loving your artstyle and these characters! the zombie and a mermaid couple look so unique and seem to say a lot just from their designs. i understand that not everything makes it to the final draft, but it's always cool seeing stories in their earlier versions
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lmao he literally uses human shields, he sounds like he'd be an amazing antagonist
️️️. even if he didn't make it to the final draft, it's nice knowing he still exists in the form of another character. it's like evolution or something.
hey, that sounds like a really nice structure, good thinking ahead!
wow, a different mc, that's massive
. making him owen's hero sounds like a fun way to still keep him a part of the story, esp with the role he plays before the start of the series. also, so cool seeing the change in artstyles!
wow, it sounds like you put a lot of thought into ruth! the human skull mask sounds so morbid yet so sweet since he keeps her close to her best friend. ruth seems like somewhat that's been through a lot and her almost friendship with nina sounds like it would've been just the right amount of tragic. maybe one day she could feature in another story, but if not, it was a delight to read about her here🥰🥰🥰.
there's so much personality in just this one picture, it absolutely makes you wonder what miko's story is.
The town scene from this episode was originally supposed to have a sort of a "mean girl" who bullies Freja. I ended up nixing her when I wrote the flashback arc. I kind of came out of nowhere and didn't lead anywhere.
The entire original cast of the story hahahahahaha.
I'm not even joking. The original idea for The Ascendant's Path was going to be a mixture of SSS-Rank Suicide Hunter and Solo Leveling with Persona elements. Classic LItRPG stuff, with people climbing a tower while they gain levels. Heck, the protagonist was going to be far closer to the generic MC for Isekais and the like, only with a bit more personality.
Over time, however, I began to question it, since it didn't feel that unique. I've always liked the idea of a man grieving the loss of his wife, so I began to work from that. And thus Caelan, the new protagonist, came to be. Only he was an actual old man before, not a special forces soldier from an apocalyptic Earth, but still.
I reworked some traits of the old cast into the new one, but overall the story has been fully reworked. Even the name was supposed to be The Emperor's Path and only became the current one a few weeks before I released the first chapters.
If that sparked your interest, come give it a read 
I've thought about that. In the future Ruth might be included in a different story, if not, I plan on writing an anthology of all the characters that didn't make it to my works and characters that were only shown in a panel or two. The chapters are probably not going to be short stories but instead really long stories. Haha! Well, it depends on how much details their story has and how much I want to say about them.
i love how much personality everyone's been given here, and the designs are all so striking! and that final scene with just the two of them just rings so true, we all need somebody at some point or another, nicely said
️️️. can't wait to see what happens in the flashback arc.
hey, that sounds like that would've been a cool story. i do love that you wound up pursuing something more unique and that you were able to incorporate something you really liked, it can make a story really shine, i'll have to give it a read sometime🥰🥰🥰.
Yep literally 'human shields' and you're very close on who now stole those tactics 
️ yep your right, a bit of evolutin although the others who stole his ability were already in series with key roles.
Thanks for thinking it a good strategy, since we all wanna get our series finished but RL is the true final boss lol however, will miss some of those should Plan B become the chioce.
On that note some may also change roles too if Plan B happen. Plan A supposed to be 4 seasons but Plan B is 2 seasons. So season 4 Arc happening in Plan B's season 2.
As you mentioned Cherry and her cherry recipies
Dacre, below is a fellow dessert maker (note evil gingerbread minion on his shoulder lol)
He drastically changes going by Plan A or Plan B. He would go from Evan's Rival in season 2 (evil in plan A) to a minor tragic character (a good guy in PlanB). 
Yea was a hard thing to change Mr. Patchez out at 1st so was the only way, thankfully that idea came. The change in artstyle came after the series merged with an action-horror game idea i also had. Version 1 of the comic was a dark fantasy like Hellboy and Devil May Cry but once the game idea merged it felt better to play up the vulnerable feelings horror through Owen
With Cherry, guess if you ever decide a spin off or sequel maybe too? Nice you still considering her for a rewrite 
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now i'm intrigued. and i am loving the evil gingerbread minion, they sound both devious and delicious. also dacre seems really interesting regardless of which path you take, especially with the vulnerability that would come from a main character like owen.
i love how much you've thought through your story's outline, and that's so cool that the change in artstyle was influenced by the change in genre.
i can't say for sure, but i am considering doing something with cherry, still haven't decided yet
The main character of my comic originally had an older sister named Amber who I kinda cut from the story last minute. I replaced her with his older brother, Cole because a big plot line is feeling overshadowed by his older sibling. I felt like it would make more sense to see himself in his older brother rather than his older sister if that makes sense lol
Amber:
Cole
Glad to hear you find them intriguing yep some devious-ness deliciousness ahead 
Path A - Dacre gets to be manipulative and complex, he's not a physical fighter so relies on trickery.
