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Ravens and Crows: Difference between revisions
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[[Dark Is Evil|They're dark]]. They sound ominous. They'll eat just about anything they can find, including dead bodies on the battlefield or corpses hanging from the gallows.
Corvids (crows, ravens [[My Friends and Zoidberg|and]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|jays]]) are serious--and seriously creepy--wherever they show up. (Except for the [[Idiot Crows]].) In most of their fictional appearances, they are the go-to scary bird (at least when vultures aren't available), and are traditionally associated with death in some mythologies and cultures.
A group of crows is a murder; a group of ravens is an unkindness or conspiracy (and rooks are a building, jackdaws are a clattering)<ref>Poetically speaking, anyway; in ornithological terms, a group of birds is always a flock, regardless of species</ref>.
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Because they are so visually similar, in many visual media it can be hard to tell whether the bird in question is meant to be a raven or a crow (note that some Old World crows are gray with black head and wings; in Eastern Europe, where this subspecies is ubiquitous, no troubles exist telling ravens from crows). There is little if any difference in how they are treated; however, ravens are more likely to cross over into [[Big Badass Bird of Prey]] territory)<ref>Technically, corvids are passerines, or perching birds; some raven species are the largest passerines in the world</ref>. They'll often have the behavior of a crow, but be called "ravens" because the word "raven" [[Rule of Cool|sounds more badass]].
Corvids suffer from a strange sort of form of the [[Conservation of Ninjitsu]]. A single crow will probably be intelligent (and, if one of the bad guys, will also take an unnerving interest in the heroes). On the other hand, a whole murder of crows/congress of ravens will just be [[Zerg Rush|mindless animals possibly under control of something or someone external]]. Of course, [[One for Sorrow, Two For Joy|the significance of various numbers of corvids]] is the subject of some [[Older Than Feudalism]] superstitions. Sometimes corvids are shown more-or-less positively (although ravens are usually (but not always) more likely to be heroic characters than crows), and in this case their traditional characteristics are [[Dark Is Not Evil|portrayed in a better light]]. Heroic ravens are often wise or intelligent characters, while crows tend to be friendly tricksters or [[Plucky Comic Relief]].
[[Subverted Trope|On the other hand,]] crows (never ravens) are a ''staple'' of [[The Golden Age of Animation]], appearing in countless funny cartoon shorts set on family farms, where their role is to drive farmers nuts gobbling up their corn crops. Cartoon crows are always played for humor and aren't the slightest bit scary, though they can certainly be ''annoying'' to the farmers (and the occasional living scarecrow). They tend to be [[Screwy Squirrel]] tricksters.
Crows and ravens tend to fall under the [[Trickster Archetype]]. [[What Measure Is a Non
[[Shout Out|Shout Outs]] to [[Edgar Allan Poe]] are [[Never Heard That One Before|so commonplace as to be cliche]].
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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* Rei Hino from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', aka Sailor Mars, has a pair of crows named Phobos and Deimos (Named for the Moons of Mars) Let's just say they aren't ordinary crows... {{spoiler|They're [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting aliens]] from the planet Coronis whose job is is to protect Sailor Mars}}. They aren't this in the anime and only appear briefly and aren't named at all in the live action.
* Tatsunoko's ''[[Karas]]'' movie series depicts a crow warrior as the main character (''karasu'' is Japanese for ''crow'').
* Setsuna Sakurazaki in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' is a crow [[Half
* Crows frequently appear when something is about to go bad in ''[[Paranoia Agent]]''.
** Which is ''all the time''.
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== Fairy Tales ==
* In "[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/038.htm The Grateful Beasts]", Ferko, [[Family
* In "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/25raven1911.html The Raven]", the king sees a dead raven on white marble and thinks, ""O heavens! and cannot I have a wife as white and red as this stone, and with hair and eyebrows as black as the feathers of this raven?"
* In [[The Brothers Grimm (Creator)|Grimms']] "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/93raven.html The Raven]", the [[God Save Us From the Queen|queen]] [[Be Careful What You Say|rashfully]] [[Curse|curses]] her daughter [[Animorphism|into a raven]], and the hero must rescue her.
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* Like in the book, ravens and crows are generally an ill omen in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. The "crebain from Dunland" that Legolas sees near the Misty Mountains are implied to be servants of Saruman.
{{quote| '''Gandalf''': The Enemy has many spies ... beasts, and birds ...}}
* The evil queen Ravenna in ''[[Snow White and The Huntsman (Film)|Snow White and The Huntsman]]'' uses a corvid motif, and is able to transform into a flock of ravens at will, while her minions change into a murder of crows when killed. However, some [[One for Sorrow, Two For Joy|magpies]] serve as Snow White's friends and allies.
* The witch in ''[[Brave (Film)|Brave]]'' has a raven or crow as a familiar.
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* ''[[Animal Farm]]'' has Moses the raven, who is something of a [[Trickster Archetype]]. Like all the animals, he has a [[Meaningful Name]]: he represents the Orthodox Church that was banned, then revived in communist Russia.
* In ''The Crow Chronicles'' by Ranjit Lal, a [[Evil Albino|white crow]] named [[Overly Long Name|Shri Katarnak Kala Kaloota Kawa Kaw Kaw]] is an [[Evil Overlord]]. His [[The Dragon|lieutenant]] is [[Meaningful Name|Depraven Craven Raven]].
