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Random sketches to exercise and stretch about because I have not been drawing anthropomorphic characters, for uh, years, especially with crocodiles. I'd like to start some sketching on Kouyate to figure out her head anatomy by screenshotting blurry scenes. </333

The lioness is Kolyo, specifically a European lion (because humans didn't drive them to extinction there now they're not the dominant species in this universe lmao), merely an oc of mine for GOAT, who's the younger cousin of the lion player of the Shadows, whom I decided to headcanon his name is Marcin but goes by Martin in public because that's what the NRL typecast him as, but their dynamic is more niece and uncle due to the big age gap. Surnames haven't been figured out yet.

Who's Kolyo, though? Firstly, a temporary visitor to Sunken City during the summer holidays for a family vacay with Marcin after the roarball season halts every couple of years. Secondly, an exhausted student who lives with her parents and took a two-year gap, volunteers in the local library and works as a busser for a hotel's restaurant back home, then spends her free time reading and journaling every information in her commonplace journals, not just intellectual knowledge, but everything. She has a whole separate journal that's specifically kept for writing about every animal she meets and updating all the personal details she notices about them and learned from. She can be off-putting in that way, however its for the love of learning, no malicious blackmail.

Her relation with Kouyate is all over the place, unconventional, and one of unapologetic craving to understand her in every sense, and also micro-analyse her because she never met a crocodile before, they're rare back in Europe, but done in a quiet and calm manner as always, as expected of her much reserved nature, maybe too reserved for her family, she has a track record of accidentally giving them a scare for seemingly appearing out of nowhere, especially doesn't help with her large irises that's considered primitive and an old trait of the felines in the prehistoric past (a little headcanon, because all of the feline characters in GOAT have average iris size that allows more sclera exposed which enhances facial language, whereas large irises makes it difficult to pinpoint). Uncanny, in other words, a call back from the distant past.

Won't share anymore or else I'll end up writing an essay.

• The world is parallel to ours, similarly with how Kung Fu Panda's world building is literally based on ours and focuses on China. While it could be dull, it's more coherent and consistent seeing how the film throughout has characters with names and surnames that are real-life (the Germanic name William, the Ukrainian [albeit a mix of Ukrainian, Russian and Polish origin based on from research] surname Olachenko) which suggests that they have the same nationalities, languages and cultures that we have here.

Moreover, the film also has one team that is located on a place that resembles mountainous regions of possibly Tibet with the recognisable prayer flags/lungta in the background, so without a doubt the film has the same world building as ours, but with a different history and principles. They have our cultures and technology, but the history behind it as to what led to that is entirely different (and has to be different, it's a world where humans aren't dominant).

And it's an American story that has black American culture as the main cultural focus, makes sense to say that Vineland is at least located in the USA. The rest of the other biomes are left to interpretation, except the mountainous biome which is definitely located around Tibet.

Also, another justification I would like to have for this belief is also that the animals are also based on the exact species we have here, the very animals who are adapted to the different environments of Earth and are uniquely earthling. Simply put, I can't imagine these species living on some alien planet that isn't Earth. They're earthlings first and foremost #earthling.

And also blatant cultural references such as the Slavic egg jewellery.

• Humans also exist in the world of GOAT. It's perhaps dull, and weird too, but humans are also animals, specifically great apes, the baby-faced cousins of the gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gibbons. There are a lot of interesting and humourous things you can do with the dynamic of humans and other species (whether tigers and human conflict far in the much isolated regions of Eurasia, the mutual nature of friendship between cats and humans, etc. There is so much).

It's only so strange because we are familiar with humans being the animal species who made the world seeming to revolve around them, both literally and metaphorically, and the general strong global anthropocentric culture. Of course it'll feel odd seeing a story where humans aren't the top chain and every species are bipedal and possess the same cognitive abilities and empathy levels thus getting rid of the feeling of uniqueness, and if we go speculative biology, suggesting that every animal took a similar evolutionary route to the humans in our world, it'd definitely be complicated to theorize how and why especially, but it opens a lot of interesting thought.

