YMMV / Albedo: Erma Felna EDF

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The Creators are subject of this: Does the Creators designed the entire civilization just as a possible misguided attempt of creating life and as a social experiment just to watch the final results from a safe distance, or the real reasons for designing new lifeforms hides an even more darker purpose? Even the whole story gives many clues regarding both theories and the closest answer could be a mix of both, possibly implying the whole project could had been hijacked for another different directive by different persons using The Net to trying to help Erma and the rest of the chosen ones, while having their own plans. What kind of plans they have in mind, and what kind of role Erma has on all this is still unknown to this date.
  • The Platinum Catalyst RPG rerelease gives another theory regarding this: the "hijacking" theory is technically a hidden program created to help "gifted or special" persons like Erma and others when required. Needless to say, this is probably non-canon, as it contradicts many of the events from the original current canon up to the second story arc.
• Angst? What Angst?: Bizarrely enough, Toki seems to be strangely calm in the second arc despite being aware of the attack on Dornthant, although we do not know if she is aware of Erma's fate and Alfon's death, the latter being her former boyfriend.
• Anvilicious: Steve could get heavy-handed with his politics at times, both within the story and when he responded to letter in the comic itself, basically accusing anyone who disagreed with any particular thing he drew or wrote of only wanting to see some furry T&A. It also averts Death of the Author as well.
  • Regarding the ILR, the whole message is capitalism is flawed, if not outright evil, albeit this is later subverted, as the EDF turns to be Mirroring Factions, despite being communists, on the grounds the EDF are prepared to even carrying out genocide if that means eliminate the ILR once for all by using the Matter Conversion Cannon.
• Archive Panic: Inverted and subverted: The comic itself, until this date and including extra material, like the Tabletop Games, only had 34 issues published in a irregular schedule. The subversion comes with the fact is the sheer difficulty of finding all the original issues, especially the ones when Usagi Yojimbo debuted, since those ones are pretty expensive by themselves, rather than the amount of stuff you have to collect, albeit some extra material, like the Refractions fanzines, are very difficult to find even online.
• Ass Pull: The entire off-screen mutiny against ILR's Capt. Barlahan carried out by Tankannahai, on the grounds how he did managed to convince the rest of the crew to join him, taking into account his own impopularity with his peers.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The whole terrorist incident during the Ahnomia & Ish-tako sub-arc in the first arc, since not only it doesn't serve any purpose in the story other than being pointless filler, it also doesn't not involve any named character whatsoever and it's never referenced again in the whole story. Even Gallacci himself admited he doesn't like that scene either.
• Broken Base: While not as notable as other works, Albedo has a healthy share of criticism, due to partly the confusing, idiomatic nature of the plot, Gallacci's decisions regarding the handling of the comic, along many of the decisions he made, some of them were very controversial even to this day:
  • Gallacci's decision of uploading the whole comic to his homepage: For some fans, this was something very desired, considering how difficult it is to get many of the back issues of the comic in a legal way, in addition to allowing the newest fans of the franchise to know the history of the comic without having to spend huge amounts of money to get all the back issues. For some more cynical fans, many consider this decision as a way for the author to admit that the comic no longer has any value to him, since Gallacci was famous for charging outrageous amounts of money as high as 100 dollars for back issues in the 80s and 90s. Other fans also consider this decision as something negative, as it could devalue the market value of those back issues, something that curiously never happened.^note This is because Gallacci only included his own work in his page for legal reasons, so it doesn't affect current market prices yet.
  • Because of the long time the author has taken to design the comic, many think Gallacci should allow other authors to draw or collaborate with material to help him finish the story more quickly, rather than waiting months or even years to see new material. Others, on the other hand, prefer that Gallacci be the only one to work on the comic, because only he knows how the story is going to end and how. Considering what happened with the tabletop RPG games like Platinum Catalyst when many parts of the official canon were modified without his permission just to fit with regular sci-fi cliches, this is a very reasonable concern.
• Continuity Lockout: The whole story is very continuity-driven, compared with many other comics from the same genre or even Western comics as a whole, meaning you need to read each and every single issue very well to understand not only the plot, but also the characters and all the nuances behind the whole Albedo universe. The fact the comics were published on a very low print in many different companies doesn't help.
