Animal Motifs / Webcomics

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• In Alice and the Nightmare, Edith has a strong rabbit motif going. Her ribbon looks like rabbit's ears, she's easily scared and Word of God is that she's the Expy of White Rabbit.
• The Beast Legion universe involves characters who transform into powerful beasts with Awesome powers.
• Tiger Telematics from Consolers has, appropriately enough, a tiger motif, with an orange tiger-striped suit, cat smile and fangs.
• Crow Time: Edwin generally has crow feather-shaped adornments on their dresses and they love shiny things. Justified, as Edwin is a shapeshifter that was born as a crow.
• In Drowtales, most of the major clans are associated to some degree with a specific animal, often riding an oversized versions of it as mounts. The Vel'Sharen have dragons, the Val'Shargress wolves, the Val'Illhar'dro birds, the Val'Beldrobbaen spiders, the Val'Nar'sarkoth yaks or oxen, the Val'Kyorl'solenurn unicorns, the Vel'Vloz'ress snakes, and the Val'Sullisin'rune cats. The extinct Val'Dutan'vir clan had deer-like animals called ligrs, the Balvhakara and Jie'yen of Nuqrah'shareh have the crab and a separate breed of dragon, respectively, and the Kavahini of Mimaneid have the owl.
• El Goonish Shive has a little bit of this.
  • There's a minor character named Catalina Bobcat, whose character design and choice of hairstyle (along with her personality) does make her seem rather catlike. Word of God states that this was intentional and that no, she cannot transform into a cat. Until Pandora gave her a magic mark, something she was reluctant to do because it was so obvious and boring what powers she'd get.
  • Grace has a much more obvious squirrel theme, but this makes sense: thanks to Bizarre Alien Biology and LEGO Genetics, she's actually part-squirrel.
  • Rhoda has a puppy theme. She's naive, loyal, and rather timid, and Diane even specifically refers to her as "pup." Surprisingly, she gets along quite well with catlike Catalina, and squirrel-like Grace.
• Stephanos from Fake News Rumble has a spider motif, complete with Arachnid Appearance and Attire, and Yoni has a wolf motif, bearing a long scarf that resembles a wolf's tail and can transform into one. Their symbols match this (Yoni's one faintly). The fact that Stephanos has a spider motif might be because he frequently was/is the person who likes to be and was in control. The wolf motif of Yonathan is probably reflective of his brash and savage nature. The wolf also represents loyalty, which is fitting to the fact that he only is being evil because his best friend is. Stephen has a bird motif, specifically, a phoenix. Bonus points for Stephanos' spider motif, as there is a species of trapdoor spider that is called Stephen.
• Gunnerkrigg Court has several animals associated with particular characters:
  • Antimony is associated with Wolves. She carries a stuffed wolf doll around with her, and she's named after an element that the alchemists of old associated with the wolf. Others often find her hard to approach (the 'lone wolf' idea). And she keeps running into supernatural canines.
  • Kat has decorated a few of her possessions with cartoon felines. Also, not to be Captain Obvious, but her name is Kat. And she has an unhealthy obsession with birds.
  • Alistair was associated with birds. Besides the obvious connection, both his room at the Court and his old home had artwork of birds on the wall. Since his departure, Kat had developed an interest in birds (perhaps too much of an interest).
  • Zimmy is associated with insects and spiders. She was first introduced beneath a sign that read (in Greek) "Danger: insects", and her anger tends to be visualized by symbolic swarms of bugs. When she gets energetic, she likes to pass time by hunting spiders in the library. After Jack is accidentally transported to Zimmy's bizarre mental Dark World, his astral body gains a spider image on its face. The two hairs on his forehead look an awful lot like spider fangs, too.
• Homestuck:
  • The kids each have a prominent animal motif relating to what their sprites were prototyped with:
    • John has a minor rabbit motif. One of his recurring possessions is the plush rabbit from Con Air which he first receives as is from Dave, then restitched via knitting by Rose, and finally as a battle bot from Jade. The latter two incarnations were the prior incarnation given to Rose and Jade respectively by John when they were babies. Given John's innocence, buckteeth and kooky worldview, as well as his love of magic tricks, this fits.
    • Rose is associated with cats in addition to her affinity for all things tentacled. Her sprite is made using her deceased housecat Jaspers, she picks up a four-eyed mutant kitten as a pet for a while, and a sprite of her made using the body of an alternate Rose is accidentally fused with Jaspersprite to create Jasprosesprite^2, who has cat ears and feline mannerisms. She also fits the traditional aloof and snarky personalities associated with cats.
