#im sick of every story being

[bonefall]

Hi Bones!! Thank you for you hard work on this project and for sharing it with us!

I've seen your posts about weird representation of society (regarding the "natural order of things") in xenofiction, especially in lion king, so I wanted to ask:

could you recommend any xenofiction media that has all (or most of the) animal species sapient? Or is the only solution to make just one or two species sapient while the others (especially prey) are plain animals?

Really sorry if you've seen this ask from me before - my account had a weird laggy period when I couldn't send or receive messages and asks, so I don't know if you got the previous one! I just know that now it's fixed so I double all the asks sent haha

Honestly I'm not totally sure! If any 3rd person has some good recommendations for "every being is alive" xenofiction types, feel free to weigh in.

If you want to jump in with me though, I am following the webcomic Africa. It updates every Wednesday. Africa is about a mother Leopard on the verge of a great ecological disaster, the relationship between her children and the animals around her, and the strength of both instinct and choice as the characters face an uncertain future.

Since it's ongoing, I still don't know how it's going to end and can't judge it as a full work! But it's absolutely fascinating and I think the author is doing a fantastic job so far. Bonus points for the way it portrays humans, btw.

No more spoilers though, if you're interested, it's on Webtoons.

(I'm also planning to read Oren's Forge soon. Ask me about it again in a few months over on Bonebabbles and I'll give you my thoughts)

As an aside though, funny you mention it because like... ever since I was a kid I've had a story I want to tell with the premise. It's a scintilla I've kept close to me for well over a decade but haven't done anything official with. So this is actually a theme I've thought about a lot.

It's rare to see it done well though because like... its very premise butts heads with reality. The "natural order" that an animal follows is not something it moralizes. A tiger doesn't have the capacity to think about how fucked up it is to kill to stay alive, the deer doesn't know that if its population isn't controlled it will destroy the forest.

They're animals. They don't HAVE that agency. Your dog does not care about being sterilized. A snake doesn't differentiate between a pinky and an adult mouse except in terms of if it will fit in its mouth. But the minute you put human morality in there... they have the ability to reason, create and agree on the rules of a society, make choices about MORALITY.

If nothing is going to change about their world, you just end up putting human arguments about "natural order" in their mouths and, well... start telling a parable justifying this "natural order."

(Genuine) Does what I'm saying make sense? Animals DON'T rationalize or negotiate. HUMANS do.

So the minute you're approaching a world with that logic, like it or not, you are invoking those "arguments from nature." And you're putting them in a being that is not fully an animal or a human, but an anthropomorphic mix which CAN rationalize but WON'T make an effort to change their world.

(Which is why tbh the best examples i know of are works with a theme of "change.")

OH WAIT I also remember another that's interesting!! Leafy: Hen into the Wild actually has a fascinating take on it. It's not interested in "moralizing" or really being about an animal society. It's a very emotional sort of movie, and it's about joys in adversity, the freedom that choice gives you, how bad things are going to happen and you can never completely prevent them.

INTENSE movie emotionally, the ending will wreck you (especially in the English translation which leaves out a really important theme making it feel abrupt x_x) but it's really good. Check that one out.

OH and also You Are Umasou. That one has more pitfalls imo (it does try to moralize a bit) but it's super unique as a movie. And is about dinosaurs.

[pulsingvoid]

as much as i love to criticize yellowjackets as i frankly think it's a fumbled attempt at an intriguing premise i CANNOT get behind the "yellowjackets is not as gay as advertised" crowd. i'm not even personally that invested in shauna/jackie and i know there have been dismissive comments from certain actors about the nature of their relationship and well rip to those people i guess because reading shauna/jackie as anything other than a budding lesbian romance tragically cut off before it could bloom is just. wrong? it's not even subtextual, it transcends the text, it's the most important relationship in the story, it IS the story, at the heart of every single thing that happens or doesn't happen is that these two girls were in deep lesbian love with each other. there is no other way to read it if you try to complicate or simplify it by making it about jealousy or identity or friendship you lose both the core sexual desire and the deep romantic love that were (and still are) driving and twisting and softening and ruining everything around these young women

[fxggotclown]

i keep ending up in online spaces that are like 75% transfems, 20% cis men, and 5% cis women . idk how i keep doing it. maybe someday i will have more than two transmasc friends .

[todayisafridaynight]

reminiscing on the period where i didnt know sawashiro was modeled after ttm and the second i learned and embraced that it 1000% altered the way i drew him These Are Not The Same Bitch

[yo9urt]

started playing ball dur's gait 3

[wlwaerith]

if i think about this too hard for too long i start throwing up blood

[lovsome]

why am i always the dispensable friend

[piplupod]

i am going to be soooo fucked for this therapy appt _(:_」∠)_

[ethereiling]

counted up how much time i spend doing nothing but work + sleep + eat and turns out it leaves me with like 2 and a quarter hours of true free time a day at most and . well. i think i know why im so fatigued lmao

[xawkward-ariesx]

Me, one of nine kids reading a fic with siblings: oh fuck yes accurate sibling dynamics let's go!! I don't care about any of the rest of the characterisation now, this is all that matters to me

[doctapuella]

a cat probably named Baby

[devotedlystrangewizard]

"being autistic is about being bad at reading social cues" "being autistic is about stimming & sensory overload" NO.

this is autism.

[eddie-munson-is-my-wife]

i think stranger things should be canceled man..

[legogender]

finlays will see a terrible abusive dynamic in ninjago and be like 'is anyone gonna think abt that daily' and not wait for an answer

[gommyworm]

:^]

[jvzebel-x]

🦋