Ravens and Crows: Difference between revisions

Crows and ravens tend to fall under the [[Trickster Archetype]]. [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?]] is a matter of [[Your Mileage May Vary|some disagreement.]] For more creepy birds, see [[Feathered Fiend]], but also see the note on scavengers in [[Carnivore Confusion]]. See [[One for Sorrow, Two For Joy]] for magpies, closely related both in [[Real Life]] and in tropes. For black feathers used as symbolism, see [[Feather Motif]].

 

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** Which is ''all the time''.

* Bad Bird & the Ninja Crows (or Karamaru & the Karasu Clan, if you prefer) of ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' fame.

** Birds, especially corvids, also show up in numerous pivotal scenes of the second movie, as well. Director [[Mamoru Oshii]] seems to be using them as a visual motif for the schemes of criminal masterminds who try to put themselves above the common people with their manipulative games: E.Hoba in the first movie & Tsuge in the second.

* Toto, from ''[[The Cat Returns]]'', is a stone statue shaped like a crow that is able to come to life. He enjoys pestering and insulting Muta, but is good friends with the Baron and very sweet when talking to Haru. He and his crow friends also play an important role at the end of the movie {{spoiler|by preventing the rest of the gang from falling to their deaths.}}

* In ''[[The Edge Chronicles]]'', white ravens are often feared as omens of death. For the most part they are voracious, scrawny scavengers, but at least two white ravens are shown as relatively friendlier and can speak due to being taught by sapient creatures.

* In [[Patricia a McKillip]]'s ''The Bell At Sealey Head'', once Emma opens a door to find [[Everything's Better With Princesses|Princess]] Ysabo surrounded by a dozen crows. This proves to be part of a ritual which Princess Ysabo is bound to. {{spoiler|And in the end, they proved to be [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|transformed]] [[Knight in Shining Armor|knights]].}}

* Huge flocks of reanimated crows called Gore Crows feature in Garth Nix's ''[[The Old Kingdom]]''. An entire flock is animated by a single Dead spirit and [[Zerg Rush|acts with a singular purpose]]. On top of it all, [[Squick|being reanimated doesn't mean they've stopped decomposing.]]

* Corvids are a slightly unusual pick for Tayledras Bondbirds in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s [[Valdemar]] books (most choose various falcons and hawks). Ravens are known for being huge even by bondbird standards (which are invariably larger than their unmagical counterparts) and among the most intelligent birds, able to compete with humans. Crows are known as tricksters, and unusually gregarious- Tayledras who choose to bond with them often bond with an entire flock instead of the normal single bird.

** The ravens in ''[[Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door]]'' are of varying intelligence, but pretend to be dumb animals when someone else is around.

* The [[Phantom Thief]] Yatagarasu in ''[[Ace Attorney|Ace Attorney Investigations]]'' takes its name from the three-footed raven mentioned above. Kay even works it into her 'motto', saying the Yatagarasu is there in darkest night "when no other bird dare fly".

* One of the [[Animorphism|bird laguz]] tribes in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' is the raven tribe. As such, trickery is in their nature.

* ''[[Half Life]] 2''. [[Video Games/Nightmare Fuel|Ravenholm]]. (In addition to the [[Nightmare Fuel]], it's also full of atmosphere-enhancing crows.)

* Fiddlesticks and Swain from ''[[League of Legends]].'' Swain turns into a giant crow beast and has two more Poe-based attacks, and Fiddlesticks, well, three words: [[Oh Crap|Caw Caw Caw]].

** Fiddlesticks has a crow theme going for him, being a scarecrow and all. His Dark Wind ability takes the form of a crow, and his Crowstorm ultimate can ruin an entire team's day when he pops out of the brush with it.

* In fitting with the dreary pseudo-Victorian atmosphere, Gilneas City in [[World of Warcraft]] has crows hanging around all over the place. They don't really do anything, though; they're just there for the ambiance.

** The Last Guardian of Tirisfal, Medivh, used ravens as his familiars. He was also able [[Animorphism|to take on raven form at will]].

** Druids of the Talon have the raven as their totem animal, and can change into ravens (the Druid Flight Form for the Tauren, Night Elves and Worgen is also a raven). The hippogryph has the head, front legs, wings and tail of a raven and the neck, body, rear legs, and antlers of a stag.

* ''[[Demons Souls]]'' features a giant crow named Sparkly, with whom the player character can trade "sparkly, twinkly" items.

** ''[[Dark Souls]]'', the [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Demons Souls]]'' features a giant crow who is able to transport the player character between the Undead Asylum and Firelink Shrine.

** One owner took what so many [[Edgar Allan Poe]] fans hoped for and taught his raven to say '[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIX_6TBeph0&feature=related Nevermore]' (along with [[Pacman|'wakawaka']]) .

* [http://www.cracked.com/article_19042_6-terrifying-ways-crows-are-way-smarter-than-you-think.html Cracked.com has a list on how crows are smarter than you think and why you should be scared of them.]

 

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[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]

[[Category:Ravens And Crows]]