#comic asks

[astraleliza]

Will Ribbit or Kaufmo come into play in either your Bunnydoll fanfic or your trans Jax comic?

depends on what you mean by come into play… ribbit is certainly referenced in the comic but i cut the part where you actually see ribbit.

Will go more into detail once part 8 is posted but… i originally had an alt version of a scene that just happened to happen in canon as a flashback. because i like the canon interpretation more (mine was almost more played as a joke but ended with a tender moment) I cut those ~4-6 panels to be more canon compliant. I didn’t want to just redraw that scene for the comic.

for the fanfic it definitely comes into play… probably in a similar way to my comic. i have the benefit of having a looser outline for that one so i can still play around in that sandbox and tweak.

is it bad that i don’t think about kaufmo like. at all

i probably should im sure he did mean quite a bit to jax i just sense that most of jax’s pain is with ribbit so that’s where all the meat is, narratively

[astraleliza]

Given that you started your comic before the final episode, did you think Jax was trans in the original series or were you just projecting? If so, what hints in the series did you pick up on? There are several I saw in retrospect but I went into the finale with no inclination towards believing that.

Probably a mix. i definitely have a plethora of posts from that era you could dig and find, i think. I kinda lived in this realm of “wow there’s all these signs and set-up for something meaningful” but because of how much smaller the transfem jax community was around that time we were kinda treated like… honestly how a lot of people are before they come out. just… variations of “there were no signs” or “you’re reading too much into little things”

also worth noting, i only started watching tadc after episode 7 so i joined at a point where there was already a decent amount of evidence. from the maid dress, jax’s room, “aren’t you supposed to be miserable about the ability to choose your own body or something”, etc.

when i joined there was definitely enough to sink my teeth into. I started writing/drawing about her both because i was projecting, (i related so much i kinda made her a self-insert, especially in my first fanfic) and because i thought it was plausible, if unlikely we would get the kind of ending for her i wanted.

that’s what started my comic, for sure. I wanted to write “the good ending” where she actually made some hard choices and overcame some of her demons and started down the road to becoming a better person.

(note: funny that “the good ending” for her starts with her essentially being outed, because there is no way that girl is admitting she’s trans as she was in canon LOL. Kinda felt vindicated my comic went as it did after the finale. Lots of it has aged extremely well, given it was mostly planned even before ep. 8. I took a big swing in part… it’ll be 9 or 10 depending that was something that also became canon in episode 8. The seeds of that were sewn a while ago but. i guess you guys will see what i mean when we get there.)

and I think really… i never gave up on my comic, exactly, but after the finale I definitely wanted to make it a higher priority to get it done. And I know a million people have made their takes and honestly most of them are probably better than what mine will end up being 😅

but i still think it’s important to give her a good ending.

[astraleliza]

Do you have plans for your comic or do you just write as a thoughts bubbles in? 

the whole thing (minus the epilogue) is already completely written! :)

i will maybe adjust wordings down to the very last second, just to ensure the dialogue actually sounds like the characters, but what they say has basically already been written/planned. Just for funsies here’s what a complete script looks like, i literally just write the dialogue + any important physical actions or stage directions. Thats why it was so easy to knock out the scripts for everything LOL. I just imagine the conversation they need to have in my head and it flows out pretty quick.

the script is never final but it is essentially what i want them to say. very rarely do i cut/redo entire scenes or panels.

the first thing i do when starting a new section is to just throw all the dialogue down so i can kinda do my drawings around it. Going through panel by panel, copy/pasting the dialogue from Scrivener into folders for each panel.

[astraleliza]

hiii I've been reading your comics and fanfics, and it's really interesting seeing just how much you got right with the characters compared to what the show gave us. Is there anything you wish you'd have known/have done different now that tadc is over?

biggest regret i have in general is probably my first fanfic. i kinda took it day by day without an ending point in sight or a story i wanted to tell, specifically. That one is… abandoned basically. i just… i have nowhere to take the story, in my mind.

I also have this thing where, if i get something so wrong, it… the moment i hear canon information that contradicts my theory its hard for me to see it any other way. for people who have read Make the Right Choice, i did get some odd details right (irl jax being a regular at zooble’s bar), but i got a lot VERY wrong. And even once episode 8 came out i was like… i have nothing i can even do with this anymore.

So glad trans jax was canon otherwise… i maybe would have abandoned all my projects for that same reason. I just have such a weird stupid brain, idk.

For my comics/art, i kinda regret… maybe my consistency with Lily? There’s so many things i didn’t even think about at the time, i was so rusty. Like, Lily’s look in all my early stuff (even part 1-2) is SO inconsistent. From my early sketches, part 1 of the comic, the one i did with evil jax where she just has super weird skinny legs. I kinda regret maybe not doing a turnaround or something just so I had a Model for her for me to follow.

I’ve sorta evened her out now, i think. Drawing her several hundred times does that to you 😅

ever since, i wanna say part 3 onwards i had a much better idea of how exactly she looks and from every angle, etc.

I also regret how dang slow i am, i feel kinda self conscious about how long its taken me for both part 8 and bunnydoll chapter 9…

[astraleliza]

Hi! A question about your transgirl!Jax works (love her, by the way) 💙

I'm not sure if you've answered this before, but would Jax still have yellow teeth and eyes in your designs, or would they be white? Basically I'm asking if the lil raw egg-yolkie (yellow) would become a cracked, hard boiled egg (which are usually white)

honestly i have liked the idea of a color swap with her as part of the avatar swap, i haven’t really settled on it 😅

i like the idea that she’s the same colors but maybe more pastel/lighter? more calming less aggressive, idk. Like the purple becomes maybe more pinkish or maybe a lavender, the overalls become more pale pink, and her eyes/mouth become a softer yellow.

Symbolically reflecting how much more at peace she feels, i guess. The colors become lighter and a bit more fem.

i’ve never considered it being a white, i think that could work honestly. Closest i got was the pride comic where i made them the most pale pink of the transfem flag and honestly that worked. That worked so well. Almost tempted to say she’s just transfem colors now because that looked so nice 😅

[astraleliza]

finally got around to reading your transfem jax comic and it made me tear up a little. seeing her happy and become herself is the best thing in the world and you do wonderful with the angst factor too ;w; i cant wait to see more<3

awwww, thank you! :3

I love seeing her happy, that's why I started. I wanted to like, idk make a good ending for her. And she has such wonderful people around her, if she chooses to actually be legit and become friends with them. Plus I saw so much of myself in her, idk... I injected some of myself into the whole thing. Insane that it's now close to 2 months since my last part 😅

sorry guys, irl stuff has really taken over my life LOL. I am actually still working on it!! :3

i swear if part 8 doesnt come out by the movie's release I will just post all my scripts and give you that instead so you won't be tortured while I work slowly over the next who knows how long

[astraleliza]

I think you've got my favorite trans fem Jax take and I love how I can see myself in how she acts!!!!!!!!

awww thank you 💖💕💖

i put so much of myself into her LOL, she’s literally me guys

jax always reminded me of myself like not pre egg crack bc my egg had cracked but i couldnt do anything about it for years so i was kinda mean and cruel about life sometimes just to keep from not dying

it only makes sense that she would then just become me post-transition even if sometimes it doesnt feel true to the original character LOL

but i guess a lot of people feel similar to me so thats really cool