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Post by tekkawekka on Jul 2, 2014 21:15:29 GMT -5
From the focus given to fortifying the village, I assumed they were going to face Souzou Tennou on their home ground, not venture into his. It makes sense, since obviously they wouldn't want the remaining villagers attacked by Souzou Tennou, but considering the very air on the mountain is not conducive to good mental health, I really don't see Akagane getting out of this alive. Poor Hisui...
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Post by Inu-papa on Jul 3, 2014 7:00:41 GMT -5
From the focus given to fortifying the village, I assumed they were going to face Souzou Tennou on their home ground, not venture into his. It makes sense, since obviously they wouldn't want the remaining villagers attacked by Souzou Tennou, but considering the very air on the mountain is not conducive to good mental health, I really don't see Akagane getting out of this alive. Poor Hisui... Ah, I think it was chapter... 90 where they first decided to take the fight to him. Though skimming back over it, they don't seem to say that explicitly, just that they were going to "go on the offensive to get him before he gets us". The village fortifications are a fallback measure. |
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Post by Inu-papa on Jul 6, 2014 12:36:12 GMT -5
What's going to happen with Wakage? It seems like she left the story rather abruptly, when she could have been a decent ally for the battle against Souzuo Tennou. Ah, I actually have... other plans for her. But she's not completely out of the picture just yet. Aaand now my plans for her have fallen through, since I figured out a more narratively-relevant way to get done what I needed to get done, meaning I don't need to bring her back into the story to do it. At least not where I was originally intending. She may come back later, but as of right now I have no solid plans for her, and I don't want to force her to come back if she has nothing relevant to do. While I agree she has good reason to join the Souzou Tennou take-down team, I've only plotted out the final battle involving two people, and they've been training all this time assuming it would only be two people, so having her show up now and join the fight wouldn't really flow very well. |
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Post by tekkawekka on Jul 8, 2014 2:10:58 GMT -5
Ah, I actually have... other plans for her. But she's not completely out of the picture just yet. Aaand now my plans for her have fallen through, since I figured out a more narratively-relevant way to get done what I needed to get done, meaning I don't need to bring her back into the story to do it. At least not where I was originally intending. She may come back later, but as of right now I have no solid plans for her, and I don't want to force her to come back if she has nothing relevant to do. While I agree she has good reason to join the Souzou Tennou take-down team, I've only plotted out the final battle involving two people, and they've been training all this time assuming it would only be two people, so having her show up now and join the fight wouldn't really flow very well. Aww, really? I was looking forward to her return! I liked Wakage, and I wanted her to have more in her life besides resentment against the trees and villagers. Frankly, I was enjoying the idea of female fighter joining the cast. Kogane and Hisui are strong and resilient, but it seems like any woman dedicated to anything beyond providing (essential!) non-combat support gets the toughest deal. Kougyoku and Inu-Papa's mom were like mature, smart, and physically formidable women (or at least Inu-papa and Myōga make them sound that way), and they died. Queen Amahari was at least formidable (thought definitely a case of Blue and Orange Morality), and she lost all her daughters and then died. Ryakki, with all of her potential, died. Souzou Tennou had a hand in all their misfortunes and eventual death. I'm pretty sure this is a purposeful pattern, though it still stings that none of the women he's tormented so much and I've grown to sympathize with will have a hand in beating his ass into the dirt. Eika's alive and seems to have a good chance of staying that way, but even though she can be competent, she's just not...inspiring, and I don't see her joining the final battle against Ten-chan. Mitsuru, who's hardly anything other than human now, didn't even get to be right about the village defenses. Tsutsuji can't leave her shrine. I know that life's hard for women, that violent misogynists have an excessive and dangerous amount of power, and that anybody going into combat has a huge chance of dying, regardless of sex or gender. It's just that I see enough of that in real life. It's something I have to think about everyday. I just wish I could find a little more escapism. |
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Post by Inu-papa on Jul 8, 2014 9:01:30 GMT -5
