#beastlike

[al-n-cartoons]

(That last sentence made me snicker because I am a wee feral who can and will act with these mannerisms.)

After watching Catch and Release, I’ve come to realize something. 

Peridot acts much more immature, when in a situation she’s not used to - she’s frightened, she’s aggressive, she loses her social skills. Some have interpreted this as her being childlike, similar to Amethyst’s seemingly “younger” personality in the flashback episodes. But this doesn’t match her previous portrayals, or her mature body type - she’s in no way coded as something that should be treated like a child.

So why does she act like that? Why did Amethyst act like that back in the day? Why would gems act less mature than they usually are? Well…

… Look at how they walk.

Look at how they act.

Look at them when they’re taken off-guard, or frightened, or excited.

Gems aren’t childlike.

They’re beastlike.

All of them, in different ways.

They snap their jaws to show aggression, they show an animalistic combination of caution and curiosity when dealing with new objects and places, they even run on all fours when distracted. Fear makes them not just aggressive, but outright vicious and murderous, like mindless attack dogs. They occasionally have feline and canine physical traits, like fangs and glowing eyes. Younger!Amethyst literally went running after a thrown stick.

Amethyst, Peridot and Jasper, all presumably Kindergarten gems, seem to be the most prone to this, while Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire and Rose appear to be more civilized, likely as a result of having been regular Homeworld citizens trying to survive in a very uptight, controlled society for a long time. They’re used to restraining themselves from acting too savage. Lapis has an animalistic mindset ruled by emotion and impulsiveness, guarded by a civilized facade, reflecting her powers and element. She always seems more mentally present, even when upset, because she almost always has the upper hand and thus doesn’t feel the panic of a cornered animal.

Try rewatching an episode with the mindset of “these are extremely intelligent cats and dogs who were taught human-like standards of social etiquette.” It solves a surprising amount of questions regarding their occasional lack of maturity/manners/empathy/etc., unifying the traits normally associated with different human age groups.

Among them, why Peridot turns into a squeaky, slap-y menace when frightened. She’s got the survival instincts of a wild animal, with none of the strength. She’s like a housecat.

Tl;dr: gems have instincts and traits similar to felines/canines. Moments of immaturity happen when a gem hasn’t developed the social skills to deal with a situation in a civilized manner (due to fear, excitement, anger, lack of self-discipline, etc.), causing them to act like wild animals - which is often misinterpreted as “childlike” because we’re not used to seeing adults react in such an animated, uncontrolled way.

[stage-39]

indistinguishability

[resswatch-art]

My tiefling oc Swindle!

[dimension-20-every-introduction]

Everyone Introduced in Dimension 20′s Neverafter episode 14

[rotisseries]

hm

hmmmmm

[coolerdracula]

life hack for people who are dogs: bacon that’s been in the fridge overnight is kind of like a dog treat, especially if the pieces are cut into halves or quarters

[jane-friend]

You’re just jealous of my dense yet formless muscles and my voracious appetite for greek yogurt.

[smiling-is-victory]

do you think the garugaru the main monsters in wonderful pretty cure reminds you of the chimera animas from tokyo mew mew?

the last chimera anima I remember seeing before I stopped watching tmm (didn't really like it) was a swan woman...? basically just a human woman with a beak or something? so not really

[the-muppet-joker]

Sometimes I frighten myself with my own supressed rage. I just growled into the mirror (beastlike Daddy behavior) and then got so scared by my own violent eyes that I yelped and wimpered (fearful Kitten behavior). Then I became rock hard in awe of the nuance and layers present within my twisted soul and cried

[etherical-angel]

OK BEING DELUSIONAL ON MAIN 24/7 but im really loving my new fixation self so far!!! on the occasions where i feel really attatched to a character(usually bc theyre a sign for me) my physical body either starts getting changes or i start noticing things already there(usually my hair is the biggest difference, as it literally changed texture last time and i reallyyyy needed something new to flatten the curls out..found it!!)

rn im like a weird bigender girlverine, and its finally making me feel better about not shaving as much(i had a big dysphoria era with my new alters who didnt like our beard and alters who did, so now while this fixation is on theres a balence. for now). its also making me feel better about my super hairy arms and legs and chest, and also my veiny hairy hands and feet that look like. not human. so now i wouldnt even mind having more hair on them....it came at a perfect time for my nails too, as this is the first time in my life where im not bitting them and let them grow out to ungodly lengths(i cut them into points to make them sharp >:3) oh and ive got pointy vampire teeth from my vampire fixation as a kid(one of the first times this happened) so thats fun too.

but yea i look like this irl rn and my hair is sooo fluffy and big^^ (weird panel but it resonates w me)(now im just hoping for my sideburns to finally grow after 7 years of wanting them...)

