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Copper Rat Blog Entry |
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February 10, 2023, 3:00:08 AM 2/10/23: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Lance Corporal Copper Rat. He's one of the earliest battalion members and is rather superstitious but has good instincts. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, I wanted his fur to be coppery but with an unusual/distinctive look, thus the pattern (mask, ears, hood). I should have perhaps given him a scar or something, oh well. TUMBLR EDIT: I don't know too much about Copper currently, he's not a main character. That could always change, though. I've already gone over how he's one of the handful of American soldiers who cross into Nazi German territory before the war has even begun, apparently (it starts much earlier in my timeline), to observe suspicious activities; they end up pinned down by German forces until the first Trench Rats arrive (in response to a radio distress call which reaches the British) to rescue them. This handful of soldiers are given color codenames and incorporated into the Trench Rats battalion; Copper is, well, given the nickname Copper. Copper's a bit unusual in that he's more of a blend-into-the-background, follow-along type, who is easily overlooked (he does this intentionally--the better to observe while remaining unobserved), yet can easily assume command when needed. Unlike Indigo and Silver, who protest losing the chance at leadership positions when they're brought into the Trench Rats, he raises no fuss, yet is put in charge of Charlie Company. He quickly settles into the role. He's also good at knowing his strengths and limitations, and has no problem admitting when he's wrong or deferring to somebody who knows better; this is one reason he learns to trust and then rely on the "intuition"--actually, clairvoyance--of fellow company member Turquoise, once he realizes Turquoise has visions that prove beneficial toward keeping them alive; Copper acting on one of Turquoise's feelings saves the entire company from getting ambushed and wiped out by the Germans one day, and they're the only company to avoid any casualties. The other reason Copper so readily accepts something supernatural as normal is his own family background. He hails from a poor, backwater Louisiana Creole family, and although pretty sensible and practical, is also pretty superstitious. People with "hoodoo powers" are common and accepted in his worldview, including within his own large family, and although they're usually women, he has no problem believing Turquoise's abilities are legitimate. He later on convinces Turquoise to use these abilities to help the Trench Rats in their efforts to assist victims of the Nazis and this proves to be quite useful. Something else that comes with Copper's ancestry is his racial background, with Copper describing himself as a "mutt"--his term, not others'. He owns it and even flaunts it on occasion, both for humorous effect as well as to taunt those who might take issue with his race. He almost certainly has European, African, and indigenous roots, and he's fully aware his very existence is abhorrent to the enemy Nazis--he finds this amusing, and others' efforts to shame him about his heterogeneous makeup always fail. He even jokes a few times, including with the more racially non-diverse characters like Silver, that maybe "mutts" like him are of far hardier and more adaptable stock, deliberately turning Nazi racial talking points on their head. Something interesting I just learned is that wearing a dime is considered a good-luck charm, or at least was in the past, among the Creole and possibly Cajuns. This sounds exactly like something Copper would do--something innocuous and inoffensive yet (to him) effective. His superstition is ingrained and rather subtle; his practicality, as well as his circumstances (he's far from home, in a foreign country, involved in a war), largely determine how he acts on his beliefs--he doesn't get right in people's faces about it. As well, largely due to his background he's pretty accepting of others' beliefs, and willing to acknowledge their legitimacy--"Whatever works" is his mindset. He's flexible. He finds nothing weird at all about others' spiritual beliefs except exclusivity--that, he finds odd. (One could argue that itself goes against Copper's religion--technically he's Roman Catholic--but not to him, it doesn't. His particular Catholicism is a mishmash of Christianity, African, and indigenous beliefs, so nope, no conflict for him.) Throughout the series he comes into contact with characters such as Orthodox Jews, practitioners of semi-pagan folk beliefs, and Roma (Gypsies), for example, and none of this is strange or difficult for him to relate to. For a brief time Copper is involved with Didrika, the Roma leader of her own all-male partisan forces; her "official" lover, Boris, doesn't mind her dalliances with other men as long as she stays emotionally faithful to him, though he does ask her what the hell she sees in getting involved with a Trench Rat, simply because he dislikes the Trench Rats. It turns out Copper's the only one who isn't bothered by the potential stigma of getting involved with her. I imagine it doesn't hurt that he recognizes her as having potential powers of her own; Didrika displays no overt supernatural abilities, but she does utilize others' superstition against them (she has an eye tattooed on her palm, wears various charms, and her men place eye markings on trees around the encampment to scare people off). So, she and Copper have quite a bit in common; despite their physical relationship they never fall in love with each other, although they do highly respect and treat each other as equals. Copper also probably interacts at some point with PFC Godfrey Klemper, who has his own odd, vaguely Völkisch belief system; he grew up in a poor German farming family with a similar weird mishmash of Christianity, Aryan paganism, traditional German folk belief, and plain old racism--Klemper himself isn't overtly racist like the Nazis are, though he does suffer from a much more covert, unintentional racism, largely due to ignorance. (See his views of women in earlier entries for a similar "benign" misogyny--he intends no harm, and is capable of modifying his beliefs, but yeah, he has some primitive views that are mostly due to his upbringing and lack of exposure to differing opinions--most of his life, his mother was the only woman he knew.) I get the feeling Klemper would be highly superstitious and even somewhat afraid of someone like Copper because he's so far outside his worldview, despite their similar mix of numerous spiritual/religious and ethnic beliefs. Klemper has such a reaction to Didrika: He's wary of her due to her perceived Zigeuner powers, yet also combative and insulting because she's a woman doing a man's job--he calls her Flintenweib, Rifle Broad, and jeers at her to go back home to the kitchen even while she makes him nervous. It's mostly obnoxious bravado; Klemper is gay, rather effeminate, and has been through lots of horrible abuse, plus he's usually on meth, so he tends to overcompensate with a loud mouth and an aggressive attitude. He's also an excellent example of a pure, blood-and-soil Aryan--the Reich could put his face on posters to drive up recruitment--so that even further complicates things. He gradually comes to respect Didrika when she just insults him right back (she mocks his age--he's a child soldier, and it shows--and calls him Spielzeugsoldat, Toy Soldier, which pisses him off at first) and shows that she's genuinely skilled at what she does, even though he never does stop calling her Rifle Broad and she never stops calling him Toy Soldier. Well anyway, I imagine Klemper's reaction to Copper would be much the same; he's not used to encountering racially diverse types (Polish people are about as ethnically diverse as he knows), plus he's been raised and trained to treat them with hostility, yet he's also superstitious so he wouldn't want to antagonize Copper TOO much. He'd likely react by referring to Copper by some appropriately insulting nickname (sad to say, Mischling is the most suitable one on first glance), yet wouldn't try to attack him except in self-defense or defending one of his fellows. Copper isn't offended by names, and would likely find Klemper's Aryan pearl-clutching amusing; yet I believe he'd also respect him as a fellow soldier. So I can easily imagine these two regarding each other warily but civilly after a time, especially once Klemper and Lt. Ratdog start to turn against the Nazis. As far as I'm aware, Copper survives the war and the storyline, though I'm not entirely sure of his role post-war; perhaps he remains for a time to assist with the cleanup but eventually returns to Louisiana as, unlike many of the others, he still has family back home, and few ties to keep him in Germany. His character may further develop as the story goes on. [Copper Rat 2023 [Friday, February 10, 2023, 3:00:08 AM]] |