    • Dave is associated with crows. A flock is constantly flying around his house in the opening acts, and his hair vaguely resembles the profile of a crow as well. His sprite is made using a dead crow, and a future Dave from an alternate timeline eventually merges with Crowsprite to become Davesprite, who maintains the crow's wings and feathers.
    • Jade is associated with dogs. She was raised by radioactive god dog that later serves as her sprite, and which she merges with when entering the God Tiers. As a result, afterwards, Jade retains dog ears and a tendency to bark.
    • Among the alpha kids, Roxy is associated with cats in a similar manner to Rose, while Dirk has his seagulls.
  • Several of the trolls have animal motifs, associated with their lusus, a monster that raised them in lieu of a parent, and their Zodiac sign.
    • Aradia Megido, the Aries troll, is lightly associated with rams. Her lusus was a ram-headed kangaroo, and her horns resemble a ram's as well.
    • Tavros Nitram, the Taurus troll, has bulls. His Trollian handle is adiosToreador, his lusus is a small fairy-winged bull, his horns are huge steer-like ones, and his name is a light modification of "taurus".
    • Karkat Vantas, the Cancer troll, has crabs. His Trollian handle is carcinoGeneticist, his lusus is a huge bipedal crab monster, and he eventually takes to using a sickle shaped like a crab claw.
    • Nepeta Leijon, the Leo troll, is very strongly associated with cats. Her Trollian handle is arsenicCatnip, her lusus is a panther, her horns resemble feline ears, her portrait in one of the playable segments has feline eyes, she wears a cat-shaped hood and a fake tail, her emoticons use cat mouths, and she peppers her speech with constant cat puns. Her name is also derived from Nepeta, the scientific name of the genus that catnip belongs to, and "leon", Spanish for "lion".
    • Terezi Pyrope has dragons — which, notably, have no relationship to her sign, which is Libra. Her lusus is an unhatched dragon, she decorates her home with dragon scales and collects dragon plushies, and her Ancestor rode a full-sized dragon.
    • Vriska Serket, the Scorpio troll, notably has a mix of spider and scorpion motifs instead of just a scorpion one. Most of her quirks are general arachnid ones — her Trollian handle is arachnidsGrip, she has seven pupils in one eye for a total of eight overall, and when typing she used "8" to replace the letter "b" and sounds similar to "eight", as well as repeating letters or punctuation marks eight times for emphasis. She was also raised by a spider the size of a house, while her ties to scorpions specifically are her asymmetric horns, which resemble a stinger and a claw, and her last name, which is derived from Serqet, the Egyptian goddess of scorpions.
    • Equius Zahhak, the Sagittarius troll, has horses. He's obsessed with them generally, his lusus is a centaur, and he's named after equus, the Latin word for "horse", and a Zoroastrian mythical villain whose name meant "he who owns a thousand horses".
    • Gamzee Makara, the Capricorn troll, has goats. His lusus is a sea-goat, and his horns resemble a goat's.
    • Feferi Peixes, the Pisces troll, has sealife in general and cuttlefish in particular. Her Trollian handle is cuttlefishCuller, she keeps a large number of cuttlefish in her home, and she peppers her speech with liberal use of fish and marine puns. Her name is derived from Metasepia pfefferi, a kind of real-life cuttlefish, and peixes, the Portuguese word for "fishes".
  • The minor characters Trace and Fin have Threatening Sharks as a motif: their heads vaguely resemble shark heads, and their time powers involves stalking the time trails of other people, like sharks following blood. Fin specifically has even more shark motifs, including his name and the fact that the planet he hailed from had shark-infested pools of water — and in an ironic twist, he dies after being shot repeatedly and leaving behind a massive Trail of Blood. Also, since both Trace and Fin belong to the billiards-themed gang The Felt, they can be considered literal pool sharks.
  • Calliope and Caliborn, the Cherubs, have a slight snake motif — their appearances are quite reptilian, complete with fangs and forked tongues, and their species reproduces by transforming into massive, crocodile-headed serpents.
• I Fell in Love, so I Tried Livestreaming: According to an extra chapter, all the dorm members have an animal associated with them. Yuu is a dog, Hakua is a rabbit, Yuzuko is a cat, Sora is an alpaca, Souta is a bat, and Vina is a white crow. Everyone except for Sora has their livestream handle based on their animal motif, though her outfit has alpaca ears.
• In Jenny and the Multiverse, Jenny is associated with butterflies: she's first seen staring at one, her pupils briefly turn into butterfly silhouettes when she gets her powers, and her shadow is that of a butterfly in The Stinger that reveals her powers have not faded.
