Intelligent Gerbil: Difference between revisions

[[File:ssi-ruu.jpg|frame| Most [[Star Wars]] aliens tend to be anthropomorphic. [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ssi-ruu Ssi-ruuk] are carnivorous dinosaurs. Take a guess at [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|what they're like]].]]

 

 

 

 

[[Evolutionary Levels]] are often [[Fridge Logic|implied]] - apparently if you want sapience, intelligence and organised society, they always come with two arms, two legs and an upright body plan.

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]''. The title character and every other character from Planet Keron are from an alien race that resembles [[Funny Animal|cartoony anthropomorphic]] [[Frogs and Toads]]. Many other alien races based on animals appear too, although very often only their head is actually influenced by one animal or the other and their body is completely human.

* ''[[Astro Boy (manga)|Astro Boy]]'' features a race of aliens resembling grasshoppers whose social structure is somewhat extrapolated from grasshopper behavior. For example, it's perfectly legal for them to fight to the death over a mate.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** Just not when Phule himself is around.

* [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]'s ''[[Darkover]]'' stories: the cat-men (or cat-people).

* Every alien race in Debora Chester's ''[[Alien Chronicles]]'' series.

* The bird-like garuda from China Meiville's ''Perdido Street Station''.

* [[Robert Silverberg]]'s ''Downward to the Earth'': The Nildoror are basically sentient elephants {{spoiler|who, for spiritual reasons, become sentient bear/tapir creatures every few years}}.

* Kathleen Sky's [[Star Trek]] novel ''Death's Angel'' features a whole conference of Intelligent Gerbil aliens: a giant blue crocodile, a koala, a cat, a bat, a lamprey, etc. With the occasional exception including a [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]] and a talking pyramid. The character names aren't much more creative; the cat is Neko (Japanese for cat) and the pyramid is Hotep.

** Also subverted with the Headies/Golovans who look ''kinda'' like dogs ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|with very large heads]]), and indeed apparently descended from some sort of alien dogs (it's commonly assumed that they mutated [[I Love Nuclear Power|thanks to the fallout of a nuclear war]]), but their psychology doesn't have much to do with any of the stereotypical dog-like characteristics; it's just [[Starfish Aliens|thoroughly inhuman]] (to wit, they are mistrustful of technology, highly enigmatic, seemingly unemotional and above all practice evolutionary pragmatism on an apparently everyday basis; the latter in particular definitely overrides any dog-like loyalty they might have had).

* James White used this in some of his [[Sector General]] stories.

** ''Hospital Station'', "The Trouble with Emily": The titular character is essentially a brontosaurus (she's called Emily [[Just for Pun]] by the engineers who maintain her living area, especially the crew of the tractor beams that keep her from thrashing around if she becomes agitated).

* ''[[Traveller]]'' [[Tabletop RPG]]: the Aslan and the Vargr. Cats and dogs (well wolves actually).

** {{spoiler|The Vargr were genetically engineered by the Ancients from Earth dogs a long time ago.}}

* ''[[Star Fleet Battles]]'': Lyrans (lynx) (The Kzinti were already official in-universe, giving two "cat-people" races (who hate each other)).

* ''Starfire'' board game: Khanate of Orion (another touchy cat-race).

* ''[[GURPS]] Space'' allows alien designs from intelligent gerbils (literally if you wish) to "plasma life".

** The ''Bio-Tech'' book has intelligent gerbils called Tek-Rats.

** Sort of. The Jokaero are actually non-sapient, their ability to create fantastic technology an instinct hard-coded into their DNA by the [[Precursors|Old Ones]]. As a result they're actually used by the forces of the Inquisition and Grey Knights, since while the Imperium is [[Absolute Xenophobe|notoriously xenophobic]] toward other intelligent species, they have no problem with using alien animals as livestock.

** For another example, the ([[Crapsack World|relatively]]) docile [[The Greys|Tau]] are [[All There in the Manual|supposedly]] evolved from three-toed grazing animals, their allies the Kroot [[Feathered Fiend|from birds]], and the Vespid [[Bee People|from insects]]. All are more-or-less [[Humanoid Aliens]].

** The [[Lizard Folk|Lizardmen]] are aloof, stubborn and set in their ways, though not strictly speaking [[Reptiles Are Abhorent|Abhorrent]].

* The Aeriad, Ferrans, Gryphs, Imrians, Jaka, Saurans, and Stryx of the [[Talislanta]] game-setting are Intelligent Gerbil songbirds, rats, hawks, fish, panthers, lizards, and vultures, respectively.

** They were considered to be a smaller cousin of Gnolls (Hyena-people).

** ''Mystara'' setting, including ''Savage Coast'' is full of them. Aside of more or less standard races there are: Aranea (scheming and crafty were-spider people), Lupins (canine humanoids, with teamworking/Lawful inclinations), Rakasta ([[Proud Warrior Race Guy|proud warlike]] feline humanoids), Tortles (bipedal turtles), Gurrash (big brutal crocodile-humanoids), wallaras (stealthy chameleon-men), Caymas (small agile lizard kin).

* The Luminoth in ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2'' are a race of giant anthropomorphic moth-people that seem to have an obsession with light.

* The Kilrathi from ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]''. (cat people, [[Known Space|Kzinti ripoffs]], you know the drill)

* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''. The Hivers, Liir, Tarka, Zuul and Morrigi are Intelligent Gerbil ants, dolphins, crocodile/ape hybrids, tasmanian devils, and dragon/crow/magpies, respectively.

* The Iskai in ''[[Albion]]'' look like anthropomorphic cats that besides their appearance, resemble humans a lot, at first glance. On second glance, you realize that not only are they completely alien, but have some very bizarre, logic defying traits. This is even lampshaded at one point.

 

== Webcomics ==

** Anyr are often dubbed horses, but have large donkey-like ears, unicorn tails, and ''parrot feet''.

** Vidians look roughly like Kirin, except when they look more like Eastern Dragons.

* [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=109976 Uma and her father] in [[Everyday Heroes]]. Holy cow!

* The Nemesites of ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' are giant butterfly people. Their culture does not appear to be butterfly-like, however.

* The Loboans from ''[[Ben 10]]'' which are space [[Big Badass Wolf|wolves]]. Also Stinkfly (giant insect) and Ripjaws (fish man).

** The sequel series ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Alien Force]]'' has even more, such as Big Chill (moth man), Jetray (manta ray that can 'swim' in the air) and Humungasaur (dinosaur). Though the one with truly animal-like behavior is Spidermonkey, who acts hyper and chimp-like.

* ''[[Biker Mice From Mars]]''.

* Hämsterviel from the movies and television show based on ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]''. He's notably physically different from any Earth animal, but the comparisons are thrown around left and right. What's more, everyone and his brother (even other aliens) refers to him as "gerbil-like", while Hämsterviel himself takes offense to this (but only because he insists that he's ''hamster''-like.)

* The [[Forest Tales]] stories ([http://www.chakatsden.com/chakat/FT-index.html here]) has the alien species Caitians (it was originally a [[Star Trek]] [[Fanfic]]), Voxxans, and Rakshani ([[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], also possibly [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit|Terran semantic imperialism]] because Rakshasa were oriental cat-demons and D&D monsters before they were aliens), but also more alien aliens.

* [[Tasakeru]]: The eight sentient mammal species in this series are basically a mixture of this and [[Petting Zoo People]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bizarre Alien Biology]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]

[[Category:Intelligence Tropes]]