[officiallarrikins]

I do think, in the very beginning here, there’s a part of Perry that has just… snapped. Obviously, not aggressively so. But he’s been risking everything down to his very life for this one little baby bird, and I think the overall absurdity of it just really starts to set in while he’s sat down with this chance to sort of quietly think about it. And, if just for a brief moment here, maybe he starts to question to himself why he’s even doing all of this? Whether it’s all really worth it? Because he is so tired, so worn and distressed, potentially even traumatized to some degree by, at least, all the near death situations he’s gone through so closely together all in an effort to protect this little chick that quite literally stumbled into his life (and, that, initially, he very much didn’t even want anything to do with).

But, of course, it is worth it. It’s largely the accumulated stress of it all, perhaps, that would cause him to consider otherwise. Her life is as precious as his, though, and obviously it is not anymore her fault than his own that she happened to wind up in her unfortunate situation to begin with and, surely by no more than sheer coincidence, found herself in Perry’s path that day.

But I think it’s that snap which has a crucial hand in helping him realize… he loves her. That feeling of love even further amplified when she suddenly starts to ‘fly’ (or, at least, begins to learn to) for the very first time because, clearly, this little milestone she’s reached, after everything he’s been through with her, it emotionally affects him as if he were, in fact, a parent watching their own child achieve something very good. You can see it on his face that he is genuinely so happy for her, maybe even proud. He appreciates this, to be taking care of her, protecting her, and the sense of fulfillment if you will, that follows in the success of such.

I think it’s roughly at this point that it’s basically confirmed, he’s happy that she’s in his life now in this moment, despite all of the danger and the stress that has come along thus far with looking after her.

And he is certain, now, that he will continue to do whatever it takes to protect her. Even including something totally insane, like assaulting a notoriously powerful and hungry eagle that would easily have any other bilby absolutely refusing to set foot above ground anywhere near the situation.

Because, then, there’s sort of a second 'snap’. It is seeing this sweet little chick who Perry has gone through so much for thrive and feeling that love and affection for her, and that pride… and then watching as her life is promptly threatened by, again, something specifically very terrifying for a bilby. But, then, there’s Perry feeling overwhelmed, more than ever before, by this sense of urgency to protect her at all costs.

It almost feels as though this, or something of this sort of magnitude, needed to happen, cosmically, in order for Perry to fully realize just how important this chick had truly come to be to him.

[officiallarrikins]

oh no...

[officiallarrikins]

I can't (and don't) fault people for unknowingly getting the wrong information but it makes me sad when people blame Tim Minchin/DreamWorks Animation for Larrikins' cancellation because they both wanted it, and Tim especially put in everything he could to fight to make that movie happen for as long as he could

it was Universal that pulled the plug on the movie (after taking over DWA) and refused to let anyone else get near the property once they had

[officiallarrikins]

Going over parts of this scene again, because it's important to me.

I do think, in the very beginning here, there's a part of Perry that has just... snapped. Obviously, not aggressively so. But he’s been risking everything down to his very life for this one little baby bird, and I think the overall absurdity of it just really starts to set in while he's sat down with this chance to sort of quietly think about it. And, if just for a brief moment here, maybe he starts to question to himself why he’s even doing all of this? Whether it’s all really worth it? Because he is so tired, so worn and distressed, potentially even traumatized to some degree by, at least, all the near death situations he’s gone through so closely together all in an effort to protect this little chick that quite literally stumbled into his life (and, that, initially, he very much didn't even want anything to do with).

But, of course, it is worth it. It's largely the accumulated stress of it all, perhaps, that would cause him to consider otherwise. Her life is as precious as his, though, and obviously it is not anymore her fault than his own that she happened to wind up in her unfortunate situation to begin with and, surely by no more than sheer coincidence, found herself in Perry's path that day.

But I think it's that snap which has a crucial hand in helping him realize... he loves her. That feeling of love even further amplified when she suddenly starts to 'fly' (or, at least, begins to learn to) for the very first time because, clearly, this little milestone she's reached, after everything he's been through with her, it emotionally affects him as if he were, in fact, a parent watching their own child achieve something very good. You can see it on his face that he is genuinely so happy for her, maybe even proud. He appreciates this, to be taking care of her, protecting her, and the sense of fulfillment if you will, that follows in the success of such.

I think it's roughly at this point that it's basically confirmed, he's happy that she's in his life now in this moment, despite all of the danger and the stress that has come along thus far with looking after her.

And he is certain, now, that he will continue to do whatever it takes to protect her. Even including something totally insane, like assaulting a notoriously powerful and hungry eagle that would easily have any other bilby absolutely refusing to set foot above ground anywhere near the situation.

