Animal Motifs / Literature

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Animal Motifs in Literature.

By Author:

• Amoridere:
  • In the poem Hyena, the author compares someone she knows (but is clearly not fond of) to the titular animal, the animal generally being seen as annoying and unpleasant (mostly the former).
  • It's subtle but several of her poems alludes to rats (and, by extension, mice), which, besides being an allusion to the Eastern Zodiac, are known to survive hard times, however, they are small, weak, looked down, hated, and easily preyed upon. This is more apparent with the poem The Rodent Becomes Feline.
  • In the poem Bitten by the Snake, where she likens herself to a mouse (small, meek, generally passive) and a former friend of hers to a snake (cruel, predatory, deceptive).
  • From what's implied in the poem Single, abusers are symbolized as shrikes (a bird that impales its prey).
  • Housecat with Wings has the subject thinking of a friend of hers to be like the titular. The poem notes that idea is odd but, to the subject, it makes sense.
  • A couple of her poems used porcupines. Besides the overall rodent theme, porcupines aren't cuddly by most means, as they have quills, implying the subject of those poems Hates Being Touched.
  • From what can be guessed, Housecats associates cats with promiscuity, the poem describing them as "loose and reckless".
• Multiple examples from the works of Jacqueline Wilson:
  • The Bed and Breakfast Star:
    • Lions for Elsa; her hairstyle resembles a lion's mane, she is said to "roar" like a lion, she was named after the famous lioness Elsa, and at the end of the book, she is seen wearing a jacket with a lion emblem on it.
    • Elsa's stepfather Mac is associated with wild pigs; she refers to him at one point as "a big, hairy warthog" and even sounds like a warthog when he snores.
    • The receptionist is often likened to a rabbit for her fluffy sweaters.
  • Best Friends (Jacqueline Wilson):
    • Gemma's mother at one point likens her to a gorilla for her savage table manners.
    • While running away, Gemma likens Biscuits to a baby elephant because of his size and the grey, creased suit he is wearing.
  • Clean Break:
    • Em is often likened to a hippopotamus, with her stocky frame, and the fact that bullies in school refer to her as "The Hippo". She also likens herself to a whale once or twice.
    • Em also states that Sarah, Frankie's girlfriend, likens her and her siblings to stray dogs.
  • Rabbits are a frequent motif in Cookie. Beauty's favourite animal is the rabbit; her favourite television show is called Sam and Lily in the Rabbit Hutch, she often includes rabbits in her art and dreams of owning one herself. In fact, Beauty asking her dad if she could have a pet one early in the story gives us the first glimpse of what Gerry is like when he goes on a rant at her. Later, Gerry being indirectly (or possibly directly) responsible for the death of Beauty's rabbit Birthday proves to be the event that leads to Beauty and Dilly leaving him. Beauty and Dilly visit a seaside town called Rabbit Cove, which (you guessed it) has cliffs shaped like a rabbit's ears and like it so much they decide to stay. In the end, Dilly begins making cookies shaped like rabbits, which prove to be extremely popular to the point where Beauty is invited onto a TV show to make the cookies and possibly advertise them in the hopes of turning it into a legitimate business.
  • The Girls Series:
    • Ellie is often associated with elephants.
    • Likewise, Magda with cats.
    • Ellie makes Nadine a toy lemur as the black fur around their eyes reminds her of Nadine's gothic makeup style.
  • The Illustrated Mum:
    • Played with - Dolphin is obviously associated a lot with dolphins, but she mentions she gets sick of being stuck with them all the time and she doesn't even know how to swim.
    • Her friend Oliver gets called Owly at school due to his round glasses making him look like an owl. He doesn't like it any better than Dolphin.
  • In Lola Rose, Jayni associates her abusive father Jay with sharks. She develops a phobia of sharks after seeing them in the aquarium, which is implied to be due to underlying anxiety and trauma about her father. She sometimes has nightmares about sharks looking for her. At one point, she creates a collage at school about her family and impulsively sticks a picture of the shark on the page beneath the figures representing herself, her mother Nikki, and her brother Kenny (she'd been discussing fathers with Harpreet at the time); she tries to cover it up with other pictures but still knows the shark is there, symbolizing how Jay is a constant presence even if he can't be seen. Jayni convinces herself that standing in front of the shark tank for one hour will cure Nikki's cancer, believing that if she can overcome her fear of her father her mother will be spared.
  • The Lottie Project: Robin is associated with actual robins, and even carries around a soft toy modeled after one.
  • The Suitcase Kid: Andy's stepfather Bill is likened to a baboon; she describes him as large, hairy, with a monkey-like face, and probably a large, red behind.
• Jorge Luis Borges writes a tiger somewhere into many of his stories.
• Thomas Harris:
  • In The Silence of the Lambs, the Big Bad Jame Gumb has Moths, as a symbol of transformation; while Clarice has lambs, as a symbol of innocence; and starlings, as a symbol of youthfulness and because it's her last name, though Clarice also has Horses. (And Hannibal frequently compares her to a lioness.)
  • Hannibal: Pazzi washes the pickpocket's blood off his hands in the Porcellino fountain, which is bronze boar. The very next scene reveals Verger's intention to have Lecter Fed to Pigs.

By Title/Series:

• Animal Farm:
  • The increasingly dictatorial and oppressive Communist Party of the Soviet Union is represented by an upper caste of pigs. Now, what animal are greedy capitalists commonly personified as?
  • Consider also that the loudest voices of fawning subservience towards the pig regime are provided by the sheep.
• Animorphs:
  • All have signature animals they often turn into, particularly in battle. For example, Marco, the Sad Clown with a creatively ruthless streak, typically transforms into a gorilla, which is big and bulky but still both dangerous and capable of delicate manipulations with opposable thumbs; The Hero, Jake, is a tiger; Blood Knight Rachel initially has an elephant, establishing her as The Big Guy, but later switches to a grizzly bear; Tobias is a hawk (self-sufficient and needs lots of space); while Cassie, presented as the most moral of the team, is a wolf.
  • And David is a rat. For all his rage, he is still just a rat in a bottle. Before then he chose golden eagle, lion, orca, and rattlesnake morphs, each of which can underline his savage, vindictive outlook and give him an edge over the Animorphs. Some motif can probably also be gleaned from how lions, orcas, and rattlesnakes are all social animals to various degrees, but David works alone.
  • Ax also often goes into battle unmorphed, since Andalites are plenty dangerous in their natural state (extremely sharp tail blades, remember?)
  • When Tom acquires the morphing power late in the series, the only morph he is ever seen using is a cobra. This is incredibly fitting, given his role in the final story arc.
  • Finally, Visser Three has a grab bag assortment of alien morphs, but the only one he uses more than once is the 'Eight', the bizarre eight-headed, eight-armed, eight-legged, fire-breathing abomination he uses in the climax of the first book. Besides setting up the Visser as an alien threat of monstrous proportions, this particular morph owes a lot to the Beast of Revelation.
• The Apothecary Diaries: Maomao is strongly associated with cats, from the character for her name (貓) meaning "cat" and her small frame to her highly curious personality, tendency to distance herself from people and occasional irritability. In the manga and anime adaptations, she also tends to sprout cat ears and a tail whenever she's startled or particularly excited/interested in something. It's even lampshaded when Maomao talks about various attributes people like regarding cats, which makes Jinshi realize that they all perfectly describe Maomao herself.
• Aria the Scarlet Ammo: Aria and cats. Evidence are the Leopons, the random purrs in some scenes involving her, and Aria even growling like a cat whenever she's extremely pissed off. In Episode 6 Shirayuki even calls her a "thieving cat" for (supposedly) taking Kinji from her.
• The Arts of Dark and Light: The protagonist Corvus' name means "Crow" in Latin, and is commented upon in this context. The narration also draws attention to it—as does Corvus himself, thinking it an omen when the crows appear to him before a great battle.
• Avalon: Web of Magic play around with this trope; Emily and Kara are magically bonded to various animals, instead of one species in particular. Adriane plays it straight: she feels especially connected to mistwolves, and one is her protector and companion. Fittingly, Adriane is a introverted but staunchly loyal, difficult to befriend, and knowledgeable about nature. As her magical abilities grow, she becomes capable of summoning spirit wolves.
• Baccano!: Vicky has a cat motif. He's cat-like in appearance and when Ladd finds his body after accidentally walking on his eye, it has a spot.
• Barber Black Sheep: Lord Issac Harrington is repeatedly compared to a dog, and several characters remark that his butler, Leslie Barry, resembles a badger. The Wilson family also qualifies in a more direct sense, as it consists of two sisters named Kittie and Bunny as well as their mother Birdie.
• In the Belgariad, each of the gods has a totemic animal: Belar's is a bear, Torak's is a dragon, Chaldan's is a bull, Issa's is a snake, Nedra's is a lion, Mara's is a bat, and Aldur's is an owl. Each god, and his chosen race of people, take on the personality characteristics of their animal, and in some cases go beyond: Barak turns into a bear when a certain condition is met; Salmissra is transformed into a serpent as punishment for her particular meddling; Torak's successor transforms into a dragon on occasion in an effort to impede the party; and the female sorcerers under Aldur's tutelage prefer the form of the owl for themselves (the males prefer the wolf). The sorcerers also wear an amulet each bearing the image of their chosen form. Poledra is, depending on one's perspective, either a human with wolves as her animal motif or a wolf with humans as her animal motif.
• Bicolor:
  • Lucas is associated with penguins due to his bumbling social interactions and the way he actually craves companionship. At some point, to cheer Félix up, he awkwardly dons a penguin costume.
  • Félix is likened to a porcupine. He's closed off and has a tendency to lash out with aggressiveness. This is a front to protect the sensitive child inside him.
• Birds Without a Nest: Birds—from peaceful doves, hopeful cullcu, joyful sparrows and thrushes, to the ominous owls—are recurring motifs throughout the novel. They represent hope, freedom, and vulnerability. Consequently, they are tied to both the protagonists, who are orphans, and to Peru's Indigenous community as a whole, who have been left forsaken by both government and church. At the beginning, birds are described as nesting or otherwise comfortably resting on branches or nests. As the story progresses, the narration points more to them flying or being scared away. Nearing the end, Lucía title drops the book, calling herself and her love interest, a pair of birds without a nest^note the original Spanish title of the work is indeed literally translated as Birds Without a Nest.
• Black Sheep: Lambs are a recurrent theme of the novel. A lamb is sacrificed during the wedding of Rosemary and Brody, the "blood of a lamb" is needed to open the Gates of Hell with Vesper herself being that sacrificial lamb. After the cathedral is destroyed, Vesper finds a lamb by its lonesome and takes it with her.
• 'The Book of the Named'': The feral exile Newt/Thistle-Chaser has long since forgotten her original name. So when Thakur asks her to identify herself, she points him to the animal she most empathizes with- a newt, which is small and vulnerable.
