#source: the owls of ga'hoole
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Hunter: You have a soft head, Omega. Filled with stories, and dreams.
Omega: There's nothing wrong with dreams.
#source: legend of the guardians: the owls of ga'hoole#the bad batch incorrect quotes#tbb incorrect quotes#incorrect quotes#star wars#the bad batch#tbb#star wars the bad batch#sw tbb#sw the bad batch#sergeant hunter#tbb hunter#the bad batch hunter#hunter the bad batch#hunter tbb#the bad batch omega#tbb omega#omega the bad batch#omega tbb#clone force 99#mine
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Here's a rapid fire list of non-Warriors xenofiction novels WC fans can read. Will say I haven't read all of these, and in that case, I will not leave a comment. Obligatory Wings of Fire, Guardians of Ga'hoole, Redwall, and Watership Down recommendation. Honorable mentions go to other Erin Hunter series - Seekers, Survivors, Bravelands, and Bamboo Kingdom. Varjak Paw series by S.F. Said. Two books. Geared toward a younger audience like Warriors. I can vouch this as one of my favorites. I can see it being an acquired taste, especially for someone older, though. Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. One book. Personally, I'd only recommend this book if you're super interested in learning about the inspiration for Warriors. Otherwise, its themes have aged like milk and the story isn't all too special. I will say the plot gets pretty decent and horrifying at the halfway point. The Deadlands series by Skye Melki-Wegner. Three books. I have completed the first and a read a little of the second. Geared towards a younger audience like Warriors. You can tell that the audience is younger due to the dialogue and characters. Descriptions are good and I'd imagine thrilling for the target demographic. In fact, I'd describe the books, that I've read so far, as thrilling in general. However, the "Jurassic Park meets Wings of Fire" comparison is a lie. Wings of Fire is accurate but this series has nothing to do with the Jurassic Park movies or books besides dinosaurs. It'd be closer to say "The Land Before Time meets Wings of Fire." I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for Warriors with dinosaurs. Silverwing series by Kenneth Oppel. I've only read a little of the first book, so I don't have much to talk about. I will tell you that a graphic novel has recently released! Fire Bringer by David Clement-Davies. One book. About deer. No comment. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. One book. Horses. No comment. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker. One book. Utahraptors. No comment. A Black Fox Running by Brian Carter. One book. Foxes. No comment. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. One book. Mice. No comment. Foxcraft series by Inbali Iserles. Three books. Foxes. No comment. The Tygrine Cat series by Inbali Iserles. Two books. Cats. No comment. The Books of the Named series by Clare Bell, more commonly known as Ratha's Creature or the Ratha series. Five books. Prehistoric Dinaelurus nimravids. No comment. I think I've listed enough in this ask, but I'll drop this xenofiction list https://www.tumblr.com/the-owl-tree/745956715298799616/xenofiction-reading-recommendation-list?source=share in case anyone wants more.
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Guardians of Ga’Hoole fans, y’all remember when HP house sorting quizzes were everywhere and we jumped on the bandwagon with our own “which chaw would you be sorted into?” quizzes?
Well here’s one I made for some friends! It’s purely based on vibes and my own headcanons about the chaws since there isn’t a whole lot to go off of from the source material.
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how does your creative process work? i always struggle to have ideas and create worlds that still have cats but are unique with unique roles. any advice?
Ok so the biggest piece of advice I can give is don't get caught up worrying about if your story/world is unique enough! Everyone gets inspiration from somewhere, especially in fandom spaces! Plus with so many of us making silly little cat worlds, our ideas are bound to overlap!
Tbh I think some of the best ways to make your world come across as unique is to take inspo from lots of different sources and just mix them together in your own fun ways! Just think about different things that you like the world building for and make a world building soup out of them!
For the Kinship world I took a lot of inspo from The Guardians of Ga'hoole, I love the owl society in those books, I liked the idea of multiple roles that one could train to become a part of, I liked the more advanced tools, materials and weapons, I liked that the world took place in a post human extinction that is just never explained. I took all of these things and made them my own for the Kinships! I mixed together ideas from Warriors with TGoG and then customized it to fit the vibes and setting/environment of the Kinships!
Also speaking of environment, the setting of your story can really help make your world your own. Coming up with a cool place or just a place that you like a lot can really help in giving you ideas for your world and story! I love Yosemite National Park and California's Pacific Northwest in general so I decided to set the Kinships in a territory that is very similar to that area! Deciding this really helped me come up with more ideas, how would this society interact with the environment? How would they need to adapt to the seasons and world around them? What sorts of things would they eat? Ehat plants could they use for healing? What objects from their territory would they use as names? Idk.. it just really helps get the creativity flowing!
#cryptid answers#cryptid's the hawthorns#warrior cats ocs#warrior cats#warriors#warriors ocs#xenofiction#world building#writing advice#world building advice
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I think there is a point from episode 1 that's been dropped a little bit over time that's worth digging into more, and that's the influences of religious Judaism on a lot of the societal and religious views in the series.
Notably, ryb bears a resemblance to rebbe/rabbi, with both primarily serving the role of teachers/guides in their communities. Rabbis teach the Torah while rybs seem more secular, although you could argue that tending the Ga'hoole tree and teaching its history/environment/being the protectors of it (and, by extension, the origin of one source of the world's heroism and justice) has a common thread with Judaism as well.
