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(CW: Conspiracy theories, antisemitism, bio-essentiallism and genocide. Spoilers for the entirety of the AP and for Pathfinder's Second Darkness AP, naturally.)
One of the most recent announcements for the upcoming new edition of Starfinder has been that the reptoids as a whole will be "yeeted" from the game and its lore going forward. This is, unequivocally, a good idea considering the whole reason reptoids exist as a concept in pop culture is as an antisemitic dogwhistle in real-world conspiracy theories. The fact that nearly all of Starfinder 2e's dev team is in agreement on this attests to that.
This does put The Threefold Conspiracy's overarching narrative in limbo, however, as the whole story is both a tribute to conspiracy-theory-inspired sci-fi like The X-Files and Men in Black, and essentially an encapsulation of what Alan Moore once said about conspiracy theories: "Yes, there is a conspiracy, in fact there are a great number of conspiracies that are all tripping each other up. And all of those conspiracies are run by paranoid fantasists and ham-fisted clowns. If you are on a list targeted by the CIA, you really have nothing to worry about. If however, you have a name similar to somebody on a list targeted by the CIA, then you are dead."
And in all honesty, part of me is wondering if it's better to just leave The Threefold Conspiracy behind entirely, given how even if you rewrite the reptoids out of the AP's plot, that plot still hinges on the more broad tropes of conspiracy theories in general, especially of a small population of aliens or some other form of "other" hiding in plain sight among the regular population attempting to steer it in some way for their own nefarious and inscrutable purposes, which is gross on its own, reptoids or no reptoids. Even if you replaced the reptoids with astrazoans or endiffans, and shifted their motivations to more straightforward ones of accruing power or money, the core remains just as problematic. This isn't just about the reptoids, the grays fill a similar role in the plot, even if they aren't specifically shapeshifting, and they've honestly always had a problem of seemingly being an entire species involved in a conspiracy to the point that roleplaying one as a PC was uniquely challenging in ANY Starfinder campaign, let alone in Threefold Conspiracy itself.
It's similar to the position the Second Darkness AP is now in and how the Remaster is leaving the drow behind in the OGL. Even if you were to retcon the drow as being a cultural group of the ayindilar "cavern elves" or just kept them as literal drow without the specific problematic tropes of "The Dark Fate" and a culture-wide inclination towards evil, Second Darkness' plot is predicated on the notion of The Dark Fate and the existence of the drow being the elven people's "dirty little secret" that the Winter Council is desperate to keep hidden, fearing public knowledge of it would turn public opinion against elves worldwide in a "guilt-by-association/ticking time-bomb" kind of way, which prompts the AP's antagonist to begin her fall to evil as she first attempts to discover a way to commit genocide on the drow, then becomes a drow herself due to how evil that is, becoming what she hates and then doing a complete 180 and deciding to turn the genocide on the surface elves instead while the majority of drow in the AP don't actually want to war against the surface elves in the first place. Without that plot element, the Winter Council has no real need for a conspiracy in the first place, drow or no drow, and thus the plot of Second Darkness doesn't really materialize. This, along with the many, MANY other issues that AP had, makes it kind of unsalvageable in terms of Pathfinder's canon, and thus it is probably best treated as a failed experiment and cautionary tale about holding on to old, problematic tropes out of nostalgia, a lesson on what NOT to do.
With that in mind, do you think Threefold Conspiracy might be in a similar, unsalvageable position due to just how much we've come to understand conspiracy theories as a whole are no joke, and that maybe our nostalgia for the sci-fi that inspired it is misplaced?
(This is a VERY difficult and touchy topic to discuss, so please, PLEASE be careful. However, I will NOT tolerate excusing the reptoids as a concept in discussion, far as I'm concerned David Icke can go to hell!)
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If there's one thing the Starfinder product line could easily ignore going forward, it would be a covert conspiracy that was successfully thwarted and covered up at the highest levels of government.
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I think you are overreacting.
I have no idea where the "shape shifting reptoids" as tropes comes from, but I would guess that it predates Mr. Icke's anti-semitic buffoonery. And there's lots of this sort of nastiness gnawing at the roots of conspiracy theories - even the optimistic ones like NESARA / GESARA which posit a post-capitalist utopia in the making are often just a hair's breath away from such vile sentiments, much less the far darker ones about 'replacement' or the actively violent sovereign citizens movement.
I spent a lot of time reading up on conspiracy theories and posted all sorts of ridiculous links on my discord's thread, from flat eartherism to Obama birtherism to biblical numerology to Kennedy assassination baloney and a hundred other topics. I stayed away from the anti-semitic and racist material, but honestly, as I mentioned, that is a common throughline connecting a LOT of this stuff, from hollow earth being filled with the perfect indo-aryans to "the Catholic Church erased a thousand years of history" [just to mention some of the more ridiculous and scurrilous nonsense out there].
Personally, my table had a lot of fun with Threefold, and I'd recommend it. Is it for everyone? Probably not. Could I see it's content being "problematic" for people who are sensitive to these things? Sure. But, like, it ends with
And as the previous poster mentioned,
Because there's four conspiracies...
I have no idea where the "shape shifting reptoids" as tropes comes from, but I would guess that it predates Mr. Icke's anti-semitic buffoonery.
Unfortunately, while reptoids/reptilians do have some fictional precedent (the Visitors from V come closest), the concept of "malevolent species of shapeshifting alien humanoid reptiles who shapeshift and infiltrate humanity in order to secretly control society" is squarely founded in Icke.
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I have no idea where the "shape shifting reptoids" as tropes comes from, but I would guess that it predates Mr. Icke's anti-semitic buffoonery.Unfortunately, while reptoids/reptilians do have some fictional precedent (the Visitors from V come closest), the concept of "malevolent species of shapeshifting alien humanoid reptiles who shapeshift and infiltrate humanity in order to secretly control society" is squarely founded in Icke.
there's evil serpentfolk sorcerers in Robert Howard. V came out in 1983, long before Icke started his buffoonery.
Heck, type in "Reptilian Conspiracy" in TVTropes and there's a long, long list of stuff which comes way before Mr. Icke.
"Evil serpentfolk" and "shapechanging reptilian humanoids who secretly control society" are not the same concept. Specificity is key, and the latter is very specifically based on Icke's "theories."
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"Evil serpentfolk" and "shapechanging reptilian humanoids who secretly control society" are not the same concept. Specificity is key, and the latter is very specifically based on Icke's "theories."
As I mentioned, Robert E. Howard did it first, in 1929. He's got Kull the Conqueror fighting shapechanging reptilian sorcerers who look like people and have infiltrated his court.
Icke is just ripping off what came before - including V, which debuted in 1983. There's lizards running a world of people in "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish", published in 1984. Lair of the White Worm, 1988... plenty of stuff predates Icke's hackish buffoonery.