• Captain Underpants: In the Movie, Harold constantly inserts dolphins into his and George's comics. Dolphins in general are playful, witty, mischievous, playful and friendly, just like him and George's personalities in general. But dolphins are also really sociable (like George in the movie), they value friendship, (same as the boys) they hate being alone and are highly sensitive (like with Harold in the movie). While the animated series gives Mr. Krupp a mild shark motif, fitting with his desire to rule Jerome Horowitz through fear; he often gains shark-like teeth when intimidating people, and he outright has a pet shark in his office (albeit one that he takes very poor care of).
• Felix Leiter is described as having feline slanted eyes in Casino Royale.
• Catherine, Called Birdy: As the title would suggest, birds. In one entry, Catherine compares all the people in her life to various birds (she thinks that she herself is a goose, being "stubborn, plain, and shortsighted".)
• The Chaos Cycle: The supernatural entity known as The Dreamwalker is associated with ravens, with a raven even following and helping the heroes under its sway.
• The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness: The two protagonists come from the Wolf and Raven clans respectively- two animals that frequently share prey. Given that the first book centers around a hunt, this is quite fitting. Every single villain also fits their clan animal to a T. Special mention goes to Tenris, who fits both personality-wise (cute but carnivorous) and taxonomically (pinnipeds and canids both fit under suborder Caniformia).
• Crocodiles in The Chronicles of Castellane. They appear in a lake in the Ragpicker King's home, and reside in the seas around Castellane. Crocodiles tend to lay low, but are swift attackers, striking without warning. This certainly applies to the Ragpicker King, who puts on a airs of a Gentleman Thief, but is definitely not someone to cross. It also applies to King Markus, as he spends most of his time in his tower studying the stars, but is brutal when infuriated. He has Connor whipped to the point of scarring for arranging a controversial marriage proposal, executes people by throwing them to the crocodiles, and he throws Vienne Este into a wall when she attempts to kill Connor.
• In Cooking with Wild Game, everyone has a star representing them except people not native to that world. Huntress Ai Fa is represented by the Cat Star; shrewd Kaslan by the Hawk Star.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses:
  • Lucien has a fox motif, he wore a fox mask while cursed and other characters often compare his appereance and cunning with that of a fox.
  • Feyre often describes Amarantha's smile as being serpentine.
• Each of the members of the Creature Court is associated with the animal they transform into:
  • Deceptively powerful Femme Fatale Livilla is wolves.
  • Volatile and damaged loner Ashiol is cats.
  • Sensible, urbane Priest is pigeons.
  • Tough, noble foreigner Warlord is panthers.
  • Vicious, cunning power-jockey Dhynar is feraxes (foxes).
  • Beautiful, cruel tyrant Garnet is gattopardi (leopards).
  • Enigmatic, crafty performer Poet is white rats.
  • And the rational, industrious and reasonable protagonist, Velody, is little brown mice, though it's soon obvious that she's probably the most powerful of the lot.
• The Darksword Trilogy: Each chapter starts with a small, symbolic illustration. Joram is represented as a frog wearing a crown, referencing his Royal Blood; Simkin is represented as a crow wearing a jester's cap, referencing his trickster nature and status as The Fool.
• In The Dawnhounds, magic users are each tied to a specific Animal God who grants them totemic powers: crane weavers can teleport, ox weavers are extremely strong, and tiger weavers can hide in plain sight.
• A Dearth of Choice's protagonist is represented by dogs, the archetypal symbol of friendship and duty to humankind. He practises his sculpting abilities with a husky statue, his first definition of Heaven is the "place where all the doggos go", and his first necromantic creation is a baby bone hydra that acts very much like a puppy and gains the skull of a wolf.
• Deltora Quest:
  • Barda was called "the Bear" as a guard during Del's days of peace, though he doesn't appreciate the moniker. He got it because he was the toughest of all the guards.
  • Jasmine is associated many animals but mainly birds, because of her connection to her pet bird Kree and preference for the freedom of the open air. Lief is tied to dragons and their majesty like the rest of the Deltora royal family.
• In the Deverry novels, many characters are associated with animals. Dweomer workers can take the form of one bird decided by their personality (the garrulous and showmanlike Salamander is embarrassed by his magpie form, which is only revealed to the reader after characters who don't know he's a magic user have repeatedly called him "that chattering magpie"). Other characters often have an animal associated with their coat of arms- for instance, Rhodry's family has a badger, representing the clan founder's steadfastness. In the flashbacks, Brangwen and Gerraent are the last scions of the Falcon Clan, and their later incarnations are often associated with falcons in some way.
• Discworld:
  • Lovable Coward Rincewind is described in The Colour of Magic as "put[ting] his acquaintances in mind of a bright rodent". This resemblance is repeated in Sourcery, particularly when it comes to bolting for his burrow.
  • Similarly, the Sisters (snakes transformed into humans) in Witches Abroad, recognise the soppy and ineffectual Magrat as the human equivalent of a small furry animal in a corner. Too bad for them it turns out to be a mongoose.
  • From Jingo onwards, Commander Vimes has been given the nickname "Vetinari's Terrier" due to his implacable determination when chasing down the city's "rats". (Not to be confused with Vetinari's actual terrier, Wuffles.)
• Tris from Divergent is associated with crows and ravens.
• Isaac Asimov's "Does a Bee Care?": This story makes constant references to animals and their instinct, acting as metaphors for an alien, as well as for the ship. Comparisons such as spiders and architecture, wasps and ornithology, salmon, and cartography, not to mention the title question.
  The ship began as a metal skeleton. Slowly a shining skin was layered on without and odd-shaped vitals were crammed within.
• Dracula: Howling wolves are a sign of Dracula's presence, and he's repeatedly associated with (and has power over) wolves, bats, rats, and at one point lizards. However, horses are terrified of vampires.
• An in-universe example: In the Dragaera series, each of the 17 Great Houses is named after an animal. However, since a lot of those animals aren't from Earth, the similarities between the personality traits of the House and the traits of the animal are much better understood by the characters than by us.
• The Dresden Files:
  • The predatory White Court refer to humans as deer. This is used to establish the Court as unfeeling and contemptuous of their 'prey'.
  • The Mantle of the Winter Lady is represented by an incorporeal serpent, a symbol of the sex and danger it drives its hosts to spread. Not coincidentally, one of its future bearers has a snake tattoo.
• At the start of Dr. Franklin's Island Semi compares the other teens she sees to animals. A big-eyed rich girl is a helpless baby seal, a stumbling boy is a young wildebeest, there's a boy that looks remarkably like a guinea pig, Miranda is clearly too cool and together to be an animal... After the change Semi muses that Miranda, transformed into a bird, is a "high flier". If she has something that can be done, something to be accomplished, she does well, like she did on the beach or while imprisoned. Semi herself, turned into a fish, is a "deep swimmer", happy to sit and think, more passive, better in situations like being abandoned in a cage. Also, Miranda calls Arnie a "snake" when furious with him, and it turns out that's what he became.
• Dune: The Atreides family, specifically Leto and Paul, are associated with bulls. They're used to symbolize their stubbornness, pride, and willingness to forge ahead no matter what, as well as their tendency to ignore dangers and warning signs or to court danger out of pride - which ultimately leads to Leto's death and the creation of the jihad. The old Duke of House Atreides^note and Leto's father was a bullfighter and ultimately died in the ring, impaled by a Bull's horns. The head of the bull that killed him was kept as a decoration in Castle Caladan and later in the imperial residence of House Atreides on Arrakis. Leto is also associated with hawks. He has a hawk on his banner, and his facial features are often described as hawk-like.
• Durarara!!:
  • Aoba is associated with Sharks. Not only is it his favorite animal, but he often refers the Blue Squares as a group of sharks. Doesn't help that the group is forced to wear a shark hat.
  • Two Russian assassins in X2 go by the aliases "Vorona" and "Sloan", which are Russian for "crow" and "elephant" respectively.
  • Snakes for the sequel series Durarara!! SH
• Earth's Children:
  • Everyone in the Clan (the name Neanderthals give to themselves) has a totem spirit represented by a particular animal, who is believed to guide and watch over them. Mog-urs (holy men) meditate to determine a baby's totem and will usually pick one that seems to match the baby's appearance and personality. Men tend to have stronger or predatory animal totems, while women have frailer or herbivorous animal totems (due to the Clan's belief a man's totem has to battle and defeat a woman's to get her pregnant). There are exceptions though, with Ayla being considered highly unusual for having a cave lion totem. The Clan also heavily identify with bears; their chief deity is Ursus, the Great Cave Bear, whom they believe first showed them how to make and use fire, wear animal skins as clothes and so forth. Ursus is the totem of the whole Clan, though he can sometimes be a personal totem for an individual (such as in the case of Creb, who was 'chosen by the cave bear'...and by that we mean 'nearly mauled to death by one as a kid'). Even Cro-Magnon associate the Clan with bears, with some believing them to be more closely related to bears than humans.
  • Some Cro-Magnon, particularly the Zelandonii, have similar beliefs about protective animal spirits, but only some people have them rather than everyone. It usually applies to people who survive an attack by an animal, which is believed to be the totem spirit 'testing' their worthiness.
  • Main protagonist Ayla is associated with the cave lion, which is her totem animal. She is strong in both mind and body, brave and powerful, yet also protective and nurturing. She is nearly killed by a cave lion as a child, who claws her leg and leaves her with scars resembling the Clan's symbol for lion, which Creb believes was the Cave Lion spirit claiming her. Lions are also directly or indirectly involved in other important events in her life; among others, the cave she lives in for three years was once the home of lions, her adopted lion Baby 'brings' Jondalar to her, and her first experience living with a Cro-Magnon society is with the Lion Camp.
  • Clan leader Brun's totem is a bison, often symbolizing strength, unity and prosperity: all signs of a good leader.
  • Medicine woman Iza's totem is a saiga antelope. Although they may appear frail at first glance, they're stronger than they look, which applies to Iza (both in terms of physical and mental strength); some people remark that a saiga antelope is an unusually strong totem for a woman to be protected by and it's believed this is the reason Iza's mate failed to get her pregnant for so long. They're also considered intelligent and observant, definitely traits Iza shares. Some cultures also believe saiga antelope - especially their horns - possess healing properties (which unfortunately is a big part of the reason they're now critically endangered to due to over-hunting), which could allude to Iza's own abilities as a healer.
  • Creb has two Animal Motifs, due to having two totems. His second totem, the Cave Bear, represents his persona as one of the most powerful Mog-urs of all the clans, a person inspiring awe and commanding respect. His birth totem is the roe deer, which represents the person he is Beneath the Mask; gentle and shy.
