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Sylveon now Streaming [Author's Note]
🕑 Added 2024-07-25 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
This has been quite the journey hasn’t it.
This won’t be particularly structured in any particular way since I want this to reflect my actual thoughts as much as possible. An author’s note for a TF/Post-TF comic might seem a bit far-fetched to some but from those comments arose some pertinent and interesting questions I wasn’t able to or never would’ve been able to answer within the comic proper. I apologize in advance if this may appear scattershot.
P-S: Eevee Now Live and Sylveon Now Streaming will be shorted to EnL/SnS for the sake of brevity
First of all!
Let me begin by thanking all of you for sticking around this long.
This is by far the longest continuous comic I’ve ever worked on clocking in at 18 pages. Over 4 months of work. Which is kind of funny considering that this started out as a 4 page mini-comic whose main purpose was practice for my actual passion project.
Ooooh how far we have come. BUT! The support and community engagement has made it all worth it.
Do not kid yourselves, I read all and every comment. The good ones, the great ones, the questionable one and everything in between. I’d love to reply to all of them but sometimes I need to tell myself that people would probably be happier with me working on the next page than spending an hour every day replying to everyone, ahaha… ha.
In regards to the actual textual implications (FAQs)
When I write even when I plan for something to be short, I usually always plan out a beginning and an ending, which is what allows me to continue my short stories if people want is to keep going (which is what happening here.) I’ve never been able to see Transformation as a once and done thing unlike a lot of people.
I tend to make my writing intentionally vague on certain aspects for a multitude of reasons, some of which being:
1. I like to keep details to the strict necessary as much as possible as to avoid blotting my text.
2. I greatly value the reader’s imagination and right to filling blanks and theorize.
3. I want to respect my audience’s intelligence at picking up subtext and subtlety
I’ve received a lot of comments regarding the nature of Vince or Hector’s (they have a name now yeeeeah) condition.
Is this an allegory? What turned Vince? What do they identify as? Is it contagious? Will they change back? Is [Hector] going to turn too? Are the two of them dating? Will the two of them be dating?
So on and so forth.
I do have answers to all of that.
But.
I won’t be answering any of it.
at least, explicitly.
I had plans to at some point to do so but this comic has frankly outgrown my original intent. I figure it’d be a bit selfish of me to undercut a lot of people’s interpretation. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a believer of Death of the Artist yet I don’t deliberately want to rob people of what this comic means to them because I have the objectively correct answer.
I believe I’ve left behind enough hints and clues to guide you all my vision. If not, feel free to ignore it and have it be whatever you want it to be. I won’t stop you. Enjoy my work how you see fit but please read the actual text before you do.
The one thing I will clarify is a thing or two about Vince's and Hector's relationship. Some see it as wholesome, others as toxic, a sizeable chunk want them to date... All I'll say is that if it wasn't made apparent, they do genuinely care about each other. Yes. For those who didn't know, before Game Freak nuked the mechanic, in it's debut generation Sylveon didn't evolve based on friendship. That's all I'll say on that. Could the two of them be more mature about how they display their bond? Is it exactly what they need out of each other? You be the judge of that.
My feelings and take on all of this
This might come as a shock to some but I don’t have the highest opinion of my work. A part of me had gotten disillusioned with transformation work and art in general a few years back. I’ve always seen my style and aesthetic to be acquired tastes, lagging behind my peers; always to be outdone by cleaner and softer styles, simpler and more basic stories and setups. I’ve tried drawing the “popular thing” in the past. Wasn’t for me. So I simply strove to “doing it myself” to become what I want to see.
The stuff I personally fell for with Transformation, I was seeing less and less.
The drama, the anatomy work, the character craft, actual consequences… The adaptation…
Heck even just how other people react to the changes.
With the “old guard” I grew up watching moving on or just stopping all together, the field kind of homogenizes itself in my honest opinion.
The same reactions, similar posing, setup, formats, plots, YCHs, AU shipping, etc.
The content has never gotten bad, per say, just same-y on one side.
“If it sells, it sells”, right?
There's always this sense of looming cynicism when discussing this people.
While on the other hand, a lot of the more interesting uses of the trope was locked behind, let’s say, some very adult desires, for the sake of minors reading.
“Transformation is just fetish content.”
I’ve seen many artists share that sentiment. Some have made public posts throwing the entire trope under the bus in spite of its prominent use in popular media. Calling disgusting and insulting people who like it (in spite of writing a PMD comic, oh the irony.)
Heck, I’ve seen artists be shamed by their audience for just trying out TF on their main account.
While I am happy and somewhat proud that the reception of EnL/SnS has proven for a fact that this this thesis is FACTUALLY INCORRECT, it is still a popular sentiment with a lot of power behind it.
Not to mention I was accused of being a “child groomer” in my own server because I “advertise TF content to minor”. Looong story, trust me.
Heck a lot of people expected this comic series to end in sm*t even before SnS was announced, just to reinforce my point. You know. In spite of me never making the stuff. I don’t begrudge anyone for liking what they like but it makes things complicated
for someone who’s mostly in it as a story tool and anatomy/posing practice.
To people who genuinely still believe that
Which leads to…
The series’ reception and going forward.
My life has been all over the place and drawing comics is almost like a dream come true for me.
Even outside of the EnL/SnS saga, there’s been a lot in my mind as of late regarding my work and its reception given how big this whole thing has gotten by my standards.
I’ve had artists I look up and respect from within and outside the TF community tell me they love my work, very much to my surprise.
Let’s be real, the impostor syndrome ain’t going away anytime soon.
Neither will my appreciation for quality TF content.
This has opened my eyes to the fact that I want to keep being a “contrarian”.
Both for myself, the desperate people like me who like this stuff and the people who didn’t even know they liked this kind of stuff yet!
This author’s note has ballooned and tripled in size from its original intent, guess I had a lot on my chest, hehe.
Be excited for my next major comic in the next upcoming months!
I’ll strive to make it even better than this one >:3c
Doing this full time would be ideal but for that I'd need the funds and money for that.
If you want to stay updated and make sure I don’t starve before I get there, consider
· Dropping a dollar or more on my Patreon (no paying up front so no pressure *You're already here, congrats) or
· Hopping onto our community Discord for a good time and early updates
Thanks for reading and take care everyone!
Comments
Raichumorph4
As someone who grew up with the "old guard" of TFs, I remember some artists used to delve into these ideas. Its what got me into TF and TFTG in the first place.I LOVED that about webcomics and art pieces of the time. Now its usually one offs or just people glazing over the results like "OMG I'm a sexy pokegirl now! Imma sex up people!" ...Granted, I'm probably not one to talk given what I've commissioned over the years. That said, I have to say this, I LOVE how you did this comic. The story, the mystery the bonding and Hector and Vince FEEL like close friends who joke around. It feels very natural. This is something I've missed in TF comic recently. I will admit I would like to see more of them in the future. As where this goes, who knows? Maybe others join Vince in the pokemorph party? Or perhaps people have to get used to anthro sylvie tomboy raging against them in CoD. Really love the series so far and please continue to work on this. Your storytelling is amazing and there's so many hints and subtle cues that make this work. GAH! I love it so much!
Robert Louis Stoll
You do good work. Enjoy your style and how you frame things, especially with this series. Looking forward to future series :)
