Dil and Ichy Showcase - March 2020

[rhombus]

Hey, guys!  Guess what day it is?



That's right! It is your month!

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In this topic please feel free to discuss Dil and Ichy as characters, to share your own creations (fanfics or fanart), or to mention some of your favorite fanworks of others involving these characters.  For a full set of rules please see the 2020 Monthly Character Showcase topic but keep in mind that this is meant to be fun as opposed to any sort of contest.

I will go ahead and get the discussion started with the following question:

They both speak the leaf-eater language in the film, which is curious, especially in the case of Dil who is an obligate carnivore. How do you think that Dil learned the language?  Was, as proposed in this topic, Dil and Ichy formerly friendly sharpteeth?  Or do you have another idea that you would propose?

[Gentle Sharptooth]

I have come to love Dil and Itchy.

[StardustSoldier]

Nice to meet a fellow fan.

I'll post a more thorough analysis on these two later in the month.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

In honor of the best team ever, I made this:

[ImpracticalDino]

@Gentle Sharptooth: Question. How easy are these to make, cuz it seems like your pumping out a lot of these posters at a quick pace.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

@Gentle Sharptooth: Question. How easy are these to make, cuz it seems like your pumping out a lot of these posters at a quick pace.

Relatively easy if you understand the program editor for art. But what I choose to use as the esit is to my own taste.

[Flathead770]

I've never been a big fan of Dil and Ichy. They're bantering and clear ineptitude comes off as very annoying for me compared to the more comedic nature of Ozzy and Strut.

I couldn't come up with a good idea for a drawing for this showcase, so Iris gave me the fun idea of drawing a giant Ichy and small Dil.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

That’s probably how Ichy feels about himself.

[Sneak]

It's masterpiece drawing, Flathead!!

But... What is that? Mr. Tickles' dream?

[Flathead770]

That’s probably how Ichy feels about himself.

That's probably true haha. But honestly, it's not like Dil really does anything during the film so I don't blame him

It's masterpiece drawing, Flathead!!

But... What is that? Mr. Tickles' dream?

Thanks! Not sure if it would be or not, though it would more then likely be a nightmare. I think a giant Ichy would be way worse to deal with then Dil.

[Nanotyrannus]

Thank goodness, I'm not alone when it comes to not really liking these two; great art, by the way.

I used to like Ichy and Dil - I thought that they were amusing antagonists and decent threats - but that changed with my last rewatch of IV; aside from me struggling to take them seriously as threats because they're a tiny seabird and nearly blind respectively, I found them a lot more annoying than funny. I'd have liked them a lot more if they just snarled/growled at the kids like the other sharptooth antagonists in the series.

On the note of them being able to talk, I have three theories as to why they can speak the same language as the main characters, one based in the world and the other two more meta:

• I've seen this be proposed a lot and I'm not in any position to argue; they learned how to speak in leaf-eater tongue from some outside source. Personally, I like the idea of them having learned the language from an omnivore, like one of Ruby's kin, perhaps to gain some sort of advantage over sharpteeth that can't talk outside of their typical roars/snarls/growls/grunts.
• In a theory that doesn't mesh with anything past the RAS era, them being able to talk could be a facet of an early stab at how the sharptooth language was supposed to work, with sharpteeth being able to talk but not typically talking to their food while hunting (these two being an unfortunate exception).
• On a similar note, perhaps them being able to talk is a clumsy first attempt at portraying the sharptooth language in a way the audience can understand; but, instead of providing subtitles over Ichy and Dil making animal noises, their sounds are translated into whatever language the movie is being viewed in. I'll admit that this is a shaky one - there's at least one instance where Ichy replies to something one of the kids says, and I can recall the kids reacting to something that one of them says beyond simple surprise when they start talking.

Either way, that's my piece on these two; I'd share a very short animation I've made of them to close this off, but I don't know how appropriate a .gif of Dil biting Ichy's head off would be here.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

@Nanotyrannus I actually feel similiar. I was severely dissapointed as a kid that the antagonists of LBTIV wasn’t a proper sharptooth, particularly a Tyrannosaur, or pack of Utahraptors. I think to compensate for disappointment, Universal gave fans three Sharpteeth proper in LBTV, the Plated Sharptooth (Allosaurus) and Chomper’s Parents 

[ImpracticalDino]

Once again Flathead, I have no points of criticism to provide for your drawing. I think it looks perfect. I’m gonna be honest, I almost thought you forgot to draw in Dil because she was that tiny!

Poor Ali though.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Once again Flathead, I have no points of criticism to provide for your drawing. I think it looks perfect. I’m gonna be honest, I almost thought you forgot to draw in Dil because she was that tiny!

Poor Ali though.

Ali is doomed! Doomed!

[Flathead770]

Once again Flathead, I have no points of criticism to provide for your drawing. I think it looks perfect. I’m gonna be honest, I almost thought you forgot to draw in Dil because she was that tiny!

Poor Ali though.

Haha yeah I know Dil can be hard to spot. I wanted to have Dil on top of Ichy's head since Ichy would normally land on Dil's head. Yeah Ali is in a rough spot this time around. Looks like she's gonna need some friendship power with a convenient boulder as an extra measure 

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Once again Flathead, I have no points of criticism to provide for your drawing. I think it looks perfect. I’m gonna be honest, I almost thought you forgot to draw in Dil because she was that tiny!

Poor Ali though.

Haha yeah I know Dil can be hard to spot. I wanted to have Dil on top of Ichy's head since Ichy would normally land on Dil's head. Yeah Ali is in a rough spot this time around. Looks like she's gonna need some friendship power with a convenient boulder as an extra measure 

Boulder.. *shudders.* The boulder is never suppose to be on a Sharpteeth’s lips, for it was used to murder our leader, Sharptooth The Great.

[Anagnos]

Role change in the flesh! I admit, I initially thought it was just Ichy in the picture as it was quite difficult to distinguish Dil at first glance. I like this transition quite a lot. It makes one wonder how well would the duo have fared had the roles been switched?

Ali's expression to me doesn't necessarily scream fear, more like astonished of what is in front of her. Great drawing, Flathead!

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Itchy used Rita Repulsa’s power to grow! (Power Rangers).

[OwlsCantRead]

Nice Ichy, Flathead! Really captures his constant snarl. The shading was good though Dil looked like part of Ichy's wild mohawk.

The concept of their botched teamwork might not be a unique one, but it's hilarious nevertheless. I might be in the minority here, but I think that compared to Ozzy and Strut, they are a bigger threat overall in spite of Ichy being the butt of jokes. Maybe it's Ichy's gnarly voice, the fact that unlike the eggstealer duo Dil could very well eat the Gang if she wasn't half-blind, or maybe the increased stakes of the Night Flowers (or just the atmosphere of the Land of Mists in general), but I think that there are genuinely moments where the gang get in a tight spot.

Now the language thing... it's interesting. A bellydragger appears in X for instance, and definitely doesn't talk. As far as I can postulate, this isn't common, and the friendly sharptooth turned bad possibility to explain their leaf-eater literacy seems intriguing, so I might go with that. Will Chomper become comic relief too if he turns bad?

In terms of fanfiction, whenever authors choose to bring back recurring antagonists for their stories, I think these two get the most snubbed. Eggstealers duo sometimes show, Flyer duo tend to show, Red Claw and his cronies... usually show. But these two? Chillin' in the Land of Mists. I rarely see them, ever, and if they do make appearances, usually it's just Ichy. And no, my frame of reference for this isn't just Seven Hunters, this seems to be a constant observation, generally at least.

Also, just gonna say, the current month's GoF Discord Server gif icon of Ichy being trolled by Dil is golden @Mumbling

[RainbowFaceProtege]