patchwork-passions

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Hot take

Night furies are actually perfectly evolved for hunting and killing other dragons and the only reason they aren't a dragon-hunting species like the death song or deathgrippers are is because DreamWorks couldn't have their adorable main character dragon be a "cannibal"

(below I'm gonna try to summarize what we've figured out in a convo with friends on discord)

(also tw animal death via predator)

First of all yes I'm aware that pretty much every decision made about their design was with consideration of the effect it would make on human audiences but hear me out

Night furies are most iconically known as dive-bombers. They are built for speed, high maneuverability, night-time camouflage and for striking targets from above. If we remove human settlements out of the equation (which would not have existed long enough to actually influence night fury evolution, come on), what does that leave us with?

They aren't built for catching fish for sure, they aren't very hydrodynamic and their head is round, wide, and their teeth are dull. Honestly, the monstrous nightmare is much better suited for catching fish, with its long neck, almost pelican-like jaw and rhamphorhynchus teeth

Compare to

Yeah the jaws look kinda like a porpoise of some sort but for that the whole body would have to be a lot more aquatic imo. The light fury looks a lot closer to an aquatic diver, it has a sleeker body, rounded fins instead of spikes, and a long neck.

I don't really see them hunting land animals either, they just don't look like they're adapted for that minus the resemblance with large felines and even then, they're too large to effectively hunt in forests.

The one thing I can kinda imagine them hunting is large mainland megafauna, but we're working with a setting that takes place pretty much exclusively on islands. And overall, dragons are the only abundant species there with the exception of fish and human-bred sheep and chickens.

In general, night furies have duller teeth, smaller claws and are smaller than most dragons. Disregarding the movies making Toothless weirdly OP, a night fury would be disadvantaged against most dragons in a 1v1 fight and besides, it has four huge weak spots that would highly discourage it from a direct physical fight - the primary and secondary tail fins. One unlucky rip in the membrane and the night fury is fucked.

The night fury however noticeably resembles falcons, given their dive-bombing ability and high maneuverability.

Falcons too have smaller beaks and weaker claws compared to most birds of prey, and for that they compensate by simply picking up speed, balling up their talons and Punching. Really. Hard.

And they use that ability to kill other birds, even much larger ones, by knocking them right from the sky.

Here, the night fury's plasma blast works the same way as a falcon's punch. Dragons are fire-resistant, so what the plasma blast does is really just a densely packed bolt of energy that has the effect of either stunning or outright killing prey by damaging its spine. And what the plasma bolt doesn't do, rapid contact with the ground would finish. And if even that doesn't do it, the night fury's wide jaws and dull teeth are just fine for simply clamping around the unlucky dragon's neck and strangling it, like a lion or a pitbull.

The night-time camouflage allows the night fury to soar for extended periods of time perfectly unnoticed in the night sky, and by the time it strikes, the dragon wouldn't even know what's coming.

Unless

Say the hunting night fury is aware of other dragons sleeping under the trees, as most dragons probably would at night (village raids aside, most dragons seem to be diurnal), so how does the night fury get them in position where it can use its signature attack? Well, there's That Iconic Screech Of Death. Since in the movies it tends to appear not just during dive-bombings but also when charging up a blast, I imagine it's something the night fury is able to control to some degree. So by simply fake-diving in close proximity to sleeping dragons, it can effectively terrify them into leaving their hideout and fly out into the open where it can easily take them out.

I dunno, the possibility of night furies as predators to other dragons just makes so much sense to me, I really don't know what other reasons there would be for them to evolve these particular adaptations.

And one more little headcanon to add to this whole rant - since night furies are significantly smaller and less equipped for dragon vs dragon fights and are primarily speed-based predators, I imagine there is this very likely scenario:

There is one dragon who resembles a hyena, a lil bit

Ok, rant over

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people really shouldn't be driving their cybertrucks around in public areas, especially at this time of year. cybertrucks evolved to live underground you see, and actually share a lot of features with other burrowing animals like mole rats and worm lizards - most notably, highly reduced eyes (to the point where cybertrucks look eyeless) and a wedge-shaped head for pushing dirt out of the way.

a lot of these burrowing adaptations make cybertrucks highly vulnerable in urban and suburban environments! for example, their reduced crumple zone makes sense in an underground life where high-speed collisions are unlikely, but leaves them vulnerable in environments preferred by most other automobiles. and their modified headlight-eyes are fine for an underground lifestyle sheltered from the elements, but are highly impractical in aboveground climates with snowy winters.

