Lolo De Puzlo · 11d
In regard to media featuring anthropomorphic animals, what are your feelings about the setting enforcing cultural animal stereotypes? (prey/pred relations, foxes being tricksters, dragons always having a hoard) Do you like it when stories break away from this kind of thing?
I mostly dislike this because it leads to settings build entirely on human stereotypes that make no sense. Beastars is cool but it's also like what the hell. What kinds of material conditions could lead to this or maintain it!? Of course, in that particular case the reasoning just boils down to Paru Itagaki thought it was Hot as Fuck. And I can respect that. Better than Zootopia at least.
There's no one single right way, of course, but this kind of thing often just feels like kinda the worst parts of thoughtless fantasy and sci-fi writing in general. The way Ferenghi were in Star Trek TNG vs Deep Space 9 comes to mind. It's just good to think more deeply about your characters and world if you're going to go through the trouble of writing them.