Because, then, there's sort of a second 'snap'. It is seeing this sweet little chick who Perry has gone through so much for thrive and feeling that love and affection for her, and that pride... and then watching as her life is promptly threatened by, again, something specifically very terrifying for a bilby. But, then, there's Perry feeling overwhelmed, more than ever before, by this sense of urgency to protect her at all costs.

It almost feels as though this, or something of this sort of magnitude, needed to happen, cosmically, in order for Perry to fully realize just how important this chick had truly come to be to him.

[officiallarrikins]

some brief world-building notes/headcanons based on more recovered materials

• The Albatross Empire & the Outback are completely separate locations, the former being some considerable distance out at sea.

• Which, then, it makes sense that Perry would have been asked to bring the Royal Egg to the pelicans rather than directly to the albatrosses, as it also seems to be that case that the pelicans do live in/near the Outback as well as being regularly in contact with the Empire. (And Perry very clearly does not look like an animal that is equipped to travel across the ocean. And he very much isn't.)

• The pelicans sort of serve the albatrosses through offering advisory and guidance. (Sort of in a 'seeking guidance from your wise elders' sort of way.) They have a strong sense of moral duty, and loyalty to the Empire, and usually prefer to approach problems thoughtfully and responsibly.

• The eagles also seem to serve the Empire, or at least somewhat regularly convene with them, but their feelings (or at least particularly Hotspur's, the seeming leader of the flock) are a bit less innocent than the pelicans'. They more or less see the albatrosses (and pelicans) as a whole as fools and cowards for the way they prefer to seek civil or peaceful solutions to problems whereas the eagles would otherwise be much more eager to attack (literally) and eradicate problems. While they display respect for the Albatrosses' nobility and their royal authority in order to stay around, they (mostly Hotspur) tend to see themselves as much more fitting to run the Empire.

• The Empress, by default, does not fully trust Hotspur, and can occasionally be wary of his motives because of this. Yet she and the Emperor continue to maintain their relationship with he and his flock.

• Hotspur has a wife(?)

• To some extent, Perry very much believes that he wishes to be a 'larrikin' despite having basically no suitable qualities of one, and having a sort of naive almost glorified impression of what it means to be a larrikin. For example: Larrikins in the Outback live for adventure and good times; and they often live daringly and recklessly to seek those things (albeit sometimes with limited regard for the impact their actions may have on others, to some extent or another); they are independent and unconventional and confident. Perry, on the other hand, is very conscientious and timid, at times he feels sympathy for even complete strangers more deeply than any other animal would. In a sense, he "cares too much" to really be an authentic larrikin. And not only in the way of caring for others but also for himself in the way of being rather anxious and hesitant to do many things that are against the best interest of his wellbeing, whether the threat is real or merely perceived. Still, we have evidence to suggest that he's not exactly incapable of standing up and pushing back when it's necessary in situations where he really has no other good options. (And/or in defense of a smaller, younger loved one.)

• It's possible that Perry has actually unknowingly misconstrued a desire to simply be overall stronger/braver and more confident and self-advocating (and, maybe, also hoping to ultimately changing others' perspectives that he is nothing but a weak little bilby, if he's lucky?), with a desire to be 'one of the cool kids', so to speak. For lack of a better term. Resulting in such a contradictory goal for himself. Perhaps he may even believe that, achieving this, he'll finally regain some sense of belonging in the world after having been cast out from his home and family.

• He's also a bit defeatist about it, though. Having convinced himself that he isn't capable of achieving it on his own, anyway, he doesn't really try very hard anymore to change things or to stray from what he knows.

• Kylie does not know, to any extent, about Perry's more adventurous desires. In part of his defeatism, he keeps those feelings pretty private. Among other reasons. Least of all is not the concern of possibly putting ideas in her head and only encouraging her already present yearning for exploration and travel.

[officiallarrikins]

I'm once again, like... piecing together context clues from bits and pieces of the remains of this movie I've been able to sort of scavenge.

And I'm relatively certain that what follows this clip is them winding up over that cliff that's just behind Red there and into a river at the bottom. But, based on the exchange in this clip, it's less that they both jump into the river together, and more so that Red probably just grabs Perry after getting him to relax with false comfort and leaps into the river with him against Perry's will.

"You don't have to jump." ['Cause I'm gonna do the jumping for you!]

Right?

And, now, this is even more so speculative as opposed to based on direct evidence, but you can see Doris in here trying to watch them from the other side of the train tracks.

So, I am inclined to believe that this is connected, somewhere, to the scene where Perry gets abducted by the rabbits. And Red eventually gets Perry back and ends up utilizing the moving train to put some distance between them and the rabbits.

