raised for most of his life by Gorillas. And as you can start to notice, the gorillas, are in a way, his black family. And I know, I know! That sounds very bad understanding the ancient history of Africans being compared to apes but I can't help look at the movie and feel like it is creating this subtext. Tarzan is a white person, raised by gorillas in Africa and as said by Kerchak, he cannot consider him his son because he's... different. And that difference is not exactly explicitly said what but obviously, his problem is that he's a man and they are gorillas. But it also could be understood that Tarzan is rejected because of his race. Not just him being a human person but also a white person. Like if you were to design the gorillas to be actual Black African people and kept the subtext like how it is with some minor changes, it would be clear to notice the racial element of Tarzan's relationship with his adopted family. His whole conflict is that he wants be trusted and accepted by his community despite of his race. If he fails to protect them and brings them closer to the human hunters, it means he's no longer part of it and is instead, like the men. The white men seeking to hunt and capture the gorillas.
This movie's main theme is also about self-discovery. Tarzan gets to meet humans for the very first time, which leads him to not only realize that there creatures that look more like him but that he comes from those kind of people and that his appearance is different for a reason. For this reason, he feels like exploring more and finding out all of the ways these people live which is so different from what he has seen before. This makes realize and question about his parents to his gorilla family. And for this reason, he feels at first that he needs to come with these outsiders. To find his "real home". He's choosing to live as a white man over his black side. However, it is not as simple as that. He doesn't fully let go of his life living with his gorilla family but he actually desires to have both his relationship with Jane, a white human woman and his mother, his gorilla mother. He wants to be able to embrace both aspects of his heritage and culture. Giving the lyrics, 'Two worlds; one family', a whole new meaning.
But the unfortunate thing of it all is that he isn't allowed to choose. The gorillas, especially Kerchak, does not trust the humans and the humans want to take him away from them as they wanna raise him as a human living in a human environment. Trying to unite these two at first gets his family in danger and him in a lot of trouble as Kerchak tries to attack Clayton and Clayton tries to kill him with his shotgun. This conflict also motivates him further to catch the gorillas rather than just leave without him.
In the final fight, we see Tarzan protect his people from Clayton and eventually, he's able to disarm him and point at him with his own gun but instead or just being afraid, he encourages him to shoot so he gets to kill him like a man, furthering the colonalization subtext of the film with him using his weapon as a sign of him becoming one of those very men who tried to invade the homes of his family and somebody who feels has the power and advantage on killing them. But instead, Tarzan rejects to be that kind of man and instead, is able to defeat him by using vines of the jungles and leading Clayton to create his own death in his desire to see Tarzan dead. In the end, he decided to defeat Clayton not as a white man but as the man of the jungle.
In the end, Tarzan decides to stay with the family who raised him this whole time knowing that in his father's last words, he is now considered his son and part of the Tribe. He is no longer rejected. But Tarzan is also allowed to be with Jane, embracing both side of himself. Him as a man and as a gorilla. As white and black. And they get to share that experience with the celebration of what histrue family raised him to be while also accepting the other side of himself.
I am myself a Latina. Both my parents are Latin people but the difference is that I was raised for most of my life by my mom, a black Latina and often, I would visit my dad, a white-passing Latino. So my relationship with my race has confusing and complex for me in some ways. I am not able to pass as someone light-skinned like my dad due to my hair, my tanned skinned and somewhat thicker lips but I also have enough of his traits for some folks to not see me as necessarily black. However, some do often see me as Black. And others as just a Latina. I personally identify myself as a Afro-Latina and I am proud of embracing the parts about myself but there's also the reality that people will look at me differently because I am mixed. Because I am neither fully white or fully Black. And it can be rather alienating at times because I find myself lost in that part of my identity and I wanna be able to be accepted from the side of my mother. But just like with Tarzan, some will not consider you part of the tribe but an outsider and one of those men. But also, I cannot fit in with those men nor do I feel that way. So I am left unsure of where I am at all. In that sense, I thought the movie really spoke to me and like it was presenting something very real.
I personally find myself being a lot more connected to the gorillas than most of the humans in "Tarzan". To me, they really feel like a family to me and like the people who raised me and who represents me more. But at the same time, I can accept that in some ways, I am different. And even still, I can still be just okay having those sides running through my bloodstreams.

Ramesses III
Flourished Circa 1187-1156 b.c.e.
King, dynasty 20
Ramesses III was the last significant king of the New Kingdom (circa 1539-1075 b.c.e.). His parents, King Sethnakhte and Queen Tiye-Merenaset, were the founders of Dynasty 20 (circa 1190-1075 b.c.e.). Ramesses III had at least three wives. Queen Isis-Hemdjeret was the mother of Ramesses IV, the next king. An unknown queen or queens bore ten other sons. Among these sons were the future kings Ramesses VI and Ramesses VIII. (Ramesses V was perhaps Ramesses Ill’s brother.) Another secondary queen named Tiye was the mother of Prince Pentaweret. Their plot to assassinate Ramesses III was discovered and led to their death by suicide.
Ramesses Ill’s early reign was dominated by war. The Meshwesh tribe, with origins in Libya, continued to infiltrate the delta from the west. Egypt had accepted the presence of these Libyans but the king expected to control the succession of their “kings.” In Year 5 of his reign Ramesses III fought the Meshwesh to settle local disputes. Another campaign in Year 11 led to further pacification of the Meshwesh.
An even more important battle was fought against the Sea Peoples in Year 8. Scholars still debate the origins of this confederation of ethnic groups that the Egyptians called the Sea Peoples. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that they first destroyed the Hittite capital and brought the Hittite Empire to an end. They were then present in northern Syria, along the Levantine coast, and finally in Cyprus. They attacked the Egyptian delta in a huge battle commemorated at Ramesses Ill’s mortuary temple in Medinet Habu. The Egyptians must have been well prepared for this battle. Scholars do not doubt that Ramesses III successfully repulsed the Sea Peoples and forced them to settle in Syria-Palestine. They were most likely the ancestors of the Philistines. The Sea Peoples never invaded Egypt successfully but they changed the politics of the Near East and northern Africa permanently by destroying the long-established power structure of the east Mediterranean.
Ramesses III built a major mortuary temple at Medinet Habu during the first twelve years of his reign. The building imitated Ramesses II’s Ramesseum in plan. In fact, Ramesses III used the reign of Ramesses II as a model. He constructed buildings at the same sites as his predecessor and named his sons after Ramesses II’s sons.
Ramesses III sent expeditions to Punt and to Sinai in Year 20. These expeditions were the first documented contact with Punt since the time of Hatshepsut more than three hundred years previously. The Sinai expeditions brought copper from Timna and turquoise from Serabit el-Khadim.
Scholars have offered differing interpretations of the meaning of Papyrus Harris I, the major source that described Ramesses Ill’s relationship with the god’s temples. According to the papyrus, in Year 15 Ramesses III ordered an inspection of the temples that revealed extensive internal corruption. Ramesses III both reformed the temple administration and enriched it by assigning large tracts of land to the temples of Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis. Some scholars link the temples’ increased control of land with the inflation in grain prices that occurred about ten years later. Whatever the validity of this interpretation high grain prices led to food shortages at Deir el Medina, the workman’s village. During the course of a strike in Year 29, the men refused to work until they received their wages from the temple. Perhaps in spite of these problems Ramesses III celebrated a Sed festival in Year 30 as was traditional. Some scholars have linked the lavish spending on the festival in the face of grain shortages to the assassination attempt against Ramesses III led by Tiye and Pentaweret. Jacobus van Dijk has suggested that at the least, Tiye and Pentaweret believed they could succeed because both officials and workers were so dissatisfied. Ramesses III died soon after this attempt on his life, though not all scholars believe the assassination attempt was the direct cause of his death.
Thus, Ramesses Ill’s legacy was insubstantial probably because of economic problems beyond his control. With his death, the final phase of the New Kingdom began. This era ended about eighty years later after ineffective rule by eight kings named Ramesses.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/ramesses-iii

Reparations is a non-violent mean (I believe the Germanics called it Weregild) to address an issue that has historically been resolved through violence, as well as other, less diplomatic means. This post will cover why it is justified and beneficial, as well as some common arguments made against reparations. Given the topic and that this is Reddit, I expect downvotes and controversy, but please do try to provide a rebuttal to my arguments - this is a debate, after all.
First of all, reparations have already been given out multiple times in the modern age - that already renders the "reparations has never been done before, at least in the modern age" argument invalid. Jews, Japanese victims of American internment camps, and Native Americans (to name a few) have all received (and some currently still receive) reparations - there is already precedent.

