assmundr

[assmundr]

"what a good day to be the worst person alive!"-Kique

#RogioCoded

[assmundr]

Can I just quickly say that I'm lowkey not even surprised he was stealing brushes from Aaron Blaise? Kique has been gushing about this man's work for years, especially about the work he's done on Beauty and the Beast and Brother Bear. Of course he'd resell his assets, because god forbid Kique creates something on his own instead of stealing from people he admires

[assmundr]

This is so fucking embarrassing

[assmundr]

Hmmm...

HMMMM...

More disappearing comments. This time it's one of mine!

Great job, Sleepy! You're really showing everyone how mature and collected you are about facing backlash when you silence anyone who dares to tell you they think your poorly written sexist horse comic is implying inappropriate things about a child's name. What a role model you are!

[assmundr]

Just gonna post this one here since Sleepy is deleting comments now

[assmundr]

Me, thinking Dragon Slayer can't get any worse:

Sleepy: Now that my main character is finally born, I will name her after a sex joke!!

[assmundr]

I don't know if you use Webtoon but there's this anthro animal comic called "the angel in the forest". It has a lot of subs. There was a sudden twist introducing sex*al abuse with a very very small warning‚ a lot of people didn't even see it. It seems a few dropped the comic after that episode.

The abuse was between an evil bat leader to one of the bat main characters. The partner of this bat was caged and the abused one was consenting to protect his partner. The caged partner finds a random abandoned baby. So uh. The couple gets a baby to adopt in the same place and day one was brutally raped. It's... something. I haven't read in a while but I doubt this bit was necessary.

That comic is a sausage feast with two girls just existing in the background‚ one of them being a plot device. It's not Home levels bad since the story is good (in the beginning at least) and the development of the characters and main relationship are kinda enjoyable. I hope the r*ape wasn't pure shock value but it wasn't handled well at all.

Throwing the name in case you want to check it out :)

I keep trying to have a read and cnnot go pst like 50 pages. Mostly because I think the pacing kinda drags, but also because the bat character is pretty unlikable and also I dread what this story will eventually become

My friend had a peak, though, and this is what she had to say about it. Enjoy her rather disturbing summary and read this comic at your own risk

[assmundr]

Have you ever thought about maybe making a discord so people can freely talk about comics like Dragon Slayer and Home?

Not gonna lie, the thought crossed my mind a couple times. I'd rather join a server instead of making one, simply because it's easier to just be in one instead of creating a new one. Idk if any are around tho. There used to be a few about Home/Asmundr. But I don't know if any are right now. If more people end up being interested then I see no issue with making one.

[assmundr]

"Because we all know that a woman is not a woman until pregnancy/childbirth/motherhood/rape/infertility/other uterus related topics, is an integral part of her story" lol preach

If I had a penny for every time I encountered this in a story, I would have enough money to be able to quit my job and fully focus on the second part of the Asmundr/Home review lmao

Little tangent under the cut

I am honestly so tired of this still being an issue in the year of our Lord, 2025. It's even worse then the writer/artist are attempting to portray something "progressive" through their writing, but still somehow end up doing this.

Like, Andy Weird for an example. I loved The Martian and Project Hail Mary is honestly one of my the most favourite books I have ever read (read Project Hail Mary PLEASE I'm begging you I AM BEGGING ON MY KNEES-) but his second released book, Artemis? Atrocious. I have no idea what possessed him after he wrote the deliciousness that is The Martian to then spit out the kind of lukewarm mess Artemis was. I couldn't get past 60 pages, and I only got that far because I loved his two other books and wanted to push through. But I couldn't.

It absolutely is because of the main character, who is a woman (unlike the main characters in The Martian and PHM) and just kinda written as if an alien once did a Google search on what a woman was, spent 20 minutes reading about them on Reddit, then wrote a book about one. Nearly on every page, the reader gets reminded that the main character has boobs and has sex, because it's the most progressive thing ever to say women fuck!!! The MC has "not like other girls" vibe that obnoxiously overtakes over everything else happening in the book itself.

