Line #12 YMMV/Empowered


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Emp's low self-esteem: Genuine insecurity or fishing for compliments? While it's obvious that she does have some body issues, Elissa's circle of friends is so genuine and accepting of her that it becomes much harder to believe that she hasn't become more comfortable with herself over time. It doesn't help that she lays it on pretty thick that she thinks her curvaceous body is fat and undesirable despite her boyfriend's refutations.
3	** Just how accurate are Sistah Spooky's recollections of her youth? Was every other girl in her school really an Aryan uberhotty? Or was that just how Theresa perceived them? How much was she bullied? Clearly she was bullied, but was it really by everyone, or did it just feel that way to her? And was she really bullied for her looks, or because she was gay? In one of her flashbacks we see one of her schoolmates angrily accusing her of having tried to kiss her. For that matter, just how gay is she? We know she had sex with a man on one occasion, but that was to hurt Emp, at least primarily. Is she basically straight, but Mindf██k was the exception, or is she bi, or is she gay, and Mindf██k was her type? Could it be that her issues with blondes are, in a sense, sour grapes? That is, blondes are her type, but because of her experiences in school, she so fears rejection by them that she compensates by hating them before they have a chance to reject her?
4	** In ''High School Hell'', one item is cleared up; the Infernal Service Provider's package was quite clearly aimed at turning women into Aryan superhotties, and over ''fifty'' girls accepted his deal, losing their original appearance in the process.
5	* TheChrisCarterEffect: There are quite a few plot threads that develop throughout the series, and some that are put on the backburner for several volumes. As entertaining as the series is, some fans are nervous that not everything will wrap up properly. This is acknowledged in the afterward of book 8, where Emp gripes about people always asking the author if he has an ending planned.
6	* CompleteMonster: For such a lighthearted series, Empowered sure manages to get a lot of brutal villains:
7	[[KnightOfCerebus Willy Pete]] is a [[EvilIsBurningHot fire elemental]] who still has a man's appetites, which he satisfies with rape—-he favors the eye sockets--and killing, which, in his case, are one and the same, thanks to his constantly superheated body. Because all normal food is incinerated on contact with him, he resorts to [[ImAHumanitarian eating superheroes and supervillains]]. He doesn't even need to eat; he just does it because he likes the taste. Oh, and he usually eats someone ''while'' raping them. At the end of Volume 5, he [[HeroKiller incinerates 8 of the 10 supers sent to stop him]], and then, just for fun, followed this up by throwing as much fire as he could through the portal they came through without even knowing what was on the other end, thereby forcing [[spoiler:Mindfk]] into a HeroicSacrifice to save Emp.
8	** [[ArchnemesisDad Ninjette's father]] only appears for a few panels, in Volume 7, but manages a [[AbusiveParents lot of evil]], and is likely the reason that Ninjette herself is an alcoholic like her father. He starts by [[SadistTeacher putting her]] through TrainingFromHell, and emotionally abused her to the point where she still has self-esteem issues. Later on, when she is still underage, he betrothed his daughter to a DirtyOldMan of an allied clan, Ninjette tried to lose her virginity, as the deal was for a virgin bride, but her clan was too frightened of her father to take her up on the offer. Instead, she slept with her childhood friend who was prince of an allied clan. Her father's reaction was to slaughter his bodyguards, castrate the prince and stuff his genitals in his mouth before ripping his head off, fully knowing there'd be a war, despite being formerly allied with the clan. He then proceeded to beat his daughter so that for some she wouldn't "be able to walk…or eat solid food, or piss without blood…" In addition, he's been shown as raping Oyuki, a genin around his daughter's age---in a way "anatomically unlikely to induce pregnancy"--and hires another clan to drag his runaway daughter back to the clan without hands or feet to serve as a broodmare. Ninjette's father, despite only being a human with no superpowers, is [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters one of the most vile characters]] in the series.
9	* CrackPairing: The author himself has stated that he didn't expect the relationship between Ninjette and the Caged Demonwolf to become so... supportive.
10	* CrossesTheLineTwice: Much (if not most) of the humour comes from how absolutely over-the-top horrific the situations depicted are. Adam Warren has mentioned that this trope is actually trickier to pull off than it looks - he has to be constantly careful to make things just tasteless enough that they're funny, without being so tasteless that it crosses the line a ''third'' time and goes back to just being gross.
11	* FriendlyFandoms: There's been quite a few people that have noticed how much the series has in common with ''Anime/OnePunchMan'', what with all the superhero parody, kooky powers and supposed "loser" main protagonist. Not to mention [[CerebusSyndrome that when it stops being funny, it REALLY stops being funny]].
12	* IronWoobie: Emp takes all the horrible luck and daily humiliation brought about by her unreliable supersuit. She cries, moans, bitches, gets scared... and then she ''will'' get back up again, because she is a '''hero'''.
13	* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Ninjette. Ask anyone and they may pair her with [[spoiler:the Maidman]], [=ThugBoy=], Empowered, [[CrackPairing Caged Demonwolf]]. Basically any main character.
