Arknights: Archetypes and Elements of “Gray Hair” and “Flame Tail”, Red Squirrel vs Gray Squirrel Part 1

Red Squirrel vs Gray Squirrel

Today, we’re going to talk about two members of Casimir’s camp at the same time, Flame tail and Gray Squirrel. Neither of them directly reveals the spirit behind them, cutting off our first clue. However, the first thing you notice in their drawings are their large, fluffy tails. This external feature is not surprising if it is on a Rupert Dryad like Provence or Red, but it is worth drawing our attention to here.

Red Squirrel vs Gray Squirrel: Zarak’s large tail

Since the race of both Flame Tail and Gray Hair: Zarak, this becomes our biggest clue. Corresponding to the real-life Zarak cadres of the Rodent Purpose, the tails are almost always long and thin, including not only Kada, Scavenger, and Gravel, but also Lin Yuxia and the Rat King in the episode.

The only exception is Fade, who is the only one with a big fluffy tail like these two newer Dryads. By following up on this clue, we can narrow it down further from the rodent order derived from Zarak to: the squirrel family. Combine this with the code names “Flame tail” and “Grey Hair”, the color of their tails, and their various connections in the game, and the answer is clear: Red Squirrels and Grey Squirrels are their archetypal counterparts.

Red Squirrel vs Gray Squirrel: Grey Hair

The “Grey Hair” Knight, Grenadier, is based on the North American Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). The cadre code name “Gray Hair” refers to the gray fur, which is the most distinctive appearance of the gray squirrel. A squirrel native to the eastern and midwestern United States, they are plump and agile. They often scurry up and down trees. The fur is mainly gray in color, and the tail is large and hairy, which matches the image of the Gray Hair in the isograph.

North American Gray Squirrel

Gray squirrels were originally loved by the world as “little cute”. However, people’s love for animals must be based on the premise that there are not many of them. Once the population starts to overflow, this love will turn into disgust and eventually into a threat. Today, gray squirrels are everywhere on the west coast and in cities across North America. On tree branches, in the streets, on garbage cans, and even stealing peanut butter from your home.

Sona, the “flame tail” rider, is based on the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). If you want to be more specific, it belongs to the British subspecies, which gets its name from its beautiful red fur. Their large, bright red, fluffy tails resemble a flaming flame, hence Sona’s moniker, “Flaming Tail”.

Red Squirrel vs Gray Squirrel: Flaming Tail

A red squirrel’s tail is more than just a decoration. It’s almost as long as their bodies, and it helps them keep their balance even as they run quickly through the trees. Also, at the end of the fall season, Eurasian red squirrels develop a tuft of long hair on the tip of their ears called an ear tuft, which is unique to Eurasian red squirrels. If we take a closer look at Flame tail’s sketch, we can also find her “ear tufts”:

Red Squirrel vs Gray Squirrel: Flame tail’s ear tufts

Red squirrels have a great face value. Depending on the season and where they are, their fur is different colors, not just bright red. The color of the head and back evolves from light red and brown to bright red, dark red, and even black, with the exception of the chest and abdomen, which remain creamy white.

Creamy white belly of the red squirrel

As a tree-dwelling omnivorous rodent, the red squirrel is not uncommon in Eurasia, and can even be said to be widely distributed throughout the cold temperate forests therein. In the UK, however, the situation is not encouraging. Their numbers, which are indigenous to the original inhabitants, have been declining inexorably in recent years.

This time it’s not because of poaching, not because of human greed, but a threat from another species: the gray squirrel. In just over a hundred years since the gray squirrel appeared in Britain, the entire population of red squirrels has gone from being a thriving population to one that is struggling to keep the race alive.

The war between red squirrel vs grey squirrel

This is a war between furry. As early as in the archives of the Flame Tail, we detected a hint of it. One of them is a description from a member of the “Red Pine Knights”, Wild Mane, which conveys a lot of information: “I can sense something between them, but when they talk about the past, it’s just about Grenadier’s former knight family’s shame to Sona, and so on, and I’ve never heard them say anything more than that. “Grey Hair Grenadier’s family was once ashamed of Flame Tail Sona.

Red Squirrel vs Gray Squirrel: Flame tail’s archives

The story implied here is the reality of this very feud: the invasion of England by gray squirrel creatures that put the survival of the indigenous red squirrels in jeopardy. In the 1870s, the gray squirrels were introduced to Britain as decorative garden pets. In the ensuing decades, the reproducing animals quickly took over the UK.

The population of gray squirrels grew from a few dozen to 2 million today, while the population of the native Eurasian red squirrels fell from over 1 million to around 100,000 today. The change can be seen in the picture below: what was once a bright red color representing the red squirrel is now all gray and very little red. In the south of the island, in England and Wales, the gray squirrels have taken over and are even expanding in Scotland, while the red squirrels are losing ground.

Changes in the distribution of red squirrel vs grey squirrel

These active outsiders are not as honest as the red squirrels. Gray squirrels destroy natural woodlands, damaging the shoots and buds of small trees; stripping bark, digging up flowers, and spoiling the bushes and berries in their gardens; and even attacking bird nests, killing small birds and frogs. The bark they eat and the trees they blight have so far caused more than £100 million of economic damage, and continue to grow at a rate of £6-10 million a year.