I haven’t updated this blog in a while, but you wonderful readers have kept the comments coming. This particular comment from KK was a wonderful reason to pick up my keyboard and start writing again.
A month ago on August 13, 2020 Kique released page 613 of Home. What happens is so wild that I simply have to describe the scene. After learning that someone from Rogio’s old pack is in Southspear Tribe, Ranach leaves a campfire with several of his new tribe members to be alone. As he ponders over the question of Iberón and his relationship to Rogio, Koegos suddenly appears in Ranach’s tent. Confused and slightly annoyed, Ranach naturally asks the guard what he wants. That’s when things take a turn for the completely unexpected. Koegos begins to push himself on Ranach, stating how lonely the former jarl must be and is perhaps in need of romantic company. Koegos is so sure of himself that he dares Ranach to ask him to leave as he leans in for a kiss. Surprisingly and thankfully, Ranach turns away and demands Koegos leaves. The guard is shocked at being turned down, but nonetheless obliges and leaves. Ranach is alone with his thoughts again.
The page was controversial from the start for many readers. The scene came out of nowhere and there was no foreshadowing. First, Koegos seemingly teleports into Ranach’s tent—in the scenes preceding this one he’s nowhere to be found. He wasn’t at the camp fire with the former Meteor Tribe member. He wasn’t in the letter scene with Lykenia and Iberón. The last time he’s seen with Ranach is on page 600 asking him a relatively mundane question. There’s no hint of lust or sexual tension. In fact, they’ve only known each other in the story for about three days and none of their interactions were sexually charged in any way. It is as if Kique thought it would be cool to show the audience that Ranach’s heart still belongs to Rogio by having Koegos attempt and fail to seduce him. Plotwise, it had the effect of a refrigerator falling on someone as they exited their home. It was just so very random and out of place. Maybe there’s a logical explanation for this scene, but it certainly isn’t conveyed in the comic to readers.
The bare minimum logical choice would have been to show Koegos at the camp fire with Ranach. Or at the very least have him show interest in the new member before the tent scene. Better yet, have random members comment that Koegos enjoys sleeping around.
The commenters on the page split into several factions. Some who were excited by the scene because they can’t help but ship everything that moves in Home, Some who were confused by the scene, and some who lamented yet another male/male relationship in a comic stuffed with them. The people who were confused by the scenes were attacked by the shippers and those calling the scenes obvious.
The Southspear Tribe worshipped the Spirit of Lust, so of course members would randomly solicit sex from brand new members. This flies in the face of what we recently learned about this tribe. The spirit, Vergjan is mentioned once on page 579 before the tribe shows its outlaw colors by raiding a caravan for supplies starting on page 601. Iberón even gives a short speech to Ranach about how they rule this desert as outlaws and are mostly left alone by the Matriarch and her Solar Stag Tribe. It was more or less stated that this was Meteor Tribe 2.0 led by a female from the start, sans the extreme violence and sexual violence toward each other. So no, a tribe worshipping a lustful god doesn’t automatically mean it is normal to expect members to try and seduce newcomers.
Kique might have started with the idea of Southspear being a tribe with members casually ready for sex. That idea was quickly discarded in order to make them outlaws and highlight their similarities and differences in comparison to Ranach’s previous tribe.
The comments about the overuse of male/male relationships were interesting as well. (Unfortunately, I didn’t make screen grabs because I didn’t think the page would be wiped entirely clean of comments save for Kique’s Author Note.) In Asmundr the relationships were strictly heterosexual despite requests from fans for same sex relationships. This ratio was almost completely flipped in Home. Male/male relationships are the norm and are portrayed in manners ranging from healthy to toxic. Meanwhile, the few remaining hetero relationships were either pushed to the background, the characters were broken up, or they were toxic with sexual assault being common, i.e. the Meteor Tribe before Arenak’s death. For balance Kique had promised fans female/female relationships, but this never materialized in any tangible manner. So it’s understandable that everyone invested in relationships who wanted to see female character portrayed positively together were disappointed with more male pairings.
Other than the fights between those who saw Keogos’ actions expected and those who felt it was random, the page had some interesting conversations. Admittedly, I found myself so disgusted and creeped out by those defending the scene that I stopped reading the comments. Then on August 18 a fellow member of the Exposedmundr Discord alerted us comments had been turned off. The reason Kique stated was because of complaints about the domination of male/male relationships. Notice the randomness of the scene and the lack of foreshadowing were never addressed.
Given that comments were off for years on Smack Jeeves, and they were often turned off on pages when Home was on DeviantArt, it felt like only a matter of time before they were turned off on ComicFury. Amazingly, it took about nine months. This time Kique promised they would eventually be turned on again. A month has passed since they were turned off and comments still aren’t allowed. Instead, he seems content to push readers to pledge to his Patreon. At this point I’m not sure if comments will be turned on in the near future. However, it is clear that even with moderators monitoring comments, Kique still can’t handle criticism and won’t tolerate discussion unless it is mostly praise.
another point is even if two people are in a more free style sexual group. they don’t just jump onto one another, that’s incredibly rude and extremely unsafe. they have a sort of meet and greet first AT LEAST and get to know what each others kinks are, their personality’s and limitations. what one person really enjoys may scare the other person. the fear of STDs/ other diseases or that the person may not be a safe partner.
fear during such a intimate and vulnerable time is NOT what you want. its also not what any healthy sexual freedom groups support.
also to note kique did shut off comments before on CF. for the same reasons if i remember correctly, too much focus on relationships. blah blah. went down around back in May-ish. they stayed down for about the equal time so far + i think kique even went on vacation a little after too. so it was quite a bit before comments returned.