There is also the contrast between St. Aggie's "questions are forbidden" stance versus the Ga'Hoole tree encouraging and celebrating learning. Judaism encourages questions, education, and religous debate in a way few major religions do - rather than just explaining practices as "well it is this way because God/religious text/your spiritual leader says so".
In episode 7, also - while they appear similar to a Christian abbey or other secluded society, the ideals that Simon and the Glauxian Brothers represent are also key features of Judaism: not to proselytize or convert, and to provide tzedakah (ethically obligated charity/aid) for those in need. While Judaism doesn't encourage monastic piety, in light of the other Jewish influences on the story I wanted to point it out nonetheless.
I'm sure there are more instances than just this, but I'd have to re-read/re-listen to catch them. TL;DR a lot of these owls seem Jewish, and I love that.
I absolutely ADORE these connections, and I'd love to quote you as we go into episode 10 -- failing that, I want our followers here to see it! These are the kind of wonderful observations that make *total sense,* but both PB and I lack the background to notice.
I know you've chosen to remain anonymous, but if you're alright being quoted, feel free to reach out to us privately at [email protected]!
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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole Review (Comission for Rewandemontay)
Hello all you happy owlet's and it's a happy day as I got another new comission person. Welcome Rewandemontay, sorry this took so long as a back injury, stomach issues and other things have taken a hammer to my productivity. Thankfully we're finally here for another look at a creator I think is talented with a fanbase I think is

It's Zack Snyder's Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hool
Guardians comes to us from Animal Logic, a studio I haven't talked about yet. Their a big time effects studio, first hitting it big with babe, who eventually branched into animation, mostly focusing on photorealistic stuff with the occasinal branch out like the lego movie (which still fit to a degree since they wanted it close to stop motion as possible). As you can see by the ENTIRELY ill fitting poster's tagline, this came on the heels of Happy Feet: that film had been a massive success for Warner Bros and they wanted more, aquiring the ya book series legend of the guardians.
Now picking these books.. wasn't a bad idea. I didn't get a chance to read them before this review, so sadly I can't fully evaluate how this works as an adaptation apart from what I could glean from tv tropes and wikipedia, but the basic concept, an epic fantasy story in an owlcentric world that has the owls still function like owls, use owl terms, and fight like them that dosen't sugarcoat the violence.. is an awesome concept. It was also a noble stab to try and make a film that was just straight up an epic fantasy in animation. There's comedy here and a few bits we'll get to that REALLY smack of 2000's animation, but as far as I can remember it'd been a while since someone had done a full on attempt at an epic fantasy story.
Even Zack Snyder was a good choice. As I said in my watchmen review last year he's not a bad director.. he was just a very bad fit for the DCEU, where he just flat out didn't give a shit about the source material. Here while he changed a lot of shit like dc, it's clear that he at least liked the core idea and really showed some reverance to it.
So why didn't we get an epic lord of the rings style trilogy but with owls? Well simple really: from what I can gleam just from an image search and my own memories.. the film was marketed terribly. Besides the very misleading posters for a film that's main plot kicks off with a child kidnapping and quickly gets into child slavery, facisim, race suprmacists, indocrination, the realities and cost of war and death. There are a lot of deaths.
Advertising wise I remember, as I watched all the cartoon channels back then, it being just kind vauge "It's magical, it has owls and some shit, it's from the people who made happy feet". And as someone who really never liked happy feet, I stayed far away.
So the film didn't do great and while a sequel was hinted at in the film and by Animal Logic, it never happened. What's left is a curious piece of a director's filmography and what might of been a hit with better marketing. So come fly with me under the cut as we swoop in and see what this film is.
The film STARTS well. In a land of owls, and a few other critters, a father tells his children Soren, a kind owl and your standard "hero who dreams of something grand" type, played by Jim Sturgess who also did well with a deconscrution of this sort of roll in across the universe, his jealous , bitter and angry brother Kludd played by Ryan Kwanten and his sweet baby sister Eglatine, of the guardians, great protectors who long ago fought a war against the "Ice Claws", who are never really elaborated on but who the guardians beat. But by this time the guardians are a myth: Soren and his dad (played by HUGO FREAKING WEAVING), believie as does his sister.. but Kludd is steadfast it's not true.
Really the family interplay in this first 15 minutes is well done: Noctus soren's dad is fair, kind and patient with soren and kludd. But we also see WHY Kludd is so resentful: Soren naturally takes to flight better and gets his dad's praise.. while Kludd gets gentle reremands for his overconfidence. His dad means well but in Kludd's eye's he's non supportive and his brother being a natural only widens the gap between the two brothers and sets the stage for the tragedy to come. It's also a nice deconstruction of our main hero having natural talent: ti's great and doe shappen and Soren's inexperince and navitie keep him from being TOO sueish, but to someone who struggles to do the same thing it's easy to resent them even if they did nothing wrong. Soren even tries to help Kludd by using a visulasation trick (I.e. thinking of where your going to land. )
The boys lives are changed forever when they acccidently fall out of their tree and nearly die at some wild animals before being saved/kidnapped by Jatt and Jutt, our standard comic relief villians.. who work a little for me. Their banter is fun, yet it dosen't undercut their menance: in fact the fact they are so goofy while being genuinely threatning and kidnapping children makes them more unsettling. The problem is they just don't really fit into the orginzation their in, the Pure Ones. The Pure Ones are our main antagonists, an owl supremacist group who seek to conquer the world and gladly kidnap children to either indocrinate into soldiers or brainwash into soldiers by "Moonblinking" them (forcing them to stare at the moon till their mind blanks out), which trust me is way more horrific than it sounds. The dead eyes it leaves.. truly haunting.
