YMMV / Katmandu

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • How heroic or pragmatic Liska really was? While many of her actions might be understandable considering the time in which she lived, and taking into account that she was first a slave and then became a war chief, one could deduce that Liska only worsened a conflict that had long existed between the Velites and Hoplites in such a way that it would last for two centuries, even if that was never her intention at any time. It should be noted that Liska preferred to use diplomacy over force, but even so many of her actions may be questionable when put at face value, and may have caused, at least until after her death, unnecessary suffering to many people, including her own descendants. The fact is finally touched in the final sub-arc when Liska herself blatantly stated she was the responsable of ending her own era and bringing another, much violent one by using firearms against Rakon and his warriors.
  • How true is what Leah tells her family about Liska? While no one can blame Leah for being wrong about some things about her ancestor, considering that she comes from a culture that values oral tradition, and that without going with the fact she is telling the story of a person who lived 200 years in the past, so many details could have been lost, it should be noted that everything Leah knows about her ancestor comes from Leah's and her family's point of view, and no one else's, at least as far as we know about Leah and her family, so it is likely that any negative aspects of Liska have been softened or even eliminated in order to show the latter in the most positive way possible, considering the role she may have played in the war between Velites and Hoplites lasting more than 200 years.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Rakon: For someone who was promised to be Liska's worst enemy and everyone expected their final duel to be a long, bloody battle, he barely did next to nothing, fighting-wise, as Quiet Bird, with a single blow, killed him, since he was stronger and bigger than him. This is was even lampshaded by the narrator, in this case the descendant of one of the warriors that participated in that battle, through this could be subverted later as while Rakon did died in combat, he still managed to get the last laugh at the end by asking his warriors to exact revenge if he died, and he managed to still get even with his hated enemy at the end, even if he didn't managed to destroy the Highland tribe at all.
  • What makes Rakon's case even more egregious, story-wise, is that, at the very end of the story, if we exclude his remaining followers who killed Liska and many people in the tribe, he has killed, at least on-screen, about zero people, despite the narrative state that Rakon has killed many warriors off-screen.
• Awesome Art: Regardless what you think about the story or its characters, what everyone agrees is the art of Katmandu, at least the one done by either Shawntae Howard, Terrie Smith and in less degree, Lisa Jennings, Michelle Light and Dr. COMET, is considered as one of the best done in the Furry Fandom.
• Continuity Lockout: Big time: You need to read the comic from the very beginning, since the whole plot goes to Anachronic Order starting issue 8 when Rial dies and any new reader who starts reading the comic in later issues may have trouble understanding the story when some characters, like the aforementioned Rial appear and dissapear from the plot. The fact there's a lot of unexplained events that happens in-story doesn't help matters on understanding the story.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: For any value of happy: While the Highland tribe survived the onslaught that befall on them no thanks to Rakon at the end of the story, the epilogue episode doesn't explain how they managed to survive without either Liska or any other kind of reasonable leadership. The only person that could replace her, hierarchy-wise, would be either Liska's wives, her children or any other surviving adult, with the additional caveat that from Liska's family, only Shaygin, Markree, Pyndan or very likely either Thea or Mela could be the most viable candidates for replacing her, except all of them had their own quirks that could had made them bad leaders, especially Shaygin, whose devotion to Liska reached almost sickening levels. It's really a miracle that Liska's family managed to survive to the modern era taking into account those points.
• Creator Worship: Curiously enough, this is not applied for the actual creator, Carole Curtis, but for two of the well-known artist who worked in the comic: Terrie Smith and her replacement, Shawntae Howard, since both artists are well-regarded in the fandom due to their particular shared style^note In fact, according with Howard, most of his actual drawing style took inspiration from Smith's style., to the grade that none of their respective replacements after Howard quit had the same respect or popularity compared with both of them.
