Off White
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"In every kind exists two guardians - a white and a black spirit which not only keep the balance in their own species but also in the whole world by fulfilling tasks given to them at the beginning of time." |
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OFF-WHITE is a fantasy webcomic by Anna Podedworna and Katarzyna Redesiuk. The world in which the story takes place is a mixture of interpreted Norse Mythology and original ideas. The comic revolves around a pack of wolves led by their alpha to meet a mysterious sage, who will decide the destiny of the youngest member of the group, Iki.
In this world, among all living beings is a White Spirit and a Black Spirit. Their purpose is to keep the balance between the other spirits of their species. The humans of this world have lost their White Spirit and are now seeking the wolves' as a replacement, after trying various other animals, which all ended in failure. Albert and Seven are the agents sent to track the wolves and capture the White Spirit.
Tropes used in Off White include:
- Adorkable: Clumsy Iki, depending on who you're talking to.
- After the End
- Art Evolution: And how! Just compare this and this.
- Art Shift:
- Big Badass Wolf: Pretty much all of the wolves, except maybe Iki.
- Big Eater: Iki
- Big No: Gebo.
- Bizarre Seasons: The winter has lasted for over three centuries for some unexplained reason.
- Body Swap: The humans want to transfer the white spirit wolf's spirit into a human body to bring back the balance that was lost when the human white spirit disappeared. It must be a wolf because the only thing they have to go by is an old legend that pairs wolves and man together as being created at the same time.
- Bratty Half-Pint: A brown wolf pup that bites Jera's ear.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: White spirits have Occult Blue Eyes, while dark spirits have red.
- Elemental Powers: The White Snow Leopard Spirt summoned a storm on a whim.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: Gebo and Kaya both stumble upon this.
- Fantastic Racism: A snow leopard refers to humans as "wretched apes." Also some of the humans really don't like wolves.
- Finger Wag: Albert does this with both hands at some hunters that were threatening him and Seven.
- First-Name Basis: Iki with his adoptive mother.
- Freudian Excuse: She's not a villain, but the tragic death of most of her litter is at least partly to blame for Jera's attitude.
- Glowing Eyes: All the Black/White Spirits.
- Good Colours Evil Colours: Subverted. The black and white spirits seem neither good, nor evil, and are not always completely white or black (Iki, the suspected white spirit wolf, is a grey wolf, and a white spirit Raven is black).
- Happily Adopted: Iki is shown to be adopted in the first 20 or so pages.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Jera.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: Gebo, upon seeing a human with a gun on a horse, interprets this as a two headed elk with a voice like thunder.
- Identical Stranger: A wolf pelt that looks like Iki except with orange eyes.
- If I Were A Rich Woman: Seven does this.
- Infant Immortality: Averted when Gebo returns home to find that his entire pack has been shot by humans, and even the puppies are dead.
- Largely Normal Animals
- Light Is Not Good: The white spirit snow leopard is very...malevolently territorial at the very least.
- The Load: Iki is a Big Eater that is bad at hunting, is clumsy, and slow.
- Mood Whiplash: It abruptly gos from a shocking and sad scene of a entire pack deadto a humorous scene with Seven. Not that long after we have the Narm of Kaya's magnificent eyelashes immediately followed by Kaya finding her entire pack dead. On Deviant ART, this is make worse by the author posting a Self Parodying Take That Me image right under the page.
- Norse Mythology: Some of the story is based on Norse myths.
- Occult Blue Eyes: Iki, Munin and the white snow leopard spirit. See also Color-Coded for Your Convenience, above.
- Our Souls Are Different: All spirits are shades of gray, except that each species has a single White Spirit and Black Spirit to keep the balance between the other spirits. The White and Black Spirits at least can be Reincarnated and even the bugs have souls.
- Panthera Awesome/Cats Are Mean : A snow leopard causes trouble for a group of sledders, looking awesome and badass while doing so.
- Pointless Band-Aid: Seven has one across her nose.
- Locked in a Freezer: The snow leopard caused an avalanche or something that trapped the sledders in.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Iki doesn't know he's a white spirit. Raigho started to tell him, but was interrupted.
- No Party Like a Donner Party /Eat the Dog/What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The sledders had to resort to eating the dogs. Considering in this world the dogs are intelligent...
- Ravens and Crows: Ravens are the minions of the dark wolf spirit.
- Reincarnation: The black spirits and white spirits are this.
- Retcon:
- Starfire's name was changed to Othala because they realized that "Starfire" didn't fit the naming style.
- Raigho's markings changed slightly. This creates slight continuity errors.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The entire pack from chapter 2. Yes, even the puppies.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Fehu, Jera and more derive from the old Runic alphabet.
- Secret Legacy: Iki.
- Seldom-Seen Species: The pack is shown hunting a chamois. This might be the one and only time you'll ever see one in any fiction whatsoever.
- The Quiet One: Isa.
- Through a Face Full of Fur: Iki, when approached by Kaya, blushes twice!
- Scars Are Forever: Jera never lost the scar she got from a playful puppy bite.
- Scenery Porn
- Shout-Out:
- Iki at one point hopes that there are no woozles or werebadgers around. Jera asks him if he's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.
- During one of Sevens If I Were A Rich Woman daydreams, The Black Blood Alliance and Spider-Man comics can be seen.
- Shrinking Violet: Gebo, the white wolf.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Downplayed: Kaya slept through the slaughtering of her pack.
- Stern Chase: The pack is being chased by humans.
- Sweat Drop: Raigho, in response to Iki's Growling Gut.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Kaya, the female wolf Iki takes a liking to, has eyelashes. Very ugly eyelashes. Even the co-author doesn't like them. Thankfully they are only visible in closeups.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Black Wolf Spirit. Good or Bad? We haven't seen enough to know.
- Walking the Earth
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Said word for word by Seven's father.
- Wicked Stepmother: Jera and her love for singling out Iki.
- You Are Number Seven: Though it's not for dehumanizing purposes. She just hated her real name.