History WebComic / Jack

Looking for the webcomic ''Jack''?

* If you're looking for the FurryWebcomic by David Hopkins, you can find it [[Webcomic/JackDavidHopkins over here]].
* For the comedy theme webcomic on DeviantArt by Jack Antonucci, it's right [[Webcomic/JackJackAntonucci over here]].
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* For the webcomic by Jack Antonucci, it's right [[Webcomic/JackJackAntonucci over here]].

* For the ''Franchise/StarWars'' based webcomic by Jack Antonucci, it's right [[Webcomic/JackJackAntonucci over here]].

* For the ''Franchise/StarWars'' based webcomic by Jack Antonucci, it's [[Webcomic/JackJackAntonucci over here]].

* If you're looking for the FurryWebcomic by David Hopkins, you can find it [[Webcomic/JackDavidHopkins here]].

* For the ''Franchise/StarWars'' based webcomic by Jack Antonucci, it's [[Webcomic/JackJackAntonucci over here]].

[[quoteright:283:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jacksin.jpg]]
''[[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=363 Jack]]'' is a {{furry}} webcomic by David Hopkins. The main character, Jack, is a rabbit who is also TheGrimReaper. Most of the stories take place in the afterlife or involve death in some form.

Oh, and fair warning, this comic can get '''very''' {{NSFW}} at times.

[[TheWikiRule Also has a]] [[http://jack.wikia.com/wiki/Jack_Wiki wiki]].
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!!This webcomic provides examples of:

* ActionGirl: Farrago, Central, Brisk and Lita.
** [[spoiler:Specks.]]
* AerithAndBob: Often due to the incorporation of readers' {{original character}}s.
* AmnesiacHero: Jack. He remembers his ''afterlife'' fine, but his mortal life's another story.
* AntiHero: Jack most likely counts as one.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Several characters are personifications of one of the SevenDeadlySins, the one that they committed most {{egregious}}ly in life. Jack is Wrath.
* AnythingThatMoves: Drip, if it doesn't move fast enough when it sees him coming.
* ArchEnemy: Among the villains that Jack faces, Drip and Dr. Kane stand out.
* TheAristocrats: Drip tries telling one of these jokes to the starfish demons. [[EvenEvilHasStandards It actually grosses them out.]]
* ArtMajorBiology: In-universe. Aurthor doesn't really know that much about cancer himself (however he does know that cancer is a group of diseases), but his speech to the press essentially tells them cancer is caused by evil monsters.
* ArtShift: The "The Once Was Swan" arc.
* AscendedExtra: Within the series' universe. [[spoiler:When humanity died in the Human-Furry War and furrykind failed to learn from man's mistakes, God ensured that the ensuing history would follow that which came before (sans biological-warfare-apocalypse) as closely as possible. However, certain furry works of fiction, such as ''ComicBook/{{Extinctioners}}'' and ''TheFundayPawpetShow'', are now mainstream works.]]
* TheAtoner: Too many to count, but Jack seems to be the most prominent one.
* AuthorAvatar: [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=670 Pepe Val Pew]], the Fursona of Dave Hopkins appears both as Pepe Val Pew and as {{Satan}}. Interestingly only when appearing as Satan does he appear to be able to discuss plot points and openly break the forth wall, other appearances are little more than cameos.
** WordOfGod also states that Drip is also his AuthorAvatar.
* AuthorPowers: The Devil uses this to really screw with Todd.
* {{Badass}}: Most of the male cast. Women tend to appear in this role, [[FauxActionGirl but are often actually powerless]].
* BarefootCartoonAnimals
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor[=/=]LiteralGenie: Hell tends to twist a person's ideals and fantasies - if all you really ''want'' is to belong, then [[AssimilationPlot oh, you will.]] If you want to forget, then day after day, [[GroundhogDayLoop that's what happens.]] If you want control over life and death... ''[[TheGrimReaper well...]]''
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Jack and Reckonin pull this off in "Wednesday's Child", and again in "Sever the Hunger."
** Brisk in "Megan's Run."
* BiTheWay: Lita and [[spoiler: Farrago]]
** Apparently [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1639 God Him/Herself]], although it's perfectly possible God might have just [[PlayedforLaughs crack a joke]] over His/Her [[FriendtoAllLivingThings love for all His/Her creations]].
-->'''God''': "What? [[InvokedTrope I love]] [[LampshadeHanging everyone]]!"
* BlackComedyRape: Happens a lot, [[DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale usually to men]].
* BlackEyesOfEvil: The devil himself. Averted with God, however.
* BloodyBowelsOfHell: One punishment for those who are guilty of the sin of Lust is being fused into a huge, writhing gob of meat, similar in form to a Gibbering Mouther from TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons.
* BodyHorror: A lot. See BloodyBowelsOfHell above, for one instance.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Inverted after a fashion, starting [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3497 here]]. It's called the 7th wall.
* BreakTheCutie: This webcomic exemplifies more than any other work of fiction. Good, decent, cute people get REALLY broken and abused, sometimes just for ''being'' good, decent and cute.
** It's no better exemplified than with Fnar, the Innocent in Hell. An unborn baby who died with his mother, Fnar was given the form of a small child and told that he's to stay in Hell for the time being but that Hell will not affect him since he did not do anything to be damned personally. His role in the comic is to wander through people's personal tortures not quite grasping what's going on, and acting as Jack's MoralityPet. Fnar even manages to acquire a girlfriend (a deformed demoness introduced in a previous arc as the aborted child of that arc's protagonist) and a pet (A Rework, which is a Film/TwentyEightDaysLater style feral zombie). Fnar fails to notice anything off about either and they both become very much fond of him in turn. Everyone likes Fnar and wants to be nice to him (and those that don't stay uninvolved in his dealings) until Fnar is told he is finally going to leave Hell. This event is treated with a lot of build up and celebration, [[spoiler: until Fnar's father Drip, serial rapist in life and the Sin of Lust personified in death figures out his connection to Fnar and molests him right before he was to leave, spoiling his innocence at the last minute. This causes Jack to have a HeroicBSOD where he lashes out at an angel who had been one of Jack's few true friends, spoiling their friendship.]]
