Every now and then, implacable foes meet each other and fight for ultimate dominance. Light and dark. Good and evil. Fire and ice. Matter and anti-matter. Lions and tigers.
Obviously, this post is about the last one.
Lions and tigers are each completely convinced that they are the most important, biggest, and most bad-ass cats around. Each of them has a legitimate claim: lions are generally acknowledged to be the kings of beasts, but tigers are larger. Both groups take the rivalry equally seriously, although in different ways. There is no room for compromise, and they get a bit annoyed if you try to remain neutral.
Lions obtained their title because they're of generally steadier and more serious temperaments; they're also more social, and their internal cohesion does give them a bit of an advantage. Tigers are scrappier and wilder, as well as larger, which means that they're less disciplined even though they're a bit more aggressive. They're also largely solitary, except in mating season. To use a handy D&D metaphor, lions are lawful and tigers are chaotic. One suspects that this is as much a part of their enmity as the whole status thing. Even if jaguars were bigger, lions and tigers would probably still hate each other's guts on principle.
Since we acquired the new lion, the feud has been introduced to our chapter of the Wild Republic. Rusty and the lion are more or less the same age, which is probably for the best; it means they're equals, and if one or the other ends up dominant, it will be on the basis of merit. So far it doesn't seem that either of them has an edge; we've seen them wrestling a few times, and they're pretty equally matched. The wrestling matches tend to end with the two of them lying on their backs side by side with their feet in the air, which is kind of adorable.
Our lion and tiger are pretty representative of the Epic Feud as a whole, so they make a useful case study. Rusty is kind of a bully, sad to say. He's very aggressive - he even likes to chew on us sometimes, and he's always pouncing on people, just for the hell of it. He really wants everyone to acknowledge him as the top cat, and he's totally convinced that tigers really ought to be the kings of beasts instead of silly boring old lions. Rusty is rather endearing in his own way, but it's kind of in spite of himself. Skandar (the white tiger) is not dissimilar, although he's mature enough that he's more likely to mouth off to people than randomly pounce on them. If you provoke Skandar, though, he'll go after you. Tigers are hot-heads. Casper, the older tiger, is more of a gentleman (I think he's a different sub-species from the other two), but he's still pretty snarky even if he's more genteel about it, and I bet he was a lot different in his younger years. Tigers are bad boys.
Our lion, on the other hand, is a law-abiding fellow who is cheerfully planning to go to grad school (never mind that he's not yet in middle school) in order to make himself as educated and informed as possible when it's his turn to lead a pride. He's a solemn, earnest little fellow, kind of a gentle giant. Last night we discovered that he's learning Yiddish (I'm sure Desmond is delighted), not because he's Jewish (he's Buddhist, of course) but because it will add to his experience and make him a better lion. You see what I mean? He's basically an overachieving boy scout, except when his anti-tiger instincts kick in.
It kind of reminds me of The Outsiders, you know? Or something like that.
Personally, I kind of think lions deserve their royal status, because they're much more aware of the responsibilities placed upon them. Nothing worse than a negligent, entitled royal, right? But I've always kind of had a thing for tigers. It's partly because they're stripy and partly because I have a major weakness for bad boys.
If you're a wild feline who is neither a lion nor a tiger, one of the truths you're taught very early on is that choosing sides in this epic battle is not really a good idea, all things considered. Naturally some of them do have obvious preferences. Cami, being both shy and intellectually inclined, gets on much better with the lion; their personalities are more alike, and the lion is less likely to randomly pounce on him. Sir Tristan rather prefers lions on a general principle, mostly because he's from the Wild Parlimentary Monarchy. But they're both careful to remain as officially neutral as possible, even though lions and tigers have little patience with this.
The others are either more evenly split or less invested. Flurry really doesn't care; he's too young. Mahler, older than both of them, professes not to care, but has a slight inclination towards Rusty as a fellow Asian cat. Khamsin's stance is the most nuanced and interesting: he's inclined towards the lion, since they're both Africans and have a certain ancestral affinity; but he's also inclined towards Rusty, because tigers are more physical, and cheetahs are the most athletic of all the cat species.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. The adults have very little patience with the lion/tiger feud, and as far as they're concerned, the main reason a baby lion and tiger were both sent here was to foster mutual tolerance within the Republic. They're likely to try to get Rusty and the lion to cooperate with each other, or even become friends. Apparently it's not unheard of for odd love-hate friendships to crop up between lions and tigers in this way. It's far too soon to tell whether this will be the case for our chapter, but Alfredo is not one to underestimate.
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