• "People who have never enslaved anyone would be paying people who have never been enslaved. This makes no sense. Giving people money, E.G punishing another person for something they did not do is tyrannical. You do not get jailed because your father committed a murder."

Reparations would be given out by governments and institutions that participated in (and have directly benefitted from) slavery and colonialism (such as the American government, British government, Dutch government, etc.). The Western European institutes that contributed to the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade (also called the Triangle Trade) are still largely intact and participate in neo-colonization, the evolution of colonialism - which of course came about after Western European countries switched from slavery to the former after rebellions such as the Haitian Revolutions scared the White, capitalist, slaver class, and made them realize that slavery was no longer the most efficient method of exploitation to feed their imperial machines. Those specific institutions should be made to, as Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said, pay reparations to the descendants (such as Britain paying reparations to the government/citizens of Jamaica) of the victims of slavery and colonization in the Americas, Caribbean, Africa, and even in Europe.
Apologists for Western European slavers and colonizers often bring up the false narrative that "blacks sold their own into slavery", when Western Europeans (wanting to create an expansive market for slaves to populate their new stolen and freshly genocided lands in the New World) used the system of capitalism and economic incentives to fuel the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade in Africa, turning it from a horrible but relatively isolated system where an individual (usually men captured in war) may eventually earn their freedom in some way, to an industrialized juggernaut responsible for one of the great evils of humanity - exploiting the greed and evil of Black and mixed compradors (look up the word), not countries/tribes, to act as the enforcers of their agenda. It only takes a few evil men backed by evil institutions to commit atrocities - and that's exactly what happened. It's actually similar to what happens today. A small group of individuals (the "president" and his cabal) supported by and completely beholden to Western interests exploit a population who have a completely different value system (giving the West plausible deniability to say said country supports their exploitation because the puppet they control says so) - the world literally saw this system get overthrown in Niger last summer.

• "Everyone (Race / culture / nationality wise), has faced injustices and terrible things, most notably slavery, which has happened everywhere at all times, including towards white people, Africans enslaving each other, Arabs enslaving Europeans and Africans, Native North + South Americans enslaving each other for decades etc. This means it is not only difficult but genuinely impossible to 'compensate' people for their ancestors troubles. It is nonsensical attempting to figure out who is the 'most oppressed'."

The systems of slavery between Arabs, Africans/North Africans, and Europeans were wildly different. The European system was far, far worse than the others (though all slavery was and is bad), for far more people, and had a far greater negative effect - leading up until this day. People who bring up the Arab/North African system usually do so not out of pity or a real interest in history (then they would know that many of the most prolific slavers who participated in the Arab/North African slave trade were themselves white Europeans, for example) and "both sides were equally bad" people who rightfully bring up the aftereffects of slavery and colonization that still affect millions, if not billions of people today - it was Western European elites after all who invented the concept of the White identity, and White supremacy - an ideology necessary for their particular brand of slavery/imperialism.
It's also not actually that difficult to pay reparations from existing governments that committed said atrocities to the victims and their descendants - it has already happened multiple times. Even concerning African reparations, the German government agreed to pay Namibia some form of reparations for the Herero and Nama genocide.
Detractors of reparation efforts and apologists of slavery/colonialism who mention ancient, non-existent empires like the Mongols, Romans, or whichever group that never paid "reparations" should also remember that the Mongol empire disintegrated millennia ago. They have no ideological successors - the people that inhabit the modern nation-state of Mongolia and surrounding regions are all that’s left. The Roman empire also collapsed millennia ago, and their ideological successors are ironically peoples/nations who were their victims long ago, and have gone on to do the same on a far greater scale. Even then, the actions of the Roman empire do not have a direct effect - negative or otherwise, on their victims today (many would say it actually had a positive effect, given how often the alt-right like to larp as Romans).
This is not a competition to see who is the most oppressed - this is an existing government that committed said atrocities paying existing people groups who were the victims - a practice that already has precedence.

• "Who is paying who and why? Why do white Americans need to pay reparations and not the governments of African countries such as Benin and Nigeria who also participated in the trade, and actually sold the slaves to the Europeans?"

This an example of the fallacy (an age-old one used by supremacists and apologists of slavery/colonialism) of using modern African states (which were created by colonialism) like Benin and Nigeria (which did not exist then) as governments who participated in the Triangle Trade, unlike, for example, the American and British governments (which did). This example is even more ridiculous since many Nigerian people groups (such as Yourubas) were among the most negatively affected by the Triangle Trade. Even then, the American government would, for example, only be paying reparations to ADOS (Americans Descended From Slaves) - not all Black people, even in America.

• The idea itself inherently ignores modern slavery, which is currently much larger and more prominent than any historical slave trade, by far. Why is this money and effort going towards people living comfortably in first world countries, for things they did not experience, whilst REAL slaves in Africa, Asia, South America, etc, are actually facing it, and being ignored?"

Nothing about reparations ignores modern slavery - which is sadly a phenomenon that happens in virtually every country on Earth - including Western ones. The governments that are the most responsible for modern slavery, the systems that perpetuate it, and its preeminence in the modern world are ironically those responsible for Western-style slavery and colonialism. The money and effort would be going to victims of, for example, the Triangle Trade and European colonialism - of which many suffer the effects of said systems today - that being modern slavery, among many, many other things. Also, although modern slavery may affect more people today due to global population increase, it covers a variety of systems (some "lesser" and some "greater") which are all considered as "slavery" in the modern age, all of which are significantly less brutal that the systems employed under European colonialism/slavery.

• "Paying somebody money to compensate for atrocities means literally nothing, why can't we just remember and learn from the past, but simultaneously move on? Please do not talk about the 'current' still 'ongoing' effects of 'the institution of slavery' because it is both not that significant and likely wouldn't be impacted by these 'cash donation' reparations, and also a far smaller issue than other things plaguing American communities such as the African American one, like the extremely high rates of black on black homicides, or fatherlessness / single parent household rates."

Imagine saying that to Jews concerning the Holocaust. Reparations establish the fact that there are consequences for said actions, and provide some measure of closure for one of the greatest atrocities committed in human history - and one that has massive (if not one of the greatest) repercussions for the majority of the world's problems in the modern age. Considering the geopolitical events that are currently happening, it's clear that "learning from the past, but simultaneously moving on" is innefective (and enables the repetition of past atrocitities) unless there are significant consequences for said actions. The white supremacist myths and talking points metioned here are also literally caused (concerning the kernel of truth in the statements) by the legacy of slavery/colonialism.

• "Many black people, Asians, and white people in America now are immigrants that arrived after the TAST ended. This inherently suggests that the whole population will have to take some sort of 'background test' to see who is more oppressed. How would this work? How do you find out about people's background injustices? Especially since many were so far in the past."

They were not that far in the past. Colonialism (officially) ended in the late 20th century. Aparthied SA was overthrown in the 90's. There are multiple generations of living Black Americans who directly experienced Jim Crow.
Overall, as said in the introduction, reparations are a non-violent means to address an issue that has historically been resolved through violence. If not reparations, what is the hope of the West? To just keep saying “lol no” and kicking the can down the road until its accusers forget? That may have been true 1000 years ago, but it’s not the case here. Even then, the scale and brutality of Western European colonialism was unprecedented in human history - and the consequences, as well as inequalities, are still in place long after its official “end” - even 1000 years ago there would not have been some “letting go of the past” without restitution - just consider the centuries-long grudge held by many European nations over the fall of Constantinople. Every hypocrisy - every violation of the modern “rules-based order” by its own creators will only serve to add more pressure to the cooker… It's an indisputable fact that Global South is rapidly rising in population (both at home and through diaspora), power, and geopolitical relevance. It is detrimental to the West, and any legitimacy it claims to have, to maintain a colonial-era position on the issue - just as it was detrimental for Jim Crow America to maintain its stats-quo following the Civil Rights Era.

Since Season 40, a common bit of contention in the Survivor fandom has been the fact that Survivor doesn’t use season themes anymore. Jeff has gone on the record saying that season themes started to get stretched a little thin after settling in Fiji, and after the pandemic, he wanted to free the show of the burden of needing themes for each season. I, for one, have always thought that season themes were a very fun addition to the show, and I think they should bring them back, probably after season 50.
But I figured I’d try to put my money where my mouth is. Jeff and the production team were having trouble coming up with themes that had a catchy title and could persist from the beginning to the end of the season. I sat down this afternoon and tried to brainstorm some season themes I would try to implement if I were on the production team.
People commonly suggest themes like Legends, First Boots, Old School vs. New School, and Back to Basics, and while I would love to see those themes, I tried to come up with unique themes I haven’t seen floating around before. These are themes which could apply to newbie seasons with a few notable exceptions.
Here’s what I came up with, ordered as the seasons I see production most likely to implement to the least likely. But I think each of them would have interesting twists that would be fun to watch.

