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Speaks Fluent Animal: Difference between revisions
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Note that this makes every animal in the world qualify as a [[Speech-Impaired Animal]] of sorts, since they're all at least intelligent enough to use a language. This makes carnivorousness [[Carnivore Confusion|morally sketchy]] for both animals and humans. [[Elephant in the Living Room|Don't expect this to be addressed one bit.]] (Imagine what would happen if one of these characters ended up in a slaughterhouse!) Not only can someone who '''Speaks Fluent Animal''' talk to every kind of animal, but every kind of animal usually seems to speak the same [[Animal Talk]] too.
It seems as if the presence of someone who '''Speaks Fluent Animal''' heightens an animal's intelligence. They will verbally express an understanding of human actions that the animal's own actions up to then gave no indication.
The ability to talk to animals is also a common superpower. In the early days, it was fairly common, but due to the perceived lameness of Aquaman-style "talking to fish", it's now most often given to the [[Super Team]]'s [[Wacky Guy]] or [[Plucky Comic Relief]] as a sort of [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|joke power]]. It's more useful when you can [[The Beast Master|command the animals you communicate with]]; sometimes, the communication part is left out, and they can only really command animals to do things, rather than actually converse with them. This tends to avoid the problems mentioned above, in that you might be able to assume the animals are simply being compelled to do the commands by whatever magic or [[Applied Phlebotinum]] gave the character the powers in the first place.[[Heart Is an Awesome Power|Sometimes a character can make both work for them.]]
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This is Level 4 on the [[Sliding Scale of Animal Communication]].
Don't confuse this ability with [[Talking Animal]]. Also, note that if you [[Animorphism|shapeshift into an animal]] or a [[Beast Man]], you'll automatically learn how to speak [[Animal Talk]] too. See also [[Animal Eye Spy]], where the character can see through the eyes of an animal. Compare [[Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish]] which is an ability to speak gibberish or some other made up language.
{{examples}}
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* Alice/Mokuren in ''[[Please Save My Earth]]'' was a "Kiches Sarjalian," who had multiple powers, including the ability to speak telepathically with animals.
* Tadayasu Sawaki, the main character of ''[[Moyashimon]]'' can communicate with bacteria, yeasts, and other microorganisms, in addition to being able to see them with the naked eye.
* ''[[Pokémon Special]]''. Being blessed by the Viridian Forest, both [[Friend to All Living Things|Yellow]] and [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Lance]] can read the minds and hearts of Pokémon through telepathy.
** Also, Dr. Footprint can accurately tell what a Pokémon is thinking by simply looking at its footprints alone, like when a Staravia was about to drop him and when a Drapion wanted to be free of its [[Jerkass]] trainer.
* Hibiki Ganaha of '* ''[[The Idolmaster (anime)/Characters|THE iDOLM@STER]]'' can talk to her pets.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* As mentioned above, [[Aquaman]] Telepathically Commands ALL aquatic life. Doesn't ask, Telepathically Commands. However, many of them are quite stupid. Shark: "This is a nice hole." When Aquaman rescues them from a tuna net: "Let us look at the hole some more."
** It's also been shown that this ability can extend to humans (or at least {{spoiler|Martians}}), to an extent. In ''JLA'', when an enemy [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|ridicules Aquaman for being able to talk to fish]], he isolates the bad guy's basal ganglia (inherited from marine ancestors) and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|gives him a seizure]].
* [[Hawkman]] can talk to birds. Given the kind of stick Aquaman's been given though, he keeps quiet about it these days.
** [[The Falcon]] can talk to birds telepathically.
* Ant-Man's cybernetic helmet lets him talk to ants.
* Talking to animals is one of the lesser-known powers of [[Wonder Woman]], though this is [[Depending on the Writer|sometimes]] just written as her being a [[Friend to All Living Things]].
* ''[[Freshmen]]'' had Charles Levy, or The Green Thumb, who can talk to plants. The whole "eating things that can talk" thing is brought up, and since he's a vegetarian ol'Charles is up shit creek. And his ficus thinks he's cheating on her..
* Norbert Sykes, hero of ''[[The Badger]]'' is explicitly described as talking to animals "like Dr. Dolittle, only with better results". Of course he was mad.
* Danielle Moonstar from the [[Marvel Comics]] ''[[New Mutants]]'' had a secondary mutation before secondary mutations were cool. Apart from (originally) manifesting people's worst fears holographically, she could communicate on a low-level with animals; basically furry creatures automatically liked her. Sub-bonus in that she soon joins the team with Rahne, a mutant who can shapeshift into a wolf, so when Rahne transforms, they can communicate over long distances.
* [[Squirrel Girl]], also from [[Marvel Comics]], has the ability to talk to squirrels. Among other many vaguely defined talents. Oddly, the squirrels have the ability to talk with the reader.
* It was revealed in her spin-off comic that Gran'ma Ben (AKA Rose) from the ''[[Bone]]'' comics could speak to dogs.