• Cliché Storm: Zig-zagged: Gallacci tries his best to avoid many of the most known sci-fi cliches, and he completely discourages any attempt to include fantastic or unreal elements (like lasers, teleporting, etc), to the grade this has become into some kind of Berserk Button to him. Oddly enough, that doesn't prevent him to include Newtype-wannabes and galaxy-destroying weapons like the Matter Conversion Cannon.
• Cult Classic: There's many reasons why Albedo is such a classic in the Furry Fandom: Not only is one the first titles of the genre geared towards adult audiences, while avoiding many of the pitfalls of adult works (like using lots of sex scenes, Gorn, lots of swearing, etc.), but also because the author's unstable release schedule and also most of the issues were released with a very low print, without mention the storytelling and characters shares many things in common with many tropes normally used in Japanese Anime or Manga.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite only appearing during the first Story Arc and having a brief appearance in the second one, Toki is one of the most popular characters from the series, and more of her backstory is explained in side-stories and supplementary materials.
  • Dr. Kalahahaii has many fans as well, on the grounds she is one of the few main characters who is not a soldier or a politician.
  • Itzak Arrat has also his fans, not only because he's a pretty good looking guy, but also because his character design is pretty unusual not only compared with the rest of the cast, but also compared with other anthropomorphic horses from other similar works, as he has hooves rather than humanoid-looking hands like almost everyone else. Extra fun he is a literal horse.
• Escapist Character: Our heroine Erma Felna, albeit with a twist: Unlike similar character who shares this trope, Erma was not designed to be one in mind for the mainstream audience, but she was designed to be one for the author himself instead, according with him. Erma is basically anything Gallacci was not when he was in the USAF, and that was the reason she was designed to have many quirks that outshines her compared with the rest of cast. Even after Gallacci himself decided to tone down those qualities in a attempt to make her more flawed and more realistic, she is still considered for many both in and out-universe as someone who anyone loves to be in her place.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: If you take into account the Distant Finale as the definitive ending of Erma Felna's saga, Erma managed somehow in the past to stop the war, but with a very steep price for her, as she lose her family, her boyfriend and possibly anything dear for her. The only thing that prevent the Distant Finale to becoming a complete Downer Ending is the fact at least Erma found Teka, her cloned daughter, along the way and she cloned herself just to create another family, so it wasn't a complete loss for her anyways. The worst part came with the fact, by Word of God's own words, another war broke out between the ILR and the EDF, possibly after Erma's generation, except this time it was ever worse than the previous two wars, because both sides used everything from nuclear weapons to biological weapons, completely destroying each other entirely, colapsing their entire civilization and Erma's sacrifices turned out to be All for Nothing. ^note One could argue the whole point of the story, at least when the second story arc begins, has less to do with Erma trying to win a war and more with Erma trying to survive the war.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: A very downplayed example happens in a meta-way and used and played for both laughs and for attacking the readers: Many fans complained how equine characters, like Itzak Arrat, can be able to manipulate objects with their hooves, since they don't have fingers, which is considered impausible by many fans. Word of God's explanation about this is that equine characters can handle objects, only that they do off-screen. Obviously the fans weren't happy about that explanation, and Gallacci's answer is basically calling the fans idiots by not understanding the beauty of this "detail".
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • With Usagi Yojimbo, for very obvious reasons. And a very one-sided one with The Expanse, albeit only the author minds on this one, not the fans.
  • A more straight example would be with Overlord 2010, since the comic shares the same name with Albedo, one of the main characters of the novel and the animated adaptations.
• Fanfic Fuel: Since the story was Cut Short and there's lots of unexplained events that only were alluded in canon (like the First Lepine War and most of Kanoc and Eda's younger days) and there's also the Creators and how they created the anthropomorphic civilization, not to mention the lives and pasts of many of the characters outside Erma and her family, this is obviously lots of stories that can be told, if it were not for the fact that the author prohibits fanworks without his permission.
• Fan Nickname: In a meta-example of this, Gallacci is nicknamed by his fans as "The American Shirow Masamune" partly because both authors have a knack for creating dystopic futuristic stories with lots of interesting background details and lots of beautiful girls.
