#i just know the creator couldve done amazing things with the right people

[diyvampyrism]

I finally started onyx equinox and was so torn between liking it and being so so disappointed

[technicallyaminecraftsimp]

I usually don’t respond to posts outside of tags, but I’ve been thinking about this exact thing lately so much. I see that reaction from Hazbin Hotel fans so much, and it’s just upsetting to see

A lot of my character designing improvements in my art happened when I was doing fanart for mcyt series, because you didn’t get a lot to work with in the first place. You pretty much had to have your own design for characters. Since then, it’s become a habit of mine to ‘redesign’ characters if I draw them, because I love adding shape language and small details or references to the rest of the story

I wish so badly that the Hazbin Hotel fanbase can understand that redesigning chatacters is not a direct attack on the show, the creator, or anyone who likes the characters. Redesigns are more of a show of love or interest in the show, if anything at all. Yes, there are some people who do it with the intent of ‘fixing’ designs because of their own opinions and criticisms. But that shouldn’t be the reaction to everyone

If someone is taking the time to not only go through the process of redesigning a character, but also doing full drawings of the designs, while also taking important character traits (like Vaggie’s history as an angel or Husk’s alcoholism, as common examples I’ve seen) and translating them into parts of the design, all that work is not done to be mean and go “look how much better I am at this, these designs suck!!!!!”

I feel like I could go on and on about this, but then this would be way too long. I’ve just had this on my mind for a bit and wanted to add on my scattered thoughts about it

The Hazbin Hotel fandom's open hostility towards redesigns is honestly very sad. I've never seen any other fandom get this bad. If someone redesigned my characters id love it. It feels flattering that someone takes the time to rework my designs to come up with their own interpretations.

[comicteaparty]

November 16th, 2017 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on November 16th, 2017, from 5PM - 7PM PST.  The chat focused on Ovum by Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”).

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning. Today we are discussing Ovum by Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”)~! (https://tapas.io/series/Ovum) For those new to CTP, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer so pay them no mind if you wish~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! Each chat a top comment will be picked and featured on an ad for this chat, so let’s have a great discussion~!

With that said, let us begin with this first question~!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

snuffysam

The first scene. It really sets up the dark/mysterious tone of the story.

RebelVampire

yes i do like how quickly the comic jumps into its tone. especially the closeup of nancy's shaking hands. i think that speaks volumes for her nervousness and the dread that were supposed to feel going through the story

Superjustin of Time and Space

Hello there~

Hope you guys all enjoy the CTP

RebelVampire

greetings~!

Superjustin of Time and Space

Just thought I'd pop in~

snuffysam

hi

Fluffybirb

hello, I'm Vanja Bajohr, one of the people doing the comic

snuffysam

Hi!

Fluffybirb

I'll just sit in the corner and answer questions

Superjustin of Time and Space

What inspired you to go for the creepy aesthetics?

RebelVampire

hey @Fluffybirb thanks for coming

Fluffybirb

well, I don't wanna spoil anything because some people complained about the hint dropping, but the story is basically a lovecraftian story

Superjustin of Time and Space

Ooh~

snuffysam

yeah i really like the "otherworldly horror" aspect to it

Superjustin of Time and Space

Those are always fun

RebelVampire

yeah the lovercraftian influences i think come in pretty loud and clear. i think it nailed the specific tone.

Superjustin of Time and Space

especially when you've seen so many and you knows what creeps you out, so you make a whole world based on the things you fear

Fluffybirb

The Schilderich and me are huge fans of his creepy tone (whilest we see a lot of problems with his racist tropes, so we try to avoid this and be highly aware of it)

Superjustin of Time and Space

Oh XD

Good to know you're fans at least!

Fluffybirb

Well being a fan to us basically means being critical of the source at least

Superjustin of Time and Space

Yea

Fluffybirb

but I'm glad we got the tone right ^__^

RebelVampire

just wanna make a quick note about spoilers, dont feel pressured to answer anything you dont want to. youre welcome to chime in, but youre also free to just let us theorize like crazy and laugh at our strange connections. but in the same thing youre welcome to spoil what you want. creators choice.

Fluffybirb

thanks, I am very curious about your thoughts and I think I will enjoy your theories so I will drop some basic answers I think

snuffysam

I really like the structure of the story so far. Going back and forth between flashbacks and the present day, and the like.