  • Broud is associated with the wooly rhino, his totem. He tends to have the more negative traits associated with rhinos, such as a quick temper, displaying aggression towards anything perceived as a threat and (metaphorical) short-sightedness.
  • Ayla's son Durc has a grey wolf totem.
  • Ona is given the totem of the owl early in the first book; while Creb is meditating to uncover her totem, he keeps coming back to an owl despite this being considered an unusually strong totem for a woman. Creb notes that Ona's big, round eyes even remind him of an owl and so he decides this must be her totem.
  • Oda, a woman who has a half-Clan daughter, has a hamster totem.
  • The Mamutoi are closely associated with mammoths. They are a central part of their culture, with the people holding great mammoth hunts every year and using every part of the mammoth for building materials, tools, clothing, food and so on. They are famed for hunting mammoths and the animals also have spiritual significance to them - the mamuts (their spiritual leaders) as a collective group are called 'the Mammoth Hearth' and Mamut has a screen with alleged magical properties made from the skin of a white mammoth, believed to be extremely sacred.
  • Willomar claims the golden eagle as a totem, after he survived an eagle attack as a child. He is said to be restless with a love of travelling and adventure like an eagle.
• Esio Trot: Hoffman's casting in the adaptation evokes the characteristics and features of a tortoise, emphasizing how he can relate to Alfie and the tortoises in general.
• Etsusa Bridge: The first volume, Bow Wow! ~Two Dog Night~, is centered around two characters that are likened to dogs (Hayato Inui and Seiichi Kugi), and they both have kanji relating to dogs in their names. The title of the second volume is Mew Mew! ~Crazy Cat's Night in reference to Jun Sahara being called the "Kitten of the Eastern District".
• Fairy Oak: When the Captain's Band transforms into birds, each member has a code name based on their transformation, which reflects their personality. Their personality and likes also get reflected in the animals they prefer interacting with. Some examples are:
  • Vanilla turns into a robin and speaks to porcupines, turtles, ladybugs, and other forest animals.
  • Lavender talks to foxes, spiders, and scorpions.
  • Grisam transforms into a grey hawk and talks to crows because he has the patience to do so.
  • Flox transforms into a woodpecker and speaks to pheasants and partridges.
  • Cherry turns into a crow, courtesy of Shirley. La also likes to compare her with various kinds of snakes.
• Fate Series:
  • Ryuunosuke Uryuu from Fate/Zero has a motif for leopards, a species of animal whose lifestyle he models his life around, with him also always wearing some form of leopard print clothing.
  • Berserker of Black (a gender flipped Frankenstein's Monster) from Fate/Apocrypha is compared to a large dog that doesn't quite trust people, which is quite obvious with her constant growling.
  • Lucius Tiberius, a character mentioned in Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver, had a bear motif, acting as a contrast to the dragon motif of his rival, King Arthur.
  • Lord El-Melloi II Case Files:
    • Svin Glascheit has a dog motif. He specializes in Beast magecraft, he can sniff out things like a dog, and Flat even gives him the nickname "le chien", French for "the dog".
    • Hishiri Adashino has a snake motif, her personality being easily comparable to one as well as her Mystic Code resembling one.
  • Fate/strange Fake:
    • Saber has a feline motif, being compared to a cat on occasion, being described by the Watcher as "a lion in a man's skin", and the fact that his true identity is Richard the Lionheart.
    • True Berserker, aka Humbaba, has both a lion motif and a spider motif, having the upper body of the former and the lower body of the latter.
• Flight to the Lonesome Place: Ana Maria Rosalita, or at least her eyes, is compared to an owl a few times because of how she looks at Ronnie.
• The Founding of Valdemar: Valdemar is known in the Empire for breeding superior horses. The first chapter of Beyond shows a difficult foal birth, the Valdemar crest is a white horse, and Kordas is ordered to the capital city to personally deliver the Emperor's tribute of horses. Of particular note are the Valdemar Golds, a line of such value they're never sold; even when ordered to give some as tribute to the Emperor, Kordas uses magic to create a couple of fakes instead, and even the fakes are magnificent enough beasts that the stablemaster bemoans their being wasted on the Emperor. Presumably, the prominence of horses will have some bearing on the Companions' choice of form.
• Frontier Wolf: The Frontier "Wolves" jokingly refer to themselves as a pack. Each Scout kills a single wolf to wear its skin as a cloak, and never hunts wolves otherwise, whom they call their "four-footed brothers." The tribesmen half-suspect they're werewolves.
• In Full Metal Panic!, during comedic moments, Sousuke's animal motif is a cute (albeit irritable looking) little dog and during more serious moments his motif is a wolf. A more plot significant one for him, though, is a tiger (referring to the fact that he's the "son of Bdakshon's Tiger," being called "Tiger" by Gauron in the English dub, as well as his adopting a pet tiger that he loves). On the other hand, Gauron is compared to a lion by various characters, which contrasts with Sousuke's wolf and tiger motifs. Though his more plot significant one is a dragon, derived from his name "Gauron" (meaning "nine dragons" in Chinese). Symbolism is rampant when one considers the antagonizing, spark-filled relationship between the tiger and dragon in Asian culture. In fact, the Tiger Versus Dragon trope page describes their relationship perfectly.
  • Later on, the series invokes the common military metaphor of sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves. According to Kalinin, Sousuke is a lamb, albeit one Raised by Wolves.
    • "A lamb raised by wolves" is also likely a reference to the film Ringing Bell, which makes the description foreshadowing - just as Ringing Bell ultimately winds up killing his adoptive wolf father Woe, so too does Sosuke wind up killing Kalinin (and for similar reasons.)
• In The Girl from the Miracles District, Nikita is often associated with mantis in-universe, to the point where it's her nickname and the Big Bad threatens her with a box of dead mantids, and Robin — or, rather, Robin's past life — is symbolized by a deer.
• Goblin Slayer:
  • The Priestess is compared to a small bird for her delicate physique and anxious demeanor.
  • The High Elf Archer gets compared to a cat a lot for her capriciousness, laziness, and easy natural grace.
  • When the Guild Girl's true personality and feelings for Goblin Slayer slip out, the narration consistently likens her to an eager puppy, down to describing her tossing braid as "wagging like a tail."
  • The Heavy Warrior gets compared to a bear in volume 12 for his bulk, tenacity, viciousness in battle, and ease off it.
  • Later light novels have the King described as "like a lion" in varying points.
• Gotrek & Felix: Garmr Hrodvitner (whose name is basically Old Norse for "Hound Fame-Wolf") is a Norscan Chaos Lord of Khorne whose title is "Gorewolf" and has a wolf-shaped helmet.
• Grab Bags Are Dangerous: The ghoul is associated with spiders. During Ted's ghoul sack-induced nightmare, he perceives white spider webs against a gray nothing and the spider webs house five lumpy and hairy spiders. The sizeable spiders leave a sticky residue in their wake, which seems to relate to the sack trapping Ted for the ghoul's consumption.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi:
  • Wei Wuxian is associated with Crows. Crows frequently show up whenever the Yiling Patriarch does his thing, Crows are believed to represent bad luck and are seen as a sign of bad omen, and Wei Wuxian is infamous as the cultivation bogeyman. Crows are associated with death, which alludes to Wei Wuxian's powers of necromancy. They also symbolize change, highlighting the significance in his transformation from a spiritual to a demonic cultivator. Lastly, crows are said to be often misunderstood, much like how Wei Wuxian himself is misunderstood and villainized by almost everyone.
  • A series of animal-themed artworks from the donghua team includes Lan Wangji with a couple of cranes. In Chinese culture, they symbolize nobility and elegance, both of which are easily associable with Lan Wangji and by extension, his clan as well. They also represent perseverance and balance, which is also fitting for Lan Wangji given how he never gave up on searching for Wei Wuxian, and how part of his Character Development involves him learning more about the Grey-and-Gray Morality of the world and accepting all the complementary and contrasting aspects of himself.
  • In a series of animal-themed official artworks from the donghua staff, Lan Xichen is shown with a deer. Deer are seen in China as symbols of longevity and wealth and are admired for their graceful nature, which fits both him and his clan.
  • He's pictured with a swallow in the animal-themed series of official artwork from the donghua team. Swallows signify happiness, and he is a fairly cheerful teen, and they signify new life, much like how he was once Wen Yuan, then was taken in by Lan Wangji after the First Siege and lived from then on as Lan Yuan. Swallows are also associated with peace, loyalty, and most importantly, love — all of which play a part in Lan Sizhui's personality, backstory, and connection to the main protagonists.
  • In the animal-themed series of artworks from the donghua team, Jiang Yanli is shown holding a lamb. Sheep are known to be docile and were commonly used as wedding gifts in ancient Chinese culture. Fittingly, Jiang Yanli was gentle and sweet, and a huge part of her story involved her Arranged Marriage with Jin Zixuan. Sheep are also regarded in China as symbols of luck and gratitude, which mirrors how she was the heart of her family. Lastly, they symbolize justice — likely a twisted allusion to her death, which led Jiang Cheng to finally hate Wei Wuxian and seek revenge on him.
  • Yu Ziyuan was known as the Purple Spider. In some forms of symbolism, spiders symbolize unhappiness and the feeling of being unloved or rejected, which perfectly applied to her character and her relationship with her family. There are also some species in the spider family that are poisonous, and Yu Ziyuan had a personality that perfectly aligned with the concept of the "three poisons".
  • In an official artwork from the donghua team, Jin Guangyao is shown with a fox, and in another, he's drawn with fox ears and a tail, befitting of his cunning nature.
  • Jin Ling is associated with dogs in multiple ways.
    • He owns a spiritual dog called Fairy and is very fond of it, as it's been his Only Friend since he was a child.
    • The dog is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac and is seen as symbol of fortune. While Jin Ling was born into the wealthiest cultivational clan, his life isn't exactly fortunate due to being orphaned when he was only an infant and getting bullied for it.
    • People born in the Year of the Dog have flaws and strengths which match Jin Ling's personality. Jin Ling may be stubborn and emotional, but he's also brave, loyal, and heroic. After receiving proper guidance, he also becomes more responsible and open-minded.
  • Wei Wuxian frequently calls Jin Zixuan a peacock, as he's said to be quite vain about his looks. Peacocks commonly represent beauty, and they also symbolize dignity, divinity, rank, and power, all of which the Jin Clan are associated with.
  • Nie Huaisang is Symbolised by birds, an animal he keeps as a pet in most adaptations.
  • In a series of official artworks from the donghua team with animals as the theme, Wen Ning (as a human) is shown holding a cat. Cats are a appropriate animal motif for him in several ways:
    • A common belief about cats is that they have nine lives, which is a direct reference to his revival. Cats are also often associated with witchcraft, which alludes to how he was brought back by demonic cultivation, which others see as The Dark Arts.