* ''Mattimeo'' features General Ironbeak, the raven leader of a flock of other [[Always Chaotic Evil]] birds that attack [[Redwall]] Abbey. His second-in-command is a crow seer. Weirdly, they are the [[Carnivore Confusion|only birds of prey]] in the series who are [[Card
** Seventeen books later, ''Doomwyte'' features an evil corvid cult that lives underground, including ravens, crows, and magpies. They are led by a raven named Korvus Skurr.
* Subverted in ''[[The Chronicles of Prydain]]'' with Kaw the crow, who, although talkative and mischievous, is an ally of the good guys. Kaw starts out as the [[Team Pet]], though he later becomes a real hero.
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** In ''Cursor's Fury'', when the flag of one of Tavi's units is charred and resembles a crow, the soldiers embrace it, becoming the "Battlecrows", so that their foes know the crows are coming for ''them.''
* 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 [[
* In ''[[Dragon Rider]]'' by Cornelia Funke, the main villain, Nettlebrand, employs flocks of [[Red Eyes Take Warning|red-eyed]] ravens as [[Mooks]]. It turns out that {{spoiler|these ravens aren't real ravens at all, but enchanted crabs.}}
* 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.]]
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* The eponymous host of the children's fantasy game show, ''[[Raven]]'' (who is actually a metamorph rather than a bona fide bird), is a subversion of the norm in terms of personality - he's a pretty nice guy, who's probably supposed to be more [[Stern Teacher]] and [[Mr. Exposition]] than anything else. He was also, apparently, an [[Backstory|immortal Celtic warlord]] which fits the trope somewhat closer.
* In ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', Data dreams of a raven who leads him to Dr. Soong, who built him.
** It's revealed in a different episode that Dr. Soong liked dinosaurs, which suggests the raven might also be an android. (Because [[
** Rather Birds = [[Badass]] [[
** In [[Star Trek Voyager]], Seven of Nine also dreams of a raven; in this case it's because her family's ship (upon which she had been assimilated) was called the ''Raven''.
* [[Six Feet Under]]. Ravens never appeared in the actual show but the season trailers, DVD boxarts and the ([[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]]) opening sequence frequently featured a raven to symbolize the show's close connection to "death". The trailer for the fifth season had a shot of the raven dead as a means of [[Foreshadowing]] the [[Deadly Distant Finale]].
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* ''[[Half Life]] 2''. [[Video Games/Nightmare Fuel|Ravenholm]]. (In addition to the [[Nightmare Fuel]], it's also full of atmosphere-enhancing crows.)
* Crows are almost as bad as the [[Goddamned Bats]] in ''[[Castlevania]]''.
* ''[[Suikoden V]]'' has Raven, a [[Highly
* Soulblighter in Bungie's ''[[Myth (Video Game)|Myth]]'' series of games can turn into a murder of crows.
* One of Nero Chaos' most used familiars in [[Tsukihime]] is his blue crow. There's also a Dead Apostle Ancestor that is half bird and tied to ravens. The other DAA think he's weird and don't like him.
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** It should be noted that Haer'Dalis refers to several people with bird-nicknames (he, himself, is "Sparrow").
* In [[Diablo|Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction]], the Druid can summon a murder of ravens to "peck his enemy's eyes out".
* ''[[Mega Man Star Force (Video Game)|Mega Man Star Force]]'', in its third installment, gives us the boss Jack Corvus, the fused form of [[The Woobie|young]] [[Tyke Bomb|Jack]] and an extraterrestrial [[Omnicidal Maniac|planet-destroying criminal]], [[Energy Beings|Corvus]], who takes the form of a crow and works under [[Card
* ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]] 7'' has Wind Crowrang, the spiritual successor to Storm Eagle. He's a fast and agile foe, and one of the harder Mavericks to fight. He's mostly black and gray with yellow trim and highlights (though his beak is black), and his dialogue and fight quotes are riddled with caws.
** The original series had Tengu Man (''[[Mega Man 8 (Video Game)|Mega Man 8]]'', ''& Bass'').
* [[Dragon Age]] has the [[Murder, Inc.|Antivan Crows]], an organization of assassins, and of which [[Lovable Rogue|Zevran]] is a member. Interestingly, most times the player comes to an area teeming with some literal crows, the Antivan variety are not far behind.
* Crows can be seen in several places in ''[[Prototype (Video Game)|Prototype]]''; pecking at corpses in the intro, flying around infected water towers, and {{spoiler|being used by Alex Mercer as building material to [[From a Single Cell|regenerate]] after he failed to [[Outrun the Fireball]]}}.
* In [[Soul Series|Soul Calibur]], ravens are [[Dark Action Girl|Ti]][[Ax Crazy|ra's]] theme.
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** And his mother, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Pandora Chaos Raven]].
* In the outside-of-time storyline in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', the sea witch Noga has a flock of pet crow-type birds that are pretty mindless and help her with her magic.
* ''[[
* [[Squid Row]]: In [http://squidrowcomics.com/?p=1702 this] comic, the characters see a wild raven and discuss [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]] and [[Edgar Allan Poe]].
* [[Memoria (Webcomic)|Memoria]]: Lampshaded and then played straight in [http://memoria.valice.net/?p=228 this] comic. A raven is seen in the park, adding to the creepy atmosphere. The main characters comment on its being there, and aren't especially frightened by it at first. Then, of course, things [[It Got Worse|get worse]], and they are attacked by an [[Zerg Rush|entire flock]] of ravens.
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