• Fair for Its Day:
  • The whole premise of the comic seems to have aged a bit, especially on the somewhat stereotypical depiction of Native American cultures, even if the main characters are alien anthropomorphic felines and not Earth humans, and that without going with the depiction of the LGBT culture, most especially with characters like Shaygin, whose utter devotion towards Liska could raise some eyebrows since it brings in mind another negative stereotype regarding gay people, or trangender people like Wind Flower, as the comic used an outdated and now borderline offensive term, in this case "Berdache". On the other hand, however, Katmandu was at the time one of the few American comics starring an openly bisexual heroine (Liska) and whose sexual orientation is rarely treated as something negative or even something worth mentioning, except maybe as a lampshade or question , at least for her closer ones, while the only people with homophobic tendences, like Kebec, Flint and Rakon, for the most visible examples, are treated in-universe as giant douchebags who deserve all the hate from both the leads and also from the readers out-universe.
  • Likewise, Katmandu is one of the first comics depicting Native American or similar people when the local Natives aren't depicted exclusively as down-to-earth people. In fact, neither Liska or her descendant Leah aren't interested to keep their at-the-time status quo forever, for very obvious reasons, and this is outright stated at the very tail-end of the story, when their society is starting to slowly change, both for better and for worse.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: Liska's hair color during the first half of the story was a point of contention for many fans since she was supposely blonde in color pin-ups, but in the black and white art, she was originally depicted as brunette. According with the original explanation, the reason of the color dissonance was due to shading related with the lightning of some scenes, but this doesn't have any sense considering there's a lot of blond or white-haired characters whose hair are consistently depicted with light tones without any problems (Pyndan, Kress, Elishaa, Chief Pownetkee, etc) and sometimes, they appear in the same scene with Liska with their hair color unchanged, while she keeps her black hair. Possibly due to that, Liska returned to lighter hair tone starting with the "Ceremonies" sub-arc and remained so during the whole story.
• Fanfic Fuel: TONS of it. In fact, the author encouraged this:
  • As Leah's family is barely explained beyond the basics, some fanfics explore their daily lives and adventures outside Leah's retelling of Liska's life.
  • Since there's a lots of unexplained incidents in Liska's life, there's a lot of themes that can be explored; this is especially important considering there's many time skips in the story of her life, which helps any potential writer to fill the blanks.
  • While this was explored in some degree in side-stories, the fact the setting takes place in a distant planet away from Earth is enough fuel for the very common story of "human character who ends in the planet Katmandu by traveling in a spaceship" or any crossover character who also ends there by ship or other more or less fantastic methods. The same goes in reverse for the Katmandu's characters if they end up on Earth or any another world.
  • Anyone who didn't like how the ending turned out could simply either ignore it, or giving another one when either Liska had her final personal duel against Rakon, instead of Quiet Bird doing so in her place, and both dying in the process, or simply Liska surviving and having a normal and happy life afterwards.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Mainly with Shanda The Panda, on the grounds it was created by Mike Curtis, Carole Curtis' husband, and also because both comics were published by the same company, Shanda Fantasy Arts, and also both comics shared more or less the same artistic team.
  • It also shared similar fandoms with Albedo: Erma Felna EDF, mainly because his creator, Steve Gallacci, also did some side-stories for Katmandu and also because Albedo was published by SFA as well.
  • The same goes for Extinctioners, since Shawntae Howard, the creator behind it, worked on Katmandu in earlier issues. And just like the already mentioned comics, Extinctioners was also published by SFA. It also helps a lot that a small preview of Extinctioners appeared in issue #10.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • A meta-one: The whole "Curse of the Blood" sub-arc, when Liska endures a really harsh birth labor thanks to Pyndan's "curse", aka Rh incompatibility is really harsher to read if you know that Shawntae Howard, the artist who did that sub-arc, lost his firstborn child at 2020 in similar circunstances.
  • During the final duel between Quiet Bird and Rakon, the shaman outfit used by the former could be this if you know that it looks almost the same as the similar outfit used by Jake Angeli, aka the Q-Shaman, who participated in the assault against the Capitol at January 6th, 2021.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During the "The Hunt" sub-arc, the main characters had to face a Godzilla-like monster, just to end up facing the angry relative of the slain lizard, who ended being even more harder to beat. A couple of decades later, a similar event happens in a proper Godzilla film.
