I’ll Be Honest, Whenever A Work Of Speculative Fiction (fanmade Or Otherwise) Goes Out Of Its Way To

non-human character: *moves their ears/wings/tail to indicate their emotional state and for emphasis when communicating*

me:

broke: Shadow is Vegeta

woke: Shadow is Edgeworth

Hi! I'm trying to write a fic where the main characters, who are normally human, are now animals. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to keep them in character though, since certain things they could do before, they can't now (ie. no hands, can't do certain things humans can, etc.) I'd very much welcome any advice, since I'm close to deciding this story idea is at a dead-end. Thanks!

Is this a fic where humans are suddenly turned into animals and now trying to deal with their new forms? Or is this an AU where the cast just are animals and that’s the world that they live in all the time? I’d write those in very different ways.

If this is an animal AU, and that’s a very doable thing. Just think about animated films. Even though the characters are animals doing very animal things, they also maintain personalities that are familiar to humans. 

If it’s a case of humans being transformed into animals, then they’ll need to spend time (and probably get frustrated) figuring out how to do things in their new bodies. No opposable thumbs means they’ll need to find another way to turn a doorknob, for example. No ability to talk means that they won’t be able to utter passwords for electronic locks. 

I haven’t written this kind of fic before, so I’ll open up the floor to see who else can add thoughts here. This could be a really interesting challenge for you, anon, so I hope you don’t give up!

animal fantasy NEEDS to be gayer and transer so here are some of my queer xenofiction thoughts

attitudes towards homosexuality and/or transness differing from species to species, region to region; many opportunities to play with various cultural reactions when characters travel. there are some species where the concepts are well established in the culture (apes, dolphins, etc.) and are accepted, tolerated, considered completely normal, or even celebrated

“queer” means different things for different animals. for example, even though bisexuality is indisputably queer by human standards, it may not be by anthropomorphized bonobo standards since bisexuality is a cultural norm for them; meanwhile, exclusive homosexuality and maybe even heterosexuality probably would be considered queer for bonobos

sexually dimorphic species offer up many interesting concepts: transmasculine lion cubs dreaming of growing up to have manes; transfeminine deer experiencing gender euphoria when seasonally shedding their antlers; transmasculine birds gathering loose materials to cover their dull feathers with livelier colors

domesticated/tame animals, especially those that interact regularly with people, having a stronger concept of gender roles than other species do because of how much they’ve subconsciously absorbed from their human allies

please feel free to add on 🌈🐾✨

Trope of the Week: Aliens are Blue-Skinned Humans

There are two types of aliens in science-fiction: the monstrous of mind and body who only wish to destroy, and the incredibly human who are sentient and sly. Rarely do we find a race that is somewhere between. Sentience and intelligence is almost a guarantee of a human-like body, and the lady aliens? They will definitely have boobs.

Why this can be bad: There are several things at work here when we’re crafting an alien species. We have a tendency to think ourselves the top of the food chain and therefore the most intelligent species. Anything on par with or superior to us must therefore look similar to ourselves. As species of organisms on earth grow more advanced in neurology, they come to have a very specific pattern: major sense organs all located around the brain and in the head, two arms, two legs, tendency for bipedalism, et cetera. And, of course, there are the influences of pop culture such as earlier seasons of Star Trek, which lacked the budget and technology to create intricate unhuman characters capable of being on screen for more than a couple minutes.

Put this all together and it culminates in many uninspired alien designs. The sentient beings end up closely resembling us, if not being nearly identical. Some of this can amount to laziness, but a lot of it has to do with the factors I listed above. While we can’t exactly argue whether or not this is realistic, it nevertheless becomes tiresome when aliens devolve into humans with strange skin colors and maybe a few other “exotic” features. While fantasy can have this issue (dwarves, elves, and humans are all pretty much the same as far as special variation go), they at least tend to exist on the same planet and therefore go through the same evolutionary process. Aliens do not have this excuse.

How you can fix it: To ask you to create a dozen completely unique alien species for your science-fiction novel/game/movie would be insane. It’s very hard for us to think of creatures uninspired by ourselves or the world we see, and similarities to humans make it easier for the audience to envision or connect. However, I would challenge you to make your sentient aliens more diverse. Octavia Butler does a fantastic job in her Lilith’s Brood series. The oankali, a sentient and highly-advanced alien race, only resemble humans because they take on the traits of the species they are preparing to make first contact with it. In truth, they’re covered in sensory tentacles, have three reproductive sexes, and have a greater range of perception than humans. While similar to humans, they are also highly different and incredibly unique, which makes them much more interesting to read about than most other aliens I’ve seen.

Creating an unparalleled alien race is not easy, and it’s hard to expect a writer to make each species he or she creates entirely unique. Nevertheless, there is still a want for more diversity and otherness to our aliens. It shows a real effort has been put in to the world building, rather than the writer slapping on some black eyes and hooves in an attempt to make them different.

Bottom Line: Not every sentient alien has to be incredibly unique, but put a concerted effort into your world building to avoid making boring human clones.

For the Solstice: “Invictus”

In the dimness he woke and knew it was too late. Morning never came so late unless the world was ending.

Fortunately, he knew what to do about that.

Keep reading

“As he was no longer tracking a man, Copper felt himself justified in giving tongue, and his deep bay rolled out, first in a long howl and then in short, gasping cries. Instantly the Master was by his side. Copper showed him where the line was; but the Master, instead of instantly winding the scent, went back and forth in an exasperating way until he found something to look at in the soft earth. The Master’s inability to scent a perfectly clear line, as well as his tendency to stand for a long time staring at pointless marks in the ground, was his most irritating quality, and Copper had never grown entirely reconciled to it.”

—

The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P. Mannix

How can you not love this book?

You’re a mimic. You were disguised as a chair in a dungeon when an adventurer decided to take you as loot. You’ve actually enjoyed your life ever since as furniture in a jolly tavern. So when some ruffians try to rob the now-elderly adventurer’s business, you finally reveal yourself.

Nix Reviews: Legends of the Guardians: Owls of Ga’Hoole

Summary: A young barn owl and his brother fall from their nest and are kidnapped and enslaved by Nazi in all but name owls. The barn owl befriends a similarly enslaved young elf owl and the two escape and befriend a young great grey owl and burrowing owl and set off to find a nigh mythical group of owl nights to stop the owl nazis. 

Based on the first three books of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky.

Rating: 6/10

Sexual Assult Drinking Game: N/A

(+) Holy fucking hell is this beautiful animated and designed. They deserved the award that they won.

-those fight scenes! Pure excellence

-the music fits very well

-Owl City has a song in it and frankly, I like puns

-I generally don’t like high fantasy but I loved this

- War is bad but under certain circumstances, the right thing to do is to fight

- White Tyto supremacists and slavery is bad

- Snakes are good guys

- the visual worldbuilding is just lovely

(-) dear gods the pacing. Way too fast.

- We do not get Twilight or Digger’s backstories and their characters are exaggerated

- Glyfie doesn’t get her time to shine since much of the St. Aggies stuff just isn’t in the movie

-Bats are bad guys

- The movie hits only the most important plot beats of the books outside of the fights and doesn’t linger long enough to let emotion settle in

-The film is set in Australia and not N. America

Overall: It’s a beautiful, absolutely lovely looking film. But you’d probably like it better if you didn’t read the books and don’t pay much attention to ecology stuff. The pacing really does the whole thing dirty and would have made a better mini-series than a film. I recommend it purely on the visuals.