Savebats saves Shark Wars

[savesharkwars]

Here I go again.

I'm @savebatsfromscratch but this time I'm obsessed with Shark Wars. (The tag for that series on my normal blog is flooded with non-fandom content, so I made this blog!)

She/her

Be warned of occasionally dark media.

I also spell almost every character's name wrong. I embrace it at this point.

Favorite posts and tagging system under the cut.

Favorite Posts: Lochlan Fancam | Ship Names | Large Comp of Human Designs | Gray x Finnivus fic | Velenka x Goblin Edit | fandom UQuiz

Sorting tags: #my post | #others post | #video | #edit | #gif | #animation | #fanart | #fanfic | #discussion | #human designs | #jokes/memes | #crossover |

Character tags: #lochlan sw | #grinder sw | #takiza sw | #gray sw | #finnivus sw | #mari sw | #barklay sw | #velenka sw | #goblin sw | #silversun sw | #eugene speedmeister sw | #jujoan sw | #ebbie sw | #riprap sw | #sandy sw | #snork sw | #salamanka sw | #briney sw | #hank sw | #hocuu sw | #drinnoch sw | #kendra sw | #kaleth sw | #shell sw | #grimikhan sw | #whalem sw | #onyx sw | #ms lamprey sw | #jaunt sw | #trank sw | #peen sw | #sledge sw | #striiker sw | #leilani sw | #xander sw

Warnings: #blood | #animal death | #animal injury | #spoilers | #torture | #whump | #implied animal death | #age gap | #suggestive

Ships: #rustedanchorshipping (Grinder x Lochlan) | #sweetrougeshipping (Mari x Gray) | #ghostheartshipping (Barkley x Velenka) | #dynamicshipping (Velenka x Finnivus) | #tradeoffshipping (Velenka x Gray) | #atlantisshipping (Gray x Lochlan) | #tornfinsshipping (Goblin x Velenka) | #badendshipping (Gray x Finnivus) | #historyshipping (Goblin x Gray) | #coralspireshipping (Gray x Barklay)

[savesharkwars]

Little Mari doodle :)

[savesharkwars]

Shark Wars Textpost Memes Part 3 (I think)

Warning: Spoilers

(Gray because he's a mess)

(Mari and Gray because I know what they are)

(Takiza and Hokuu because, well, yes.)

(Velenka because it's literally her.)

(Gaffin (??) is that his name. The urchin boss.)

(Takiza because he's, like, immortal.)

(Snork and Shell, idk it just had their vibes.)

(Velenka x Barkley yayy)

(Character pictures under the cut.)

[asphodelus-stella-domi]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Shark Wars Series - E. J. Altbacker Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Hokuu & Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom Characters: Hokuu (Shark Wars), Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom Additional Tags: sometimes I ship these two but I don’t write them like ship, I Can’t Believe I Wrote This, maybe whump?, Blood, Gore, Injury, Major Character Injury, Violence, Canon-Typical Violence Summary:

Hokuu thought he could defeat Takiza and force the betta to bow to him. He was wrong.

I… I wrote this thing (runs away)

[savesharkwars]

OH MY GOD???

[redstonedust]

i am a slut for "thing that was a silly joke in the beginning of the story is later recontextualized as actually kind of fucked up" . especially when its a longrunning series and you can tell its a product of the author re-assessing the writing of their younger self. chefs kiss.

[asphodelus-stella-domi]

Byproduct of character analysis(?)

A locking-of-gaze

[dailymultiples]

Daily Multiples Day Four

Riprap and Ebbie from the Shark Wars series (never drawn, photo above by Brandi Mueller of two Nurse Shark pups) are todays daily multiples! They are twin litermates!

[savesharkwars]

SHARK ATTACK (Animation Meme) - Shark Wars

Youtube link | As SOON as I saw this meme I knew what had to be done lol.

More notes under the cut!!

Animator: @savebatsfromscratch (me) Program: Turbowarp Bitmap Inspired/Original: • Shark Attack original animation meme Song: Shark Attack by Split Enz Characters: Velenka and Gray from Shark Wars

[savebatsartedition]

I got too much on my mind ('Cus we've lost too much to gain) - Whumptober 2025 Day 24

Summary:

Gray came back a bit wrong. Prompt pieces used: “I must confess that I feel like a monster.” + Came Back Wrong |+ Painful Transformation

Notes:

CWs: Past animal injury and death, self hatred, a part in the process of the slow and inevitable breaking up of friends, and shark racism? (But, like, internalized shark racism.) Words: 1,915 I must admit that I don't fully remember what happens in the final book (I will reread soon I just haven't had time lol), I just remember that it happened and that I have thoughts about it. Shark Wars whump yet again, here we go. :3 Also this is lowkey Barkley x Gray. Um. Happy pride I guess. XD *I had this one written before the previous one, so it's getting posted at an unrealistic time for actually writing it. Song for this fic: Plastic Promises by Set It Off

Fic here or under the cut.

