History ElGoonishShive / TropesSToZ

* SummonToHand: Susan can summon magic weapons to her hand via {{hammerspace}} magic.

** Discussed and deconstructed with Magus, who comes from a world where magic users commonly change sexes to better fit whichever job they want to do. Biological females who want to be battle mages [[spoiler: like Magus]] thus change their default sex to male, because males are physically stronger. Terra defies this norm, and both she and Ashley have questioned Magus on whether the male form is truly more powerful or if that's just a gender stereotype.

** Nanase has [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-09 Angel-form,]] a form often tied with religious connotations and comes with a lot of combat bonuses compared to when she's using her magic in general.
** Elliot with his [[SuperGenderBender super ''heroine'']] form, which is his most powerful combat form.
** Grace with her Shade Tail form, an amalgamation of all the best traits of her multiple forms
** Tedd using his gauntlet to give him a huge boost in magic. It later turns out he doesn't need the gauntlet, and any magic power storage device can do it.
** Ellen was once able to copy Nanase's Angel-form but its unknown if that was a one time thing or not.

** [[spoiler:Sam]], a trans man, gets a [[PersonalityPowers Magic Mark]] from Pandora that changes his biological sex to male.

* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Nanase gambles on [[spoiler:Abraham's]] good intentions to [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-20 convince]] the [[spoiler:wizard]] to [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-22 swear an oath not to harm]] [[spoiler:Ellen]].

** [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-06-06 Elliot: Bathroom time is me time!]] Cue reaction from Ellen.
** [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-03-03 Tedd: Take off your shirt.]] Elliot is not impressed.

--> '''Ellen:''' Have fun getting poked and prodded by Tedd?\\

* AllTherapistsAreMuggles: One noted issue that is brought up by Grace when discussing the possibility of any of the cast getting therapy is whether or not the therapist is in the know regarding magic and therefore wouldn't think the cast member that sees them are insane.

* StealthPun: The story arc "Hair" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin for most of it. But it ends with a flashback with Ted's mother and Raven discussing magical heredity and family lines, and how she hoped Tedd would be her apprentice. [[DontExplainTheJoke Hair sounds almost exactly like Heir.]]
* StuffedInTheFridge: Subverted. [[spoiler:Voltaire was trying to kill Elliot to traumatize Tedd so that he couldn't fulfill his role as a Seer properly, thereby causing Magic to reset and allowing Immortals to reclaim their place as gods. Fortunately, all of his attempts failed.]]
* StumblingInTheNewForm: When Justin turns into a woman at Grace's birthday party, he ends up tripping and falling when he tries to walk because of his new center of gravity. This isn't an issue for anyone else, however; Tedd explains that transformations normally come with the RequiredSecondaryPowers to avert this and the only reason Justin tripped was that he was [[CentipedesDilemma overthinking how to walk]].

--->'''[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2005-10-05 Sarah]]:''' In Elliot's defense, your face isn't really the best barometer of whether he was really into guys...

* SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson: The genderfluid character Tedd once [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1550 appears]] in a female body when [[AstralProjection astrally projecting]], and [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1941 later]] has a bout of PowerIncontinence when his {{Sex Shift|er}}ing magic spontaneously changes his body to match his preferred gender in the moment.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Damien was created with the ''intent'' of fulfilling a prophecy.

* WrongBathroomIncident: Arc "Night Out", subarc "Elliott's Crew". Tedd uses a GenderBender gun to transform himself into Grace's female human shape and masquerade as her. When he and the others go out to the movies, [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2003-05-29 he ends up in the girl's bathroom]].

* YouWatchTooMuchX: (guest strip) [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2004-07-21 Tedd,]] [[DaydreamSurprise wake up]].

* YouSayTomato: There is a quick gag where there are two hypothetical non-human species wage war over how to pronounce "potato".

** The aliens, when [[AlienAmongUs walking among humans]], use a system of disguise that involves wearing shirts bearing the label 'human'. Despite their natural forms looking like LittleGreenMen, this method somehow successfully convinces anyone who has not been explicitly informed of their existence.

* VideoReviewShow: InUniverse. Tensaided suggests that Susan and Elliot do a review show to help boost income for his video rental store in exchange for him giving them free video rentals. It has enough success to make the two minor local celebrities. It even has it's own trope page, ''JustForFun/TheReviewShow''.

** There is 2-weeks long one between Sisters II and Bringing Silly Back.
** The end of Summer features a 6-month long skip.

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-06-30 Revealed to be]] the reason why Immortals "reset" every two hundred years. As time goes by, they become "more bored, more powerful, and less sane," which as Jerry notes is "kind of a bad combo." This could explain why [[spoiler:Pandora]] acts the way she does, since alleviating boredom through certifiably insane plots is her entire reason for doing things. 200 years is considered the safe limit, but [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=300 by her own admission]] she's been [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=300 pretending to be on year 299 for a few centuries now.]]