RebelVampire

yes i think the structure does leave you wanting to come back for more and unveils the mystery at a good pace. i think you get and have to wait for answers at the ideal pace for this time of story

in regards to the fave scene question, i really like the scene where Zachariah has to do some shady bribery to get the stuff he needs to go digging. like going in i expected zachariah to be mostly this upright person but then oop, nope, hes willing to go to shady measures to get stuff. was a really nice, unexpected character detail for me.

snuffysam

It was also a bit of levity given how quickly the bribe was accepted

Fluffybirb

this is why I like working with Schilderich, he brings in his own character interpretations. Sometimes my characters tend to be a bit on the idealistic side, so his ideas round them out nicely and add additional layers, because we see the characters through different eyes

Superjustin of Time and Space

That's cool~

It's always great to have someone else working on a story with ya.

RebelVampire

@snuffy yeah i totally agree there was levity in that moment too. i remember laugh crying that there wasnt even an attempt to hide the corruption

i definitely think the story is well-served if thats the case. i like that the idealism gets smudged a bit but not entirely wiped out.

snuffysam

yeah, the balance really works

the characters feel well done, despite there only being two chapters

Fluffybirb

it was always meant to be a short story so there will only be 4 chapters, currently we are working on the third one

so we figured it would be necessary to establish the characters quickly

snuffysam

ah ok

well you did a good job of it!

RebelVampire

yes i agree. i think things have been handled perfectly so far for a short story.

Superjustin of Time and Space

Do you plan to do some kind of sequel/spinoff/continuation, or will it be officially over after four chapters?

Fluffybirb

well, in fact we do plan to do an indie horror game as a loose continuation of the story

Superjustin of Time and Space

A game!?

snuffysam

woah cool!

Fluffybirb

Schilderich is an indie game dev, I used to be one, but these days I am writing novels

but since Schilderich is currently busy with doing the comic and his current game, we only found time to do some rough concepts

Superjustin of Time and Space

ooohhhhh

Fluffybirb

Hopefully we will find time to work on it in the future

Robert Bennet, the man Nancy is writing letters to, will be one of the main protagonists, and also his extended family

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. At the heart of the story lies the ominous statue that seems to have been the cause of much misery. What is the statue? Who do you think made it and for what purpose? Why does it affect people the way it does (or alternatively, is everything just in their heads and it’s just a normal statue)? What exactly did it have to do with events of the past (and what were the events of the past for that matter)?

Fluffybirb

(ooooh I love this question! I am super curious about your theories!)

snuffysam

my thinking is that some ancient civilization created it? or found it? and then were wiped out by whatever the statue does

RebelVampire

i definitely think were dealing with some ancient civilization. although im hard pressed to believe they were necessarily wiped out by the statue. at least in the sense that oop statue was evil. it couldve been a creepy cult suicide thing. like "haha brother lets us stare at the statue and embrace the glorious darkness of the void that is before us."

snuffysam

i don't think they were blown up or eaten or whatever. just... eldritched to death.

RebelVampire

LOL thats an interesting cause of death XD i dont imagine thatll be on the death certificate

albeit this is assuming they were dead when they were wiped out. nancy mentions something about the eyes show the abyss. maybe the civ was somehow sucked into this abyss where they existed in a dark purgatory for a while

snuffysam

true true

Fluffybirb

I kinda wanna make Schilderich draw a silly comic now with a "death by abyss staring" death certificate

RebelVampire

well at least theyd have all the evidence they need. right there in the death certificate XD

maybe what had happened is that someone in the civ somehow accessed the abyss and their mind mentally degraded until they became of pawn for whatever is in the abyss. so they made the statue and slowly the statue corrupted and everyone came to worship some abyssal creature. so essentially the statues purpose is to corrupt and spread the influence of the abyss.

snuffysam

that could also be it

i definitely think we're dealing with an ancient civilization of some sort.

seeing as that's sort of the area of expertise for archaeologists...

RebelVampire

yeah i think we can concur on that that its an ancient civ. and ancient civs can be creepy and it matches up and i dont think the comic is fibbing about that.

although maybe the abyss isnt a physical place but more a mental state. so in a sense everything is in their heads but the statue is actually causing it. like the point of the statue is to degrade a person's mental state until theyre nothing but a shell of their former self and lost in the darkness of their own non functioning mind

(rip nancy if thats the case)

snuffysam

it's possible it's reversible if that's the case

Fluffybirb

well, Nancy is showing some signs of problems I would say

XD (to put it mildly)

snuffysam

yeah she definitely has her issues. it seems she was repressing them in the years since the incident, but this new stuff is making it come back.