The Pure Ones were the main antagonists of the books, but are given elments of St Aurelious, another villian faction and the ones who kidnapped Soren and had the whole child kidnapping ring int he book. Honestly this change at least makes sense. If it's a good one I can't say but it seems like st auarelious eventually gets overtaken by the pure ones anyway and the children are never rescued. Combining them if your going to try and make three books into one narrative just makes sense.
IT also allows for them to do the other big change and the one I truly love. Again I can't PURLEY judge it as I haven't read the books but apparentlyt here while eventually the big bad, more on that later, Kludd is also just.. evil. He started evil, he sold soren out to the pure ones outright, he's just bad. THat's it. And that's.. boring. You CAN have a character whose just pure evil, but in this context it's just "okay this guy was just always an asshole. "
Here... we actually see Kludd transform from Raph from the tmnt, angry and feeling his father has favioritism but not being a bad sort, to a throughly loyal solider of a facist and racist movement. The film does a really good job showing HOW these movements slowly indoctrinate people: It starts slowly with them encouraging him to not throw his lot in with Soren with soren bravely defends a fellow prisoner.. and gets sent to pick pelets. They then pit the recurits for the pure ones against each other, both feeding into the pure one's apocalypse-esque survivial of the fittest philosphy and into how these sorts of movements breed obidence rather than unity. The focus is on impressing the leader rather than helping each other. The praise gives him what he wanted, while leaving him blind to the fact he's being brainwashed. It's far more compelling ot see clud slowly slide into an all too familiar sort of trap than just be bad
On the opposite ends the owls dig in pellet. Pellets are one of the few things the film goes out of it's way to explain about owls, the rest left to context clues which can be a touch disorenting at first but honestly the film does such a good job using those clues over time you get what this thing is. With pellet's it'd be a bit harder to do that but they simply had Soren and Klud's sister have her first. For the record their basically hard things owls cough up consiting of the exoskeltons and what have you of whatever they ate. It's as gross ass it sounds. And these pellets contain little magnetic bits, which are used for a giant magnet pit that's used for.. something. What that something is I either miss or simply isn't explained in the film version. It IS used for a trap later, but otherwise there's no clear reason for it. THey just have a spooky magical magnetic vortex.

They use moonblinking as mentioned before, but SOren is able to resist simply by closing his eyes when the guards aren't looking. He helps his new friend, the owl he stood up for, Gylfie (Emily Barclay) also avoid it and promises to break them out.
The two eventually get help from Grimble, one of the guards.. who turns out is working with the pure ones under duress. Their allegedly holding his family hostage but they subtly hint he knows by this point their likely dead or brainwashed, and the pure ones are lying to him. So he helps the two young owls learn to fly so they can escape.
This leads to the climax of our first act: Nyra the queen of the pure ones and their real leader (Her husband Metal Beak, while fierce and horrifying, comes off more as a figure head and battle commander while Nyra does all the actual day to day work), played by of all people HELEN FUCKING MEREN. Who does a phnemominal job, of course she does but in a cast that's mostly mid 2000's stars or unknowns, it's weird to see such a huge name plopped in their. Nyra catches them so Grimble bravely holds her and her soldiers off while the kids escape.. and in a heartbreaking momement Soren and Kludd come to a parting of ways as Kludd refuses to leave with him. It's a tense scene that really pays off all the expert build off: Soren is free and can go get help .. but has lost his brother while Kludd's actions prove him to Nyra.. and she manipulates him into falling futher, pointing out his sister to them. What I like though is while what Kludd's doing at this point is horrible.. in his mind.. he thinks it's a GOOD thing. That his sister will be able to grow stronger find the purpose he did... that he dosen't even realize he's handing his baby sister to a CULT.
So our heroes barely escape and soon meet your usual misfits TM , Digger and Twilight, two rapscalions. They also reunite soren with his nursemade whose also a snake, Mrs. Pthiler.. she sure is in this film. Seroiusly she has no real purpose in the plot after this. She facilitates a chase when some ravens snatch her and waste a good two minutes of film but otherwise she contributes not a lot. And that's a problem the film picks up in the middle stretch: it just starts adding characters. I mean the first act had PLENTY sure, but each had a good purpose and reason for existing. After this point they just keep piling characters in like a clowncar who have little to do but fight some bitches later. Digger himself is more there to play off twilgiht's constant love of making songs by dreading it every time. It works. Twilight gets a pass since he DOES contribute. Also he's awesome, adding a lot of fun and helping the heroes simply because he and his friend are lonely and figure why not come along on a grand adventure.
But after a neat sequence of our heroes actually getting to the great tree of Ga'houl and finding the guardians are entirely real, the film just kinda.. stutters It's pacing isn't bad and there's a really good scene with klud after he took his sister, with her wanting their brothe rback.. and klud later being revealed to have moonblinked her in revenge and as bait.
And that stuttering is due to introducing a LOT of characters at once who were likely either filtered in better in the book or simply got introduced in big scenes like this but got fleshed out. It's a problem with the last act of the film: it tries to cram three books woth of stories (going by the outline) into the film and make it one coherent narrative. It dosen't TOTALLY fail at that, the film is still fun to watch.. but it's biggest weakness is one many adaptations before and after it have: it tries to cram in TOO much into one movie. The film would've worked better had it either been JUST the slave camp, which I admit is a hard sell so I get why, or they'd just adapted two books, having it focus on our heroes trying to get to the guaridans. You coudl've even had kludd and some other goons sent after them, so you stil lget that final battle, just with less clutter. You have to pace yourself.
For a contrast I've been reading Pirates: An adventure with scientests, the book that lead to the movie. And while this book is rather short, the movie simply .. worked with what it had: it shuffles things around a bit to give it a more coherent narrative then ADDS some stuff to make it stronger. You can ADD shit. Or you can take shit from later books and put it front and center. Instead it just feels rushed. Like a complete film but still like a film trying to do too much. As such the guardians leaders feel REALLY underedevleoped> Their a king and queen.. for reasons we never get to. Why are they hiding? Why are they just a myth despite existing in large numbers? It's never actualyl explained. The guardians just.. still exist. We also get sam neil wasted as allomere, a traitirous owl whose sent ot investigate soren's claims. And the scene of Soren presenting his case is really well done, and I like how he makes a good case why this isn't a lie: the guardians were a myth. There's also the fact four owls flew all this way to something they didn't know existed. If soren just wanted to join.. that alone would've been enough to get him enrolled as a trainee. He has no reason to concoct an elaborate, easily disproven lie. I mean he's also supposed to be a kid but he sounds like he's 20.
What also drags it is we just get a LOT of compression: we get a montage set to an owl city song which.. just dosen't work. I do like what i've heard of the band, when can I see you again worked great in wreck it ralph. But a pop song. .just.. dosen't fit into this films world at all. IT'd be like if the battle of helms deep suddenly had the simpsons go calypso kick in
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They also introduce a love intrest for soren. She sure does exist.
What keeps the film from falling apart and makes the bits at g'ahoul itself work is one man. My faviorite part of the film and a truly awesome character, Lyze, played maginifacantly by geoffery rush. Lyze is a beat up barn owl, our heroes mentor. We get the only real training bit of the film, again it's mostly done in montage, and one I really like. Shonen Anime quailty training exercise. Lyze takes the cadets (our heroes plus love intrest) flying in the rain. Besides building stamina, a good reason in of itself, it's also to help the cadets trust their gut and get used to flying in conditions where they can't see. We get a beautiful sequence where he has soren fly in a current and soren really makes it work. I tonly fails when he can't figure out wether to trust his gizard, a part of bird anatomy tha tI assume helps with flight and navigation, the latter due to later events, and Lyze explains he needs to trust it. We also find out Lyze, who'd been using another name i'm. .just not bothering with, is Soren's hero.. and Soren finds out from his writings the wars his dad told him as fairy tails were bloodier, rougher and less glorious. Lyze himself gives the best line of the film on the subject as he berates the boy for thinking it was that black and white.
"Well fancy it must be hard meeting your hero and seeing he's real and not a myth. What did you expect, some tyto owl with gleaming armor and battle claws with the moon behind him? Well this is what it looks like when you've actually fought in battle. It's not glorious, it's not beautiful, it's not even heroic. It's merely doing what's right and doing it again and again, even if you someday end up looking like this. " That speech. .is so fucking awesome. It's Lyze making it clear what the reality of Soren's dream is, what fighting the Pure Ones, who turn out to have been one of the guardians enemies, REALLY costs... and making sure the boys knows he has that sacrifice in him. Lyze is harsh with the boy sure.. but it's a harshness that's clearly simply to prevent a young idealistic owl from dying needlessly in battle trying to live up to a person who never existed. He has faith in Soren, he belivies in him, as shown with the training.. he's simply being honest. I also like how they explain why lyze has a diffrent name and why no one else needed this told to them: for the former he simply got tired of his old reputation, and for the latter.. everyone at the tree KNOWS who he is, or like Soren find out eventually. The people who NEED to know so he can add in his expertise or fight when needed know. Lyze is a truly awesome character and a large part of why I want to now read the books to see more of him. It's a shame such a great mentor character is packed into such a dense film but he makes the most of it.
So right after Traitor Mc traitorpants returns with two owletts, including Soren's sister. With the threat now clear and totally not a bad guy leading them back the guardians all head back. Soren WANTS to go to free his brother and get revenge but I like how Lyze handles it: he throws soren a weapon, a claw clove that both sides use as their weapon of choice, and not only does the boy not really manage to lift it but Lyze makes a VERY valid if , unsuprisingly, curt point: Soren is better off here watching his sister than dying needlessly as canon fodder.