This is so very true. Just because it is a lust group doesn’t mean consent goes out the window. Or just because a character likes to sleep around doesn’t make it okay to try move in without consent. I still don’t buy Southspear is a sexual group, but if they were they wouldn’t force themselves on newcomers if no one truly owned anyone, plus every reason you stated.
I didn’t know comments went down in May. Or I forgot. Seems like relationships are a sore spot for him.
his girlfriend did leave hima few years ago. she complained a lot of how she had to clean up after him and sit through him talking waaaaay too much about home. at one point she posted a complaint letter to kique on their discord, but then soon removed it after.
When I was on his Discord for a brief bit of time, I do remember her complaining that Kique didn’t do chores and spent his time working on Home. She also mentioned she didn’t actually like the comic, maybe not in the Discord, but definitely somewhere. In the end, everyone tires of Home. XD
Yay! You made a post! Appreciate!
In terms of randomness in Kique’s comic it isn’t uncommon. But, he is so far into it already I was hoping to see a new understanding after years doing the same content and people voicing concerns. Like take a minute to at least learn proper page transition and especially with so many stupidly added characters.
Kique’s relationship portrayals in his comic shows us that the author has no prior understanding what is a toxic/creepy or otherwise a healthy relationship. Not taking time to let his characters breathe or find themselves is difficult to see in this comic.
Rome, in the plot, was a bad decision to add as a romantic interest to Jahla. I liked Rhov as a countermeasure to Jahla’s blind devotion to her God and Rhov not trusting the deity. Having Jahla explore her surroundings and learn about the Gods and that they aren’t perfect and challenge her naive perception would have been epic. Rhov would have been opposite on his journey to finding that Gods give hope and that blind faith isn’t always a bad thing. Then they bring their knowledge together to make a complete pair of sorts. Adding Rome and casting Rhov aside shows that Kique’s God is perfect and that having Jahla challenged by Rhov in this case wasn’t good. Rome is also a blind follower just like Jahla (thus the whole Earth shit blah blah). Kique really fucked up his comic big time. There isn’t conflict or growth in characters. They just bland representations of author’s limited understanding of the world.
The recent Tinget page is trash too. Instead of giving the reader a wide swept view of the interior and how mystical it is. We get random stupid tid-bits of insignificant lore and clothing/knife ceremonies no one gives a shit about. Guy can’t draw interior structure backgrounds because there isn’t any brushes to circumvent that. xD
Also, it seems that Roamer is getting less screen time lol. I guess Kique is getting bored of this train wreck!
Hello, I was theone who begun with the discussion about this another random male x male intimity.
I was commenting why it couldn’t be a female for once and how this scene feels like an fanservice add-on.
I was sent personal messages by the author himself who said he was insulted by my statement.
If you are interested to read, here they are:
“Hello, just writing to you to say that please do not write comments on the comic saying for certain that “this is fanservice”, you are wrong in this, and it hurts me and the comic by claiming this is factual and true, when it’s not.
Please be more considerate in the future, thank you.
Let me explain why Koegos and Ranach was not fanservice:
-The readers have already been introduced to Koegos, they recognize him, have seen that Koegos has shown interest in Ranach earlier.
-If I had it be a random female, just think back on why it would be a female? Ranach has been shown to be mostly interested in males from the start, he only used Ronja for personal gain. It wouldn’t make sense for a female to approach him, ESPECIALLY since mostly everyone is aware of how the Meteors treated their females, so why would a female feel motivated and interested to approach him for a one night stand?
Please think hard on the way you comment, please think hard on what you assume about me and the comic. I do NOT do fanservice, if I did, Zilas and Kargo would be alive.
The only fanservice I do, is on patreon, where I post crack ships etc.
Just please, be more mindful and respectful. I wouldn’t assume the worst about YOUR comic. I bet you do your comic for the very same reason I am, we only want to create and enjoy, and seeing hurtful comments like these can really put a drag on someone.”
Hi Bughs, thanks for giving your input. What baffles me the most is that how offended Kique felt on a personal level about a fictional character and then go poke back at your comic. Yikes.
Most of us agree that Koegos wasn’t shown being interested in Ranach and the scene was indeed random as heck. Plus, Kique had shown that male dogs also got tortured in Meteor Tribe and he is trying to redeem his personal abusive character. Why wouldn’t a female show interest in Ranach? Is this taboo? Ranach abused males too! Then Ranach with his abusive past should not be allowed to be with any partner whatsoever, male or female.
The comic should disconnect personal history for chosen few but not for others? This absolutely makes no sense. Author cherry picking.
Yes :/ The fact author threated me that if I find a problem in his comic, he will throw hate on mine… let’s rather ignore.
But
“Koegos has shown interest in Ranach earlier.”
– Where? By saying Good Morning?
“Ranach has been shown to be mostly interested in males from the start”
– Which is something only readers and few dogs from MT knows. This is not an explanation how the tribe would know or why they would care.
“It wouldn’t make sense for a female to approach him, ESPECIALLY since mostly everyone is aware of how the Meteors treated their females.”
– It does make as much sence as Koegos thinking when MT dogs were mating only with females, Ranach would be interested in a male butt.
In previous panels Ranach is annoyed/displeased Koegos is ruining his privacy, so how did he give Koegos enough time to get close, grab his face and prepare for a kiss pose – where Ranach’s expression suddenly 180 into some pleasure/sad to make the picture sexy – until he finally says “leave”.
It really feels the page was created only so the panel 4 would exist.
If not as author says, there is not enough foreshadowing and scene transition to make it look logical :/
Unfortunately, this is what happens when scenes are written on the fly. There’s no real planning and things can change on a whim leaving the audience scratching their heads.
Calling Koegos’ greeting to Rananch a look of desire is definitely a reach. There’s no justifying how this scene just came out of nowhere.