This entry was written by AkityMH, who you can find at https://www.deviantart.com/akitymh.  I may have made a few touch ups and notes here and there, but the bulk of this entry is their work!

I don’t need to explain the importance of Jurassic Park to anyone of our generation or since its release in 1993. If I do, then I have to ask… what rock have you been under? This is the movie that made Dinosaurs relevant again, and not only that, but scary. Back in the 50’s, the fear of the ancient past awakening to enact vengeance upon humanity for its meddling with the nature and order of things.

The movie is also very much responsible for introducing us to the infamous Velociraptor, a dinosaur that up until this point was a little obscure. That obscurity went so far out the window that it is now orbiting the moon. How do you make dinosaurs scary? You make them the size of a full grown man and give them the predator’s trait of intelligence. From the start of Jurassic Park’s opening credits, the Raptors are shown to be among the planet’s most lethal animals with exceptional power and a cunning mind ready to catch you off guard and eat you alive.

Between the books and movies, we see very violent animals that will not only attack anything that isn’t their own kind, but more than happily kill their own kind as well. The Big One, the largest alpha member of Raptor of the first movie and it’s main antagonist, kills all but two members of its pack for unknown reasons and is bold enough to attack Rexie even when alone. In the book, the raptors rip apart iron bars to get at people, and practically can’t be stopped until they get to you and rip you to pieces. Even a rocket launcher can’t seem to drop them dead in the book version; body parts twitch and they are fully conscious even once in pieces. In the sequels, it’s shown just how crazy they can be with them attacking and killing each other for stepping out of pack line. The third movie ends up showing the Raptors being far more established than any other version as far as their behavior, but nonetheless incredibly lethal and down right vengeful to reclaim their stolen brood.

And then we have the fourth movie in the franchise, Jurassic World…. And it is here we meet Blue, a Raptor bred specifically to be trained at the hands of a human, Owen, who acts as her Alpha. Between this movie and its sequel, we see that Raptors tend to just be incredibly vicious creatures. Much like Alan Grant said in the third movie, genetically modified movie monsters. They just like to hunt and kill things! With Blue, that is somewhat true, but Blue then shows a side we never seen in any Jurassic Park media. Blue is empathic. At a young age, she differs even from her three pack members who are more than happy to try and kill their caretaker if showing any sign of weakness. Blue does not…

Blue is unique as far as all the other carnivores of Jurassic Park. She is an example of nature vs nurture. Many Raptors of Jurassic Park seem to be psychotic and sociopathic regardless of how they are treated, and not only that, but their violent nature is often enforced by their livelihoods of being restrained and without proper parentage of their own kind. This contrasts with the Indominus Rex. The I. Rex is not only a genetic clone of a dinosaur, but a totally new hybrid that never existed in nature at any point in time. It is an animal that had no parent, because no parent existed to teach it to be an Indominus Rex. It was restrained, alone, only with one sibling that we are told that it ate at one point in its life. No one interacted with it much other than feeding it, no one stimulated it, no one gave it any proper interaction whatsoever other than to exist and eat. When it gets out of its enclosure, the Indominus immediately finds a sense of thrill and joy that it can hunt and kill just about anything around it, to which it has done very little of before except for its sibling.

In comparison, Blue is shown to have the trait of empathy even from a young age as seen in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Owen raised her with a sense of discipline and care, something that would come into play with the movie when things got worse. Blue still is violent, snipping her teeth at her pack mates and almost mauling Owen and another keeper at the drop of a hat. The drive there to hunt her caretaker and parent figure is strong. She runs off extra energy every day in training. She is stimulated all of the time and learns how to be a Raptor. It’s a lot like a dog, as some dogs are genetically predetermined to be more aggressive than others, or more passive. A retriever is the best well mannered dog you can probably have, but they can be taught and encouraged either directly or indirectly to be aggressive. The same thing can be said with the Pitbull Group of dogs such as Bulldogs and Terriers who are bred to hunt and kill animals, but you can nurture them into being far more friendly companions. Blue is never so cuddly as an adult, though. She seems tolerant at best, much like most monitor lizards… Fun fact, a monitor lizard close up was used in the first Jurassic Park movie. Bit of trivia for those that didn’t know it.

Nature versus Nurture.

When the climax happens, Blue comes into conflict with those instincts to hunt and kill even after she has been shot at by humans at this point and has all full reason to assume any human is to be considered dangerous. She can kill Owen and the rest of the cast, but comes to understand that this human, Owen, is someone she can trust and should not kill him or those with him. In further entries of the series, it is shown that she actively outright avoids people when she can.

Blue’s entire character is the perfect way to summarize the Jurassic movies. All the movies are about humans taking control of a science and using it when they may not be able to control what it causes. The Nuclear Bomb awoke Godzilla, but the concept of cloning brought to life any prehistoric creatures that we may not even properly create or even treat correctly, ultimately creating monsters without intention. Monsters, real actual monsters that exist in real life, normally are made by us. Either someone has hurt them, or we made a mistake, or we neglected something. These kinds of movie monsters make some of the best in all film history, as we can see how something like irresponsibly husbandry of animals can result in something like the Indominus rex, or the Indoraptor. Blue is a great example of what a bit of compassion and responsibility can result in.