1. Survivor: Guts vs. Gamers vs. Gremlins

So I had to indulge myself and include at least one three tribe vs. format similar to HHH. This would be an altered version of brains vs. brawn vs. beauty, another popular theme. The equivalent of the brains tribe would be the Gamers, who are focused more on being geeks and nerds rather than being generally smart. The equivalent of the brawn tribe would be the Guts, being composed of athletes, daredevils, and others with dangerous careers like oil rig workers and climbers. Lastly, the equivalent of the beauty tribe would be the Gremlins. Instead of being a bunch of models, the Gremlins would emphasize the social aspect of the game by being comedians, pranksters, and other people that production thinks would be funny to interact with each other.
I think this is a believable theme as Survivor has set a precedent for doing similar seasons in the past. I also think each tribe would be interesting to watch as the interpersonal dynamics and playstyle would be very different on each tribe.

1. Survivor: Lawmen vs. Outlaws

In Survivor: Pearl Islands, they explored the theme of pirates with the Drake and Morgan tribes being named after famous pirates of history and the sabotage rewards. In a similar vein, I’d like to see a Wild West themed season with tribes called Earp and Cassidy. Of course, it doesn’t fit as well as pirates in Pearl Islands cause there were never cowboys in Fiji, but hey 44 had a half-baked medieval fantasy theme, so why not?
The lawmen tribe would consist not just of police officers, obviously, but of natural leaders and people that tend to value honor and camaraderie. The outlaw tribe would be made of people who don’t seem to fit in, or would cause chaos on the island. For a feel good story, I can definitely see production wanting to put some people on the outlaw tribe who have been to prison and have turned their life around afterward (obviously nobody that’s done anything too egregious). If this is a returnee season, this would be a fantastic place for Richard Hatch to finally return.
For a twist in this season, I think it would be cool to bring back the Survivor auction in a big way, by allowing the cast to earn money during rewards to save up for the auction they know is coming late in the season. This money could come from rewards or from finding it in caches around the camp.
Also, Jeff needs to wear his cowboy hat the whole season.

1. Survivor: One World 2

Okay, so I know it seems like I’m just taking old seasons and bringing them back with new twists, and I promise I have more original concepts later. But my idea for One World 2 actually started out as something completely separate, but the title of One World fit so well that I just had to include it.
I would love to see a full international season. As it is, Survivor can only cast people with US or Canadian citizenship and a passport, but they’ve casted a few immigrants. My proposal is to bring an all newbie cast entirely made of US immigrants, each one from a different country around the world, preferably people who were raised in their home country. The season would become an incredible mixing pot of different cultures, and of course you can include the original twist of One World with everyone starting on the same beach.

1. Survivor: Nowhere to Hide

Here’s my first spicy season. The previous three seasons are ones I can see production considering and from now on, these are fantasy seasons I would love but are unlikely to ever happen. Survivor: Nowhere to Hide is focused around one major twist. You cannot earn immunity for yourself. When you play an immunity idol, you cannot play it for yourself. When you win an immunity necklace, you have to give it to someone else. During the premerge, the immunity challenges would need to be kept the same, but the twist could still be involved with there being a few more idols hidden around camp than there would normally be.
I think this would add an interesting dynamic to the game, though it would definitely need to be contained to this one season.

1. Survivor: World Cup

Was Survivor acquired by ESPN? No, it’s just that the theme this season is sports. A cast of newbies is assembled, each with a background in some sport or other athletic venture. Each immunity and reward challenge is just the cast playing through a game of different sports. During the pre-merge they would play team sports like basketball, kickball, and sand volleyball, and after the merge, they would move on to individual games like tennis, golf, and archery.
Out of all celebrities who have played Survivor, most seem to be athletes, so in a cast comprised entirely of athletes, I think that they would have a shot to go farther than they usually do.

1. Survivor: Checkmate

Whereas the previous theme was a cast comprised of only the most athletic individuals, the cast of Survivor: Checkmate would be only the most intelligent that production could muster. This would be a fantastic season to have a returnee cast, but would also work with newbies.
In a game of chess, there is no luck involved, only strategy. You begin each game knowing exactly what it takes to win, and you have to beat your opponent in a battle of wits to get there. To mimic this in a game of Survivor, all tribes would start with an in-depth roadmap to all the twists, tribe swaps, and advantages in the season, as well as how many idols and advantages are hidden at each beach. Certain secrets could still be kept to keep the viewing experience exciting, such as the nature of each summit, what a potential beware advantage contains, and where idols are hidden, but for the most part, all players should start the game knowing how the game will look from Day 1 to Day 26. This may take a bit of the flair from each twist since the audience knows it’s coming, but I believe this theme will bring a level of strategy to the game that the show has never seen before.

1. Survivor: Old Dogs vs. New Tricks

Two previous survivor themes that were interesting but had flaws were Fans vs. Favorites and the old vs. young theme of Nicaragua. The latter theme didn’t work out well and they scrapped it almost immediately, whereas fans vs. favorites is fun, but it leads to the fans getting steamrolled most of the time. What if we were to combine these two themes? A fans vs. favorites season with a tribe of old returnees vs. young newbies? The weaknesses of both themes could potentially counter each other.

1. Survivor: Island of Dreams

The last three themes are ones I’m fairly confident would never come to pass, but I just think would be really cool. In Survivor: Cambodia, production allowed the public to have a vote on who the cast would be. In Survivor: Island of Dreams, what if the community had the option of voting on everything ELSE involved in a Survivor season?
After a cast of newbies is flown out to Fiji, production allows the public to vote on which advantages and twists will be in the game, which reward and immunity challenges they will face from a preset list, and what each reward will be. They could even accept write-in advantages and rewards to be added to the vote with production’s screening. I think it would be huge for the community to be able to create the perfect season.
Since the season would be called Island of Dreams, there could also be heavy theming on nighttime challenges. Also, the summits could be flavored as dreams, and production could have them leave camp in the middle of the night rather than after challenges.
Also, Dreamz is back.

1. Survivor: Knowledge is Power

The Knowledge Is Power advantage has been a controversial one, but it did have a catchy name. If they retire the advantage, let’s see them return it in a season of its own theme.
Survivor: Knowledge is Power will be a complicated season. There are no hidden immunity idols, and there are no advantages, beware or otherwise. In their place are “tomes” and “totems.” Here’s how they work. At the beginning of the season after the initial reward challenge, all 20 players get to choose a totem: a small talisman with the likeness of an animal like a bull, a frog, or a crab. Jeff tells the cast that each of these totems carries a different advantage, but in order to learn what they do, they need to find clues in the form of tomes. Tomes would be leather-bound journals hidden where normal advantages and idols would be, and inside each are two or three clues of what some of the totems do. Tomes could also be won at reward challenges throughout the season.
Each totem can be played in the voting chamber, nullifying your vote similar to the shot in the dark. After you play your totem, you gain a scroll advantage that you are able to play when Jeff asks for advantage plays. Some totem effects could include:

• Write your vote after the other votes are read.
• Give yourself an extra vote advantage (basically Bank your vote)
• Gain a map to an idol.
• Make another player lose their vote at their next tribal council (this would be a public announcement).
• Nullify a single vote against yourself or an ally after the votes are read.
• Steal another player’s unplayed totem.

So there are 20 totems, and it’s probably too cumbersome to make 20 separate advantages for each totem, but you could have two copies of each totem for a total of 10 unique totem effects. This accentuates the knowledge is Power theme in that once one totem has been played, the holder of that totem’s twin now knows what their own advantage is.
This, I believe would be a fun counter to the common suggestion for a season where every player starts the game with an idol.

