Talk:The Possessed (short story)

Novels: Short story / Sci-fi Mid‑importance

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Last Sentence[edit]

"they bet on the wrong animal."

This is a link to the Wiki article on lemmings. Did the aliens in the story literally use lemmings, or was that link supposed to have something to do with the old myth that lemmings leap into the ocean, IE that humans are self destructive? It was a funny and unexpected ending to that sentence, but not very clear. 74.14.122.167 (talk) 00:41, 11 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I was just wondering the same thing. This summary says your first guess was correct.Darkpoet (talk) 03:03, 5 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yup. They are literally lemmings. The short synopsis here is that a group of intelligent aliens working as a single entity decide to leave a portion of itself on a planet to guide/possess its chosen species to intelligence and greatness. Time passes and the left behind aliens travel to a promised meeting spot each year in case its other half returns. They realize that they chose wrongly, as the species never achieves intelligence and the aliens themselves grow increasingly weaker and stupider. Eventually all that remains is the instinct to return to the meeting spot, which is by now underwater. In present day a couple watches the aliens as they prepare to jump into the ocean, commenting how strange it is that lemmings make a suicidal jump into the water. I've clarified this in the plot section ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 08:56, 26 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]