    • Cats are linked to medicine in some cultures, and Wen Ning comes from a family of doctors.
    • Cats can represent courage and independence, and Wen Ning himself is a Cowardly Lion who learns to be more self-assured throughout the story, with Wei Wuxian encouraging him to be more independent.
• The Grapes of Wrath has in its third chapter a tortoise trying to cross a road and getting run over by a truck. In the fourth chapter, we meet Jim Casey, who's described as having a "long head" and a "beaked" nose.
• Harry Potter has Patronuses, protective spells that take animal form, and Animagi, wizards and witches who can turn into animals. (Wizards usually have the same Patronus and Animagi form.) Harry himself has a stag Patronus like his father, an Animagus, did, and his mother had a doe Patronus. Stags are majestic and brave but also prideful. When Harry (who doesn't remember his parents) sees someone's memory of James, the arrogant pride really shines through and sours his opinion of him (this was before James Took a Level in Kindness).
  • There's also a subtle Genius Bonus regarding the motifs of both Harry and Voldemort since fittingly enough, In medieval art the stag and the snake are mortal enemies. When the stag discovers a snake, it spits water into the hole where the snake hides, draws the snake out with its breath, and tramples it to death. If the stag is ill or old, it draws the snake out of hiding and swallows it. The stag then finds water and drinks large amounts of it to overcome the poison, and is renewed. When the stag is renewed it sheds its horns. Deer in bestiaries are associated with Christ, since when running they are said to run to “Christ, the true spring”. They also trample upon their enemy, the snake, who represents the Devil. fitting for Harry and Voldemort who are a Messianic Archetype and Satanic Archetype respectively. Harry is The Chosen One, an All-Loving Hero, would save the ones who once ostracized him, and willingly sacrifices himself in order for the Horcrux within him to be destroyed so that Voldemort could be vanquished, but comes back to life. And Voldemort started out as a beautiful and adored young person, but later turned himself into a hideous and cruel abomination in pursuit of power and greatness. And he amassed an army of like-minded members of his brethren to himself who became his servants known as the Death Eaters.
  • Severus Snape's Patronus is a doe, which represents his love for Lily Evans. Notably, his Patronus is a copy of Lily's instead of a complement like James's.
  • On Pottermore, it was revealed that Remus Lupin has a wolf Patronus, which he is ashamed of because he dislikes the reference to his lycanthropy. Yet, wolves are intelligent and loyal to their packs who unfortunately and often unfairly tend to have a bad reputation among humans. Nymphadora Tonks's Patronus changes from a jackrabbit to a wolf after the events of the fifth book out of love for Remus. His name also references a legendary co-founder of Rome who was raised by wolves and his codename on Potterwatch was Romulus, referencing the same legend while his surname derives from the adjective "lupine", which means "wolf-like" (from the Latin word for "wolf" — "lupus").
  • Sirius Black can turn into a big, black dog and he also has a lot of dog-like characteristics, most memorable being that his laugh sounds a lot like a bark. And Sirius is brazen and fun-loving but also clever, loyal, reckless, and lacks impulse control. He's also named after a star commonly referred to as the "dog star".
  • Peter Pettigrew can turn into a rat, and he is a weak, opportunistic, and disloyal coward. Associating with him ruined the lives of his closest friends like some hideous disease. A rat through-and-through.
  • Dolores Umbridge fills her office at Hogwarts with cat-themed knickknacks and has a cat Patronus, thus representing Cats Are Mean and as the Evil Counterpart to Minerva McGonagall's cat Patronus/Animagus form (representing Cats Are Magic).
  • Other characters whose Patronuses are known and notable include Ron Weasley (a Jack Russell terrier, loyal, and tenacious), Hermione Granger (an otter, playful, intelligent, and J. K. Rowling's favorite animal), Ginny Weasley (a horse, wild and fierce), and Cho Chang (a swan, a bird famed for its beauty and considered a symbol of romance) all revealed in Order of the Phoenix. In the final book, we also get Patronus reveals for Luna Lovegood (a hare, most likely in reference to phrases like "mad as a March hare", fitting with her status as a Cloudcuckoolander, it also possibly references the Moon Rabbit which fits with her Meaningful Name), Ernie Macmillan (a boar, fitting with his slight tendency towards being a bit "boorish" and "pig-headed"), and Seamus Finnigan (a fox, fitting with his devotion to Hogwarts as well as his snarkiness).
  • According to Word of God, Fred and George Weasley had magpie Patronuses. Similar to the twins, magpies are extremely clever, but also extremely mischievous.
  • There are also members of the Order of the Phoenix that have Patronuses of their own. Such as Arthur Weasley (a weasel, fitting for his family name), Nymphadora Tonks (a jackrabbit, before changing into a wolf after the events of the fifth book), And Kingsley Shacklebolt (a lynx).
  • Albus Dumbledore's brother Aberforth has a goat Patronus, and he seems to have a... questionable affinity for them. He once used "inappropriate charms on a goat", and his place of business ( The Hog's Head) smells of goats. Even as a child, his favourite bedtime story was "Grumble the Grubby Goat". In terms of symbolism, a goat is a simple, nondescript animal kept as livestock, but it's highly useful and versatile, able to live off of practically any plant while providing wool, milk, and meat. Aberforth is a simple, nondescript bartender, but a powerful wizard, a Knowledge Broker, and a reliable and trustworthy ally to the Order of the Phoenix. Feeding the family's goats was also one of the few things Aberforth and Arianna were able to do together after she was driven insane.
  • Unconnected to Patronuses and Animagi, characters are often compared to animals in the narration based on how they look, dress, or act, which helps give the reader a mental picture of them. Unlike most of the other motifs in the series, this does not usually appear to have any deeper magical meaning:
    • Voldemort is an exception as his motif is very much symbolic, as he is heavily associated with snakes. He can speak to snakes and Harry being made into an accidental Horcrux is the reason he is able to speak to snakes too, he has a pet snake named nagini, studied at the snake themed Slytherin House when he went to Hogwarts and is a descendant of the founder of the house, and is said to have a very snake-like appearance being completely hairless with pale white skin, red slitted snake-like eyes^note in the books at least, and snake-like slitted nostrils. Fitting with his goal to achieve immortality which is the exact reason he ended up getting this appearance as he Was Once a Man and was also a handsome and charming Pretty Boy but he split his soul into seven pieces to become immortal, causing his body to become horribly disfigured.
    • Severus Snape is often compared to a bat. He wears flowing black robes, spends a lot of time in dark places, and one line describes him as "swooping around like an overgrown bat". At one point, the other characters wonder if he can turn into a bat. All of this has led some fans to speculate that he is a vampire, though this theory has been Jossed by Word of God.
    • Hermione is slightly associated with cats. in Chamber of Secrets she accidentally turns into a Cat Girl after she unknowingly put cat hair from her Slytherin target's robes into a polyjuice potion, she later adopts a pet cat named Crookshanks and she's considered the Junior Counterpart of Professor McGonagall, who can turn into a cat.
    • Ginny is also often compared to a cat; Harry's narration will mention her curled up "cat-like" in a chair or at the foot of a bed, while her hair is sometimes described as "a mane that frames her face", not unlike that of a lion. She is also mentioned to love cats.
    • Draco Malfoy has been associated with ferrets since being magically turned into one in Book 4.
    • Rita Skeeter is associated with Insects. Like an annoying bug, she buzzes around looking for sources of gossip and spreading vicious stories in the Daily Prophet like diseases. And her Animagus form is a beetle.
    • Dolores Umbridge is said to look like a toad: short and squat with hardly any neck and a broad, flabby face with a wide mouth and bulging eyes. She even wears a black bow in her hair that reminds Harry of a fly.
    • Regarding Harry's family, Aunt Petunia is said to have horse-like teeth and nearly twice the usual amount of neck, while Dudley is called "a pig in a wig" by his cousin because he is an overweight Big Eater, which foreshadows Hagrid giving Dudley a pig's tail.
    • When Harry first sees Professor Trelawney, his first impression is of a "large, glittering insect" because of all the bangles and beads she wears, as well as her enormous glasses.
    • Other examples include Salazar Slytherin's face being described as looking like that of a monkey (which is strange considering his much more prominent snake motif that he shares with his house), Rufus Scrimgeour being described as looking like an old lion, Ernie Prang being described as "owlish", Madam Pince being said to look like an "underfed vulture", Professor Slughorn having a large mustache like a walrus, Madam Hooch having hawk-like eyes, and Pansy Parkinson having a face like a pug.
  • Each of the four Hogwarts Houses also has a symbolic animal: Gryffindor has a lion, the King of the Jungle(and all illustrations of its founder are meant to evoke a lion-like shape with a large mane of hair); Hufflepuff has a badger, a docile animal that can take down much larger creatures if threatened(and in the film version, its founder's cup has the image of a badger on its side and the Pottermore illustration depicts it with the carved face of a badger);^note Fun fact: in earlier drafts, it was a bear instead. Ravenclaw has an eagle, intelligent and independent(and the film version, its founder's diadem is shaped like an eagle.);^note Though the films change Ravenclaw's animal to a raven instead Slytherin has a snake, which is sneaky, clever, and loyal to a close few (and, In-Universe, because its founder could talk to them and his locket has a stylized snake in the shape of an "S" etched upon it). Slytherin's descendant Voldemort inherited his snake motif.
• Haugtussa: Every person Veslemøy sees has an animal following him or her that mirrors their personality. This is sometimes Played for Laughs- as during the Christmas revels- but also Played for Drama; when the local rich farmer (who owns twelve farms already) is trying to get her mother to sell hers to him because of her debts to him. Veslemøy sees a dragon behind him and her reaction startles the rich man to the point where he leaves in a hurry, pale as death.
• Incredibly important in 'Het verrotte leven van Floortje Bloem', a Dutch book whose title translates to 'The screwed-up life of Floortje Bloem'. It's about a young hooker hooked on heroin who gets a fur rabbit from a pedophile. This fur rabbit is used to portray her innocence and it deteriorates further and further from that point.
• Her Crown of Fire: Birds, particularly dead ones. Rose's first magical experience at the start of the book is her dreaming of a dying bird, and multiple birds die around her during the course of the book. A silver bird is the symbol of Stanthor Academy.
• The Heroic Legend of Arslan:
  • The Arakawa adaptation gives Arslan a lion motif as befitting his name. He wears a golden lion helm and several artworks depict him accompanied by lions.
  • The Zahhak sorcerers are associated with snakes, as they are trying to resurrect the ancient Snake King. The leader at one point expels snakes from his mouth to transform an underling into a snake-like monster.