1. Survivor: Storm of Secrets

So I know this season is never happening, but I just decided to go all out on a fantasy season that throws all rules to the wind. By the end of my brainstorming, I ended up with a season that is basically a completely different show, but whatever, I think it would be fun. And how fitting is it that the most chaotic and hectic season would be one where its abbreviation is SOS. Hang with me here.
In Survivor: Storm of Secrets, Jeff would open the season with an explanation of the rules for the audience from what looks like the confines of a cabin, and he’ll start throwing out Jeffisms about how this is the most unorthodox season Survivor has ever seen. 20 returning players arrive in Fiji and are divided into two tribes on mats. Signs denote the tribe names as Devant and Houdini. The theme of this season is illusions, puzzles, and smoke and mirrors.
Upon the cast’s arrival, they realize Jeff is not there to announce their entrance. As confusion unfolds, players will eventually start to wander off the mats, potentially asking the camera crew if something is going wrong. Before they wander too far from the area, a group of five black-robed masked figures called Secret Keepers appear wordlessly on the beach, one of them carrying a speaker. Blaring from the speaker is the voice of Jeff, who then explains the rules to the survivors.
Jeff Probst is hidden somewhere on the island. Throughout the season, the survivors need to explore and collect clues they find to uncover the secret of what happened to Jeff. Escape room puzzles are littered throughout the campgrounds, some containing riddles, some containing keys, some containing the answers to the puzzles they’ll find later in the game.
During the challenges, Jeff is not present. The Secret Keepers escort the players to the challenge sites where they will learn the rules from a set of written directions as well as a walkthrough from a recorded memo from Jeff. From his secret cabin, Jeff will also walk the audience through the challenge’s rules. For the first time since Survivor: Africa, Jeff will not be narrating a play-by-play of the challenges, which I believe will add an air of mystery to them. The Secret Keepers will announce when a player has won immunity, and present the immunity talisman or necklace to the winners.
During tribal council, Jeff will also not be present, but he will arrive with a live feed to his secret cabin. He will have a short conversation with the tribe like he normally does, except from the other side of a screen. But when it comes time to vote, something is different. Instead of the normal routine, the tribe themselves get to decide how someone will leave the game. The only rule is that at the end of an hour, one player needs to leave the game, and the decision must be majority. They can vote like normal, they can have a live vote, or they can play a game to decide the person who goes home.
After the second tribal council and the two tribes have gotten to know each other, the game changes. After a reward challenge, survivors learn that there are actually six beaches, not just two. Each survivor can choose which beach to go to spend the next two days, and each beach contains new clues and puzzles that must be solved to find Jeff. The tribes can be split up from here to cover more ground, and members from both tribes can go to the same beach. If they want, both tribes can even send all members to one beach, though they haven’t merged. Over the course of the pre-merge, the tribes need to search all six beaches to find enough clues to get farther in the game. Tribes will be able to strategize and exchange information when they meet up before and after immunity challenges.
Once the players reach the merge, the seventh and final beach is revealed. The area of this camp is gigantic, spanning multiple miles, and Jeff’s cabin is located somewhere here. If enough pre-merge puzzles have been solved, players can assemble their clues to go looking for Jeff on the seventh beach.
Once Jeff is finally found, he will give the player who found him three immunity idols, an unprecedented reward in survivor history. If multiple survivors find Jeff at the same time, they will have to compete in a duel Redemption Island style to earn the three immunity idols.
If everything goes according to plan, there should still be a couple votes left before the finale. Once the hunt for Jeff is complete, he will return to the challenges and to tribal council where everything will go forward as normal until we’ve found our Sole Survivor.

1. Survivor: Conclusion

So I went off the rails with that last one, I know, but I had fun coming up with it okay. What do you guys think of my fantasy seasons? Would you want to watch them? What other sorts of season themes would you like to see going forward?

In this long post I will put down what little is known by canon sources about the origins of Saiyans, both in and out of Universe, and compare it to their biological characteristics and their meaning in the context of the Dragonball Universe (by Universe I mean the whole of existence in the franchising, not any one of the 12 single universes of the DB multiversal spacetime continuum). I will delve into biology, genetics, paleoanthropology and history, and put down 3 theories about what Saiyans are, how they originated and how do they relate to mankind.
Out of Universe origins
Saiyans were created as Goku's own non human species long after he was created. Until then he was meant to be a human being with a random genetic mutation giving him a tail and the ability to transform into a werebaboon (later I will explain why the Great Ape form is not an ape but neither is a baboon at all). Their out of universe origins are rooted into Goku's, who is based on Sun Wukong, a folklore character from Chinese mythology said to be a monkey god born from a rock saturated with Qi, the divine energy of the Universe from Taoist mythology.
As for Sun Wukong's origin, first his name : Sun is the name for Rhesus macaque, and means "descendant". It comes from the name of an Irano Turkic nomadic group from the I millenium BCE, whose name, Husun, meant descendants of the crow, from one of their myths about their origins. While they believed to be descendants of a crow and a wolf, to the eyes of the Chinese they looked like giant upright monkeys due to their hirsute bodies and thick, matted yellowish or reddish hair and beards. This is why the name Sun became the name of a local old world monkey. Wukong was the name of a Buddhist monk of Turkic origins who journeyed into India just like Xuanzang, a figure Sun Wukong is popularly associated with.
Sun Wukong's appearence on the other hand comes from Hanuman, a god from Hindu mythology from a race of monkeymen, the Vanara. Originally the Vanara were based on an Austroasiatic tribe from Central India with the monkey as their totemic animal. They used to wear monkey masks and fake tails, which inspired the Hindu people to mythologize them into actual monkeymen.
In Universe origins
What we know of the Saiyans is :

1. Kaioshins, the supposed creators of life, are used to copy and paste life forms from planet to planet, which is why many alien races are human looking. However to suppose Kaioshins did anything more than put down the building blocks of life is just ridiculous. They did not create the beings the way they look now, macroevolution is rather what made micro organisms evolve into all the varieties of living creatures. This means kaioshins likely exported from Earth, the native planet of the Hominoidae family (the apes, which is what we ourselves are too), to many other planets, one or more Earthly ape species, and thus through macro evolution and many different ecosystems the humanoid races were developed.
2. Saiyans evolved on planet Sadala until, during one of the likely many wars from their history, a Super Saiyan was born and he destroyed their planet. Fortunately at the time the Saiyans were about as technically advanced as we are now, and at least one self sustaining population survived by escaping on a spaceship. After 800 years of space nomadism and advancements in spacecraft, they reached planet Plant, later called Vegeta, and lived on it until 200 years later, when Frieza destroyed it. Anything else, for example Saiyans on planet Plant being still cavemen and fighting a race of humans called Tsufuru, comes from non canon sources. If they were cavemen, they would have died on Sadala, by the way.
3. Saiyans can interbreed with humans. However we do not know how much this is meaningful in DB Universe. We do not know if in DB Universe people can breed with chimps, or even with gibbons, or even with baboons. But I believe they, most probably, just as real humans can not even breed with chimps, let alone the others.

