I Hope So
is a Furry Webcomic by artists Cat (calicopikachu) and RJ (detectiverj). It began serialization in December 2020.
The story starts with Hope, a adventurous lioness perceived as weak because of her disability- being born without a fourth leg. After disowning her abusive parents, Hope forms a Family of Choice with Storm, her nomadic Love Interest, and Adamant, her loyal sister. As the three struggle with survival and oppression, they discover the value of found family.
The comic's primary influences were My Pride, Watership Down, and The Animals of Farthing Wood. A print release is planned once enough chapters have been finished.
First-Episode Twists (up to chapter 14) will be unmarked.
This comic includes the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Vicious lives up to her name, doing her best to keep Hope insecure and dependent. She's not much kinder to her other daughters, who she insists deserve Jasper's abuse. Her sole positive act was saving Hope from being culled at birth, but it's likely this was less out of compassion than a desire to avoid the 'failure' of having a litter with no surviving cubs. Notably, her nastiness increases as Hope grows up and becomes more than a glorified trophy.
- Affably Evil: While Edge may be a bad guy in the story, he and his family is surprisingly cordial at times.
- Animal Naming Conventions: The Golden Grove fit this trope somewhat, naming its members after their personality traits. Same goes for the Red Stone pride, whose members are all named after plants.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Both Quiet and Adamant start out like this, making fun of Hope for not being able to hunt with them. They soon show respect for Hope after she tries to take down a zebra (an event that nearly kills her) and they are shown in a more sympathetic light from that point on.
- Bullying the Disabled: Both of Hope's parents abuse her due to her disability, even going as far as to give her an insulting name (Hopeless) because of it. They're shown not to be any nicer to their able-bodied relatives either.
- Butch Lesbian: Storm is this, also confirmed to be gender non-conforming.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Storm and Hope first met as cubs, were separated by their respective cultures and fall in love once reunited as adults.
- Cool Big Sis: Hope becomes this to Adamant, sticking up for her when their father physically and verbally abuses her.
- Cool Aunt: Clever, to the point where she's one of the comic's most popular characters. Even after her untimely death.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: The Traveler, a folk heroine personified by the moon, comes to every lion when they die and guides them to their next incarnation. Traveller lions see her as a comforting figure who keeps the journey from being lonely and is unafraid of death; kingdom lions prefer her less mysterious solar counterpart, the Great King.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It is confirmed that Edge and his family fit this trope.
- Eye Scream: After Hope defends Adamant from Jasper (see above), Vicious inadvertently slashes her across her eye in Chapter 11. A scene in a later chapter confirms that she has sustained permanent damage to said eye from the attack.
- Fantastic Racism: Prideless lions ("Travellers") are considered untrustworthy savages that eat their own young. For this reason, lions in groups generally refer to them as "wanderers", which implies that they have no home and ignores the Traveller cultural belief that the whole world is their home. Many prides will attack a Traveller intruding on their territory, even if that intrusion is for nothing more than a drink of water.
- Foreshadowing: In Chapter 5, a male lion is seen in silhouette observing the Golden Grove. After much speculation on the comic's Tumblr blog, the lion was revealed to be Edge, Jasper's Bad Boss and the confirmed Big Bad of the comic.
- LGBT+ Creators: Cat (character art) is a lesbian. RJ (writing, backgrounds) is aromantic.
- Meaningful Name: The creators are self-confessed fans of this trope, so there are a lot. Some include:
- The Golden Grove naming theme works on this trope, with all members getting names based on their personalities. Some (Clever, Bold) are more charming than others (Hopeless, Aggravating, Troublesome).
- Diamond's name, as confirmed by the creators, is meant to be a contrast to Hope's given name (Hopeless). Their pride all have gemstone names and diamonds are considered the precious and strongest of most gemstones.
- Adamant is named for both her personality and the legendary gemstone, indicating at her future confirmed romance with Diamond.
- Periwinkle - a planned Manipulative Bastard villain - is named as such because the scientific name for periwinkles (vinca) comes from the Latin: vincire "to bind, fetter".
- Daffodil, a character reborn from a sister of Hope's and Adamant's who dies in Act 1, is named for the flower that symbolises rebirth and new beginnings.
- My Beloved Smother: Vicious begins as this to Hope, her role becoming more abusive as time goes by (see above).
- Queer Media: The comic is advertised as an "LGBT+ lion webcomic", with the cast including the following:
- Our mains includes: Hope and Storm (two lesbians in a confirmed romance), Adamant (who is bisexual) and Diamond (a trans masc non-binary).
- As well as our aforementioned main couple, Diamond's adoptive grandfathers - Opal and Obsidian - are shown to be in a long-term, committed gay relationship.
- The comic also has a number of transgender characters with a variety of designs and gender identities.
- Rebellious Princess: Diamond (although technically a prince, being nonbinary) is the next heir of the Thundering Mountains pride, but has made it clear to their fathers that they would prefer a life of exploration and adventure.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Vicious starts out as what one could describe as an overprotective, belittling parent. She gets a lot worse (see above).
- Wham Episode: Chapter 13 reveals that not only did Jasper have a hand in his own daughter's death (though many saw it coming), but that he's actually working under an Evil Overlord known as Edge (who "collects prides", according to Storm) and that they both murdered Clever's mate and the former King of the Golden Grove. The chapter ends with the pair of them murdering Clever, despite Hope's best efforts to save her.