[uniquezombiedestiny]

this is duchess, a maren defender who's always been at odds with dragonkind. not in the combative way - most of the time - but she's always felt alienated; treated like a monster by the very beings she'd always been fascinated with.

as a more stealthy, ambush-style attacker, she's gotten the reputation of a deep-sea lurker, not unlike a siren from the depths or a bad omen. she patrols common battlefronts, seeking out potential threats.

that is, before she became the familiar of queen, a leviathan-hunting captain who's gaining trait after trait of the very beasts she kills.

the ridgeback was surprisingly friendly, and the pair quickly struck up a friendship as they conversed amidst their respective patrols.

over time, the two developed a unique understanding between each other, and found themselves unable to separate (they also fell in love here! <3). duchess was content with joining queen's ship as a crewmember, now accepted and free to interact with dragonkind.

duchess is a great hunter and is ever-interested in the workings of both the ship and it's crew - she certainly brightens up the place.

Worldbuilding Wednesday Prompt 2:

Write about a beastclan character in your lore. What kind of person are they? Are they a familiar, and if so what kind of relationship do they have with that dragon? What other relationships do they have with the dragons and/or other beastclans in your clan?

[nightingale-prompts]

Idea: Bigger and older ghosts with more beastlike apprentices will carry smaller ones like cats carry kittens.

Dan is already feral so when he gets tired of the others socializing he will pick Danny or Dani up and just leave.

[moidsmalding]

Rapists are often spoken of in such a distanced way. Especially by males. They will act like these men are uncanny and otherworldly, as if only a small minority of them are the ones committing all these crimes. As if some spooky boogeyman is lurking in some dark alley assaulting and killing thousands of women at once.

Most men won't even call their actions rape. A man can wheedle and coax a reluctant woman into having sex with him and won't think anything wrong with it, a man would climb onto his sleeping wife and go "but we're married!", a man will purposely shower a woman with gifts and then say "now you owe me".

Rape is opportunistic. Even a man who has no track record or ever entertained the thought will jump on the chance once he thinks he can get away with it. There's no physical trait associated with it. A man could be courteous and kind and make you feel safe and then turn around and assault you. There is no way to predict which man is a rapist.

And it's because there's no way to tell, that they maintain this narrative of rapists being beastlike and abnormal. It's just another way of refusing to take accountability.

[haldora]

"He threw back his head. He gave way to ringing laughter. He lifted a handful of water again and let it spill down my chest. He opened his mouth and for a moment I saw the flash of something very wrong and dangerous, teeth such as a wolf might have." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "[...] I saw him staring, beastlike, from his chair, as if some ravener had come into him and banished all his civilized faculties and left him thus, hungry, with glazed eyes and reddening mouth, the glittering blood finding its myriad little paths over the silky margin of his lips.

He rose, a drugged thing, and came towards me with a rhythm of movements that was alien and struck the coldest terror in my heart. His fingers flashed, closed, beckoned."

[dunmeshistash]

Is it ever explained why Izutsumi is a pretty even blend of tallman and beast, compared to other beastmen? Other beastmen we see like Lycion and in exposition drawings are either one or the other and can transform between each state. is Izutsumi a unique case?

I think Izutsumi is more catlike than you first realize (you can probably notice after a bit tho) like how she's completely covered in fur

She does look more Tallman than the other beastkin we see like, the weretiger might be comparable to the greater cat looks way more like a tiger.

The fact they can switch between forms probably has to do with it? Like Lycion says maybe it's cause she's an opposite beastkin. Since she's more beast than human maybe the transformation compensates? While werebeasts are more human than beast so their beast forms compensate getting more beastlike??

Idk

We do also see that difference between kobolds and werewolves tho.

Werewolves look way more like a beast than a human compared to kobolds.

In the end Izutsumi was made by a mage that didn't care about her so I doubt normal beastmen are made as carelessly as she seems to have been. She's definitely not a normal beastkin.