(their iridescence is also a subterranean adaptation! it may seem counter-intuitive, since the bright colors and shininess of most other automobiles are believed to serve as warning coloration or to attract mates/ward off rivals*, but iridescence is not uncommon in burrowing animals! in addition to cybertrucks, it's been observed in golden moles and burrowing snakes, and is believed to reduce friction while burrowing)

in the wild, these creatures spend their entire lives underground and never see the light of day unless under extreme duress. it is highly unethical to force them to live aboveground and expose them to the elements!

citations: Astley (1987), Astley (2019)

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And they look out so hard for the well being of the spiders AND the dolphins

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"Golden autumn" (1916) by Mykola Burachek (1871–1942)

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( <= green bean

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HOBBES vs. TIGGER cage match TO THE DEATH say goodbye to your childhood because ONE! WILL!! DIE!!!!

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I'm already seeing advice from people in the US to purchase queer books and other banned or "controversial" books on paper as a way to combat the wave of government censorship that is coming. While this is a good idea (it is! absolutely!), it's not accessible to everyone, and truly, we're not going to be able to consumerism our way out of this one.

If you can buy the books, do. Whether you can buy the books or not, borrow them from your library.

Borrow the paper versions. Borrow the ebook or audiobook versions. Request the titles you want that your library doesn't have. The more a title circulates or is requested, the better librarians are going to be able to defend keeping it if and when it's ever challenged.

Use libraries like @queerliblib too. The more members they have, the better they'll be able to fundraise.

Your community resources depend on you using them. Borrow the books before they go away.

InB4: Piracy is not the solution here. We're trying to keep community resources available, not make sure individual people can read individual books. Different problems.

The books are still available. Borrowing them from your library and returning them on time and in good condition will help keep them that way.

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Hi Tumblr! I'm Robin (they/them). In kindergarten, my dream career was to be an artist, living in a sun-drenched apartment and illustrating picture books authored by my sister. Honestly, not much has changed since then. Seventeen years later, with a degree in Biology and an interest in pollination biology and ecological systems, I'm still doing art. Much of my work is highly influenced by my love of the little critters living around us, as well as careful observation of patterns and systems. I recently graduated college and finally have time to put energy into creative endeavors and sharing them with others <3 If there's a very particular creature or plant you would like to see/want a custom print of, message me and we'll make it happen :)

ETSY LINK: HERE!

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via indiarosecrawford

Frog Paints a Water Lily Pond 🪷🎨🐸

𝑓ₒᵣ ⲕᵢ𝑛𝑔 ₐ𝑛𝑑 𝑐ₒ𝑡𝑡ₐ𝑔ₑ

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[ Alt Text : Tweet from Lina Posting. "Have just observed the existence of what I can Only Describe as the Culver's Transmutation Circle. Attached is an image of all of the locations of Culvers Burgers in denver on google maps ]

So of course like any neurotypical person, of which I totally am (sarcasm), i had to go check. Y'all. I do not want the "Culvers Denver Mass Transmutation Circle Event of 2025" to become the way we learn magic is real.

[ Alt Text : two images. The first one is a screenshot from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, showing the mass transmutation circle, that covered the entire nation. The second is the SAME transmutation circle drawn over the map of Denver, rotated slightly, with 7 of the 10 points lining up near perfectly with points on the circle. There are dots on those 7 points, and x's on the 3 spots not filled in]

Anyway, felt this would do numbers on Tumblr.

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took me 8 months and very approx 380m of embroidery floss, and I'm now finished. going to have it framed soon :)

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The Headless Horseman by Abigail Larson

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@whirlpoolleaf asked: Can I request Murderbot for the sketch request thing? Thanks so much :)

-performance reliability at 60% and dropping-

(I'm a big fan of the idea that mb tends to be very expressive during fights, considering how accustomed it is to the privacy of the helmet)

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Every year, as soon as it gets cold, I crave kifli and no one around here sells them. )=

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I’ve been patiently waiting for a nice second-hand wood dresser to appear on fb marketplace or at Goodwill for months. Finally, I grabbed this one yesterday for $50.

My inspiration for this project are some dressers I saw at Anthropology that have gorgeous carved details. But I want my dresser to cost $200 or less rather than $2,000.

Of course I can’t add actual hand-carved wood, but I’ve got clay and some silicon molds + epoxy and a potential overconfidence in my DIY abilities.

First up, I removed the existing hardware and sanded this pretty lady down. She is now looking MUCH better without all those terrible stains (and the drawer pulls weren’t doing it for her, tbh).

Up next, I’ll give her a paint wash or three and start trying my hand at faking some carvings!