[Blade Raider]

I have places to be tomorrow evening, so I won't be posting tomorrow night, but tonight I'm posting 2 comics which happen to be a full story. I had already wrote the notes before deciding this, so some notes might be phrased as if there's a day between them.







-These comics was made right after the first arc of season 2, so some of the effect upgrades and the like are already in use (like motion blurs instead of lines in fights). I'm placing it here because it flows better here then in the middle of things later.

-That teaser took place between the cold open and the first scene. I had a new Thief toy to use and it made since narratively to get her in warmer clothes.

-I don't think you ever see this version of Thief without the tunic on. Shame because there's a cool blue shirt under there that breaks up the black and white. I changed her again later because this one can't used the different hands (I had to photoshop it once or twice). One day I may use this one again when she doesn't need to use Seal/Release much.

-The "perverted little imp" is not Blade, but really should be.

-So where are we? We're at the End of Time. I always intended for it to be that, but never wanted to commit to the name in case I wanted something different, but I know it will be called by name later so might as while name it now.

-So Heinlad has a bar. Why? The toy came with sake and he has time powers. He's kind of perfect for a bartender at the End of Time.

-If you were wondering where Huffer from the Botcon 07 set was, here he is. The last two, Alpha Trion and clear Mirage have never been used and are the only 2 I still own.

-New character: Empp (Imp with a strong "p" sound at the end). I wanted to make a character that is just an asshole to everyone except Thief who's also super powerful so others have to put up with him. I made him tiny because Navi from Zelda jokes were a thing (probably still are). Empp refers to Thief as "My Lady" to note that he is loyal to her. He picks insulting nicknames and the like for everyone else.

-So on the topic of "My Lady" I could never get a super clear answer on the best way to phrase it. I feel "Milady" probably gets the point across better in text form, but My Lady was the term I choose and I don't plan to change it because from what I understand they are both acceptable.

-All of Empp's spells are writern in Predacon and I believe they translate into Latin. I would have to cipher one to be sure if it's Latin or English and I will if I ever need to make a new one.

-One thing I didn't account for with Empp was just how tiny the toy is. It's hard to keep him in frame a lot of times. He can float, but a lot of times that means I have to photoshop him into panels which is also a pain.

-Hey look, a Time Gate. Yeah, I'm mixing in some Chrono Trigger here. It's my favorite game and the easiest time travel effect to use. And yes, the End of Time is from Chrono Trigger to, though I expanded it to include a sort of town.

-Shredder makes such an odd episode reference here, but it was to remind people that he did collect porcelain in the 80's cartoon.

-Shredder and Krang are allowed to destroy the 4th wall as that is in character for them.

-Bebop and Rocksteady are hitting on Thief. That's creepy and strangely in character for them.

-Ah, one of the running gags with Empp is stomping on him. Mainly Thief does it, but I think 1 or 2 others might as well, probably Ceus.

-So "normal" Shredder never appears with other figures in this as he's human and I was trying to keep my scale rules at this point. Later he's modified so it's allowed.

-They're using Transformer tech, which can only mean one thing. Mutation toys are awesome.

-The octopus line is a reference to the short lived, completely insane, Ninja Turtles anime where Shredder calls Krang that a lot. That anime is so insane.

-Our last scene has a new character...and his horse! I'll talk about him next time.
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-This is the first fight scene I've posted of TAOWAR to have motion blurs instead of lines. I honestly think it doesn't add much without a sound effect to the point that I sometimes just don't blur it at all and let the sound effect do the work.

-Thief gets to be all badass here. Because most of her other appearances are to help progress the story, I fear she may be a Mary Sue. The finale will sadly not help that because I'm going to have to use her to get speed up the plot. I wish I had used her in Filler Funnies more to get more character quirks and the like in there.

-Drawing laser lines here for bullets. Honestly, better then the tiny bullets with a line behind it.

-Thief explains Seal/Release fairly well. The only error here is that she say "home" when it should be a pocket dimension. Her home (currently) is the End of Time.

-I wanted to get rid of Ceus's time travel function for plot reasons and just having a character that can freely time travel like that could be a problem. While Empp can open Time Gates in most places, it takes a lot out of him and it follows Chrono Trigger rules that doesn't allow a lot of overlap.

-New character: Scar Forte, the Enneagon. He's a bounty hunter. There's not a lot to say about him until later, so let's talk about how old this character is. When I was a kid, I would call the mysterious character in a mask Scar. The first toy I ever gave this name to was a HEAT Viper while playing Star Wars. If they had done a modern update of the HEAT Viper sooner, I might've used it for this Scar. Forte was added later for the same reason Raider was added to Blade, because it's to generic otherwise.

-The name Enneagon was added to give him a title, probably as a nod to the Gung-Ho Guns of Trigun. If I remember right Enneagon is two Latin words fused together. I know one of them is 9 and I think the other is weapon or something. He has 9 guns total, hence the idea.

-Designwise, this version of Scar was basically a ninja decked out in guns. Some other versions of Scar (most of which have never seen the light of day) include the aforementioned HEAT Viper, a ninja ninja in RPG Maker, and at least 2 different characters in Guild Wars (one is a short Norn).

-I do like the banter between Thief and Scar here.

-Worth noting that Scar isn't normally a time traveller and was given the vehicle for the job. He prefers horseback.

-At some point in time Thief stole Zelda's sword and Link's shield. To try to keep away from Mary Sue status, she does not get the Master sword.

-So...I destroyed a Cybertron Menesor years and years ago to make a 2003 Shredder/Ch'rell custom. Here I switched the head back and used it as a Krang body. I don't regret it, but I do miss having an unmodded Cybertron Menesor.

-Banrai is named after a Ninja Turtles weapon. Like Blazing Swords there's no relation, but at least this one is the right type of weapon unlike Blazing Swords.

-I'm not super happy with the motion blurs here. Just a bit much in some places. Otherwise, I think it's a pretty good 2-on-1 fight. Maybe a little more banter would've helped.

-Empp, being an asshole, probably knows exactly what that button does.

-The last joke was a strange reference. For the 25th anniversary of TMNT, Playmates reissues a handful of '87 toys. In all the promo images, Shredder's legs were flesh colored, not black like the original. When the toy came out it was correct, but it was a fun to joke about pantless Shredder.

-Oh hey, the updated TAOWAR logo from season 2. It's not used until arc 2 though, so this is the first use of it. Since DE-MOS has that cartoon villain like emblem, I wanted TAOWAR to have a star based emblem to use in the logo. It has a bit of the ReBoot Icon and GI Joe star mixed in it. When I went over to pages, I decided to drop the emblem from logo.

Next Time: Blade, W, Springer, and Roger are in a Better World, a Cobra World.