History Webcomic / TheWaterPhoenixKing

''[[http://www.waterphoenixking.com/ The Water Phoenix King]]'' is a webcomic most simply described by its creator, Kyle Marquis (also the writer/artist of ''[[http://brokenspacecomic.com/ Broken Space]]'' and designer of role-playing game ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression''), as a [[NotableFantasyWebcomics mythic fantasy serial]] which updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which is absolutely true.

As of September 14th, 2015, the comic is complete and can be read for free online at waterphoenixking.com

* DistressedDamsel: Subverted, in that people often ''expect'' Anthem to be this, right before she reaches for the nearest sharp implement or [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu confounds]] the EldritchAbomination with logic and statistics.

* CloningBlues: As of chapter 17, [[spoiler:Anthem uploaded her mind to Okeshida and made a backup copy of her mind for her body to use]]. She's depressed about her existential crisis for about a week. Played for laughs when Gilgam and Savi understand what she's saying.
--> [[spoiler:'''Anthem''']]: So it's like my mind has been transferred, except that we take a nonsimilar set of thought processes and subconscious routines-
--> '''Gilgam''': Software Emulation.
--> [[spoiler:'''Anthem''']]: Oh right, you guys have lived with machines.

After that, it gets significantly more complicated to explain — but can equally truthfully be called an epic HighFantasy adventure about a GenreSavvy TeenGenius MagicalGirlWarrior who is also rather an AntiHero and more than a little AxCrazy — her first exchange with her newly-revealed SpiritAdvisor is a demand to assist her in DisposingOfABody '''''not''''' the one from her ''first'' AccidentalMurder — but who doesn’t really ''want'' to be Evil (that business of summoning the EldritchAbomination was a ''complete'' accident), her angst-ridden nerdy (yet {{Bishonen}}!) MentorArchetype guardian FallenAngel who constantly protests his unheroic inadequacy before flinging himself into the fray, the [[ShellShockedVeteran traumatized]] [[ProudScholarRace former lawyer]] with the [[ScarsAreForever horrific scar]] currently working as a [[ParttimeHero bartender/bouncer/janitor]] who’s just crawled back from the DespairEventHorizon after [[TheDrifter ten years in the wilderness]] considering his [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld immortality]] a curse [[WhoWantsToLiveForever not a blessing]] to [[RetiredGunfighter take up his gun]] in one of the strangest rookie-veteran team-ups ever, and the rest of the RagtagBunchOfMisfits who either through fate or chance -- if there ''is'' any difference in this universe — have all [[YouAllMeetInAnInn Met In An Inn]] which has turned out to be the InnBetweenTheWorlds and stayed there under the protection of the [[TheTrickster Goddess of the Crossroads]] to try to save their country, and ultimately their homeworld itself, from the impending Doom that has turned out to be the inevitable consequence of humanity overthrowing the titular GodEmperor in a war that ended up embroiling nearly everyone on — or off — the planet. (Turns out [[FisherKing The King is the Land]] holds doubly true [[PhysicalGod when “divine right” is literal]].)

* VisualInnuendo: There is a subtle bit of risque humor in Chapter 1 over the circumstances in which Anthem aquires her sword: she picks it up from where the macho, bullying Sergeant Deemo -- think Nobby Nobbs with none of the latter's good qualities -- has thrown it aside, revealed as an abject coward when the crisis comes...and earlier, when he tried to intimidate her, she employed aristocratic hauteur to quell him, calling him a "pitiful eunuch". Then she uses his discarded blade to [[spoiler: chop off the sword-hand]] of the first of a bunch of would-be rapists, [[YouGotSpunk cutting short their gloating.]] (It may not be entirely coincidental that her first deliberate homicide [[http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/DemeterTreasures.html was done with a sickle,]] either.) Swords run the gamut in this fantasy setting from BoringButPractical tools (hur, hur -- no, not ''that'' kind of tool) to [[CoolSword impossible elemental creations]] so not surprising that their symbolism is all over the map, too.