  • Likewise, the whole thing about primitive warriors trying to kill giant monsters with nothing more than spears, arrows and even firearms during that sub-arc is pretty hilarious by itself, considering there is a game series that allows you to do exactly that. Extra layer of hilarity that, in the Monster Hunter franchise, your human hunter can be followed by bipedal feline-like creatures named either Felynes or Palicos, depending of the game, while in this comic, the main characters are primitive humanoid felines.
  • In a Gallows Humor way, during the "When Warriors Die" sub-arc, Pyndan receives an arrow shot in both knees. Years later, there's a whole meme based about the same scenario that happens as an in-universe joke.
  • Likewise, in the "Wicked Ways" arc, Liska threatened Patches' father by turning hin into a feline pin cushion. Ironically enough, this is the way how she bited the dust in the final battle against Rakon.
  • Overlapping with Harsher in Hindsight as well, the side-story "Families", published in the Katmandu Annual #1, is also this, at least for Anime fans who had played or watched anything related with the Fate Series, especially Fate/stay night, and very especially, Saber, aka Artoria Pendragon's backstory, on regards with the origins of her daughter/clone Mordred: In short, just like Shaygin, Artoria's "wife" Guinevere wanted a heir, so in order to do so, Merlin turned Artoria into a pseudo-male so that she would be able to produce an heir, which backfired horribly, leading to Mordred's creation, compared with what happened here, when another male, in this case the female main character's brother (Markree) did the act on behalf of his sister, a privilege that Saber/Artoria didn't had at that time.
  • An even more hilarious one is the pin-up Crossover art named Katmandu vs Predator, when Liska kills a Predator by herself, and ready to fight against to two more of them. Cue to 2022, when there's Prey (2022), a Predator prequel that takes place in the 18th century America and starring a female Comanche warrior fighting a Predator.
• Heartwarming Moments: We are going to be brief, because the list is too big to fit here: Almost EVERY single moment involving Liska or Leah with their respective families, especially their most intimate ones.
• Ho Yay: Very downplayed: Despite the cast would be the furry wet dream for both fans of the Yaoi and Yuri genres, there's very few shipping between the males, partly because almosts all the males are related to each other in some degree or another by either kinship or blood relationships, and that without mention all the existing official Les Yay in the comic. The closest thing to this, through played for very dark laughs, was during the Tournament Arc, when Rial cannot avoid to mock Rakon due to his body full of scars and burns:
  Rial: I like your fur.
  Rakon: You do?
  Rial: Yes, it would look good on the wall of my lodge.
• I Am Not Shazam: Oddly enough, the planet Katmandu is never named as such at any time in-universe, except by both Word of God and by some minor characters in side-stories.
• Iron Woobie: Liska, full stop: While she rarely complained about the lifestyle imposed to her, it's not difficult to see, especially at the very end, that she was a very traumatized woman, who was forced since she was a teenager to live in a life of violence and death against her will, first as a slave, and lately as a warrior, with all the obligations that the title imposed to her, mostly to protect her family and tribe from an even more uncaring world, who wanted to destroy her for being at least a decent person and also because of her own sexuality. As a result, Liska is forced to give up gradually her own identity as a woman and embrace more a male warrior image, through she never completely renounced her femininity, basically switching from one kind of physical slavery to another, different one, and finally she is forced to sacrifice her life, in order to protect every that was dear for her, to redeem herself from her past failures and also to fulfill her final fate as a warrior: to die alone and in pain in battle. The only thing that prevented Liska's life from becoming a true nightmare for her is the love she gave and received from all her closest ones, especially from Rial, Shaygin and her own children.
• LGBT Fanbase: The comic is a rather odd case regarding this. At its time, most of its fanbase were heterosexual viewers, and it caused some problems afterwards when Liska's sexual orientation started to grind some gears along some of their more conservative viewership. As a result, it's heavily implied that Quiet Bird was created in order to quell some of the criticism about having a lesbian protagonist. Nowadays, however, Katmandu is notorious for having many gay and lesbian fans who enjoy having a lesbian protagonist as the lead.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Averted like hell, as both Rial and, later on, Liska ended up dying in battle.
• Memetic Mutation: Somewhat, but at least at the time of the comic was published, the whole thing about Leah telling stories about Liska when a member of her family need some kind of advice to solve any problem they facing in that moment was as memetic in its time as "I must consult with the Elder Gods".
• Moe:
  • Basically, EVERY single kitten character that appears, including the main leads as kids.
  • From the adult side, both Shaygin and Wind Flower are adorable in their own particular ways, especially in the case of the former when she was in her twenties.
• Moral Event Horizon: Rakon already crossed it when he gave a Forced Kiss to Shaygin in "The Peacemaker" sub-arc, but he definitively goes beyond it when he tried to rape Liska after the latter defeated him in the tribal games.
• Narm:
  • At the end of issue No. 12, both Liska and Pyndan were talking each other using an even more archaic speech than they normally use in-universe when the former received the latter in her teepee after Liska gave birth to his kittens. Bizarrely enough, neither of them used that speech anymore afterwards.
  • Many of Shaygin's scenes each time when Liska is gone away for any reason, especially in earlier issues.
  • The cover of issue No. 36 when both Liska and Rakon were designed using CG graphics. Creepy is not enough to describe that cover; the contents of that issue are not better either, especially with regards with Quiet Bird's battle uniform as he looks more like a bizarre mix between Rambo and one of the Kiba Daioh's children from Fist of the North Star.
• Nightmare Fuel: The comic has its own share of scary, creepy or disturbing imagery:
  • In the penultimate page of the epilogue episode "The End of a Tail", both the readers and the museum visitants see a diorama showing Liska's Last Stand, and it's not pretty at all, since it's shows in a very graphical detail how she died; the fact this final issue was drawn by Shawntae Howard, a long time artist of the comic until issue 21, and his art style became more detailed, feral and less Animesque than in his previous years doesn't help matters at all.
  • The entirety of "The Witch of the Woods" sub-arc is a pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel for many reasons: As if the art style used in that issue wasn't unsettling enough, there's the titular witch, a butt-ugly, naked, Ratkind old woman who wants to kill anyone invading her home with extreme prejudice, and there's also Klikatat, a love letter from Japanese horror films like The Ring or Ju On.
• Not So Crazy Anymore: More than Not So Unusual Anymore in this case: Many readers found the strange prose used by the Native characters from Liska's era very weird at first, especially regarding the use of unusual forms of honorific speech between siblings, like adressing your younger brother or sister as "little brother or sister", something that was normally reserved for Translation Convention in literature involving East Asians. For more modern readers, however, especially those who grew watching either Anime, Manga or either Korean or Chinese media, that doesn't sound weirder as it used to be in the 1990s anymore.^note See Korean Sibling Terminology, Chinese Sibling Terminology and Japanese Sibling Terminology for more details.
• Older Than They Think: Katmandu is not the first comic featuring Native American-like people fighting against dinosaurs and other anachronic stuff; that goes for Turok, which debuted at 1954, while its modern incarnation that most people know debuted at 1992, one year before Katmandu, and the videogames based in the franchise debuted at 1997 on the Nintendo 64.
• Quirky Work: The premise of the story is quite bizarre if you think about it: In a planet full of anthro cats, a mother, living in a pseudo-Middle East society, tells the tale of her ancestor and her loved ones, who used to live in a Native American-like culture with some elements of the Samurai ethos, and that beside the anthros, there's also dinosaurs, monsters, and, if we include the alternative continuities and non-canon side-stories, demons, gods, aliens, humans and even cyborgs. Oh, and lots of both hetero and homosexual sex.