  • The ILR is sometimes nicknamed as Nazi Bunnies, Communist Bunnies or Space Watership Down Warsaw Pact, despite the ideology of the ILR has nothing to do with communism.
  • The EDF is also nicknamed as "Furry Space NATO", despite the EDF has more things in common with the Warsaw Pact than the NATO.
  • Dr. Elaki Kalahahaii is sometimes nicknamed as Dr. K because many fans cannot pronounce her name correctly. Even the author himself has used that nickname too.
  • Ipcha Tankannahai also got nicknamed as Tank for the same reasons as above.
  • In Gallacci's FurAffinity's page, Tavas receives the charitable nickname of Former Boyfriend Mc Asshole.
  • Captain Barlahan is nicknamed as "The Good Captain" because he is quite a Nice Guy, along Tankannahai, compared with the rest of the ILR military forces.
  • Flying Brick: The name for the EDF's aerodynes, since these are almost literally flying metal bricks.
• Fandom Life Cycle:
• Friendly Fandoms: With Zootopia, as both works are set in a World of Funny Animals with a more serious than usual mood and more stricter rules regarding the setting. Also, to say the author is a big fan of the film is an understatement.
• Genre Turning Point: When this comic became a cult hit, furry comics became much more ambitious creating for material for adults.
• Girl-Show Ghetto: Very averted like nobody's business: Despite most of the named cast are females, including the titular heroine, this is a comic book geared to males and with a long male audience. It helps a lot almost all the females doesn't need the help of another man to succeed and neither romance nor even sex are the selling point of the comic, but the solid story-telling instead.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Basically, everything related with the ILR (minus the genocide thing), especially after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the economic recession that hit the U.S. in the 2000s and The War on Terror. Keep in mind the comic was published in the 80s and the author is a former member of the USAF, but that doesn't stop him to criticize many of the things he saw wrong about the United States, its armed forces and above all, about American society. This also became even more disturbing when Donald Trump is became the president of the U.S., something that Gallacci himself lampshaded. Even harsher, Trump became president thanks to the Republican Party, while the ILR is sometimes nicknamed as the Republicans, by many members of the cast.
  • Alfon Voga, who is Erma's boyfriend dies during the ILR attack against his homeworld when Tavas disabled The Net. This is even harsher if you take into account Erma is Gallacci's Author Avatar and the fact Gallacci's wife died too, albeit she died due to cancer rather than in a "accident".
  • In a more meta-example of this, Gallacci's comparison between Erma and Judy Hopps goes into this territory if you take into account the ILR were responsible of torturing her father, and also being the ones who bombed her homeland Dornthant to almost oblivion.
  • The scene when Erma retold the whole incident with the Rodent sniper in Danet and after Erma is forced to eject from her aerodyne is particulary harsher because the way that scene was depicted was very similar to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. According with Word of God, that was unintentional, since the accident happened when that issue was in the final stages for publication and he even discussed the accident in a unrelated fanzine.
  • The whole attack on Dornthant using unusual bombing methods can resemble a lot like the U.S. attack against an Islamic State's base in Afghanistan by using a MOAB (Mass Ordnance Air Blast, backronymed as "Mother of All Bombs") in more or less a similar way like the ILR does against Dornthant, except its neither as destructive nor its launched from outer space.
  • The Ekosiaki crisis resembles disturbingly enough like the (at 2017) the political situation of France due of the constant terrorist attacks that country has suffered, and the threat of that country of leaving the European Union, along with the political crisis between Spain and Catalonia, just like Ekosiak planned to leave the EDF and the Confederation of Planets for similar reasons. The same would be appliable with regards the U.K. and the whole Brexit thing.
  • And the entire Battle of Derzon is too gruesomely similar to both the Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimea and also the Russian invasion on the whole country at 2022, including instances of the invading forces (the ILR in the comic, and Russia in real life) causing amounts of deliberate damage on civilian infrastructure and also war crimes against the civilian population.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Originally, Erma's brother Tasak was planned to be named "Arac", but his name was retconned at the last minute. Three decades later, we have Dragon Ball Super when one of the Gods of Destruction, of the 5th universe to be precise, is named "Arak". (note the spelling here) Extra hilarity, in a dark way, Tasak is partially responsable of the almost obliteration of Dornthant and the destruction of his family.