In the bright blue ocean, close above a pretty coral shelf, two sharks swam. Or, maybe, one shark, and one monster.

Gray wondered if something had been wrong with him all along. He wondered if really should be sharks like like him left after all. Now that he knew what it felt to have his fins torn off, they seemed almost not to be his. He wondered if he had deserved to loose them for good.

As the two friends swam together, Barkley spoke. "Why didn't you take it?" he asked Gray.

Their flanks were slightly more distant than either would have preferred, but it made sense, they'd hardly seen each other in the past few moons. The Seazarian was just so busy.

Barkley looked up at Gray, and the megalodon could feel huge eyes tracing along the scars that marked the spot where he had once lost his fins. Thorny flesh marked by slices that should have killed him. That had killed him. That had only appeared because something had gone wrong.

Gray looked back at the dogfish, suddenly aware that Barkley was now hardly larger than his magically reattached fin. "What?" he distractedly asked.

"The job," Barkley said, as if that had been obvious. (Maybe it should have been.) "They wanted you to lead, maybe the ocean could have been a bit less choppy for a day if you'd just did what they asked. Maybe… maybe they would have listened to you a little easier."

He sighed and drew closer, knocking green flank to blue. Gray didn't even move slightly at the touch.

Gray didn't pretend he knew what Barkley went through. As a dogfish there were plenty of fish in the sea that would never seen him as worthy of leading the oceans. What Gray did know, however, was that he would not have been able to do half as much to help sharks like his friend if he'd been in charge. Back home in Coral Shiver he'd been a monster, and he knew that becoming the type of leader who banned mixed shivers and told small sharks that they were basically tuna would have just proved it.

"I wanted you to lead," Gray said casually, though the churning in his stomach would have made the wildest of feeding frenzy look like a pup cuddled up in greenie, "and I wasn't sure I was ready for it."

"Why?"

Because you're the shark around here, I'm just the corpse that found a new way to float. Because the water has smelled like my blood since I watched my fins fall off. Because I know I never say the right thing for people who need help, and you do.

"I just wasn't. I thought you were a better fit, the place needed a new look," Gray lightly bumped his friend, and though Barkley laughed, Gray couldn't miss how far off track he'd been sent by the simple gesture. When they were younger it would have been nothing, but now that Gray's tail was reaching full strength, and his sewn on fins were so long that they felt they could trace the ocean floor, it was something.

"The place already got a new look in that battle," Barkley joked, though it wasn't funny to talk about such violence that way, "What am I, the diversity hire?"

"Um, do you want to be?" Gray asked

Barkley shrugged his fins, "What else would you call me?"

"My friend?"

"Besides that."

There was a pause as the two friends kept swimming, tail swishes fighting against the gentle flow of water around them. The coral was oddly quiet today, but Gray had a feeling that Trank or his buddies were listening, ready to tell their Urchin king the problems the shark world was having. Gray shook himself out of the thought of violence, and his scars ached along his fins.

"A good leader," Gray finally said, though he'd had the answer clear in his head the whole time. Better than a monster like me could be. He wondered if swimming as fast as he could would knock his fins back off, he wondered if he deserved it. "You had good ideas, we've hardly had any bloodshed since it happened."

"Besides the salmon run," Barkley joked- or maybe asked, it was hard to tell if he could see where Gray's mind was, "But they volunteer for that."

There was a lull in the conversation as they both remembered what had led them there. Kicked out of their Shiver, stupidly joining with someone who wanted half the ocean dead, breaking away in time to get friends killed, facing delicious cloud after delicious cloud of blood lost until it started to smell like death instead of food. Until it started to smell like Gray's own blood, when his fins were torn off.

"I'm glad you think I have good ideas," Barkley finally spoke, shaking Gray out of his memories before they turned into teeth grinding, "I'm glad you're my friend."

"I'm glad you're my friend too," Gray said, and though he meant it, the words came with difficulty. Barkley didn't deserve to have to deal with him, a monster from the depths of the ocean and the depths of the Sparkle Blue. Barkley was too good for that, too kind hearted and understanding of other shark's emotions, too accepting of those that were different. He was going to get himself hurt if he kept hanging out with someone like Gray.