One of the worst books I have ever read, The Spectres, has many issues, but the biggest one gotta be how Every. Single. Female. Character. in it's story is defined by what male character they're currently attracted to. Every. Single. One. No matter who's POV it is, if it's a woman, her internal monologue and their actions will always circle back to the man she's into, completely defining her by her attraction to them instead of, you know, defining her by her personality like a regular person should be. And yes, this book was written by a man, if you were wondering.

It's even funnier when other people call this shit out, but then write it into their stories themselves, either being completely oblivious to it or bending back over backwards to excuse why it's okay if they do it. I once knew a person who heavilly criticised the badly handled sexual assault/rape in Home but then they had their own character raped/taken advantage of MULTIPLE TIMES for the sake of cheaply written drama and also have them have like seventeen miscarriages, too, because we all know the story of a person with a uterus isn't compelling until something like that happens to them. They also had a character they used as a clown and a comic relief in their writing that they were weirdly attracted to, while they were also a rapist (who assaulted several characters. Yes, it includes the previously mentioned one as well) All of this while they called out Home and Kique for misusing these topics for cheap drama/trauma/shock value.

I'm just. I'm so tired of this. I'm tired of seeing women and female presenting characters in media that's not even of this niche be written this way. Have rape, assault, pregnancy/birth related trauma thrown in left and right as if those are the traits that define women. I am tired of having to research the media I wanna engage with, whether it's a movie, a game or a book, to figure out if something like this will be a part of it's story. I don't mind at all reading about this, mind you. What I do mind, however, is when it's cheaply used as a sterotypical "female" trauma authors throw into stories so they can then label them as dark or provoking or some other shit. A woman is more than her uterus, a woman is more than a vessle for some cheap drama, and I am getting really tired of seeing this writing so often.

[assmundr]

Anon, I'm so sorry I'm posting like this, but your question about Dragon Slayer's horses being just horses got eaten my tumblr (because of course it did. What else would you expect from this hellsite) So I'll post the answer like this

I have to paraphrase because I don't have the original ask, but the question was: The argument I've seen a lot of people use is that Sunny writes about horses, which are territorial about their herds and will breed no matter if they're related or not. I don't think this is a good excuse to use but cannot articulate it myself, what do you think?

I cannot speak for you when I talk about this, but I will gladly provide my own point of view on the topic. When I think about excuses like that, I also think about how mares pee on a stalion's face when they're in heat, so why aren't Sunny's horses shown doing this? Why is Crisis shown to chase off other stalions (the way stalions do) but Dykor isn't? A foal is accurately drawn to be born with eponychium covering it's hooves and at night, but the mother isn't shown licking/eating the placenta the way mares do sometimes, nor is she shown to distance herself from the herd when she's foaling.

Why aren't all of these "natural behaviours" included in the comic and why Sunny seems to "cherrypick" horse behaviour? Because this is a comic about talking horses. I honestly don't have an answer simpler than that.

This is also the same issue for why I really do not like the comments the likes of "well, they're horses, of course they want to breed and don't care if they're related to one another" these horse also have a religion. These horses have kingdoms, titles, a language, a seer that interprets the will of the divine. They distinguish between friend and foe, between family, because they've been anthropomorphised for the sake of this comic's audiance. Sure, feral horses that act on instinct don't give a flying fuck about blood relation when they breed, but these horses are not feral.

This bullshit loop-jumping reminds me of people who shout about how the presence of assault is "normal" in hystorical dramas because people didn't give a fuck back then, but then get all huffy when you suggest people should also have bad teeth and women hairy armpits because nobody gave a fuck back then either. You cannot claim one is accurate behaviour and reject the other, and I am honestly weirded out that in so many instances, it's sexual violence specifically that gets excused but nothing else.