  • And continuing with Super, the Supreme Kai of the Universe 11 is named Khai, sharing by bizarre coincidence the in-universe name for the Creators. Either Akira Toriyama read Albedo, or it's one hell of a coincidence.
  • And regarding the Matter Conversion Cannon, the whole premise of that thing became hilariously ironic, since the Star Wars franchise used the same concept in The Force Awakens: The First Order created the Starkiller, another Wave-Motion Gun that can drain the entire mass of a star and convert it into multiple beams that can destroy an entire star system from across the galaxy. While not as powerful as its Albedo counterpart, the Star Wars one still uses the same concept as well.
  • The spaceships in the Albedo universe are infamous between the fandom for disturbingly resembling like giant dildos. Cue to 2021, when Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket not only resemble those ships, except painted white rather than black, but it also infamous for resembling a dildo as well.
• I Am Not Shazam: A very contrived example: Technically speaking, the whole main story of the comic is named Erma Felna EDF because that's the name of the heroine and the name of the organization she belongs to. Albedo was the name of the anthology when the main story was published along with other non-related stories from other authors, (like Usagi Yojimbo who debuted there). Over time, the anthology part was downplayed as many authors other than Gallacci moved to other magazines or they simply stop publishing there and by the time the magazine moved to both Antarctic Press (in the last issues) and Shanda Fantasy Arts, that part completely disappeared from the magazine and all stories are related with the main plot of Erma Felna EDF, including side-stories and afterwords. Despite this, the magazine still carries the name Albedo, and both fans and Word of God alike uses the Erma Felna EDF name or also Albedo Anthropomorphics or the more common name Albedo: Erma Felna EDF, being the main story the subtitle of the name. The fact the name Albedo still reflects the main themes used in the Erma Felna EDF story, besides the ones used by other furry comics published when it was an anthology, does help.
  • This is also applied retroactively towards the sequel Birthright, since its now published in the Radio Comix's website as Albedo: Birthright. Unlike with the Erma Felna EDF story, the fans prefer to use simply as Birthright, rather than use the Albedo moniker.
  • By Word of God, the official name of the magazine is Albedo Anthropomorphics and Erma Felna EDF is the story published there, despite Albedo has stopped to be an anthology comic anymore since the 90s.
• I Knew It!: Toki being lesbian or at least bisexual was already a common joke in the Albedo fandom since the 80s, due of her Lovable Sex Maniac tendences, and it was not until 2016 when Gallacci finally confirmed this.
• Iron Woobie: After all the tragedy that befalls her, it's still surprising Erma holds enough willpower to keep going.
• It Was His Sled: The fact the human race were the ones who created the Species is a well known fact for many members in the Furry Fandom. Even the Tabletop Games spoils this at the beginning of the core books.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Albedo would have ended in the obscurity of the comic book history if Usagi Yojimbo didn't make his debut in a side-story published in the first years of the series.
• Les Yay: Oddly averted in-series between Erma and Toki, as their relation is completely platonic, but this is played straight in a meta way, as Gallacci, the author, has drawn erotic art between those both characters. Also played straight between Ilnya and Frienda, members of Capt. Arrat's crew, as Illnya is so far the only lesbian character in the series and Frieda asks her if she's interested on her.
  • This is even referenced as a Shout-Out in the somewhat obscure Konami game, Nightshade (1992): If you check out the crowbar at the beginning of the game, a very odd romantic message written by Toki (who doesn't appear in that game) addressed to Erma (who she neither appears in the game either) appears◊. This is justified as the game was scripted by the Australian writer Paul Kidd, who worked with Gallacci in some of his stories and also in Albedo.
  • Subverted later in Gallacci's 2016 soft Retcon, albeit one-sided from Toki's side, as she doesn't mind doing it with Erma if she wants it, but Word of God makes painfully clear and in capital letters that Erma and Toki never had sex between them.
  • The closest thing towards this is during the Ish-tako sub-arc, when both Erma and Toki shares the same bunk, while sleeping naked, despite both girls sleeps in different beds.
