# Animals as Emotions?



## gabriel lockhart (Mar 1, 2017)

I was kicking around an idea of a summoner but the things she summons are her emotions that take the form of animals. So my question is what animal, fictional or real would suit a certain emotion? Like a spider or snake for fear as they are the most common phobia.


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## The Fantastical (Mar 1, 2017)

That would depend on what you to do with the idea. 

Do you want it to be a universal association between animal and emotion? 

Do you want it to be a more personal association between animal and emotion in the characters life? If you do this it could open up ways to reveal a lot about the character at the moment summoning. Is for her today fear curled ball or a slithery feeling in her stomach or is it a great big growling bear of a fear? Is her happiness today, a bright spark of happiness, (a parrot maybe? A bright splash of colour) or is it a great overwhelming whale of a happiness? (coming from the saying "having a whale of a time")

Do you want it to be a more practical kind of magic where she uses her emotions to create animal forms? She could then control what animal it is which is more practical but you have another interesting dynamic starting; where she could loses that emotion over time if she summons to many animals. You could make it so that the bigger, fiercer, the animal the more emotion she has to use and a higher price she has to pay for her power. 

Do you want the animals to serve a purpose closer to that of the Daemons in _The Golden Compass_ (is a 2007 British-American fantasy-adventure film based on Northern Lights, the first novel in _Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials._)? But where it changes shape as a physical and ever changing expression of her emotions? In which case see questions one and two, universal or personal? 

Hope those help!


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## K.S. Crooks (Mar 3, 2017)

A consideration is do the animals speak or communicate in some manner with people. What are their powers or weaknesses. Perhaps chose animals that don't fit conventional ideas of the emotions. You could even make the animals feel insulted by the way in which people envision them ex: wise owl, sly fox, scaredy cat, cheeky monkey.


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## Bard_Daniel (Mar 4, 2017)

Some good advice already offered here. You are dealing in the realm of ideas and there really is no wrong choice-- I think. 

I just wanted to say that it sounds like a good idea. You could really get a lot out of it if you work out the idea carefully.

Just my two cents! 

Cheers!


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## ed45 (Mar 29, 2017)

I like this idea.

In what I imagined, while reading your post, the summoner would be like a shaman that had many animal spirit guides. He had to meet them first, through a ritual.
During this first ritual, the shaman would see/meet each animals but wouldn't need any indication as to what emotion they represent because he would feel them himself and know.
He needs to tame all of his guides (or rather the emotions), before he becomes a real summoner.

If I was that shaman, a wolf would be anger. But for other, it would be a tiger.

For Batman, fear would be bats! And once he tamed it, he used it.

*Note that I'm not into Shamanism and I know almost nothing of it.
I'm aware that I'm not giving any good advice, just having fun with your idea


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