Welcome to World-building Wednesday again! :D Here we are with another Anonymous question about the World of Lion Soul, my creative collaboration with @yliseryn:
Anonymous said: Just a quick question: Do lion souls spar in their lion forms? And if not how do they become skilled in fighting in their lion forms?
Do you have a question about Hunter culture, or just regular human culture? More questions about the prides? Other animal souls? Religions and belief systems? Characters’ backgrounds (though if it’s spoilery, I won’t be able to answer)? Anything else your little heart wants to know about? Feel free to ask! :D I am happy to have them!
Next answer will go up Wednesday, September 27! For now, let’s discuss Lion Form:
Lion souls are taught how to fight in both human and warrior forms, and sparring with partners is part of learning that. There is no formal “combat” training for lion form, however, because it’s not meant as a combat form.
Lion form is most useful for traveling and certain types of hunting. (And, as some would say, sleeping).
The sharper senses of lion form are helpful for detecting and stalking prey, but once you have the animal in your sights, it’s generally better to bring them down with a bow and arrow to preserve as much of the meat as possible for return to the camp. On longer hunts, a lion soul might kill small game for their own consumption as a lion (and eat it that way as well – they prefer cooked meat but can and will eat it raw if they need to) and then return to human form to kill the game meant to be brought back.
That being said, most lion souls do know how to fight in their lion forms, but that mostly comes from playing as cubs. Play-fighting/wrestling is a common activity once a cub learns how to shift. It is sparring in a sense, but it’s less formalized and structured.
Lion form is almost never used in combat. If a lion soul wanted to kill a human (who wasn’t a Hunter), they might go ahead and take lion form, because it will do the job easily enough. Lion souls spend the majority of their time in their human form, but the form they shift to most often after that is their lion form. Warrior form is basically an “only if you have to” sort of thing, or, at least, that’s the mentality around it. So if you can go to your next most comfortable form and eliminate the threat, why wouldn’t you?
Given that lion souls do not generally attack humans anymore – or, if they are, they’re attacking Hunters, who are much more dangerous – they usually aren’t using lion form in combat. So I will take a moment here to discuss Allura’s using it in chapter 3.
Allura made a strategic decision to go into battle as a lion against warrior-form Lotor because it would differentiate her from him in the eyes of the humans. She had to show herself as their ally, not Lotor’s; she had to be easily distinguished from him. Lotor’s fur is pale gold, and hers is white. In the shadows of the forest canopy and the heat of battle, would the “Hunter cubs” (as Allura thought of them at the time) be able to tell the difference? She wanted to be sure that they didn’t accidentally target her; all damage needed to be done to Lotor. (And she likely also knew that any harm coming to her would reflect badly on them in the eyes of her father; Shiro’s trying to make peace, and she doesn’t want to unravel his hard work.)
So, despite knowing that it would put her at a significant disadvantage against Lotor, she banked on the fact that he was injured already and that she’d have five silver-armed allies to fight alongside her. We don’t get to see much of her thought process in the story, sadly. I wanted to preserve the surprise element of her arrival. But this is very much a deliberate choice she made because she views it as the right thing to do even if it puts herself in greater danger. It’s worth the risk. Very like Allura in canon.
And, of course, it adds another layer of surprise for Shiro, another reason for him to worry about her, and, of course, makes for some kickass art.
