#bfw

[birdsofthefictionalworld]

The Canary Problem

The Untamed(陈情令/Chén Qíng Lìng)(2019) is a mainland chinese xianxia drama, based on the popular danmei novel 魔道祖师/Mó Dào Zǔ Shī. The series isn't exactly peak birdwatching, but it has a select few appearances of Weird Birds.

The main problem I will be tackling here is the presence of a small, but incredibly confusing, problem: a wild Canary.

In the fourth episode of this show, a character—Nie Huaisang— smuggles a songbird into class.

He claims to have captured the bird from the wild on his journey from his home(Qinghe) to the current location(Gusu). This problem is that the bird he has in this scene is a domestic variant of the wild Atlantic Canary, Serinus canaria. This species is native to the Canary Islands, off the coast of northern Africa, and to make things worse, this particular individual has a color pattern known as Red Factor, which was created from humans intentionally hybridizing domesticated Atlantic Canaries Serinus canaria forma domestica with south american Venezuelan Red Siskin (Spinus cucullatus). This is essentially like he was wandering around in the woods of northeastern china and found a purebred Chihuahua.

But the actual species of the bird is not necessarily the only important factor in fiction. The species the birdy actor is intended to be portraying also comes into play. While the official english subtitles do refer to the bird as a canary, the words actually used in chinese are 金雀/jīn què, directly translating to gold bird. This name is colliqual, not scientific, and can therefore be referring to multiple different bird species of similar appearance. I am led to believe that the species intended to be portrayed here is, in fact, the Eurasian Siskin, Spinus spinus. If this is the case, a canary is a fine choice for casting, as wild type Domestic Canaries and Eurasian Siskins are quite similar in appearance.

Additionally, a Eurasian Siskin is a very realistic species to be found in between the real life northeastern china.

Unfortunately, by casting a clearly domestic red-factor, the similarity is lost.

I do believe Eurasian Siskins remain an ideal candidate for the intended species, if not aesthetically, then thematically. For you see, while Eurasian Siskins are sometimes referred to as jīn què, they are more commonly known as 黄雀/huáng què.

The word huáng què is used in the classic chinese idiom “螳螂捕蝉黄雀在后了/tángláng bǔ chán huáng què zài hòule” which is often translated to “the mantis stalks the cicada, but the oriole is behind”. This alludes to an individual that is so focused following their goal, they fall prey to others. In the context of this story, and the placement of the canary there appear to be two major options.

Warning: Its major plot spoiler time

In the early series, Nie Huaisang is characterized as an unserious and rather careless young man, but at the end of the it is revealed that he has spent many years(during a plot-relevant time-skip), engineering the downfall of one of the series’ major antagonists, Jin Guangyao.

The most straightforward option, is that Nie Huaisang is holding the bird as a representation of himself, being the “huáng què” to Jin Guangyao’s “mantis” in the eventual reveal, but i think there could be more to it.

Huaisang refers to the bird specifically as a jīn què, not a huáng què. While this may be intended to distance the bird from the idiom, in order to make the foreshadowing more obscure, it does not seem coincidental that the jīn in jīn què uses the same character as Jin Guangyao(and the entire Jin sect, but regardless-).

So i propose that the bird is more specific foreshadowing, meant to represent Jin Guangyao, the huáng què who, while stalking a prey intent on another, did not look behind himself for the greater predator, a man.

Nie Huaisang, specifically was said to have stalked the bird for several days before capture, a far cry from the rest of his characterization at this point in the series. It could be simply intended as a demonstration of his tenacity when given the appropriate motivation, but it becomes a far more pointed commentary if it was intended to mirror his quiet hunt for Jin Guangyao in the later series.

A lot of symbolism for a bird with 3 seconds of screen-time, or not, it could be simply flawed bird casting. Please don’t get me started on the chicken.

Thank you for reading!! If anyone has any good medias for me to look at birds in, send me an ask! I would love to hear about them!

I will be posting all my bird metas under the tag #meta as well as #bfw(my general works tag).

[bubbles-and-bat-wings]

I don't think there is a single person in this show that isn't bisexual

[nhlovesadri3]

andrewdaystudio

[jumpin--bean]

Hello, Best Friends Whenever fandom? Do you exist? Either way, have some doodles of the girls, I love them so muchhhh

[arsuns-ramblings]

«- Say something Shelby would say » « -I love you Cyd »

LIKE C’MON AND YOU ARE TRYING TO CONVINCE ME THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE STRAIGHT??

[the-halcyon-effect]

bleed from within is a cool band and all but that's such a stupid name. like if course i bleed from within where else would i bleed from

[foxymaxwell]

Sillified

[disneychanneltournament]

[super-into-on-it]

'Ukranian Designers at BFW'

Sleek Magazine | March 2023

shot by Ferry Mohr

[captureandcaptivate]

Sofia Pilishenko by George Stratigis at BFW.