** Due to the above lashing-out, [[spoiler:Farrago]] herself gets broken, enough so that she asks [[spoiler:for LaserGuidedAmnesia (from ''{{God}}'', no less) so that she could re-meet Jack, ignorant of his past evils.]]
* BroadStrokes: The canon timeline is confusing, as time does not exist in Hell, so the plot wanders across earth's timeline. Plus, the "history repeats" stuff makes the timeline confusing and possibly broken. The timeline gets really confusing when characters from ''[[http://rtd.vitenka.com/Rtd1/index.phtml?page=00 Rework The Dead]]'' start appearing in Jack. The two works seem to fit together, but it's hard to figure out how. [[spoiler: Drip is the main problem. Are both Drips the same person? If so, Lita grew up during the events of Rework, but as we see her death and see her alive in the background of ''Two For You'' both of which are noticeably rework-free. So either the ability to recover from a ZombieApocalypse ridiculously quickly is one of the lesser known furry attributes, or Drip died multiple times in the same universe, once killed by a rework that looks ''exactly'' like his hell-form (which given the {{Reincarnation}} and [[LikeABadassOutOfHell escaping from Hell bits]] may be possible). Or it's paralleled but related universes. [[TimeyWimeyBall Or the damage to the time line is worse that it originally seems.]]]]
* BrokenAngel: Farrago spends a lot of time as one [[spoiler: She gets better! [[LaserGuidedAmnesia sort of...]]]]
* BrokenAesop: The story arc "''Hell is That Noise''" tells the story of Todd, a fox that served in the World War I and obeyed the order to kill over a hundred children, a decision he regretted. When he comes home, he learns that his wife committed suicide, and Todd ends up committing suicide as well. In Hell, [[NeverMyFault he refuses to take responsibility for his actions]], arguing that he [[JustFollowingOrders just followed orders]] and "''fate''" [[YouCannotFightFate already decided what would happen in his life]]. Everyone in Hell (including Satan) [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out on this]] and that what happened to him was [[NiceJobBreakingItHero his own fault]]. The Story essentially wants the reader to see Todd as irresponsible for following such an order, that he should have refused and that he should accept it's all his fault, but the problem is that a good deal of the tragedies that happened to him were beyond his direct and conscious control, including the action that condemned him to Hell. Later on, it's revealed that the major that ordered Todd to shoot the children was ''The Devil'' in disguise, who pointed out that the children would likely grow up to attack the country, and that Todd is a soldier and must obey orders. Todd would still be screwed even if he had chosen to refuse the order, because the devil tricked everyone into believing that he was a general, meaning that Todd would likely be arrested and killed for treason, and other soldiers would simply follow the order in his place, not knowing that the general is an impostor. So, as a result, the story simply prove that Todd's argument that he was a [[CosmicPlaything pawn of forces beyond his control]] is ''[[StrawmanHasAPoint correct]]'' [[StrawmanHasAPoint all along]]. There's a reason why [[CreatorBacklash David Hopkins isn't found on that arc]].
** The non-linear nature of time in Hell tends to screw around wildly with the concept of free will and personal choice; the Devil ''often'' resorts to directly manipulating the circumstances of the past and future in order to compel his victims to act, and then [[NeverMyFault blame them for it all.]] This is most notable with ''Drip'', of all people. His grandmother took him in after his parents were killed, directly blamed him for their deaths and used that guilt to force him to perform sex acts with her, setting him on an escalating path of sexual violence and depravity until he finally died, and became the Sin of Lust. After spending time in Hell and being raped literally ''thousands'' of times, the Devil offers him a treasured memento of his mother in exchange for a favor: the murder of two people. Drip agrees, because at this point, it hardly makes any difference... and then he realizes that the two people the Devil has just had him brutally kill were ''his own parents'', sealing off a StableTimeLoop. And yet, the Devil closes his argument by saying that it was always Drip's choice, and it was always his own fault, just like Grandma said.
* BugWar: Arc XXIII [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1084 Debts]], which takes place in the future of the furry earth.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Darkly subverted. [[spoiler:Doctor Thalmus thinks that developing a cure for cancer entitles him to molest children, even going so far as to hold the cure hostage when Aurthor finds out. No one else seems to agree with his viewpoint.]]
* ButchLesbian: Specks.
* CameBackWrong: See the entry for {{Necromantic}} below, where a Type 2 of sorts occurs: turns out people have difficulty adjusting to being resurrected.
* CardboardPrison:
** Worryingly, temporarily getting out of Hell without being reconciled with your sins is possible. More optimistically, getting and staying out if you reconcile them is possible and permitted.
** For that matter, who designs a holding area and lab for an untested GM creature of human level intelligence [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1067 that you can break out of with a fork?]]
* CheerfulChild: Fnar, though the mere fact that he is one despite the context he's in also pushes him into CreepyChild territory. [[spoiler:His reincarnation, Randy,]] is a clearer example.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Fnar deconstructs this trope, by showing that a cute, genuinely innocent and pure kid who doesn't quite understand the horrors of Hell can be as scary as said horrors.
* ChekhovsGunman: All the souls Jack has collected end up coming back several arcs later.
* ChurchOfHappyology: All of [[http://www.pholph.com/whole_arc_viewer.php?id=5&sid=1375 Arc XXIX]] is a thinly veiled TakeThat to That One Church.
* CoolOldGuy: Jack is one, apparently.
* CosmicPlaything: Hopkins makes this one [[DanceTropeDance dance a jig]] when it comes to Todd: He believes himself this, so he becomes this, with the Devil controlling his life. Then he realizes the Devil told him about the Seventh Wall, which means he can invert it and make the cosmos (or at least the comic strip) his plaything[[spoiler:, right? ''[[OutGambitted Wrong]]'']].