  • Also, the relation of Onni Hitzok with both Dea and his own wife Kamara could count, taking into account both girls doesn't mind sharing Onni on themselves and further confirmed in the second arc as both women sleep together with him.
• Memetic Mutation: "Socio-political Ramifications" was a common catch phrase in Furry Fandom for years because of this series.
  • Also, the "Erma with a crowbar" meme is a very popular one, after an incident when a perverted fan asked the author to draw a pin-up of Erma pleasuring herself with a crowbar, and refusing to do so. Oddly enough, he did some pics with Erma naked with a crowbar, but not in the way intended by that fan, at least not in a sexual way.^note In reality, what really happened is something more complex: By Word of God, the whole meme came out when some friends of the author decided to joke with him and one of them decided to imitate the stereotypical voice of a perverted nerd asking for this. For some reason, the whole situation became an urban legend inside the Furry Fandom due to the lack of reliable sources in the 80s and 90s and many claimed that event happened. This meme even trascended beyond the furry fandom in a way.^note See Les Yay above. This also ovelaps with Never Live It Down, as the author himself encourages this and his fans loves to tease him with that meme.
  • Any explanation about how characters with hooves or flappers (Like the Arrats, Chinnah and the penguins) can manipulate things without fingers is always explained as being done off-screen.
• Moe: Teka Ardehad as a kid, Lees and Rojigo Felna. Oddly enough, Erma herself is a subversion when she was a kid, as while she was cute in her younger years, she was a Fake Cutie and a massive Jerkass towards her brother.
• Moral Event Horizon: The ILR already crossed the line even before the series began, but some of the worst things the ILR did during the series are:
  • Invading a EDF space station, slaughtering every civilian inside it, rigging the station with nukes and destroying it along with the survivors!
  • And they did the same thing with their own civilian space station in the second Story Arc, but with their own civilians still alive and well, because they suspected them of being traitors.
  • The EDF pulls a even bigger one or at least they plan to do one later, if you know the implications of what they did: They created a Space Battleship Yamato-style Wave-Motion Gun by reverse-engineering the Antimatter technology from the human Creators, with the catch that weapon is able to destroy galaxies with it, and they plan to use that cannon on the ILR. Just to get an idea how much the EDF has crossed that line, The Net, the Master Computer who controls all the computer systems for all the sides of the conflict, due of the Net's programming to protect all life forms splits its personality in a inverted Godzilla Threshold attempt to prevent all sides of the conflict on commit mass genocide on each other and very possibly on the human race as well.
• Narm:
  • The whole scene when Capt. Arrat punches the corrupt EDF officer right in his face could have been a even much powerful scene if that officer didn't look too cartoony and the whole punch scene didn't look like Arrat was punching a small rag doll instead.
  • Many people pointed out how the spaceships resemble giant space dildos due to their particular shape.
• Nausea Fuel: The human corpse still had blood in her mouth when Dr. Kalahahaii found her. Even worse that blood was still floating around her mouth due to the lack of gravity in that scene This is more notable in the version uploaded in Gallacci's personal homepage, since the art was scanned from the original masters and with higher quality.
• Not So Crazy Anymore:
  • At the time when the comic was published and until recently, the idea of a modern military force like the ILR being so pointlessly brutal on both their enemies and people could sounded too over-the-top even for Western standards.^note Excluding the Nazis, the Imperial Japan and Stalin-era Soviet Union, obviously. Three decades later...
  • The whole ILR attack on Dornthant is now this, thanks to the Mother of All Bombs in Afghanistan against, ironically enough, the aforementioned Islamic State.
  • Genyanaka's campaign to discredit Colonel Hitzok and Dea has a similar resemblance to the so-called false news used during the U. S. presidential election in 2016. It should be noted that this part of the story was written in the early 1990s, when the idea of attempting to alter the perception of public opinion through electronic means was seen as something straight out of science fiction and completely unreal, something that the author himself recently lampshaded.
  • The entire premise of the comic could be as this if you take into account Nick Ostrom's theory about the origin of the universe: when the entire universe could be an entire simulation created by an alien race, except in Albedo's case, the creations are flesh-and-blood beings and the aliens are humans. Although this theory is as old as humanity itself (being William Shakespeare one of the most notable exponents, and used in works as The Matrix and Megazone 23), the theory in its modern form was described by the aforementioned person in 2003, while Albedo was created in 1984, which use a similar version of the same theory in a much simplified form.
