The age of Boo
Kamigoroshi
Member Posts: 5,870
Come to think of it, has anyone else thought about that cricetinae's accurate age throughout the Baldur's Gate saga?
A hamster's lifespan usually ranges between two to three years in captivity, depending on the breed. And in the case of the Campbell's and the Djungarian hamster, it's even up to whopping four years sometimes.
Judging from Minsc's portraits and its depictions of Boo, I'm inclined to believe that this rodent is at least partly a golden short haired Syrian hamster. Which means max. three years before he gets to see the Beastlands. (Especially since giant miniature hamster are nothing but ordinary hamsters to begin with!)
Now, the tricky part would be to fit that lifespan into the saga. If I remember correctly the journey from Candlekeep to godhood would be about two years, give or take some months.
Funnily enough, the size of Boo within both Minsc's BG and BG2 portraits stays about the same. Which would mean that Boo already reached adulthood before we even meet them in Beregost. And yet Minsc always on about how his hamster is too young to avenge him.
A clear contradiction in biological matters!
ARGH, IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY
A hamster's lifespan usually ranges between two to three years in captivity, depending on the breed. And in the case of the Campbell's and the Djungarian hamster, it's even up to whopping four years sometimes.
Judging from Minsc's portraits and its depictions of Boo, I'm inclined to believe that this rodent is at least partly a golden short haired Syrian hamster. Which means max. three years before he gets to see the Beastlands. (Especially since giant miniature hamster are nothing but ordinary hamsters to begin with!)
Now, the tricky part would be to fit that lifespan into the saga. If I remember correctly the journey from Candlekeep to godhood would be about two years, give or take some months.
Funnily enough, the size of Boo within both Minsc's BG and BG2 portraits stays about the same. Which would mean that Boo already reached adulthood before we even meet them in Beregost. And yet Minsc always on about how his hamster is too young to avenge him.
A clear contradiction in biological matters!
ARGH, IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY
11
Comments
It says giant space hamsters live up to 18 years. Maybe Boo is really a travel-size, magically miniatiurised giant space hamster? I remember a dialogue where it was hinted that it was Elminster that sold Boo to Minsc but I am not sure if it was from a mod?
Or maybe each time Minsc is healed or raised from death magically, the residual magical energies also affect Boo since he is always closest to Minsc. And prolong Boo's life?
Or maybe the whole Boo thing is nothing but Minsc's delusions and he subconciously replaces Boo every three years with an identical new hamster when Boo dies and Minsc does not even notice or acknowledge the fact?
Whether Minsc does the replacing himself while only subconsciously aware of the fact that it's not the same pet is up for debate. But of course, there always remains the possibility of a more magical (or divine) explanation also.
My personal version has always been that Boo is not a hamster at all, space or otherwise. It (not he) is actually an agent from the Far Realm, compressed into hamster size and shape and attached to Minsc as a sort of neural parasite. The "blow to the head" that supposedly made Minsc into who he is now was in fact simply the encounter with that parasite, and it latching on to him. The initial shock of the mind-probing abilities of the creature damaged Minsc's brain, but he remains a convenient vessel to use in exploring the Prime Material. It is also no coincidence that Minsc entered the orbit of the Bhaalspawn known as CHARNAME, as CHARNAME is a nexus of many highly important events on several planes that the powers of the Far Realm are interested in observing...
...and perhaps even influencing. How often has Minsc spurned CHARNAME into action? How many times has he used Boo as a supposed inspiration for some wild, crazy jump into the fray? CHARNAME indulged the poor man, perhaps even sympathized with the addled Ranger's ostensible desire for "righteousness". But who is to say what really motivated the big bald lunk, who is to say what whispers were squeaked into his ear, what notions squealed into his damaged mind by a soft, furry ball of - something.
As Guenhwyvar is summoned by Drizzt using onyx figurine of wondrous power in his pocket, Minsc could call an astral being who materializes as Boo.
Does Minsc really keep Boo inside his pocket?
More like a pocket plane from which he calls this mighty being.
So it seems like Boo was not made up by bioware, but was introduced by canon material before baldurs gate was even made. It doesn't give any details, but it talks about how they were magical creatures.
If you want the link and page number, I can try to provide it to you tomorrow so you can read for yourself.
Who would do such a thing?? Perish evil thoughts, perish!
You can actually make long session of sleep, that give only 1 hp back. it's not hard to use it to sleep 800 in one go for a single hp. (thus being able to sleep for 9 years to get back 100 hp ^^ if you were 1/101 hp)
Using that trick you can actually "age" boo by several dozen of years and thus go further those 18 years ^^.
(the hardest part being how you rp the fact that your non deity / non elf/dwarf npc didn't age meanwhile.)
Baldur's Gate 2 : The Age of Boo
Infused with the overflow of Bhaalspawn essence, one little hamster becomes one big problem...
Can the world withstand the onslaught of the nascent rodent god? As his Nibbler avatar wreaks havoc on the grain stores of the Sword Coast, a band of adventurers sets out on a perilous quest for Ao's Running Wheel - a mythical artifact said to hold the key to trapping the furred menace and ending the munching threat to the world, once and for all.
On a completely unrelated topic, did you know Minsc has a secret Bag of Holding full of spare hamsters?
Are you talking about inside the game code...? Or you just being wackadoo-silly, yo?
Exactly the same here
EVERY age is The Age of Boo.
You will get all the money that i have for it (too bad i'm not rich).
Time has often been expressed as a wheel
For example, the Chinese had Xu Zhongmin's Time Wheel No. 1
In Budapest, we have the Timewheel
The Kalachakra ("The Wheel of Time" or "The Wheel of History") is the Buddhist and Hindu expression of the cyclical nature of time
This image of time has also been expressed in fantasy
If time is a wheel, who do you think its master is?
Other false prophets and imposters have tried to control the wheel, to twist time in their favor
Yet none can handle the power and responsibility
The hard truth is... it is Boo's world. We're all just spinning in it
Boo is Tiax confirmed!
Does that make Boo an hamsterwere, or Tiax an werehamster?