Now the prologue is over, let us go with the real thing, my 3 theories on Saiyan evolution and taxonomy incorporating what I explained earlier
1)The Oozaru theory
According to this theory the Oozaru form and the tail are the key clue for Saiyan evolution and place in taxonomical orders. The last common ancestor of all modern catarrhines is the Saadanius, or some sister genus of it. The Saadanius was a small, tailed primate from 29 million years ago living in Arabia.
Its descendants were Rukwapithecus, the first tailles primate and the first ape, and Nsungwepithecus, the first old world monkey. Both of them lived in East Africa 25 million years ago. Nsungwepithecus had a tail, Rukwapithecus did not, would this mean Saiyans are descendants of Nsungwepithecus ? Not exactly.
While the hallmark of apes is being tailless, they are also different from old world monkeys due to their barrel shaped chests, flatter face, hairless chest and belly and larger size. Saiyans have wide chests and larger size in Oozaru form, and also flat faces and hairless chest and belly (and most of the rest of the body) in Base form. This means they are what looks like an ape × monkey chimera. How could such a creature be ? Rukwapithecus and Nsungwepithecus were not the only descendants of Saadanius, there was also the even earlier, African catarrhine known as Kamoyapithecus. By morphology it was closer to Rukwapithecus, the ape, but it had a tail because it originated before it was lost.
Saiyans could have evolved from Kamoyapithecus this way : as it migrated to Eurasia, it became larger and larger until it became an Oozarulike primate (and the largest non herbivore mammal), later it started to get smaller again until it settled at maybe 7 feet tall, gained bipedalism, and started to evolve convergently to humans : larger brain, very flat face, small theeth, short arms, long legs and no body hair. It never lost, however, its tail. Later it was sent by Kaioshin on Planet Sadala where it adapted to high levels of gravity and gained near human levels of intelligence.
What is the taxon of such animal ? It would be a third superfamily of the Catarrhine parvorder, neither Cercopithecoidae nor Hominoidae, neither monkey nor ape, but somehow between the 2 shapewise. What should this superfamily be called ? I would propose Xenopithecoidae, from Xeno (stranger) and Pithecus (ape/monkey). There would be in this genus only two species, one of them with a few subspecies, Xenopithecus ingens (Oozaru form) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus (Base form), with Xenopithecus anthropomimus verus (U7) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus parvus (U6), and possibly more unknown subspecies.
According to this theory Saiyans in real life would NOT be able to breed with humans. Even a gibbon would be a better match and a more closely related one. However in the DB Universe maybe all primates can interbreed somehow. The strenght of this theory is its link with Oozaru form and Saiyan tail.
2) The hominid theory
According to this theory Saiyans evolved from Homo heidelbergensis just as we, the Neanderthals and even the Denisovans did. Homo heidelbergensis evolved in Africa around 1 million years ago, and 800,000 years ago splitted in an African and an Eurasian populations. The Eurasian population splitted 400,000 years ago in Neanderthals and Denisovans. However earlier, about 600,000 years ago, in northern Eurasia, another branch splitted from the Eurasian Homo heidelbergensis, and this would be the Saiyans.
This Homo species would be up to at least 7 feet tall and with the most robust body morphology out of all Homo species, with a brain capacity on par with Homo neanderthalensis and slightly lower levels of intelligence than Homo sapiens.
This makes them as related to humans as Neanderthals abd Denisovans were, but slightly closer to Neanderthals and Denisovans than to humans. They would also be more distinct from anything else than Neanderthals and Denisovans were from each other.
About 200,000 years ago they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin where they adapted to higher gravity.
According to this theory their tail would not have real consistency, it would just be a magical feature from the DB Universe just as Krillin's lack of a nose. The Oozaru form would just be something akin to werewolves and weretigers already living in DB Earth.
The taxon of such hominid would be Homo sadalensis, with 2 known subspecies, Homo sadalensis sadalensis, and Homo sadalensis parvus.
The strenght of this theory is the way it explains Saiyans and humans interbreeding and hybrids.
3) The human theory
According to this theory since Saiyans resemble humans so much, and are specifically closest to Eurasian Homo sapiens populations, they have to be a Homo sapiens subspecies themselves. They would be an outgroup of the OOA Homo sapiens who migrated northeast to Eurasia about 70,000 years ago. They would have diverged in either Mongolia, southern Siberia or Central Asia, and would also, about 30,000 years, have mixed with one of the last Denisova populations, and have got higher than average levels of Denisova introgression.
Later they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin, however I am not sure how mere tall and robust humans could have adapted to higher gravity.
Again, according to this theory their tail and Oozaru form have the same meaning of Krillin's lack of nose, Tienshinhan's 3 eyes and the werewolf form of the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi werewolf : mere fantasy elements of the DB Universe with no counterpart in reality.
Their taxon would here simply be Homo sapiens sadalensis.
The strenght of this theory is how it links Saiyans with the human ethnicities they look like.
My favorite is the hominid theory, while I like the human theory the least. While not related to the Yabanverse, the Oozaru theory makes Saiyans far enough from humans to possibly have Yabans fitting somehow, even if quite obviously artificially modified.
What do you think ?
P.S. While is not canon, the SSJ4 can be placed into the Oozaru theory. It would be the intermediary stage between Xenopithecus ingens and Xenopithecus anthropomimus. It would be called Xenopithecus magnipotens.

In this long post I will put down what little is known by canon sources about the origins of Saiyans, both in and out of Universe, and compare it to their biological characteristics and their meaning in the context of the Dragonball Universe (by Universe I mean the whole of existence in the franchising, not any one of the 12 single universes of the DB multiversal spacetime continuum). I will delve into biology, genetics, paleoanthropology and history, and put down 3 theories about what Saiyans are, how they originated and how do they relate to mankind.
Out of Universe origins
Saiyans were created as Goku's own non human species long after he was created. Until then he was meant to be a human being with a random genetic mutation giving him a tail and the ability to transform into a werebaboon (later I will explain why the Great Ape form is not an ape but neither is a baboon at all). Their out of universe origins are rooted into Goku's, who is based on Sun Wukong, a folklore character from Chinese mythology said to be a monkey god born from a rock saturated with Qi, the divine energy of the Universe from Taoist mythology.
As for Sun Wukong's origin, first his name : Sun is the name for Rhesus macaque, and means "descendant". It comes from the name of an Irano Turkic nomadic group from the I millenium BCE, whose name, Husun, meant descendants of the crow, from one of their myths about their origins. While they believed to be descendants of a crow and a wolf, to the eyes of the Chinese they looked like giant upright monkeys due to their hirsute bodies and thick, matted yellowish or reddish hair and beards. This is why the name Sun became the name of a local old world monkey. Wukong was the name of a Buddhist monk of Turkic origins who journeyed into India just like Xuanzang, a figure Sun Wukong is popularly associated with.
Sun Wukong's appearence on the other hand comes from Hanuman, a god from Hindu mythology from a race of monkeymen, the Vanara. Originally the Vanara were based on an Austroasiatic tribe from Central India with the monkey as their totemic animal. They used to wear monkey masks and fake tails, which inspired the Hindu people to mythologize them into actual monkeymen.
In Universe origins
What we know of the Saiyans is :

1. Kaioshins, the supposed creators of life, are used to copy and paste life forms from planet to planet, which is why many alien races are human looking. However to suppose Kaioshins did anything more than put down the building blocks of life is just ridiculous. They did not create the beings the way they look now, macroevolution is rather what made micro organisms evolve into all the varieties of living creatures. This means kaioshins likely exported from Earth, the native planet of the Hominoidae family (the apes, which is what we ourselves are too), to many other planets, one or more Earthly ape species, and thus through macro evolution and many different ecosystems the humanoid races were developed.
2. Saiyans evolved on planet Sadala until, during one of the likely many wars from their history, a Super Saiyan was born and he destroyed their planet. Fortunately at the time the Saiyans were about as technically advanced as we are now, and at least one self sustaining population survived by escaping on a spaceship. After 800 years of space nomadism and advancements in spacecraft, they reached planet Plant, later called Vegeta, and lived on it until 200 years later, when Frieza destroyed it. Anything else, for example Saiyans on planet Plant being still cavemen and fighting a race of humans called Tsufuru, comes from non canon sources. If they were cavemen, they would have died on Sadala, by the way.
3. Saiyans can interbreed with humans. However we do not know how much this is meaningful in DB Universe. We do not know if in DB Universe people can breed with chimps, or even with gibbons, or even with baboons. But I believe they, most probably, just as real humans can not even breed with chimps, let alone the others.