  • In a similar way, the science and technology website Ars Technica published an article about the very realistic probability that mankind can or could create chimeras or animals with human-like sentience, basically the way how the anthropomorphics were created in a nutshell as Word of God described them in in additional materials. While we are still too far from doing something like that, the article seriously consider that possibility taking into account the current technological breakthroughs on that field.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Possibly due to lack of time, magazine space or many other reasons, the author tends to skip many cool events or solve them in a single page:
  • Toki being promoted from cadet to Squadron Commander happens completely off-screen and without any explanation about what she did for deserving that promotion. Erma's promotion, on the other hand, is explained in a single page during a dream sequence.
  • During the ILR attack on Erma's homeworld, Ipcha Tankannahai's mutiny against Capt. Barlahan is only alluded by Barlahan and Tankannahai himself after the latter decided to free Barlahan once the ship has left EDF space. this is especially egregious, as it's never explained how Tankannahai managed to convince his fellow crewmembers on going against his captain, taking into account he was hated by each and every single member of the Barlahan's crew and by Barlahan himself.
• Older Than They Think: Albedo is not the first Furry Comic dealing with mature themes: That privilege goes for both Fritz the Cat (1965) and Omaha the Cat Dancer (1978), this is especially relevant for the latter, as Erma is based in Omaha, at least design-wise, according with Word of God.
• Rewatch Bonus: You need to read the whole story many times just to get most of the nuances of the Albedo universe, not to mention to understand many of the Foreshadowing that happens early in the series, especially anything related with Erma's dreams.
• Rule of Symbolism: The copy of the Frankenstein book Dr. Elaki Kalahahaii finds inside the derelict human spaceship, since it deals about a man who wants to create intelligent life from something previously non-sapient, (in the book's case, from corpses) who is very significant for the plot, when the furry characters were created in a similar situation from non-sapient animals. In a meta way Frankenstein was also the very first science-fiction novel ever published, not to mention the full name of the novel is Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, being Prometheus the name of the project who created the whole anthropomorphic cast, at least in the Refractions anthologies.
  • Also from Dr. Kalahahaii:
  Are you Khai made flesh?
• Shocking Moments: Also overlapping with Growing the Beard as well, as while the story was very different compared with others of the same genre, it wasn't anything special until the third issue from the first arc, when we see the ILR blowing a civilian space station with a nuke, but not before killing almost all the people inside of it and poisoning the remaining survivors. Then, we see lots of complex political and military intrigue, something unusual at the time in the Furry Fandom, and the things went uphill from there.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • Basically, Albedo is an English, furry adaptation of Yoshiki Tanaka's Legend of the Galactic Heroes, with a very similar premise. Curiously enough, the comic predates the original novels by one year (Albedo was published in 1983, while LOGH was published in 1982, and that without going the original prototype of the idea was published in 1978 in a fanzine) and the well-known anime adaptation by six years (1988) or thirty-five years for the Die Neue These reboot (2018).
  • Likewise, the comic could be a spiritual adaptation of the North Korean animated series Squirrel and Hedgehog, since both franchises shares more or less the same premise, through Squirrel and Hedgehog takes place in the modern era, rather than the future. Also, it also overlaps with Spiritual Antithesis, since Squirrel and Hedgehog is an unashamed propaganda piece for the North Korean regime, while Albedo, on the other hand, denounce such kind of stuff, not to mention the comic is not afraid to even criticize the author's home country by using the ILR as an example of this.
• Spiritual Antithesis:
  • The comic could be the counterpart of Extinctioners, another furry comic from Shawntae Howard, a long-time Albedo fan, ironically enough, and also Gallacci's friend: Both titles deals with furry characters who were created by outside forces outside their own understanding, and in both cases humans are behind their creation. The difference lies in the fact, while in Albedo, the Creators are very ambiguous beings whose true intentions aren't completely known; all that's certain is that they created life as a part of a social scientific experiment just to know how they can react without the need of humans. In Extinctioners, on the other hand, their equivalent (The Makers), as far as we know, are mostly evil and the story makes it painfully clear that the anthropomorphic cast were created by the humans just to save their own asses. How evil is really still in the air. Another main difference is, while in Albedo the main cast were put on a distant planet by the Creators, in Extinctioners the whole setting turns out to be a renamed Earth instead.
