Duplicate Trope: Petting Zoo People

Oh, we're talking about this again.

Now that I've had time to think about it, I would say I've nailed down the issue on why there's so much confusion and misuse: we've got it all wrong. Petting-Zoo People is not anthropomorphism, it should fall under Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes. Rather than taking an animal and giving it more human features, it's simply taking the looks of that animal and using it as inspiration for an alien species. Aside from appearance they might not even have similar characteristics to the animal of origin.

I'd also say we're confusing the two tropes with the art style of works, assuming there's a correlation between mannerisms and appearance Cartoons for example have the tendency to simplify animals down to only the traits that make them recognisable. So you have Catlians who are Petting-Zoo People, but a character such as Avocato should also be Petting-Zoo People - but because he's drawn in 2D, the distinction gets a bit mixed up.

Thus, the million-dollar question of whether a character is Petting-Zoo People or Funny Animal: are they supposed to be a cat/dog/lizard/whatever, or are they just humanoids who happen to look like one?

Here is my suggestion:

1. Cleanup of examples;
2. Scrap the whole section about differentiating Petting-Zoo People and Funny Animal by appearnce;
3. Rename Petting-Zoo People to something like Terran Animal Resembling Aliens;
4. Move Terran Animal Resembling Aliens to Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes.

Edited by BreadBull on Dec 22nd 2018 at 11:07:07 AM

This trope does not need to be about ‘aliens’ there are plenty of examples of this that are not. Fantasy works have them show up as a beast tribe, like FFX’s Ronso.

This trope is what people equate the majority of the ‘furry fetish’ to, completely humanoid being fully functional in every way you would think of but with fur and yada.

The whole Sonic movie poster and trailer debacle for example has people fearing that the movie is redesigning him into this trope instead of a Funny Animal.

Edited by Memers on Dec 22nd 2018 at 11:11:57 AM

Alien species == non-human species. FFX is included in that.

Edited by BreadBull on Dec 22nd 2018 at 1:24:15 AM

I don't know if most Petting Zoo People count as "alien". Many have a lot of Furry Reminders.

What I think of when I hear Petting-Zoo People are characters like Star Fox (page image), Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank, the Argonians and Khajiit from TES, Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Silurians and Ice Warriors from Doctor Who, all of which look like Earth animals but ultimately are just that: look like, not are and incidentally don't have Furry Reminders. Anything else goes under Funny Animal.

But ultimately, I would say that what makes Petting-Zoo People different is that instead of taking an animal and making them more human, it's taking a human and making them more animalistic (so it's zoo-morphism, I guess). The subtropes listed under Petting-Zoo People and the very first draft of the page are with me on this.

There might be a major case of "is your red the same as my red?" here.

Edited by BreadBull on Dec 23rd 2018 at 3:32:09 AM

Maybe"Animal-like Aliens" should be its own trope, if it isn't already.

I think that was the original intent of Petting-Zoo People, but it slowly drifted over the years to the mess it is now.

Aliens and different native races in a world are really two completely different cultural tropes that are really sister tropes to this one.

Animal like Aliens could be anything on the sliding scale including Little Bit Beastly. In fact the page image ARE aliens and have animal traits like the dog people love frisbee and even bark and growl on occasion.

Edited by Memers on Dec 23rd 2018 at 8:18:45 AM

We need an easier way to distinguish, and that's the best I can come up with. Because right now - whether it's PZP or FA is based on how humanoid they look - is not working.

The other option is to merge, be vague, and leave it at that. Because like it or not, the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism are not nice neat categories but a spectrum which we've arbitrarily divided into.

Edited by BreadBull on Dec 23rd 2018 at 9:38:58 AM

I agree with BreadBull that aliens looking like Earth animals, like the characters from Star Fox, is a more distinct trope.

They are different tropes, the looks and how their culture is used are completely different.

They could be

• a hyper advanced alien race,
• a member of the Five Races or other fantasy setting (like FFXII's, Dog Days or Zelda Breath Of The Wild),
• so integrated in a society to where no one even brings up a race issue (like Dragon Ball where everyone is completely integrated or FFXIV's integrated cities),
• or inserted into a plot inappropriately ala Sonic 06. And all are their own unique trope.