• High School D×D:
  • Issei Hyōdō has a dragon motif, but oddly enough (and probably unintended): he also has spiders as a motif. The skeletal "wings" of his Juggernaut Drive form resemble spider legs, the armor around his face in the Season 4 artstyle look like spider pincers, most of the girls/women he's attracted to are either older or taller than him; due to sexual dimorphism, male spiders are smaller than females, due to his extreme appreciation for the female figure, he can be distracted if one is flaunted at him to compromise him in battle and Raynare killed him after he took her on a date; both are examples of a "black widow strategy" being used on him, he amasses himself a large harem and eventually gets his own Peerage, like a metaphorical web he spun and In the future he is going to have a lot of kids, similar to the large number of offspring mating spiders can end up with.
  • Koneko Toujou has cats as a motif. She's a Nekomata, aloof, a snarker, wears black hairclips with the shape of a cat's head and has a white cat as a familiar.
  • Ravel Phenex' has birds as a motif, specifically The Phoenix. and like Birds and Cats Phenex and Koneko don't get along well given their battle at Riser's Rating Game.
• Hiraheishi wa Kako o Yumemiru: Farenna's glyph is a reminiscent of a Swallowtail butterfly with long wing tips.
• The Hotel New Hampshire: While used throughout most of his work, the motif of the bear is especially prevalent here. On the obvious level, two bears are found in the story: State O'Maine, a trained bear that is the family's first pet, whose presence indirectly caused the birth of the Berry children and whose death also indirectly began the family's habit of buying and running hotels; and Susie, a woman the Berry family meets in Vienna and that spends her time dressed up and acting as a bear, both as a way to cope with her rape and help her friend and employee. On a less obvious level, the novel is filled with subtle references to bears: for example, the protagonist's mother and an old Viennese prostitute both have collections of china bears; or when John the protagonist gets fat he is compared to a "teddy bear" and a "panda".
• In The Hound of the D'Urbervilles, Colonel Moran often compares Professor Moriarty to a snake, cold-blooded, deadly, with cobra eyes, an adder's smile, and a neck-wobbling habit that reminds him of a snake.
• The Hunger Games: The motifs actually play a lot into the story & symbolism.
  • Katniss has been compared to a mockingjay, an in-universe bird species that is a hybrid between a female mockingbird and a male jabberjay, another in-universe bird species. Katniss's role as the Mockingjay is revealing about the nature in which she's been manipulated in the novels; the mockingjays were emblems of freedom and signs of rebellion but could not produce their own words. Katniss is constantly a puppet for the 'players' of the books, like President Snow, Plutarch, and Coin. She also is reduced to a poor mental state where she begins singing to herself at the end of the last novel.
  • President Snow identifies with a snake, as he is described as having features that make him look like one, especially his eyes. and importantly, we learn later on that he gained his position from poisoning his enemies. The prequel with Snow as the main character is called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
  • Rue is described as having bright, dark eyes and satiny brown skin and standing tilted up on her toes with her arms slightly extended to her sides, as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound. It's impossible not to think of a bird and Katniss repeatedly compares her to one, highlighting her fondness for Rue and Rue's sweet and free-spirited nature. Her swift and almost invisible movements through the treetops added to the bird-like description. Rue's pre-games interview costume is described as a sheer dress with shimmering gossamer wings. Of course, she can also communicate with the birds through song.
  • Katniss nicknamed the girl from District 5 "Foxface" because of her fox-like appearance. She has red hair and is described by Katniss as sly and elusive. Foxface demonstrated her cleverness by figuring out the path into the Careers' supply pyramid and reaching the bulk of supplies, taking an unnoticeable amount of food, and then running back to the safety of the woods.
  • Prim's cat Buttercup has a very similar personality to her sister Katniss and takes the role in Prim's life that Prim takes in Katniss's life.
  • Tigris looks and acts like a tigress so much that Katniss wonders if she picked the name herself. She didn't.
  • Lucy Gray Baird from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has fittingly enough, songbirds and snakes. She has an affinity for both, and they usually return it. She often uses bird metaphors while speaking, is referred to as a "songbird" throughout the book due to her singing, is part of a group called "the Covey", and her last name is 'Baird' — at one point she even refers to herself as being "of the Covey Bairds." At the Reaping, she uses a snake that she calls "a particular friend" of hers to get revenge on Mayfair for trying to kill her, manages to befriend the snake mutts in the arena (with help from Coriolanus) and uses one to kill Treech, and according to Maude Ivory, can always tell where snakes will be.
  • Sunrise on the Reaping uses plenty of motifs.
    • Canaries are used frequently and reflect the Canary in a Coal Mine metaphor, mirroring the metaphor's invocation in Catching Fire. Drusilla Sickle, the District 12 escort heralding danger for the children, is introduced wearing all yellow, including prominent plumage on her hat. Haymitch reflects on the canary metaphor, something he knows from District 12's coal mining trade, and weaker beings dying as a sign of danger appear during the Games. Maysilee also has a pet canary, which we know Asterid will end up taking after her death.
    • Doves feature often. Lenore Dove is Haymitch's Covey girlfriend, and her color name (for dove gray) makes him especially conscious of the shade of gray when he sees it, making him think of her. Haymitch comes to refer to the youngest tributes in the Newcomers alliance as "his doves". The book also features the Capitol slogan "NO PEACE", a striking juxtaposition, as the dove is a classic symbol of peace.
    • Ravens as grief and destruction, used directly per Edgar Allan Poe. Lenore Dove is also named for The Raven, whose verse Haymitch has memorized and which he begins to obsess over, running through his head, once he loses Lenore Dove by the end of the book.
    • Magno Stift is constantly associated with reptiles. He's mentioned as having worn a belt with a live turtle attached to it, and in the present day, he is overburdened with snakeskin and snake-shaped items. Lou Lou takes Magno Stift's fondness for snakes and carries a snake around with her constantly.
• Hurog: Oreg, a wary, badly-abused slave and Forsaken Child, is regularly compared to a skittish and mistreated warhorse, with protagonist Ward noting the similarities between convincing Oreg to trust him and untraining the damage done to his inherited mount, Pansy.
• Hyouka: Houtarou and Chitanda are associated with lions and dogs respectively. Houtarou has a bushy mane, and is very "powerful", but prefers to laze about. The various women and girls in his life are all "lionesses" compared to him, being much more passionate, generally competent, and prone to action. Episode 8's discussion of Tarot Motifs assigns him the Power arcana, whose iconography depicts a lion tamed by a young maiden. While Chitanda has an abnormal sense of smell and hearing, as well as a loyal, kind, sweet and playful personality.
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: From both the novel and radio play, AM is associated with winged creatures, creating a giant hurricane bird and musing about the impossibility of a bee's ability to fly. AM himself is similar to a caged bird, enjoying artificial pseudo-freedom via godlike mastery of technology he is forever unable to leave. Various fan animations also give him a bird-like appearance with an elongated face.
• The main characters in The Impairment each are associated with an animal which reflects their personalities.
  • Lead and POV character Kyle Griffin is associated with, what else, Griffins. His motif is the only one among the rest that isn't actually a real animal, but rather a mythical beast. This is a reflection of his desire to escape from the cruel real world and find solace in the "fantasy world" of his drunken stupor. It may also reflect his desire to be free of suspicion (the bird/flying aspect of the creature) and his aggressive nature towards his suspicion (the lion aspect).
  • The sole believer on campus to Kyle's claims, Mark Rivera, has a wolf motif, which reflects his aggressive attitude towards anyone that's hostile to anyone to whom he's fiercely protective and loyal. It's a part of a gag with his deceased girlfriend Naomi Portman's motif of the Moon, and also a reflection of his sad and lonesome outlook on life.
  • Nathan Reeves Bret Cameron, takes the falcon as his both for the fact by personality he’s an excellent tracker and a careful and silent overseer of his surroundings and that he uses camera-bots disguised as taxidermy falcons to spy on Kyle.
  • Allie Parker’s seems to be cats which fit to her curious attitude, the mysterious nature of her personality, and of course in truth to her agile and dangerous skills and techniques and her territorial, independent, and dangerous tendencies.
  • Being that he’s a bipedal version and greatly resembles one, Meleeo is identified with Chameleons. This greatly reflects how he blends in to his surroundings and adapted and fooled both the readers and the characters of his true personality and colors. Oh, and, of course, his tongue.
  • Kiefer Waldgrave identifies himself with the caterpillar, cocoon, and Moth family. He clearly started out a pathetic, weak and idealistic young man, but slowly gave in to his newfound ideals and confined himself to the cocoon of his new ideals till he hoped to become something much greater.
  • The men of the Beta Alpha Omega fraternity are identified by Mark as “dogs”, possibly by how depending on their owner and surroundings it ultimately shapes their personalities, of which these boys are aggressive and brutal.
  • Emma Sumiko is identified with koi fish, possibly due to her Asian heritage and her milky, elegant and beautiful appearance.
• In Death series: Roarke has been compared to a wolf in Ceremony in Death, Vengeance in Death, and Promises in Death. Promises in Death actually had Eve and several women discussing the men in their lives and comparing them to animals. Nadine got a turtle of a man. Trina got a snake of a man. Mira got an owl of a man. Peabody got a puppy of a man. Mavis got a bear of a man. Louise got a cheetah of a man. Nadine theorizes that Roarke is a panther, but Eve ends up saying "wolf," and Mira points out that when wolves mate, it's for life.
• In In My Daddy's Belly, a talking seahorse accompanies the reader throughout the story because it's an animal whose males get pregnant, like some trans men like Daddy L.
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Bell is often compared to a White Bunny because he's an albino with a Lightning Bruiser style of combat. Unfortunately for Bell, it makes it easy for him to be the butt of certain rabbit-related jokes, such as in the novels, when Lily disguised herself as a wolf-person, at least one onlooker said the "wolf" could eat the "rabbit" as emergency provisions.
• Journey to Chaos: Princess (later Queen) Kasile of Ataidar invokes the image of tigers whenever possible because one of them is her divine ancestor's familiar in addition to the fact that they are powerful and majestic creatures. They decorate her dresses, her castle, and they inspired her development of the Mana Claw technique.
• A Zen Kōan describes a monk who was afraid of a spider that appeared during his meditation. His master told him to mark the spider with a chalk 'X' next time it appeared — and upon doing so, the monk realizes that he's marked himself.
• Katanagatari: the Maniwa Ninja Corps is split into four squads: Bird, Beast, Insect, and Fish. Each member is named and wears clothes based on an animal.
  • Houou: Phoenix.
  • Koumori: Bat.
  • Shirasagi: Heron.
  • Kuizame: Shark.
  • Kamakiri: Mantis.
  • Chouchou: Butterfly.
  • Mitsubachi: Bee.
  • Pengin: Penguin.
  • Kyouken: Wolf.
  • Kawauso: Otter.
  • Umigame: Turtle.
  • Oshidori: Duck.
• Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear: Bears, if the title didn't tip you off. The universe even Enforces this with the protagonist Yuna: Not only is her outfit comprised of a onesie-like bear hoodie, bear-paw shoes, and bear puppet gloves, along with her familiars being giant bears, but her outfit also invokes this by making her abilities stronger when she mentally shapes them into the form of bears.
• Les Misérables: Thenardier's pre-bankruptcy description likens his appearance to that of a weasel, an animal that is frequently associated with cunning, deception and thievery. His post-bankruptcy appearance briefly describes him as resembling a vulture, a scavenger, a bottom-feeder picking at the dregs of life.
• Log Horizon: Isuzu thinks of Rundelhaus as a Golden Retriever because "he's cute but doesn't make me nervous", she even tells him to shake at one point.
• Lord of the Flies: The sow's decaying head on a pike is repeatedly used as a metaphor for the childrens' eroding morality, as they turn into little savages as the book goes on.
• The Lost Years of Merlin has its Big Good spirit, Dagda, takes the form of a stag, while its Satanic Archetype, Rhita Gawr, appears as a boar.
• Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!: In the anime adaptation, Kumin is associated with sheep; she typically has a plush sheep with her, which goes hand-in-hand with her sleepiness and sheep frequently being connected with sleeping.
• The Machineries of Empire loves its animal motifs.
  • Spaceships are called "moths", with various types being called "__moths".
  • Most factions are symbolized by an animal:
    • Shuos — ninefox
    • Kel — ashhawk ("suicide hawk")
    • Rahal — scrywolf ("execution wolf")
    • Vidona — the stingray
  • Shuos Jedao's signifier is the Immolation Fox, a variation on ninefox.
  • Kel Cheris' signifier is Ashhawk Sheathed Wings, symbolizing mentally-stable Kel.
  • Drones are shaped like stylized animals, with a particular animal depending on the owners' faction and the drone's purpose.
  • Cheris' home is called the City of Ravens Feasting.
• Maiden Crown: Queen Sophie is associated with birds used for falconry, such as goshawks and falcons. Her uncle Oleg's falconer, who first teaches her to take care of her goshawk when she is a child, tells her that a goshawk is an affectionate bird when treated well, but can be moody and unforgiving when wronged. When she has her future divined by the wizard Heikki, he states while pronouncing her destiny (she will live a long life, and have many children) that a royal heart is like a falcon, and "can only love where it is loved and trust where it is trusted". Valdemar also gives her a pet merlin as a wedding gift.
• Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!: When dissuading Komari of the fact that they're dating, Nukumizu compares Yanami to a sea otter. Namely the fact that they're cute and eat twenty percent of their body weight each day.
• A Master of Djinn: For Siti, cats. She worships the lion goddess Sekhmet (symbolized by cats) and uses metal claws on her gloves to fight. She growls before getting into a fight. She's also described as purring often. Fatma's cat Ramses loves her as well. Her djinn form also has cat-like eyes.
• The Springers in The Medusa Chronicles by Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds have a leaping springbok as the family crest. Throughout the centuries, Falcon identifies members of the explorer dynasty by seeing the springbok on jewellery, mission patches, tattoos, and eventually as the vaulting decoration on their throne.
• This is more overt with Gordon Reece's short story Mice, as the titular "mice" are a mother and daughter who are timid, sensitive, and conflict-aversive and are treated with much mistreatment throughout the story, much like actual mice. In that vein, one can liken their abusers to anything that preys on mice.
• Each novel in the Miriam Black series has a particular bird as a title, the mythology of which relates in some way to their stories.
  • Blackbirds: Psychopomps — beings that transport dead souls to the afterlife. Miriam believes for most of the novel that she's no more than a witness to death and that she can't control fate.
  • Mockingbird: A bird with no unique song; instead "mocking" those of others. The serial killer Miriam has to hunt down is capable of imitating other voices.
  • The Cormorant: Symbolizes greed, gluttony, or overindulgence. The main antagonist is Drunk with Power, and to save her mother's life, Miriam must find a way to defeat him.
• Misery: Annie Wilkes is associated with Pigs, for rather obvious reasons.
• Of Mice and Men. Lennie is given animal similes to show how different he is from other people. Rabbits are often invoked by Lennie because they are his favorite animal.
  • The focus of Lennie's half of the dream is to tend the rabbits on the farm, and when he realizes he's in trouble, he believes George will punish him by not letting him tend to the rabbits. While waiting for George, he hallucinates a rabbit berating him for causing trouble again and telling him that George won't let him care for the rabbits. In the end, Lennie dies while imagining the rabbits on the farm.
  • On the book cover, there is also a hare hiding from Lennie and George.
  • Rabbits also fit the nature of Lennie's character. Rabbits are seen as symbols of innocence, but in farming culture, they are a pest and a nuisance because they can ruin crops and spread diseases among livestock, forcing farmers to exterminate them. Although Lennie genuinely means no harm, he cannot learn from his mistakes or control his temper because of his condition, which constantly gets them both in trouble with their employers and the law. This inability to learn from his mistakes constantly delays or ruins their shared dream. This would eventually force George to kill him after Lennie murders Curly's Wife by accident in a fit of stress. George must kill Lennie to spare him from a worse, more gruesome fate that Curley and the lynch mob would have had planned for him.
  • Lennie and Candy's dog are also described in very similar terms: both have "pale...eyes" and dragging feet.
• In Monogatari, most of the characters have an animal associated with them that has significant symbolism and some even have arcs named after their animal.
  • Each of the Araragi siblings are associated with an animal. Koyomi has bats due to his connection to vampires, Karen's yellow and black outfit resembles a bee and Tsukihi has birds as she always wear colourful yukatas, which are supposed to represent Phoenix feathers. and she is referred to as a cuckoo or cuckoo's child. invoked There's also a subtle Genius Bonus regarding the motifs of the Fire Sisters(Karen and Tsukihi) as both of their motifs make up the "birds and the bees".
  • Hitagi's animal is the crab as her stapler is meant to invoke a crab's claw.
  • Suruga's animal is the monkey as her biking shorts are a weird pun on the word monkey ("undershorts" being sarumata, saru being "monkey").
  • Hanekawa's a special case as she has 2 Animal Motifs that being the cat and the tiger, this one is of the more punny variety; Meganekko ("glasses girl") = Mega Neko ("big cat"). There's also her hair ribbons, which have little cat faces on them. In Tsubasa Tiger, she gets Clothing Damage that resembles tiger stripes, and upon her Split-Personality Merge her hair becomes black with silver bars.
  • Nadeko's big hat is supposed to be evocative of a cobra's hood, and the loose jacket of shed snakeskin. At certain points of "Nadeko Medusa", her hair also begins to lift around her head like Medusa's snakes at times of strong emotion until her hair later turns to actual snakes.
  • Mayoi Hachikuji wears a giant backpack resembling a snail's shell and her headband also has the spirals seen in a snail's shell.
  • Creepy Crows tend to gather to Deishuu outdoors. Sometimes it looks like he's talking with their mouths instead of his own.
• Morgan and Merlin's Excellent Adventures: Cedric does this deliberately, garbing his men in wolf pelts, using howls as battle cries, and so on. He also uses it to justify many of his random acts of cruelty, claiming that a wolf has no choice but to act swiftly and decisively. Morgan is impressed he keeps on theme, but his boss is not amused.
  High King Brytenwalda: And that is your problem, Cedric. You forget you are a human, not a beast.
• The Moth Diaries: Moths, who cluster in Ernessa's room trying to get to the moon. The narrator also reminisces about one evening with her father:
  "One night, in a tangle of wild honeysuckle that grew over the fence and buried us in its scent, we saw a pale green moth with two long tails that fluttered like ribbons in a little girl's hair. The luna moth was as large as a bird. The yellow eyes on its wings gleamed in the light . . . Finally, we went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I listened to the whirring wings and insect bodies banging against the screen. Every sound outside was the green luna, trying to get into my room to show itself to me one more time."
• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation: In the anime's first opening, Roxy, Sylphie and Eris are represented by color-coded birds.
• In My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected, Hachiman explicitly likens Yukino to a cat and Yui to a dog several times during his narration and Hachiman himself tends to get compared to less appealing animals, whether it be fish (due to his dead-eyes) or frogs (one of his childhood nicknames). He however compares himself to a bear, a solitary animal that feels no insecurity with being alone, also because he finds the idea of hibernation during winter wonderful.
• Ōkami-san:
  • Ryōko is constantly compared to a wolf, since she represents the bad wolf from "Little Red Riding Hood".
  • Otohime represents the tortoise from "The Tortoise and the Hare" when competing against Usami.
  • Usami represents the hare from "The Tortoise and the Hare", competing against the "tortoise" Otohime. Her Animal Battle Aura reflects this.
  • Saburou is similar to a cat, as expected from a character inspired by the Puss in Boots.
• Oliver Twist: Bill Sikes' dog, Bull's-eye, has "faults of temper in common with his owner" and is an emblem of his owner's character. The dog's viciousness represents Sikes's animal-like brutality while Sikes's self-destructiveness is evident in the dog's many scars. The dog, with its willingness to harm anyone on Sikes's whim, shows the mindless brutality of the master. Sikes himself senses that the dog is a reflection of himself and that is why he tries to drown the dog. He is really trying to run away from who he is. This is also illustrated when Sikes dies and the dog immediately dies as well. After Sikes murders Nancy, Bull's-eye also comes to represent Sikes's guilt. The dog leaves bloody footprints on the floor of the room where the murder is committed. Not long after, Sikes becomes desperate to get rid of the dog, convinced that the dog's presence will give him away. Yet, just as Sikes cannot shake off his guilt, he cannot shake off Bull's-eye, who arrives at the house of Sikes's demise before Sikes himself does. Bull's-eye's name also conjures up the image of Nancy's eyes, which haunt Sikes until the bitter end and eventually cause him to hang himself accidentally.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Clarisse is associated with boars and, less flatteringly, pigs. She wears a uniquely boar-shaped helmet, presumably to symbolize her status as head counselor of the Ares Cabin. It becomes a plot point later when Silena impersonates Clarisse to lead the Ares Cabin into battle.
• The Pet Girl of Sakurasou: The girls have different animal motifs; Mashiro's motif is a cat, Nanami's is a tiger (which shows up a bit as her favourite stuffed toy), and Misaki's a bear (she seems to be a fan of a nameless bear mascot). Mashiro and Misaki wear kigurumi of their respective animals when advertising for the culture festival, and in the anime adaptation's first ending sequence.
• The Posterchildren has an abundance of these. The Underwoods, including Ellie, have a bird motif. Zip is referred to as a cheetah both in-universe and out, June has the tigress, Maks is compared to a monkey, and Ernest is actually based on a golden retriever. Ofelia also has sea lion physiology.
