“Crows are watching” was an early project featuring dog characters. I started it when I was a teenager. This is more of an archive and a critical look at my early creative endeavors than a serious project I am working on.

The ideas were all over the place, and the “drafts” were not as cleanly cut as I will try to make them here.

While I did not really explore these topics, I want to give a quick content warning for topics such as cannibalism, drug abuse, hallucinations and starvation

The first draft:

Fuanbit (later Emil) is the adopted son of Juhide (later Richard). Their relationship starts seemingly wholesome but is later rooted in a deep co-dependency. Fuanbit is the hunter and Richard the protector. Fuanbit discovers that Juhide has not been able to hunt for himself but was bringing back dog meat instead. When Fuanbit tried to leave, Juhide threatened him by assuring him that without Fuanbit, he would have to resort to cannibalism again.

I think Fuanbit kills Juhide at the end of that "draft," but I am unsure if I ever thought beyond the concept of co-dependency and cannibalism.

The second draft:

Fuanbit is caught between the messy affairs of two packs, Juhides and his rival, Suneke (later Walter), a new character who was never really explored in this version. Both packs go to an extreme; Juhide's pack is cannibalistic, and Suneke's pack is religiously fasting to the point of starving themselves. Both Juhide and Suneke had tragic backstories in this version:
Richard came from an abusive family where his sister died quite young. I think that he and his brother ate her in desperation. He is terrorized by hallucinations of her that he himself seeks out by consuming magic mushrooms.
Suneke lost his daughter to Juhide and wants to kill him in revenge. The death of his daughter Anrail (later Eve) also caused him to separate from his mate, Sekkotiem (later Laura).
Fuanbit is tasked with bringing them both down in some way. I think there was a second part where he became the leader of the now-united pack who had to deal with the fallout. It ended with him running away from the packs because it was just that dysfunctional. I distinctly remember that I thought of this as a geniously realistic end to the story.

I don’t recall much more, but I do remember that Shin Megami Tensei IV had a big influence on it. It was messy and half-baked.

Thankfully, I completely ditched Juhides' magic mushroom use in the last version. I do not know why I wanted to include drugs back then, but I vividly remember doing research on shrooms while using the incognito mode. However, a teenager going through some Wikipedia pages would most likely not have been able to create a respectful representation of such a complex and touchy subject.
So good on me for recognizing that.

The third and last draft:

Emil (formerly Fuanbit) was born into Walter's (formerly Suneke’s) pack and kidnapped as an infant by Richard (formerly Juhide). Every time it got misty, anyone of Walter's pack that was not hidden in a den vanished, presumably taken by the "Diren," the religious figures of his religion. The truth was far less mystical. Richards pack, still cannibals, killed these dogs. But Emil was lucky, and when he wandered out of his den, Richard took pity on him and raised him with his second in command, Bullet, instead. Outwardly, Richard and Walter were enemies, confronting each other and being at a seemingly all-out war.

The truth, however, was a pact between the two of them, created in their youth. They grew up together, Walter as the son of the former leader, and Richard later joined as an outsider. Walter was overwhelmed by the demands Father laid on him, and Richard was the only one who did not see him as the future leader but as a dog his age. Walter eventually fell in love with an outsider, Laura (formerly Sekkotiem), but his father forbade a relationship and put more pressure on him until he finally broke. Richard saw his friend suffer and approached him with a simple plan: kill Walters' father so he would finally be free of the expectations. Walter refused at first, but eventually he had enough. After the murder, Walter realizes that this was doomed to fail; the moment the pack would investigate, it would be exposed. So he asks Richard for a big favour: he takes the blame and gets exiled. Richard reluctantly agrees to this.

Walter tries to use this to bring the pack together, but it's extremely unstable after the sudden murder, only being held together by a religion surrounding the "Direns." He approaches his old friend again. Richard, in the meantime, built a small pack around him, consisting of strays, abandoned dogs, and other renegades. However, the lack of food is making all of them weak. Both of them decided that they would work together; Walter deliberately isolated doubters of his, and Richard picked them off when it became misty enough to not be seen. This resulted in a more united pack for Walter and food for Richard's pack.
When other packmates discovered Richard and his pack, they started to stage the war.

Emil somehow stumbled over isolated members of Walter's pack. They involved his biological mother, I think, and he was recognized as the lost pup. He was too young to remember how he ended up with Richard and ended up between the worlds, visiting his birth pack behind Richard's back. There, he met Galen, Walter's son, who recently lost his sister to the “Direns” and didn’t accept that. Something about it was fishy to him. The two of them discovered that she was close to finding out the truth of the "Direns," so Walter and Richard murdered her. They convinced their respective packs that the war is nothing worth fighting for, and both Richard and Walter ended up executed.

Emil and Galen tried to fix things in the second part, and I believe that Emil decided that for the pack to work, it needed something to be against to stop the infighting. I do not remember how, but Emil pretended to become a tyrant to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Galen ends up as the new leader at the end.
It was very much influenced by the end of Code Geass, which is funny. I cancelled the show in the second season and only saw the end in isolation. I don’t know why this idea manifested so much and if it even reflects the actual ending of the show.

Generally, this was the draft with the most thought behind it; however, it was an amalgamation of ideas that never led anywhere.

Characters:

Fuanbit/ Emil:

“Fuanbit” was a combination of the Japanese word for “fear” and the end of "rabbit." In German, it was a play on the word "Angsthase," meaning coward. That is also where his long ears and, in early art, short tail come from.
I later decided against these Japanese/other language names and instead went with German ones. Emil came from “Emil und die Detektive” (Emil and the Detectives) because I wanted his name to be a subtle nod to a detective novel, and Sherlock would not have been very subtle. I did not know many other detectives, it seems.
As his earlier name suggests, he was planned to be a cowardly protagonist who grew over the course of the story until he became brave enough to confront the antagonist(s) in the way the story was meant to go, which varied.

The only thing that carries over from the first draft is his father/son relationship with Richard.
He had no real personality in this version, I think.

His second appearance was messier.
Emil was supposed to represent the neutral route of an SMT game, but that was all he was in this draft. I didn’t do him any favors by planning for him to run away by the end of the story.

The last version used the name Emil. Here, he became a harrier.
He never gained much of a personality, no matter the draft. The planned end for him was nonsense too. If I ever start this project again, Emil might change a lot. I don’t think I ever really liked him as a character and much rather saw him as a vehicle to explore the story with. My favorite characters were very much Richard and Walter; Emil just happened to be the protagonist.

Juhide/Richard:

I do not remember what his first name meant, only that the last letters came from "Rinde," meaning bark in German. His stripes were a nod to the structure of bark, too. The name Richard has no further meaning.
He really was the backbone of every version of this story. And also always a cannibal; please don’t ask me why.

At his very first character sheet, I wrote down that he would do anything to survive. That was his whole personality in the first version, I think.

In the second draft, he was quite a lot. He got a family that was only there to die or be abusive. I did create his brother but can’t find his name anymore. However, I do remember it being a play on the word "roly poly" in some language. His sister was called Hikiru; I can’t remember where that came from, but she was the hallucination demon I wanted to draw at that time.
In the SMT influence I had, he was representing the chaos route

The third draft was the most interesting version of him. There were a few drawings of him as a great dane, but he ended up becoming a doggo de presa to keep the stripes and because I liked the body more.
His relationship with Walter as well as with Bullet was one of the things I put the most energy in.
I might want to add that Bullet was not really relevant in the story, but she was his second in command and knew about the pact. Her loyalty led to an early death as she sacrificed herself in a fight to protect the secret of the war being staged. She and Richard were not romantically involved, if you are wondering, but she was the second parental figure to Emil. Richard was not the one deciding the plans but the one who executed them most of the time, being the brawn to Walter's brain. I also planned him to be the charismatic one between the two of them.

Suneke/Walter:

The first name was an amalgamation of the Japanese word for “snake” and some languages' words for "eye." “Walter” came directly from SMT IV.

If he existed in the first draft, he was just one of the many dogs who lost someone to Richard. Emil might have considered reaching out to him but didn’t.

In the second draft, he was just the parallel to the order route. The only other things he had going for him were a dead daughter and a separated mate. A split-up that happened in every version and was always amicable with mutual agreement. They always just don’t fit together but stay friendly.

Walter only got some definition in the third version. Here, he became a greyhound.
He was planned to be a smart but utterly uncharismatic character. This was part of the problem he had to keep his pack together. He was never a natural leader and was only put in that position because of tradition. During the exile, Richard and Walter staged a physical confrontation where Walter lost an eye. He claimed to see the “Diren” with his empty socket to gain some trust as a leader.
As a father, he was clumsily trying his best. At first, he trained Eve, his daughter, to step up as the future leader while Galen, his son, showed little interest in this role. When she died, Galen was forced into it, and Walter saw himself in his son. He tried to make Galen understand that no matter how little he wanted to step up, it was for the greater good. And when Galen came out as gay to him, he accepted his son with no second thought but had to tell him that he would have to produce an heir despite that and that he had to keep this a secret to the pack.
His romance with Laura ended earlier in this draft; her lifestyle was just not compatible with the rigid traditions of the pack. After killing Eve, he never forgave himself.

Sekkotiem/ Laura:

Her name came from “Snowberry” in some language, I want to say japanese, and “tiempo”, as in time in spanish. So snowberry time, because I associated snowberries and especially the noise they make when stepped on, with my childhood. Funnily, Laura is a name that comes from a plant as well, but I can not remember if I even knew that when changing her name.

She only existed since the second draft and she was Walters ex- partner. At that time, I associated her with wanderlust for the most part, she was someone who never stayed at on place for long. She split up with Walter after they lost their only child (Galen did not exist yet). I think they were falling apart before, the death was just the last nail in the coffin- though I never choose for them to be bitter with their relationship ending. The both of them were just not compatible with each other for a long time, being too different in their attitudes and goals.

In the third draft, she became an australian shepherd.
Again, she is the former mate of Walter, this time they separated earlier because she could not stand the ridgid structure of the pack. Her children often visited her, Galen even used to mostly live with her before Eve died. After that happens, she mourns but moves on after a while. Her grief never seemed very visable to anyone but the ones who truly knew her.
Her role was that of an adviser, someone who has seen a lot more than Emil and Galen had. She was also the only character outside of the madness of the packs. If I ever revisit the story, I would like to do more with her. She was the only character who was never meant to meet a grim end. Actually, I feel like she was the only one who was always wholesome. But sadly, I never utilized her in any interesting way.

Bullet:

Bullet was a guard dog before joining Richard. Her name was just one that I thought a dog like her might have. She was a red doberman with a heart disease.

She was the loyal watchdog of an olderly fisherman. His son got her for himself but quickly recognized that she was not suitable because of her impidet stamina. So he asked his father if he wanted to keep her and got a new dog. Bullet never understood why she got a new owner, but she liked the new one more, anyways. She was well cared for by him, but he died and his son never picked her up afterwards. So she kept guarding the house, not knowing what else to do.
Richard showed up soon after and while she would not let him anywhere near the house, they talked. When she got hungry, he would bring food. It took quite a while, but Richard was able to convince her that guarding an empty home was not bringing her old keeper back. She joined him as the first member of his new pack and was unwaveringly loyal to him, no matter how often he told her that he did not want her as a subordinate but an equal friend. She helped raise Emil as a strict but loving mother.
Her death was on her own terms, she staged a suicide mission on her own to escallate the staged war she knew was not real. Richard did not know of her plan and genuinely grieved her. Her character was somewhat inspired by Mukuro Ikusaba from the first Danganronpa game. Despite Bullet not being important in the story, she was one of the characters I drew quite a lot and liked about as much as Richard and Walter. She and Richard had a fun relationship of her trying to make him more disciplined and him attempting to make her relax more. She always stayed a guard dog.

Galen:

Galen means calm or tranquil. He was a mix between an australian shepherd and a greyhound (Laura and Walter).

In the third draft, he was a secondary protagonist and honestly had more going for him then Emil did. Under the reference I did for him, I wrote down that he was friendly, empathetic and despite disliking conflict, disliked the idea of not talking about problems because he was afraid of escalating them furter.
He was a driving force because he understood that something was strange about the disappearing dogs, especially his sister. His relationship with his father was not bad but definitely strained. He preferred to be with his mother who did not try to make him something that he was not.
Under different circumstances, he might have become just like his father after a while.
He is one of the many characters that could have been interesting if I would have developed them more.

Anrail/ Eve:

Anrail meant something relating to racoon, I think. The “-ail” might come from “tail”, because she had a striped tail.

Despite existing longer than Galen, she is only in the story to die. Her death in the second draft meant little, the only art I made of her was her dead body. Poor girl, she deserved better.

In the third draft, she was the smartest character when it came to the conspiracy. She saw through it quite well and would have exposed it way earlier if she wouldn’t have been caught. Still, she was meant to be dead before the story began.
I always liked the idea of her being more like Walter then her brother, and pretty close to her father. Her death by his fangs was a big betrayal.

Wilhelm:

Yes, this name never came up before. Wilhelm was a great pyrenees dog with burn marks.

He was the second in command in Walters pack and was never really defined. Sometimes he was a friend of Galen, sometimes his caretaker. He was brave and caring, but that is all I can tell about him. He got the burns by saving someone from a fire, I think it was a pup.
He really only existed because I wanted a second in command for Walters pack as well because I liked Bullet. I never did anything with him, but I remember that I desperately wanted to like him and find a way to integrate him in the narrative.

Conclusion

This is about all I recall. A theoretical revival would most likely focus on Richards and Walters pact. Maybe not as a mystery but as an exploration of the fallout it causes.
I would also change some characters dramatically. And change the packs to be either closer to actual dogs or explore the religions and idioligies more.
I don’t think it will ever be a comic like I planned years ago.