* TheChick: Averted, subverted, ''pre''verted, you name it. Even if Anthem has performed [[HealingHands magical healing]] on occasion -- No.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Averted. The inn's serving girls who freelance as prostitutes are a varied crew of individuals with their own aims and agendas; there's [[AlphaBitch the bossy one]], the quiet one, and the silly one, but each of them, though (so far) secondary characters, have backstories and aspirations beyond "pleasing men" and their work is neither glamorized nor handled exploitatively, but represented as a complicated thing where natural desires, social conventions, and moral hypocrisies collide in multiple standards. They're not "[[TheChick useless]]" either: [[spoiler: all of them help reload crossbows during the fighting in Chapter 3, and more than that -- a particularly touching moment occurs when Kei and Meyra, both in borrowed arrow-proof tabards and Meyra clutching a bloody dagger, hug silently after the battle.]] Since then, there's been a bit of a ShipTease between the leader of the triad, Shreyas, and the Captain of the Bison Guards, whose wounds she tended as well as other things -- whether this is a political gambit or TrueLove leading to a [[http://www.amazon.com/Pot-Gold-Other-Plays-Classics/dp/0140441492/ref=pd_sim_b_1 New Comedy farce scenario]] remains to be seen.

* UpToEleven: Book 4 is basically this. Stuck in a rut, with dead victims and live bandits still turning up in your backyard despite your best efforts? [[CrapsackWorld Nothing you do seeming to halt the inevitable slide towards chaos]]? Not to mention the drearier aspects of your [[AlmightyJanitor decidedly-unglamorous day job]] -- how can we make this worse? Hey, let's have your old army buddy the dashing cavalry officer show up full of grand ideas to take charge and set things right! Never mind you never wanted a military career and he's got his own problems by the ton (and his confidence [[BreakTheHaughty won't last past this mission]]) -- this isn't much fun. Guess what! You cannot ''imagine'' how much worse this week is going to get! Or, alternately, are you [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity fighting a rearguard action against your own Dark Side]] and [[EatingLunchAlone losing ground steadily]], while [[ADegreeInUseless making no discernable progress whatsoever on your magical studies]]? Too bad -- you'll be needed to go BE the cavalry once all the ''trained'' fighter- and wizard-types have gotten themselves captured by the Undead Psycho Warlock. (That's right, you think ''you're'' oh-so-evil, huh?) Good luck with that! Oh, and did we mention that your [[TheRival old nemesis]] is back, with [[TookALevelInBadass yet another power upgrade]]? Have fun! You guys are gonna ''wish'' it was still boring old yesterday!
** The final battle is nothing less than an epic showdown between all the main characters and their armies, versus one insane genetically-augmented hobo with a shotgun, his equally insane army of {{FallenAngel}}s, a flesh golem that puts gundams to shame, and of course, [[MagicMeteor the giant liquid meteor]] the size of a moon hurtling towards the planet.

* WhiteMaskOfDoom: The Forgers of Pain. They're far down into the UncannyValley due to their puppet-like aspects.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Several infamous war crimes and atrocities have been alluded to, but we have only seen one so far in flashbacks, during Chapter 2 during the conversation with the Escavite representatives, when Gilgam recalls stumbling into a scene of bodies stacked like cordwood after a retaliatory genocide committed by the alliance.

* ScaryShinyGlasses / TheGlassesComeOff: Both averted. Kawunei only takes his glasses off to clean or fiddle with when it's quiet and safe, and he was plenty scary long before we ever saw his lenses flash in the darkness. (Something about the way he's [[FriendlySniper quiet and polite and pleasant up until the instant he decides it's time to kill someone]], and then ''does'' it. And [[spoiler: ''Vish'' defeats him]]!) These tics just seem like little touches of realism. Definitely StoicSpectacles, though his rivals may have mistaken them for NerdGlasses. Might count as {{Megane}} -- YMMV.

* NotSoDifferent: Darumatha to Anthem in its "[[WeCanRuleTogether Join me]]" speeches.

* VirginTension: Completely averted. Anthem's sexual experience has never been stated one way or the other (she has expressed a [[SherlockHolmes Holmesian]] scornful bewilderment at the angst that others go through over matters of sex and love and societal hypocrisies surrounding them/we don't know/it doesn't matter) but at the outset Gilgam assumes that her reason for running away from home was a premarital pregnancy/abortion and subsequent disgrace (in fairness a ''much'' more reasonable assumption than [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow "fleeing an Epic Sorcerous mishap"]]) ... and ''that'' has no affect at all on his chivalrous behavior towards her when they're trapped by a band of fallen knights and retainers turned bandit, as she [[MoreHeroThanThou refuses to leave him]] to [[YouShallNotPass hold them off alone]]: