#skybax

[sirfowlman]

Found this wonderfully animated ad for the first Dinotopia book.

It was directed by the late C. Martin Croker of Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Brak Show fame. Seeing this ad makes me wish there was a proper animated adaptation of the Dinotopia books.

[best-fictional-marine-reptile]

Swoop [Transformers] vs. Skybax [Dinotopia]

Propaganda (if any) under the cut! Please be civil, and feel free to reblog!

Propaganda for Swoop [Transformers]:

"Most of the dinobots (yes, I know he's not a dinosaur, yes, it bothers me too) are difficult to get along with and don't like to listen to others but Swoop is actually pretty chill. He talks in third person and is surprisingly cute for a giant robot."

Propaganda for Skybax [Dinotopia]:

None submitted.

[flygonscales]

Might just be the similar shape but before I recognised the heron this really reminded me of this Dinotopia illustration of a skybax mask used in theatre:

heron puppet in progress

[pulpsandcomics2]

Skybax Rider

[fistfuloflightning]

more Dinotopia shots

[nerdgatehobbit]

Dinotopia Poll

There are descriptions for locations below, I couldn't figure out how to summarize them within the poll listings.

1- A Hatchery. There are baby dinosaurs to take care of! Farms are in the surrounding area. This one is probably cheating a bit as it's not a specific place, but a hatchery relatively close to the shoreline is the Denisons' introduction to Dinotopian society. Also, it bears repeating: baby dinosaurs.

2- Pooktook. Admittedly it's one of the lesser described cities, but it got a vibrant, bustling panorama. There is an implication there's a thriving craft industry, but that's the norm for Dinotopian locations.

3- Volcaneum. A town set in a caldera, there's a notable focus on metalworking. Like Pooktook, the specifics aren't dwelled on. It's probably a bit more industrial than the rest of Dinotopia, but that's a very low bar.

4- Waterfall City. This is likely the city first thought of when Dinotopia as a franchise gets mentioned, given its stunning visuals in multiple books and its focus in the TV series. The canals are a major method of getting around, but there are also plenty of bridges. Gliding and narrow paths are the ways in and out of the city. The city itself has a library, theaters, gardens (including a hedge maze), observatories, hot baths, a rare flower house, concert halls, and a Haven of the Muses (it seems to be more of a gathering place for various artist types than a school).

5- Hadro Swamp. No specific settlement is named in the main books that I caught, but the imagery used is memorable (to me, at least). It's probably a slow-paced way of living. There are regular concerts held by humans and, well, hadrosaurs (no surprise there). Reed boats are used for travel.

6- Treetown. Don't go here if you're afraid of heights, but if you loved the Ewok village in Return of the Jedi, this is the place for you. North of the Backbone Mountains and the Rainy Basin, Treetown is a relatively small community. There are plenty of sauropods. I'm not sure if it's specific to Arthur or not, but there is plenty of botany that can be researched here.

7- Cornucopia. It hosts the regular Dinosaur Olympics, where youths (saurian and human alike) prove that they've undergone physical training. It's implied that mental growth, especially in regards to teamwork, is also tested here. It's relatively close to Treetown, so both locations are near the Deep Lake.

8- Canyon City. Again, don't go here if heights are a concern. The primary Skybax Rider rookery is here as a result. However, there is a "network of trails and bridges" for the rest of the population that don't ride Skybaxes. Stone apartments are either carved out of the stone itself or constructed under ledges; windows are papered over rather than having glass. Nearby are farms growing primarily cotton, peppers, and squashes. Deeper in the canyon itself are the Sentinels that mark the entrance to the World Beneath.

9- Thermala (or another 'summit village'). A bad option if you dislike the cold and snow, as it's up in the Forbidden Mountains. Ice Age mammals are a common sight here- primarily the herbivores, but the sabertooths do have their own isolated caverns they dwell in. Sky Galleys bring supplies regularly. They tend to be one sprawling stone structure with rooms linked by passages. Mammoth-sized rooms are tunneled/carved into the mountains. Speaking of which, shed mammoth fur is spun into cloth. Music, cooking, and puppetry are common activities.