* YouAndWhatArmy: [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-09-29 Seriously?]] Gerald needed to ''ask''?

* {{Wangst}}: Played with in-universe in regards to Susan's "[[FreakOut major angst-induced Awakening]]."

* WebcomicTime: Eight years of EGS as a webcomic is ''just'' over two months of time in-comic. The Birthday Party was a particularly jarring example; a year of EGS was one ''day'' of in-comic time. This makes Ellen's character development and [[spoiler:Nanase coming out]] slightly odd.

* WeirdnessCensor: The aliens, when [[AlienAmongUs walking among humans]], use a system of disguise that involves wearing shirts bearing the label 'human'. Despite their natural forms looking like LittleGreenMen, this method somehow successfully convinces anyone who has not been explicitly informed of their existence.
** Averted [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1155 later on]] when a monster attack happens in public, all the bystanders record the incident and release the information, the local news station immediately shows up and interviews the man who fought the monster, and that very same day the head of TheMenInBlack [[BrokenMasquerade openly confirms magic and monsters are real]].
** The trope actually ends up being subtly deconstructed as TheUnmasquedWorld really isn't any different from before. People still go about their lives as usual, TheMenInBlack still do their job as before, and most denizens of the magical world still stay out of sight. Even while TheMasquerade was in place [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1650 a lot of people knew about magic.]] It seems like people just don't let all the weirdness going on around them get in the way of living their lives, yet aren't in the least bit of denial about how strange things are. They just treat the fantastic the same way as they treat the mundane.

** At the end of "Sister II", [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-01-11 Ellen and Nanase rehearse a play about CPR.]]

** The "Painted Black" arc.
** [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-05-31 May 31, 2010.]]

** The end scene of ''Death Sentence''. [[spoiler:Rhoda has a PowerTattoo, her power makes things grow, and she was the one who turned the boar giant in the first place. And not even she realizes it.]]
** From "Hair", we learn that Tedd is magically challenged. We also learn that [[spoiler:he plans to use his science to make it safe for everyone to use magic]]. And to top it all off, the final page features [[spoiler:Tedd's mom's first appearance]].
** In the final panel of "One Way Road", while Tedd is narrating, we finally know one of the inventions he spent the chapter obsessing over creating...[[spoiler:A replica of [[EvilOverlord Lord Tedd's]] glove]].

** [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1776 Oops.]]

* WillfullyWeak: [[spoiler:Mr. Raven]] is [[spoiler:half immortal]] and very powerful -- but not allowed to interfere with mortal events. Mostly. [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-06-18 Unless you're stupid enough to press his]] BerserkButton.
%%* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2005-02-25 Being morphed by a beam of energy is good for you.]]

* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Known as an Angst-Induced Awakening, one of the possible ways for magic potential to be realised, generally due to big events like home being destroyed or a loved one dying, though if someone has a lot of pent-up issues, a minor event could trigger it in a straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back way. Also of note is that it actually counts as a ''proper'' awakening since Magic is big on RuleOfDrama and such awakenings are inherently dramatic.

%%* TrueCompanions: Although the two members that are actually family have virtually no interaction with each other.

* UltimateJobSecurity: Principal Verrückt, [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=20090115 as Susan notes.]]

* UnsoundEffect: Not all that frequent, but notably including ''Sensory Overload'' when [[spoiler:Nanase]] saw [[TwinThreesomeFantasy Ellen and female Elliot]] [[DistractedByTheSexy tickle-fighting in their underwear]].
** [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2004-05-24 *MAGIC NOSE BEEPAGE!*]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with [[spoiler:Dr. Sciuridae's highjacking of the Shade Tail project into an attempt to [[ReplacementGoldfish clone his dead daughter]],]] as it's implied that was the main reason why the project [[spoiler:aka: Grace]] didn't wind up a SmugSuper and potential MultiversalConqueror.

* TimeTravel: {{Averted}}. [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-07-14 It's impossible.]]

* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: During a discussion about ''Franchise/StarTrek'' [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2006-08-24 here.]]

** [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-06-25 Parodied, almost by name]].
** [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2003-12-17 Used by Hedge]] when he mishears Guineas
* TitleDrop: In the [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2318 first page of All Of The Curse Words,]] the second panel has a stressed Ellen thinking:

* TooMuchInformation: ''[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-08-20 Fine, whatever!]]''

