History Webcomic / ExistentialComics

* AppealToForce: Used by Simone Weill [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/307 when discussing history with Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx]]. For bonus points, Weill's thesis was that force was the driving force of history, making her appeal to force a (somewhat) logically coherent argument.

** Simone Weill's best way to win an argument: Pull a gun on the other side. Then steal their wallets and make them say it's philosophy.

* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Creator/AlbertCamus and Creator/JeanPaulSartre, where the former is shown as being a cool, laid-back womanizer who effortlessly picks up women, while Sartre is a stuffy intellectual, mostly the {{foil}} to Camus's barbs. This may ''somewhat'' reflect their real-life relationship. Also Zeno of Citium and Zeno of Elea, depicted as roommates in the mode of ''Theatre/TheOddCouple'', the latter mostly getting on the former's nerves when he used his paradoxes as excuses.

* TheLoonie: Donna Harroway goes halfway between TheLoonie and TheRoleplayer [[https://existentialcomics.com/comic/305 in a Dungeons and Dragons game]], when she conceptualizes her player as a cyborg with a +4 atomic laser cannon and argues that freeflow roleplaying unbound by the limitations of the setting makes for more interesting storytelling. The DungeonMaster (Creator/SimoneDeBeavoir) allows it, on the grounds of atomic lasers and space feminism being cool, outraging Thomas Hobbes and Edmund Burke.

* TheLoonie: Donna Harroway goes halfway between TheLoonie and TheRoleplayer [[https://existentialcomics.com/comic/305 in a Dungeons and Dragons game]], when she conceptualizes her player as a cyborg with a +4 atomic laser cannon and argues that freeflow roleplaying unbound by the limitations of the setting makes for more interesting storytelling. The DungeonMaster (Simone de Beavoir) allows it, on the grounds of atomic lasers and space sci-fi being cool, outraging Thomas Hobbes and Edmund Burke.

* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: Captain Metaphysics' whole shtick is that he can solve complicated metaphysical problems by punching their askers really hard. It's surprisingly effective.

** Creator/KarlMarx is either portrayed as a conquering hero or a [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/203 whiney, lazy alcoholic who blames all of his problems, including stubbed toes, on "the Bourgoise."]]

* TestosteronePoisoning: How Aristotle is portrayed. The author admits that it has very little to do with his philosophy, he just thinks its funny.

* AbusiveParents: David Hume is portrayed as a rather cruel father to his son (Hume didn't actually have any known childrenm along with never marrying) as part of [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/276 demonstrating his philosophy]].

* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate: The issue of how much (if any) free will people have, plus what it even means, is discussed in detail with "[[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/70 A Dialogue On Compatibilism]]". Later, it's argued that in fact the compatibilist view makes more sense and is ''less'' counter-intuitive, contrary to many claims, using ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' (and {{time travel}} in general) [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/278 as an example]].

* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate: The issue of how much (if any) free will people have, plus what it even means, is discussed in detail with "[[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/70 A Dialogue On Compatibilism]]".

* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: Captain Metaphysics' whole shtick is that he can solve complicated metaphysical problems by punching them really hard. It's surprisingly effective.

* HighFantasy: This trope and the associated BlackAndWhiteMorality and AlwaysChaoticEvil are {{Parodied}}[=/=]{{Deconstructed}}. [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/175 Apparently radical leftist intellectuals aren't the best people to invite to]] [[{{Literature/LordOfTheRings}} the Council of Elrond]].

** Corey's personal BerserkButton appears to be people who don't think philosophy is a worthwhile field. There are a number of examples throughout the comics' run, but in particular, see [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/190 this comic.]] Even more, also see TheRant beneath it. It appears Corey is... [[{{Understatement}} not a fan of New Atheism.]] [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/1 Some]] [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/2 of]] [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/other/3 his]] unofficial Comics had mocked Sam Harris in particular as well.

* CantArgueWithElves: You most certainly can when you are Foucault, Chomsky and Fanon. Chomsky, in a parody of his usual style of criticizing America's foreign policy, notes how in a poll conducted ([[VerbalTic by Sindar no less]]) that the greatest threat to Middle-Earth's peace in the eyes of Hobbits, Dwarves, Humans, Trolls and Orcs was the Elves.

* MarySue: Creator/AlbertCamus and Creator/KarlMarx, sometimes.

* MarieSue: Creator/AlbertCamus and Creator/KarlMarx, sometimes.

* LaResistance: The 10th July 2017 comic discusses and spoofs the Existentialists involved in the French Resistance (Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus), noting that it amounted to three people more or less doing the same thing they did during the wartime but somehow convincing themselves that it's actually resisting Nazism. Of course this might be considered unfair if only when placed in context of the historical Resistance, most of which was far tinier than advertised and militarily not as impactful until D-Day, while Sartre ''was'' imprisoned for several months in a POW month after the Fall of France.

* TheSlacker: Zeno of Elea mainly uses his famous paradoxes and the belief that motion is an illusion as an excuse to slack around.

* TheSlacker: Zeno of Elea mainly uses his famous paradoxes and the belief that motion is an illusion as an excuse to snack off.

* FlatCharacter: Whenever Thales of Miletus shows up, the only thing he has to contribute is shouting out "Everything is Water!" Justified, since that's most of what we know about his philosophy today.

*** This becomes a BrickJoke in [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/227 this comic]], where the event described in the last panel's news ticker is "Jean-Paul Sartre sues popular webcomic for libel: "That's not even what radical freedom is"

** The author can fairly be judged as not {{Creator/Socrates}}'s greatest fan, given that every appearance of his is as an annoying gadfly. While even his fans and Socrates himself would probably agree with that to some degree, this isn't shown as really being used in a meaningful or substantive way. Sartre is also shown mostly using his "radical freedom" concept for an excuse to do inane things, and ignoring reservations others have at his advice.
** In one comic, he calls Sartre's account of "bad faith" in ''Being and Nothingness'' "the worst example in the history of philosophy", citing how poorly it illustrates his actual point, and how it seems like he's criticizing a waiter for properly doing his job while he writes books and drinks wine.

* CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: How Creator/KarlMarx usually appears as. Either bare-chested in a circle of German philosophers, the main goal scorer for the group (since he felt it was important for philosophers and thinkers to ''make'' history), and as ''[[Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Mad Marx]]: The Class Warrior" fighting Hayek in single combat and killing Creator/AynRand. In the comic with Chomsky, Fanon and Foucault, he appears as Gimli the Dwarf to join Fanon's proposed socialist Fellowship of Revolutionaries appointed to overthrow all the old oligarchs of Middle-Earth.

** One comic calls Literature/AtlasShrugged "the longest, and arguably the best, train fanfic ever written."