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Welcome back, everyone! I've been posting pictures of cartoons from the internet that inspired and/or influenced my seven main characters. Anyone remember the cartoon show "Biker Mice from Mars" from Mars from the 1990's? When it first came out, I think I saw a few episodes, but I mostly saw commercials and the opening theme to the show, and I kind of thought it was a fun mutant thing like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but revisiting it as an adult, I find that's not the case. See, the 1980's cartoon show of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was still essentially action-oriented, but it was much more kid-friendly and less intense. These "Biker Mice" are tough and edgy to the point where I found it very hard to binge-watch their episodes on Youtube. Between their big muscles, their weaponized motorcycles, the way they live in an active baseball stadium, and the way they do so much destruction that they actually destroy their main enemy's tower home in every single episode, the show basically had more testosterone than a football game. And I don't often use the phrase "toxic masculinity", but these mice aren't a bunch of teenagers surfing and eating pizza, they're hardcore bikers who happened to like humanity enough to protect it from the evil (and surprisingly business oriented) forces of the alien Plutarkian empire. So, what does this have to do with Jack and Ruby? Well, basically, these guys are the toughest rodents I could think of while still maintaining hero status, and in order to be heroes in spite of one of them having a big, fluffy tail and the other one being covered in pink fur, I had to try and make Jack and Ruby as tough as possible. Jack kind of had more motivation than Ruby for toughening up, as his dad died when he was growing up, whereas Ruby's motivation is basically an anti-bullying thing where she remembers when she was small. Jack is the more tragic character between the two as even his devotion to justice is partly based on honor to his dead father, whereas Ruby wants justice out of an extension of her need to protect others. One thing I learned about The Biker Mice from Mars is that, in fighting to protect their own home planet, each of them lost something; one of them lost a piece of their face, another lost their eyes, but the most glaring example is the one who has a robotic arm because he lost his biological one! In that way, Jack, having lost his dad, may be closer to these guys, not to mention that none of these three main hero characters was a female (which adds to the toxic masculinity thing. I'm just sayin...). That said, I can totally picture Ruby turning "Biker Chick", by putting on a leather jacket and other biker gear, going to a bar, meeting these guys, and impressing them with her muscles. As far as ACTUALLY riding a motorcycle, I don't really know how that would work given how huge and fluffy a squirrel's tail is (I keep picturing it getting painfully stuck in the wheels), but maybe she could stick it under her leather jacket while riding? I donno. The Biker Mice' tails never seem to be a problem for them. Anyway, to sum all this up, I basically took inspiration from the Biker Mice from Mars to toughen up Jack and Ruby, though I needed other influences to tone them down to being less intense and better able to appeal to audiences. This isn't the last inspiration/influence I'll be listing, so stay tuned! And as always, thanks for clicking.

Description
Welcome back, everyone! I've been posting pictures of cartoons from the internet that inspired and/or influenced my seven main characters. Anyone remember the cartoon show "Biker Mice from Mars" from Mars from the 1990's? When it first came out, I think I saw a few episodes, but I mostly saw commercials and the opening theme to the show, and I kind of thought it was a fun mutant thing like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but revisiting it as an adult, I find that's not the case. See, the 1980's cartoon show of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was still essentially action-oriented, but it was much more kid-friendly and less intense. These "Biker Mice" are tough and edgy to the point where I found it very hard to binge-watch their episodes on Youtube. Between their big muscles, their weaponized motorcycles, the way they live in an active baseball stadium, and the way they do so much destruction that they actually destroy their main enemy's tower home in every single episode, the show basically had more testosterone than a football game. And I don't often use the phrase "toxic masculinity", but these mice aren't a bunch of teenagers surfing and eating pizza, they're hardcore bikers who happened to like humanity enough to protect it from the evil (and surprisingly business oriented) forces of the alien Plutarkian empire. So, what does this have to do with Jack and Ruby? Well, basically, these guys are the toughest rodents I could think of while still maintaining hero status, and in order to be heroes in spite of one of them having a big, fluffy tail and the other one being covered in pink fur, I had to try and make Jack and Ruby as tough as possible. Jack kind of had more motivation than Ruby for toughening up, as his dad died when he was growing up, whereas Ruby's motivation is basically an anti-bullying thing where she remembers when she was small. Jack is the more tragic character between the two as even his devotion to justice is partly based on honor to his dead father, whereas Ruby wants justice out of an extension of her need to protect others. One thing I learned about The Biker Mice from Mars is that, in fighting to protect their own home planet, each of them lost something; one of them lost a piece of their face, another lost their eyes, but the most glaring example is the one who has a robotic arm because he lost his biological one! In that way, Jack, having lost his dad, may be closer to these guys, not to mention that none of these three main hero characters was a female (which adds to the toxic masculinity thing. I'm just sayin...). That said, I can totally picture Ruby turning "Biker Chick", by putting on a leather jacket and other biker gear, going to a bar, meeting these guys, and impressing them with her muscles. As far as ACTUALLY riding a motorcycle, I don't really know how that would work given how huge and fluffy a squirrel's tail is (I keep picturing it getting painfully stuck in the wheels), but maybe she could stick it under her leather jacket while riding? I donno. The Biker Mice' tails never seem to be a problem for them. Anyway, to sum all this up, I basically took inspiration from the Biker Mice from Mars to toughen up Jack and Ruby, though I needed other influences to tone them down to being less intense and better able to appeal to audiences. This isn't the last inspiration/influence I'll be listing, so stay tuned! And as always, thanks for clicking.