* ToplessnessFromTheBack: [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-05-17 Oh, boy.]]
* TouchTelepathy: Uryuoms can teach you Languages they know, such as their CypherLanguage, by touching your forehead with their antennae.
* TouchedByVorlons: If certain requirements are met, Immortals can mark a human to give them magic powers. [[spoiler:Pandora has been handing out such marks without the knowledge or consent of the recipients]].

** This is Pandora's long-term goal, which she starts by [[spoiler:appearing on the evening news in her CreepyChild form]]. She then proceeds to [[spoiler:empower random people with magic]], so as to cause as much chaos as possible in a way the {{Masquerade}} cannot cover up. While the former only brings weirdness hunters to town, the latter proves effective, especially when the superheroes started showing up to save people. [[spoiler:In fact, it was so effective that the head of the local MIB office essentially ''gave up'', admitting on live television that it was all real]]. Pandora's reasons for doing all this are simple: Her son, [[spoiler:Raven]], is an elf, a half-immortal who is not allowed to interfere in situations that do not directly involve magic. Therefore, she is creating a world where ''everything'' directly involves magic. That, and [[PrescienceIsPredictable she's bored]].

** The comic is a weird case; according to the MIB head ([[spoiler:after he revealed the existence of magic on live television]]), the big secret was never that magic existed. The secret that everyone is taking so much trouble to conceal is that magic is ''easy.'' EGS has a very forgiving and intuitive magic system, with spells reflecting the person that acquires them under most circumstances... meaning that the real monsters usually get the most destructive and powerful spells.
** Ultimately, [[spoiler:though Pandora gave up on her goal, she actually ''succeeded''. With her forced reset incoming, she took advantage of the mechanics to ''force every Immortal onto the physical plane to cast an Aberration destroying spell''. That spell manifested as a wave of light that was visible for ''miles around'', and since every Immortal was forced to cast it, well, the masquerade on magic's existence was ''[[BrokenMasquerade completely and utterly shattered]]''. The Will of Magic outright states that this one event was enough to do it on its own even without previous incidents. And when the Will of Magic consulted Tedd, Arthur and Van on what to do, Tedd successfully convinces it that it is ''impossible'' to remain secret with modern technology, so it decided that it will go along with its reveal]].

* TragicDream: Tedd can't give magic to everyone in the world, as it would just change to undo any progress he makes.

* TakingYouWithMe
** Damien says the trope name word for word [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2004-05-07 here.]]
** Pandora later does this on a global scale regarding [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Aberrations]]

** Attempts to build a genealogy tree for Ellen in several different, but equally ripe with MindScrew ways. She's an OppositeSexClone created by a magical artifact in conjunction with GenderBender {{Magitek}}, but those around her keep trying to describe her parentage with traditional mother/father roles. For example, Ellen could be considered the daughter of Elliot and Tedd. Elliot's the mom because Ellen came from him and Tedd's the dad because he made it happen. Or she's a daughter of Elliot and Dewitchery Diamond, so one can discuss which is her "mom" and which "dad", etc. Turned serious with [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2005-06-06 this strip.]]
** Pandora Raven's family tree is all over the place. It starts with her and her late mortal lover Blaike, and their son Adrian. From there, [[spoiler:Adrian unknowingly fathered children throughout his long life, meaning Susan is his distant descendant and Diane is his daughter]]. Adrian is also Tedd's godfather, so that makes Pandora his great-godmother and connects her to Nanase through Tedd's mother (her aunt). Adrian also adopted Noah after his parents were killed by Damien, making Noah [[spoiler:Diane's (not blood) brother and also related to a lot of the cast]]. To recap; Pandora, Adrian, Tedd, Nanase, [[spoiler:Diane, Susan]], and Noah are all related to each other in very different ways.
* TeamDad: Mr. Verres is this not just to Main Eight, but to his FBI team as well. It helps that he's Tedd's actual dad and Nanase's uncle.

** Grace and Raven [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-03-12 knew it's not good.]] [[spoiler:Abraham]] [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-08 didn't.]]
** "'''[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-04-27 I will slay the dragon.]]'''" [[spoiler:Cue a noticeably less badass pose 15 pages later.]]

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted with [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-09-23 this.]] Read the title if you don't get it. Also see the text message sent [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-02-12 here]].
** More to the point, there obviously ''are'' therapists - it just seems nobody knows when to get one. This is most apparent with Susan, who obviously has some '''serious''' issues, but could probably have been therapized (whether that is still possible now cannot be said).
** AllTherapistsAreMuggles: Of course, trying to explain to any mundane therapist how Susan ended up killing a ''vampire'' would have been tricky...

* SwordCane: [[spoiler:Raven]] has this, but carries it only when expecting serious trouble.

