This is Mitch Haettennschweiler (named after a font I saw in Microsoft Word) and is the leader for the team of dogs formed to fight the Halo Blades Squadron (HBS). In the same way Peter Edgewood is based off my favourite dog breed (Border Collie), Mitch is based of the next favourite, a German Shepherd. He is intelligent and strong, making him a dangerous adversary.
I'm not quite sure where the inspiration came from to create a rival team for the HBS. Maybe I just thought a group of dogs for the bad guys was appropriate.
Mitch was also a good friend to Peter, both of them having trained at the same military organisation. Yes, I know - two characters once friends and now bitter enemies - highly cliche. This rivalry has become a slight problem. It's annoyingly another case where I'm putting focus on Peter as a main character when it really should be on Stylene. If anything, Stylene should be Mitch's nemesis - leader vs leader and all that. The problem is while both are shrewd and clever team leaders, Stylene is in no way a physical match for Mitch. I'm not trying to be sexist in saying a female can't beat a male, but facing the reality that a German Shepherd would pound a fox into the floor.
One thing I like about Mitch is the expressiveness I can get from him. There's something about markings around the eyes that sells it. I think maybe it helps define shape in the face or something. Look at the characters from any Disney animation. A lot of them have eye markings, regardless of whether or not the animal species they're based off actually do have markings around the eyes. So obviously it's doing something to help.
Oh, by the way, despite his surname and the fact he is a German Shepherd, Mitch is not German. Well, he does have German heritage, but he was born and raised in England.
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