* CrapsackWorld: Hard to place, as the comic is largely set in Hell, and our viewpoint of events is skewed. While there ''are'' some very optimistic bits, the facts are that [[spoiler: humanity has been wiped out, humanity's successors are doomed to make the exact same mistakes as humanity in the same order.]] Hell may as well have a revolving door as far as some of its worse repeat offenders are concerned, and there's a ZombieApocalypse as well as an AlienInvasion waiting in the immediate future. God seems to have taken a "hands off" approach to things, leaving the fate of the world to mortals, angels and Sins, of which only the worst of the Sins seems to have a clear plan.
* CursedWithAwesome: Most of the characters who are punished with being anthropomorphic personifications of the SevenDeadlySins are given far greater powers than a normal denizen of Hell. However, they're unable to actually enjoy the activities that embody their lust. The angel Central told Jack that one of the reasons the Sins were given power was so that they would not seek out redemption, continuing their punishment in Hell.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: While Frigid [=McThunderbones=] is one the loose, a mob boss decides to hide out in a hot bathhouse.
* DaysOfFuturePast: Apparently, when furrykind annihilated the human race (their creators), they ended up being knocked back into at least medieval society, working their way back up to what we would call the present day and beyond. An obvious piece of evidence for this is the first official playing card deck, which shows that when Farrago was alive, she was a medieval-style knight or warrior.
* DeadToBeginWith: Most of the recurring characters are dead, or have been dead at some point.
* DeathTakesAHoliday: In a [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1506 couple]] of [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1507 fancomics]]. Oddly enough, things work out better when Jack isn't on the job.
* DeliverUsFromEvil: Fnar's mother. She becomes saved after he declares her love for her son and adopts a bunch of aborted demon girls.
-->"Your mother did some pretty bad things. But she would have been a good mommy, and maybe it would have saved her soul."
* DepravedBisexual: This does not even begin to describe what is wrong with Drip.
* DeusExMachina: Wow, it was a really good thing some random kid just happened to [[GunsInChurch bring a gun to school]] so he could shoot Brian and stop him!
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: One chapter had the focus character in this situation.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu:
** [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=634 A demon]] [[TemptingFate insisted in calling]] [[BerserkButton Fiver by his name]]. It does not end well for him.
** Edmond Vade [[InvokedTrope invokes it]] when he discovers a style of martial arts that allows him to take on Jack in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately for him, he eventually fails.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** In the "What's Pissing off Dalton" story arc, Dalton kills a man because of his speech impediment that causes him to draw out his "s" sounds, which annoys Dalton due to his headaches.
** Also, Hell, for some of its victims. Not so much because they don't deserve punishment, but because the punishments are meant to teach them what they did wrong in life so they can realize their sin and repent, while often being too obtuse or too terrifying for the victim to interpret, or just plain designed to be hopeless. What ''can'' a person learn from being sealed naked into a wall with their arms, limbs, and head covered, and the rest left exposed to be raped by an ascended monster-version of the person who raped and probably murdered them?
* DontFearTheReaper:
** Jack is not a completely straight example ([[spoiler: see [[YMMV/{{Jack}} the YMMV page]]]]), but he still genuinely cares for the good souls it is his job to take. Unless they are clearly evil -- he IS the Sin of Wrath, after all.
** One arc has Satan pointing out that Jack's ongoing efforts [[spoiler:to escape Hell]] mean that someone else will have to take his place if he succeeds, which will be guaranteed to lead to an all-out aversion.
* DoNotTauntCthulhu: No matter how silly you think he looks, don't taunt Drip.
* DownerEnding: [[http://www.pholph.com/whole_arc_viewer.php?id=5&sid=437 "Dinner at Arloest's"]] and both stories in [[http://www.pholph.com/whole_arc_viewer.php?id=5&sid=1316 "Two For You"]] spring to mind.
* TheDragon: Brian, to Kane.
* DrivenToSuicide[=/=]SuicideIsPainless: A lot of the recurring non-angelic cast took their own lives out of either desperation or a desire for control. No less than three recurring characters were driven to suicide by Drip.
* EasilyForgiven:
** Both played straight and subverted regarding the denizens of Hell. Any one of them (up to and including Satan himself) is perfectly capable of ending their time in Hell at any time by recognizing their sins, repenting for them, and asking for forgiveness. Seems easy, but the subversion comes in the fact that the people who end up in Hell tend to, by their very natures, resist doing this, as pointed out elsewhere on this page.
** Inverted in "Hell Is That Noise", when the mother character recognizes her sins, repents for them, and asks forgiveness of the children she aborted. [[spoiler:They angrily tear her apart instead.]]
* EasyRoadToHell:
** If you cannot forgive yourself for your life sins, you go to Hell.
** If you were enough of a {{Jerkass}}, you go to Hell.
** If you commit suicide for any reason, you go to Hell. In "Games We Play in Hell," it was implied that accidentally jumping to your death also counts as suicide.
** If your evil was of such a prodigious magnitude that Hell does not know how to punish you, you become Sin itself.
** It is stated that if you don't believe in God, S/He cannot accept you into Heaven (but at least this version of Purgatory isn't that bad, amounting to a peaceful, idealized version of Earth).
** If you're an unborn child whose mother went to Hell after being murdered, you go to Hell with her! But your innocence protects you from comprehending any of the horror you witness or being harmed. [[spoiler: Except by your psychotic rapist sin-incarnate father.]] Fnar is called The Innocent In Hell and is told early on that he's just on standby before he can be born properly, but that doesn't really change the fact that he was sent to Hell for ''someone else's sins'', and ultimately, [[spoiler: to be someone else's punishment.]]