* TakeThatMe: "[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2005-11-09 Bending Genders]]: Ha! Take THAT, Nerds! (Ow! I Hurt Myself!)"

** Susan's mother, who instilled it into her daughter. Susan is a {{Deconstruction}} of this, as her stereotypical views on men were influenced by an event where she walked in on her father having an affair. It turns out she doesn't actually hate her father for this, but was trying to excuse his actions by believing that [[ImAManICantHelpIt he couldn't help it because he was male]] ([[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2006-06-09 a notion that her mother helped to reinforce]]). Eventually she realizes that people just make stupid mistakes, no matter what their gender.

* StuffedInTheFridge: Enforced and averted. [[spoiler:Voltaire was trying to kill Elliot to traumatize Tedd so that he couldn't fulfill his role as a Seer properly, thereby causing Magic to reset and allowing Immortals to reclaim their place as gods. Fortunately, all of his attempts failed.]]

* StunnedSilence: Nanase, when Ellen reveals she doesn't even know what her dad's job is.

* StupidSexyFlanders:
** Any straight GenderBender becomes bisexual for the duration. A certain male-to-female setting - which can also be used on women - will, [[spoiler:for 48 hours]], make you extremely attractive, even to people who normally don't like girls. Not to mention the StupidSexyFlanders overtones of {{Gender Bender}}s in the first place. Even without gender-bending, Tedd is ''[[RunningGag constantly]]'' getting this; Justin once joked that he shouldn't worry about ''gay'' men being attracted to him. Also, while removing his glases was enough to make V5-ed Elliot blush:

** Noah seems to trigger this among the fans.

* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Tedd is attempting to treat magic just like any other area of the (mad) sciences -- physics, chemistry, robotics, etc. So far, we've seen him trying empirical testing of transformation spells, running numbers instead of hoping that things "just work", and so forth. [[spoiler:It's heavily, heavily implied that "Lord Tedd" resulted in one timeline when he forgot the value of friendship in lieu of obsessing over magic-turned-science -- and thus, power -- to the exclusion of all else.]]
* SummonToHand: Susan can do this via {{hammerspace}}.

* SuperMode: Nanase with [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-09 Angel-form,]] Elliot with "[[SuperGenderBender Cheerleadra]]", Grace with her Shade Tail form, an amalgamation of all the best traits of her multiple forms, and Tedd using his gauntlet to give him a huge boost in magic. Ellen was once able to copy Nanase's Angel-form but its unkown if that was a one time thing or not. Justin ironically, doesn't have a specific Super mode as the only magic he can use is power boosting magic, essentially making anytime he uses it his super mode.
* SupernaturalAid: Immortals work this way rather than interfering more directly.

** Wizards and all other people with magical affinities are [[spoiler:descended from immortals]].
* SuperSoldier: Grace's brothers [[spoiler:and Grace herself]]; the older chimeras were meant to be super-assassins, while [[spoiler:Grace]] was created specifically to fight Damien.

* SmashCut: [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1741 When Catalina tries to figure out how to make up for spreading a rumor about Elliot being gay]]:

* SmellySkunk: Averted with two seyunolu girls who are part-skunk. Apart from names [[BilingualBonus translating]] to [[http://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook.php?id=181 "scent"]] and [[http://www.egscomics.com/faq.page#name_kaoli "fragrance,"]] there is no mention of how they smell one way or another.

* SomeKindOfForceField: Greg [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=174 can do it.]] Also, "Standard lockdown procedure." For schools that have a wizard teacher, that is.

** For a long time, women who were offended by sexist men could conjure hammers from out of [[{{Hammerspace}} nowhere]] and use them to pummel the offender. [[spoiler:This lasted until the person who originally created this ability passed away, although Susan's traumatic connection to the hammers let her still do it as a personal spell.]]

* TheStarscream: [[PuppeteerParasite Sirleck]] to Magus; [[spoiler:[[InevitableMutualBetrayal the latter is well aware of this, and plans to kill him first]].]]
* StatGrinding: Nanase [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2007-06-05 takes this approach]] to trying to learn more spells once she realizes she can.

* StealthPun: Many, especially in minor characters' names (see MeaningfulName above).
** Mr. Raven's ''Murder Shroud'' spell creates a cloud that exploding crows come out of. A flock of crows can also be called a ''murder''.

** Justin, and also [[spoiler:Nanase.]] There are no flamboyant stereotypes to be found in this comic. Well, except for Justin ''really'' likes to play with hair. Though Dan tried to explain that it wasn't because he was gay it's just he happens to have a strong emotional link to hair...and it just happens to be a gay stereotype. He mostly plays with Nanase's hair, though.

** It takes a dark turn when [[spoiler:Luke first assumes that Justin is heterosexual because of this]].
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: