tmmm hey hunty what's your take on fishmen? Do you think they should be more..well..fishy? Maybe even headcannons like they can't be too much time out of water or something.
And the tontattas?? Ohh I'd love your take on tontattas.. silly but strong creatures.. or even more about the minks — you think they'd have a bit of more feral instincts on them?
And if you don’t mind, non-canon species? Like those people with wings on Strong World.
I drew some fishmen to answer this!!! To be honest I've been meaning to answer this for AGES! Yapping is under a cut so nobody who doesnt want to needs to see it 🥰
Here are some previous redesigns, with some of the thought process in their tags!
Wyper, Pedro and Otohime • Wanda, Conis, and Bepo
I do like the idea of them looking fishier! To be honest for me that manifests more with patterning, since often times the fishmen do not have patterns (especially countershading) that the fish they're supposedly based off have! This includes more colors, and also perhaps their webs between their fingers being different colors like on Tom in my drawing! He's based on a longhorn cowfish and they have some interesting looking blue spots on them, so I tried to give him those in this rather messy illustration. Fisher Tiger and Arlong just got some countershading, but Hack also got some more color treatment, because he is based on a soldierfish, which are actually very *red*, and some are a bit stripey. I think the red looks nice on him!
Last thing worth mentioning for these, which I'm not fixing because I'm tired, is Arlong accidentally has more ray-like gill placement since I kept accidentally referencing sawfish instead of sawsharks. Oops. Same for his big forearms like Kuroobi has, but I kind of like those. Sawsharks have sort of wide fins, and sharks and rays (which sawfish apparently are) are closely related anyways.
Anyways! As for fishmen in general headcanons! I hadn't considered being out of water in any way being bad for them before. That's very interesting! I could see their skin health (or probably mental health too) deteriorating after spending far too long out of the water! (Talking weeks here, not just hours/days). It's definitely good for them to swim often.
Another thing I was considering, is whether they'd wear a different wardrobe, shirt-wise. I was looking at these guys' gills while drawing them, and kept thinking, why are they all half covered up by their shirts? Of course on land it doesn't matter since they use their lungs but would something covering their neck/shoulder area not be sort of akin to waterboarding oneself? I doubt the water flows into their gills very nicely with fabric covering them up. Some time I should draw fishmen/mermen clothing made to allow the gills to be free... it's a very fun idea to consider.
Another thing, maybe more an observation after drawing these, they all have very wide necks, not much shoulder to speak of in a lot of cases, which is certainly a one piece art style thing, but probably helps with being aerodynamic in the water! Very cool, if hard to draw.
I've seen tails added to fishmen before, which is a cool and fun idea, but not one I'm subscribing to since it muddies the line for me between mermen and fishmen (which are actually different races?? Not confusing at all). Speaking of that, though. There is exactly one named fishwoman in all of One Piece. Octopako, who is apparently from Hachi's cover story. It would be nice if there were more fishwomen! I love the mermaids, but come on!!
Anyways, as far as Dwarves (the race is dwarves, the trive is tontattas) go I haven't thought too much, but my first thought would be taking great care of their tail fur! It would be cute if they braid or otherwise style that just like head hair! Also, some time i should draw a dwarf getting spooked or angry and having their tail stick up and fluff up like a cat. They can probably use them to emote! I can't remember if that was ever done in canon. I'd imagine since they're so very gullible they're generally pretty honest, but then I seem to remember Dressrosa viewing them as thieves. Certainly this was Doflamingo's input since he wanted them to be disliked, but I've seen before people describing ideas for goblin culture where everything is just communal. That could be a cute idea for them! Not really having the intent of stealing because it's not something that exists to them. I don't know, I'll have to rewatch dressrosa some time. The last thing I thought of is what a mink would think of a dwarf. They have more fur, *and* a tail. If humans are lesser minks to them, maybe dwarves can be slightly-greater-lesser-minks.
As far as minks, they must have some kind of feral instincts, for the dogs to be so obsessed with brook the way they are. I'd imagine certain minks act certain ways based on whatever animal they are. I could see cat minks grooming themselves with their tongues (and definitely having spiky tongues), or maybe a group of deer minks getting spooked and stampeding out of a room. Honestly for minks my main thing is design wise I'd like them to look more animal-like, which the male ones often do, I just wish that was matched with the women! Carrot especially.
As for the winged people from strong world, I got the impression they grew those wings as a result of the same experimentation that made the animals the way they were? So, rather than a race they're more genetically modified. I could definitely see them helping each other preen and take care of new feather growth. Also, if the mutation continues, I'd imagine they could eventually convert perhaps their pinky fingers into a long appendage bent sort of backwards, which can be folded out as needed to fly! I call bullshit on that sad amount of feathers allowing them to fly. Maybe i headcanon that their hand physiology is different. (It could be held folded back against the forearm when not in use, as that's what birds do anyways.)
This has been my long unorganized spiel! If you read this, thank you! I want to draw more one piece nonhumans.... if anyone has any headcanons or things to add to this discussion let me know!! I love this sort of stuff!!