** If you were aborted, you not only go to Hell, you also become a deformed demon.
* EvenTheDogIsAshamed: In the ([[BizarroEpisode Non-main-story-cannon]]) ''Frigid [=McThunderbones=],'' most of the cast of ''Jack'', watching the resultant movie, turn on Hopkins in disgust when they see he's written a killer snowman filler arch. When ''Drip'' is asking you "[[EvenEvilHasStandards At least spare us a]] [[Film/JackFrost1997 carrot rape scene.]]" you know [[IncrediblyLamePun Even The Rat]] [[EvenTheRatsWontTouchIt Won't Touch It.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Even DRIP of all people can feel bad about what is happening to others, [[spoiler: and when two characters are captured by Kane, Drip gives one a MercyKill and offers to do the same to another.]] He later goes on to being regular Drip, but look at his eyes in panel 4 [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3712 here.]]
** In "Games We Play in Hell," were are shown how Vince (the Sin of Greed) manages his empire. He frequently make sadistic shows on his coliseum and his followers generally enjoy the "spectacle." On days when Drip is visiting, he usually suggests the "Musical Holes" game, which is a NotSafeForWork version Musical Chairs. It's noticed that very few actually enjoy this game, the rest (including [[VillainProtagonist Silver Blue]]) only pretends to enjoy to avoid punishment.
* EveryEpisodeEnding: At the end of every main story arc: "TTFN" (Ta-Ta For Now). Lampshaded in the story arc "Twist, Twist, Twist."
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Even if they do have good in them, it's clear why the damned are damned: they shift blame around and say it's all the fault of a higher power they got condemned to Hell. Some of them (like Lita) get disproportionately incensed at angels whenever they see them.
* EldritchLocation: Obviously Hell, particulary in "''Mr. Smith Goes To Hell''" where the landscape changes not only in shape, but also it laws of physics and logic are distorted like a pretzel.
* ExplicitContent: Although there is the occasional display of nudity throughout the strip, "The Games We Play in Hell" has more than a bit of explicit sex, particularly of the non-consensual variety.
* FamousFamousFictional: "... before uzis, [=RPGs=], jets, bars, saws, lazers, power armor and pathmakers"
* FateWorseThanDeath: These are often used as punishments for Sins and for the damned in Hell, who due to their ability to regenerate get to relive the punishments again and again.
* FourthWallObserver:
** The so-called insane creature who narrates the [[http://www.pholph.com/whole_arc_viewer.php?id=5&sid=1316 "Two For You"]] arc. He also likes to screw with the reader.
** Abba from "Megan's Run" chats with [[AuthorAvatar "Dave"]], who appears to exist outside of the comic.
** Todd isn't so much an observer as he's able to move in between panels.
** [[{{Satan}} "Lucy"]] is not only an observer, [[AuthorAvatar he draws the comic]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Drip promises to hurt Jack worse than Jack's ever been hurt before. [[spoiler: He hurts Jack by molesting Fnar.]]
* ForScience: Exactly why [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr.]] Kane is creating furries is never adequately explained. Presumably there were PotentialApplications.
* FunnyAnimal
* FurriesAreEasierToDraw: The [[WordOfGod author himself has said he's bad at drawing humans]].
* FurryConfusion: Furries are genetically engineered, apparently, so there's nothing weird in a family of crow-men farmers being pestered by crows. There is confusion about how the furry offspring looks like: a cat-girl's elementary school-old kitten looked like a real life kitten, but {{Littlest Cancer Patient}}s looked like furry kids.
* GeniusLoci: The anthropomorphic personification of Sloth is punished in Hell by becoming the ground.
* TheGhost: God, who for the first half of the series was never seen, and only occasionally heard. God did start appearing in later arcs, in the form of [[spoiler: a sheep]].
* TheGrimReaper: Jack, obviously.
* GoKartingWithBowser: "[[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=461 For No Apparent Reason]]" ends with Vince cornering Fnar, [[WebComic/GeneCatlow Gene Catlow, and Cotton Taylor]]... [[spoiler: and then tagging Fnar. Vince was just playing tag with him, at Jack's request.]]
* GoodEyesEvilEyes: Whilst Sins, God, and the Devil have pupil-less eyes all non-Sins in Hell are shown with pinpoint pupils until they realize their sin, at which point they are drawn with the full pupils used by Hopkins for the living and Angels. It's also shown that those who have realized their sin can go back to the ominous pinpoint pupils,[[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1377 if they fall in with the wrong crowd,]] or if they've been brutalized like [[spoiler:Vinci]] in the side story [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=7&sid=3272 "Pikri Alitheia"]] after [[spoiler: trying to defend Bashful and being half-devoured by the Gorshes]]. Vinci's eyes, however, almost immediately returned to "open."
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex:
--> "Well, let me put it this way. In Heaven, they make love... on Earth, they have sex... but down here in Hell, down here... they fuck."
* {{Gorn}}: This is one of the bloodiest, most grisly webcomics out there, period.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The American government knows that furrykind was created in a laboratory by humans, who used to be the only sentient species on Earth. They currently have archaeologists doing research in the ruins of that lab, which is also heavily guarded. Anyone who blabs about furrykind's secret origins would likely be secretly killed, but given the widespread panic and existential angst such blabbing would cause (i.e. "We're all descendants of lab-grown creatures, therefore WE HAVE NO SOULS!"), this is a wise policy. However, they also have possible counter-proof of this in the form of Kane's resurrection machine, unless the Government thinks that being brought back to life sent that poor woman crazy and she hallucinated the whole thing. So if they didn't believe her, they're hiding perceived disproof of the afterlife. If they ''did'', they're hiding perceived ''proof'' of ''religion''. One wonders which would be more dangerous.
* GroinAttack:
** [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=889 "Skinless Friday"]] is one of the regular punishments visited on Drip
** Jack also used scythes borrowed from Central to cut off Drip's testicles, in the arc "Saving Arloest."
** [[spoiler: When Drip is regenerated....they left out a piece.]]
** He tried to get it back. [[spoiler: ...or rather, a replacement. Brian's, to be specific.]] "Fox eating rooster" indeed.