10- Sauropolis. The capital city of the island, so even on Dinotopia politics are a thing. Gardens and theaters are common. Street bands travel on dinosaurs. Due to being at a river delta, there are canals here as well (possibly part of why the TV show might have elevated the mayor of Waterfall City into a major political figure). Bicycle taxis are used to get around by many and sauropods act as school buses. There are cafes and fashion is a more important aspect of life here than in most other locations.

11- Bonabba. A small farming village with pod-shaped buildings, located near Moss Valley and Bogpeat Mash. It's used as a starting point for sauropod convoys crossing the Rainy Basin so there are large barns nearby. There are definitely spring festivals, and it's likely there are ones for the other seasons as well. Puppets and masks are used on a regular basis.

This isn't a complete list, especially as I deliberately left off the titular city of the third main book (Chandara) given its isolationist status. Being a homebody is going to be a personal choice here. Anyway, I'm curious to see what you all pick, especially those of you who are only hearing about these Dinotopian locales via this poll (which is why there are lengthy explanations).

[gallusrostromegalus]

I feel like if someone were to ever make "Jurassic Park But Instead Of Charismatic And Profitable Dinos They Were Just Re-Creating The Worst Hits Of The Mesooic Because Fuck You" this guy would occupy a place in the narrative similar to the raptors in that it strikes me as an animal that is way, way smarter than you'd guess, and able to get into places you wouldn't think it could.

...And if you gave all the beasties human speech devices like the dogs in Up! had, that they would sound EXACTLY like the Put Baby In Pelican Mouth monologue.

Hi! Love your blog! Wondering if you have any cool facts about quetzalcóatlus? I love prehistoric babies!

if you're a 90's kid like I was, probably your first exposure to the idea of the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus was through the Dinotopia books! though the author/artist, James Gurney, did nickname them "Skybaxes" for the ease of young readers.

this gave us a beautiful picture of an amazing animal that we would later discover was, EXTREMELY misleading.

see, the first book was released in 1992, back when we only had a few wing bones to describe Quetzalcoatlus! they hinted at the existence of a giant pterosaur with the wingspan of a small plane, but they didn't offer much detail:

this is what James Gurney was working off of when he created the Skybax, and you can totally see where he came from! he basically took the body plan of known pterosaurs like Pteranodon and scaled it UP to match the size of the new fossils.

but over the next several years, new fossils of Quetzalcoatlus were being discovered, described, and cataloged, enough that Gurney created a new Quetzalcoatlus for his second Dinotopia book that was outright stated to be Quetzalcoatlus Northropi, which is the name of the actual animal these bones belong to!

so sized up even bigger, same body plan.

and then in the early 2000's, some very interesting discoveries started to be made about Quetzalcoatlus and its relatives! turns out that they were a bunch of giraffe-sized storkmonster predators that could probably 1v1 a T Rex.

shown here life size!

so needless to say, this was a bit of a shock.

but MAN. just goes to show, if you can imagine an animal, nature already made something 1000% crazier and more badass. and it probably wants to eat you.

[phantastische-illustrationen]

Skybax Academy (James Gurney)

[lesbioniclepod]

Episode 7: The Mata Nui Online Game but the AI is Self-Aware

Spotify/iTunes

(episode recorded in May 2023, as the incredibly topical British monarchy jokes will show)

Breakroom 95 Theses

Charles’ Coronation

Regular Hessian vs. Canadian Revolutionary

Taipu and Nausicaä Experience the Beauty of Le-Koro

Blue Mask Gender Thesis

it is with heavy heart that I must announce: we did not do an “of course you have a blue mask and pronouns” joke, but we should’ve.

Kongu Backstory

Gukko Piloting

Dinotopia Reminisces

the skybax rider game has later been confirmed to be a dream

Lewa’s Calm Me Down From Possession Kink

Taipu’s Transgender Allegory

Spraying Kids With The Podcast Hose

Tren Krom Mind Break

The Toa Mata Hold An Intervention

Nac Mac Feegle Gender vs. Matoran Gender/Tiffany Aching’s Bionicles

Nokama’s Vtuber Gimmick

Makuta and the Franklin Expedition

we have now both since watched the terror

Do Bionicles Cook?

