History Webcomic / SluggyFreelance

* IHaveNothingToSayToThat: Zoe, in [[http://archives.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=030731 this strip.]]

* AliensAndMonsters: This comic has plenty of aliens, demons, and vampires the cast kill without a qualm, even though they also count several aliens, demons, and vampires among their friends. Aylee called Torg out on this when he spent his time in another dimension killing the monstrous residents in [[ComedicSociopathy sadistic and hilarious ways]].

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Getting speared by the squid-spear turns you into a demon/mutant and you invariably join forces with whomever speared you, regardless of prior affiliations or what you think of the guy who speared you. This applies to both the Dimension of Pain demons and Pang's mutant brigade. It only kind of works on the AlwaysLawfulGood inhabitants of the Dimension of Lame; they become wussy demons.

* LipLosses: During "Oceans Unmoving II" arc, pirate captain Donaly was interrogated/tortured by [[spoiler:Sir John Jacobs]]'s men. Unfortunately for both parties, the new interrogation knives were "amazingly sharp" and Donaly's lips were accidentally cut off, so they couldn't stop him from [[ScreamsLikeAGirl screaming]]. They managed to calm him down long enough to give them information, but he had trouble with "m", "b", and "p" sounds.

** At one point, Gwynn makes a DealWithTheDevil with a group of demon [[YourSoulIsMine soul merchants]]. They do not have physical forms, but they do possess the power of a PhysicalGod.

** At one point, Zoe reports freakish activity at Clonegressive's offices, but the cops are completely dismissive of her claims. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint All they saw]] was a biologically engineered spaceship which blew the roof of the building. No evidence of brain eating bugs. They proceed to accuse her of making up stories.

* MadScientist: Riff.

* MrsClaus
* MsFanservice: Val. Oasis. Sasha.

* RentAZilla

* RomanticFalseLead: Leo.

* SealedEvilInACan

* SnowballFight

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Blinky and Clyde.
* TimeTravel

* BigBad: K'Z'K and Hereti Corp for the overall story. Sir John Jacobs in the Oceans Unmoving arc.

** Vrykolakas vampires originate from Greece. They are looked down on by other vampires as trashy and were once kept as slaves by other vampires. Vrykos cannot fly (after a {{Retcon}}), but they are pretty good at jumping. They can turn others into vampires just by draining them dry. They are unaffected by many of the usual weaknesses, and have the greatest numbers and unity, but are the weakest vampire type overall. A Vrykolas vampire can become a Vryko master, recovering some independence and increased magical power, by draining dry family members. Vryko masters can enter a mist form and have total control over their sires, who effectively become little more than extensions of their own minds. Two of the Vryko masters seen like to keep attractive sires of the opposite sex. All Vryko answer to a higher Vryko up to the Queen, and should someone higher in the chain be staked, normal Vrykos will perish as well, and even the strongest will be greatly weakened.

* HeelRealization: Riff, when he realizes that HeretiCorp was an evil organization bent on using his friends for their diabolical ends, and discovers that his scientific reports back to them (which held little interest to them until he started talking about the several levels of crazy that happens in his life on a daily basis, including transdimensional travel and ''space aliens'') were helping them do just that. In the end he's ''very'' bent on revenge.

** A DeusExMachina is PlayedForLaughs when a group of Hereti Corp goons use their [=DFAs=] to teleport a bunch of missiles to a random dimension. Meanwhile in said dimension, a cult of humanoid cobras are about to kill a family of weasels and [[TemptingFate ask them "Where is your god now, weasels?"]]. Cue aforementioned missiles killing all members of said cult.

* ChildrenInTow: The psychological effect of ducklings following their mother is ''so strong'' that they are used as an emergency barrier during a car chase. Even the bad guys treat them like they are a completely impenetrable wall and make no attempt to continue the chase once they are cut off.

* CallBack: In a [[http://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?chapter=2#1997-10-10 1997 strip]], Riff and Torg goof off teleporting in Trolorian Gogo-Dancers. When one of their coworkers protests, they discuss throwing her out into space but settle for just her clothes. In a [[http://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?chapter=72#2020-03-09 2020 strip]], in the Anima dimension, they encounter members of the same race, who worship the goddess Troloria. During a party, they drunkenly call themselves "Torloria's Ogo-Dancers" and a pair of of party goers discuss whether to toss Riff out of the party or just his clothes.

* EmpathyPet: During the Anima arc, the gang gets stuck in a dimension where the souls of all sapient life manifest a symbolic creature called an "anima" representing their current feelings. This makes deception impossible for most people, with the exception of the bedeviled, who possess corrupted animas. As a result, it is one of the friendliest and most peaceful dimensions that gang has ever visited, at least when it comes to sapient folk interactions (the wild natural fauna on the other hand included deadly giant monsters).

** In the Anima dimension, evil people figured out how to invoke YourSoulIsMine, allowing them to increase their psychic power by killing other people and stealing their animas. They annihilated most of the population stealing animas, bringing the about the downfall of their entire civilization and continued to hunt people down even afterwards. The situation got so bad that it was ultimately only resolved via [[spoiler:DivineIntervention, when the goddess in charge of their world was forced to rewrite how the entire anima system worked.]]

* ScavengerWorld: The Anima Dimension develops to become an extremely high tech civilization, complete with {{Brain Computer Interface}}s, {{Robot Maid}}s, and hover technology. Then they figure out how to [[YourSoulIsMine murder people and and steal their animas]] for greater psychic power, triggering a massive war that kills off most of the population. The survivors are left too busy hiding from anima hunters to maintain their civilization, and it ultimately takes thousands of years for the situation to stabilize. By the time it finally does, they have reverted to an agrarian society, albeit with some high tech leftover to scavenge.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Getting speared by the squid-spear turns you into a demon/mutant and you invariably join forces with whomever speared you, regardless of prior affiliations or what you think of the guy who speared you. This applies to both the Dimension of Pain demons and Pang's mutant brigade.

In its time, it has shifted from being a simple gag comic with rather short arcs to a complex tragicomic tale of friends living in a mad world mixing elements from just about every genre, trying to find fulfilling lives in it, and occasionally saving it. It has helped create or popularize a ton of webcomic tropes, and it repeatedly hangs [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] over every single trope it uses, and [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] a few dozen more.