** Megan delivers the mother of all groin attacks, with a sledgehammer, to [[spoiler:Fiver after [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3644 he rapes her]]. Visible cords are involved.]]
** When Vince first went to Hell, his former followers ripped his genitals off, [[EyeScream among other body parts]].
* GroundhogDayLoop: "The Games We Play in Hell" has the protagonist stuck in one, [[spoiler: until Jack intervenes to break the loop.]]
* GuileHero: [[spoiler:Specks]], who's also an AngelUnaware in Meg's Run part 2.
* GunsInChurch: "Angry Brian" contains Guns in School. Justified with Brian, since he was planning on shooting his classmates. Played straight with the NRA Preacher, who just happened to be carrying around a pistol in school.
* {{Handwave}}:
** On one page, Hopkins got so involved in the inking process that he accidentally lettered in some notes he had written to remind him how to ink things. Upon realizing he had done this he added a new one, reading "In Hell, you can see the notes."
** Done again in "Mr. Smith Goes to Hell," a comic only available in print. This time, [[OffModel a hand drawn backwards]] on one of the pages is...well, handwaved in the end notes by saying that "these things happen in Hell." The publishers weren't impressed.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler:Taylor]] from "One Way to Win."
* HeelRealization: Jack in the last moments of his life.
* HeroicBystander:
** The people in the plane crash.
** Wendy and Anna in the arc "Wednesday's Child."
** Swifty at the beginning of "The Superman Project."
** Brisk all throughout "Megan's Run."
* HistoryRepeats: Furry civilization and its history are incredibly uncannily similar to human civilization's history, right down to TV shows and individual people like celebrities, to the point where it can't all have been the result of reincarnation of humans, if that was ever a factor in the repetition of history at all. The main source of this phenomenon was probably the lynching of Mr. Grimm, an anthropomorphic vulture who, not long after the end of humanity, attempted to write a manifesto detailing a new society based upon lessons learned from the mistakes of humanity. He was killed by those who didn't agree with his ideas, and those who fail to learn from history are doomed to... well, you know...
* ILetGwenStacyDie: Subverted because Jill's death only made Jack sink deeper.
* InnocentInaccurate: Fnar
* IronicHell: Some of the punishments of the damned rely on this trope.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Most of the damned really can't think (or care) about more than themselves.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Nurse Jeremy Campbell from [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=676 "It's Like Cancer"]]. Arrogant and homophobic at first, but redeemed when he's touched by the tolerance of a gay patient and lets go of his hatred.
* KarmaHoudini: Usually averted. One strip even had Jack [[DefiedTrope help some recently deceased souls prevent their killer from becoming one of these]].
* KidHasAPoint: Fnar is the first person to figure out [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=847 how to get out of hell]].
* LaserGuidedAmnesia:
** Jack's punishment is to be unable to remember his life on earth. This also counts as DisproportionateRetribution, as since Jack can't remember his misdeeds, he can't truly repent for them, so he's denied the "out" of repentance and forgiveness the other denizens of Hell have. [[spoiler:He asked for it.]]
** [[spoiler:Farrago]] asks God for her memories of [[spoiler:Jack, the Grim Reaper]] to be wiped, so she can start fresh with him.
* LifeOrLimbDecision: Faced with being dragged down [[spoiler:into Drip's reach]], [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3720 Megan tells her rescuer to chop off her tail to allow them to escape.]] Notably, ''she'' isn't the one screaming about it after the deed is done.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The Seventh Wall, actually.
* LetsGetDangerous: Private Kedge may be inexperienced and somewhat cowardly, [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1165 but when pushed too far]]...
* LosingYourHead: Nostrom
* LukeIAmYourFather:
** Lita does not recognize who The Sin of Lust is upon meeting him, as his damaged hell form has little resemblance to his appearance in life [[spoiler: Jack likewise had no clue he was created by [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr.]] Kane.]]
** It is not revealed to the reader that [[spoiler: Drip is Fnar's father]] right away, and Jack seems to have been keeping the information from [[spoiler: Fnar]] presumably to keep him from looking for [[spoiler: Drip]] (he also neglects to give [[spoiler: Lita]] the exact same [[spoiler: "your dad is Lust" info]]. Neither time did it help).
* MadScientist: Kane, Nostrom, and [[spoiler:Jack during his life]].
* MagicAisMagicA: Discussed at the very end of "Harold," also counting as a SpoofAesop.
* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Dr. Kane]] in several story arcs, such as "Wednesday's Child" and "Sever the Hunger".
* ManipulativeBastard: [[CaptainObvious The Devil]], who tricks Drip into never trying life again (by telling him he'll be a woman in his next life), and halts Jack's "redemption" because if he does leave, an even worse psycho will take his place as Wrath. Plus he plays with Todd in "The Seventh Wall" and "Hell Is That Noise" (although each one is in Hell for a reason). Drip also deserves a place here, but he does it (mostly) ForTheEvulz.
* MatureAnimalStory
* MediumAwareness: Todd is aware he is in a comic. So is the Devil, and uses that to screw with Todd endlessly.
* MindScrew:
** In Arc XXVII, "Why Do I Deserve To Die", Jack delays sending a group of people to judgement after they are killed in a bombed restaurant, allowing them to figure out who among them set off the bomb. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Called as such]] toward the end of the StoryArc.
** In life, Drip trained three proteges to continue his work after he died (presumably with the thought in mind that he would one day be executed), so that the people who put him away would forever be haunted by the possibility that they got the wrong guy.
* MoodSwinger: No one character is this specifically, but some of them tend to lean on it. While some slowly express themselves, others can sob gallons of tears and punch people with almost no warning. [[JustifiedTrope However, considering what most of the cast goes through in these arcs...]]
* MoralityChain: Fnar and Farrago, to Jack.
* {{Mondegreen}}: Susan in the Megan's Run arc seems to hear one of these every other sentence.
* MyBelovedSmother: [[spoiler:Drip with his grandmother]] in a very dark and disturbing way.
* NameOfCain: Okay, it's spelled "Kane," [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast but anyone called]] [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr.]] [[NameOfCain Kane]] who wants to create what are either {{Half Human Hybrid}}s or {{Uplifted Animal}}s [[IdiotBall should never have been given government permission to do so.]]
* {{Necromantic}}: This happened the first part of the arc [[http://www.pholph.com/whole_arc_viewer.php?id=5&sid=1316 "Two for You"]], though the male protagonist isn't shown as being especially evil for doing it.
* NeverMyFault:
** The damned are all over this trope like white on rice. Truly admitting guilt and responsibility for your own actions is the first step out of hell, something most of them aren't capable of. This is one of the reasons a lot of the damned hate angels; it's easier to blame an authority figure who sent you to hell (even if they didn't) than to think you might actually deserve being where you are.
** Averted with Virgil, who was in Hell only because he killed himself, but was so convinced that [[ItsAllMyFault he was guilty of the deaths caused in the Columbine-style shooting in the first arc]] that he didn't even consider the suicide an issue until eventually being convinced otherwise.
** Farrago seems to take this stance when [[spoiler: she has her memory erased so that won't have to deal with the broken trust and trauma of Jack attacking her, but never comments on her responsibility for ''leaving a child alone with a sexual predator''.]]
** Also the Devil himself, [[HannibalLecture who likes to rub on the dammed souls' faces that]] [[InvokedTrope their stay on Hell is their own fault]]. But he himself has ''directly'' [[ManipulativeBastard manipulated a good number of souls]] (such as Todd and Drip) into making the decisions that dammed them to Hell [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers through his powers]], essentially [[{{Hypocrite}} making him responsible for the sins that]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the dammed souls committed in life]].
** Surprisingly subverted by [[spoiler: Drip]], who knows perfectly well ''why'' he's in hell, but doesn't even tries to change, in part because he is a sadistic rapist that [[FortheEvulz enjoys to make people suffer]], and the other part because [[spoiler: he feels immense guilt over killing and raping his parents due to time travel]].
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's quite common in this webcomic for the protagonists' well-intentioned actions to backfire hideously.
** Jack, to Farrago, after [[spoiler: she tells him that she left an innocent child and one of the few people Jack truly loves in Hell, ''knowing'' that the only creature actually willing and able to hurt him is a violent, sadistic rapist... [[MoralityPet because his presence was helping]] Jack.]]
** Also Jack himself in the same arc who, while [[JerkassHasaPoint justified]] because he was [[PapaWolf angered at]] Farrago's [[IdiotBall idiotic mistake]], [[DisproportionateRetribution went too far]] and [[spoiler: nearly killed her. This left her traumatized to the point of asking God to erase her memory of him.]] His way of dealing with Drip([[spoiler: absorbing his soul and body and [[AndIMustScream leaving his head alone]] in agony]]), while well deserved, also [[spoiler: allowed Drip [[DemonicPossession to control Jack's body and mind]] to a degree]].
** Lita made a deal with Drip ([[spoiler: without knowing who he was]]) behind Jack's back. She also ignored Cliff when he tried to warn her, allowing Drip to heal his body.
** Arloest, who used her gift to tell the future to save a couple of a highway accident. But it turned out that they where ''meant'' to die, and by saving them [[spoiler: Arloest make them immortal, [[WhoWantsToLiveForever forcing them to outlive everyone they loved]] in life]].
** The entire "Megan's Run" saga is around the titular character trying to ''fix'' what she broke. More specifically [[spoiler: she saved a little girl and friend, Susan, from death by kidnapping her from the hospital and running from the reaper, which not only made her immortal, [[NotGrowingUpSucks but also prevented her from growing up]] and having a life of her own]].
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The non-canon story "Frigid [=McThunderbones=]" is loaded with nonsensical stuff that seems to have been thrown in purely for RuleOfCool reasons.
* NobleDemon:
** Jack is a demon but is more or less on the good side, helping God and her angels as well as trying to make things as gentle as possible for the newly deceased he's to guide to judgement in the afterlife.
** Also, in a more literal exemple of this trope, [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3639 this demon]] [[JerkwithaHeartofGold seems to have more heart them he looks to have]].
* NonhumansLackAttributes: Played straight for [[spoiler:Jack and Jill, presumably as Kane was GenreSavvy enough to realize making the first batch of his experimental [=AIs=] self replicating was a bad move.]] Noticeably averted everywhere else.
* NonLinearCharacter: As time doesn't exist in the afterlife, everyone's already dead technically. But Jack in particular who [[spoiler: reaped himself]].
* NoPreggerSex: Anna was rather {{squick}}ed by [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=943 Wednesday's suggesting sex]] while she was pregnant, in the arc "Wednesday's Child".
* NotGrowingUpSucks: In the story arc "Megan's Run," Susan Lancaster and Megan Fairchild are not only [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3284 not able to die, get sick, or remain injured]], but neither will [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3298 grow old or mentally mature any more than their current state]].
* OhCrap: Happens a lot. It's bound to, since much of the plot revolves around people dying. The Seventh Wall has an epic one, where Todd learns how to break the seventh wall to escape Hell... [[spoiler: except The Devil, who ''controls'' the seventh wall, has kept him firmly in Hell.]] Todd never stops being fun for Satan.
* OneMarioLimit: Jack within the story.
* OnlySixFaces: It's not uncommon for furry comics to have characters that are distinguished only by the features of their unique species. It's less common for them to still not be distinguishable ''despite'' being radically different species.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: They have a sex life, to begin with...
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The souls of the dead appear to have some physical form in both heaven, Hell AND on earth ([[RequiredSecondaryPowers otherwise they'd fall though the floor]]) this enables [[OurGhostsAreDifferent the dead to move objects,]] and kill their murderer.
* {{Precursors}}: It turns out it's [[spoiler: humanity.]]
