Gotta give more appreciation to the FtM TGTF arts out there
Alt text:
- Caption: me trying to find tgtf art
- An astronaut looking at earth: wait, it's mostly mtf transformation
- Another astronaut pointing a gun at the first astronaut: always has been
Because it's the most handwaived approach, basically ignoring the entire question.
While yes, apes and humans exist, both are certainly more different from each other than a fox and yet another fox that walks on two legs. While can be summarized as such, humans aren't just monkeys that walk on two legs-- theres more differences to both which the "anthros and ferals are the same species" approach usually ignore.
Not to mention, it's kind of unrealistic to expect all animal to evolve so they look like anthro. Even if all species eventually gain sentience, realistically, not all their bodies would look like anthro, just like how not all caniform (canine-like animal) look the same.
It's also kind of iffy. Imagine how the anthros would feel about ferals of a similar species as them. Imagine how it'd feel to meet an unintelligent four-legged cat as a sapient two-legged cat. It seems weird, especially if the story backround is dark (maybe less so for less serious story, like children story or comedy).
This doesn't mean that the "anthros and ferals" approach is wrong-- I mean I used it. It also doesn't mean the author is lazy. There is more to worldbuilding than just species and it's not impossible the author wanted to focus on another areas of worldbuilding instead. It can also be used brilliantly as the base concept is kind of vague, so you can build on top of it.
Oh no... I didn't think that far...