Now the prologue is over, let us go with the real thing, my 3 theories on Saiyan evolution and taxonomy incorporating what I explained earlier
1)The Oozaru theory
According to this theory the Oozaru form and the tail are the key clue for Saiyan evolution and place in taxonomical orders. First some primate evolutionary history : primates, an order of mammals, are believed to have split from plesiadapiforms in Eurasia around the early Eocene or earlier.
The first true primates so far found in the fossil record are fragmentary and already demonstrate the major split between strepsirrhines and haplorines. the haplorhines (Greek for "simple-nosed") or the "dry-nosed" primates is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians (Simiiformes or anthropoids). The simians include catarrhines (Old World monkeys and apes, including humans), and the platyrrhines (New World monkeys). This 2 groups diverged 40 million years ago. The catarrhines diverged 28 million years ago into Cercopithecoidae and Hominoidae. The last common ancestor of all modern catarrhines is the Saadanius, or some sister genus of it. The Saadanius was a small, tailed primate from 29 million years ago living in Arabia.
Its descendants were Rukwapithecus, the first tailles primate and the first ape, and Nsungwepithecus, the first old world monkey. Both of them lived in East Africa 25 million years ago. Nsungwepithecus had a tail, Rukwapithecus did not, would this mean Saiyans are descendants of Nsungwepithecus ? Not exactly.
Why the hallmark of apes is being tailless, they are also different from old world monkeys due to their barrel shaped chests, flatter face, hairless chest and belly and larger size. Saiyans have wide chests and larger size in Oozaru form, and also flat faces and hairless chest and belly (and most of the rest of the body) in Base form. This means they are what looks like an ape × monkey chimera. How could such a creature be ? Rukwapithecus and Nsungwepithecus were not the only descendants of Saadanius, there was also the even earlier, African catarrhine known as Kamoyapithecus. By morphology it was closer to Rukwapithecus, the ape, but it had a tail because it originated before it was lost.
Saiyans could have evolved from Kamoyapithecus this way : as it migrated to Eurasia, it became larger and larger until it became an Oozarulike primate (and the largest non herbivore mammal), later it started to get smaller again until it settled at maybe 7 feet tall, gained bipedalism, and started to evolve convergently to humans : larger brain, very flat face, small theeth, short arms, long legs and no body hair. It never lost, however, its tail. Later it was sent by Kaioshin on Planet Sadala where it adapted to high levels of gravity and gained near human levels of intelligence.
What is the taxon of such animal ? It would be a third superfamily of the Catarrhine parvorder, neither Cercopithecoidae nor Hominoidae, neither monkey nor ape, but somehow between the 2 shapewise. What should this superfamily be called ? I would propose Xenopithecoidae, from Xeno (stranger) and Pithecus (ape/monkey). There would be in this genus only two species, one of them with a few subspecies, Xenopithecus ingens (Oozaru form) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus (Base form), with Xenopithecus anthropomimus verus (U7) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus parvus (U6), and possibly more unknown subspecies.
According to this theory Saiyans in real life would NOT be able to breed with humans. Even a gibbon would be a better match and a more closely related one. However in the DB Universe maybe all primates can interbreed somehow. The strenght of this theory is its link with Oozaru form and Saiyan tail.
2) The hominid theory
According to this theory Saiyans evolved from Homo heidelbergensis just as we, the Neanderthals and even the Denisovans did. Homo heidelbergensis evolved from late, hairless, large brained Homo erectus ergaster distinct from the hairy and smaller brained earlier ones, in Africa around 1 million years ago, and 800,000 years ago splitted in an African and an Eurasian populations. The Eurasian population splitted 400,000 years ago in Neanderthals and Denisovans. However earlier, about 600,000 years ago, in northern Eurasia, another branch splitted from the Eurasian Homo heidelbergensis, and this would be the Saiyans.
This Homo species would be up to at least 7 feet tall and with the most robust body morphology out of all Homo species, with a brain capacity on par with Homo neanderthalensis and slightly lower levels of intelligence than Homo sapiens.
This makes them as related to humans as Neanderthals abd Denisovans were, but slightly closer to Neanderthals and Denisovans than to humans. They would also be more distinct from anything else than Neanderthals and Denisovans were from each other.
About 200,000 years ago they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin where they adapted to higher gravity.
According to this theory their tail would not have real consistency, it would just be a magical feature from the DB Universe just as Krillin's lack of a nose. The Oozaru form would just be something akin to werewolves and weretigers already living in DB Earth.
The taxon of such hominid would be Homo sadalensis, with 2 known subspecies, Homo sadalensis sadalensis, and Homo sadalensis parvus.
The strenght of this theory is the way it explains Saiyans and humans interbreeding and hybrids.
3) The human theory
According to this theory since Saiyans resemble humans so much, and are specifically closest to Eurasian Homo sapiens populations, they have to be a Homo sapiens subspecies themselves. They would be an outgroup of the OOA Homo sapiens who migrated northeast to Eurasia about 70,000 years ago. They would have diverged in either Mongolia, southern Siberia or Central Asia, and would also, about 30,000 years, have mixed with one of the last Denisova populations, and have got higher than average levels of Denisova introgression.
Later they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin, however I am not sure how mere tall and robust humans could have adapted to higher gravity.
Again, according to this theory their tail and Oozaru form have the same meaning of Krillin's lack of nose, Tienshinhan's 3 eyes and the werewolf form of the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi werewolf : mere fantasy elements of the DB Universe with no counterpart in reality.
Their taxon would here simply be Homo sapiens sadalensis.
The strenght of this theory is how it links Saiyans with the human ethnicities they look like.
My favorite is the hominid theory, while I like the human theory the least. I believe Saiyans NEED to be much closer to us than anything else because they can make FERTILE hybrids with us, however making them simply highly divergent humans does not fit with the way they are introduced. They are thus likely another sister species just as Neanderthals, Denisovans, Harbin skull (actually a Denisova), Dali skull etc. One of the unclassified northern Chinese skulls may easily be from an Earthly proto Saiyan living before they were brought to Sadala by Kaioshin.
Not only, with many Homo erectus subspecies and many sister species of Neanderthals and Denisovans still to uncover, if a new, very robust one is ever discovered, why not name it Homo sadalensis ? There is already a protein called Pikachurin, from a videogame character.
Not only, if this is the right theory, Saiyans have a chance to be still alive, or at least to have been until recently. In Caucasus, Pamirs, Altai and Tian Shan mountains it was until very recently often reported to live a strange primate, the so called Almas. Its description is pretty much SSJ4 with some Oozaru traits : humanlike face with some apelike traits like cheekbones and nose shape, human body shape but more robust with short neck and wide shoulders, long arms and fully bipedal gait, long dark hair, reddish fur over the body, females with huge, hairless breasts. This creature is probably a relict subspecies of Homo erectus.
What do you think ?
P.S. While is not canon, the SSJ4 can be placed into the Oozaru theory. It would be the intermediary stage between Xenopithecus ingens and Xenopithecus anthropomimus. It would be called Xenopithecus magnipotens.