[seffyriath]

okay here is my weird take about what emet-selch might have done regarding zenos and whatever "experiment" was going on

Joke answer: he's a dragon stuffed into a human body

serious answer: it's the same as the joke answer but longer and explained in an incoherent way.

i think we've been given hints about what the fuck was going on with Varis's Large Adult Son even after endwalker, but i need to reference other things to do that, so let's break it down:

-We have been given more insight into how Memories and Souls work and interact in this setting, especially after Dawntrail. We know that it's possible to implant memories onto a soul that didn't originally have them, and it works fine if you have the technology to do this

-Emet-Selch's whole job involved souls and the lifestream

-We've seen Athena also bring back ancients, in a temporary way, by reconstituting soul stuff and grabbing the memories for those ancients, since souls and memories are essentially different kinds of aether. if you've played FFVII at all, you already know this. one would assume that Emet-Selch would manage reconstituting souls a lot better

-there are some memories that are so powerful that they are blasted or etched into your soul, which is why some faded memories can stick around from past lives

-We know that Emet-Selch was seriously thinking of a way to bring the ancients back without rejoinings, and this was probably attempted via his literal large adult sons and their descendants.

-dragon's souls, as far as we know, are unsundered.

-fitting with the Sephiroth and Jenvoa parallel, they are also canonically aliens

about Zenos:

-the devs have said that he was "born wrong" and that's why he's like that. this seems different than "born evil" because Lyse assumes that this wasn't the case, and that's not the normal philosophy for the game. characters have been wrong before, but if he was experimented on, this is likely referencing Sephiroth, who was also born wrong on purpose, as a joke, via tampering in the womb

-people in the world still have vague, ephemeral memories of the ancients, but Zenos is different. Zenos has upsettingly visceral memories of the final days but he also views the world like the ancients do, particularly regarding accomplishing your life's purpose and then dying right after as a positive thing. this is why his actions at the end of stormblood do not read as suicidal to not just me, but the characters. they're really confused about why he does this! Zenos acting the way he does seems to be the answer to why the ancients tried to emphasize a more communal existence, because what happens when the most powerful motherfucker on earth is also a prince in an extremely hierarchical society? you get Zenos

-However, Zenos also follows the rule of beasts and is much more beastlike, similar to dragons. Dragons aren't evil, but they have extremely different cultures and views than humans, because they're functionally immortal and don't need to reproduce. they are power manifest, and can easily take over an ecosystem. Midgardsomr's covenant with Hydaelyn most likely prevents this, but the point is that dragons are pure power, and that's what they respect the most. like Zenos, although being raised as he was probably made this even worse

-Zenos seems pretty dysphoric, but it doesn't seem to be directed at any gender. he's stated that he doesn't care about his name one way or the other, and that he only wants his body back from Elidibus because of how powerful it is. he otherwise doesn't seem to care about normal human experiences, like human food or sex, or just companionship in general with other humans. as far as food goes, he's the only villain to do this, as the writers tend to get into what foods the characters like in the lore books, even the villains. you can't really say that this is just the product of being a royal or someone in power. even Thordan has a favorite food, and even Varis had a childhood friend, who we've actually met.

-both in The Hunt Begins and in general, Zenos actively wants to be able to use and manipulate aether. this is odd, since Garleans are constantly told that magic is evil and bad, but Zenos goes out of his way to try to do this, including piercing himself with a crystal where the aether exchange could kill him. this could be because his great grandfather is a sorcerer of eld. it could be because dragons not being able to use magic would feel extremely unnatural to him. why not both?

-He seems. REALLY excited when he transforms into Shinryu. like, weirdly excited. i get it, it would probably own being a dragon, and you could say that he was just really excited about fighting the wol the first time, but this has happened twice now, and every time he almost sounds like Susano with how excited he is. it's a total fucking mood shift. also in his last fight he still keeps the Shinryu attacks. since it's in a place that's ruled by emotions, one has to assume that he's attached to them

-He literally has a horde (of weapons)? i know we don't see a lot of FFXIV dragons do this, but Vrtra has a horde that he uses as a bank. what's up with that.

-He doesn't really have a coda yet, and while i don't think he's going to be brought back, or that he NEEDS to be brought back, the wol seems like they're just starting to be comfortable with thinking about what Zenos's deal is with enough time and distance

-how d. how did he know that dragons can just lay eggs like that. yeah he could have READ about it but like. how did he figure out how to do that in the fight. and why. why did he just doooo thaaaat.

IN CONCLUSION i think that in a bid to try to bring ancients back into the world through unnatural means, Emet-Selch took the closest recently dead unsundered soul he could find at the time (a dragon's), imprinted some of his memories onto it (as one would do when making the convocation crystals) and put that shit in a baby. thanks.