I Hope So: Backup

Welcome to the temporary ask blog for the webcomic, I Hope So. This blog exists as an alt in the event that we become unable to answer asks and interact with y'all on the main blog.

THE FOLLOWING ASKS WILL NOT BE ANSWERED/PUBLISHED:

- ANY QUESTIONS ON THE FAQ. - ANY ASKS THAT ARE ASKING WHEN FULL CHAPTERS ARE RELEASING/WHEN WE UPDATE IN GENERAL. We do not update by chapters, we update page-by-page every Friday. There is early access to pages on our Patreon. Please stop asking. - CROSSOVER QUESTIONS (i.e. how our characters would fit into franchises outside of the comic), as these take a while to answer or are difficult to answer or just concern things we’re not super familiar with. lol - ANY ROLEPLAYING/ANON INTERACTIONS WITH CHARACTERS (i.e. “plays with adamant’s hair” etc.) - ART REQUESTS OR SUGGESTIONS. Sorry, but we do not have time to honour these. We do art of whatever we feel like. PLEASE TRY AND KEEP OFF-TOPIC ASKS TO A MINIMUM. Any unrelated questions can be asked via the Discord server below. 

DISCORD SERVER INVITE LINK: https://discord.gg/kVpBHPFSkT

Our Discord is a growing, welcoming community where you can interact with us and other readers of the comic. You can share art, ask questions - whether they be related to the comic or not - or just talk about just anything you like in the designated channels. Hope to see you there!

Thank you for visiting and for reading the comic, your support means a lot to us.

*Point of fact, thanks for having multiple disabled characters and giving them names and traits other than "is disabled and isn't it sad when they die."

It has been a rough couple of weeks in the talking animal comics sphere. I Hope So has certainly been an oasis, and I am so glad it is back to updating.

"It's been a rough couple of weeks in the talking animals comic sphere." When is it NOT a rough time in the talking animals comics sphere? lol

Not saying there's not good animal comics out there but some really do a good job of being needlessly edgy and dark in exchange for any semblance of good writing.

There's nothing wrong with actually playing into it like you would if you were writing up a horror movie but I'm sure tired of this theme of people trying to clout chase and promote their story as progressive and then it's basically throwing in serious themes with no consideration on how to handle them.

It's just "hey, I covered this serious theme but I'm not going to cover it with any amount of seriousness whatsoever actually: gimmie kudos now!".

Don't even get me started on how there's a misconception that including "adult" themes automatically makes your story mature and sophisticated either. You have early Disney movies that did a great job of appealing to adults without having to include gore or sexual themes to appeal to adults, for example. lol And killing off a disabled character doesn't need to be automatically a bad choice narratively either. It all depends on the kind of narrative you want to deliver.

A woefully dark storyline isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are quite a few movies I enjoy (Fluke being a major example) that are relentlessly heartbreaking and sad. The problem comes from people - like I've just mentioned - thinking that just including minorities experiencing relentless tragedy automatically makes their story compelling escapism on its own when that's not how these things work. If you want to appeal to these minorities, don't use said minorities to simply make people outside of said minority groups feel sad for them before ultimately casting them aside once they've served their purpose.

I absolutely adored writing the interactions between Aggie, Troublesome and Joyous. lol

really great work there. having storm and adamant contrast to push it further really really works

A) THANKS! Storm and Adamant have to have a good friendship too. Otherwise Adamant would be third-wheeling it and that's never fun.

B) Yea very interesting >:3

My advice is not to do a comic for years haha start small and see what feels like a good amount of time to be working on a comic for, for you. If I felt like IHS could be told in a few chapters I would. But it's gotten bigger and I've managed to find a good schedule for myself, work smarter and not harder, where I can keep working on it without being burned out. If I could do it for a living, it'd be completed much faster because then my time wouldn't need to be divided between this and work.

We've certainly had numerous conversations about what constitutes as a redemption arc so, yep, the mentality that redemption arcs have to be solely about gaining forgiveness as a means to get whatever the hell the character wants (i.e. whether that be validation or access to somebody) is certainly an odd but plague-like one.

It's the same mentality as one thinking that the word 'sorry' on its own automatically erases your actions. It doesn't but I've come across more than a few adults that think it does because genuine remorse is something that's foreign to them.

But yeah, as you've pointed out, there are more ways for Vicious to be "redeemed" outside of her having access to her daughters again. Her abusive behaviour towards them doesn't make them any less of a victim BUT we're not about to invalidate the victimhood of Adamant and Hopeful just so we can show both of them acting completely out of character and accepting their mother back into their lives. While Hopeful being a kind optimist is a major part of her character, she's not a doormat. Same with Adamant.

For starters, we’re talking about an AU that has no relation to the main canon. Maybe please wait until the canon storyline wraps before suggesting we’re “giving everybody a love interest”.

I also do not desire a relationship myself so I completely get where you’re coming from on personal level but - at the same time - I feel you’re underplaying how little QPRs are represented in media and I’m sorry but what may not simply be your cup of tea personally could also be an aromantic individual in a relationship feeling seen and not feeling like they “don’t count” because a lot of people don’t even know you can pursue a relationship as an aromantic individual. Which I’ve absolutely seen them have to deal with and we’ve had asks sent to us from those who have experienced this. So with all due respect, I don’t feel it’s fair to call something like this a “stepback” just because it doesn’t appeal to you personally.