In this long post I will put down what little is known by canon sources about the origins of Saiyans, both in and out of Universe, and compare it to their biological characteristics and their meaning in the context of the Dragonball Universe (by Universe I mean the whole of existence in the franchising, not any one of the 12 single universes of the DB multiversal spacetime continuum). I will delve into biology, genetics, paleoanthropology and history, and put down 3 theories about what Saiyans are, how they originated and how do they relate to mankind. Out of Universe origins Saiyans were created as Goku's own non human species long after he was created. Until then he was meant to be a human being with a random genetic mutation giving him a tail and the ability to transform into a werebaboon (later I will explain why the Great Ape form is not an ape but neither is a baboon at all). Their out of universe origins are rooted into Goku's, who is based on Sun Wukong, a folklore character from Chinese mythology said to be a monkey god born from a rock saturated with Qi, the divine energy of the Universe from Taoist mythology. As for Sun Wukong's origin, first his name : Sun is the name for Rhesus macaque, and means "descendant". It comes from the name of an Irano Turkic nomadic group from the I millenium BCE, whose name, Husun, meant descendants of the crow, from one of their myths about their origins. While they believed to be descendants of a crow and a wolf, to the eyes of the Chinese they looked like giant upright monkeys due to their hirsute bodies and thick, matted yellowish or reddish hair and beards. This is why the name Sun became the name of a local old world monkey. Wukong was the name of a Buddhist monk of Turkic origins who journeyed into India just like Xuanzang, a figure Sun Wukong is popularly associated with. Sun Wukong's appearence on the other hand comes from Hanuman, a god from Hindu mythology from a race of monkeymen, the Vanara. Originally the Vanara were based on an Austroasiatic tribe from Central India with the monkey as their totemic animal. They used to wear monkey masks and fake tails, which inspired the Hindu people to mythologize them into actual monkeymen. In Universe origins What we know of the Saiyans is : Kaioshins, the supposed creators of life, are used to copy and paste life forms from planet to planet, which is why many alien races are human looking. However to suppose Kaioshins did anything more than put down the building blocks of life is just ridiculous. They did not create the beings the way they look now, macroevolution is rather what made micro organisms evolve into all the varieties of living creatures. This means kaioshins likely exported from Earth, the native planet of the Hominoidae family (the apes, which is what we ourselves are too), to many other planets, one or more Earthly ape species, and thus through macro evolution and many different ecosystems the humanoid races were developed. Saiyans evolved on planet Sadala until, during one of the likely many wars from their history, a Super Saiyan was born and he destroyed their planet. Fortunately at the time the Saiyans were about as technically advanced as we are now, and at least one self sustaining population survived by escaping on a spaceship. After 800 years of space nomadism and advancements in spacecraft, they reached planet Plant, later called Vegeta, and lived on it until 200 years later, when Frieza destroyed it. Anything else, for example Saiyans on planet Plant being still cavemen and fighting a race of humans called Tsufuru, comes from non canon sources. If they were cavemen, they would have died on Sadala, by the way. Saiyans can interbreed with humans. However we do not know how much this is meaningful in DB Universe. We do not know if in DB Universe people can breed with chimps, or even with gibbons, or even with baboons. But I believe they, most probably, just as real humans can not even breed with chimps, let alone the others. Now the prologue is over, let us go with the real thing, my 3 theories on Saiyan evolution and taxonomy incorporating what I explained earlier 1)The Oozaru theory According to this theory the Oozaru form and the tail are the key clue for Saiyan evolution and place in taxonomical orders. First some primate evolutionary history : primates, an order of mammals, are believed to have split from plesiadapiforms in Eurasia around the early Eocene or earlier. The first true primates so far found in the fossil record are fragmentary and already demonstrate the major split between strepsirrhines and haplorines. the haplorhines (Greek for "simple-nosed") or the "dry-nosed" primates is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians (Simiiformes or anthropoids). The simians include catarrhines (Old World monkeys and apes, including humans), and the platyrrhines (New World monkeys). This 2 groups diverged 40 million years ago. The catarrhines diverged 28 million years ago into Cercopithecoidae and Hominoidae. The last common ancestor of all modern catarrhines is the Saadanius, or some sister genus of it. The Saadanius was a small, tailed primate from 29 million years ago living in Arabia. Its descendants were Rukwapithecus, the first tailles primate and the first ape, and Nsungwepithecus, the first old world monkey. Both of them lived in East Africa 25 million years ago. Nsungwepithecus had a tail, Rukwapithecus did not, would this mean Saiyans are descendants of Nsungwepithecus ? Not exactly. Why the hallmark of apes is being tailless, they are also different from old world monkeys due to their barrel shaped chests, flatter face, hairless chest and belly and larger size. Saiyans have wide chests and larger size in Oozaru form, and also flat faces and hairless chest and belly (and most of the rest of the body) in Base form. This means they are what looks like an ape × monkey chimera. How could such a creature be ? Rukwapithecus and Nsungwepithecus were not the only descendants of Saadanius, there was also the even earlier, African catarrhine known as Kamoyapithecus. By morphology it was closer to Rukwapithecus, the ape, but it had a tail because it originated before it was lost. Saiyans could have evolved from Kamoyapithecus this way : as it migrated to Eurasia, it became larger and larger until it became an Oozarulike primate (and the largest non herbivore mammal), later it started to get smaller again until it settled at maybe 7 feet tall, gained bipedalism, and started to evolve convergently to humans : larger brain, very flat face, small theeth, short arms, long legs and no body hair. It never lost, however, its tail. Later it was sent by Kaioshin on Planet Sadala where it adapted to high levels of gravity and gained near human levels of intelligence. What is the taxon of such animal ? It would be a third superfamily of the Catarrhine parvorder, neither Cercopithecoidae nor Hominoidae, neither monkey nor ape, but somehow between the 2 shapewise. What should this superfamily be called ? I would propose Xenopithecoidae, from Xeno (stranger) and Pithecus (ape/monkey). There would be in this genus only two species, one of them with a few subspecies, Xenopithecus ingens (Oozaru form) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus (Base form), with Xenopithecus anthropomimus verus (U7) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus parvus (U6), and possibly more unknown subspecies. According to this theory Saiyans in real life would NOT be able to breed with humans. Even a gibbon would be a better match and a more closely related one. However in the DB Universe maybe all primates can interbreed somehow. The strenght of this theory is its link with Oozaru form and Saiyan tail. 2) The hominid theory According to this theory Saiyans evolved from Homo heidelbergensis just as we, the Neanderthals and even the Denisovans did. Homo heidelbergensis evolved from late, hairless, large brained Homo erectus ergaster distinct from the hairy and smaller brained earlier ones, in Africa around 1 million years ago, and 800,000 years ago splitted in an African and an Eurasian populations. The Eurasian population splitted 400,000 years ago in Neanderthals and Denisovans. However earlier, about 600,000 years ago, in northern Eurasia, another branch splitted from the Eurasian Homo heidelbergensis, and this would be the Saiyans. This Homo species would be up to at least 7 feet tall and with the most robust body morphology out of all Homo species, with a brain capacity on par with Homo neanderthalensis and slightly lower levels of intelligence than Homo sapiens. This makes them as related to humans as Neanderthals abd Denisovans were, but slightly closer to Neanderthals and Denisovans than to humans. They would also be more distinct from anything else than Neanderthals and Denisovans were from each other. About 200,000 years ago they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin where they adapted to higher gravity. According to this theory their tail would not have real consistency, it would just be a magical feature from the DB Universe just as Krillin's lack of a nose. The Oozaru form would just be something akin to werewolves and weretigers already living in DB Earth. The taxon of such hominid would be Homo sadalensis, with 2 known subspecies, Homo sadalensis sadalensis, and Homo sadalensis parvus. The strenght of this theory is the way it explains Saiyans and humans interbreeding and hybrids. 3) The human theory According to this theory since Saiyans resemble humans so much, and are specifically closest to Eurasian Homo sapiens populations, they have to be a Homo sapiens subspecies themselves. They would be an outgroup of the OOA Homo sapiens who migrated northeast to Eurasia about 70,000 years ago. They would have diverged in either Mongolia, southern Siberia or Central Asia, and would also, about 30,000 years, have mixed with one of the last Denisova populations, and have got higher than average levels of Denisova introgression. Later they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin, however I am not sure how mere tall and robust humans could have adapted to higher gravity. Again, according to this theory their tail and Oozaru form have the same meaning of Krillin's lack of nose, Tienshinhan's 3 eyes and the werewolf form of the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi werewolf : mere fantasy elements of the DB Universe with no counterpart in reality. Their taxon would here simply be Homo sapiens sadalensis. The strenght of this theory is how it links Saiyans with the human ethnicities they look like. My favorite is the hominid theory, while I like the human theory the least. I believe Saiyans NEED to be much closer to us than anything else because they can make FERTILE hybrids with us, however making them simply highly divergent humans does not fit with the way they are introduced. They are thus likely another sister species just as Neanderthals, Denisovans, Harbin skull (actually a Denisova), Dali skull etc. One of the unclassified northern Chinese skulls may easily be from an Earthly proto Saiyan living before they were brought to Sadala by Kaioshin. Not only, with many Homo erectus subspecies and many sister species of Neanderthals and Denisovans still to uncover, if a new, very robust one is ever discovered, why not name it Homo sadalensis ? There is already a protein called Pikachurin, from a videogame character. Not only, if this is the right theory, Saiyans have a chance to be still alive, or at least to have been until recently. In Caucasus, Pamirs, Altai and Tian Shan mountains it was until very recently often reported to live a strange primate, the so called Almas. Its description is pretty much SSJ4 with some Oozaru traits : humanlike face with some apelike traits like cheekbones and nose shape, human body shape but more robust with short neck and wide shoulders, long arms and fully bipedal gait, long dark hair, reddish fur over the body, females with huge, hairless breasts. This creature is probably a relict subspecies of Homo erectus. What do you think ? P.S. While is not canon, the SSJ4 can be placed into the Oozaru theory. It would be the intermediary stage between Xenopithecus ingens and Xenopithecus anthropomimus. It would be called Xenopithecus magnipotens.

In this long post I will put down what little is known by canon sources about the origins of Saiyans, both in and out of Universe, and compare it to their biological characteristics and their meaning in the context of the Dragonball Universe (by Universe I mean the whole of existence in the franchising, not any one of the 12 single universes of the DB multiversal spacetime continuum). I will delve into biology, genetics, paleoanthropology and history, and put down 3 theories about what Saiyans are, how they originated and how do they relate to mankind.
Out of Universe origins
Saiyans were created as Goku's own non human species long after he was created. Until then he was meant to be a human being with a random genetic mutation giving him a tail and the ability to transform into a werebaboon (later I will explain why the Great Ape form is not an ape but neither is a baboon at all). Their out of universe origins are rooted into Goku's, who is based on Sun Wukong, a folklore character from Chinese mythology said to be a monkey god born from a rock saturated with Qi, the divine energy of the Universe from Taoist mythology.
As for Sun Wukong's origin, first his name : Sun is the name for Rhesus macaque, and means "descendant". It comes from the name of an Irano Turkic nomadic group from the I millenium BCE, whose name, Husun, meant descendants of the crow, from one of their myths about their origins. While they believed to be descendants of a crow and a wolf, to the eyes of the Chinese they looked like giant upright monkeys due to their hirsute bodies and thick, matted yellowish or reddish hair and beards. This is why the name Sun became the name of a local old world monkey. Wukong was the name of a Buddhist monk of Turkic origins who journeyed into India just like Xuanzang, a figure Sun Wukong is popularly associated with.
Sun Wukong's appearence on the other hand comes from Hanuman, a god from Hindu mythology from a race of monkeymen, the Vanara. Originally the Vanara were based on an Austroasiatic tribe from Central India with the monkey as their totemic animal. They used to wear monkey masks and fake tails, which inspired the Hindu people to mythologize them into actual monkeymen.
In Universe origins
What we know of the Saiyans is :

