Jadúgara wrote:
... So is your definition of "furry" as an empathy-driven device of characterization (as opposed to a genre) something that you have personally concluded and are attempting to shepherd,…or have you seen this as an accepted definition elsewhere that has just begun to catch on?..
The definition occurred to me independent of anybody else expressing it to me but I doubt I am the only person to have this flash of insight when pondering the subject. I've never really seen anywhere a movement or group consensus that has fixated upon this definition. However, the usage of the word had defied the older, and often apocryphal, meanings so much that I looked at what many people had used that word for and tried to come up with a better description. What you wrote in green is that definition in a nutshell.
Unfortunately, the definition still has flaws. An example of that flaw is represented by
Shistavanen,
Caitians,
Gorn, and
Dracs - fictional aliens. Despite very animal-like appearances, I don't think these things would be considered to be furry characters; it was the expression of the authors/creators to make these characters unlike humans, to alienate the character(s) from the audience. Aliens are not anthropomorphs though they may have anthropomorphic overtones. It is thus we have stone men like the first mate in "
Treasure Planet," energy creatures like the Drej in "
Titan A.E.," and biomechanoids like Leviathans from "
Farscape." The issue of alien creatures in media, much like that of deific beings, requires a narrowing of the base definition.
Jadúgara, you do assume correctly that I consider "Plague Dogs" a furry media. I only recall the plots and a few scenes from "King Kong" (1933), "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (1962), and "King Kong" (1976); I have not seen the recent remake. I passed on seeing "Mighty Joe Young" because I refuse to see any production on which I worked. Therefore, I cannot argue for or against the merits of the films you have seen in this regard. However, dolphins, killer whales, apes, and other very intelligent animals have a great range of emotions and expressiveness and there would have to be a marked difference in these animals' characteristics for there to be a clear assignment of human intelligence and emotions to qualify the animal characters as furry.
Much like the assignment of genres. the assignment of devices may be unintentional or unconcious by the creator. "
Yojimbo," "
Way of the Gun," "
Firefly," and "
13th Warrior" are all
Westerns (look for the inclusion of "Seven Samurai" and "Die Hard" under the
genre studies section) because of the essential points of the plot and characters that converge to make these films' stories. I guess I'm saying that the elements of a thing make it what it is.
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"Y'know, if nothing else, living here has incredibly sharpened my 'Hey, there's someone coming for my dick!' defense skills." -
JET