Pear哥
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SEPT UPDATE 2/2 IWBTWR SOPHIE ARC, DEADLOCK ICONS, CHARACTER POLL
🕑 Added 2025-09-30 15:16:27 +0000 UTCHey everyone! I've settled back down in my normal drawing pace and ive been pumping out so much stuff these last two weeks! Lemme catch you guys up with what ive been working on.
Character Poll winners
I've been getting the hang of drawing two characters per month. I'm pretty happy with how it's been going for me so ill keep doing this two character poll thing next moth as well. It's not a set event yet, but im opening up with the idea of doing it for at least 2 more months.
IWBTWR
Sophie arc is now in full swing!
Sophie is a character who has been haunting the entire comic since i started posting it. Even in the first comic, she's been in the background sneaking around.
Practically, her role in the story is not completely clear, we don't know if she is directly summoned by certain characters, or if she is just a malicious spirit feeding off of people's souls. One thing is clear though, she does have a direct impact on everything going wrong in the story.
There have been quite a bit of interpertation from people in the server over what she represents
and they are pretty correct! Sophie has heavy British colonialism and capitalism influences in her character. When she's harvesting people in the opium den, it's a direct reference to the Opium war and their legacy on Chinese history and the history of Hong Kong in general. The red kid is a stand in for refugees from Guangzhou who were fleeing the Chinese civil war to a British colony.
Kinda nerdy history stuff
If you disregard the background history of the characters, Sophie is the main antagonist of IWBTWR and is the main malicious influence impacting the motivations of everyone in the comic. She represents their most ambitious, most selfish desires, and capitalizes on these by promising a better life for them. Like a monkey's paw, they get their wish at the cost of them giving up their soul. The soul of each character is up to your interpertation as a reader, with the main soul in the spotlight being Jenny's one.
When Sophie was originally created, she wasn't supposed be a Briitsh colonialism allegory, in fact, she was much more simple. She was made with the intention of being a haunted mascot for the "Nothing But Bliss" company. She was much more American in the way she spoke and acted, she was created with the idea that she came from those old 1950s minimalism animation commericals when they wanted to advertise a product.
Her role in the story was much more simple, she would advertise these faulty products which would slowly kill the user who brought it. Like a faulty washing machine which would eat people alive, or a skin cream which would slowly poison the user to death. The user's deaths will satiate a hidden lovecraftian god in the story. (cause i guess i was really into elder gods at the time).
Her role in the story in my mind would be something similar but not as on the nose as how I envisioned it when I created her character. She will be expanded to cover the entire city instead of focusing in one small convience store. I still like the "satitate a hidden lovecraftian god" idea by delivering people faulty products, but she will do it in a way which has more meaning behind it, specifically with imperiallism and british colonlialism.
Her design has also been altered from her previous iteration too, she now carries more British culture references, especially regarding old leviathans from those old maps people used to draw depicting the world, with a modern commerical twist. When she appears more in the future, I would like to have her having high tea and look more like royalty as well.
Sophie will now have a significant presence in the comic compared to before, all the story arc for each character will end with Sophie's judgement. Hope you guys are ready for some miserable people hahahaha
Side Stuff
I've been working on a side thing for Deadlock in the meantime, it's been really fun for me and refreshing drawing something different for a change.
If you play Deadlock, ill be releasing all the character portaits as an icon mod hopefully by next month!
Whew! That was a lot. I kinda want to grab some sushi right now, I'll see you all next month!!
Thank you for your support <3 <3 Love you all! Thank you for sticking by me earlier this month
Comments
Pear
this is so thoughtful and well put
sethdotcomic
Gotta say, didn't think a character would have more aura than Mr. Government man, but I guess if anyone would it's be the literally supernatural pseudo-diety. Or maybe the wheelchair girl. I do find it fascinating that Sophie's intro is in a flashback that's kinda derailing from the present day story of Zoey's, even though it's Jenny's soul that's in the story's spotlight. I'm sure that'll connect Jenny and Zoey in a way that develops their relationship in an interesting way. People in the Discord have talked a bunch about Sophie and how she represents capitalism and colonialism, and something I appreciate about using her to represent this is that it makes the impact of such things way more direct. Broad concepts like those tend to have such an extensive and pervasive influence that they're invisible in the same way air is. Many people don't understand the impact of history because they don't register any direct, tangible impact from it. Meanwhile Sophie is a direct, tangible representation of Britain's impact on Hong Kong, and intends on having a helluva impact on the story and the city itself. On one hand people could argue that having a supernatural character behind the misfortune of our characters kinda cheapens the way capitalism affects retail or colonialism affects Hong Kong, but on the other if Sophie is those concepts and those concepts are her, then the story can still show the detrimental impacts of those things. Now it just has a face to go with it.
Miy Eterp
That's great update dude such as the female main antagonist Sophie, anyways keep up the good work & get some sushi!