14	* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: On one metatextual page, Emp says she tried to get some assurance from the author that he wouldn't kill off a character as prominent as Ninjette. Warren replied with an EvilLaugh that he liked [[spoiler:Mindf██k]] too.
15	* {{Moe}}: Empowered. Part of what attracted [=ThugBoy=] to her in their first encounter.
16	* MoralEventHorizon: In ''Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell'', Queen Bee Ashley solves the problem of too many blondes sharing too little mystical power [[spoiler:by roasting the other girls alive in a deathtrap supposedly meant for the title characters]].
17	* OneTrueThreesome: The series keeps dancing on the edge of making the three main characters (Emp, [=ThugBoy=], and Ninjette) into an outright threesome. Emp is a three-drink bisexual who hits on Ninjette when drunk, Ninjette is barely able to hide her attraction to [=ThugBoy=] ("Aieee! Me canoe be swampin"!). Not sure if Ninjette has ever shown any attraction to Emp or [=ThugBoy=] to Ninjette, but it wouldn't take much prompting. Anyone's guess if this ends up as a love triangle or a ménage à trois... but the Demonwolf definitely has an [[YuriFan opinion]] on how it [[LargeHam SHOULD BE.]]\
18	And for additional rampant speculation fuel, witness Volume 5 in which Ninjette encounters a fellow (female) ninja disguised as [=ThugBoy=], who proceeds to passionately kiss her until detected. Ninjette then claims the disguise was obvious because the ninja "kisses like a girl". A) This is yet more evidence that Ninjette has some interest in [=ThugBoy=] and B) Saying someone kisses like a girl implies the speaker actually knows what it's like to kiss a girl! So... yeah.
19	** Ninjette's done more than kiss a girl: a little earlier in that Vol. 5 story, [[spoiler:we learn that Ninjette consummated a woman's marriage disguised as her new husband.]]
20	** Oh, [=ThugBoy=]'s attracted to Ninjette: seeing her drop her panties or having her cuddle up against him gets his elephant trumpeting.
21	*** And then there is 'Jette's [[LuminescentBlush flushed]] contemplation on how sexy Emp is. It seems all the linkages are there.
22	*** Volume 10 has the Trio in bed together cuddling in their underwear. If that's not High Octane Ship Fuel, I don't know what is.
23	* PeripheryDemographic: While the large amounts of {{Fanservice}} are ostensibly geared towards a young adult male audience the comic has a lot of female fans who enjoy it due to the interesting writing for the female characters and the presence of relatable themes such as empowerment and body image.
24	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The {{Jerkass}}-to-genuine-good-guy ratio leans pretty hard in the {{Jerkass}} direction and CerebusRetcon is also on a high ratio (''at least'' Volumes 7 and 8). The titular heroine being a FailureHero with an elephant-sized dose of DudeWheresMyRespect (and other DysfunctionJunction issues) balancing out her {{Determinator}} attitude can also trigger this. On top of all this, the villains just keep getting stronger and more horrific while the heroes fail to come anywhere close to being strong enough to threaten them.
25	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: As Adam Warren himself pointed out, a bit near the end of the fifth volume has the villain Anglerfish claim that his son didn't deserve his CruelAndUnusualDeath, as he never committed any serious crimes and only ever used his lurelight to get laid. While the exact details of how he used his powers aren't really elaborated on, considering that Anglerfish's abilities are to trap people who see his light in a hypnotic illusion, many readers took this to mean that he was using it to mindcontrol people into sleeping with him--which would mean the guy was a rapist, and therefore an AssholeVictim at best.
26	* TheWoobie:
27	** Anglerfish, who laments on [[spoiler: the murder of his son (Kid Anglerfish), Katastrophe, and Baby Bird and how the Superhomeys didn't care just because they were villains.]]
28	** Mindf██k, who essentially mindraped herself in order to force herself to be a good person. To make matters even more tragic, this contributes to her reasoning behind her [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]]: Empowered is a genuinely good person, whereas Mindf██k (in her mind) isn't because she had to force herself to be one.
29	** Empowered. Almost every single act of competence and badassery and happiness she gets throughout the series gets actively denied by the {{Jerkass}} part of the cast (who have more of an influence over AllOfTheOtherReindeer than the reasonable part of the cast... doesn't help that they are still smart enough that they manage to pull a JerkassHasAPoint even on the most blatantly unfair of moments), and then we find out stuff like her [[spoiler:having seen her dad die of an aneurysm in front of her when she was a child, ''while he was preparing breakfast for her'', and the constant implications that she would be even more badass if she wasn't so absurdly fraught with self-doubt]]. It's not "one step forward, two steps back" with her, it's more like "one step forward, '''ONE MILE''' back".
30	%%** [[spoiler:Sistah Spooky may be a snide bitch, but she's an absolute wreck in v.6; it's hard to watch.]]
31	%%** '''NINJETTE.''' After reading [[TraumaCongaLine Vol. 7,]] it's ''no'' wonder [[DrowningMySorrows why she drinks all the time.]]

Context YMMV / Empowered