Picking the Animals Part 2
Get ready for more my dudes. Mid-Blood Time!
Now you would think Nepeta, Meulin and the Disciple would be lions, right? Wrong! You fool. That would be too easy and also she doesn't really give me big cat vibes. She is too cute and soft to come off as a huge, hulking, elegant big cat; She just isn't intimidating enough. To me, she is more like a house cat but I don't think she completely suits this either since she is too feisty and good a hunter to be fully dependent on humans. So I settled for the middle. She still has to be part of the Felidae family(Felines) but not a Pantherinae(big cats) because they’re big but Felinae are small(this is where domestic cats are grouped). I wanted to go for a cat that is a close relative to the domestic cat so I decided that a Sand Cat would be perfect because they are wild enough to be intimidating but small enough to intimidated by other larger animals. I also liked the soft, rounded look that Sand Cats have as well as their olivey yellow pelts.
Kanaya, Porrim and the Dolorosa are African Lions. Now you might be thinking 'Peri, you had the perfect opportunity to make Nepeta a lion but you didn't and then gave it the Maryams instead! Why? It doesn't make any sense!' Well, it does so if you could wait for like five seconds mate I can explain myself. Right off the bat, I want to specify the Maryam's had to be big carnivores. The idea that they could kill any creature they wanted and be guilt-free since they have to eat meat to survive, but chose to care for a weaker animal just because of their caring nature and powerful urge to nurture those in need was something that these characters needed to revolve around, especially in the Dolarosas case. I mean I guess they could have been omnivores but also no since it makes it a lot less impactful. Lionesses generally have this mighty yet motherly aura to them(or maybe I have watched the Lion King a bit too much) so it was the obvious choice. Also, lionesses are super beautiful animals which I wanted to be reflected in Porrim. Don't get me wrong, they still eat meat, they have to, but they don't kill friends and for them, a friend can be anyone including prey. I also thought that when something was threatening them or their friends/family, they could defend themselves and have a good chance of winning. They are if nothing else, extremely protective. I also chose African lions because they are bigger then Asiatic but that's less important.
Ok, that was long but this should be a lot easier to explain. Terezi, Latula and Redglare are Spotted Hyenas. Obviously, since another name for Spotted Hyena is a Laughing Hyena and Terezi laughs like 80% of the time she is on screen. I mean they aren't actually laughing clearly but you all knew that. I also thought that since female hyenas are the dominant gender in the group they might have some interesting dynamics with male animals, especially with Latulas 'No Boys allowed, gamer girlz only!' attitude. I can't really explain it any better since it fits them so perfectly.
Remember when I said no turning trolls into Insects allowed? Yeah well, keep that in mind here. Vriska, Aranea and Mindfang are South American Coatis. It was quite tricky deciding who these guys were going to be but coatis are sneaky and fast, similar to racoons(to whom they are related) but more slimline and as a bonus, they can also climb down trees headfirst due to their double-jointed ankles. They also eat invertebrates, including spiders(a bit of a stretch, I know). They couldn't physically overpower many animals but I am sure they could use their wits, cunning and flexibility to fuck everyone's day up instead.
