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So what's the deal with Ferals?

I would say that Ferals are just as human as Humans are. I'm sure that there are individual cases of racism towards different Feral species, but it most likely has nothing to do with real world animosity between animals. As far as I know the common belief that cats and dogs don't get along is just a myth popularized by cartoons.
Alex Ahad has confirmed that racism is a reality in Skullgirls, but he hasn't said anything about Ferals being racist towards each other based on their species. For now I'm assuming that racial stereotyping is limited toward the main group and doesn't reach down into any sub groups.

Tom is in fact Dagonian, we just don't know what kind. He's tiny though, which is interesting.
 
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Denizen said:
I just checked and it seems that what Muro says actually matches up with the Canon Info Thread.

I like this thread, Ferals are cool. Much cooler than those dumb Parasites and Living Weapons.

But what if there was a feral with a Parasite who wielded a Living Weapon? :D

CHAOS_FANTAZY said:
(Feral racism speculation)

Also, wasn't Tom called a Dagonian? He doesn't look very fishy to me...

Tom is actually a salamander Dagonian! (Though I wonder if his resemblance to Rufus the Naked Mole Rat is intentional...) Dagonians don't necessarily have to be "fish"; any aquatic creature falls under the banner, it would seem. For instance, there's an urchin Dagonian in Little Innsmouth (who is a street urchin, appropriately enough), and there's an isopod Dagonian off to the right (eating a bag of totally-not-Doritos). And it would seem that the River King is a humpback whale Dagonian.

From they way I interpret it at least, Ferals would act like any normal human being, save for a few species-specific behavioral tics? I know we don't have a lot of examples to go off of for this, so I'm just leaning on Ms. Fortune for this theory here. Ms. Fortune acts very human, but she also meows and purrs and preens herself and such like a cat would.

Now... while I wouldn't doubt there to be some racism between different feral species, it would seem that ferals in general are discriminated against moreso by humans. There's the stuff the Medici goons say to Minette and Fortune in her storymode, and there's Cerebella's cheeseburger line... Also, Little Innsmouth looks to be a bit of a slum, doesn't it? And it's a mostly Dagonian population.

In any case, if there's a place where race is a nonissue... I'd probably say it's the ASG Labs, actually!

I mean, the director of Lab 8 is an Elf, one of the most prominent scientists there is Dagonian, and as we can see from Big Band at least they'll take in anyone regardless of skin color. Even Lab 0--Patty in Last Hope was a feral, too. Hell, we have no idea what Ileum or Brain Drain might have looked like prior to modification, either. I guess race is just completely irrelevant in the eyes of science. :)
 
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So many types of ferals. There's like one in the background of almost every stage. Cat ferals in the Streets of New Meridian and Under the Bridge, Dagonians at the River King Casino and Little Innsmouth, snails and bird ferals at the Glass canopy stage. (I'm not counting Indiegogo backers original characters.) So far we've seen dogs, cats, Giraffes, birds, fish, sea urchins, octopi, crocodiles and even snails. Playable, or potentially playable, ferals include Nadia Fortune the cat, Minette the minnow, Yu Wan the cat fish, Stanley Whitefin the shark and Tom the salamander.

I'd say there are hints of racism for sure, Lawrence was pretty rude to Minette. Although there were plenty of ferals at the fancy party where you'd figure there'd be the most elitism.
 
Colossi said:
Are ferals capable of having parasites?
I mean, elves are (Taliesin, for example).
Is Taliesin confirmed to be an elf? To be honest I never paid much attention to his ears. Are elves a skullgirls race? I know trolls are (like the bridge troll), horned humanoids (like the Maplecrest schoolgirl), Gigans (like Scythana, Gilgamesh and potentially the circus clown and Grendel.
I'd believe it if there were elves, I mean what else could you call Double's form in Squigly's story?
 
