Ravi proto design + origins [Behind the Scenes]

It's no secret that ACE OF BEASTS underwent a soft reboot largely because of one character, Ravi Sirrush. I made him in 2017, right around when I had been finishing ACE OF BEASTS Volume 2, and when I realized that the art needed it's first big overhaul.  

Ravi's initial design memo was a 'mentor type' for Xerxes who complements his personality but who is fundamentally very different from him. This meant he was a gentler, older kind of character, but with seething determination behind that calmness that transformed into writing as outright rebelliousness. Over the course of about 2 months, I had drawn and written him into the new story's canon.

When rewriting ACE OF BEASTS, I realized I needed a character in his role to temper (and sometimes amplify) the main trio's personalities and conflicts. 

He's both a guiding voice for Xerxes, Ramzi and Osric as well as an extreme of all three of their values - he appreciates erotic kink to the point of using it as his primary way to heal (Xerxes), he's always ready to stand against authority (Osric), and he would do anything for his and others' freedom (Ramzi).  

They say that if you have an Act 1 problem, you have a problem with character motivation, but if you're stuck in Act 2, you have a story and protagonist problem. The Sect happened to be the thread that tied together Xerxes and the others, and so it had to be introduced earlier - not in Volume 3, as it was planned. Xerxes was also subtly rewritten to be gentler, and I think it is more true to how he was made. (Coincidentally, Xerxes also provides a contrast to the Sect's gladiatorial and super-sexual (even for Xerxes) environment and yet reflects their ideals perfectly. But that's another analysis for another time.)

I think there is something to be said about Ravi's sexual actions as a sex-positive asexual (esp. since he was also in the Sect of Strato) and his relationship to his body, but we're not there yet in the story so I'll let you guys analyze it yourself before I give my thoughts on that ;3 He's also into kinks that are more 'hardcore' than the other guys (BDSM, watersports, transformation, etc.), and he can turn into an actual monster (sphinx, ba bird). 

Some may say that it is a waste of time to give an erotic monster-on-man story beats, character motivation, or complexity, but I like to make things that are interesting and new to me and others so I can be proud of my work. This is separate from one-shots, which are mostly smut, which can exist, but I think my story-based comics are something special. 

Ravi is a big part of why I think ACE OF BEASTS is special - heck, he is right there in the title (as our asexual sex-positive addition to the protagonists ;3).