How would you deal with sensible topics in your stories?

[kastroalpha]

From chapter 2 onwards, my story will take a dark turn towards some difficult topics like captivity, torture, sexual and psychological abuse and betrayal.

For this specific sequence I'm doing it via a series of flashbacks from our main character #1 Rena, where she relives some quite traumatic events, courtesy of her former lover and military CO Yuzo, who staged a coup d'etat and took the planet government by force, from a not so distant past and provides some limited context to why she crash landed on Earth.

This entire sequence will be in grainy black and white / noir to add a horror element, with blood and wounds being highlighted as bright red to enhance the shock factor, while maintaining it policy friendly.

I guess this is gonna be one of the most challenging episodes I'll put to work, not technically, but in regards of orbiting the boundaries of what Tapas allows or bans.

How would you guys tackle this issue?

Read Project STARFALLEN | Tapas Web Community

[Aeneas1]

Well it depends on the story’s needs. One of the advantages of not having a human cast is that I can tackle sensible themes in my own way, hence the use of snowmen, a staple of silly children’s fare often set at Christmas time (and I’m not even talking about that film I hate so much) to comment on the perils of organised religion, because their religion isn’t adequately equated to any one religion (it sort of blends elements from both Judaism and Christianity, such as the fact that their priests wear top hats as status symbols and the fact that, instead of praying in Hebrew, they pray in Latin). Because their religion isn’t exactly identical to Christianity or Judaism, it allows readers to identify it with their own religious faith and recognise the fanaticism in that faith. Religious fanaticism is, of course, a serious theme and I handle it with the appropriate severity.

[BoomerZ]

If your story has an appropriate rating and the genre is appropriate, there is no problem putting anything into you story. Everything is open to be told. Audiences are not dumb and they aren't (or shouldn't be children) for your story, so you should be fine.

[kastroalpha]

That's a good thing. Some subjects have to be taken with a further degree of watchfulness in order for the message to be coneyed in a proper manner.

But my question was actually pertaining more to Tapas' policies. I know my audience isn't stupid and it's a good thing that they're open enough to tackle sensitive themes, but there are always a few who won't take it well.

There's a saying around here that goes: if you're under the rain, you're gonna get wet.

[kastroalpha]

How does Tapas fare with nudity and gore? Are they absolutely non-tolerant or is there some room for experimenting?

[kyupol]

As long as there's no graphic depiction it seems to be ok.

I've used disclaimers for things like sui

And I know they should all be n@ked here (these are supposed to be their souls in the astral realm) but I gave them underwear. Putting black square or pixellation on genitalia would ruin the image

[kastroalpha]

The underwear one is clever, but funny lol

[BoomerZ]

I will say from my experience. My weekly comics was 80 episodes in when I got an email saying I needed to change stuff. Episode by episode, down to panels. One was the nude back of a female character. The other was too much blood. Note: My art style is very Disney. Cell shaded so not very realistic. One panel had a girl in a bikini and a line from her leg came over to her crotch. I was told cotches had to be smooth. It was literally an art mistake but they didn't want it. So you might get away with some stuff for a while but if you get popular or someone complains you will have to change it. Couple things: My comics was not taken off the app, it was taken down. and in no way is my story porn. So it just depends who is looking at it.

[luminosityyy]

The main cast of my novel, Drifting Hearts have some level of trauma due to physical and psychological abuse from their parents

Here's what I'd typically do

1. I wouldn't be very opinionated if it has to do with themes that people have differing views about, like religion and politics. It should never seem like I'm trying to force my beliefs down your throat.

2. If it is something that society has generally come to accept as harmful, like sh or drugs, you can definitely write it but perhaps tone down the descriptive detail and do not promote it in any way. At least that's MY approach. Things like these do occur in reality so leaving them out of your book might seem... childish in a way. The world is not a perfect fantasy (unless you're actually writing about one ). Including these sensitive topics pulls the reader in completely.
   "Oh, shit is real over here."- a reader, maybe.
   But like I said, harmful topics should not be promoted. It's important to highlight the reason or motivations behind these and how greatly they affect characters and the subsequent arcs, just to make viewers undertand how delicate these themes are.

I hope I was helpful in any way

Thank you!

[Esemerri]

I have a guy without clothes on from behind in like the third page of my webcomic that I'm starting soon am I done for?!

(Being serious like 50% of him is covered and it's completely not sexual. Like. At all. Should probably be fine. Maybe? I hope. Given I have basically no followers, I would think so.)

I'm curious what happens if a page gets taken down? Can you reupload it edited without page order being broken? Or does it have to go back up as a new episode?