• Rewatch Bonus: Reading the whole story from the beginning to the very end, including the Distant Finale, will give you a very tear-jerking perspective of the whole story, since watching the main protagonist to grow from a lowly slave to a mighty warrior will make you quickly sympathize with Liska and her life, making her ultimate death very hard to swallow for many, even if it was already foreshadowed in the story.
• Spiritual Antithesis:
  • Curiously enough, from its companion sister title Shanda The Panda, which was created by Carole Curtis' husband Mike. Both comics features strong female protagonists and also features both romance and drama as their main draws, and both feature explicit sex scenes. The main difference, however, is that, while Shanda The Panda is basically a Slice of Life story which takes place in a modern setting, more accurately in an alternate version of out planet Earth, Katmandu takes place in an alien planet far away from Earth, and the setting takes place in a distant past, and that without going into the point the story is much action-oriented, and also much more violent than Shanda. Their respective endings cannot also be different as well: While Shanda The Panda ended in an almost unambiguous Happy Ending, Katmandu ended in with a very soul-crushing ending for her main protagonist.
  • Likewise, Katmandu can be seen as both the spiritual predecessor, and also antithesis, of the Avatar franchise, as both franchises deal with primive Native-like people with feline features living in an alien planet far away from Earth; the similarity is more uncanny in the Alternative Continuity Alternate Worlds of Katmandu, even if both stories follow the same kind of plot device in a way. But this is when the similarities ends: The feline people of Katmandu are based on real-life feline breeds and races, while the Na'vi of Pandora are idealized versions of an alien civilization living in harmony with a sentient natural world. The world of Katmandu, while also emphasizing harmony with nature, the world itself, outside having some odd fauna based on dinosaurs and mix-and match versions of past and current Earth animals, is more grounded in reality, with its inhabitants exhibiting the same flaws as humans and the planet facing issues like slavery, rape, and genocide. In contrast, the dangers of Pandora for humans come from the toxic nature of the planet and its unfriendly fauna.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • More than spiritual predecessor here: The whole story has very uncanny similarity with Memoirs of a Geisha, as both stories deal with a woman telling a story that serves as a Framing Device about a character who was Made a Slave (Liska in Katmandu and Sayuri in Memoirs) and how both women overcame all their obstacles imposed by both their respective societies and their social status in order to reach greatness by their own means. The main difference here is the fact that, while in Memoirs of a Geisha the whole story is told from the perspective of a very old Sayuri to a foreign reporter, in Katmandu the whole plot is told from the POV of Leahtrah, who is Liska's descendant, to her children and husband.^note  This also extend to the characters as well: Besides Leah (and by default, her ancestor Liska) being the Katmandu equivalents to Sayuri, there's Rial, who is basically a feline Nobu, Markree (Liska's brother) to Sayuri's sister Satsu, Pyndan to a gender-bent Mameha in a warped way, Kebec to Hatsumomo, and Mother Sanna to both Sayuri's Mother and Granny, the owners of her okiya.
  • Likewise, the comic could be a spiritual predecessor of sorts of Millennium Actress, as just like Memoirs of a Geisha, both stories deals with women tell to another people tales about their, or their ancestors' pasts. The main difference, however, is that Chiyoko Fujiwara, the protagonist of the anime film, didn't had a very crappy life compared with either Liska or Sayuri. Also while both leads die, their deaths are also different, as Liska died in combat, while Chiyoko died in an earthquake.
  • In the same vein, the comic could be this for Utawarerumono as both franchises take place in a world full of Native-like beings, both mirroring the ancient cultures from their creators' countries (American Sioux in Katmandu and the Japanese Ainu in Utawarerumono), both having leads who are outsiders and became leaders by sheer charisma and bravery (Liska and Hakuowlo respectively) and having similar character dynamics. The main difference, however, lies that the world of Utawarerumono is much technologically advanced than the one from Katmandu and the fact that, in Utawarerumono, many of the characters are humans with animal features, while in Katmandu the characters are anthropomorphic felines and rodents, and finally, while Katmandu takes place in an alien planet far away from Earth, Utawarerumono takes place in a apocalyptic Earth instead.