* ParentalIncest:
** Apparently, [[spoiler: Drip and Lita]] had sex while he was still alive. [[spoiler: She wasn't aware of the relationship at the time, however.]]
** [[spoiler: Drip and Fnar. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Jack has trouble believing even Drip was able to stoop that low.]]]]
** [[spoiler: Drip and his Grandmother.]]
** [[spoiler: Drip and his mother and likely his father as well. Actually one of his more sympathetic moments.]]
* ThePlan: Kane's favorite MO, especially in [[spoiler:"Sever the Hunger" and "Frightened Virgil"]].
* ThePowerOfLegacy: Lieutenant Bullock recounts how he told a fellow soldier's parents that their son died while pulling wounded men out of a fire. What really happened... [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1131 well, it wasn't quite as dignified.]]
* PunnyName: Beo Wolfe
* RapeAsDrama
* RedEyesTakeWarning[=/=]GlowingEyesOfDoom: Played with somewhat. Jack's eyes are pure glowing red most of the time. Since he's the reaper, people tend to take warning. But his actual [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Wrath Mode]] turns everything but his pupils black. [[spoiler: ...and those go after his memories are restored.]] The other Sins also have similar eyes. Emily has bright yellow eyes, Drip has green eyes and the others have red ones if they have them at all. God and Satan have uniquely pure black eyes [[spoiler:until "Sever The Hunger"]].
* ReligionOfEvil: Vince's cult.
* ReligionIsRight: While the comic is heavily inspired by Catholicism, (right down to the SevenDeadlySins and purgatory) it's a subversion in that where you go has ''nothing'' to do with your religion.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter:
** Fnar.
** And Randy ([[spoiler:even though he WAS Fnar]]). Only David Hopkins could make a skunk-frog hybrid look mind-blowingly cute.
*** Lampshaded by [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1428 Lita]].
* RingRingCRUNCH: Silverblue stabs her alarm clock. It's not known if she always did, or if she just started because she's been woken up by the exact same sound at the exact same time each morning for 125 years.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: The spelling is pretty infuriating. "your", "angle" and so on and so forth.
* RunningGag: The demon of loneliness protesting that his mom's not a whore... and then proven wrong, once even by said mom in "Frigid [=McThunderbones=]".
* SadisticChoice: This comic being what it is, this comes up often. In one particular example, [[spoiler: Satan introduces Jack to the guy who will be replacing him should Jack actually manage to escape Hell. He's... [[HairTriggerTemper less]] [[AxCrazy than]] [[LackOfEmpathy pleasant]].]]
* {{Satan}}: Given the general subject matter of this strip, it's not surprising he makes occasional appearances. Satan in the Jack universe resembles the AuthorAvatar, only with all-black eyes.
* ScaleOfScientificSins: [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr.]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Kane]] manages all them, at various points in his life.
* ScunthorpeProblem: Inverted on the forums: the name "Matt" is changed by the filter to "Dolphinfucker". Apparently the artist's wife had a rather scary ex named Matt, who, among various other crimes including stalking her at some point, [[BestialityIsDepraved reputedly did something unpleasant involving a beached dolphin's blowhole]] (possibly more than once). He also appeared in the comic a couple of times in an IronicHell in which [[TakeThat he is the victim of rape by dolphins]].
* SelfDeprecation: Aurthor makes fun of the artist, saying that "when he's not being gorey, he's being preachy."
* SelfInflictedHell: You can't leave until you let yourself, but whether you arrive in Hell in the first place is pretty objective.
* SerialKiller: Drip during his life and afterlife. The Vorshes also count.
* SevenDeadlySins
* ShoutOut: Among other things, to various other web-based furry works, ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'', ''Literature/WatershipDown'', ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'', and Music/NineInchNails.
** The afterlife is distinctively based on ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''.
** In a recent arc, a character Richek reveals that he's seen the grim reaper numerous times and considers him somewhat of a friend, but no one else has ever seen him, and he doesn't know his name. What does he call his tall, rabbitty pal? "Theatre/{{Harvey}}!"
** [[http://rtd.vitenka.com/Rtd1/index.phtml?page=98 Obligatory link to the first example of Buster Charlie's dislike of Redwall]].
** [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1526 The bathhouse]] in "Frigid [=McThunderbones=]" is filled with {{Shout Out}}s of random cartoons.
* SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness[=/=]SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat: Played with, in that they appear to act in inverse to each other as far as the Sins are considered (except Sloth, who we don't know much about).
** Personal Threat: Lust. Although Drip is the one of the seven you'd least like to be forced to spend ten minutes locked in a phone booth with, in life he was never more than a personal threat and in death is largely too content to sit around raping and torturing to be more than an very, very effective personal threat.
** Personal/City Threat: Vanity and Gluttony. Although they either peel your fur off and wear it or eat you alive, they constituted no more than personal threats in life, and severe personal threats if encountered in Hell. They also, unlike Drip, actively interfere in Earth's affairs from beyond the grave, with such large-scale disasters such as plane crashes (the Gluttonies) or using an fallen Angel lover to lure several apartment blocks of living souls into Faustian contracts (Vanity).
** Country/Global Threat: Greed. A false Messiah and tyrant whose religiously-motivated armies conquered most of the known world in life, and a false Messiah whose religiously-motivated mob of followers rules the necropolis of Hell in death. At least he's persistent. While he's usually a greedy, unlikable, physically-replant tyrant, he's actually willing to play hide-and-seek with Fnar if it will get Jack off his back.
** Global[=/=]Galactic[=/=]Universal threat: Envy. [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr.]] [[NameOfCain Kane]] was a human EvilGenius, MadScientist, and NietzscheWannabe in life who [[spoiler: [[HoistByHisOwnPetard created the race that would wipe out humanity]]]] and a machine to [[CameBackWrong resurrect the dead]]. Although known to be part-way between Dr. Herbert West, Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Joseph Mengele in death, his one appearance in life makes him out to be no more than very arrogant and overbearing. After he dies, he decides that playing XanatosSpeedChess with Vince, helping souls escape the Reaper, and building up an army of mindless, spent, burnt-out souls in preparation for a reality destroying cosmic civil war[=/=][[LikeABadassOutOfHell prison break]] that he may or not be secretly planning the whole time is a good way to spend his afterlife.