The Ultimate Question

Bionicle Amaat

We Learn About the Great Spirit

Incredible Crab Violence

Maryland v. Maritimes

Canceled For Crab Crimes

Kinnie Nui

Moushley and Stuart Little

Revachol-Metru

Tantalizing Glimpses of Bionicle Cuisine

The Jeb Bush of Mata Nui

Crab-Based Horrors Within Our Comprehension

Trans-Supportive Whenua

Kapura Autism Powers

The Chronicler’s (Autistic) Company

THE TOA ARE HERE

Disquisition on Bionicle Yuri v. Yaoi

Every Matoran And Also Nausicaä Is Gay For Gali

Live Reporting From The MNOG Trenches, 1:51:00 to 2:01:30

Thigh Gaps, But Not In The Way You Think

Bionicle Philosophy

Makuta Is Medium-Aware

ET IN ARCADIA VRISKA

We Both Get Really Emotional About The End Of MNOG

[wild-aspen]

So I picked up a book at Penn Station the other day and I'm really enjoying it.

It's called Fourth Wing, and it's by Rebecca Yarros. It's part of a series, apparently. I know nothing about it, like I said, I literally picked it up because it passed by "random book" selection process.

(The cover and title intrigued me, and the excerpt on the back and the inner synopsis were interesting. The final test is I open up to a random page (near the beginning) and begin reading. If I keep reading for more than a page, I know I want it)

Anyway, lemme tell you what it's about! The main character, Violet, is disabled. Using modern world language, her condition seems really similar to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome; she has weak ligaments, extra flexibility, is constantly dislocating her joints, things like that. She's been training her whole life to become a scribe... but her mother is a high ranking powerful dragon rider.

Oh yeah, there's dragons in this. And people ride them. There's a fantasy war taking place on the borders, there was a quelled rebellion within the borders, etc etc.

Most folks who want to become dragon riders train for it for years - physical training, combat training, etc. Becoming a dragon rider is in and of itself an incredibly dangerous path, and the training is incredibly deadly; something like only 1/4 of the students who enter come out alive. Students are encouraged to try to murder each other; many of the physical tasks and tests can kill them, and the dragons may decide to kill them.

Violet's mother decides suddenly that Violet is not going to become a scribe, she's going to become a dragon rider, because all of her children must become dragon riders. Violet's eldest sibling was her brother, but he died as a rider. Her second oldest sibling is her sister, who survived and is currently a rider. And now it's Violet's turn.

Violet has to navigate the dangerous world of the rider's quadrant, train her body as best she can, and use her brain when she can't physically cut it in order to survive. A lot of people want to kill her for multiple reasons, one of the main ones being that the riders are culturally extremely ableist, so they see Violet as a weak link to be eliminated. It's expected that even if one of her classmates doesn't manage to kill her, the dragons probably will.

Oh yeah, and the adults who lead the squashed rebellion? They were all killed, and their children were sent to the rider school as punishment, because it's so deadly. Unfortunately, a lot of those kids are doing rather well and surviving... and they hate Violet too, since her mother helped destroy the uprising and killed lots of their parents.

It feels like several parts Hunger Games combined with the Skybax training from Dinotopia. I'm having a good time so far!

[thezanyarthropleura]

rewatching the Dinotopia 13-episode miniseries and just wanted to say I concur with a lot of your takes. Hopefully it's ok to infodump about it in your askbox?

26 is adorable and heart-stealing (as is Karl's love for her) and she still looks so lifelike even after 20 years since the show's airing--the combination of lower-tech puppetry and higher-tech animatronics just hits perfectly. I just want to hold her and carry her around and tickle her little head. I feel weird calling her 'lifelike' considering none of us have seen Chasmosaurs(sp?) in the flesh, but the way she blinks and shakes her head and squeals just feels authentic somehow?