Forgot to mention, this version of Dacre also absorbed some of Fred's role & personality too.
Path A version- One of the other guys in main cast a timid guy named Quim thinks this 'nice' guy wants to be his boyfriend. But he's only using him "technically as a human shield" since Quim powers are shield based.
Turns out the guy Quim truly loves is also Dacre's Ex so poor Quim stepped into a trap and Dacre has everyone locked into his evil plan. The ex supposed to join the heroes to save Quim, also realizing Quim is his true love. (The Ex is for season 2 but fits the thread topic bec he would only exist if 'Path A' happens) 
Path B -the Ex-boyfriend is not part of season 2's final product and Dacre has a total personality change, instead he's a noble no-nonsense kinda guy. He genuinely loves Quim, doesn't see eye-to-eye with the other heroes and Quim is torn between who to side with. This version is more of a minor-secondary chara.
And the main antagonist higher on the "psycho-dude" totem pole so it's why Part A Dacre changeable if I'm stuck with Path B. Deep down Path A is preferred one for all that evil deliciousness lol
Yep true at least you're still considering doing something with Cherry, don't worry, those ideas strike when you least expect it XD
she seems pretty cool! but i get the reasoning there, especially when there's a character who could better fill the role.
There was this reporter character named Olive Greenfield and she was going to narrate the newspaper side of Elsie.
I always wanted a character with a plant based name but she got cut in the original draft.
Guess she just evolved into the character Dr. Oliver Greenwood
Originally Roy’s character was meant to be an Indian Prince or something and Elsie was going to be a little older and be a professor transferred to a steampunk version of India.
Queen Victoria was also in it regardless whether I had it set in the 1870s (my original thought) or the 1890s. But she got cut.
Elsie went through a lot of exact Victorian decades. It was originally going to be in the 1860s or 70s but I decided on the 1890s to the turn of the century.
Ernest was going to be a lot older in his earliest iterations about in his 40s or 50s. He was always going to be an amputee. He was originally going to be the main villain of the entire thing.
Rosie hasn’t really changed all that much. I always pictured her as Elsie’s closest friend who wears pink. But she didn’t get super strength until later.
Originally the character Olive Greenfield (the reporter girl) was going to get super powers instead.
And Doctor Scarborough he was supposed to be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of character. But I cut it for simplicity sake. Although the split personality would fascinate me nonetheless. I’m really into psychology and stuff like that. I knew that I wanted a mad scientist type character and Scarborough is a mush of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau and a hint of Professor Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes’s arch nemesis)
In Chapter 02, Kyara was originally planned to have a scrapper crew/friend group to hang out with. I even considered given them a minor subplot moving forward. But because of some priority changes I had to scrap their screen time. I did however give them little cameos, most notably in the short "favors".
Another character that was originally supposed to play a bigger role is "the Administrator." He was planned to be a sort of middle manager type villain, a stand-in between the real evil and our heroes. He'd have a lot of screen time with Grayson in early drafts. But like the scrapper crew, a change in priority and direction saw him reduced to a cameo.
A set of characters that has been completely scrapped (and don't even have a design to show) is the Citadel council. Before I decided on having just the Elder as the leader, greatly simplifying the story to maintain narrative focus, there were plans for a council of Elders. Each would have their own agenda and the division between them would be the cracks Grayson could eventually exploit.
But much like the rest of the political plot lines I had initially wanted to explore, I had to cut them to focus on the core story (and to not have to expand the already massive 5 books into 10 books.)
a steampunked version of india sounds awesome! i'm loving the names you've given your characters (scarborough in particular, especially with the description and literary inspiration you've listed here), and the care you've taken to make them each their own distinct character, it's amazing. thanks for sharing
i see why for practicality reasons why you've cut them (10 books would be pretty massive). the scrapper crew seems pretty cool, especially quinn. always love to see four-armed characters. it's nice the administrator got a cameo, and i love that you found a way to have the Elder fulfill the role of the Council, even if it came at the expense of exploring the more political side of Trespasser. maybe you can circle back around to it in a future story this seems pretty good so far🥰🥰🥰