  • And despite Albedo predates it for 11 years^note Through the comic really went into Development Hell-next to cancellation in 2005, while Evangelion debuted in Japan in 1995., the whole story could be this from Neon Genesis Evangelion (mostly the TV adaptation, not the Rebuild of Evangelion films): Both series are about anthropomorphic beings created by the human race, in the first case they are animals with human attributes and in the second case, the titular machines are giant robot-like humanoids, and in both cases, there's lot of sometimes-unexplored discussion about the sole existance of those beings. But this is when the similarities ends: In Albedo, the anthropomorphic civilization was created as a mean of study for the human race just to study their behavior without human meddling, while in EVA, the titular beings were created to help humanity to destroy an alien (of sorts) invasion from very eldritch beings of divine origin. This also extends to the lead characters of both series, Erma Felna and Shinji Ikari respectively, as both heroes are angst-ridden protagonists with a very complex relationship with their parents^note In Erma's case with her mother Eda and in Shinji's with his father Gendo. and both suffered a loss in their family with regard with their enemies.^note Erma's father was tortured by the ILR in a random mission in the past, causing him brain and psychological damage, and later Erma lost her mate Alfon during the ILR attack on Dornthant and also lost any contact with her family, probably for good, while Shinji lost his mother Yui]] The main difference here is, while Erma doesn't let her angst dominates her, except in some events, Shinji's angst is what definitively defines him, to the grade his angst is what in some degree the reason that dooms the entire human race. Also, the way how both heroes went involved in their respective plots are different, as Erma was basically an Accidental Hero during a battle, and her fame snowballed from there, while Shinji was summoned by his father in other to fight the invaders, and to make them more different, Erma is much older (25 years old at SD 195 during the Battle of Derzon) and mature than the 14-years old Shinji.
• Spiritual Predecessor: To its non-furry successor, Children of a Dead Earth for being a hard SF setting that deals with the social and political consequences of interplanetary warfare.
• Strangled by the Red String: Surprisingly subverted between Erma and Alfon, despite Erma only knew about Alfon via Toki, other than both being from the same homeland and having hot sex in the beach in the planet Ish-tako for one night, causing Erma to become pregnant with his baby, partly because Alfon being a much better option for Erma than Tavas after they decide to become a couple, even if Erma has very personal reasons for not hooking up with another man after her experience with Tavas, and partly because Alfon's death traumatized Erma a lot. It helps a lot the fact Alfon already knew Erma previously, but he decided not doing anything because Erma was dating Tavas previously, according with Gallacci in a FAQ.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: Many people will remember the comic just because Usagi Yojimbo came out from it, rather by its own merits, to the grade Albedo is normally ignored on regards of Usagi's own origins.
• Tear Jerker: Basically, the last two issues of the Dornthant sub-arc are one of the biggest tear jerkers of the whole story:
  • Alfon's death, as he basically died due to Tavas' machinations and was an incidental victim to boot.
  • The poor Lepine boy who was rescued by Tasak, just to die later on in front of him.
  • The final scene of the first story arc ends with Erma crying for the death of Alfon and the fate of her family, as she thinks they could be all dead.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Due of the way the plot is designed and the fact the whole series was Cut Short at the beginning of the second Story Arc, many characters were wasted in their execution:
  • Toki: According to her backstory, she's as good as Erma in the military stuff, but we never see her doing anything and her only role in the plot is being Erma's Foil and a Plucky Comic Relief character, not to mention When she disappears from the plot the story turns even darker than before. Her backstory is explained with more detail in the Tabletop Games and in some side-stories.
  • Alfon Voga: Oh boy, where to begin: Alfon is basically a Satellite Character with next to zero background, other than being Toki's former boyfriend, we know very few things about him outside his relation with the main heroine of the setting, he's borderline a Glorified Sperm Donor for Erma so she can bear a child and after he accomplished that, he is killed during the ILR attack to Erma's homeworld, so Erma can have something to angst about. The only thing we know about him is being a Nice Guy towards everybody else.