It had never been the dwellers like Trank that they had to avoid trusting, it had always been the ancient sharks. Sharks like Hoccu, like the old Seazarian (now dead and eaten, may the Sparkle Blue drag her fins down), and like Gray. Sharks who wanted power, who saw others as lesser because of their birth, who had come back from dying with their fins magically reattached and their blood returned. Sharks who didn't deserve the power they got, or the influence they had, or the blood in their veins, not as much as those who really helped anyway.

Gray thought about his friend Lochlan the second, the kind and brave king of Auzy-Auzy shiver. If he had stayed, maybe Gray would have considered suggesting him for the job. Not because Barkley didn't deserve it, he did more than anyone in the whole ocean, but because he just deserved the offer so much more than Gray had. He thought about Mari, the Thresher who'd been smarter than the smartest octopus in the ocean, and prettier than a fresh conch shell on a dweller. She'd deserved it too. He thought about Takiza, and the poor departed souls from Coral shiver.

He thought anyone other than him would be a better fit for the job. It had only been offered to him because he was a monster and that had been what the spot needed. Barkley had changed that monstrous position, Barkley was smart and perfect and considerate and as pretty at heart as the patterns of his scales. What was someone like Barkley doing still hanging around someone like him?

"Are you thinking too hard about this?" Barkley asked, "If you regret it you can always ask for a spot in the frenzy, we do votes now you know."

"Nothing like that!" Gray insisted, though his mind wasn't fully on the conversation (maybe that's why the words slipped out), "The ocean just needed something different, hasn't it had enough of Megladons running the place?"

Barkley sped up, swishing to be in front of Gray's face so fast that he had to bank to the side to avoid hitting the dogfish. "You can't still be on that."

Gray swished around, only avoiding slapping Barkley with his tail by accident because the dogfish knew him like the top of his own fin. "Forget I said it then," Gray said, feeling his jaw shudder as he fought the urge to grind his teeth. Maybe if one snapped he could imagine that he was still real, "You deserve the job, that's all I was saying."

"That's not what you were saying!" Barkley insisted, swimming over him so that Gray was trapped between his friend and the colorful coral below, "I know you Gray, you're thinking something stupid."

Gray looked from side to side, trying to find a way to swim away where he wouldn't plow right through something important and intricate and beautiful. He was so good at breaking things just by being around them, and as Barkley tapped his tail on Gray's dorsal fin to remind him to talk, Gray knew that this friendship was another one of those things. He twitched his fins. He didn't want to talk about this. He'd tried so hard not to bring it up, even when the conversation practically begged for it.

Of course something like him would mess it all up.

"Forget it," he half begged, "Please." I don't want to loose you.

"Gray," Barkley said seriously, "I'm part of the council that leads the ocean, and you're my best friend, I have the clearance to know."

"It's not about you," Gray snarled, sounding angrier than he meant to. His fins didn't feel like his, he was scared. Maybe now they were telling his mouth what to do. Maybe one day he'd snap and eat someone he loved. Maybe he wouldn't know what was happening until it was too late. Maybe he'd taste the blood on his tongue and know that something was wrong before realizing just exactly how wrong. Maybe-

Barkley's voice broke him out of his spiral, almost panting as he had to fight to keep up with Gray. (His tail swishes were faster than he'd remembered them being, but he hadn't realized how much just a small departure from casual could effect his friend. He slowed down in guilt.)

"You're my friend," Barkley stressed again, "so it is about me!"

"Come on Barkley," Gray begged, thinking about how his fins had looked as stumps, and how his mind had felt when he'd been told that he was the rightful Seazarian, "I don't- I don't even know where to start. I promise it's nothing."

Barkley didn't believe him, but as he was opening his sharp teeth to ask again, a shark came swimming up to him, calling about an issue with the new voting system among the Orcas. Apparently some of the old ocean sharks were pushing back against their inclusion in the view of the ocean. Something about how "flippers will never be fins," or something so eerily similar to Gray's childhood views that he felt a bite of shame so sharp it outdid all the others gnawing at his gills. Barkley hesitated, but with a drag of his tail along Gray's back, and a promise he'd be back to finish the conversation later so Gray better stay freaking put, he was following the messenger away.

Gray watched him go for a few moments, and then turned towards the open ocean.

He felt bad, but for once he felt bad that he couldn't see his friend anymore. These days, being with him hurt. It reminded him that he was too large for Coral shiver homewaters, too ravenous for Slaggernacks, too dead to see the ocean without a hint of the Sparkle Blue. Barkley swam for all he wasn't, he didn't need an old friend dragging him down anymore. He had to focus on his work, to help better the ocean, to be someone that Gray wasn't.

Notes:

Haha first dip into Shark Wars in a bit. :3 I love them forever. You can't get away. Comments appreciated!!!!

