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Post by celestialsquared on Oct 1, 2012 19:07:16 GMT -6
I've noticed that a lot of roleplayers love to use the -feather suffix after a bird prefix, but no one is entirely sure what it's supposed to mean. To me, it's just like the -wing suffix; everyone loves to use it with a certain prefix and although it sounds "pretty", no one knows what to make of it.
In canon, there's only two cats I know of that have the -feather suffix: Crowfeather and Jayfeather. Crowfeather wanted this name in memory of Feathertail and I speculate that Leafpool named Jayfeather in memory of Crowfeather. These cats have relatively the same personality, so does -feather mean a witty, sharp tongued cat? This is quite different than what most roleplayers try to portray their -feather cats as.
Pfft, apparently there is another cat with the -feather suffix in the super editions. But the super editions have such bad examples of names that I chose to omit that.
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Post by cloudbat on Oct 1, 2012 20:18:09 GMT -6
Feather is just...I don't know, I've always seen it as a useless suffix. Let's say Crowfeather had been named that purely for no other reason than his leader did so. Why? It could imply several things: he has feathers like a crow, he uses feathers like a crow, or has a feather-y personality. The first two are obviously impossible and the latter...I have no idea what a feathery personality is like, so no. If it's describing his appearance alone, then duh, his color is like the feathers of a crow. I think that's evident.
That's my 2 cents.
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vbfdoee
Young Warrior
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Posts: 158
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Post by vbfdoee on Oct 1, 2012 20:22:33 GMT -6
It's a similar matter to Leafpool's suffix. Crowfeather's name was in honor of a specific circumstance. Tallstar was kind of ill-advised to give him that suffix anyway, and any other cat with -feather is inexcusable.
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Post by mistytail on Oct 1, 2012 20:50:02 GMT -6
-feather isn't even symbolic of anything. -stream is for swimming, -leaf is for exceptional medicine cats, but -feather is just... why.
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Post by celestialsquared on Oct 1, 2012 20:57:40 GMT -6
Why? It could imply several things: he has feathers like a crow, he uses feathers like a crow, or has a feather-y personality. It really should be scrapped. I hate whenever comes on my boards with a -feather cat, it's just filler because there's no way I can interpret it. What a waste of space. |
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Post by cloudbat on Oct 1, 2012 21:07:25 GMT -6
To Vbf:
Agreed.
To Misty:
I'm iffy on -leaf myself, but yeah.
To Celestial:
That must suck. My condolences. :c
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Post by Grey on Oct 2, 2012 3:21:52 GMT -6
From my experience, the people who choose -feather as a suffix for their characters have one of the following meanings in mind:
- a long-haired pelt
or
- a soft and gentle personality
or
- are very light on their feet.
I assume the latter two are due to the idiomatic usage of "light as a feather". However, for a traditionalist such as myself, -feather is unnecessary as the personality type does not need a suffix (though it is often accompanied by -cloud) and the ability is addressed by -tail and -whisker (in differing ways).
The idea of feathers as universally pretty things is just human Romanticism. I doubt cats would have the same appreciation, and would certainly not believe that feathers or fur have anything in common. For one thing, only tail and flight feathers are long - cats would know there are more than those kinds of feathers on a bird, as they feed on them. For another thing, many types of wild birds are often riddled with lice and other nasty things, and their feathers are no more clean or neat than the skins or pelts of any other animals.
-feather is not a suffix that is going to fly by my standards, that's for sure.
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Post by cloudbat on Oct 2, 2012 9:24:25 GMT -6
Very true, Grey. We can't interject things into viewpoints that wouldn't naturally be there.
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Post by celestialsquared on Oct 2, 2012 9:40:01 GMT -6
The idea of feathers as universally pretty things is just human Romanticism. I doubt cats would have the same appreciation, and would certainly not believe that feathers or fur have anything in common. I think that's a viewpoint largely unexplored by roleplayers, Grey. It seems that just because there's considerable anthropomorphism in the books, then they are able to pretend that cats have the same thoughts and ideas that humans do. They forget that the world is supposed to be seen through a cat's perspective; I doubt a cat wants to be completely named after its prey. I mean, its a cat. It doesn't fly, it doesn't have wings, and it certainly doesn't have feathers. |
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Post by Grey on Oct 2, 2012 9:43:53 GMT -6
That is an expletive pity, because that is seriously one of the best parts about writing non-human characters, from my experience at least.
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Post by cloudbat on Oct 2, 2012 10:17:16 GMT -6
Fully seconded, Grey.
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Post by Lady Ten on Oct 2, 2012 14:02:24 GMT -6
- feather is not a suffix that is going to fly by my standards, that's for sure. Grey, you're killing me. |
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Post by Grey on Oct 2, 2012 20:41:34 GMT -6
I literally just rested my head on my hand and smiled at the screen. Appropriate response, methinks.
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