User:ARS2000

I am just a guy who showed up and spouted stuff. Nothing unusual.

DeviantART: https://www.deviantart.com/arafridi2000 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzflvQC67k6PlgsRmmfSnKA

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Rating Summary

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Background
Personally for me, I ended up getting involved in this webcomic back in early 2018, perhaps March or April. I recieved a comment (the nature of which I'm not even sure now if that was genuine or snarky due to how hard to read it was) from the author on one of my things, and I checked the guy out. At first, back then, I wasn't as good an artist and I was pretty new to around DeviantART and stuff. I was offered to be let into his Discord by him, and I was like "Why not."

Admittedly, I did have some good times in there. I learnt quite a lot of stuff and what really goes on around the internet (This may sound hard to believe for some of you but that was the time I discovered any expanded universes for franchises whose movies I had seen existed, or of the big meltdown of US media that was in progress since 2013). I learnt better at being an artist and more. But frankly, as time passed, then the cracks came to me as I got better at art, and grew more used to it all, that I started realizing things aren't as nice as they seem. They started spiralling, and I was there to see some of it, until I eventually left in about early 2021.

It took one of the fellows helping me write this review to leave and then observe from an outsider's standpoint just how fucked up everything actually was. And good lord, it was so bad when he put it out in that form I realized I had to put the information out here on BWW (which I found thanks to another pal.)

Note: I would put the Enraging tag on this comic, solely for those of us who understand military stuff and all that.

Downfall
Let me be honest. If there was a high point for this comic, I was probably not there. I don't think I saw that myself. The beginning of the current comic (Which itself is the third reboot right now) I thought is better and coherent than just about the rest of it. I thought the beginnings and earlier stuff in 2013-15 was some of his far better stuff than the stuff later and later stuff. The comic overall I would say probably didn't have much of a high point.

Story and Plot
It starts off like all great comics; with exposition of course! Apparently in the GrimDark future of the 39th Century, mankind has fucked over the Earth with several(or one?) nuclear wars, and through means unknown, Furries just… Become a thing because Evo Crystal go Brrr. As a result, humans develop the Novi; sharp penised/toothed-vagina synthetic…organic robot(??) beings to defend them from the Furry Menace. Apparently the Furries picked up a book on Marx somewhere along the way, and the ones in Asia formed a Communist furrystate (ORB)..... although no one knows what kind of Communism they practice. Just Communism. America is now run by mega corporations, and the military is now fully privatized (STAR)...for some reason? Africa (SPEAR) is somehow united into giant South Africa. And despite being touted as having the strongest economy, looks more like Zimbabwe. Their military is highly outdated, and they still use conscription because reasons. Our story follows the…. Shenanigans of Colonel (despite being called commander all the time) Alice Eichelberger, from CROSS, AKA the Human Ethnostate that are the incredibly unsubtle Nazis with every generic theme of Europe all slammed in with them but Nazi overarching theme.

Oh and pirates are a whole faction. Who....often speak like Orks (SKULL).

This amazing description by my pal, Jack Verstanden.

As Jack just showed you in a single paragraph not even that big, there is a ton of questions here. You may be asking how the hell did Europe go from the democratic collection of nations they were to a single autocratic monarchy, or why the hell did America fully privatize, or why did the furries resort to communism of all things (and how they do not suffer any societal drawbacks of various different animal species of differing biologies and stuff somehow living together perfectly fine), or what the hell happened to North Africa and Arabia. Why are the pirates talking like Orks? What is even going on? Whats the war about? How is it affecting the world?

To put it bluntly, its a war comic. Duh. Theres a war. Why is there a war? Because...race. Yeah, race is the driving factor (far as I know) of this conflict. Because fuck the other race! Also, a very very questionably reliable source mentioned some stuff about how humans and furries can apparently have sex and reproduce (HOW) but the kids will be sterile and apparently due to eugenics the war also has that? Then again, this source is well known by me and the ones writing this review, and we can confirm the fella is both moronic and a grade A jackass as bad as the author, so take it with a pile of salt.

Let me explain what the issue with the plot is. It doesn't feel like its going anywhere. One of my issues with war comics and stories like these is how pointless the conflicts feel. This is no exception. The most anyone can say is that racial reasons is why this conflict is going on. Because apparently diplomacy is something everyone forgot or something. Where is the war going? Is there any purpose to it all? Whats going on? Even the way the war started makes little sense. The ORB forces started their invasion....from West Africa. Despite Asia being to the East of Africa. Did they cross across an half a continent to get there? Without getting detected?

If you read the story start to its current point, you may realize, when looking from a general viewpoint, the plot feels really...directionless. It just happens. Characters occur, and stuff happens and then something else happens. There's no weight to why these happen or what they do. Not to mention plot holes occur here and there, which occur due to literal jump cuts. I know sometimes plots can seem random, but they a good plot has a sense of growth and moving forward. Gungear just doesn't. I feel like the conflict has gone nowhere. Even dumber is the lack of exploration the effects the war has. If you are familiar with conflicts IRL, you are aware just how disastrous side results can be. Refugees, economic changes, political turmoil, these would be off the charts. But you not a single time see any human refugees or how they got affected by all this. On the other hand, we are shown furries suffering under the meany humans ruling in Africa. Ok? What about all the humans massacred in the start of the comic? Do events from the past have any consequences besides 'Oh now this new conflict escalation happens.' Does anyone wanna try a bit of talking?

Art review
This is a mixed bag. It's not bad entirely, there are moments when it seems good and shines, but frankly on an overall scale, it's a bit average to below. Its not incompetent, but can be done better. The author will not hesitate to call themself a professional, but frankly looking at some of their work, the title really feels kinda tacked on.



For example, the composition here is....frankly it looks a bit off. Its not terrible, but the coloring feels off balance. Also the lack of any real lighting and shading caused by the sky on the figures? Yeah expect that a LOT. No matter how much of a role that plays in the mood of the picture, thats part of why the impact of many of Gungears scenes...really fall flat. Like, observing as is, it doesn't seem bad, but when looking at it generally, it seems the colors and lighting is what really just kills the mood for so many things.

See? Much better. But its almost never like this in the comic.

This is underwater. Deep underwater. Does the lighting tell you ANYTHING of how deep they are?

Once again, the lighting and shading color choice here (or...lack of it) really does not help this scene. It's supposed to feel moody but I just don't feel the weight with this color of shading and lighting choice.

Also, the faces of the characters are a mixed bag as well. Sometimes it works, other times it just....doesn't work.