My name is James Rook, and I'm a wanted man. 800 dollars, dead or alive. To be completely honest with you... this ain't where I expected life to take me. As to how it happened, well – a few years ago, my main career option was a position as secretary to a certain steel magnate. He's the one on my back. 'Getaway vehicle' was NOT in the job description.
— Rook, opening narration
A webcomic by Tumblr user starlock
, Hotblood!, a webcomic with centaurs set in The Wild West, follows the tale of James Rook, a US civil war veteran centaur, and Asa Langley, steel industry icon and Rook's employer.
Hotblood! contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Rook and Asa, oddly enough. They were originally the villains to a more wholesome set of heroes, but the dynamic between the heroes was boring compared to the villains', and the original heroes were eventually set aside.
- All There in the Manual: The behind-the-scenes blog regularly mentions bits of world-building info.
- Alternate History: Some historical figures have been replaced with centaurs with equivalent roles.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Human/centaur and centaur/horse relations are frowned upon.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: They have a culture and set of norms of their own, though where humans and centaurs live side-by-side, the centaurs may copy some of the behaviour of humans.
- Fantastic Arousal: The horse chest, withers, where their (human) hips would be, and backs/shoulders/necks are more sensitive in centaurs.
- Fantastic Racism: Human-versus-centaur racism does exist.
- Fantastic Slurs: “ape,” “hoofless,” “soft-footed” and “monkey” get thrown around from centaurs to humans, in addition to references to, ahem, anatomy.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Averted. If conception is even achieved in the first place, there are plenty of birth defects and complications that complicate matters.
- The Hedonist: Asa aims to be rich so he can live in luxury. His other long-term plans? Well, uh...
- Interspecies Romance: Eventually for Rook and Asa. However, these are generally frowned upon, for... various reasons. (Not to mention in this case, Politically Correct History is averted, with homosexual relationships frowned upon.)
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Values Dissonance: Rook was born the son of a slaveowner, and never questioned it growing up. He's more conflicted about it now, but still racist (to the point where Asa needs to call him out on it). Asa, meanwhile, does not approve of slavery... but mostly because he can't stand the idea of people's liberty taken away from them, not out of morality. - Villain Protagonist: Asa and Rook are not entirely good people.
