Q&A: Feb - March 2023

Hello again, dear readers! Time to ANSWER some QUESTIONS.

As always, thank you so much to all the patrons that took their time to ask a question! We got a lot of REALLY cool questions that we didn't get around to answering (due to the reasons outlined in the update post), so we'll definitely be leaving them on the backburner to get to at a later time. That said, let's get to the ones we ARE answering this month:

1. Did the Furby accident (referenced in Jentha's introduction pages) have an impact on Corporate's strictness regarding their creative teams?

AUSTIN: I choose to believe it was a similar wake up call to the likes of discovering that the toys and hard candy inside of Kinder Surprise could accidentally choke out young kids. You made little endearing robot freaks that can learn from trolls, them going rogue and committing to violence was really only a matter of time.

Personally, I feel like these sorts of accidents are actually very common. It's just drowned out by all the extra media keys that Corporate news programs feed worker-consumers and then covered up through various means after the fact. I strongly doubt most trolls on Repiton really care that much, they were essentially conditioned not to.

2. How do you come up with character designs? Is there a general idea for how something will look before you get into designing it, or is it more changing things as you find more inspiration?

EDDIE: It depends on what kind of design you're talking about! For more plot-heavy looks, like the pure self outfits or an important character's initial appearance, there are some pretty clear concepts going in that either Austin or Heather will have come up with preemptively, and it's usually Heather taking the lead on designing those anyway. For things like aesthetic outfit changes, such as Arcjec and Taz's updated looks or the kiddie versions of the main cast we saw in the Jentha flashback, we usually have more of a "what you feel works best" approach, since it's up to whoever feels like taking the artist mantle at the time. And of course, we always get everything peer reviewed in the work server! So some changes and refining might happen there.

As far as my personal work methods go, what I try to do is highlight something different about how the character is presenting at the time. How can I convey character growth through visual cues? Taz foregoing her iconic clown makeup is a big one, for example, as is Arcjec putting a bit more effort into his outfit and sporting an updated, zipped down version of the classic hoodie. Or in the case of the flashback, how can I highlight something important about the character and what they were like in the past? Stuff like that! Character design is so cool.

Oh, and obviously use Pinterest. Lifesaver for all sorts of references in general, but especially when it comes to fashion inspiration.

3. How common is worship of the Naught-Father as opposed to worship of the All-Mother? Is it more common to worship both, or just one? Is a majority or minority of Repiton religious?

EDDIE: Believe it or not, the worship of Kheparia is overall way more common than that of Gaiaeon! It feels like kind of a strange claim, since so much of the exposition we have on how religion works on Repiton comes from this specific extremist sect, but it's the truth — it just so happens that a group of very devout Gaiaeon worshippers are one of the main antagonistic forces in the comic, so those guys get a lot of screentime. But overall, sole Kheparia worship is by far the most common faith held by anyone spiritually inclined, with Gaiaeon usually being painted as a negative figure to fear and oppose the All-Mother. So they're kind of a package deal, but most people don't explicit pray to Gaiaeon.

There are certainly doctrines out there that revere both of them, but much like the solo Gaiaeon sects, they're considered weird fringe religions. Think like... a branch of Christianity where people worshipped both the Big G in the Sky AND Satan at the same time. That's the vibe the common repitonian would get from those subgroups.

As for the last question... I honestly don't know! That's kind of a hard thing to calculate. I guess just about as much as a percentage of the population on Earth is religious would be a good guess.

4. Since SBB Vol 12 shows the Mirthamaniacs know who the 12 aspect holders are, did Pozzol know who Taz’s “lowblood” actually was? Or did he think Arcjec was just some randy lowblood at the time?

AUSTIN: Since the merger with The Mora/Harbingers happened later on the timeline, I sincerely doubt that Pozzol would have known about any of Arcjec's specialities outside of being special to Taz before that point. After the fact, it certainly made him yearn to turn his body into a fine paste that much more. Even though he's not allowed to.

Yet, anyway.

5. Were Arcjec and Ellsee ever in the kindergarten with other trolls? Or were they kept separate from the rest of the kids?

EDDIE: They weren't! Technically this information is getting a biiiit into spoiler territory, but what the hell, we'll give you guys a freebie. That mysterious arrangement between the Vivifier, the Forgiven and the Executive involved some extra stuff other than what's been shown in the comic, which includes the two of them being given to Chimeraparent straight outta osmosis. Since Ellsee's existence is strictly off-record, there was no way she could've grown up in the caverns without raising questions from the teachers, which was too much of a liability, and while Arcjec COULD pass a regular bronzeblood due to his blood color and some shenanigans involving Thesal's sigil, it was just safer to keep them both out. Also, that way they could keep each other company! And be raised as a family together, which was part of what Zekura and Thesal wanted.

6. Are there Game Awards and stuff similar to that?

EDDIE: Oh buddy, you bet there is. If you'll recall, Secily mentions Skyrim by name in SBB — I think it was during Bytcon's route but I'm not 100% on it — which is WILD, considering how much of a stated technophobe boomer she is. Also, Troll Jerma and Turnin are some of the most famous people on the planet, so considering they are both streamers, it's safe to say video games in general are even more of a cultural Thing everyone and their mom is aware of than over here in the real world. The Game Awards on Repiton are probably some sort of prestige event on par with the fucking like, Emmy Awards or the Golden Globe or something at this point.

Imagine rolling out the red carpet and in comes Jerma. What a world!

7. Is Jentha's "your name sucks" trans-radar sort of tendency something like a latent classpect ability or is it literally just her gut feeling that coincidentally was correct twice?

EDDIE: You could definitely argue that Jentha, as the aspect holder associated with fortuitous knowledge, manifested some sort of innate Aspect-related power and saw right through Dismas and Albion's whole thing before they had even stopped to think about it too hard. However, I will be totally real with you: it was mostly just me and Austin thinking it'd be REALLY funny if she did that.

Either way, Jentha was right. Those names sucked! So they picked new ones. All's well that ends well.

And that will be all from us for now! Catch you lovely people next month.

- Eddie & Austin