Yes, irl horses don't care about incest and forceful mating. However, irl horses also piss in each other's faces when they're in heat and they also sniff poop to distingush between each other, but I don't see them screeching about this not being shown on the pages. People that try to make excuses for one but are quiet about the other are either ignorant, stupid, or really weird about topics like that. Anyway, this is my take

[assmundr]

lmao have you seen the comments on the new page trying to defend why they can't smell rogion on the skull? their scenting ability seems to have a switch because it only works when it's plot convenient

Yep. I wish I could say I was surpised at this, but something like this happened so many times in the comic already that I don't even raise an eyebrow at that anymore.

I only skimmed the comments but Pralig (ew) and Kique's excuses seem to mostly boil down to "they lost their ability to smell" which...like...I wouldn't mind as much as a reason if it was like that many times before

Just from the top of my head, their noses worked when:

Roamer sniffed Kargo and Ferah's destroyed hut and figured out the Meteors took them/destroyed it

when Roamer ruined Ferah's coat and tried to create a fake smell trail to throw the Meteors off. He even peed in a creek to hide his own smell

the "their smell should still be present on my coat" stunt Rogio pulled to get Roamer to trust him about being Kargo and Farah's friend

When Rhovanion tracked Jahla's scent all the way to Stormeki Enclave and then followed Roamer's all the way down to Midnightgarde when he lost her

Vigr proposed to Ronja and Rogio to use Rogio's smell to lure Ranach away from their tribe

when Ranach supposedly smelled Kargo and Farah after they returned to the Meteor Tribe

And these are just the instances I remember as someone who has not read through the comic for over three years and as someone who only skims the pages. I'm sure there's more

You see, like you said, if this ability seemingly didn't only work when it's plot convenient, I woudn't have minded much if it was a thing. I think it'd be stupid, but if it was at least stablished before, I wouldn't see it as much of an issue. What I see as an issue is when Kique's terrible writing comes to bite him in the ass about things (Rhov not smelling Jahla at the Capital, Ranach not smelling Rogio but smelling Kargo (?????) the Meteors not tracking down The GangTM after their first escape, Ronja not smelling Jahla at the Tinget, etc. etc.) and instead of admitting it's his own shortcommings, he bends over backwards trying to explain bullshit like this.

Do you even know how powerful a dog's sense of smell is? Dogs can smell you from several miles away. They can smelll it on things YEARS after you haven't touched them. They can detect smells that are covered up by other smells or weakened by obstacles like snow or mud or leaves. Even the famous trick of tracking through water doesn't work on many breeds, the Mythbusters literally had an episode about this. And while losing a biological ability over time is just how evolution works, it takes millions of years for this to happen, the dogs on Aedra had 30.

[assmundr]

For anyone wondering about the painted skull on the the most recent Home page (902) , yes, it was already present on page 169 and was painted blue as well. Althought I don't think it was more than tent clutter when the page was released back then

[assmundr]

oh my god me and my friends felt like some of the only people on the fucking planet to be weirded out by the dragon slayers handling of sexual assault and how it felt like it was Added In to make the comic seem more mature . but there are Others

Oh yeah, we're all over. We just comment on it elsewhere because we know the moment we point this out in the dA/CF comment sections, they will either get deleted or straight up disabled lmao

[assmundr]

Wow... Dragon Slayer. Just. Wow. "Comic and comments section are confused on why defining a female character by her reproductive organs and nothing else is a YIKES. More at 11."

You know, I wouldn't have minded this approach if the comic itself had some more meat on it's methaphorical bone. And please, before you jump me and call me a mysoginist that gets off on women's objectification or something, lemme explain.

I think any story that bites into this topic has a potential to be very interesting if it's done correctly. That means that it first needs to set up the worldbuilding, the characters and the relationships they have with one another and the world they live in before it dives into one such topic. Creating stories about rape, assault, opression, objectification, etc. etc. is not wrong at it's core, it's the execution. It's when the creators don't take the time and effort to first establish the characters this is about and instead start throwing all of these heavy topics into the story left and right for whatever reason. Which, ironically, makes the character(s) they wanna write the story about come off as nothing but empty vessles for the topics they're trying to warn the reader about.