1. Kaioshins, the supposed creators of life, are used to copy and paste life forms from planet to planet, which is why many alien races are human looking. However to suppose Kaioshins did anything more than put down the building blocks of life is just ridiculous. They did not create the beings the way they look now, macroevolution is rather what made micro organisms evolve into all the varieties of living creatures. This means kaioshins likely exported from Earth, the native planet of the Hominoidae family (the apes, which is what we ourselves are too), to many other planets, one or more Earthly ape species, and thus through macro evolution and many different ecosystems the humanoid races were developed.
2. Saiyans evolved on planet Sadala until, during one of the likely many wars from their history, a Super Saiyan was born and he destroyed their planet. Fortunately at the time the Saiyans were about as technically advanced as we are now, and at least one self sustaining population survived by escaping on a spaceship. After 800 years of space nomadism and advancements in spacecraft, they reached planet Plant, later called Vegeta, and lived on it until 200 years later, when Frieza destroyed it. Anything else, for example Saiyans on planet Plant being still cavemen and fighting a race of humans called Tsufuru, comes from non canon sources. If they were cavemen, they would have died on Sadala, by the way.
3. Saiyans can interbreed with humans. However we do not know how much this is meaningful in DB Universe. We do not know if in DB Universe people can breed with chimps, or even with gibbons, or even with baboons. But I believe they, most probably, just as real humans can not even breed with chimps, let alone the others.

Now the prologue is over, let us go with the real thing, my 3 theories on Saiyan evolution and taxonomy incorporating what I explained earlier
1)The Oozaru theory
According to this theory the Oozaru form and the tail are the key clue for Saiyan evolution and place in taxonomical orders. First some primate evolutionary history : primates, an order of mammals, are believed to have split from plesiadapiforms in Eurasia around the early Eocene or earlier.
The first true primates so far found in the fossil record are fragmentary and already demonstrate the major split between strepsirrhines and haplorines. the haplorhines (Greek for "simple-nosed") or the "dry-nosed" primates is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians (Simiiformes or anthropoids). The simians include catarrhines (Old World monkeys and apes, including humans), and the platyrrhines (New World monkeys). This 2 groups diverged 40 million years ago. The catarrhines diverged 28 million years ago into Cercopithecoidae and Hominoidae. The last common ancestor of all modern catarrhines is the Saadanius, or some sister genus of it. The Saadanius was a small, tailed primate from 29 million years ago living in Arabia.
Its descendants were Rukwapithecus, the first tailles primate and the first ape, and Nsungwepithecus, the first old world monkey. Both of them lived in East Africa 25 million years ago. Nsungwepithecus had a tail, Rukwapithecus did not, would this mean Saiyans are descendants of Nsungwepithecus ? Not exactly.
Why the hallmark of apes is being tailless, they are also different from old world monkeys due to their barrel shaped chests, flatter face, hairless chest and belly and larger size. Saiyans have wide chests and larger size in Oozaru form, and also flat faces and hairless chest and belly (and most of the rest of the body) in Base form. This means they are what looks like an ape × monkey chimera. How could such a creature be ? Rukwapithecus and Nsungwepithecus were not the only descendants of Saadanius, there was also the even earlier, African catarrhine known as Kamoyapithecus. By morphology it was closer to Rukwapithecus, the ape, but it had a tail because it originated before it was lost.
Saiyans could have evolved from Kamoyapithecus this way : as it migrated to Eurasia, it became larger and larger until it became an Oozarulike primate (and the largest non herbivore mammal), later it started to get smaller again until it settled at maybe 7 feet tall, gained bipedalism, and started to evolve convergently to humans : larger brain, very flat face, small theeth, short arms, long legs and no body hair. It never lost, however, its tail. Later it was sent by Kaioshin on Planet Sadala where it adapted to high levels of gravity and gained near human levels of intelligence.
What is the taxon of such animal ? It would be a third superfamily of the Catarrhine parvorder, neither Cercopithecoidae nor Hominoidae, neither monkey nor ape, but somehow between the 2 shapewise. What should this superfamily be called ? I would propose Xenopithecoidae, from Xeno (stranger) and Pithecus (ape/monkey). There would be in this genus only two species, one of them with a few subspecies, Xenopithecus ingens (Oozaru form) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus (Base form), with Xenopithecus anthropomimus verus (U7) and Xenopithecus anthropomimus parvus (U6), and possibly more unknown subspecies.
According to this theory Saiyans in real life would NOT be able to breed with humans. Even a gibbon would be a better match and a more closely related one. However in the DB Universe maybe all primates can interbreed somehow. The strenght of this theory is its link with Oozaru form and Saiyan tail.
2) The hominid theory
According to this theory Saiyans evolved from Homo heidelbergensis just as we, the Neanderthals and even the Denisovans did. Homo heidelbergensis evolved from late, hairless, large brained Homo erectus ergaster distinct from the hairy and smaller brained earlier ones, in Africa around 1 million years ago, and 800,000 years ago splitted in an African and an Eurasian populations. The Eurasian population splitted 400,000 years ago in Neanderthals and Denisovans. However earlier, about 600,000 years ago, in northern Eurasia, another branch splitted from the Eurasian Homo heidelbergensis, and this would be the Saiyans.
This Homo species would be up to at least 7 feet tall and with the most robust body morphology out of all Homo species, with a brain capacity on par with Homo neanderthalensis and slightly lower levels of intelligence than Homo sapiens.
This makes them as related to humans as Neanderthals abd Denisovans were, but slightly closer to Neanderthals and Denisovans than to humans. They would also be more distinct from anything else than Neanderthals and Denisovans were from each other.
About 200,000 years ago they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin where they adapted to higher gravity.
According to this theory their tail would not have real consistency, it would just be a magical feature from the DB Universe just as Krillin's lack of a nose. The Oozaru form would just be something akin to werewolves and weretigers already living in DB Earth.
The taxon of such hominid would be Homo sadalensis, with 2 known subspecies, Homo sadalensis sadalensis, and Homo sadalensis parvus.
The strenght of this theory is the way it explains Saiyans and humans interbreeding and hybrids.
3) The human theory
According to this theory since Saiyans resemble humans so much, and are specifically closest to Eurasian Homo sapiens populations, they have to be a Homo sapiens subspecies themselves. They would be an outgroup of the OOA Homo sapiens who migrated northeast to Eurasia about 70,000 years ago. They would have diverged in either Mongolia, southern Siberia or Central Asia, and would also, about 30,000 years, have mixed with one of the last Denisova populations, and have got higher than average levels of Denisova introgression.
Later they would have been brought to Sadala by Kaioshin, however I am not sure how mere tall and robust humans could have adapted to higher gravity.
Again, according to this theory their tail and Oozaru form have the same meaning of Krillin's lack of nose, Tienshinhan's 3 eyes and the werewolf form of the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi werewolf : mere fantasy elements of the DB Universe with no counterpart in reality.
Their taxon would here simply be Homo sapiens sadalensis.
The strenght of this theory is how it links Saiyans with the human ethnicities they look like.
My favorite is the hominid theory, while I like the human theory the least. I believe Saiyans NEED to be much closer to us than anything else because they can make FERTILE hybrids with us, however making them simply highly divergent humans does not fit with the way they are introduced. They are thus likely another sister species just as Neanderthals, Denisovans, Harbin skull (actually a Denisova), Dali skull etc. One of the unclassified northern Chinese skulls may easily be from an Earthly proto Saiyan living before they were brought to Sadala by Kaioshin.
Not only, with many Homo erectus subspecies and many sister species of Neanderthals and Denisovans still to uncover, if a new, very robust one is ever discovered, why not name it Homo sadalensis ? There is already a protein called Pikachurin, from a videogame character.
Not only, if this is the right theory, Saiyans have a chance to be still alive, or at least to have been until recently. In Caucasus, Pamirs, Altai and Tian Shan mountains it was until very recently often reported to live a strange primate, the so called Almas. Its description is pretty much SSJ4 with some Oozaru traits : humanlike face with some apelike traits like cheekbones and nose shape, human body shape but more robust with short neck and wide shoulders, long arms and fully bipedal gait, long dark hair, reddish fur over the body, females with huge, hairless breasts. This creature is probably a relict subspecies of Homo erectus.
What do you think ?
P.S. While is not canon, the SSJ4 can be placed into the Oozaru theory. It would be the intermediary stage between Xenopithecus ingens and Xenopithecus anthropomimus. It would be called Xenopithecus magnipotens.