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== Fan Works ==
* Fauna in [[DC Nation]] has this as one of her powers, and was a bit surprised when she found out Beast Boy didn't. Unlike her [[Shapeshifting]] and [[The Beast Master|Beastmaster]] abilities, she is completely comfortable using it.
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** One of the major changes in the two is that in the original story Doctor Dolittle ''learned'' how to speak with the animals from his talking parrot. In the Eddie Murphy movie (and sequel), it's an almost magical ability that he (and later [[In the Blood|his daughter]]) possessed. It's an actual plot point in the original stories that animals have ''different'' languages, and just because you can speak to dogs doesn't mean you can speak to, say, crayfish. Doolittle puts lot of effort into learning more languages. It is also established that any human who makes the effort ''could'' learn animal tongues.
** The 1967 musical version even brings up the meat problem. Dr. Dolittle explains that he is now a vegetarian because he doesn't like to make a habit of eating his friends, then launches into a song about how hard it is not to. If memory serves, he does cook some bacon for the carnivores to eat (which makes the pig quite upset).
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' gained the power to talk to snakes the first time [[Big Bad]] Voldemort tried to kill him. Parselmouths are people who can talk to snakes by hissing at them. When a snake talks to a Parselmouth, they hear the hissing as if it were in their native language.
* In ''[[The Belgariad]]'', people with the Sha-Dar ability can communicate telepathically with horses. The Disciples of Aldur (and it is implied anybody else who commands [[Magic A Is Magic A|the Will and the Word]])can also speak with animals, usually ones whose forms they have taken before. Polgara can speak with all birds and Belgarath and Belgarion can fluently speak Wolf. Even Belgarion's son, Geran, learns how to speak Wolf whil he's still a toddler.
* In the ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' books, all babies can talk to animals. Ms. Poppins happens never to lose this ability (a dog informs her of her uncle's laughing fit). Just showed how she was Practically Perfect in Every Way.
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* In ''[[The Hobbit]]'', Bard can understand the language of the thrush and thusly knows where a dragon had his one small vulnerability.
** Beorn can also talk with many animals.
** Also from Tolkien, Gandalf can speak several languages, including both Elvish languages, the Dwarvish Alphabet (but not the actual language), Blackspeech, and he can even speak to Eagles and at least understand [[Big Badass Wolf|Wargs]]. It's vague as to whether or not he can talk to horses. In the movie he talks to a Moth but that's not really canon. And he can also speak The Common Tongue and Rohirrim but everyone speaks the Common Tongue.
*** Tolkien's Eagles are as intelligent as anyone else, and they can speak the common tongue, so anyone they want to talk to, can talk to Eagles.
** Radagast, The Brown Wizard.
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*** In fact, at one point after the Sea Hag captures him, he even teaches a ''beetle'' a few sentences of dragon language so it can pass on a message for him.
* ''[[The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness]]'': Torak. Only with wolves, ravens, and bears though.
* In the ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|Hitchhiker's Guide]]'' books, after Arthur Dent learns how to fly, he also teaches himself the language of birds. This turns out to be a mistake, since all they talk about is nuts, bugs, sex and power-to-lift ratios. This means he's constantly surrounded by their inane chatter, but he ignores them as much as possible.
** Similar to the above, a footnote in ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'' points out that [[Blessed with Suck|it's tough to understand the actual meaning of bird calls]]. Every time you step outdoors, you're regaled by stuff like "Bugger off, this is ''my'' bush!" and "Have sex with me, I can make my chest big and red!"
* In ''Charlotte's Web,'' Fern is able to understand what the animals are saying when they talk to each other, although she is not showing speaking to them herself.
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* In ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' Grover, a Satyr, can speak to all animals and Percy can speak to horses, zebras and hippocampi, as horses (and their counterparts) were created by his father, Poseidon.
* In ''Spindle's End'', a [[Sleeping Beauty]] retelling by [[Robin McKinley]], this is the last of the 21 blessings bestowed by fairy godmothers on the princess on her christening day.
* In ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' it's stated that the Fairy gift of tongues extends at least to dogs (and it is implied to some other animals).
** Confirmed in ''The Time Paradox'', where Holly can not only talk to all of the animals in a zoo, she can talk to all of them at once.
* In ''[[Children of the Red King]],'' [[Heroic Albino|Billy]] has this power. It's harder than talking to humans, though, because animals tend to think in different ways and still seem to be generally less intelligent.
* Nakata from [[Haruki Murakami]]'s [[Kafka on the Shore]] uses his ability to understand cats to find people's lost pets.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "Beyond the Black River", some men can talk to some animals, "Only such as remember Jhebbal Sag." Fortunately for Conan and Balthus, as one of them can command such animals to attack the two of them.
* In [[Moses, Man of the Mountain]], after reading the book at Koptos Moses knows, among other things, "the language of the birds of the air, the creatures that people the deep and what the beasts of the wild all said". However, he's never seen using this power until the very end of his life.
