History Webcomic / LighterThanHeir

--> '''Hertz:''' Ha! No. If I was your mom... '''I''' wouldn't even '''be''' here.

* MoodWhiplash: After [[spoiler: getting treated to seeing whatever's left of her dad]], we cut immediately to a flashback of an adorable Zeppelin celebrating her fifth birthday.

* WellDoneDaughterGirl: Zepplin suffers from this bad in regards to her father. What makes it brutal is that he died a war hero when she was a little girl.

* {{AKA47}}: [[http://www.lighterthanheir.com/comics/1459468780-542.png The guns in the hands of the Steinbech protagonists]] as they go off to catch a ride on a boat for a mission strongly resembles [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/FG42.jpg late-war FG 42s]] (seen on the bottom).

A webcomic by Melissa Albino, aka Nalem, ''[[http://www.lighterthanheir.com/ Lighter Than Heir]]'' is the story of Zeppelin von Schultheiss, a volant (flying human) girl who's tired of living in the shadow of her famous father. Growing up as the only daughter of deceased war hero left Zeppelin with high expectations and a massive chip on her shoulder, so she signed up for the military as soon as she could, determined to become an even bigger war hero than he was. With an ego as big as hers, she'll be in for a surprise, because the army is not known for catering to the whims of 19 year old girls, even if they are the only daughter of the late, great Major Hemmel Von Schultheiss.

Updates every Tuesday and Friday.

* AdultFear: A lot of chilling things in this story can happen in real life.
** Being strangled to death.
** Being tortured to death in a human experiment.

** Soldiers killing children. [[note]]When one commenter complained about this scene being over-the-top, the author sarcastically stated that such things don't happen in real life and then promptly linked to a news article about something similar happening in real life.[[/note]]
** Your home country being invaded by an enemy that does not value civilian lives.
** Being imprisoned by your country's government because of your ancestry.

* AmusingInjuries: Roth unnecessarily knees Schultz [[GroinAttack in the groin]] during a hand-to-hand exercise, which is naturally inherently funny. One of Roth's fingers gets shot off in a training accident, and it is treated as humorous (it gets reattached). Averted with most of the other injuries shown, which are treated seriously.
* AnArmAndALeg: The comic does not shy away from showing the horrific effects of military weaponry. Fortunately for Steinbach's soldiers, their ArtificialLimbs are top-notch.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: [[spoiler: The Zamoran Government.]] The similarities include[[spoiler: being forbidden from holding a military after losing a war with a neighbor country, being resentful with said neighbor, building up a formidable military in secrecy, performing grisly human experiments on unwilling victims in secret laboratories, being obsessed with genetic "superiority", launching surprize attacks without warning, and massacring entire cities. [[http://www.lighterthanheir.com/comic/467-destroyed Even their banner looks similar to the one used by Nazi Germany]].]].

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Volents are said to be so buoyant that they can't sink, like a balloon. Zeppelin later uses this to crush a Volent by pressing them against the water. Anyone who has actually tried to hold a inflatable ball under water will know however that it's certainly ''possible'' to submerge something very buoyant (and it won't be harmed), it's just difficult.
* AssholeVictim: The Zamoran farmer who the squad robs and who Zeppelin knocks out. While he was indeed defending his farm from robbers, [[http://www.lighterthanheir.com/comic/303-so-not-helping when he cornered three of them]] he was going to murder them in cold blood instead of simply holding them until the police arrive.
* BlackAndGreyMorality: Neither Steinbech nor Zamora are really upstanding countries, but the former is shown to be less brutal than the latter. [[spoiler: Steinbech holds racist attitudes towards Zamorans, used firebombs on Zamorian Cities during the last war, and during the current war handed power from a freely elected parliament to a military dictatorship. However the Zamorians perform grisly human experiments in an effort to produce super soldiers, assassinated the Steinbech Prime Minister, and attacked Steinbech cities unprovoked.]]
* BloodKnight: Zeppelin, shading into TheBerserker after she escapes Doctor Villalobos. Face her in combat and she will kill you, even if she has to sacrifice parts of her own body to do so. Already HotBlooded with a hair-trigger BerserkButton and a well-founded hatred for the Zamorans, Zeppelin is teetering on the brink of becoming something much worse. Hertz recognizes the signs even if nobody else does.
* BreakTheHaughty: Austerlitz admits that a big part of his DrillSergeantNasty training was supposed to do this for Zeppelin. Despite it failing, he grudgingly lets her graduate from training with the rest. [[spoiler: Her disastrous tour of Zamora and finding her father's butchered corpse]] have done a much better job of being this trope.
* CerebusSyndrome: Even in its more violent and dramatic bits, the strip stays relatively lighthearted - until Zeppelin [[spoiler:is vivisected, then finds her father's corpse]], at which point [[TwoLinesNoWaiting all the plotlines]] start to get very dark, very fast. The comic picks up with lightheartedness there after, but grimness sits alongside it very clearly.
* CycleOfRevenge: The Zamorans still resent Steinbech's actions during the war [[spoiler:against Boyarov]], to the point of infiltrating their bases and sabotaging their weapons. This, understandably, annoys the Steiners, and around and around it goes. Roth is nearly killed by a scout who beats him bloody because she blames Steiners for her family's death when she was eight--never mind that he was twelve at the time, and thus clearly not in any way responsible.