• Before industrialisation and globalisation, the majority of the wide diverse of animals we saw even in environments that they have not evolved to, lived in the continents that they have been living in since evolution, until the modern age came and technology developed, then gradually there's a shift in demographic.

• While there is culture and nationality, it doesn't matter that much, what matters most is the environment that your species are native to, as long you came from the same environment that is all, meaning a ocellated lizard and a Eurasian wolf from southern Europe share that unity despite the drastic physical and evolutionary differences. Hopefully that makes sense. Less about the culture and general social roleplay and more about the environmental pride (even despite the environment being the root for culture and language), which could be more prominent in Europe, Asia and Africa and less so in the Americas where it's all mixed since it's a hotspot of diverse native and non-native species and various cultures so there's more emphasis on cultural unity than environmental.

• How to explain this one. So, here in our world, we're apes, great apes in fact, hominids, and there are species of other apes who are also in the same family but very much different despite being oddly similar, and sometimes people eat bush meat of these apes or monkeys if we include the old world monkeys, sometimes it's their only way to get meat. Okay. With GOAT, the world here is uniquely tolerant and open about the nature of herbivores and carnivores. The herbivores food of supply is obviously from the agriculture here, but what about the carnivores? How do they get meat? Alright. So back to our world, if we got species here that are equivalent to Goofy (humans) and Pluto (chimps and bonobos), then there must be something like that in GOAT too because how else do they mass supply for the meat eaters here? They're incredibly well fed to be easily outgoing with complete opposite species, trusted and treated no differently in society. I came to the conclusion that there has to be species here that are not on the same level of sapience and sentience as the rest and, well, unfortunately to the chopper it goes.

𓆌. Kouyate is around the same age as Jett, making her in her 30s, or late 20s at the very least, as confirmed from the film's introduction of Jett's stardom 10 years ago, meaning the Shadows and the rest of the other teams across different biomes are the same age or older.

This also means that Kouyate and her team have been in the industry for 15 to 20 years, making them respective high-profile veterans of roarball with reputations of their own.

𓆌. Kouyate is the daughter of a Nile crocodile mother and a Orinoco crocodile father,  making her mixed; inheriting the narrow snout and lower body build of her father and the bulkiness of her mother from neck to upper body, unfortunately she didn't caught onto the genetic lottery of inheriting Nile height but at least she's tall enough for roarball, although it doesn't seem to erase the insecurities she would feel at the family meeting when she meets her 10 siblings and ma's side of the family.

She would only ever feel these insecurities when her family is around, when they're not she's fine and doesn't fixate, not even other crocodiles bother her, she's only bothered about why her relatives get to be bigger and she didn't.

𓆌. She has 10 siblings. At least it's not 30 or 60 eggs that hatched.

𓆌. Stands around 7'1 ft, especially when you compare her height to Will, who is 5'7 ft.

𓆌. Similarly to Will, her pupils revert to slits during the match, giving her great advantages in depth deception that enhances her focus and when the court is too dimly lit or too bright. There's a reason why she's the most competitive and arrogant of the team; she doesn't stop or waver in focus until the game has finished, she has to be egotistical in order to succeed.

Apart from the slit pupils, being a crocodile allows her to simultaneously track targets and excellent foveal streak.

𓆌. Her pupils also express what state of emotion she's in. E.g. when she's focused, they naturally go slit; when relaxed, it returns to its medium circle; or when affectionate, the pupils expand.

𓆌. She's the offensive player of the Shadows due to her agility and tendencies to surprise or ambush opponents, thanks to being the smallest and slimmest of the team, and mostly thanks to her species, crocodiles are natural masters of it. Her teammates rely on her precise timing, burst and ambush strategies.