'Contact' is one of my favourite episodes as well, as it legitimises this version of Karl who in earlier episodes risked coming across as trivial/annoying/shallow (I love this Karl fwiw, more than the previous 'better' series' take). The connection between Karl & Gracie is so touching and raw, and it seems like the most important thing that happened to Karl at that stage in his life, as well as a turning point in the way he relates to female peers. While I am a fan of Karl's himbo side, I appreciated seeing him finally show expertise and determination in something other than mixing drinks and flirting and wheeler-dealing, as well--after all, he's Frank's favourite son and an adventurer in his own right, why shouldn't he be capable? (we also saw his resourcefulness in 'Lose & Found').

As for Lesage, your thoughts about her past relationship with Rosemary really have me thinking as well. The reference to their fling was so fleeting that I missed it first time around, but it's definitely critical to understanding both their characters imo. Lesage definitely seems the free-spirited fiery rebellious type to run off with a woman to have sapphic adventures in the wild, even if it took said sapphic partner to bring that out of her (and it's SO interesting that Rosemary was *Lesage's* closet key). What would Dinotopia make of lesbians disrupting their natural order and their status quo? (upon which they rely for their coveted peace...) The mind reels. And I agree about the relief and pleasant surprise that this mature dark woman wasn't 'tamed' or domesticated in the storyline's conclusion, it would have been so banal if the series went that route. She clearly isn't the type who wants a traditional family, a secure home or a regular Joe older man with kids.

That said, I must confess to wanting Lesage coupled with David, as I've noticed that from their very first meeting there is deliberate tension and foreshadowing included to put them in a shippy light, and their personalities/chemistry really spark and pop off the screen more than any other pairing (probably why the actors/character got a 2-hander episode to themselves?). Also, in-keeping with 'Lesage does what she wants and breaks the mold', I think Lesage would LIVE for scandalising Dinotopia by taking their Skybax Squadron Commander/favourite Offworlder and seducing him. David for his part would go willingly I think, as he seems captivated and chagrined by Lesage, more than he is by Marion (who imo he *wants* to want and thinks he should want romantically/sexually, but deep down doesn't). David for his part clearly needs a challenge and a foil to get the most out of his life, and Lesage offers that in spades. Where are the fics is what I wanna know

Am still combing over a few of the episodes in more detail, but overall I enjoy it so much despite all the inaccuracies and how off-model and off-book it is, and for the time you can see how it broke some new ground. It's pacey, it's a good time, it's got a little bit of everything from drama to adventure to fantasy to anarchohistory/steampunk. The story and characters remind me of Xena in the way you can read them in a campy/fun way or a serious way, and it works either way. Idk why it isn't on streaming and remastered, though the selfish gatekeeping part of me is kind of glad it's not exposed like that..

Always ok!

I do wish we got more of 26 in The Cure Part 2 that wasn't plot-mandated immobility, because that small bit at the end of Part 1 where she's doing her little scamper around on modern sidewalks is such a cute and defining moment for the series and I would've loved to see her run around through crowds or make an escape through the museum. I'd say even her CGI is some of the best-looking now, probably because of working with an easier scale (although I feel like dated CGI is always going to look like dated CGI, and so try to judge it more on whether or not it emotionally connects, and 26 definitely does).

They say it like "Chasmiosaur" in the show but the dinosaur is spelled Chasmosaur/Chasmosaurus. It's real interesting that both the live-action and book versions of Dinotopia used lesser-known ceratopsians instead of the obvious triceratops.

Agreed on Karl, sketchy/sleazy relationship drama is SO not my thing and I'd say I was only tolerating it for the dinosaurs, but the way this show does it is just so over-the-top that I can't help but be at least a little entertained. Night of the Wartosa is fun to watch in an uncomfortable train wreck sense, because we see Karl at his worst and it's so agonizing, but at the end of the day it's self-aware, it's intended as a wake-up call, and we're meant to be rooting for him to become a better person and laughing at him along the way. And by Contact, we're shown he can be serious when it counts, and his story takes a deeper turn into the heartfelt that solidifies his arc.