Of course as I haven't remotely attempted to hide this is all a trap: an earlier scene showed ja'cuse leading two other owls and the other two were implicitly died at the end of that scene. Nyra just has him killed and the guardians are trapped in the magnet thing Thankfully Eglatine comes out of her moonblink int ime to tell the others she wasn't rescued.. they gave her to him, and our heroes head out. It's here where Twilight shows how awesome he is as , being the older and more experinced oneof the group he holds the fucking line while soren risks life and limb to save the guardians. IT's a really awesome sequence. Soren barely manages to save them, their gizzards fucked up by the machine thing but soon fine enough and our epic final battle ensues. I REALLY love how combat is done in this film: tense, brutal and entirely how an owl presumibly WOULD fight.
So while Lyze and Metal Beak scrap we get the REAL main event, the fight this whole film has built toward: Soren, on his way back from the trap vs an intercepting Klud. Soren is horrified to see what his brother's become and tries in vain to talk some sense into him leading to a tense heartbreaking battle that ends with Soren trying to save Klud's life.. only for Klud to pull a frieza (or anakin given all the fire and the fact that if the series had continued he'd likely be the new metal beak as he picked up the mantle in the books) and try to attack his brother rather than accept help and possible redemption. Klud falls into the flames, though given no body is found he's likely still out there.
Soren then joins the final battle, defeating metal beak in one of the weaker parts of the film. I mean thea ctual defeat, impaling the guy, is fucking horrifying and mostly accidental, and Soren's horror after as Lyze tries to assure him, knowing the boys first kill likely weighs on the poor kid despite being self defense, is well done. I just feel metal beak is only here in this film at all because they felt we needed a final boss.. depsite the fact Klud.. REALLY fits the bill better. We see metal beak once or twice scowling and grimacing and what not , but Kludd is the real emotinal throughline and his tragic turn from gruff owl teen to child soldier is fucking horrifying, while it was never in doubt Nyra was the true force behind both. Not having hER die or be truly defeated, as she retreats after her husband metal beak's death,makes sense as they wanted sequels. But you still coudl've had a final fight with her. I guess it's a reason fo rher to retreat but it just dosen't quite land for me. The ending dosen't either as it's all happy and joyful and I like PARTS OF IT, I like sorent elling his tale to new owlets, just as his father had done for him.. but it feels a bit .. happy given Soren just had to kill for the first time and his brother is either dead or out for his blood. HORAY WE'RE ALL SAFE NO WORRIES EVEN THOUGH EVIL IS OUT THERE AND SOREN JUST KILLED AN OWL. YAYYY.
Overall Legend of the Guardians.. is good. It's not amazing, it has the bits I mentioned holding it back, trying to do way too much in one film instead of pacing itself, which CAN work (see scott pilgrim vs the world which while not a perfecta daptation is still pretty great), it just dosen't for an epic fantasy like this where details are important and build up is key. But there's enough great character stuff, breathtaking animation and top notch voice acting to make the film still a joy to watch and an underated classic. It's the best Zack Snyder film i've seen, and while granted that's a small pool (I've seen watchmen, man of steel , batman v superman and the theatrical cut of justice league) where two of them are infamously terrible and one is just.. eh, it's still a really fantastic film that shows off the man's talent. It makes me optimstic for his film Rebel Moon this year.
For now thought his was a treat. Thanks for reading.
#zack snyder#legend of the guardians the owls of ga'houl#legend of the guardians#jim sturgess#helen mirren#animal logic#Geoffrey rush#sam neil
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What is your favourite bird?
Oh my !! What a loaded question to wake up to!!
The truth is that I genuinely don't have a single favorite, I have so many that I adore! I ended up rambling, so here's a looong list ;;
I think, if I must choose a single favorite bird, it would be a red-headed woodpecker. Only because I had a childhood plushie of one. I loved it to bits. Her name was "Arbolita" (little tree in Spanish) and I'd carry her everywhere. But I have so many favorites that I have because they're cool as hell or because of sentimentality.
(Fun fact! Did yall know that woodpecker's tongue wrap around their skull when they're hammering into the tree to prevent them getting a concussion? Imagine that.)

Barn Owls! As a kid I watched Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Ga'hoole and adored barn owls so much, my first research project was about them!
Also they're not as pretty sounding as you think they may be. I got to visit a pair when I volunteered at a Raptor center, scared me half to death!

But fuuuckkk I adore Quetzals! My dad told me a story about them and it stuck with me all these years. How the Mayans and Aztecs coveted the acquisition of Quetzal feathers! It was like a source of prestige and importance for them, because they believed that their God, Quetzalcoatl, had some sort of connection to the Quetzal. (I don't remember if these birds were Quetzalcoatl's manifestation or messengers. I last heard this story about 7 years ago.) Anyways, these feathers were so important that it was illegal to kill the birds, they were only to be collected through natural shedding, or else the punishment was death. From what I also remember, it was thought that Montezuma's treasure--treasure that the Spanish conquistadors were after--was believed to not be gold, like the Spanish thought, but rather these feathers!
I don't know how much of it is historically accurate, but that bird is very important culturally to me as both a connection to Mexico and as a bond with my dad.

But oh!! I'm such a fan of Emperor Penguins! Especially the chicks! They're so cute I wanna squeeze them so much! There's a playlist that I've collected that's mostly the BBC: Snow Chick segment of a nature documentary, but also includes other random penguin videos. My favorite video about the baby emperor penguins is the one where a tiny Adelie penguin protects a group of Emperor chicks from a Giant Petrel.

(Btw do you guys remember Happy Feet? What the hell even was that bit of psychological-torture-through-boredom segment of the movie?? It feels like a fever dream.)