Medici Mob Boss said:
Is Taliesin confirmed to be an elf? To be honest I never paid much attention to his ears. Are elves a skullgirls race? I know trolls are (like the bridge troll), horned humanoids (like the Maplecrest schoolgirl), Gigans (like Scythana, Gilgamesh and potentially the circus clown and Grendel.
I'd believe it if there were elves, I mean what else could you call Double's form in Squigly's story?
Yeah, there's elves, Avian and Dahlia are elves too. (The horned girl is a feral to I believe?)
 
The horned schoolgirl is a goat feral indeed, just like Patty from Last Hope.

Horned humans are still a separate thing, though (vide D. Violet).
 
Muro said:
The horned schoolgirl is a goat feral indeed, just like Patty from Last Hope.
There is still Hope.
blog_wv_971880_4072513_tr_guycry.gif
 
WaterMystic277 said:
Imagine the news though.
HEY KATEY, YOUR COUSIN DIED BRUTALLY.
This is fan fiction in the making.
I want to hear the tale of Katey and her distant but important relationship with her black ops cousin.
 
Denizen said:
This is fan fiction in the making.
I want to hear the tale of Katey and her distant but important relationship with her black ops cousin.
SHIT NOW I WANT TO TOO.
THERE IS SO MUCH FUCKING POTENTIAL HERE.

Like, what if Patty had to drop and/or pick up Katey after school? Maybe pass down some ninja secrets to help her defend herself from bullies.
 
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OH GOD THIS IS TOO GOOD.

What if Katey took it really hard after Patty left to join the Last Hope, so the latter sends letters every now and then to maintain some semblance of a relationship, but due to the ninja nature of her occupation she can never be completely honest with Katey so she ends up alienating her anyway?

What if Katey's story would revolve around going through high school without her role model, highlighted by periodic letters from Patty!?
 
Denizen said:
OH GOD THIS IS TOO GOOD.

What if Katey took it really hard after Patty left to join the Last Hope, so the latter sends letters every now and then to maintain some semblance of a relationship, but due to the ninja nature of her occupation she can never be completely honest with Katey so she ends up alienating her anyway?

What if Katey's story would revolve around going through high school without her role model, highlighted by periodic letters from Patty!?

I'd read that. Heck, they could make a visual novel out of it. Call it a spin-off, it'd make millions.
 
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FUCK ME, THIS IS TO GOOD.
WHAT IF THEY DIDNT EVEN KNOW IN THE FIRST PLACE?

WHAT IF THEY NEVER KNOW OF PATTY'S FATE AND THINK SHE'S JUST MISSING?
 
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ALL OF A SUDDEN THE LETTERS STOP COMING AND KATEY BECOMES CONFUSED AND DEPRESSED.
WHILE THE REST OF THE FAMILY WORRIES OVER THE SUDDEN LOSS OF CONTACT KATEY BEGINS TO DOUBT HERSELF AND SPECULATES THAT PATTY MIGHT HAVE ABANDONED HER.

GAH. GOAT FERALS BEST FERALS.
 
Denizen said:
ALL OF A SUDDEN THE LETTERS STOP COMING AND KATEY BECOMES CONFUSED AND DEPRESSED.
WHILE THE REST OF THE FAMILY WORRIES OVER THE SUDDEN LOSS OF CONTACT KATEY BEGINS TO DOUBT HERSELF AND SPECULATES THAT PATTY MIGHT HAVE ABANDONED HER.

GAH. GOAT FERALS BEST FERALS.
AHH LETS TAKE THIS TO PMS.
 
I'm sure there are more ferals than the ones you listed Skitty.
 
We made some cool head canons but we never took it to writing.
 
I think that the most interesting thing about the whole deal with ferals, and other species like dagonians/giants by extension, is what they mean to the skullgirls universe in regards to diversity. There is so much in New Meridian that we don't know about especially in regards to how all different species interact. You can only wonder about how social situations go.

Remember to stay on topic ladies and gents. Discussion so far has been pretty!
 