  • The comic could be also considered as a spiritual predecessor of Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, and in some degree, Onyx Equinox, being action series dealing with ancient cultures from the same time period, and when magic is used in constant basis.
  • The comic also many successors by its own:
    • Extinctioners, which features a similar setting, but with super heroes, in a futuristic world, and with other animal species (and humans) besides cats, mice, rats and lizards. It helps a lot the comic was created by Shawntae Howard, one of the former members of the artistic team behind Katmandu.
    • The Webcomic The Depths, which is basically Katmandu with otters (and other species) instead of cats, and being set in the Pacific Islands, rather than Precolumbine North America. In fact, the author of the webcomic outright stated he took inspiration of this comic for the setting and the characters.
    • A more straight example would be another webcomic named Tribe of Shawri (Warning: Erotic art), which also features alien tribal felines (and other species) in a fantasy setting. In fact, the two main characters, Amari Shawri and Kano Mandagora, had an uncanny look to both Liska and Rakon, up to their physical looks (Amari to Liska, since she is also a blonde tabby feline, being the sole difference that Amari is a ligress, a lion/tiger hybrid, while Kano shares with Rakon the fact he is also a lion, except that, unlike Rakon, he is a pure-blooded lion, rather than a hybrid like his Katmandu's counterpart, as well than Kano has dark fur, compared with Rakon, who had light gold fur. The main difference here is that, while Liska and Rakon are mortal enemies, Amari and Kano are in love, but they are forced to live in separated ways due to their clans being mutual enemies, making their relationship more akin to Romeo and Juliet.
    • While probably not intentional, Warrior Cats is very similar in premise and plot, not to mention their leads (Liska and Firestar respectively) are even very similar in looks, outside one being female and the other male, and the former stars anthros, while the latter are feral cats.
    • Another Webcomic, Companion (Warning: Erotic art), can be described as Katmandu meets The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as it features tribal feline (and also canine) characters in a fantasy world, along with humans, and features a similar premise. Curiously enough, the author said he hadn't read Katmandu before, through he and Shawntae Howard, Katmandu's previous artist and one of the most well-known ones, has drawn fan-art of the webcomic and both artists are followers of their respective artworks.
  • In a more straighter example, the comic could be a Hotter and Sexier version of Ewoks, as both stories deal with furry primitive alien beings, through Katmandu is based in Native American cultures, while Ewoks took inspiration in jungle-based cultures, like the ones from South America, Asia and Africa. Also, there's many characters from Ewoks who have a clear equivalents in Katmandu.^note Liska and Rial to Wicket, Pyndan to Kneesaa, Panka to Malani, Mother Sanna to Master Logray, Chief Pownetkee to Chief Chirpa, Wissa to Teebo, Thea (and Kebec) to Latara, and in some degree, Hesta to Asha.
• Squick:
  • The side-story "Families", published in the Katmandu Annual #1, is basically this, and also combines this with Tear Jerker and Heartwarming Moments at the same time: The whole point of this story is to explain how Liska managed to make Shaygin pregnant, despite both being women. While in issue #7 was explained that Markree, Liska's younger brother, collaborated on the reproductive part, the side-story showed the whole event in a very explicit manner. The squick part came in many levels, if we consider the events that happened in "The Peacemaker" sub-arc, which happened years earlier in-universe.^note  The story seems to imply, though not in a definitive way, that the relationship between Liska and Markree is more than just siblings, a fact that isn't helped that at the end of both siblings finishing their turns on having sex with Shaygin, they ended up naked together, covering themselves with just towels and acting very affectionate to each other; this is more notorious during "The Peacemaker" sub-arc, when the latter's behavior with Rial, who was his sister's mate at the time, was more like that of a guy having his girlfriend being stolen by another romantic rival under his own nose, rather than a younger brother who wanted to exact revenge on Rial for kidnapping his sister when they were both preteens.