* DisappearedDad: Zeppelin is still angry at her father for failing to return. [[spoiler: Finding out just what happened to him, that he was tortured to death and vivisected by Zamoran Scientists, is even worse]].

* FireForgedFriends: The different members of the squad become less hostile towards each other as the circumstances they endure become progressively worse. [[spoiler: Especially when the war begins.]]
* {{Flight}}: A rare few humans, such as Zeppelin and her father before her, are "volants", capable of unaided flight. It's not very well known how they've come about, how common they are, or just what makes a volant, but it does seem to be naturally occurring, and they ''are'' a known quantity in the world; Hemmel was sought out to join the Steinbech military specifically so he could be groomed as a war hero and icon. [[spoiler:At some point before the events of the comic started, Zamora started experimenting on humans to try and "induce" volant traits in humans, and are eventually capable of mass-producing them for wartime.]] Of note, despite the rough technology level of the setting, Volants are the ''only'' current source of human flight, making them all the more valuable.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: A bystander comments that Zepplin's mom has seen better days in the 6th comic...because it's revealed she was a pinup girl for propaganda in the previous war 549 comics later.
* FullBoarAction: At one point the squad needs to capture some wild boars.
* HeadInTheSandManagement: The Steinbech Chancellor tried to use diplomacy to prevent another war [[spoiler: even after the Zamoran Military attacked an extraction convoy and tortured three of his own soldiers. He ends up being assassinated by Zamoran Sniper and control of the government is given over to the Steinbech military.]]

** Zeppelin, after killing four Zamorian Volants and after [[spoiler: finding her father's mutilated corpse]].
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: A more accidental version though no less unpleasant - Vogel mentions his family is very scatterbrained, and elaborates with an anecdote of his mother struggling for three hours to find him after forgetting she strapped him to his back while he was young. Schultz states that he might actually be safer in Steinbach, and even Roth (who was a family-less ConMan that was punched in the jaw so much he had to get a titanium replacement) seemed horrified.
* HurricaneOfPuns: Page 351 is basically Roth and Hertz making puns. [[LamePunReaction Even one of the captive Zamoran Guards]] begs them to stop.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** For a country that hates all machines, the Zamorans sure have a lot of guns and at least one radar station.
** The scientist in charge of the Zamoran volant project claims that human enhancement is totally different than the technology the Zamorans hate. However, she seems to be a bit sarcastic and just seems to be paying lip service to the idea. She doesn't seem to be Zamoran at all, and even experimented on Steiners in the past.

** Fleischer made one with Hertz's help, because she wanted one.
** [[spoiler:Later becomes a standard unit in the Steinbech military. [[LensmanArmsRace Of course, now Zamora has genetically engineered Volants...]]]]
* IWasQuiteALooker: Zeppelin's mother. So much that he was a pin-up girl for war propganda, as it turns out.
* {{Jerkass}}: Roth and Austerlitz, Hertz to an extent, but Zeppelin is the main offender.

* LastNameBasis: The characters being in the military, they usually refer to each other by last name.
* LensmanArmsRace: Zamoran volant super soldiers versus Steiner mechas.

* MauveShirt: The Zamoran security forces that apprehend Hertz and Roth get names and a bit of characterization. [[spoiler:Then Zeppelin kills them all while she's in shock after seeing her father's dissected corpse.]]
* MildlyMilitary: Played with. The majority of the military does run on fairly tight discipline. The squad of the protagonists...not so much. The military brass doesn't seem overly concerned, though. [[spoiler:This is because they are more focused on the possibility of the war re-starting.]]