RebelVampire

cant blame her though. id repress looking into the eyes of the abyss.

devil's advocate crazy theory: the original evidence Zachariah was actually a forgery and while the statue was legit buried he was purposefully looking for it but needed that evidence to convince ppl to let him dig.

snuffysam

then how did he find out about it?

RebelVampire

his family or the cult hes apart of. the abyss worshipping cult.

which i have no evidence for obviously. just giving an alternative while i hmmm over what other evidence i have

snuffysam

hey, could be true

RebelVampire

although there is that flashback scene that talks about children. the news conference press one. so im really curious what that has to do with anything

Fluffybirb

I have to admit the children come in a bit late as a theme, the third chapter will bring this back

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. Regardless of what has happened in the past, it seems to have affected Nancy terribly. Between a book that caused her an ill reaction and Robert Bennett’s letter, she’s under immense mental stress. Why did she react the way she did to the returned book? Why is she so deeply affected by the past’s events? Did the events even happen in the way she perceives they did? Will she be okay or will she mentally deteriorate to a dangerous level?

snuffysam

I'm not sure if the book is directly related to the past, or if it's just something that reminded her

RebelVampire

well if we go back to the children theme (cause i segwayed so amazingly), the book had like a fetus on it or something. so it was probably that image that triggered her more than anything.

going back and skimming, the original relief that we see is like children worshipping a mother figure to. so maybe were dealing with the abyss being some motherly figure trying to reabsorb her children

snuffysam

maybe that's just what the eldritch horror "looked" like.

or both

RebelVampire

could be. but i definitely think the book is about the children thing. it could be some children got eldritched and so she cant bare to see children like that or something.

snuffysam

that could be. do we know how many people were there when the event happened?

RebelVampire

nope. the hints we get were there was some sort of grave robbery that nancy and Zachariah were there to witness, Zachariah died possibly from falling into the pit, and she mentions just vaguely "they found the children"

although from the words im not sure whether its implying there was a third party robbing the grave (maybe children even?) or if it was zachariah robbing the grave

snuffysam

i think it's meant to imply zachariah was robbing the grave. i don't think he made it a public thing, so after the incident, the government pretended he didn't have permission

RebelVampire

OH! if that was the case would make sense given were shown the gov is corrupt

Fluffybirb

I had a lot of fun being around but sadly I can't keep my eyes open (it's 3am around here). Thank you for having me and thanks for the talk!

snuffysam

thanks for joining us! and thanks for the comic!

RebelVampire

no prob! thank you for coming~! hopefully should have the archive done not too long after the chat concludes

Fluffybirb

I will definately recommend your talks and read up on the rest of the conversation bye!

RebelVampire

bye and sleep well~!

i do feel like its likely zach was robbing the grave. like it makes the most sense and its why he fell into the pit and it killed him. cause when he found the statue he some sort of void into the abyss in the ground or something. so i assume he fell into that.

snuffysam

maybe they dug a ditch to get the artifact out- and while zach was found dead in the pit, he died before falling in

like, he stared into the abyss and it killed him, and then he fell over

RebelVampire

yeah that could very well be.

although i wonder if he did it on purpose. cause he was shown towards the end of chapter 3 to be pretty willing to go far for his discovery. at least he seemed pretty "aha" to nancy saying that it was probably occult in nature

and to a degree he seems to be mentally degrading in the flashbacks, just not in the same way as nancy

cause his obsession is taking over

snuffysam

there's a chapter 3? it doesn't seem to be up on tapas yet...

RebelVampire

i meant chapter 2

oops XD

had three on the brain i guess

snuffysam

alright phew

yeah i can see that. not sure if it's an affect of the artifact or if he's just like that normally though

RebelVampire

yeah it is hard to say

hmm i wonder if theres a hint in the fact the third title is going to be called "dead less"

cause i feel this lends credibility to the idea that the abyss is less dying, more just going there. albeit im gonna assume its the soul going there but the soul is aware of everything

snuffysam

ooh yeah maybe!

Superjustin of Time and Space

If that becomes the Chapter 3 title I'll be amused

snuffysam

it was already revealed. non mortis (deadless).

RebelVampire

https://tapas.io/episode/469792

yes and it has a lovely creature on the cover too

very lovely

although i wonder if thats one of the children nancy is referring too

what if it was a child from the ancient civ that has been mutated by the abyss

snuffysam

that would be interesting

RebelVampire

which i could understand her mental state then. especially if she assumes its still out there

lurking

waiting

so she too can join the abyss

snuffysam

does the abyss have a goal? or is it just some incomprehensible evil entity?

