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Seeking more feedback :) (Patreon)

Published:
2018-05-07 16:15:42
Imported:
2026-06
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ETA: A great big THANK YOU ALL AGAIN for the feedback. This has been so helpful for me! (I hope you are enjoying this insight into my confused creative process, haha.)

I'm going to tweak things, and then seek out a bunch of fresh eyes for further feedback. Thank you again!

Seeking feedback regarding the third gender thing - please see the scribbly thumbnails attached.




I'll ramble a bit about my thought processes below, so if you're interested you may read through that. But if you could pretty please look at the scribbly thumbnails before I predispose you to thinking in a certain way, that would be great :)


Thank you!

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I know I said I'd try to introduce the term for third gender in a different context, but I kept on coming back to this particular scene - I think it does some very good worldbuilding that I haven't found a better way to convey. The conversation shows what Wisteria - and presumably society as a whole - thinks is normal, and so I can do a lot of worldbuilding in just a few panels. I think that in a fantasy setting it's important to do this worldbuilding as soon as possible, especially as people often tend to assume that LGBT+ people don't exist in historical/fantasy settings.

So yep, that's why I'm trying to make this scene work :)

Here's how I think/hope people will interpret this scene:

1) Some will people assume, based on context that epicene is a third gender.

2) Some people will google epicene, and then figure out that epicene is a third gender.

3) Some people will be confused! But I think that's okay, people see unfamiliar terms in fantasy settings all the time and they just keep on reading on the assumption that it will make sense eventually.

I don't mind if people are confused, I think the problem with 'spirit-kind' was that people could easily come to the wrong conclusion. But I don't think there are any wrong conclusions to be drawn about epicene, so I think temporary confusion about an unfamiliar word is okay (plenty of people are confused about today's update, they don't understand what's going on in Lachlan's head, and they don't understand what Wisteria thinks is going on in Lachlan's head. I think that's okay! This'll become clear eventually.)

Eventually, once Wisteria meets a person who actually is epicene, I'll be able to explain the term properly in the comic. Hopefully this won't feel out of the blue to readers (because I've already introduced the term) and I'll also be able to have Wisteria ask some of the questions that readers might ask (because I've already established both her curiosity and her ignorance.)

And then all will be good.

At least, that's what I'm hoping will happen :)

Please share your thoughts!

(And thank you - again - for previously sharing your thoughts. You all are amazing, and I appreciate it so very much <333)

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(providing buffer so people can scroll down to the attachment without having to look at my ramblings.)

Thank you all <3

Files

Previews only

Comments

Ryan C. Thompson

In response to some of your comments, epicene didn't read as particularly clinical to me on my first reading, nor did the google results seem to imply that it should be read that way. It does have a technical meaning in the field of linguistics, but the context of Wisteria's dialogue clearly rules out that interpretation. Realistically, I'd expect that people would come up with an abbreviated form of the word for use in common conversation. In America, I'd expect it to get shortened to "ep" - just a single syllable. That's kind of what we do. In Britain, I'd expect a two-syllable abbreviation such as "epi", likely with "eppy" as the most common spelling. (See also: American "ad" vs British "advert", and "telly" being short for "television" in Britain.) However, Wisteria using the full word still makes sense in this context since she hasn't had much personal experience with epicene people and therefore hasn't absorbed the slang yet.

Ryan C. Thompson
>>12186498

Hmm, On second thought, I should qualify that first statement. I still don't think epicene sounds clinical <i>per se</i>, but I would put it on the same level as "male" and "female" (and therefore not boy/girl or man/woman), which implies that, contrary to my earlier statements, it wouldn't really be the right term for Wisteria's dialogue. It would be as if she said "Do you think she has a boyfriend? Or a female friend?" On the other hand, maybe Wisteria really is making a subtle grammatical mistake as she refers to a concept she hasn't thought about in a while.

walkingnorth
>>12186498

Thank you - again -for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it very very much, you're amazing <3

Dreameroutthere

For me what throws me off is how it’s said here. A boyfriend. A girlfriend. I wonder if her date is Epicene? Would it be ‘a’ Epicene? Saying it in the singular just sounds odd to me like it’s something that is an oddity in the world. Is there a more passive way of saying it? A girl is a girl. A boy is a boy. Is an Epicene an Epicene? Or just is someone Epicene? Also perhaps I don’t know the meaning of this word but it kinda sounds odd to me on the tongue. Like female or male. It almost sounds like something a college professor would say to be technical. I feel like if it were a thing there would be a more casual term to reference the gender like boy ala male and girl ala female. A very neat idea. I look forward to seeing how you handle it. This is just something to think about. All my best!