** Almost literally! After Ria expresses apprehension at having to kill a person, Zeppelin breaks the tension by humorously shaking the entire squad around the back of the truck they were in because she decided to drive on the ground instead of the road for a spell.
* MotivationalLie: Captain Nora orders everyone to bring back one wild boar from Schweinefleisch Island or get left behind. When Ria's team brings back one and is about to head back to their trap for more, she admits she doesn't really leave people behind. A bearded man in rags shows up on the beach demanding revenge, but Nora points out he had gotten lost and they waited two days for him, and it happened ''last month'' (meaning he already had a long beard). He settles for being rescued from the island.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Fritz Roth is on the receiving end of one after he gets captured by a Zamorian Guard.
* OhCrap: How the squad reacts [[spoiler: When the government announces the war against Zamora]].
** A Zamoran security guard understandably has this reaction after he watches [[spoiler:Zeppelin toss his comrade through ''a wall'' with her Volant powers. She makes good on his fears by spearing him to death using the dissection machine Hemmel was connected to.]]
* OneDegreeOfSeparation: [[spoiler: Sergeant Austerlitz (the sergeant who trained Zeppelin), Major Hohenhut (the person Zeppelin's squad answers to), and General Eckstein (the military's general of the army and now current head of state) were all squadmates and possibly friends with Zeppelin's father Hemmel. Likewise, Hertz was experimented on as a child by the same scientist who tortured Hemmel to death and tried to vivisect Zeppelin. Finally Vogel (whom Fleisher injured and who Zeppelin's squad had to escort back to Zamora) is a cousin to Kurt Bosque (who tried to strangle Zeppelin to death).]]

** A few pages later we see an unnamed Steinbech Border Guard punching a Zamoran Tourist in the nose.

** When they finally got Vogel home, Hertz and Roth went to use the old Steiner radio tower without asking any questions. Vogel would have been able to tell them that it had been repurposed into a military outpost, and was off limits.

** When they're in prison, the prime minister doesn't believe them either--partly because of the scout lying to her, and partly because the Zamoran they claim to be escorting is nowhere to be found. But at least she started by asking why they were in the country.

* ThePowerOfLegacy: [[spoiler: After Zeppelin finds her father's tortured and mutilated corpse, she states that she won't tell anyone what happened to him and proceeds to burn down the entire facility.]]

* {{Steampunk}}: Some influences are there, such as the machines they pilot and the metallic arm cast.

* SilentSnarker: One of the people standing in line in [[http://www.lighterthanheir.com/comic/010-prima-donna page 10.]]

** Zeppelin starts suffering from PTSD after she kills Zamoran Soldiers, and after she [[spoiler: finds her father's bloody corpse]].
** Klein has become far more withdrawn after she is kills a Zamoran.

* ShurFineGuns: The rifles used by the Steinbech military are ''incredibly'' sensitive and tend to misfire with the slightest jolt, as noted in IJustShotMarvinInTheFace above. [[spoiler:There is also the matter of their rifles [[MadeOfExplodium blowing up in their faces when fired]]...a result of enemy sabotage, but apparently this sabotage was no more than intentional misassembly.]]
* StealthPun: The Steinbech capital is named Schwerpunkt. This is the German word for "Focal point", as a capital tends to be to a country's politics.
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: [[spoiler: Zeppelin wakes up (after having being shot down) cocooned inside a steampunk-ish version of this.]]

* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Though already capable of flight well before the events of the comic started, Zeppelin learned a few new tricks [[spoiler:in desperation to escape her capture and torture in Zamora]], gaining the power to BlowYouAway.
* WalkOnWater: Anyone who's a volant is capable of this due to being buoyant enough not to sink. [[spoiler: Zeppelin uses this to CRUSH an enemy volant's head with her bare hands by forcing him down.]]
* WarIsHell: There are numerous atrocities, combat is brutal, many soldiers die in battle, and those who don't often develop PTSD.

* WhamLine: Page 378. [[spoiler: "...Dad?"]]
* WhyWontYouDie: A frustrated Zeppelin on page 631 [[spoiler: to a thus far quite uncooperative Kurt.]]

** Page 583 [[spoiler: shows a flashback of the first war. Specifically it shows a Boyarov Soldiers gunning down fleeing Zamoran Children in cold blood.]]
** [[http://www.lighterthanheir.com/comic/409-the-good-guys A riot breaks out into a fire fight, and many, including children, get caught in the crossfire.]]