RebelVampire

i assume incomprehensible albeit evil is debateable. cause thats applying human morality to something we cant begin to understand

snuffysam

true true

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. All of Nancy’s anxiety in the comic is triggered by Robert Bennett who is writing Nancy to inquire about Zachariah Eliot and the events of the past. What exactly is Robert’s aim in writing her? Is it merely curiosity or is something else sinister at work? What do you think will happen if/when Robert finds out the entire truth?

snuffysam

i think he's going to try and destroy the artifact and/or entity

don't know if he'll succeed, but i think that's his goal

RebelVampire

that could be. i never considered that. tbh, up until it was mentioned that hed be in a game, i was leaning more towards him being kind of evil. like he wanted the statue for his own selfish ends. mostly cause him writing out of the blue seems suspicious. but its possible he is a good guy. just wondering why he waited so long to deal with this

snuffysam

maybe he just recently found out. or he's an evil entity killer and he just hasn't gotten to this one yet.

RebelVampire

was like "the abyss eldritch? well maybe i can fit it in on tuesday....ten years from now."

snuffysam

yup exactly. he might also just be really young. he's been interested in a while, but ten-year-olds don't go around killing eldritch horrors

RebelVampire

yeah albeit i think it mentioned he was zachariah's friend or something. although maybe something of zach's recently came to his attention

like he mysteriously received zach's journal in the mail or something

snuffysam

yeah that was the impression i got

but then the question is, who told him about zachariah?

RebelVampire

good question. maybe thats what the game is about that was mentioned. we learn theres a twofold mystery going on

snuffysam

perhaps his goal has nothing to do with the statue? just figuring out who sent him this info?

Superjustin of Time and Space

Late response but aah okay

RebelVampire

yeah that could be, if we go to that assumption that someone sent him info to prompt him to contact nancy. although i feel like he is after the statue. wait do we know what happened to the statue?

snuffysam

i don't think so. i think the police just left it in the hole?

RebelVampire

what if instead it got sold and robert happened to be the collector who bought it. but he never really looked at it until one day he was like "oh when did i get this." and then he was like "oh no the abyss" so he decided he needed to learn everything he could cause oh no the abyss

snuffysam

lol that could be it.

maybe he's a weird eccentric who's trying to track the statue down just to collect it. not for anything evil. he just likes really creepy things in his house.

RebelVampire

that could be. he must have quite the house then. i feel either way the statue is destined to wind up in his hands. whether that was his goal or not.

snuffysam

or worse, all this investigation is going to lead Nancy to get the statue

RebelVampire

gonna be honest i think nancy is doomed. i assume shes either 1) going to wind up in a mental hospital cause she cant come to terms with the past 2) stare into the statue and go bye-bye or 3) more specifically go to the pit where zach died and also go bye-bye

snuffysam

it could have a happy ending! but yeah probably

RebelVampire

true. i mean i dont think nancy will ever be happy, but she may at least accept what happened and not get triggered by seeing a book.

snuffysam

yeah i don't think the trauma she experienced is exactly curable

RebelVampire

although i wonder who it was that returned the book. cause maybe they returned that book on purpose to dredge up troubles for nancy

snuffysam

if that was just a book with a fetus on the cover, it may have just been an innocuous return? like, it was a book on pregnancy or something

RebelVampire

yeah that could be. hard to say. but it could definite be a moment thats just meant to set the mood

RebelVampire

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party is now complete~! Thank you everyone so much for joining this week’s chat~! That being said, if you would like to continue discussing the comic, we encourage you to do so~! We want to give a big thank you to Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”), as well, for volunteering Ovum for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Fervorcraft’s efforts. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about CTP, please feel free to PM me, or e-mail me at RebelVampire@startfaire.com.

With that said, there will be no Comic Tea Party next week. We’re going to be having a little break for Thanksgiving~! So, enjoy the time off, and we’ll see you the week after on November 30th. If you’d like to get a head start on the next comic, though, November 30th’s Comic Tea Party will be focusing on Heirs of the Veil by Seaquential Arts. I will post a reminder next week as well, so don’t worry if you’d rather just take the week to enjoy the holiday season~! Until then~! Comic: https://tapas.io/series/Heirs-of-the-Veil