This series seems to be my hotbed for testing new things and trying to improve. I dislike almost every single image I've made in it, but each feels valuable for the experience gained making them. One day I will create a fully rendered piece that I feel nothing but satisfaction with. Or maybe I won't, because I don't think any artist has ever done that.

A few of my friends have tried to talk to me about this series, but their interest is mainly a sexual one directed towards Braixen. I don't want to delve into the intricacies of exactly how Braixen is abused and lavish in every little detail of how she's been defiled. I want what she's experiencing to be acknowledged, and then the focus shifted from the actual acts to her steadily mounting misery in their /aftermath/, as well as the steadily mounting spiritual damage she is accruing from them. But that's not their interest, and that sort of thing for a difficult topic to discuss besides. It is easier to describe how someone is raped than the complexities of their collapse afterwards.

I haven't enjoyed most of the conversations I've had about NHE. Part of that is because of everything I just said. Another reason is that I've already rather decided on how I view all the characters and how all the characters view each other, so whenever someone tries to talk to me about the series and expresses their opinions on the characters, a stubborn part of my mind will go "no, that's wrong" to essentially everything they say. 

Of course, that is purely mental. I don't actually say that to people. Besides the fact that it's really fucking rude, I also don't want to talk a lot about what's going to happen in the series before it's happened, so I don't want to confirm or deny whatever speculations they put forth.

Considering all this, it probably would've been wiser to finish this series in its entirety before I started posting it. But if I did that, then I probably never would've finished it. The only reason I'm even finishing it now is probably because I've established a trend of uploading on Sundays that I refuse to allow myself to break, which moves me to finish entries in a timely manner.

All of this adds up to me being in the position where I'm posting piecemeal updates to a series that elicits interest from people I know, with them wanting to discuss it, while I have the urge to completely scorn their interest and not talk about the series at all. I do not know what the takeaway from this rambling diatribe is. Maybe that NHE is as wonderful as it is burdensome and I will be delighted when it is at last complete.

I've also become aware of the fact that at least one person reads these, which is pure, petrifying horror. But given that's the case, here is your reward for enduring such whinging as has just transpired: not counting this one, there are about ten more images planned in the series. Some are more suited to multiple panels and may wind up getting combined or split up, so that number is approximate, but I doubt it'll move below 9 or past 11.