  • In issue 7, when Hesta appears for the first time and after Liska invites her to her teepee, the former took off her moccasins inside the latter's home, much to the hidden disgust of Shaygin.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The continous Art Shift the comic had suffered along the years was one of the main points of contention between fans, especially when the shift happened mid-story. This is especially notable when someone else other than Terrie Smith, Shawntae Howard, or in less degree, Lisa Jennings, had done the art.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Some people, especially in later issues, had outright accused Katmandu of being a rip-off of ElfQuest, due to having a similar premise, except replace medieval elves with Native American-lookin cats. Judging by the tone of the answer given by the author, Carole Curtis, that accusation became a Berserk Button for her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Oh, boy, where to begin:
  • The Middlesmith-Leonius family in their timeline probably get the worst of this, since basically their role in the story is being the Framing Device of Liska's story, despite them having interesting personalities on their own, mainly Leah, Thorin and, above all, Loanzah, the eldest of their children and probably being very similar to Liska on personality, except having a more violent streak. At the end of their own stories, they're barely developed, beyond the basics.
  • Many of the members of the Highland tribe are barely developed beyond some basic points. This could be understandable, considering the already large cast and the fact the comic ended in a rather abrupt way, forcing the author to concentrate the heart of the plot on either Liska, Shaygin, their children, Pyndan, Rial, Hesta and Mother Sanna, leaving anyone else Out of Focus; this got worse starting with the "Ceremonies" sub-arc, when many characters from Liska's family simply dissapear from the plot, and this gets even worse when Quiet Bird appears, because all the family-based narrative is geared toward him, despite being adopted by Liska, and not blood-related to her, to boot, or even being a Velite like her, to the degree that not only are none of the remaining children mentioned anymore, with the sole exception of Linna, he also killed Rakon, his mother's worst enemy, despite the earlier narrative stated she and Rakon would face themselves in a bloody personal battle, but he also saved the tribe by warning the remaining warriors who went to hunt about the assault the tribe was suffering at that time from Rakon's loyalist forces.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Liska is a rather odd case regarding this. By both Word of God (Carol Curtis) and Word of Saint Paul (Shawntae Howard), she is considered bisexual by them, but some viewers can interpret her as a trans man since she is addressed with male terms by her family and the rest of the members of the Highland tribe. However, Liska doesn't consider herself as a trans person or anything resembling one in that context; part of the reason why everyone address her in male terms was because the tribal rules forbid women to be either warriors or chiefs, so she had to renounce her right to be addressed as female in order to be considered as a warrior. This is not applicable outside her realms of warfare or politics, as Liska considered herself as a female in the privacy of her home, except when Shaygin's children addressed her as a male, through her other children does otherwise.
• Values Dissonance: The premise of the comic has not aged well in many areas, even if the author did everything in her power to depict the main characters in a positive light.
  • For starters, the characters being depicted as stereotypical Native Americans, even if they are technically alien beings with no ties to Earth whatsoever, would grind gears for some readers, especially in the U.S.
  • The depiction of LGBT culture, while positive, had some flaws: there's Shaygin, who is depicted with many of the most negative, stereotypical traits. And there's Wind Flower, a male-to-female Transgender character, who, while also depicted positively, is normally addressed as male, something which wouldn't fly with modern audiences. He is also called a Berdache, an outdated and now considered offensive term for an LGBT Native American?
  • There's an unholy amount of old-fashioned racism against characters with black fur (Rial, and to some degree, Giles), through to be fair, there's also racism against people with very white fur, like Pyndan. And for obvious reasons, there's also homophobic behavior against both Liska and Shaygin.
  • And finally, there is the ending of the story, when Liska, the bisexual, later full lesbian, protagonist of the story, dies in very brutal fashion at the hands of the followers from the very homophobic Rakon, something which many modern readers wouldn't find acceptable anymore.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Just like many furry comics from its time, and considering the art style used in the first 24 issues, at least the Terrie Smith and Shawntae Howard ones, one could think this is another comic with cute cats as main protagonists. The whole story has hardcore depictions of sex, violence, homophobia, slavery, profanity (at first) and racism. In fact, the comic has always warned the readers that it was a adults-only title since day one.

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