WayForger said:
I think that the most interesting thing about the whole deal with ferals, and other species like dagonians/giants by extension, is what they mean to the skullgirls universe in regards to diversity. There is so much in New Meridian that we don't know about especially in regards to how all different species interact. You can only wonder about how social situations go.

Remember to stay on topic ladies and gents. Discussion so far has been pretty!
Yeah, hasn't Alex mentioned everyone's mad racists against Dagonians and Ferals?
 
I was under the impression that it was no more different than prejudice against blacks, Latinos, etc. I think prejudice against Parasite-wielders was more extreme. I might be wrong though.
 
Yah, over in the canon info thread:
- There's a lot of discriminations against minority groups like ferals. Parasite hosts specifically are heavily ostracized as hosting a Parasite is seen as taboo.

I imagine gigans are feeling the hate too seeing how only seven years ago their country of origin was a war enemy. The Grand War: Canopy Kingdom vs. Gigan Nation vs. Chess Kingdom. I mean, I went to school with German-American kids that got teased with "Nazi" and the like even though WWII happened 70 years ago.
 
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Should be noted that we see ferals as equals alongside non-ferals at various positions: Patty in Last Hope, goat feral schoolgirl in Maplecrest, hog feral cop in Big Band's story mode, dagonian scientists in ASG labs.

Might be the kind of discrimination where they have the same rights as anyone else and comparable career opportunities, but tend to be ostracised by less tolerant members of society. Pretty much analogous to the situation of different human races in real life.
 
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WaterMystic277 said:
Yeah, hasn't Alex mentioned everyone's mad racists against Dagonians and Ferals?
Yeah I think Muro hit the nail on the head here, and those less tolerant members of society probably tend to be upper class rich motherfuckers, those with power too. I mean, in the start of Fortune's story mode Lawrence called Minette a gill-girl, which is basically the equivalent of any of the racist asian stereotype words.

Mod Edit: No need to actually use the slur.
 
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To be honest, I don't think skin colour would be that much of an issue unless you count fish people as 'blueies' or something like that in the Skullgirls 'Verse

Kind of makes me wonder the history of racism in the story tho.
 
Well Gigan Racismm probably makes sense. Judging from what we've seen, Gigans aren't the nicest and tend to be more...barbaric? So a low view of them by more *cough* "Civilized" people would make sense. Ferals, however, I see little reason. Then again, there is usually such tiny tiny reasons behind such feelings, aren't there?
 
North888 said:
Well Gigan Racismm probably makes sense. Judging from what we've seen, Gigans aren't the nicest and tend to be more...barbaric? So a low view of them by more *cough* "Civilized" people would make sense. Ferals, however, I see little reason. Then again, there is usually such tiny tiny reasons behind such feelings, aren't there?
And that's judgement over a wrestler and a falsely imprisoned Gigan we don't even know the personalities of.
god stop being so racist

Joking btw
 
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I'm guessing some racism in the SG universe is likely due to leftover sentiments from the Grand War. One only needs to look up "world war two american pacific propaganda" on google images to see where I'm coming from.

On a much more fundamental level, the physical differences between the sentient races of the SG universe probably make for a giant can of worms on their own. No, more than a mere can - like a never ending fountain of worms, a fountain of worms that makes people hate each other.

Take the concept art of how large gigans can grow to: that would be a whole series of problems in itself. What if you wanted to work at a post office where you're twice the height of the front door? What if you're too small to even reach all the buttons on the cash register at the front desk? New Meridian - and possibly the Canopy Kingdom by extension - is an urban atmosphere that is designed, built, and engineered to be used by people with the proportions, limbs, appendages, scale and size typical to an average human being. Obviously since New Meridian is visibly home to a significant demographic that doesn't fit the cookie-cutter criteria of an 'average person', it would inevitably cause problems.

Even in our own world, multiple studies have concluded that short men tend to be socially disadvantaged in comparison to taller men - the reverse goes for tall women to short women.

Judging from SG's stages, New Meridian is not a city that is designed to accommodate the extremes in the diversity of its citizens, and therefore social interactions likely reflect this.
 
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