(Sorry, I'm damn sure this has been asked and answered before but you were talking about having experience with pages getting taken down so thought I might as well ask.)

[Lensing]

I´m not sure if I understand the question.
Is the question how we deal with censorship or
how we deal with sensible topics in our creations?

[silverluna865]

Thanks for sharing this information.

[applebun]

My wip comic is historical, so there is a lot of stuff I need to be careful about. As much as authenticity matters in historical fiction, I don’t want it to trigger anyone or the comic to be taken down because of it, so here’s what I’m planning to do:

1. A huge content warning at the beginning, covering any and all sensible themes that might appear in the story, along with an explanation why some elements will be less authentic so that they won’t go against Tapas policy.

2. Tone down the elements that might get the comic in trouble. Any war crimes happen more or less off screen, and the parties that committed them will never be explicitly named (it will however be up to guessing, which should be relatively easy). Any symbols associated with these groups will be censored, even the not-so-obvious ones. Dehumanizing language and casual discrimination of the time will not be used unless absolutely necessary, and if they’re used after all, the episode will have a content warning for it.

Of course, this will have an impact on the authenticity of the historical elements in the comic, but I think that in this case, it’s better safe than sorry

[Hoken]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[kastroalpha]

Risking spoiling a bit of the story, but here comes a "lore dump":

Rena is an Edrinian elite warrior and is mentally trrained to go through the stress of battle.to rapidly assess situations and even to accept death in combat.

But her ordeal stings even harder because her captor is her former lover and brother in arms, Yuzo. There's was an alien invasion on their planet who caused lots of trouble and destruction and a questionable decision from the Military Command cost the life of his entire family and a few thousand others, but allowed the Edrinian forces to hold their own and prevent the Capital from falling, as well as allowing for a comeback that thwarted the invasion.

These actions promoted widespread discontent through the Edrinian forces and a schism took place and Yuzo went mad. He gathered some powerful allies, killed the council, self-proclaimed the "Ziar" - much like a Generalissimo - and took control of the planet's government in only a few days.

Rena, while also disagreeing with the former command, condemned the actions of her lover and tried to stop him along with some of her allies, which prompted a massive retaliation and the would be rebllion was crushed. Many were captured and executed, but Yuzo had special plans for Rena.

He held her captive in a black site, a repurposed mining complex, for months, abusing, torturing and "r-wording" her frequently until the newly formed rebellion broke her out and rescued her.

Her time in captivity will be brought via some carefully censored flashbacks, where I'll attempt to show and tell and I'm concerned about how Tapas would deal with some things like these.

Thanks for your input! I'll 100% take that into account!

[kastroalpha]

Ahh I think I get where you're going!

The "content warning" was the very first thing I did before even starting to sketch the drafts! It looks like to be something I'll have to use quite often!

About toning down the elements, would you think that censoring the most explicit parts could be an alternative?

Thanks for your input!

[kastroalpha]

Both, but most importantly, what would be a line to cross regarding Tapas' censorship.

[applebun]

It depends on what the most explicit parts in your story are. Personally, I think that just censoring the problematic stuff is the easy way out. Instead, I would recommend doing one of the following:

1. Cartoonify/stylize: This one is useful for excessive blood/gore or any problematic symbols. I would still put a content warning on it but this method makes the problematic elements considerably less intense while still being recognizable.

2. Symbolisms: This one is for more complex issues, such as sexual abuse, that I see you mentioned as one of the darker themes appearing in your story. It’s also (in my opinion) one of the most challenging themes to deal with in a comic, and also one that is going to appear in my own comic quite a bit. Since this is a very sensible topic, I almost never talk about it directly, much less depict it in any way. Instead, I will use symbolisms such as wilting flowers or- more directly- hands tearing a flower apart, and let the audience figure out the rest. I would also put a content warning on this one as well, since- again- better safe than sorry. A well-crafted symbolism is sometimes even more powerful than directly showing the thing it’s supposed to symbolize, so I definitely recommend including them in your story.

This is just my personal opinion though, but I hope it was helpful anyway

[BoomerZ]

I guy's back should be ok as long as you cut it off high enough and don't show his butt in any way. One of my characters (male) was taking a shower with his back to the audience. They wanted the panel clipped higher so his lower back ended before his waist. Panel was non sexual. If your episode is taken down you can't uploaded until the moderators approve it. Then will make it available after the changes are made.

This was the panel Tapas said was too far and had to change. As you see being cartoonish won't save you.

[Esemerri]

Thanks for the reply! Having to get it approved makes sense! As long as it eventually can end up back up in the right order. No problem with being taken down and having to make edits as long as the page can go back up after making the edits and the story can stay whole. : )