  • Teka Ardehad: She appears in a way completely out of the blue for both Erma and the readers, not only because she appears for the first time in the Distant Finale as an adult woman but also because she's Erma's cloned daughter without any explanation on how the hell the Ardehads got [[spoiler:Erma's DNA, other than they need an heir since they can't bear one. This is even more egregious because Erma never bothers to ask Teka about that and she doesn't look surprised at all after finding out the truth and she even believes her story, something even more egregious if you take into account she is supposed to be a professional soldier first and a person second, and she was supposed to be working as a spy in an enemy planet, and Teka almost blows out her cover. Even worse she appears in the regular continuity as a kid meaning she and Erma will not ever meet until decades later. According with Word of God in a recent statement in his FurAffinity's page, The Net was the one who brought out Erma's DNA to the Ardehads when Erma was a teen, off-screen.
  • The entirety of the Felna and Arrat families other than Erma, Itzak and Tasak, albeit in less degree, as basically their role on the whole story is being the helpless victims of all the political machinations of all the sides of the conflict. This is especially egregious in the case of Kanoc, since it's implied he was as much of a badass just like his daughter Erma is, but the closest thing we got to see his abilities as a former soldier is when his homeworld is almost destroyed by the ILR, and he managed to protect Rojigo so far. The epilogue states he an the rest of the family other than Erma reunites later somewhat.
• Tough Act to Follow: Gallacci's other series have never been as successful, with the sole exceptions of The Tales of Beatrix Farmer and in less degree, his recent webcomic Alone, Together in his FurAffinity's page.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: A very weird, retroactive example: Teka Ardehad makes her debut in the Distant Finale as an adult, while trying to find Erma by herself albeit chronologically speaking she appears as a kid in the regular story in the second Story Arc, having her own sub-plot independently from the rest of the story. Only by reading the Distant Finale it will reveal the detail of being a clone of Erma, as the comic is normally published in black and white hides very well the real colors of her fur, preventing the reader to figuring out the fact of Teka being a clone at first sight.
• Viewer Species Confusion:
  • Alliusiz is supposed to be a possum, but he looks more like a monkey.
  • We don't know officially which species Lazlow Kosak belongs to, as he looks between a polar bear and a dog.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Due of the cuddly design of many characters, especially in later issues due to Gallacci's Art Evolution, one could think this is another kiddie comic with cute animals, until those "cute animals" start blowing each others' brains out almost every issue.
• Win Back the Crowd: After basically a decade without doing anything about Albedo after the death of his wife, other than few pin-ups, few infodumps and and a failed reuploading of Birthright via Radiocomix's page, as it was canceled after the end of the first story arc, Gallacci managed to upload the back issues from the comic and he also announced he's planning to continue the story from the stalled second Story Arc. Obviously the fandom was more than happy to hear Gallacci is back this time, after many people though the comic was probably dead for good.
• The Woobie: While not as bad like the Ikari family or the House Stark, the Felnas are possibly one of the most screwed-up families in fiction, since they are basically the main victims of many of the machinations from all the sides of the conflict: Kanoc, the patriarch, got tortured to the point of madness by the ILR while wife Eda has to endure the later's maniatic outbreaks, and trying to keep a straight face. Their sons suffers even more than their parents: Tasak, the younger one, is The Unfavorite for everyone else, including even The Net and he is victim of Tavas's political machinations, becoming the accomplice of Tavas's False Flag Operation plan of letting the ILR bombing his homeworld to hell, causing his entire family being separated, possibly for good, and driving him to madness. The titular heroine, for obvious reasons, receives the most painful blows: Erma got shot during the Battle of Derzon, she's later Kicked Upstairs to another planet, due to the EDF's Stay in the Kitchen-of sorts policy. She gets pregnant later and her son was born prematurely due to a serious unintentional Mind Rape from another Talent. When the things were going smooth for her and her boyfriend, her homeland got bombed, her boyfriend got killed and losing contact with her whole family and son, possibly permanently. Even Erma's own life begun in pain when a terrorist attack striked in her homeland and she was also born prematurely due of her mother Eda's shock. The word "tragedy" is inadequate to describe everything what happened to them.

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