• Many of Judecca's inhabitants are animal-themed. Sharky is a Shark Man, Frederick Dickenson is a rabbit, Lilith turns into a bird, and Cleo is a snake lady.
• In Koan of the Day, the tortoise represents being lost in thought or in a dream state.
• Lackadaisy: The Savoy siblings both have a gator motif, with The Cajun Gator having been Nico's boxing title and Serafine's customized rifle having an alligator embossed on the grip. They both seem to interpret their patron Maitre Carrefour as a gator as well due to their background as runaways who fled into the bayou.
• Because the titular Little Nuns are never named, they will all be given distinguishing traits or motifs. Animal motifs are very common, and at least one girl between the two generations of nuns we see have an animal-themed girl. The main cast has a freckled nun associated with sheep and a curly banged nun increasingly associated with frogs, while the older nun group has a watchful girl associated with rabbits. The nunnery is also flooded with ducks, so they have become the overall symbol of the cast.
• In Moon Crest 24 a few of the characters, namely the female ones so far, have showed signs of having a motif when it comes to the things they wear. But the only ones to actually have an animal motif are Lucy and Rachel — them being Ladybugs and Rabbits, respectively.
• Muted: The main character's witch family is associated with birds, and several other witch families have a motif related to a specific animal. It also can affect what sort of familiar a witch summons.
• All magicians in Never Satisfied have a familiar, whose species typically means something significant about the magician's personality. Oftentimes this extends to Uncatty Resemblance, and husks take this to an extreme.
• The protagonists of Panthera can turn into different big cats. Most notably, the team's leader is a lion.
• Every main character in Puffer and Clarissa takes visual cues from marine life. Puffer's rounder armor and shoulder spikes evoke the Puffer Fish, and Clarissa's bright blue and yellow dress is colored similarly to the Cleaner Wrasse.
• In Punderworld, Hera's clothes are done to evoke peacock imagery and she rides a chariot driven by two giant peacocks.
• Robber x Lover: When Gang Dojin first approaches Ji Ho the morning after their first encounter, the former has a tiger's head behind him while the latter has a scared rabbit, representing Ji Ho's feelings in the moment.
• In Sakana each of the primary characters' design is based on some kind of seafood: Jiro has hair similar to a shark fin, Taro's design is based on a whale, Taisei's hair looks like jellyfish and Yuudai resembles an eel.
• Sister Claire is absolutely obsessed with cats, even beyond the obvious fact that one is the Big Bad. Claire herself is a Friend to All Living Things who loves playing with the local strays, her room is decorated with cat posters and dolls, the chapel has banned all cats, and Sister Catherine seems to be a bit too connected to the animals...
• Buwaro in Slightly Damned is nice and friendly to anyone not obviously hostile to him, is incredibly loyal to his friends, likes hugs, has a bad habit of trying to eat nearly everything he discovers for the first time, even rocks and crystals, and is a simpleton in general. Add his muzzle and pointy teeth, and his tongue constantly sticking out of his mouth in flashbacks of the time he was a baby, and you would swear he is a dog just by this description.
• Trash Talk has Mr. Mudo, one of the teachers in the school, who doubles as a disgruntled security guard. He is compared in-series to a rabid police German Shepherd. Complete with the attitude.
• Unsounded:
  • Ssaelit Alishmen have a lion motif. It was a lion that tore apart Ssael, sending him into the khert where they believe he slew the gods and transcended to godhood.
  • Mikaila has a blue butterfly motif, with a butterfly hair tie and looking at a butterfly window display on the night of Duane's murder.
  • Plats usually hate the way others refer to them as insects and mayflies but Mathis has leaned into it, with his wedding brand and a battle pymaric both based on insects.
• Weak Hero:
  • Gray's underhanded fighting style and quiet nature earn him the reptilian moniker "White Mamba".
  • Hot-Blooded Ben's unstoppable power has had him compared to a raging bull.
  • Alex was known as "The Pitbull" back in middle school due to being a small scrapper who constantly picked fights. The name is even more appropriate since, like a real pitbull, Alex is a lot nicer than his reputation would suggest.
  • The speed that Gerard is capable of, thanks to his long limbs, has led to him being called a cheetah, a comparison he seems to like.
  • With his prominent canines, slitted eyes, and bright red hair, Rowan certainly evokes the image of a fox, which fits with him being something of a con-artist whose talent is over-exaggeration.
• In What Does the Fox Say, Sungji associates Sumin with a fox.

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