And I'm assuming the implication is that Red, preceding the above clip, was basically like "Well, this train is gonna pass any minute now, and the rabbits will be able to get straight to us when that happens..." (You see him look back over the cliff, so we know he knows what's at the bottom, and it does look like they are more or less sort of caught between it and the rabbits.) "Come on, Perry, we gotta jump over that cliff."

And Perry refuses to do so, because that sounds terrible. It sounds so dangerous.

And, boy, does Red not have the patience for Perry thinking that. But he does know that Perry is very trusting particularly towards Red who has mostly been helping him in lifesaving ways up to this point, so, Red's naturally gonna take a quicker manipulative route over a more compassionate one.

Because it's also the case that, at the time of meeting Perry, Red is very... selfish. In a short word.

I could go on...

[officiallarrikins]

I just really love that (based on these clips, plus other things) Perry’s and Andrew’s dynamic was that Andrew — having an attention seeking personality but in such a way that he tends to crave the validation of others instigating the attention first, would, on multiple occasions, try to bait Perry into prying into his past by alluding that something very tragic and mysterious took place, clearly operating on the assumption that Perry would be too curious to resist pressing for more information.

Perry, however, was respectfully accepting of the notion that Andrew’s past, as intriguing as it was seemingly being built up to be, was a painful subject. And, as such, Perry was not going to be so selfish as to press him to talk about it just for the satiety of his own curiosity. Unaware that pressing him to talk about it is precisely what Andrew had desperately been trying to get him to do.

At one point Perry specifically assures Andrew that he does not need to talk about it, and then Andrew just gives up and immediately proceeds to give himself a reason to talk about it.

[officiallarrikins]

they really just tried to make everything about Perry extra soft tho

because look at a real world bilby’s claws

and now look at the way they depicted Perry’s claws

[officiallarrikins]

pictured: Perry regretting every choice he’s made that’s led him here to this exact moment

[officiallarrikins]

also on the topic of Perry and head-based affection,

real world bilbies often sleep on their heads:

so I tend to imagine that it probably feels just sort of instinctively comforting to Perry to press the top of his head against something/someone.

and maybe one day he’s just like, havin a real bad day, and he sees his friend, and he says nothing as he walks up to them and just kinda presses the top of his head into them. it’s like the world’s most gentle, non-threatening, headbutt.

[officiallarrikins]

Perry’s “everything is going to be okay” head pat

[officiallarrikins]

I wish so badly that I had the full context to this clip, because it kills me

[officiallarrikins]

If it in any way provides some sort of consolation: Perry’s not the only bilby with rabbit troubles.

At least not in the area of stolen food.

The rabbits normally steal food from bilbies anyway when they get the chance to. Although that’s less to say that rabbits actively seek out bilbies to rob, and more like that if they’re out there and they spot some bilbies with a food haul, there’s very little to convince them against seizing the opportunity. A species does not maintain their reputation as a force to be reckoned with by sitting back and playing nice and fair, after all.

Perry, however, is unique in the way that he doubles as both a minor opportunistic food source and a bit of entertainment. As the rabbits mess with him and play their games as well as stealing food from him.

Perry pushes back in his own way, though (despite being actually quite afraid of the rabbits). Which is to say that he tries to take his food back, or to prematurely escape from them, or he maybe even tries to do both if he’s feeling a little more confident on a particular day.

Though the rabbits admittedly like his persistence. It’s certainly more fun for them that way than if he were to lie down and concede straight from the start.

[officiallarrikins]

Red: “don’t worry, I’ll help you”

*proceeds to give Perry a concussion*

[officiallarrikins]

Given the multiple instances in the movie in which Perry exhibited some degree of a clear desire to learn to fight tells me that he doesn't fight back, or at least stand up for himself, in situations where he theoretically could, not because he wouldn't like to, but because he's convinced he realistically cannot.

In a world where he's not only an exceptionally vulnerable animal, but also one in which everyone around him cannot be convinced that he could ever amount to anything above being a sensitive little prey piece, Perry has been given no reason to believe he's capable of anything more than minimalistic life of almost nothing but the mere pursuit of trying to stay alive each day.

But then there's a version where someone tells Perry he can be more. And, particularly, that he can learn to reliably fight back against (some) threats. And the point at which someone (in the case of the movie, it was Red) gives him that voice of faith, Perry wants to learn to do just that.

Perry wishes he could be someone stronger and more capable than a lonely little bilby. Or, at the very least, he wishes there was a way to somehow be stronger and more capable as a bilby. In, again, mostly the interest of efficiently surviving in the Outback as opposed to gaining points toward an ego or anything. (Though, learning that he can be more capable than he's been would, in fact, give him a bit of a rush of confidence of sorts in the moment, for sure.)