Aww, really? I was looking forward to her return! I liked Wakage, and I wanted her to have more in her life besides resentment against the trees and villagers. Yeah, she strikes me as a character that could use some more development and stuff to do, and she's one of the few that's made it through this alive so far and has the free time to go out and do stuff. Unfortunately, I just haven't come up with a relevant place to include her yet that doesn't feel like I'm just having her there for the sake of having her there. Although, you will be glad that in the idea I scrapped, she would have gotten killed off. ^_^* So she's safe for now. This is true of pretty much all the secondary characters, though, not just the women. Even Yachouon's primary ability (buff/debuff) was supportive in nature, and he also ended up dying. Hisui's father was a fighter, but when he lost his arm he just kind of faded into the background. The monks are mostly just moral support and a lot of them have gotten maimed and killed off. Myouga and Yakurou Dokusen are the background old guy plot fairies. All in all, Inu-papa and Akagane are the only two characters in the story who actively do anything fighting-wise regardless of gender, but that has more to do with the compact nature of the active battle party rather than actively excluding anyone of a particular gender. Besides, Akagane got to play a woman who kicked ass in a play, so he kinda covers both genders.  The stuff about Mitsuru and Akagane's mother was actually me trying to balance out some perceived misandry that I felt was starting to pile up. So far, all of the horrible things had been caused by evil men, and all of the women were helpless, innocent victims. Akagane's father abandoned them, Inu-papa's father screwed everyone over, Seishi was a jerk, Myouga was opportunistic, Yachouon was just using Inu-papa for his own ends... Even Amahari, who was villainous, had her actions instigated by an attack from Souzou Tennou, so she was partially a victim herself. So with Mitsuru being wrong and Akagane's mother having a mental disorder, I wanted to change up the "victim women" mentality a bit and have some with problems that weren't caused by men. I know. But, again, bringing Wakage into the battle now feels more like an attempt to fill a "quota" than because she has anything relevant to do, which I find to be more insulting than simply not having her participate at all. If I bring her back, it needs to be something that's for her own sake and her own character development, not just because "the party needs a girl". Once Akagane is out of the picture, there will be a necessary change-up in the active party, and I've already got plans to have female fighters included. |
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Post by tekkawekka on Jul 8, 2014 19:07:40 GMT -5
That is true, Akagane played a lady who kicked butt despite supposedly being there for scenery. I had a feeling that entire scene was a dig at how Izayoi was portrayed in the third movie. True, there were mitigating circumstances (as in just giving birth and coming back from the dead), but she didn't get much more to do than go "Huh?"
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Post by Inu-papa on Jul 8, 2014 20:57:02 GMT -5
That is true, Akagane played a lady who kicked butt despite supposedly being there for scenery. I had a feeling that entire scene was a dig at how Izayoi was portrayed in the third movie. True, there were mitigating circumstances (as in just giving birth and coming back from the dead), but she didn't get much more to do than go "Huh?" X3 The entire play scene was a dig at Movie 3, since "Memoirs" is ignoring the existence of any non-manga material, so that's the closest it's gonna get. But, yeah, long ways down the road once the story finally gets to Izayoi, I have no intention of making her just a "scenery" character. She'd have to be someone that this character I've built up over hundreds of chapters would believably fall in love with, and I doubt he'd go for the "demure doormat" type. |
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Post by Grimmkitty on Jul 25, 2014 1:55:47 GMT -5
Ahhhh watching all this conjecture over this stuff is getting me so hype! ;A; I feel bad that I just lurk in the shadows and read your stuff like a ninja every month but oh man, wow. I can't wait till you get to the point where Inu-papa actually starts meeting more characters that are identifiable in the source material. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the depth that you give your original characters, but just from reading it, I've also wanted to see where you'd be taking your story from here on out since the movies are...well. I mean I'M GLAD that the movies gave us a face to the legend that is the all powerful DOGFATHER but let's be real.
It could've been better. |D I think you can do waaaaaay better. I've seen you do way better already. Which brings me back to being SO HYPE!
Also I think you handle all the character story lines for all your characters extremely well, and that you even identified anything as at all leaning against one particular gender is pretty big of you. Personally as a reader it didn't bug me, but I can imagine it might get under some people's skin and such.