EDIT: And they could be Petting Zoo Person, Funny Animal, Little Bit Beastly, or a Talking Animal.

Edited by Memers on Dec 23rd 2018 at 12:25:59 PM

I support Bread Bull's proposal in 26. Could Terran Animal Resembling Aliens (needs a shorter title, how about Animalistic Aliens?) also be Funny Animals? And would it cover fantasy as well as sci-fi races?

Edited by Lymantria on Jan 7th 2019 at 9:21:42 AM

I would support a rename but nothing with the word 'alien' in it.

Skyrim calls them "Beastfolk" however that name is currently used for a different trope.

Also there is still what to do with Civilized Animal.

EDIT: Beast Folk honestly could be merged with Petting-Zoo People I think after reading it.

Edited by Memers on Jan 7th 2019 at 7:02:25 AM

To answer your first question: no. Under the new distinction Funny Animal would be reserved only for characters that are supposed to be an Earth species.

To answer your second question: yes. I'm using "aliens" to mean "anyone not human".

Going to put forth the option of just merging it with Beast Folk, they are the exact same trope.

Edited by Memers on Jan 10th 2019 at 6:58:22 AM

Beast Folk feels like a better name.

What's weird is that Beast Folk spends its largest paragraph on such characters having feral personalities and powers and potentially having to resist those impulses, but most of the examples seem to ignore that part, further reducing the distinction between the two.

I think there is definitely something to having a trope about that concept, but it's also covered in part by My Instincts Are Showing. This is all a really tangled up web, isn't it?

Edited by Jokubas on Jan 10th 2019 at 11:42:35 AM

Yeah all that should go on that trope, its not uncommon for Little Bit Beastly characters or really anyone on the sliding scale to do that.

In the work that the page image of Little Bit Beastly is from the people in the dog kingdom are known to bark when mad, have a serious blast playing Frisbee, and demand head pats among other things.

Edited by Memers on Jan 11th 2019 at 8:33:34 AM

You mean merging PZP with Beast Folk, not FA, right?

Yes, with Beast Folk.

Incidentally, I think such a merge would help alleviate the confusion between Petting-Zoo People and Funny Animal. The names alone would encourage reading into the distinctions, instead of both coming across as somewhat cartoony and vague.

Merging with Beast Folk sounds like a good idea. I also agree with Jokubas that Beast Folk's name is better.

Merging with Beast Folk seems pretty good.

So do shifters from Eberron count as Beast Man or Wild Man? Or even Wolf Man? (pics 1◊, 2◊, 3◊) They're descendants of werebeasts who look like hairy humans with distinctively-shaped ears and skulls, but don't resemble any particular animal. They have a limited version of their ancestors' shapeshifting abilities, which lets them grow a bestial feature like claws, scales, wings, sharp senses, etc.

"Animal-like aliens" seems to be covered by Intelligent Gerbil.

Edited by Prime32 on Jan 16th 2019 at 10:12:11 AM

I'd say Shifters would be Beast Man because they have beastly elements. An individual Shifter could be a Wild Man, but that's more about mannerisms it seems (it looks like it's essentially an adult version of Wild Child), so it wouldn't necessarily apply to them all.

I think they would fit under Wolf Man as well, since they have the werebeast ancestry with the hairy Wolfman movie look to them. Wolf Man is a subtrope of Beast Man though, so that makes sense.

Edited by Jokubas on Jan 16th 2019 at 4:31:30 AM

The issue is that only some of them are connected to wolves. Their exact ancestry is left unspecified unless you take a Prestige Class which brings you closer to a true therianthrope (which has bear, boar, rat, tiger, wolf and wolverine paths); it's even possible for shifters in "battle mode" to manifest impossible combinations of traits like gills, horns and wings, implying that some of them have a bunch of bloodlines mixed together.

Edited by Prime32 on Jan 16th 2019 at 1:10:35 PM