Cedar Waxwings! Goofy birds, don't drink and fly!
These birds don't really migrate, so sometimes they eat berries that have been left over on the tree from a long time ago, to the point that the berries ferment! And since these birds love berries...well sometimes they get drunk
!The concept is silly, i mean, imagine drunk birds! But it is dangerous for them because sometimes they pass out and predators get to them, or alternatively they bonk themselves on buildings. So while goofy, I always keep an eye out for them in my area. I've already had to house 3 of them for an afternoon until they're better ahah ;;;

Bearded Vultures! (Alternatively called Bone Vultures) they're super cool. Their diet consists mostly of animal bones. They grab the larger bones, fly hiiiigh up into the sky, and drop them down below on rocks to help crack them open to eat the bone marrow inside. Their feathers are also white, and contrary to popular belief, no they do not dye their feathers red with blood, just with iron-rich clay or red dust from their environment :P
The redder the feathers, the sexier for their mates!

The Kakapo! A species of parrots found in New Zealand! They're mostly terrestrial birds, and can't really fly, they mostly just use their wings to balance themselves on trees when they're eating berries. They're also endangered and there's current conservation efforts to protect them so that's cool as hell! They're also the largest parrots in the world. Kinda the size of your forearm (and much much thicker) :D!

Shrikes! They're the equivalent of a lot of rage in a tiny little body. They're known as butcherbirds, for the brutal way they store and showcase their kills. They ambush their prey and then impale them in branches or sometimes barbed wire. It's meant to store their food and also be a territorial display for other males. Though for females, it showcases their powress and attracts them!

(This one is a Southern Grey Shrike, which is part of the shrike family except that "grey shrikes" kinda became a subspecies.)
I'm a huge lover of cocktails! One of my pet birds, her name is Maggie, is a cinnamon cockatiel that I adore so much!! She has such a strong personality, all my other pet birds follow her lead because she's been with us the longest (over 12 years! She's an old lady! I love her sm <3!!)

(Terrible picture quality! Can't take one rn since I'm not at home. asdfghjkl)
I also have another pet bird whose name is Avalon and he's a little beast of a menace. He's a Quaker Parrot and is as loud and destructive as you can imagine! But he's adorable, and I hold him like a little plushie sometimes. He can say a few words! Like "pollito" (little chicken) "Avalon", "good boy", "pajarraco" (funny Spanish way of saying parrot), and unfortunately, by my dad's consistency: "pinche pájaro", which means 'fucking bird'. I'm currently in the process of teaching him recall, as in, he flies around and then comes to me when I stick my finger out and tell him to come. All of my birds are allowed to fly around the house, so that means that unfortunately I get wacked in the face when a bird tries to land on me and inevitably misses my shoulder.

(Eepy birdy....)
Honorable mentions because I belatedly realized that you can't post more than 10 pictures on tumblr:
Harpy Eagle (please look up a picture of them they're HUGE.)
Red Cardinal and Blue Jays ( the original red vs. blue).
Mourning doves.
Eurasian magpies.
Long-tailed tit. (They're so cute! Snowball bird!)
Bleeding heart dove.
Great eared nightjar. (Dragon looking bird....)
Painted Bunting (my dream is to see one of these in the wild! They live where I'm at but I've never seen one!)
Grackles.
Rock pigeons.
Crows and Ravens (of course! I have a flock of crows I'm currently befriending heehee)
And so so many more. Honestly, I genuinely don't think there's a single bird out there that I'd dislike. I think they're all awesome and cool and AAAAA <3333
Thanks for the ask! Hope you don't mind I rambled sjkahdhaja
#this bird speaks#what do you mean only one bird? i love so many of them!#as a general disclaimer: i am not an ornithologist. just a random guy who really likes birds since i was like 5 years old#birds#this bird responds
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EEHEHEHEEEE stellar choices all around!!! :D
The raccoon comparison is very cute, I also enjoy getting comparisons or nicknames from friends like that too :'D GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE MENTION!!!! \o/ Though it was not the origins of my immense affection for owls (that distinction goes to Hedwig, unfortunately :/ ) it was definitely still a big contributor to it. I remember seeing the Ga'Hoole movie in 2010 and it blew my mind at the time. I love those silly flying cats so much, they're all so good ;u;
As you've probably guessed I have a huge love for birds in general, everything from raptors to songbirds to corvids and everything in between :'D
AND DRAGONS!!!!!! :DDDDD Those are my top favourite mythical creature (but you knew that already lmao). By pure coincidence I'm writing this while wearing a Spyro shirt, haha! I've always been a fan of snakes and other reptiles by proxy, they're just so cute to me ;u; A bit ironic for my poor mother who has ophidiophobia, though luckily for her I never requested a snake or other reptile as a pet growing up.
My love for birds translates to my love for phoenixes and other mythical birds too, I used to do a ton of flowy stencil-ish art with phoenixes and other mythical creatures back in the day, maybe I should go back to that sometime!
