#rj answers

[ihopesocomic]

I know some might find this funny but y'all need to seriously chill on the calls for violence against Vicious. She's a horrible person as much as she is a victim of abuse herself and while we don't expect people to like her, we expect people to not want victims of abuse to be dead. (I swear people don't threaten death to Jasper half as much...) Expending an ounce of sympathy for someone won't excuse their actions. - Cat

-

Yeah, no matter how much you dislike a character, this shouldn't invalidate their position as an abuse victim. It's the same deal with folks wishing Vicious will be killed by her abuser, just... stop it. Being giddy about that sort of thing being depicted in this kind of story is yikes.

But as well as no longer seeing her daughters again: Vicious isn't going to die in any capacity. I don't care if it's spoilers, we're putting a moratorium on that right now. Death doesn't have to be the ultimate punishment/fate for every wrongdoing in a narrative. We have something else in mind that we feel will satisfy people ultimately, no worries. c: - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #cat answers #rj answers #vicious #golden grove

[non-bird-nary]

trick or treated???

have a picture of my cat, max

#trick or treat on tumblr #rj answers #rj rambles #mi amigos tag! #me & my mutuals #rj's brother #kitty

[ihopesocomic]

I like how Clever, Careful and Vicious are meant to be represent how a family copes with an abusive situation in various ways depending on their position with the abuser and yet you have anons curious as to which one would absolutely destroy the other two in a fight. I'm probably overthinking this but it's a bit of yikes thing to speculate/ask about given the situation that they're in.

Which is exactly why we haven't thought about this even remotely. Yeah, Vicious has done some heinous things but she's still a victim and these are her sisters. I believe I said in a previous ask not too long ago that Clever would just never resort to kicking her ass.

So yeah, we just can't imagine them fighting to the point of having a clear victor in our heads because these abuse victims fighting each other for whatever reason is just... yeesh. lol

and inb4 anybody asks 'well what if there was an AU where there was no abuse': we still wrote them to be a sister unit with bonds and ties that contribute to their pride in different ways like irl lionesses. Them fighting each other has just never been on the cards for us to paint a clear winner out of the three if you feel me. c: - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #clever #vicious #careful #golden grove

[ihopesocomic]

Who would have won if Clever and Vicious fought each other during the moment that Vicious salshed Hopeful's eye

Clever would have serious reservations about fighting her sister and Vicious knows it. Considering Jasper was right there too, I can't imagine it going her way at all. - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #clever #vicious #golden grove

[ihopesocomic]

Is this right?

Hope: Hunflepluff because she is patient and kind

Storm and Adamant: Gryffindor because they are both brave

Diamond: Slytherin or Ravenclaw because I'm not sure if she's more ambitious or smart, but I'm sure she's a good king lol

How about just no to any of this? Normally, I'd delete this but just in case anybody is even remotely thinking of doing this:

We do NOT want any of our characters depicted in the HP universe in any capacity.

The author is an unapologetic transphobe and it was only this week she's been in the media spotlight for trying to drag the reputations of anybody she knows who stands by trans individuals.

This is a comic with trans characters in it that is also trying to appeal to trans readers. Please think before trying to do crossovers with content made by bigots who are actively trying to take away their human rights. I don't care if you want to "separate the art from the artist": read the room. Even with that said, the books themselves also have their fair share of shit going on that is pretty offensive. No, we're not going to discuss it any further. There are plenty of articles and a video on YT by Shaun that goes into it. Thank you. - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #general comic stuff #announcements #announcement #tw transphobia

[ihopesocomic]

Wait when you reposted the family tree of ihs i saw that adamant and diamond had a dmall heart between them both, does that mean they might be in a relationship soon in the comics?

They've been making eyes at each other since we came out with our official banner a few years back so yep, it's official lol - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #diamond #adamant #rj answers #golden grove #thundering mountains

[ihopesocomic]

What are some scraped ideas that you had for the IHS comic?

Here be a list:

Carnelian was originally planned to originate from an order of warrior lion mercenaries named after types of weaponry. They were located in an area of the map known as Acacia Grove (which was roughly in the empty territory between the Thundering Mountains and the Kingblessed Coast). We wrote it out because it seemed like a ton of wasted potential. I'm reusing the idea for one of my IHS OCs though.

A couple of things we had planned but changed due to critique from readers include: Hope opting to choose to disown her parents vs. being exiled and Diamond being non-binary trans masc as opposed to a trans lioness. The latter was back when we had them and Wind as our only canon trans characters and yep, we were in danger of falling into stereotyping so kudos to that anon who very kindly pointed it out for us.

Hopeful was originally going to have a broken back leg vs. an undeveloped limb. We changed this so that her disability would not feel like a tragedy hanging over her like it does with Nothing and somewhat switched this circumstance over to Bronze instead, showing that - despite the loss of his limb - he is still capable of carrying out the duties handed down to him but with assistance and accommodation from the other tunnel guards.

