u/Beneficial_Height767

1. Pinch the Protoceratops: *Local Old Man Too Angry to Die*. An old male protoceratops living in the northern springs, despite suffering a concussion and multiple different attacks from the local deinonychus, he just REFUSES to keel over. He’s one of the few animals in the whole basin to actually become elderly. Certified badass for sure.

2. Amara the Allosaurus: my personal favorite on this list, she separated from the rest of her pride after the birth of her first cub, Namib, and she’s easily the MOST devoted parent I’ve ever had in this game. Wherever Amara went, Namib was always just behind her, and the two were completely inseparable. If that weren’t cool enough, she’s also the only allosaurus in the basin that can reliably kill nasutoceratops, so both she and Namib were always well fed. Since Namib has grown, Amara has birthed a second litter, and Namib has become quite the babysitter to her new siblings. Overall, I just love the allosaurus family.

3. Whiptail the Diplodocus: He got this status simply because of how many damn kids he has. Bro singlehandedly fathered maybe the entire diplodocus population in the basin, and honestly thats pretty badass.

The old girl completely slaughtered an entire Deinonychus pack while defending her herd-mate’s calf. (And subsequently almost doomed a clutch of deinonychus hatchlings)

LONG READ AHEAD:

So a topic that inevitably comes up in any discussions surrounding anthro-animal worlds is the topic of meat eating. Ie, what are the carnivores actually feeding on? Zootopia skirts around this topic by having its carnivores eat fish (who are conveniently non-sentient in that world). Beastars treats predation as a sort of taboo, a tragedy that occurs on occasion in that world similar to murder in our own. Bojack Horseman takes a … *unique* approach by having a subdivison of its anthro animal population delegated to livestock (better not to think too much about this one). Then, finally, there’s GOAT, where the rules are a lot less clear.

Interestingly, as opposed to Zootopia or Beastars, GOAT’s society doesn’t seem to have a carnivore/herbivore divide. Instead, the politics of the world seem to be focused much more on animal size. Carnivores and Herbivores are treated relatively similarly when in the same size class. You could make the argument that Flo’s rabbit assistants being so terrified of Jett counters this point, but whether their fear was of her being a carnivore or fear of Jett’s temper isn’t really made clear (the woman is a well-known hothead, even her own teammates are afraid of her). However, there are two major characters in through the topic of predation is mentioned, those being Jett and Modo.

Jett threatens to eat Will in the scene where she’s introduced to him, and it’s pretty ambiguous how much she actually intended to make good on that threat. Will is (rightfully) terrified, but Flo’s lack of urgency would imply it was largely just posturing. Surely a major celebrity and star athlete wouldn’t ever commit this world’s version of murder and cannibalism all at once? *Right?*

Modo is a *weird* case when it comes to this topic. While Jett’s stunt could mostly be chalked up to just trying to scare Will out of his contract, Modo seemed like he was ready to eat the poor kid in *earnest*. Upon first contact, Modo calls Will a “pregame snack” and is ready to swallow him whole right then and there in front of his entire team, almost as if he’s done that *before*. Are small animals routinely fed to Modo before games? How *exactly* does that work? Was it just Modo being Modo and making an off-color joke? Again, his teammates showed shockingly little urgency at Modo’s actions, so surely he wasn’t *actually* going to eat another animal. *Right?*

Fast forward to the game against the Shadows, and Modo says that he’s eaten 24 eagles during the Thorns’ huddle, this time actually getting a reaction from Archie. This once again begs the question as to how *serious* this is. Did Modo commit a *murder?* 24 ones at that? Or did he eat the eagles legally? Is legal meat consumption something that exists in GOAT? I mean, surely not, right? All of these predation lines and scenes were just played for laughs, not to be taken seriously in any way. Surely, meat-consumption doesn’t exist in GOAT’s world … *Right?*

That hot dog. That *goddamn* hot dog. In the first diner scene, we see two animals, a Moose and a Gazelle, with their meals at Whisker’s Diner, and on that Moose’s plate is a *hot dog*. Now, one could obviously make the argument that it’s some sort of plant-based meat. Veggie dogs do exist in real life, and after all the two diners are herbivores. A solid argument, if not for the fact that ungulates (hoofed mammals) across different species and families will opportunistically eat meat if provided the opportunity. It’s not out of the question that a moose or gazelle in this world would occasionally order meat to supplement a largely plant-based diet. That, combined with multiple references to animals eating one another in this world, really seems to all point to occasional meat consumption being a thing.

Now, this of course begs the question of WHO is being eaten, and WHEN is it considered ok? Do carnivores just occasionally prey on herbivores as a societal norm? Most of the characters seem awfully calm for that to be the case. Is meat production an actual industry, maybe sourced from animals who pass away by natural causes? More likely, but Modo’s willingness to potentially devour a very much *young* and *living* Will implies otherwise.

Ultimately, the topic of predation and who eats what in GOAT is left pretty unclear to the audience, and it’s personally been driving me nuts to think about. So, to my fellow fans out there, what do *you* think? How are carnivores getting their daily bread, and is this World potentially a lot darker than it seems? I’d love to know your thoughts.