I don't know a ton about Sun Wukong myself, but I do love seeing all of the different interpretations he and his story have gotten over the years! Mythology is fascinating to me for that reason (and many more!), a source of endless inspiration :D
Not sure if this is something you've talked about before, but do you have a favourite animal? You can include mythical creatures/animal hybrids too if you want :D It would be a long list of faves in my case, so I'm curious which ones you like!
oooooh animals!!! this will be fun!!
my number one favorite animal currently is raccoons, because my friends have told me that I remind them of a raccoon due to my penchant for eating their food, stealing their stuff, my liking of shiny jewelry, and my tendency to pace back and forth or in circles if I'm waiting for something.
I was an avid reader of guardians of ga'hoole when I was younger, so I have a fondness for owls and similar birds like crows and ravens as well. snakes are obviously also one of my favorites—ciara has a giant shadow snake for her pet for a reason.
my favorite mythical animal has always been a tossup between either phoenixes or dragons because both are just cool as hell. I even have two shirts with a stylized phoenix and chinese dragon that I got from vietnam. besides that, I also very much like sun wukong (one could say he's a mythical character but he's also literally a talking monkey so I think he counts)
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Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga’Hoole Sentence Starters
Based on Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga’Hoole
“Oh no! Not the lute!”
“No, no, you got to be mistaken.”
“Trust me! I know what I’m doing!”
“I told myself that if any came along who were smart and brave enough I’d help them escape. You’ll have to do.”
“I fortold you so!”
“War is not glorious, it’s not beautiful — it’s not even heroic! It’s merely doing what’s right!”
“You did what was right. And you did it well.”
“Think about something real for once.”
“We’re each other’s family now.”
“My name is not dinner!”
“You have a soft head. Filled with stories, and dreams.”
“Of course I know the way! We are off to the Sea of Huladance!”
“I’m not letting you hurt one more soul.”
“Just because it’s sung doesn’t make it a song!”
“That poem just came to me, if you can believe it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with dreams.”
“When you’ve gone as far as you can, you’re halfway there!”
“Bet you didn’t count on this!”
“I know that you don’t really think that.”
“We only seek the truth.”
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Person A and Person B: *kiss*
Person C, bursting into the room: I FORETOLD YOU SO!
#source: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole#incorrect quotes#imagine your otp#incorrect quotes ideas#incorrect quotes prompts#source: legend of the guardians
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We're each others' family now.
North to the rest of the Guardians
#source: legend of the guardians: the owls of ga'hoole#rise of the guardians#rotg#incorrect rise of the guardians quotes#incorrect quotes#incorrect rotg quotes#dreamworks#dreamworks animation#north#nicholas st. north#guardians#jack frost#jackson overland frost#bunnymund#e. aster bunnymund#tooth#toothiana#sandy#sanderson mansnoozie#mine
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Eli Shane: I'm not letting you hurt one more soul.
The Goon: Oh, you're not letting me. Oh, what a pity to waste such a strong, young, and confident man.
#source: legend of the guardians: the owls of ga'hoole#slugterra#incorrect slugterra quotes#incorrect quotes#eli#eli shane#the goon#mine
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Conversation
Barran: If I had a trinket to sell for every word scratch in this paper you just submitted to me, I’d have 15 bits.
Twilight: If I had a trinket to sell for every ounce of rage I felt in my gizzard after I heard you I would have enough trinkets to hire vultures for you.
Otulissa: Actually I did the math, Twilight would have 225 trinkets, not 15 bits
Twilight: I’m right here
Gylfie: If I had a trinket to sell I would buy some cooked rabbit :)
Soren: While you’re there can you get me an apply jam please?
Gylfie: Sorry I only have one
Soren: Aw
Digger: Twilight would have 22,500 because it’s a trinket for every word scratch, not a bit.
Otulissa: Hey I just realized my friend is right, they would have 22,500 trinkets, not 225
Gylfie: If I had 22,500 trinkets to sell, I would buy a cooked rabbit and an apply jam.
Digger: You can buy anything you want with 22500
Soren: yeah and they want a cooked rabbit and an apply jam.
Otulissa: Apply jam to what?
Twilight: Directly to the forehead
Barran: Great job, students.
#Guardians of Ga'Hoole#ga'hoole#Owls of Ga'hoole#gahoole#guardians of gahoole#don't ask me where i've been#soren#gylfie#twilight#digger#otulissa#barran#its been years i know#source: tumblr
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What Vaguetypes Mean to Me: Ga'Hoole Owl Edition
Source
I've been thinking more and more about how there's not nearly enough othervague content. So! Here's my contribution on why I personally love othervague and call my Ga'Hoole owl 'type a vaguetype vs a fictotype.
Why Othervague?
The easiest answer is a dislike for labels. Having the freedom to exist in-between gives me more breathing room to explore my identity. There's no pressure to "conform" if the label is inherently, well, vague. Ha ha. I don't have to worry I'm pushing myself into feeling a certain way to fit--or stress about having to change labels or whatever if my experiences change. Hell, even created knowledge would be fair game here. But we'll talk more about that later.
To clarify, this is not a temporary label for me to use until I sort everything out later. Vaguetype is the final stop. No matter where my self-discovery takes me, the label is reliable and works.
Below I'll pick-apart my various feelings and connections to these owls and how I experience the in-between.
Intrinsic and Integral
I'm avianheated and I don't think it's a mistake that I identify as one too. Which came first is kinda a chicken or the egg scenario. I've heard it spun both ways before and it really comes down to the individual's interpretation of their experiences. Would I feel so drawn to these owls if I wasn't so attached to birds? Or, did I attach to birds because I innately knew they were similar to myself?