We were originally gonna use wc-style names similar to My Pride but that got dropped almost immediately because we wanted to make it easier for prides to be told apart.

We originally were gonna have a tigress character who the girls were going to meet and converse with, to highlight how tigers are critically endangered and how such a thing leads their culture of depending on the self vs. folklore heroes. Unfortunately, we couldn't verify if the South African reserves that house these tigers are managed ethically and we didn't want to promote anything problematic. Thus, she was replaced by a pair of cheetahs instead.

Daffodil was originally a lot older and a minion of Rose's. They were replaced by Heather and made into a reincarnation of Quiet.

We wanted to do a side comic for Careful but soon realised we would not have time for this. It's probable I'll dedicate a written story to her in the future however.

Fade was originally planned to be killed accidentally by Storm.

Diamond was originally going to be a deaf lion known as Zoisite. We changed this due to feeling that we would be unable to properly portray deafness in comic form. Zoisite as a name was retained for Amber's aunt, however.

Zircon was originally known as Topaz. - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #general comic stuff #all cast #early concepts

[ihopesocomic]

can i just say how much i LOVE Defiant's design and I hope we can see a full body design sometime? I was just thinking what Hope would look like if she took after Jasper more and how it would have an impact on her, looking like the guy who nearly killed her and helped kill her beloved aunt. I know Defiant is a whole different character but I like to imagine her as the Hope I'm thinking of!

Here you go, anon: full body concept of Defiant. c: And yeah, I like your take! Defiant is just super angry all the time because she's the unfortunate one who looks more like her shitty dad. lol - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #concept art #defiant #golden grove

[ihopesocomic]

Is there any cheetah character that exist in IHS comic but it didnt appeared yet?

I love cheetahs they're my favorite animal!

None as of yet, but we have a gay cheetah couple planned. c: - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #gale #breeze #non lions #rj answers

[ihopesocomic]

Hi! New reader here! I just got to the part where Hope tries to open her injured eye. It was portrayed as rly cloudy, but I’m not sure how it got that cloudy so fast? It had happened Very recently, and while Vicious’s claws definitely damaged the cornea, idk if that was enough time for scar tissue to have accumulated so thick. It was more likely that it would have been swollen or misshapen, but not opaque/milky yet. As well, though the scar/injury definitely would make her ‘legally blind’ in that eye, it’s highly unlikely even w that damage that she would lose 100% of her vision. Corneal Opacity obstructs light/vision, but it’s quite likely that she would still be able to see brash lights and shadows, maybe some shapes (likely clearer toward the edges of vision, but perpetually out of focus there)

I point this out as someone who is blind in one eye myself from an injury as a child, and that generally we don’t really like the portrayal of “cloudy eyes=blind” in media. It’s usually used as visual shorthand, but bc ppl see it used that way, they think that’s what all blind ppl look like. I’ve gotten ppl who’ve tried and ‘caught’ some of my friends as ‘not blind’ bc their eyes weren’t white/cloudy, which is generally, not the case unless there is serious injury or disease in the eye. As for the 100% vision, we also get ppl who will wave or clap in our faces to try and ‘catch’ us (bc for some reason ppl just think ppl fake being blind for ‘benefits’—what benefits??) and we will always flinch bc 1) that’s the normal reaction, it’s sound and air close to your face, your body will instinctively flinch away from it. And 2) bc many of us still have some amount of useable vision, and getting that close is something even someone w very low percentage of useable vision could detect.

Not gonna ask you to redraw it of course, that’s entirely up to you, and it’s an ongoing, high-intensive webcomic and the page in question is quite a bit back there, but if we see it again plus the POV of Hope’s vision, if you drew a rough lining of that half of the picture, then filled it in with intense white/gray grittiness, more concentrated in the middle and a bit less on the extreme sliver of the outer eye (in Hope’s case, I doubt there would be too much of the eye that wasn’t covered by the scar tissue, Lion claws are huge and thick and at this point she’s had plenty of time to form a significant scar) and the vague impression of light/shadow, that’s a more accurate portrayal of blindness. The eye itself is almost guaranteed to be misshapen, that is, the iris and pupil, not the orb itself (it would have had to puncture through the cornea, and if that was the case she’d not really have an eye) something like a droopy part near the direction of the scar, and a bit more of an oval-ish shape (pics for reference can help if you can do that, otherwise not making it too extreme but enough that it’s visibly a scar and injury in the eye. These are all just suggestions! If you decide you’d like to do a more stylized version of this, just making the iris a bit raised and a little wider at the ends of the scar, and for POV just airbrush w a gritty texture and put some vague shading.