[asphodelus-stella-domi]

Yet you’re far too beautiful to leave me

Velenka and Barkley! Probably some time a little after the 6 books

That kelp took AGES to draw…

Also: I know Barkley should be way smaller than Velenka, probably one fifth of her length, but for composition’s sake…

Quote from the song In Memoriam by The Oh Hellos; reminds me of these two somehow

[savesharkwars]

Only One Patch Of Greenie - Twist on the "only one bed" trope

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Summary:

Barkley and Velenka get stuck in one patch of greenie during a battle, but somehow feel comfortable enough together to fall asleep.

Notes:

AU background: This is a “only one bed” trope fic where Barklay and Velenka only have one patch of Greenie to hide in during, and they end up falling asleep in it. I got to writing this because of a Scratch Writing Camp Cabin war amen. Love ya Shark Wars. Sorry it took so long to come back. Warnings: Background animal injury, blood, and death Words: 1,264

The water was full of metallic scents and tastes that in any other circumstance would have made a shark's mouth water., but far down in the greenie below, Barkley and Velenka were feeling anything but hungry. They had been chased away from their fellow  ghost fins and had been forced to hunker down until the battle got to an escapable level of “slightly less than a feeding frenzy.”Only problem was that there had only really been one good hiding spot for either of them and it had been hours since they had hid.

To say that either of them was entirely pleased about this arrangement would be a complete lie. However, to say that they were fully upset about it would be a lie as well. After all, it was nice to have a flank to lean on in times of violence, and even though they jolted back every time a fin brushed a fin, that feeling was still there.

They were trapped flank by flank, waving in the current the same way the greenie did and trying not to make too much fin to fin contact. Their pursuer had clearly assumed they had gotten eaten somewhere along the way, but two tiny sharks near the bottom of the ocean would be an easy target for one of the large fighters who tore through the water above them. So they had to stay put in that dark greenie patch, together, and totally not scared or anything.

Velenka tried not to look at Barkley, and he tried to look at her. Though both of them were prepared to explain away the lack of movement by their attempt at camouflage (which was somewhat true, of course), both were just trying not to interact too much with the other. After they had saved each other's skin in previous battles after being such vicious enemies, it- their relationship -had felt a bit weird for both of them.

Whatever “it” was defined as, anyway.

Above the two sharks, the battle raged. Velenka felt her eyes growing heavy. Even with such horror and noise above them, the gentle rocking of the current  made it so the Mako found it  very easy to get sleepy.  Her tail swished gently on the soft waves through the greenie, her black upper side perfectly camouflaged in the darkness of the plants. If a shark had been below her, her white underbelly would have stood out with painful contrast against the strange red of the water above them, but there was not a shark there, as Barkley was at her side.

He too blended in nicely, his slightly dappled upper side looking even more like the greenie and sand then Velenka did. He was also far better at moving the way the greenie did. While she had gotten through most of her life on her cleverness and her ability to use her natural looks to her advantage, Barkley had been forced to adapt in a different way. She didn't know much about his early life, but she could guess from personal experience (as the prettier shark, of course), that it was very likely that larger, more powerful, and more beautiful sharks had likely made it hard for him growing up. He was a dogfish, she could guess that he hadn't been taken seriously.

But she could tell that he craved to be taken seriously. Even more, she could tell that he deserved it. She wasn't the most useless person at sneaking around (in fact, before she had met him, she would have considered herself extremely good at it), but this greenie trick was beyond what she would have thought of. He deserved the praise he got.

It was on these thoughts that she drifted off to sleep. Maybe it was the comfort of another shark next to her in her greenie, or maybe it was the false protection he gave her against the violence above. (He had saved her before, perhaps, deep down, she knew he would do it again if he had to.)

Not that she would tell him that.

Barkley too, was getting sleepy. The swishing of Velenka's beautiful fins was as hypnotic as the shifting of the greenie. She had learned his technique perfectly, and Barkley couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit happy about that, even in the wake of the battle above them. She was doing so well, he almost had to admit that he did actually like her. She wasn't that snobby, sniffed up to, follower shark she'd always been in Goblin's line or Finnivus's court, no, she was her own person now. (And no matter how much he tried to tell himself he didn't, deep down, he did like her.)

He waved in the greenie, less than half her size and far less than half her accomplishments. In terms of accomplishments, he was far less worthy than her of being saved in battle, and yet she had still lost her tail tip for him. She had still covered his tail when he had found this greenie patch to hide in. She hadn't bit his gills or turned him in to the enemy of any of the things that the old Velenka would have done.