I don't know and I don't really mind either way.
I am an owl, but my owl-ness competes internally with dracomon (another vaguetype I'll discuss in a part 2) and human. Even if my feelings wane, I know they'll eventually begin to wax again like the moon. It's like they're tied in with my default settings. I could probably take actions to suppress them and test how true that is, but wtf that sounds awful. Existing this way makes me happy, I feel like myself and I'm certainly not hurting anyone else.
Archetype of the Guardian
What separates archetrope from otherkin?
Sometimes it's easy to see. Like someone identifying with a role totally detached from being explicitly nonhuman. However, when I think about this, archetropes come off as more action-focused to me. They're more concerned with doing things, what actions they're going to take next or at the least concerned with living in alignment to a set of values/role/code. At least, that's the vibe I get.
A big part of my identity is the role of being a guardian, upholding their oath and extending a helping talon to others. For example, few things make me feel more like an owl than working on archival duties (besides maybe being out in a storm!) It's a way to live one of the core values of the tree which is to grow our collective knowledge and share it with all.
The act of continuing the legacy and upholding the tree's standards is a very present ideal for me.
Created Knowledge
Straddling the line between noemata and otherlink, knowledge we acquire and stitch together is probably one of the more contentious areas.
How can you tell noemata from headcanon?
I don't feel it matters to my personal experience. Stories and legends are true in their own way. They're feelings we get in our gizzards that over time become true in our hearts. Thinking about how I was a hireclaw before coming to the Great Tree emboldens me to try harder to be patient and compassionate to others. To be a better owl.
I don't want to concern myself rigorously picking apart what is voluntary or involuntary--100% true kin memory or a fabrication of my mind. I rather spend my time living and being an owl. These feelings are true in my reality, they affect my behavior and drive me to new heights. Even the bits of knowledge about my vaguetype that border more on the headcanon side have important messages about my life and journey. I don't choose things at random, there's something resonating with me that draws me there.
As another piece of this is my kinsona representation. I don't have strong feelings towards a certain owl species, but I feel drawn to long-earred owls at the moment so I represent myself as one. (That's me on the right in the top photo!) The colors and markings are just stylized natural looking ones.
I am an owl of the Great Tree, I long for flight and freedom, knowledge and understanding -- my species is secondary to my actions and words.
The Heart of the Matter
Could I call myself something different and be taken seriously in the community? Of course! But at the end of the day, after all this talking, it comes down to what I want. My desire is to have a nebulous label. If I was forced to pick something else, I think I would simply call myself "unlabelled" or perhaps only "fictionfolk."
-Hortense
#othervague#Ga'Hoole Owl#vaguetype#Ga'Hoole Owl Vaguetype#otherkin#otherkind#alterhuman#fictionkin#fictionkind#archetrope#fictionfolk#nova squawks
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YEAH CAN WE TALK ABOUT OWLS OF GA’HOOLE FOR A SECOND. MISS ME WITH THAT NEW LION KING/CATS CRAP BECAUSE-
THE CGI MANAGES TO BE REALISTIC AND GORGEOUS...
WHILE ALSO ALLOWING FOR EXPRESSIVE CHARACTERS.
Q U A L I T Y.
Visually pleasing “realistic” CGI
#sorry i had To Scream about this movie because#it's so so good#and so underrated imo#It's based off a book series#It's kind of like Warriors but with Owls instead lmao#And I didn't even read the books before seeing this movie#The movie was actually what made me AWARE of the series#And despite not knowing the source material#I was DEFINITELY still captivated#The music and the shots and the cgi are just jdslfjskdfhdjgkdgfgnjfk#Like the one scene of Soren flying through the storm#And that one shot of him flying up near the moon while he's holding the fire#And when the Queen first appears with that mUSIC AND EVERYTHING SJDKSSJF#IT'S ALL JUST SO SO PRETTY#LIKE IF YOU LIKE ANIMAL MOVIES PLEASE WATCH THIS#Owls of Ga'hoole
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OMG it's so exciting to see a Ga'Hoole-themed podcast!!
What sorts of topics will you be covering?? I'm so excited and curious I'm vibrating in place just thinking about it
And it’s so exciting to be a part of the excitement! This is a book series we (CJ and PB) grew up on, and plan to break down now in our *cough* sunset years.
SO! We’re going book-by-book, summarizing, pouring over owl vocabulary, touching on the wonderful wildness of owl culture, and trying to place the book series within the wider context of its time. What we’re the things going on in human culture then? How can we see early 2000s attitudes in our beautiful owl buddies? What do the Guardians of Ga’hoole have to say about violence, race, class, facism, war, death? ‘Cause there is A LOT to digest down that gizzard!
But mostly? We’re doing this because Kathryn Laskey’s book were near and dear to our childhoods. It was a nostalgic source of bonding, hours of goofy conversation, and if some good silly owl books could bring us such joy in adulthood, maybe there’s some folks out there who could use the same.
Plus, we made a deal that we get to watch the movie for the first time when we finish yarping up all the books, which has me more excited than Twilight when he sings about himself.
#guardians of gahoole#book talk#podcast#moonshot#new podcast#owls#apple podcasts#booktalk#childrens books
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