** Universal threat: Wrath. Jack. In his afterlife, the one nice guy out of the lot. [[spoiler:In his life, he wiped out humanity and '''''broke time!''''' The damage he did to the universe was so great, God had to press the ResetButton on history to fix it (although the early history of furrykind erased most traces of humanity, negating the need for a physical reset)]]. Even in death, it's hinted his SuperPoweredEvilSide could wipe the floor with the all other Sins and pose a threat to any and all nearby angels if he ever truly lost control of it.
* SpikesOfDoom: This is how Jack defeats Joen in "Those That Run."
* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Drip]] ends up being the ButtMonkey for one, ending with him [[spoiler: murdering and raping his own parents in front of his infant self,]] making him ultimately responsible for all of the tragedies that happened in his life.
* StalkerWithACrush: Cliff for Lita. Not immediately obvious but it's there.
* StealthPun: Several, but notably Edward Vade - E. Vade.
* TakeThatAudience: In a VerySpecialEpisode:
-->'''Farrago''': "One of Dave's fans is on drugs!"
-->'''Drip''': Heh...Just one?
* TraumaticCSection: Kane threatens to do this to Wendy, in the arc "Wednesday's Child", if she doesn't cooperate with him.
* TsurimeEyes: How you can tell someone is a bad guy, generally.
* UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000: Evan's favourite game, "Killing Killers and the Killers who Kill Them".
* UnfortunateNames: Drip, as a background "{{fanfic}}" written by Hopkins revealed that his grandmother named him after "the sound the blood dripping made when I killed my mother" during his birth. Definitely the detective in the B-movie parody arc ''Frigid [=McThunderbones=]'': "Aidsyphilis Smallbush ... It's Greek."
* UnreliableNarrator: The point of the short animated arc "Twist, twist, twist."
* VerySpecialEpisode: Parodied in the story [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=1183 "A Very Special Jack",]] drawn by Guest Artist Mat Sherer of ''Webcomic/BadlyDrawnKitties''.
* VillainousBSOD: Drip has [[UptoEleven the mother of this]] when he learns that [[spoiler: [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3613 was the one]] [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3614 who killed his own parents]] due to time travel. His [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3616 reaction]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone is pretty]] obvious]].
* WebcomicsLongRunners: This comic has been consistently running for over ten years, ladies and gentlemen.
* WhamEpisode: "Sever the Hunger". [[spoiler:It reveals just what Jack did in life that made him become Wrath. Long story short, he wiped out humanity and so thoroughly wrecked the universe that he caused GenerationXerox on a cosmic scale, with furs going through the same kind of history that humans did. The kicker to this is that he himself did not know this beforehand--prior to his own demise, he asked to forget what he had done.]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Subverted. [[spoiler: When we first see Jack in his mortal life he's a sweet, goofy, cute-looking teen who had a terrible tragic early life, and it soon [[FromBadToWorse gets worse]]. He was [[ThereAreNoTherapists seriously psychologically messed around]] with by [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr. Kane]] and the other scientists, lost the love of his life in a horrific way whilst able to hear what was happening but unable to help, and has the mother of all [[FreudianExcuse Freudian Excuses]] for what he tried to do, as well as a sincere belief that it's right and necessary. Perfect setup for a classic WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, except it's later revealed (in addition to becoming the monster we knew he would one day become to earn his place in Hell) he's an unlikable whiny, aloof, stubborn, cold, callous, borderline-{{Necromantic}} AGodAmI KnightTemplar and NietzscheWannabe who crosses the line not with the wiping out of humanity and breaking of history, but before that, [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=3080 when it's implied he betrayed his friends and loved ones in the process.]] ]]
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Cliff essentially loses it when Lita starts to redeem herself AND fall for Farrago. That [[MentorShip she also kissed her teacher Eric beforehand]] doesn't help.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair:
** Jack's fur is bright green, and Jill's is pink/maroon, whereas other furries tend to have more realistic fur colours [[spoiler: This makes some sense as adding non-natural pigmentation to transgenic creatures to identify them as such in case they escape into the wild is [[http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGGL_en___GB343&hs=Zl0&q=glow+in+the+dark+cat common real-life practice]], although how someone could not notice that a bipedal talking rabbit is genetically modified is [[ApatheticCitizens another question]]]]. TheDevil/Pepe Val Pew ''has'' got blue fur, but it's justified as they're both an AuthorAvatar, the former of which is {{Satan}}.
** Both Drip and Lita have bright blue fur (though it's easy to infer that Lita inherited it from Drip). Penelope in the arc "Been Reading Job" also has maroon fur.
** In some of the early colored arcs such as "Falling Angels," the population is positively Day-Glo.
----

* AuthorAvatar: [[http://www.pholph.com/strip.php?id=5&sid=670 Pepe Val Pew]] -- TheDevil when shadowed (same character model).

*** Although we're told that anyone can find redemption if they realize their sin, repent of their ways and ask for forgiveness, but that second one is virtually impossible because, surprise, you're ''already in Hell''. There are a few instances of people having the necessary epiphany and allowing their pupils to widen again, but they're still in Hell, where committing sin is ''completely unavoidable''.

** One arc has Satan [[spoiler: pointing out that Jack's ongoing efforts to escape Hell mean that someone else will have to take his place if he succeeds, which will be guaranteed to lead to an all-out aversion.]]

* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The souls of the dead appear to have some physical form in both heaven, Hell AND on earth (otherwise they'd fall though the floor) this enables [[OurGhostsAreDifferent the dead to move objects,]] and kill their murderer.