And clearly, he is capable of fending off a threat. Though, the most significant time we see him do so is in a rush of desperation when his newly adopted daughter is in immediate danger. I don't know that he's ever fully processed what happened then, though. I think, in a sense, you could argue that it was an act of almost blind desperation more than Perry suddenly realizing the extent of his ability to fight back against someone. (That someone even being a particularly fierce predatory animal of which at least one species naturally preys on bilbies to begin with.)

I think he doesn't think about it so much. Because why would he want to? It was one of the scariest moments of his life and he's just glad that neither himself nor Kylie got hurt (or worse) in that situation. For a bilby who faces so much stress so constantly, I think he is usually adamant about trying not to focus on things like that and just go about his day as per usual. Trying to, more or less, minimize as much stress he has to deal with as he can manage to. (Which generally tends to entail doing as little as possible in his day-to-day routine.)

I think, if it happened again, it definitely would be more likely make him reflect on it at least somewhat, though. Depending on the circumstances, of course.

But I think, from the perspective of writing his muse, ultimately, it would be fun to work with the idea of Perry encountering a situation that inspires the thought that he wants to learn to fight and there is someone in his life when that happens who takes it upon themselves to try and teach him. Not only someone who possibly knows what they're talking about in regards to fending off predators, but more importantly, someone who has become a support system of sorts for Perry and he already looks up to them as someone who he perceives as being wiser and more skilled at this whole survival thing than he is. (Not to say that he isn't a very decent survivor already, considering his particular circumstances but, well, it's probably safe to say that his self confidence is not exactly quite the boldest aspect of his character.)

It would also be a little bit ignorant of me not to acknowledge that, in a sense, Perry has done a little bit more than simply run and hide when faced with predators, we get once case where he's protecting Kylie in doing so, and one where he's protecting himself prior to meeting her.

The latter of which certainly isn't in the vein of actively fighting, but seems evident of the idea that Perry has realized, at some point in his life, that, sometimes, he can sort of work around his general lack of capability to fight back by taking advantage of the environment around him.

Which, he may or may not realize, is relatively admirable in its own right.

Perhaps working smarter, not harder, as that saying goes.

[officiallarrikins]

On Syvas

Which may as well be considered the gymnasts of the canine world as they are incredibly flexible and agile in comparison to other canine species.

While somewhat visually similar to the Dingo (which, for unknown reasons, is actually completely absent from the Australian Outback in Perry's world), Syvas are very much their own distinct species of canine.

And, like many animals in Australia's hotter regions, they are primarily nocturnal. However, smaller groups of Syvas will still often be active during the day. They are notoriously unrelenting hunters, as a lot of Syvas really hate having to accept prey loss. As such, they are often willing to chase their prey across impressive distances and, in some cases, through difficult terrain.

A bilby's burrow isn't always enough to promptly discourage a Syva, who may very well just start trying to dig their current prey of choice out of its burrow after they've just run inside for shelter. And it's partially for this reason that bilbies tend to build at least a few different extra routes of exit in the primary burrow they call home*, so that they can more easily make an alternative emergency escape in the case of such a dangerous intruder. (The spiral shape of the tunnels they dig into their burrow also serve to make digging them out a little more difficult or, at the very least, a slower process which does tend to buy them at least a few extra moments to make their getaway.)

* Bilbies do a ton of digging throughout their lives after all, and can have dug multiple different burrows in the same area at any given time, but only one particular burrow they dig is, in fact, what they consider to be their home. (And this burrow can change location at any time under warranted conditions, but that fact still remains.)

[officiallarrikins]

On Bilbies

Predominantly somewhat solitary creatures by nature, a family that consists of more than a few bilbies at most (two parents and one-to-three offspring) is uncommon. Bilbies in the Outback are usually content to keep to their own families and small social circles within their species, and typically have little to no voluntary involvement with other animals.

Given their small size and having so little in the way of suitable means of defense, they survive the harshness of life in the Outback largely through their innate skills in running and hiding.

Bilbies typically forage for food in coordinated pairs with one bilby to gather the food, and one to keep watch for dangers. Any other members of the family left behind are tasked with watching over the burrow. In the case of a larger family, up to three or four bilbies may occasionally leave the burrow to forage together.

On top of the primary burrow that a bilby family calls home, a bilby’s strong claws grant them the ability to quickly dig small, temporary, burrows with which to escape and shelter from predators in. These temporary burrows are abandoned after they’ve served their purpose but it’s not uncommon for bilbies, especially if while in the process of running from a predator, to take advantage of either their own or someone else’s abandoned burrow if they happen on it.

Perhaps an irony of their otherwise solitary nature is that bilbies highly value the bonds that they have within their own family. As, in a world so dangerous and unforgiving for them, many bilbies would consider their family to be all that they really have in life. And with that being said, trust in other animals outside of their own species can be quite hard to come by naturally for a bilby.