* In ''The Girl with the Silver Eyes'' by Willo Davis Roberts, Katie Welker can speak to and understand (telepathically) cats and dogs, among other powers.
* In Shannon Hale's ''The Books of Bayern'' series, people born with various gifts can gain [[Elemental Powers]] by learning the languages of the elements. Those who learn the "languages" of animals, trees, and [[Mind Control|people]] can control those things too. Animal-speaking is really only used in the first book, ''The Goose Girl'', whose protagonist can talk to birds.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Heavily subverted in an episode of ''[[Eerie, Indiana]]'', in which a kid's braces give him the ability to talk to animals... {{spoiler|and he finds out [[Paranoia Fuel|they are planning a full-scale]] [[Gaia's Vengeance|takeover of the Earth]] and will probably kill him for knowing too much.}}
* The title character from ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]].'' regularly has conversations with his horse Comet, who doesn't know he's a horse.
* Vince Noir from ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' has this ability in the first series. His companion Howard Moon feels that it's wasted on him because he only uses the gift to talk about how much he admires Gary Numan.
* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' speaks all languages, including those of animals. He talked to a cow in one comic, and convinced a cat to investigate a strange room for him in ''The Lodger'', as no one would notice it and he could understand its meows.
* Spock from ''[[Star Trek: The
* Subverted on a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch called "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals". It's [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]; [[Mark Wahlberg]] talks to animals. [[This Is Reality|They don't talk back]].
* Shiro Akebono (Battle Kenya) in the ''[[Super Sentai]]'' series, ''[[Battle Fever J]]'' is a wild child that can talk to animals.
** Later on, [[Name's the Same|another Shiro]] ([[Choudenshi Bioman|Red One]]) is also able to talk to animals as part of his power.
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* In ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'', the Contract of Fang and Talon has this as the basic ability; as with the original Doctor Dolittle, a changeling needs to learn each sort of animal language separately.
** The Animalism disclipine was carried over from ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', where it was mainly used by the Gangrel and Nosferatu clans.
* In ''[[
* Gnomes possess this as a racial ability in ''[[Dungeons
** Xvarts (aka svarts or xivorts), a race of blue-skinned little humanoids, can speak with bats and rats in some editions of the game. 4th Edition explicitly makes them [[Evil Counterpart]]s of gnomes.
* The Speak with Animals and Speak with Plants advantages in ''[[GURPS]]'' do [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what they say]] with the caveat that some animals are barely sentient and most plants don't experience the world in a way remotely similar to us.
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* The protagonist from ''[[Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom]]'' can talk to animals (and by extension the majin). Most of the NPCs are rats and birds.
* Minsc the ranger from the ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' series has frequent conversations with his miniature giant space hamster Boo. While it's more than likely that he's just a little crazy, a talking miniaturized space hamster wouldn't be the weirdest thing in the setting.
* Ness from ''[[
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'', Link gains the ability to talk to animals when he shapeshifts into a wolf.
* In ''[[King's Quest V]]'', the wizard Crispin gives Graham a piece of white snake to eat, which allows him to communicate with the animals he comes across.
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** Japanese too.
* In ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'', the Tongue of Saiping lets the user speak with and command animals.
* Dexter of ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' wanted to speak with a dog; constructed a translator device and learned that the dog was saying: 'Hey! Hey! I'm a dog! Look! Look, it's a thing! Over here! A dog!' -and so on.
* In the ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' episode "Raise the Oozy Scab" Jimmy has a device that allows him to speak to fish, which he hopes to use to ask for directions to a sunken treasure. It fails, as the fish just want to talk gossip. Later, when the sub is attacked by a giant squid, Jimmy modifies the device to be able to speak squid and convince it to let them go.
* Communication with animals was one of the abilities given to ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power|She Ra Princess of Power]].'' For some reason it wasn't frequently in evidence on the show; this troper recalls it being used in the series pilot, and in at least one other episode.
* Eliza Thornberry, in ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]''. (Her first name may be a [[Shout-Out]]: Eliza ''Doolittle'' was the female lead in ''[[My Fair Lady]]''. In the film, the male lead was played by Rex Harrison, who also starred in the 1967 version of ''Dr Dolittle''.)
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "The Bird-bot of Alcatraz", Bender suffers an accident that causes him to reboot, and automatically goes into "Penguin mode" due to penguins being the first thing he sees upon reactivating. Interestingly enough, after he later returns to his default "human" mode, he appears to retain the ability to speak Penguin, encouraging them (in their own language) to attack the people trying to hunt them. Whether or not he can perform all this with other animals is unknown, but it seems entirely possible.
** In "The Sting" Bender is given a bee language cartridge to allow him to communicate with the space bees. So he's likely able to communicate with any animals with the right software.
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[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]
[[Category:Animal Anthropomorphism Tropes]]
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