I really love this comic, and it’s portrayal of disability (Hope is just. I’ll cry) but that was just something that nicked me a bit. It’s hard to do everything right, and really hard for a personal project! You’ve done amazing, and honestly this is nitpicky of me I think, I just thought with the positive rep of limb loss I thought I’d give a little advice ig on blind rep, from a partially blind person myself. (thank you SO. MUCH. For not making her ‘mourn’ the limb she doesn’t have. She just doesn’t have it, it’s who she is. She’s not lesser or in parts bc of it, she deals w it, and though it’s still a disability and affects her as such, it’s not something she needs to cry over. She’s always been this way, and she’ll make it through.)

So, first of all: thank you so much for giving an informative and detailed input on this aspect of Hope's character. We truly appreciate it.

We've always intended to show Hope's eye injury gradually changing condition from her POV and her being able to open the eye slightly eventually, so we're not through with representing blindness or partial blindness through her.

As for your comments regarding what we've already shown, Cat did refer to references on that particular front as she did endeavour to get things accurate. While she is willing to admit that she may have got things wrong, the issue of people stereotyping blind individuals based on one form of how the condition presents itself doesn't mean that one form is not accurate or valid, if you feel me? The true issue here is people's ableism towards blind or partially blind individuals and assuming that a disability must present itself in a certain way to "count" (i.e. in a way they're familiar/comfortable with when stfu it's not about you?) when disabilities in general do not work like that.

But I also completely get that there is a need to break down the assumption that all eye conditions work like this. I know what it feels like to be held to a certain standard by my disabilities and it sucks. If there's one thing worse than just flat-out intolerant ableism towards disabled individuals, it's ableism under the guise of 'i understand your condition better than you do bc i saw it on TV once' ugh But yeah, we've put a pin in the helpful description you've provided and will take this on board moving forward because - like you've pointed out - this is how eye injuries actually work. We especially needed this input since we planned on having Hope being able to have the eye open eventually too. Cat certainly wants to go in and fix that panel with her eye opening in the relevant panel and make it not-cloudy, and what you said about the greyscale and filter idea for the panel afterwards where it's her POV will also be implemented. Thank you again for this advice and for explaining it so well, we always appreciate input like this. <33 And thank you again (again) for the kind comments on Hope's character. It's exactly why we opted to not have her injure the limb like Nothing did and have her be born with the condition instead. Not that we're opposed to that kind of representation, as we intend to cover it somewhat with Bronze and the loss of his limb and how he and the other lions of the Thundering Mountains adapted to it. But yeah, we felt like doing things differently a tad with our main protagonist. c: - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #comic feedback #hopeful #golden grove

[ihopesocomic]

Do you think you would've enjoyed My Pride more if it hadn't leaned so heavily on "realism" to explain the more gruesome and harsh aspects of its lore/story? One of the main things I enjoy about this comic is that, while you both keep things simple with no accessories on your lions (aside from Periwinkle's collar, which seems to be a plot element), you're also not trying to be painfully realistic. Gives me a Warrior Cats feel when it comes to the "looseness" of the world, if that makes sense?

Most likely not as there was also the complete mishandling of the "disability positive" and "LGBT+ friendly" aspects of the series. Amongst other things... like Hover. Just Hover. lol

It certainly would've been less damaging to its child audiences if it didn't tout itself as being about "actual lion behaviour" while getting 99% of its "facts" completely wrong, because now you have its fans legit believing that - for example - lionesses don't care when their cubs are killed by rogue males when there's footage demonstrating the opposite. Another thing is that the inclusion of religion to explain these "natural" behaviours was confusing as well as being borderline offensive to those who are religious. Why use a human concept like religion to explain what you perceive to be a lion's "natural" behaviour? Especially the more brutal aspects of said behaviour. If your whole deal as an atheist is to be scornful as possible towards religion and try and paint it as the source of all issues in the world by doing so with your fictional world: leave that shit be.

So, yeah, the show would've been slightly less problematic without this aspect of its lore but it still would've had the glaring issue of falsely presenting itself as empowering to minorities. And thank you, anon. I sorta get what you mean. We do try and give a lot of leeway to folks who wish to play about with our worldbuilding, we just draw the line at interacting with humans and getting human trinkets. I hope that Periwinkle's backstory and the whole thing with him being a former pet will make our stance more clear but yeah, humans should leave wild lions be. - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #my pride mention #periwinkle #red stone

[ihopesocomic]

Me, reading the recent ask responses:

The ask responses: Remember how Jasper was calling first dibs on every kill the pride made? Turns out you missed that Vicious was pregnant while this was going on!

Me: Oh, that makes it wors-

Me, suddenly realizing Hope stood a better chance than her littermates of surviving her mother's food deprivation because she didn't develop an entire limb:

Jasper upon discovering that not allowing his pregnant mate to eat properly has consquences actually:

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #jasper #golden grove

[ihopesocomic]

As it was known that Jasper made a deal with Edge, to give his daughter to Edge to mate his son to have a better and proper heir to the pride.

But why? Could Edge find some others that are not in the Grove? What were Jasper's thoughts and intentions when killing Merry if he wanted to make a deal with Edge to give him one of his heirs to mate with his son? They're right to say that Jasoer not only isn't a good king but also not a good father. He was looking after himself and he wanted his pride to follow his rule when it came to survival.

Edge never intended for Adamant and Fade to have kids. It's purely a business partnership, with Face being the "face" of his father's enterprise and Adamant looking out for him and being the enforcer of his rule. If the pair of them wish to have their own mates outside of the partnership, that's whatever as far as Edge is concerned.

As for your question as to why Adamant has been chosen specifically, I can give one non-spoiler reason: the Golden Grove is the smallest pride under Edge's rule so they're naturally the first choice to surrender an Heir because anywhere else makes Edge's monthly payment tariff via food and so on.

There's another reason but it's spoilers. c:

But she certainly wasn't chosen before she was born. That decision wasn't made until after he saw her hunt in Chapter 5. He was still weighing his options before then. But yeah, co-rulers are not always necessarily romantically involved and they do not always have kids. Some don't even assume the title of King or Queen alongside their mate at all. Opal, for example, is not officially a King of the Thundering Mountains despite being Obsidian's mate because he feels the title doesn't suit him. He's still just referred to as a Jester.

Even without kids, the future of the pride is always ensured through the Knight. If the ruling body happens to die without Heirs or Heirs that are not old enough to rule, the Knight will always ascend to the throne. Like Obsidian did when Pyrite and Flint (Diamond's parents) died suddenly.

It's why we always object to the Queen title being viewed as on par with the deputy position in Warrior Cats. Nope, the "deputy" or second-in-command of the pride is always the Knight.

Sorry, this answer got a bit long-winded. I do think I need to try and cover this somehow somewhere in the comic but it's finding that spot to do it in. oof - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #fade #adamant #edge's kingdom #golden grove #worldbuilding #rj answers

[ihopesocomic]

Can we see yours IHSsonas?? Just curious

Big Jaw (top) belongs to Cat whereas Pepper/Garnet (bottom) belongs to me. c: - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #ihopesonas #cat answers

[ihopesocomic]

wait, i’m sorry, people wanted JASPER TO KILL VICIOUS?!? oh my god. i’d understand anon-outrage-vicious-should-kill-jasper but the other way around feels so cruel????

It is cruel haha. But yea some people were really passionate about Vicious being killed at the hands of her abuser because of how she treated Hopeful. I guess for some, no redemption isn't enough. People are wild. - Cat

-

To go with Cat said: while Vicious's actions are not excused by her position as an abuse victim, it does not undo her victimhood. You can dislike Vicious all you want but it doesn't negate her status as a victim and it certainly doesn't mean she deserves to die at the hands of her abuser. Like we've had people outright ask how Vicious is abused exactly while completely ignoring clear evidence in the comic itself and yeah, that's a take ig... I think the main thing that needs to be understood is that Vicious will never see Hopeful or Adamant again. They're done with her. There is no redemption through that particular avenue. I like to think that'll be a comfort to most - if not all - of our readers. c: - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #cat answers #rj answers #vicious #jasper #golden grove

[ihopesocomic]

One thing I found interesting about the first chapter is Careful’s characterization! She comes off really cynical and apathetic to the struggles of her niece and her sister (ex. commenting how Hope is behind in motor development, and saying Hope will die eventually which upsets Vicious in the process). It’s something I wouldn’t expect from her, since we see she’s very maternal with her own cubs and expresses more sympathy for Hope in later chapter (expressing pained disappointment with Hope being named Hopeless, and asking frantically if Hope is okay when she runs back). Was she frustrated/emotionally adjusting to Jasper’s kingship, having struggle keeping birthing cubs of her own, and/or were y’all still trying to get a personality for her? Is this something that would be touched upon if y’all end up redoing the beginning?

Careful has no reason being one of the most interesting characters to me, and yet here I am haha

Careful love is one of my favourite kind of love ahh <33

But yeah, we also intend to fix how she came across at that particular moment. Canonically speaking, she was still hurting over Cheerful and Bold leaving as well as living under Jasper's regime. After all, she loved Merry too, so him disappearing also had an effect on her. Another thing to note is that she genuinely did not think Hope would last as long as she has done so why bother getting attached and forming a connection at the time? It just hurts all the more when you lose that somebody. She's also just not about wearing her emotions on her sleeve, unlike her sisters. She's very guarded emotionally and that's also why she's called Careful. - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff #rj answers #careful #golden grove