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Post by Inu-papa on Jul 26, 2014 7:58:05 GMT -5
Ahhhh watching all this conjecture over this stuff is getting me so hype! ;A; I feel bad that I just lurk in the shadows and read your stuff like a ninja every month but oh man, wow. I can't wait till you get to the point where Inu-papa actually starts meeting more characters that are identifiable in the source material. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the depth that you give your original characters, but just from reading it, I've also wanted to see where you'd be taking your story from here on out since the movies are...well. I mean I'M GLAD that the movies gave us a face to the legend that is the all powerful DOGFATHER but let's be real. It could've been better. |D I think you can do waaaaaay better. I've seen you do way better already. Which brings me back to being SO HYPE! Also I think you handle all the character story lines for all your characters extremely well, and that you even identified anything as at all leaning against one particular gender is pretty big of you. Personally as a reader it didn't bug me, but I can imagine it might get under some people's skin and such. Heh, yeah, the problem with Inu-papa in canon is that absolutely everything we know about him happened within the last few years of his life, because everything involves Tessaiga, and Tessaiga was created after he met Izayoi. Pretty much the only pre-Tessaiga thing we know about him is the existence of Sesshoumaru's mother, but all the information coming from her had to do with Tenseiga, which came even later than Tessaiga. So, it's like, for a guy that was supposedly hundreds of years old, why does absolutely no one have any info on him from before he met Izayoi? Hell, even the filler goes this route, with movies 1 and 3 having villains tied to Tessaiga, and movie 4 having villains tied to Inu-papa and Izayoi's relationship. Only the cat youkai arc in the anime depicts something that would have had to have come before all of this. But, like I said, I am ignoring all the anime-original material (... except for the barrier on Midoriko's cave, which I'd forgotten wasn't in the manga), but because everything canon we know about him happens towards the end of his life, I'm bringing in original characters that at least have obvious ties to future canon characters to tide things over. |
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Post by Grimmkitty on Jul 27, 2014 0:18:21 GMT -5
Heh, yeah, the problem with Inu-papa in canon is that absolutely everything we know about him happened within the last few years of his life, because everything involves Tessaiga, and Tessaiga was created after he met Izayoi. Pretty much the only pre-Tessaiga thing we know about him is the existence of Sesshoumaru's mother, but all the information coming from her had to do with Tenseiga, which came even later than Tessaiga. So, it's like, for a guy that was supposedly hundreds of years old, why does absolutely no one have any info on him from before he met Izayoi? Hell, even the filler goes this route, with movies 1 and 3 having villains tied to Tessaiga, and movie 4 having villains tied to Inu-papa and Izayoi's relationship. Only the cat youkai arc in the anime depicts something that would have had to have come before all of this. But, like I said, I am ignoring all the anime-original material (... except for the barrier on Midoriko's cave, which I'd forgotten wasn't in the manga), but because everything canon we know about him happens towards the end of his life, I'm bringing in original characters that at least have obvious ties to future canon characters to tide things over. Hell, even a lot of the information we're given is pretty...weird. Maybe it's just me, but I notice the information doesn't always add up when one rechecks on it with recent stuff, and most naturally, the movie to me never fit in right. But then again, movies are filler and never meant to really fit anywhere anyway so. xD I'M ACTUALLY KIND OF GLAD WE GOT SOME CLOSURE WITH SESSHOUMARU'S MOM? It wasn't necessary, and therefore a nice surprise to add into the mix, plus it also adds to the complexity of how demons really feel about humans, and the fact that, you know. She didn't just jealously go out and murder Izayoi or else murder her out of spite makes me feel as if there's something deeper to the lore, and the relationship, if it was fully able to be considered one, that she and Inu-Papa had...if that makes sense. I mean I never got the idea that they left on AWFUL terms, because while not all demons are bad, they have the propensity for spiteful actions just like humans? =|a Also it's probably a good thing that you aren't including the cat youkai filler, LOL. Since that was just...egh. I enjoyed it for what it was, but there were discrepancies between both episodes that just made my eye twitch and I was 100% done on some fronts. I'd say your original characters tie things in much more nicely than the fillers did. Plus dude. SWORD STORIES. I mean wow we don't even know the full story of how those things got forged like. Physically and such so watching you write it is gon' be fun if you go that route! |
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Post by Inu-papa on Aug 1, 2014 5:47:38 GMT -5
Chapter 121 is up. This chapter was inspired by the Doctor Who quote: "What's the point of being happy now if you're going to be sad later? The answer, of course, is because you're going to be sad later."
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Post by Inu-papa on Sept 1, 2014 7:18:17 GMT -5
Chapter 122 is up. We've got an old character back, and not just because people have been asking for her. I've got plans this time. |
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Post by Inu-papa on Oct 2, 2014 20:15:38 GMT -5
Chapter 123 is up. Puppy's reaction was, "Damn, Wakage, you sure know how to twist the knife without even realizing it."
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Post by Inu-papa on Nov 2, 2014 8:23:11 GMT -5
Chapter 124 is up. Kind of a bit of dawdling to tie up a couple loose ends, but now we're finally getting a move on.
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Post by Inu-papa on Dec 2, 2014 20:36:56 GMT -5
Chapter 125 is up. Now we're getting into some historical backstory and world-building that I admittedly made up right when I wrote the chapter, though Puppy was impressed with how well it tied everything together despite not planning it that way. I guess that at least means things are internally-consistent.
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