Due to that, her peers gave her the nickname of "slime"/"slimey" for her swiftness and movement style, and she's never fond of it; it doesn't complement the persona and image she wants to uphold in the league. That nickname, along with Jett Filmore, always gnaws on her ego. At least the media doesn't call her that; they probably know, but as long as they won't call her that.

She would often bluntly correct her teammates that she's not a lizard before switching the topic abruptly.

𓆌. When she was a teenager, she always failed at lying about being ill to go to school, and that's because crocodiles naturally possess one of the strongest immune systems in the animal kingdom, a croc being sick from a mere cold is not believable, so in the end, she eventually had to come to school after the staff sent a notice to her parents about it.

Since then, she hardly ever receives 'sick' days/breaks, which she didn't mind, but what she did mind was that this led her to being targeted as the one burdened with extra chores and requests, from high school to her times when she worked as a cashier at a supplement store and even continued to follow her when she began roarball, it's a curse.

Consequently, this hardened her character to become less accommodating, biddable and selfless to more selfish, stern and assertive, especially with her boundaries, realising over the years how animals would rarely ever promise to give their end of the unspoken mutual rule, and that the majority are looking out for themselves who are ready to take advantage if they see an opportunity that brings them closer to their interests and lessens their burden. Everyone is naturally selfish in the end, and it's not a bad thing; it's normal, but the extent of it agitated her.

Of course, the crocodile is still willing to lend a hand if needed, but if she sees that a mutual agreement has been betrayed, then she's not giving a second chance; there's only one, and she can't bear to waste any more of her energy and peace on someone who can't do the bare minimum, it's not worth her time, she had gone past that phase from high school.

As a result, she became selective in who she wants to accept into her personal life; they don't have to be a perfect individual, they just have to be worth it.

𓆌. Kouyate is somebody who poses herself as arrogant and egotistical, because that is what's demanded of her in the league; it's what is required. Without self-confidence, she wouldn't be where she is right now and would have fewer successes in life; she wouldn't even be on roarball if she were a defeatist.

It's what built her determined attitude, always insisting and persisting, even after experiencing countless losses; it doesn't deter her, she aims to win it because it is her life, she only has herself and is the only one going through her experiences, no one else is viewing from the same eyes she has, she refuses to betray herself. If she were to, allowing animals to push her aside and look the other way, she wouldn't have gotten so many opportunities. She understood that in order to be further in life, you have to show yourself; there must be conviction in not only yourself but also in others, because of that strong self-conviction that stands as enough proof of your ability to promise and keep mutual benefits. It's simple.

Since she first joined the industry, she never forgotten the lesson she received about the importance of doing what benefits you first, or else you'll be devoured the moment you show a hint of being an enabler, easy meat, easy game. She knew about that back in high school, but roarball intensified that, and she finally understood.

Simply put, she is unapologetic and persistent yet willing (only once) and patient; she understands losses and has experienced them multiple times in life before even entering the sport. She'll mope around for a second if she has to get it off her system, then she'll jump right back in (in the film, the Shadows had been shown to repeatedly play against Thorns, even despite the first loss; it definitely humbled her, just refuses to say it, show she would, but never say a word of it). A loss or two won't deter her; she can always learn, and most importantly, experience, which eventually made her revise her perspective on the concept of goals and winning. Is it really a loss when the goal is to experience, whether victory or failure? That is the core aspect for the existence of sports, knowing there will be the feeling of winning or losing.

𓆌. But yes, she can be, and is, rude during the game; it's got to do with keeping the arrogant persona alive for these rounds, without it, she'd crumble if she weren't bold. It's nothing personal. Though she does feel a slight offence towards Will's presence when they first met, she thought they were merely accepting him for token points (not completely false), which both irritated her and had her pity him at the same time, thinking he'd end up roadkill.

𓆌. Kouyate loves scaring and surprising animals with a fake ambush; in fact, she's often playful around those she trusts, and the adrenaline she'd receive from stalking and faux hunting, especially when in a pool or any body of water.