• The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas: While going out for a walk, Brás Cubas and Quincas Borba witness two street dogs viciously fighting for a bare bone, which Quincas celebrates as a spectacle of his philosophy, in which war for benefit is part of all beings. Afterwards, when Brás tells the reader that D. Plácida lost the wealth he had given her because a mailman pretended to love her to steal it, he remarks that the chapter was only a repetition of the dog fight.
• Project Hail Mary: Grace is associated with foxes, as seen on his sweater, masquerade mask, and keychain, as well as him being a redhead. While not the bravest person on the surface, he is very clever and uses his wits to figure out his situation and come up with solutions.
• In The Queen's Nose by Dick King-Smith, Harmony thinks of other people by what animal they resemble: her father is a stout, barking sealion; her mother a fussy hyperactive pigeon; and her sister a spoiled Siamese. At the end of the book, she suddenly realises she's seeing them as people for the first time.
• In Quest for Fire, Aghoo the Son of the Aurochs is brutish and violent whereas Naoh the Son of the Leopard is more clever and cunning. The physically imposing and bloodthirsty Kzamm are compared to bears.
• In The Quetzal Paradox, spirits often manifest in animal forms, mimicking the behaviors of their chosen creatures:
  • Concern is depicted as an axolotl-like amphibian with reptilian traits. The protagonist mentions that Concern is a combination of compassion and fear, but it's not yet known what those two spirits look like.
  • Treachery resembles a hairless dog.
  • Want slithers like a snake.
• Ramona Quimby: The titular character is associated with Cats and rabbits, the latter especially in books where she was younger and her character was less developed. Her mother and some of the neighbors affectionately refer to her as a "bunny," and she responds to this by wearing paper rabbit ears when she is younger and twitching her nose like a rabbit when she is older, though she grows out of this. Being called a rabbit/bunny made her feel adorable and safe in her family's care. She is also shown as being very fond of cats, including the family cat Picky-picky. When she is shown how to print the letter Q in her last name, she quickly discovers that it can be easily made into a rear-facing cat, and she persists in using it even after learning to write in cursive. The cat-eared Q thus becomes a signature that all of Ramona's friends, family, and teachers easily recognize. For a book presentation in third grade, she is assigned a book about a cat and chooses to wear a cat mask, using a then-popular real-life Meow Mix cat food commercial as the theme for her presentation. Cats are also perceived to be curious, mischievous, strong-willed, and generally affectionate unless provoked to anger - all traits that Ramona herself possesses.
• Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai: Mai occasionally wears a Playboy Bunny costume and has a rabbit hair tie. She also wears a rabbit ear headband, and her phone has a rabbit case. Like the rabbit itself, she's reserved and kinda shy, but reveals to be warm and affectionate; given the mythological meaning of the new beginning often attributed to the rabbit, it's very likely that it represents exactly that, while wearing the costume, she meets Sakuta for the first time and her new life starts. In the Chinese zodiac it also symbolizes beauty and grace, and in religion, art and history it is a wise yet innocent animal, all characteristics that definitely belong to Mai.
• The witches of the Pallid Masque from the Revanche Cycle are given animal names and bone masks to match the coven's mistress. Said names are sometimes deceptive, as the bandits who waylay Hedy, the Mouse learn the hard way.
• The Reynard Cycle: Given the initial source material, there's quite a lot of this present throughout the series. Some of it is quite overt, especially when the primary cast of characters is concerned, though there are a few subtler instances of it as well.
  • For instance, Duke Nobel's coat of arms depicts a white lion, his father's name is Leo, and he aspires to be the king. On the other hand, in spite of her being raven-haired, living in a figurative gilded cage, and hailing from a city with a raven as its symbol, it can still be easy to miss that the Countess Persephone is oft likened to a bird.
• Re:Zero: Echidna and her "daughter" Beatrice are associated with Butterflies. Echidna wears a butterfly hairpin and the third anime opening shows her releasing butterflies from her hands.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero: Kizuna Kazeyama is associated with penguins based on her Haori resembling the fur pattern of a Penguins' coat, her Shikigami Chris taking the form of a Penguin, along with her briefly wearing a penguin mask while helping Naofumi run his merchant stall, along with her twin pigtails resembling the brows of a Crested Penguin.
• Multiple characters in the Sandokan novels have one or more animal motif:
  • The most prolific is the tiger: starts out as Sandokan's symbol (known as the Tiger of Malaysia because people realize he's just that badass. They are wrong, he's stronger), and by association is extended to his pirate crew (the Tigers of Mompracem), with their flag being originally a tiger head in red field and later changing to three heads (representing Sandokan, his most trusted companion Yanez and his late wife Marianna, all of them more than capable of murdering any tiger stupid enough not to run when they show up); Suyodhana, leader of the Thuggee cult, is known as the Tiger of India, and he's the only man who could hold his own in a one-on-one fight with Sandokan.
  • The British Empire is associated with lions and leopards, and both animals are used to refer to Britishmen and British warships;
  • Subverted with Tremal Naik, who is known as "The Hunter of Tigers and Snakes of the Black Jungle" because that's what he used to do for a living before meeting his future wife.
• In "The Shadow of the Vulture", Oglu wears a dark costume with a pair of vulture wings that fall across the floor.
• The Shadowspawn: The titular vampire-like creatures are shapeshifters, pseudo-werebeasts as well as vampires, and often assume the forms of predatory animals that fit their preferences and personality traits. Villain Protagonist Adrienne's favorite non-human shape is that of a dire wolf; her brother Adrian's is a saber-tooth tiger.
• Shakugan no Shana: Sabrac is associated with sharks. The guide book Shakugan no Shana no Subete Kan explains that his design is meant to call to mind a shark's dorsal fin, and his ceaseless muttering has its parallel in a shark's ceaseless swim.
• Sherlock Holmes:
  • Holmes is often compared to a hunting hound when he's hot on the scent of a criminal. Moriarty, meanwhile, is likened to a spider at the centre of a web. His right-hand man, the grizzled tiger hunter Moran, is described as being very much like a tiger himself. Similarly, The Devil's Foot features a character named Leon Sterndale, a lion-hunter with a mane of blonde hair and a fierce, noble temperament. And then there's the "ferret-like" Inspector Lestrade...
  • Antagonist turned Asshole Victim Charles Augustus Milverton, a notorious blackmailer, is described as a snake.
• She Who Became the Sun: Zhu's lean, triangular face is often compared to insects like a cicada, cricket, or mantis. It's doubly appropriate because those insects symbolize rebirth, good fortune, and strength, and Zhu is a Determinator who took on a new identity to achieve greatness.
• The Shining: The Overlook Hotel is associated with wasps. The Hotel starts attacking Danny by resurrecting dead wasps, Jack's first time at being influenced by the hotel seems to be when he daydreams about an old wasp's nest he found under the hotel's roof, when Danny tries to read into the ghosts' minds he compares the experience to placing his hand in a mass of stinging wasps, and during the climax one of the ghosts sent by the Overlook to scare away Danny has wasps crawling over her face. In fact, the way the hotel works, by assimilating the spirits of all those that died or lived in it in a gigantic ghostly Hive Mind, evokes a wasp's community, of which the Overlook's malevolent Eldritch Being mind would be the queen. This is subtly alluded to in the films through the hexagonal floor pattern seen in the hallway carpeting, evoking the image of a wasp or bee hive.
• Solo Leveling: Baek Yoon-Ho is the leader of the White Tiger Guild and he has the ability to transform into a white tigerman. Baek Miho can transform into a humanoid monster, like her father. But she transforms into a fox.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Many of the noble houses have animals on their coats of arms, and are commonly referred to by these animals as well as showing an awareness of how they are "supposed" to act to fit the animal characteristics; the series has a lot of fun with the possible symbolism.
  • The grim, grey, noble Starks, who live in a cold northern realm dominated by vast wildernesses, have a direwolf on their arms. At the very start of the first book, the Starks come across the body of a direwolf that was slain by a stag, symbolizing how their eventual downfall will be tied to the Baratheons, who use that animal as their own symbol.
  • The blonde, vain, and aggressive Lannisters have a lion. The "Rains of Castamere" song leans heavily on the fact that both House Lannister and House Reyne had lions^note Lannister's golden, Reyne's red for their coats of arms.
  • Littlefinger deliberately chooses the small, bright, and cunning thief, the mockingbird, for his arms to appear nonthreatening.
  • Crows seem to act as the motif for the series as a whole, symbolizing war, ill omen, and death. Members of the Night's Watch are also (somewhat mockingly) referred to as Crows, due to their black cloaks and dour attitudes.
  • The sigil of House Martell isn't an animal, but Oberyn and his daughters have a snake motif, especially connected to their fighting style: fast, sneaky and poisonous.
  • Subverted by the Florents, who have a fox for their sigil and look like foxes with their large ears, but are not particularly cunning, being vain and unpleasant.
  • The Freys don't have it as their sigil but are frequently compared to weasels, looking like them and acting sneaky and unpleasant.
  • The Starks, Targaryens, and Dothraki have a closer relationship with their animal sigils (direwolf, dragon, and horse, respectively) than most (no, not like that). The Stark children all get direwolf companions early in the first book, the Targaryens rode dragons to war, and the Dothraki consider horses essential to their nomadic lifestyle.
  • Additionally, many characters have specific animal motifs, and are sometimes referred to by animal nicknames based off their traits.
    • Sansa Stark is nicknamed "little bird" for her ability to repeat "pretty words". Additionally, her chapters are usually rife with symbolism relating to birds, the sky and flying, she is currently living with Petyr Baelish, the other avian-associated character, and they're located in a mountaintop castle nicknamed the Eyrie.
    • Sandor is often called a dog or the Hound, partly because the Clegane coat of arms has three dogs and partly because he's perceived as a brutal and fearsome but not very independent enforcer of his lieges.
    • Arya Stark has a number of animal motifs over the series. She's referred to as a wolf as per her family's sigil, but also as a sheep (when a helpless prisoner) and a mouse (when seeking to remain unnoticed in the vast enemy-occupied castle of Harrenhal). While in Braavos she nicknames herself Cat of the Canals and both wargs a cat and takes on various catlike traits.
    • The female knight Brienne of Tarth is mockingly compared to a horse due to her prominent teeth. And like a destrier, she doesn't hesitate to use them as a weapon.
• Songs of Innocence and of Experience employs the recurring imagery of different animals to represent innocence, e.g. "The Lamb", and experience, e.g. "The Tyger". In "THE FLY", the narrator compares himself directly to a fly with reference to human mortality and vulnerability.
• The Southern Reach Trilogy: Both the biologist and the lighthouse keeper are heavily associated with birds. The biologist is nicknamed Ghost Bird by her late husband, who himself ends up being transformed into an owl, and the lighthouse keeper is an avid birdwatcher, writing down what kind of birds he's seen on any given day.