[jaaankiey]

a thought for you:

leafy in shadowclan

if u don't mind anon, i'd love to hear ur reasoning for this jkdvnakjdvnda!!

personally, i always thought of leafy being in thunderclan mostly because both leafy and thunderclan really have those "main character" vibes. also thunderclan has trees with leaves while shadowclan stuck with crummy pines (/j),

though i will drop that in the "battle for warriors" series, its not like there's any rhyme or reason where an object might drop. bottle in riverclan and snowball in windclan were done because i thought it would be funny 💔💔💔

[birdsofthefictionalworld]

Alternation of Trigun Plant Generations

So, not a bird post, but they have feathers so it counts, right? Right?? *sweats*

I was recently introduced to Trigun, and am absolutely fascinated by the reproduction cycle of Plants. Its time to, once again, put my degree to good use. Here goes nothing:

So at first glance it seems pretty damn fantastical. The main character(and main villian) are the, presumably asexual, reproductive products of a creature with significant physiological differences from them. This is strange for asexual reproduction, as such a thing usually results in a sort of “clone” of the parent. Or does it?

Enter, the life cycle of a fern.

The diagram is a little confusing, but the main point is that the diploid fern(top) asexually reproduces to create the haploid fern(bottom), which looks very little like its parent. The haploid fern can then sexually reproduce to create a another diploid fern, and the cycle goes round and round. Sound familiar? Don’t worry, I’m about to explain it in excrutiating detail. I even made a diagram!

So similar to the fern life cycle. In Trigun, the Dependent Plant can asexually reproduce to create an Independent Plant.

First, up at the top of the diagram, the Independent Plant reaches a state of sporing.

This happens very rarely, as there are only two instances of it occurring on SEEDS ships, and no instances on Gunsmoke/Nomansland. It does seem to, however, become more common on earth, as more Independent Plants arrive at the very end of the manga. I would theorize that this has to do with an incredibly extended lifespan leading to a very late onset of sexual maturity, but that is a theory for another day.

Second, moving down and to the right on the diagram, the Dependent creates spores. These take the form of humanoid infants.

Now, this part of the diagram assumes that the known Independent Plants (ie Vash/Knives and Tesla) are actually male and female(and aren’t functionally sexless like Dependents), which is how they could theoretically reproduce sexually. This is where things diverge from general fern life cycles, as the two sexes are in separate entities not combined into one plant. Therefore, when the Dependent Plant spores, it would create either X(female) or Y(male) Plants originating from one half or the other of its own XY genes. This does align with fern reproduction somewhat, as Haploid plants are created from only one half of a copy of the Diploid plant’s genes. In ferns, both sides of the genes have both male and female characteristics, but for Plants it seems to be split, creating Independents with separate sexes.

Third in the diagram, moving to the bottom. The spores grow into recognizable Independent Plants, with far more humanoid forms than Dependents. These guys would then, at sexual maturity be able to sexually reproduce to create a Dependant Plant zygote(fancy word for baby), which would then grown into a fully formed Dependent Plant. And thus, the cycle continues.

Obviously, we do not directly see this in Trigun, as for the majority of the story, there are only two(presumably male) Independent plants. This cycles has clearly not been documented in the era of the SEEDS ships, so the initial method of plant reproduction was likely simple cloning with some genetic engineering involved. But it is more than possible that natural Plant reproduction was determined on earth, which would be why we see more independents showing up with the earth ships at the end of the manga.

Additional Notes:

Returning to something I mentioned earlier on, dependent plant sporing was not occurring on Gunsmoke/Nomansland. I would guess that this is due to the levels of stress placed on the Dependents by the human populations relying on them. Had the humans been able to reduce the strain on their Plants, they may have been able to produce Independents, therefore allowing for the creation of more dependents, further reducing the strain on existing dependents. But that is just my pet theory.

I have additional theories on the mechanisms behind Dependent Plants resource production, and what an ideal environment of multiple plants living freely might look like, but that is for another post.

Thank you for reading! I honestly don't know if I will do any more non-bird metas, but if you liked this, you can always look at #bfw(my general works tag). As always, my ask box is open to suggestions for bird stuff for me to check out!

[bubbles-and-bat-wings]

Think I might write an angsty one shot about Barry and Marcis' breakup between seasons.

[nhlovesadri3]

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A post shared by MY CAO (@mycaomakeup)

[battleforwarriorcats]

the one side effect of making this series is that i cant ever see bottle or snowball in tpot the same way

[arsuns-ramblings]

Is it just me or does Cyd from best friends whenever kinda look and sounds like @aimseytv ? Like i know it’s probably the hair that gives the whole « looks like them » but i do see it