* HeadInTheSandManagement: The Steinbech Chancellor tried to use diplomacy to prevent another war [[spoiler: even after the Zamoran Military attacked an extraction convoy and tortured three of his own soldiers. He ends up being assassinated by an assassin and control of the government is given over to the Steinbech military.]]

* HurricaneOfPuns: Page 351 is basically Roth and Hurtz making puns. [[LamePunReaction Even one of the captive Zamoran Guards]] begs them to stop.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: [[spoiler: Sergeant Austerlitz (the sergeant who trained Zeppelin), Major Hohenhut (the person Zeppelin's squad answers to), and General Eckstein (the military's general of the army and now current head of state) were all squadmates and possibly friends with Zeppelin's father Hemmel. Likewise, Hurtz was experimented on as a child by the same scientist who tortured Hemmel to death and tried to vivisect Zeppelin. Finally Vogel (whom Fleisher injured and who Zeppelin's squad had to escort back to Zamora) is a cousin to Kurt Bosque (who tried to strangle Zeppelin to death).]]

** Hurtz is an inversion [[spoiler: because his PTSD resulted from being experimented on as a child, long before he was ever in the military]].

Updates every Wednesday and Friday.

* EveryoneIsRelated: [[spoiler: Sergeant Austerlitz (the sergeant who trained Zeppelin), Major Hohenhut (the person Zeppelin's squad answers to, and General Eckstein (the military's general of the army and now current head of state) were all squad-mates and possibly friends with Zeppelin's father Hemmel. Likewise Villalobos preformed cruel experiments on both Hurtz and Zeppelin, and tortured Zeppelin's father Hemmel to death.]]

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: [[spoiler: Sergeant Austerlitz (the sergeant who trained Zeppelin), Major Hohenhut (the person Zeppelin's squad answers to, and General Eckstein (the military's general of the army and now current head of state) were all squadmates and possibly friends with Zeppelin's father Hemmel. Likewise, Hurtz was experimented on as a child by the same scientist who tortured Hemmel to death and tried to vivisect Zeppelin, and Vogel is a cousin to Kurt Bosque.]]

* AmusingInjuries: One of Roth's fingers gets shot off in a training accident, and it is treated as humorous (it gets reattached). Averted with most of the other injuries shown, which are treated seriously.
* AnArmAndALeg: The comic does not shy away from showing the horrific effects of military weaponry, resulting in...

* ArtificialLimbs: Seemingly a speciality of Steinbech's technology, not counting their weapons tech. And they don't ''just'' do replacements. Vogel gets a "cast" over his broken arm which is basically a gauntlet, and he's shown being able to move it almost like normal while it's healing.

* CerebusSyndrome: Even in its more violent and dramatic bits, the strip stays relatively lighthearted - until Zeppelin [[spoiler:is vivisected, then finds her father's corpse]], at which point [[TwoLinesNoWaiting all the plotlines]] start to get very dark, very fast.

* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou:

* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[Steinbech and Zamora, actually. A flashback shows Steinbech defending a Zamoran town against Boyarov, ending with its citizens venerating Zeppelin's father Hemmel as a hero; Austerlitz also mentions having yearly visited a Zamoran summer camp as a child and that he can't understand why things have changed and caused the new war since then.]]

* EveryoneIsRelated: [[spoiler: Sergeant Austerlitz (the sergeant who trained Zeppelin), Major Hohenhut (the person Zeppelin's squad answers to, and General Eckstein (the military's general of the army and now current head of state) were all squadmates and possibly friends with Zeppelin's father Hemmel. Likewise Hurtz was experimented on as a child by the same scientist who tortured Hemmel to death. And who tried to vivisect Zeppelin.]]

* HeadInTheSandManagement: The Steinbech Chancellor tried to use diplomacy to prevent another war [[spoiler: even after the Zamoran Military attacked an extraction convoy and tortured three of his own soldiers. He ends up being assassinated by a Zamoran Assassin and control of the government is given over to the Steinbech military.]]

* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: A more accidental version though no less unpleasant - a Zamoran man the protagonists are escorting mentions his family is very scatterbrained, and elaborates with an anecdote of his mother struggling for three hours to find him after forgetting she strapped him to his back while he was young. Schultz states that he might actually be safer in Steinbach, and even Roth (who was a family-less ConMan that punched in the jaw so much he had to get a titanium replacement) seemed horrified.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Sergeant Major Austerlitz, Zeppelin's father, General Eckstein and the commander in charge of the squad's infiltration mission were all in the same squad together 14 years ago.

** One page shows Zeppelin causing a Zamoran to fall off a high wall after catching him trying to sneak over it.

** Going by the names and general behavior, the Steiners are obviously German in heritage, with some of them (including Zeppelin) spouting off a few phrases in German from time to time.

** When [[spoiler: Hurtz]] is in jail and falsely accused of treason and attempted murder, the soldier guarding him tries to murder him in cold blood because he keeps talking. [[LaserGuidedKarma The gun explodes immediately, killing said soldier]].

* PoliceState: When Steinebech enters a state of war, the civilian government steps down and the military takes full control of the country. When Steinebech went to war against Zamora, the first thing General Eckstein did was have any Zamoran or anyone of Zamoran descent arrested on suspicion of espionage.

* ShurFineGuns: The rifles used by the Steinbech military are ''incredibly'' sensitive and tend to misfire with the slightest jolt, as noted in IJustShotMarvinInTheFace above. [[spoiler:There is also the matter of their rifles [[MadeOfExplodium blowing up in their faces when fired,]] but at least that one was a result of enemy sabotage.]]

* FantasticRacism: Both Steinbech and Zamora hold racist attitudes against each other.

* ArtEvolution: The art style noticeably improves over time. Just compare one of the early strips with a later strip.

* WalkOnWater: Anyone who's a volant is capable of this due to being buoyant enough not to sink. [[spoiler: Zeppelin uses this to [[NightmareFuel CRUSH an enemy volant's head with her bare hands by forcing him down.]]]]

* EveryoneIsRelated: [[spoiler: Sergeant Austerlitz (the sergeant who trained Zeppelin), Major Hohenhut (the person Zeppelin's squad answers to, and General Eckstein (the current head of the government) were all squadmates and possibly friends with Zeppelin's father Hemmel. Likewise Hurtz was experimented on as a child by the same scientist who tortured Hemmel to death. And who tried to vivisect Zeppelin.]]

** For a country that hates all machines, the Zamorans sure have a lot of guns.

** Fleischer have made one with Hertz's help, because she wanted one.

** [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Jerks With A Heart Of Gold]]: Roth when Fleischer's around, Austerlitz due to actually wanting to create great soldiers ([[ComedicSociopathy doesn't stop him from taking amusement in other's pain.]])
* LensmanArmsRace: Looks it's heading this way with Zamoran volant super soldiers versus Steiner mechas.

* TheMole: It becomes very clear early on that there is one on the training grounds. [[spoiler:It turns out to be Kurt Grunwald, who not only feigned being broken by the training, but is also secretly a volant like Zepplin.]]

* BreakTheHaughty: Austerlitz admits that a big part of his DrillSergeantNasty training was supposed to do this for Zeppelin. Despite it failing, he grudgingly lets her graduate from training with the rest. Time will tell if this actually happens.
** [[spoiler: Her disastrous tour of Zamora and finding her father's butchered corpse]] have done a much better job of being this trope.

* AssholeVictim: The Zamoran farmer who the squad robs and who Zeppelin knocks out. While he was indeed defending his farm from robbers, [[http://www.lighterthanheir.com/comic/303-so-not-helping when he cornered three of them]] he was going to murder them in cold blood instead of simply holding them until the police arrive.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Neither Steinbech nor Zamora are really upstanding countries, but the former is shown to be less brutal than the latter. [[spoiler: Steinbech holds racist attitudes towards Zamorans, used firebombs on Zamorian Cities during the last war, and during the current war handed power from a freely elected parliament to a military dictatorship. However the Zamorians perform grisly human experiments in an effort to produce super soldiers, assassinated the Steinbech Prime Minister, and attacked Steinbech cities.]]

* AmusingInjuries: One of Roth's fingers gets shot off in a training accident, and it is treated as humorous. Averted with most of the other injuries shown, which are treated seriously.

* ArtificialLimbs: The Steiners use their mecha technology to replace the limbs that have been blown (or sliced, or burned) off of their soldiers.

[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Ada Fleischer, Fritz Roth, Zeppelin von Schultheiss]], Emmerich Hertz, Ria Klein, and Mathis Schultz.]]