• In Stardust, a character remarked when Tristran is transformed into a dormouse by a witch, that she isn't sure whether the spell simply transformed Tristran into a dormouse or it had chosen the form that Tristran is most like.
• Sword Art Online
  • Shino Asada/Sinon's appearance and mannerisms are often compared to those of a cat. Even her GGO avatar's eyes are slitted like one. Fittingly, she rolls a Cait-Sith in ALO.
  • Kibaou's orange hair, username (note: literally translates to “Fang King”) and Hot-Blooded nature brings Tigers to mind. And in the Progressive Manga during an argument with Lind about who should lead a field boss raid, he immediately mocks the fact that he called his group the “Dragon Knights Brigade” with this line:
  Kibaou: “Dragons? You gonna talk to me about Dragons!? A real man takes after a real animal - The Tiger!!”
  • Vassago Casals/PoH has a snake motif going around. He created the Laughing Coffin guild, whose weapons of choice include Poisoned Weapons, poisons people with his philosophy, and he openly defies the god-like entity Akihiko Kayaba and its messiah Kirito like the sneaky devil. Some characters (and even the author) even compare him to snakes.
  • Gabriel Miller/Subtilizer has two.
    • In his introductory chapter, Dario Giulani, the captain of the USS Jimmy Carter, the sub that would transport Gabriel's forces right before the Ocean Turtle raid, describes him as having hollow eyes that "devoured all light like a bottomless pit" like the great white shark that he encountered while he was swimming in Miami. Considering the type of person Gabriel is, this is fitting.
    • He also has a minor link with insects; his interest in the soul was born out of curiosity over his father's insect collection and a insect's strange ability to survive things like getting their heads bitten off, wondering where their souls could be. The first opening for War of Underworld also shows him at a desk with a frame of frozen butterflies behind him.
  • Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online:
    • LLENN is likened to a Killer Rabbit: small, unassuming, and nonthreatening at first blush, but highly agile and nimble on her feet, bouncing around the battlefield and out-speeding her enemies and capable of slaying her enemies before they have a chance to react. The two ear-like appendages on her hat help to reinforce her rabbit iconography. Just to hone the analogy across, Memory Defrag offered tie-in quests for each new episode's trailer, which features literal pink rabbits as enemy mobs.
    • Pitohui is named after a species of bird from New Guinea that has a distinctly colorful plumage, but is also highly poisonous, secreting the same neurotoxins as poison dart frogs that will invariably kill any potential predators. Similarly, the player Pitohui is a striking woman, but has a very toxic personality. She is also likened to venomous snakes who will lash out and deliver a mortal blow if her victims let their guard down around her, and her light novel artwork draws her like a snake. Exemplified in volume 5's afterword image showing a rabbit and a snake, representing LLENN and Pitohui.
    • Thanks to his space battleship armor shell, M can be compared to a turtle. He carries it on his back like a turtle's shell. When unfolded, M crouches behind it with his sniper rifle reaching out of a turret, which really looks like a turtle who has withdrawn into their shell. This is in contrast to LLENN's rabbit; invoking The Tortoise and the Hare. Though In the first volume, he gets a minor link with bears. When LLENN first meets him she says that he resembles a bear in both size and ferociousness. Even after she warms up to him, she compares him to a big teddy bear. However, this is never brought up past Volume 1.
    • Not as pronounced as her companions but Fukaziro can be easily compared to a dog or puppy. Her avatar is named after her deceased pet dog and she's very excitable and always seem to be in a good mood, akin to an excitable puppy. An in-game texting app also has her Icon image set as a picture of a dog.
• Heraldic animals feature heavily in the Tales of the Branion Realm historical fantasy series set in an alternate Britain. There are two opposing Gods — Essus (a white dragon) and the Living Flame (a fire-wolf). Since the Vessel of the Living Flame doubles as the kingdom's sovereign, the fire-wolf doubles as the national symbol and the royal family's crest. Other creatures that feature prominently include the bear, symbol of one of the strongest noble families; a crimson gryphon, symbol of Gwyneth (an expy of Wales), and the wyvern, crest of the royal dukedom of Yorbourne (aka York). There's also the owl, symbol of choice and totem of a Seer. All these symbols appear commonly in visions and may battle in metaphysical combat.
• In Terra Mirum Chronicles both the Nightmare Queen and Titania, mockingly in the first case and affectionately in the second, refer to Prince Oswin as a rabbit. He takes the place of the white rabbit in the original tale.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Ultima has two, both fitting her:
  • Cats: Fitting her preferred undercover disguise, cuteness and catty attitude.
  • Spiders: Her preferred magics involve magicule webs and poison, and has no problem getting in close for the kill.
• This Is Not a Werewolf Story: Aside from the various shapeshifters, Vincent has a motif of crows and ravens, possibly meant to indicate that he'll become a shapeshifter himself in the future.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • Aragorn is associated with eagles. During his time as a captain in Gondor and Rohan, he went by the name Thorongil which means "Eagle of the Star". During the events of Fellowship of the Ring, he is given a brooch that is shaped like an eagle. It also fits Aragorn's status as royalty, as eagles are often seen as symbols as such.
    • Grí­ma is called Wormtongue, but "worm" as used in Tolkien's works can refer to snakes, dragons and plain old worms due to the ambiguity of Old English wyrm. Gandalf calls him both a snake and a "witless" worm (note the traditional malicious cleverness and deceitfulness of snakes and dragons in European culture), and Saruman straight-up calls him "Worm". His paleness, heavy "hooded" eyelids and long pale tongue give him a reptilian air.
    • Imrahil is associated with swans. The symbol of the fiefdom of Dol Amroth is the Silver Swan. It's also heavily reinforced by the name given to Dol Amroth Knights: The Knights of the Silver Swan.
  • The Silmarillion: Manwë, the High King of Arda, is associated with winds, airs and birds. One of his titles is the Lord of the Eagles, and bids of prey are constantly acting as his messengers and agents.
  • Beren and Lúthien: Sauron is the Lord of the Wolves and constantly associated to them. He commands an army of wolves and werewolves, renamed the fortress of Minas Tirith to Tol-in-Gaurhoth ("Isle of Werewolves") after conquering it, and transforms into a giant wolf to try to kill Huan the Wolfhound.
  • The Fall of Gondolin: Tuor is often guided by swans, wears a helmet bedecked with swan feathers and a shield bearing the device of a white swan on a blue field, and becomes the lord of the House of the Wing.
• Toradora! frequently uses a Tiger Versus Dragon motif. The title uses the Japanese word for tiger, tora, and the Japanese romanization of dragon, dora(gon). The two main characters' names also tie into the trope; Ryuuji's name contains the kanji for "dragon", while Taiga's name means "great river" but sounds a lot like the English word "tiger". In episode 3 of the anime adaptation, Ryuuji explicitly states that the dragon and the tiger were the only two animals that could truly be equals. Indeed, the two spend much of the series as perfectly matched rivals or relying on each other. Incidentally, Ryuuji is tall and has threatening delinquent's eyes, but is good at cooking and domestic chores (calm disposition), whereas Taiga is tiny and adorable ... but has a fiery temper, is rude and willing to start fights or cause injury over the smallest conflict, and has issues with social interaction (the tiger's bluntness and hardheadedness).
• Several times in the Tortall Universe by Tamora Pierce.
  • Song of the Lioness stars a female knight called Alanna, who gains the appellation "The Lioness" because of her courage and tenacity.
  • Her daughter, Aly, is a clever girl who likes to joke around. She learns how to talk to crows early in the plot, befriends the crow gods, and eventually falls in love with a crow shapeshifted into a man.
  • In the Beka Cooper books, the proto-police force adopts the disparaging nickname "Dogs", call their watchouses "Kennels", and their trainees "Puppies", as they find the connotations of a loyal hunter/tracker to be highly appropriate. Beka is also nicknamed after a breed of hunting dog for her actions in each book as a Title Drop.
• Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen:
  • One of the sets of Arc Words for the series is Elisabeth's catchphrase "I am the proud wolf and the lowly sow." She expounds on it further at one point: "Having lived the cruel and haughty life of a wolf, I shall die like a lowly sow. For that is the choice I made." In the manga she's also occasionally drawn with perky dog ears when especially happy (such as the first time she tries Kaito's custard pudding).
  • The Kaiser, the mightiest of the fourteen ranked demons, generally takes the form of a gigantic black hound.
• Touching Spirit Bear: In Ghost of Spirit Bear, the homeless man has motifs of the Spirit Bear. The man appears on-and-off and disappears quickly like the Spirit Bear, is quite mysterious, and just stares at Cole and Peter. And he has a lifelike bear carving of him, too.
  • Cole represents his school with the Spirit Bear, as he changes the school just like the Spirit Bear changed him. The Spirit Bear eventually becomes the new mascot.
• Violet Evergarden: The titular character is associated with dogs, due to her habit to bite things, loyalty, and work ethic.
• Virtuous Sons: A Greco-Roman Xianxia has several examples:
  • As his namesake, Griffon is associated with lions and eagles.
  • The Tyrant Elders of the Raging Heaven employ a number of agents to undercut each other as they struggle for the vacant Indigo Throne. Naturally, these black-clad midnight agents are referred to as crows.
  • Following a series of altercations where they preyed on the crows, both Griffon and Solus are associated with ravens.
• These come up a lot in Way of Choices. Xu Yourong has the blood (and powers) of the phoenix, Qiu Shan the dragon, and Nanke the peacock. While it's a lot less emphasized, a cicada keeps popping up around the protagonist Chen Changshang.
• In the Indian novel The White Tiger: The "tiger" part represents the idea of strength and ruthlessness, while the "white" refers to willingness to be different from others and break from all conventions. A few other characters have animal motifs related to them, most notably the landlords of the village of Laxmangarh.
• Worm:
  • Taylor (the protagonist) is noted by other characters to be like the insects she controls. Both positive and negative meanings are in play here — insects are creepy, potentially poisonous, and on the bottom of the food chain. But they're also tough, versatile creatures, talented at working in groups and creating useful things like honey and silk. Taylor shows nearly all of these traits over the novel's course.
  • The character Bitch controls dogs, and due to a traumatic childhood, thinks and acts like a particularly intelligent one. She essentially considers her pet dogs family (and is deeply touched when Siberian gives her a wolf cub) but is generally not great with humans.
• Wulfrik: Wulfrik has a bit of a wolf motif, in case you couldn't guess from his name being Old Norse for 'power of the wolf.' Though he primarily got his name from his birth-mutation (Chaos mutations tend to be common amongst the Norscans as a result of the winds that blow down from the Chaos Wastes in the north) being that his teeth are unnaturally strong and sharp (he's able to bite through iron), much like those of a wolf. A lot of comparison is drawn between his habits (primarily his movements in battle) and those of wolves, his laugh is also said to resemble a wolf worrying at a bone.