Maybe that was why he felt so comfortable when he finally drifted off in the slow waving of the current. Even with the fight above, and even though his former enemy was at his side, he felt safe in her presence. 

They woke with the water settled and the sounds of battle gone.

They also woke up with Velenka's tail resting on Barkley and his head under her fins. (She fixed it as soon as she noticed.)

Together, but not close enough together for the same thing to happen again, they swam back to base. The shifted though still floating clouds of red, but side by side it wasn't as scary as it could have been.

They didn't say that out loud. Maybe in the now silent sea it would have echoed enough for them to mean it.

The first time any one of them said anything, in fact, was when they found their way back to what was left of their forces. Thankfully, their friends were okay. Gray, the ghost fins, Takiza, all of them were okay. (And thanks to that patch of Greenie, Barkley and Velenka were there to see them again.)

“Barkley!” Gray cried (actually cried, Barkley realized with a start, they must have been gone for a while), "We thought that she had killed...“ he trailed off and sniffed, swishing his huge tail harder than was necessary, ”We thought you were gone.“

”I'm not," Barkley reassured his friend, “Velenka helped me hide,” He smiled at her as best as he could, without drawing attention to the fact  that they had fallen asleep in the same patch of greenie instead of helping the war effort, “We're safe, see?“

She swished her tail and nodded.

Gray stared, and seemed to accept it.

Wisely, none of the ghost fins mentioned the fact that their leader and their fastest improving member had been missing in action for the entire battle. Wisely, none of them pointed out that they had bumped into them sleeping when they too had hidden. Wisely, back then, none of them had woken them up. If it wasn't for their memories, it was almost like it had never happened, and until Barklay or Velenka was ready to think about the fact that they wouldn't mind a second single patch of greenie, they were going to keep it that way.

[videos-i-didnt-make]

le_le_fishe.mp4

[stimtimus]

A Velenka from Shark Wars stimboard for @savebatsfromscratch !!

I actually loved making this she's(?) neat

x x x x x x x x x

[savesharkwars]

Ahhh I love her!!! Thank you so much!! >^-^< (I am the person who asked lol.)

[asphodelus-stella-domi]

Not me:

Absolutely not me:

*inserts How to Train Your Dragon books themes into Shark Wars fanfic unconsciously

[savesharkwars]

Any Shark Wars vibes songs?

I am SUPER late to answering this because I didn't know what to say to it, but here is one that was working for me:

(I also know for a fact that there are a much of other songs that give me Shark Wars vibes but I cannot for the life of me find the notebook I wrote them in. XD Whoops!)

[asphodelus-stella-domi]

Something that Happened while trying to work out Takiza’s backstory and listening to The Oh Hellos

Just a headcanon+ character analysis maybe? Young Takiza when he broke with Hokuu

(Song is Dear Wormwood by the Oh Hellos which has absolutely nothing to do with Shark Wars, but I’m sort of obsessed about both at the moment, and my brain tends to make weird connections in this kind of state—)

[asphodelus-stella-domi]

Oh really?! If it was so then it must have escaped my notice…

Though I do remember a few lines in book 6, during their final duel, that implied that Hokuu had not yet started using dark-kata when he was training Takiza

And I do think perhaps back then Hokuu wasn’t as evil as he was at the time of the books, and how he became what he is now might have something to do with frilled sharks being seen as “monsters” and treated unfairly…? Just a guess though

[asphodelus-stella-domi]

Oh. I found that line at the start of Book 6. Silly me.

This… makes things even more interesting 👀

( @savebatsfromscratch @floofyfungi )

[savesharkwars]

Ooh my gosh- yeah that is so interesting. :0

(Also I forgot Leilani existed again. Sorry queen I promise I love you. </3)

[savesharkwars]

I am SORRY to tell you that I ship Hokuu x Takiza (but in Hokuu-is-obsessed-about-Takiza-in-a-not-very-healthy-way-and-which-Takiza-loftily-ignores vibes)

Other more normal pairings that I ship, but more or less platonically:

Salamanca x Aleeyoot

Grinder x Silversun

Xander x Tydal (maybe?)

And my thoughts on the more canon ships:

Gray x Mari: umm fine but I like them as platonic over romantic

Gray x Leilani: oooh nice

Barkley x Velenka: oh this one is rather good really, Velenka’s redemption was interesting and written carefully

Oh this is so real- Oh your brain is so huge with that Hokuu x Takiza dynamic that is so freaking good- Holy cow I need to make a fic STAT... Oh my goodness.

(I also gotta make some ship names for those four you really like. XD (I love making ship names lol. ...Also I don't think I made one with Gray and Leilani somehow?? How did I do that I really love them- 😭)