Since it's Hallmark, I'm sure they'd find a way to make even the dinosaurs scandalized by anything non-straight. "Why yes, our ancient society founded primarily by non-humans, with its own code of conduct distinct from other world philosophies, has the same puritan sensibilities as early 2000s daytime television." I guess there's a small chance the show actually did mean they only considered themselves sisters, and that very obvious pause didn't mean anything at all, I guess we'll never know *shrug* (but since it was a show cancelled after one season, I'm gonna say that from the 2020s we can go ahead and retroactively assume it must've had lesbians).

Freely admit that if I didn't pick up on anything hinting LeSage/David, it's probably because I only really have shipping goggles for f/f relationships, and also carry around the associated 'just friends' goggles for what are often clearly intended het pairings. To each their own, I suppose, and to both of us, the tragedy of liking a piece of media that very few people have ever seen, and even fewer have seen in any way that made them think of it positively. Highly doubt the internet 20 years after the fact would have much appreciation for my 'LeSage x pachycephalosaurus chariot driver OC' daydream musings but you can bet that's probably what I'm thinking about every time I hear "Fast Car."

Oh, if this show was on streaming, people would expect WAY too much from it. It's in the backwoods of Youtube and on cheap DVDs, and I feel like that's it's natural habitat. I can only really imagine people truly liking this if it's a formative memory, they found it in some obscure corner on a rainy day and gave it a chance only half-seriously, or the rare case where they wanted to watch a dinosaur show enough to turn it on but were secretly looking for... this. It's such a fun time, but I feel like for most, you'd need to know what you're in for or it just won't click.

[fivemetersofawesome]

OUUUGHH I WAS THINKING OF A DINOTOPIA AU FOR SBI RECENTLY WHAAA

My AU I was gonna take creative liberties and have Techno grow up in the Rainy Basin with a carnivore group (Allosaurs maybe?) , but either way 🤝 Techno being native to Dinotopia while the others aren’t brainwaves

Such a big brain move to have Brian as a microraptorrr. Will Phil end up being a Skybax rider :0?

LETS GOOO DINOTOPIA SUPREMACY!!

I love that so much <33 Techno would hang out with the carnivores you’re so right. In my au he does a bunch of odd jobs around the island, and one of those includes navigating and guiding people through carnivore territory! I did change a few things to how the Dinotopia world works- namely what gets eaten.

Dead bodies aren’t buried, they’re given a memorial by family/loved ones and are brought to the carnivore territories to be eaten (transporting bodies is one of the jobs Techno does, which has got him quite the reputation). I’ve also declared that the residents of Dinotopia eat bugs and occasionally unfertilized bird eggs because people need protein gdi.

Tbh, I didn’t even consider Phil becoming a Skybax rider, but now I can’t think of anything else. I’ll have to draw that when I get the time!!

[best-fictional-marine-reptile]

Skybax [Dinotopia] vs. Elsa [We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story]

Propaganda (if any) under the cut! Please be civil, and feel free to reblog!

Propaganda for Skybax [Dinotopia]:

None submitted.

Propaganda for Elsa [We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story]:

None submitted.

[tumorhead]

QUETZALCOATLUS RIDING MENTIONED!! POST DINOTOPIA SKYBAX RIDERS

You can have any animal for a pet. Any complications such as “keeping the animal healthy and happy” and “the time and effort it would take to keep happy and healthy pet” and “keeping yourself uneaten” and “the pet I want is kind of extinct” have all been solved perfectly. You don’t have to think of that.

What is your pet?

[pulpsandcomics2]

Skybax Rider

[eremji]

Fic Questions Meme

How do you come up with the titles for your fics?

Is there anything worse than writing a title? Can I interest you in an action scene instead?

2. Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

cw: abuse (and the fic itself addresses pretty dark shit)

each lovely phrase (E) - Outlast - Eddie Gluskin/Waylon Park.

This is a weird vehicle for it, but this was written in part after my experience losing my abusive father to terminal illnesses without receiving any kind of resolution to my grief and anger. My situation was nowhere near as severe as the POV character's – my experience was entirely verbal/psychological mistreatment – and the fic wasn't intended to be a mirror of reality, but the rage and grief I felt definitely informed the POV character's pretty heavily.

