This is actually two updates in one go. I didn’t want to cut off at the “Thwiffsh” panel because that would have been the lamest cliffhanger ever. So here it is, both today’s and Monday’s update. Chapter 6 will begin on Thursday, May 14th.
On another site, some people have expressed their disapproval on the girl’s huge breasts and her outfit. Here’s a part of my responses on that other site, which contains information about the world/culture of HoK and may be of interest to other readers:
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1. Notice how, so far, Danbi takes off his purple outer layer only when he’s home? Walking around in public without an outer layer is seen as an uncultured, unlearned behavior. The farmers don’t care, but anyone who’s supposed to be, or wants to be seen as, an educated/ “important” person will never step out of their home without an outer layer. This girl too has a favored outer layer, which we’ll be seeing soon. In this scene, she’d just taken it off while taking a break from the hiking.
2. Female breasts are sexualized, but not nearly as much as they are in our culture. Breastfeeding mothers often walk around with their breasts entirely exposed, even when not feeding their babies! (of course, unless she’s supposed to be educated. Then her chest would be covered with the outer layer.)
Interesting tidbit: A girl’s legs are considered to be much more sexual than her breasts in this culture. No female would wear a skirt without underpants that come below her knees. The above-the-knees underpants that Angdu is seen wearing in chapter 4 would have been unacceptable if they weren’t so poofy (and thus form-concealing), and not paired with knee-high socks.
A prostitute would advertise herself by wearing seethru underpants, typically under a skirt with a prominent slit — or even just a seethru underSKIRT with no underpants at all. They also do something interesting with their hair. Now, this girl’s skirt has a VERY prominent slit, but her pants are opaque and come below her knees, so she gets a pass. :3 Her outerwear also helps, and so does her non-prostitute-y hair.
The stereotypes surrounding her race/species is also an important factor, but I don’t know if I can talk about that at this time…!
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I’m open to feedback, discussions and disagreements, so feel free to voice them! I’m not gonna go back and change the girl’s design or anything, but I’m (almost) always up for a civil exchange of opinions about my work. For instance, when I specified that her outfit actually has a rigid, built-in boob shelf under the soft fabric, one person said that it doesn’t look the way it should. Maybe that means I need to study how real life boob shelves work/look. Stuff like that.
Even though I’m not aiming to be 100% realistic with her outfit/ gravity, I would like to be at least semi-reasonable? The tricky part is that everyone has their own idea of what “semi-reasonable” is. I have my own, and I’m not going to change it just because some people don’t agree with it; but at the same time, I would like to keep an open mind and learn.
PS. Oh wow, a long comic update plus a long comment. Double whammy!