Week 4: Further Sketches for Senior Thesis and Timelines

Heroshima Cover

 

More Heroshima Sketches

 

Timelines + Character Arcs

Timeline for First Issue of Comic:

  • Description of past with atomic bombs post WWII. Set up presents the rise of superheroes and supervillains from the radiation.
  • Hasaki Gozen recounts her past trauma, her idolization of her master/sensei Foxphorus. First inner conflict.
  • Hasaki’s mother abandons her and nearly kills her. Foxphorus rescues young Hasaki after trying to run away from bullies.
  • Foxphorus takes Hasaki under her wing and becomes her sensei. Hasaki begins to see her as her closest and only friend, and even as a mother figure at times. They fight crime together as a duo for many years.
  • Foxphorus dies at the hands of a mutant supervillain, which traumatizes Hasaki and nearly causes her to lose all motivation for what she does. She goes through her second inner conflict, taking Foxphorus’s mask as a memento, burying her, and following her teachings in her honor.
  • Many years later, Hasaki continues to fight numerous villains, each with their own mutant powers, continuing to dedicate herself towards following a moral code, and not wavering from that said code.
  • Hasaki is contacted by the Japanese government one day, who she works for as a mercenary/assassin to make ends meet. The government tells her that a new supervillain has risen into prominence across Japan and threatens the country’s national security, as well as the rest of the world. When Hasaki asks the government officials to describe this villain, they reluctantly tell her it is an out-of-control child with terrible powers. Hasaki immediately refuses to help the government, not wanting to break her moral convictions, or live on with the guilt of having killed a child, even if it means saving potentially millions of people. As she watches the news and sees the destruction happening in numerous cities, she experiences her third inner conflict, indecisive as to whether she should attempt to kill her enemy, or hang back and watch the chaos from afar. She thinks to herself that there must be another way in which she can save Japan while avoiding having to commit a terrible immoral act. She leaves her lair to fight the infant supervillain.
  • Hasaki corners and fights the supervillain in Tokyo, trying her best to defend herself rather than going on the offensive, while also rescuing civilians trapped in the rubble of ruined buildings. She tries to persuade this villain to stop his rampage (I have not decided just yet what her decision will be, but this is part of the suspense of the comic).
  • ENDING: Hasaki must face the consequences of her actions, for good or for ill. Because she risks breaking her bushido-like code of honor, her reputation may suffer or be bolstered depending on what she chooses to do against her foe. One ending I have in mind is that she betrays the Japanese government out of anger and guilt over her making a very difficult decision. Hasaki experiences her fourth and final inner conflict (Hasaki’s character arc can be conceptualized as being defined by a series of inner conflicts, interspersed with less important outer conflicts).

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