3. What character do you identify with most?

I didn't have an answer to questions like this for a long time, but Kim Wexler from Better Call Saul is probably the closest I've ever come to wholly seeing myself in a character. She's a small town escapee with big ambitions, where her choices early in her life led her to some toxic and morally grey situations. There are innate tensions between competing goals – her desire to do something genuinely good, her desire to make all her work worthwhile by being intensely career oriented, and her desire to get one over on the people who have made her life harder – that really resonate with my early adult experience.

4. If you wrote a sequel to any of your published fics, what would it be about?

I'm satisfied with all of the currently published fics as they stand, actually; if I felt like something warranted a sequel or epilogue I generally wrote it directly after the first thing and posted it.

5. How would you describe your style?

I don't actually know how to answer this; I lack the technical vocabulary to define it. I'm sure someone has an answer, looking at my fic externally, but all I try to do is climb as far into a character's head as possible. Sometimes canon makes this easier; sometimes a film, a tv show, or a piece of written fiction has a very distinct voice to it, either in diction or visually, so its easy to match. Otherwise, I tend to do some exploratory writing from a character's POV to see if I can hit on something that makes me feel good.

6. Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I don't actually believe in guilty pleasures when reading/writing, because its fiction! It isn't real! I'm unabashedly a monsterlover, robot fucker, dubious consent supporter, villain/hero shipper, and a whole mess of other things.

7. What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

I have a half-written fic rotting in my drafts folder where one of the main characters is dead from the start (they eventually get better, see my addendum to MCD fics in question 16 later on) and the whole thing is just a wild ride through grief and love, and not in any fandom or for any pairing you'd probably expect looking at either my reading or writing history.

8. What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?

I desperately wanted to write the Dinotopia!AU for SteveBucky where Bucky was a Skybax rider and Steve was a scholar but I couldn't figure out a good plot for the premise.

9. Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?

I have an Inception fic due for a rewrite that was started based off a bunch of dreams I'd actually had, but the plot has changed (it actually has one instead of being a series of set pieces) so I need to restructure it.

10. Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

I have a few pages of a ST (AOS) WIP that's dom!Spock/mouthy sub!Kirk that explores D/s dynamics in the vein of Spock's enjoyment of having control (after feeling out of control compared to other Vulcans) and Kirk's unresolved issues with authority. Oh – and the entirety of the AOS plot after Kirk's disciplinary hearing doesn't happen, they're still at the Academy, and instead of punting Kirk they assign him to Spock under probation and Spock is actively one of Kirk's professors.

11. How do you begin a story--with the plot, or the characters?

Characters, by asking if there's any story there I'd want to tell for them in the first place. Sometimes that doesn't come along right away, but usually I can cook up a premise. Then it's seeing if I like it enough that I can get a plot up and running.

12. Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Bigtime gardener. Sometimes I plant things that don't ever grow or need to be heavily pruned, but largely I don't write in order OR plot in order. Sometimes I write two scenes on opposite sides of the fic one right after another and use the results of the later scene to fill in the middle.

13. Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Robert E. Howard is unquestionably at the top, outstripping any competition by miles.

14. Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

I will make at least a cursory attempt to read any fuck or die fic no matter how much I dislike the writing style. That link will never be unclicked.

15. Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

SO many. I'm one of the pickier readers and both my kudos and bookmarks reflect it. Most in the form of AUs (coffee shop, college, domestic, etc.) are a hard pass for me, but it genuinely varies from fandom to fandom and even ship to ship within the same fandom. If I don't like something generally (i.e. omegaverse) there's almost always at least one very well-written exception to that somewhere.

16. Major character death--do you ever write/read it?

I've only read a handful of 'real' MCD fics. If the canon conceit is that death is actually temporary, I'll go in as long as the condition is guaranteed to be reversed in some way (rebirth, resurrection, reincarnation) for a happy ending. I have a couple sitting in the background that I hope I could turn into something really wrenching (with revival and happy endings!).