Dandy may become a more rounded character in the future, but she is not one now. We know essentially nothing about her as a person. What we do know, however, is that her own father attempted to diddle her within the first 20 pages of the comic and since then, she's been nothing but a trauma bingo.

I wouldn't have minded this topic as a part of her story if she was at least established to have a personality before this happened, because like this, she appears to exist simply for the comic to establish her dad is a bad guy (and what a good guy Dykor is!!) and to burden her with this one specific kind of heavy trauma. Because we all know that a woman is not a woman until pregnancy/childbirth/motherhood/rape/infertility/other uterus related topics, is an integral part of her story.

[assmundr]

I really really hate that Sleepy implies people having a problem with the rape scene are the immature ones and not them for writing it in the first place and responding how they did. 'don't like don't read' is such childish bs when people call you out.

"Don't like it, don't read it" would apply if Sunny actually tagged the comic right. Like, I'm sorry, but you can't be mad when you don't tag the trigger warnings properly and then have a bunch of upset people in the comments voicing themselves about it.

Also, the improper tagging aside, I fully think anyone should be able to express themselves about something, be it negative or positive. "Don't like, don't read" absolutely is a thing, but when you shout this at anyone the moment they even suggest they dislike a piece of art or media, you're childish as hell.

Call me a hater over this, call me immature, call me a mean asshole, but I truly do think that. I'm not at all defending people who harass and spam creators and their work with nasty comments and insult them, but carefully constructed criticism - even if negative - should never be shunned the way it is in many places.

Like, at this point, if someone tells me to not comment on something if I'm gonna say something negative, I just think they're immature. Criticism doesn't always feel nice, I will happily admit that as a creator myself. But one of the best criticisms I ever received was "unpromted" critiques from internet strangers who were able to provide a point of view I, as the creator, didn't have. I will scream this from the top of my lungs if I have to, so all the people trying to plug their ears will have to hear it anyway, but you cannot improve as an artist and a creator if all you're gonna do is refuse any criticism and instead lock yourself up in an echo chamber, where all you hear is unconditional praise from people who either won't or refuse to point out the flaws in your work, then shout how anyone that says they don't like something about your work is a hater and a meanie and just jealous of you, actually! You need criticism to improve, be it negative or positive. Period.

"Don't like, don't read" certainly does apply in many cases, but not here. It reminds me a lot of the women who read those porn fantasy books the likes of ACOTAR and then swarm everyone who says they don't like them because there's no plot. Wanting to have compelling characters and a strong story in a comic that's inspired by one of the most famous Greek myths is perfectly expected. So I really don't know what people would shout about when it has neither and others dare point that out.

[assmundr]

I was holding out hope. But "hero who comes in and saves the girl from getting SA'd" is a tired old trope even if you tell it with horses and my stomach dropped on the last couple of pages. So long, theory that was the heroine's mom coming in to lay the smackdown and save her daughter. You will be dearly missed.

You put this very well. I'm just gonna add that I'm seriously tired of stories that use rape to push some kind of narrative when there's so. Many. Other. Ways. This could have been done.

I forgot where I saw this quote originally, but I once heard someone make the statement of: "If you can use anything but rape, don't use rape." which is honestly one of the best writing advice I'd implore writers take when they decide to write a darker story.

I'm not at all saying rape and assault be banned from writing, not at all. What I am saying is that people should approach it as the serious topic that it is instead of just throwing it in their stories left and right when they want to establish a character is a bad guy. Or that a character is traumatised because this happened to them. Or when they wanna claim how dark and visceral their story is when they write something like this. Or a million other reasons why people throw it in there like it's some kind of seasoning (looking at you, TLK fandom) Because there's so many other ways all of these can be done without resorting to one of the worst things that can happen to a person.

[assmundr]

I really do wonder what is up with authors of animal comics. Because so far it seems to be rare when a story DOESN'T contain rape, incest, or any other kind of sexual abuse/assault. Like. Wtf is wrong with you all