Line #40 YMMV/Lackadaisy


1	* AccidentalAesop: Do not hinge everything on just one person or method. Lackadaisy's poor present status came about from Atlas May having all the clout and influence rather than dividing it up among his inner circle. Not only that, he also didn't spread out to other forms of criminal activity like prostitution and gambling, which became major replacement sources of income for the mafia after Prohibition in real life. So when he died, his empire toppled practically overnight with no other sources of illegal income for the ones who stayed.
2	* AdaptationDisplacement: A good chunk of the wider internet pre-March 2023 had no idea that the original source material was a webcomic, only knowing about the animated shorts. When people came across the comic's website, they initially thought that the ''webcomic was supplementary material to the animation, not the other way round''. Unless they took a look at the date posted on each page or went to Tracy's Website/DeviantArt page, this confusion wouldn't be cleared.
3	* {{Adorkable}}:
4	** Wick. To paraphrase Tracy, he's just a geek for collectible relics, rocks, and bugs. (And liquor.)
5	** Mordecai had his moments in the past, a little boy with a sweater too big for him and a quiet studying habit. [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=400 You can see traces when he's an adult too.]]
6	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
7	** Was Nina right to disown Rocky, who's a bad influence on her already socially awkward son, or is she a manipulative ControlFreak, and it's her fault Calvin is the way he is?
8	*** Attaching on to this, has she truly and completely disowned Rocky, tolerating him just for Calvin's sake, or does she still hold some care for him, only holding him at a distance to prevent another tragedy that could see him leaving for good this time?
9	** Is Rocky merely infatuated with Mitzi, or is he completely obsessed with her? Does he even have romantic feelings for her at all, or is his jealousy of Wick spurred not by romance but at the idea of Wick's [[UnclePennybags funding]] rendering his services to Lackadaisy unneeded?
10	** Did Mitzi really love Atlas? Or did she simply love the money and power that their relationship gave her? Likewise, we have her character in general, as noted on her entry for the character page, is a sweet but sexy widow whose fallen on hard times or is she manipulative seductress who would do anything to get what she wants? Some of her actions suggest that she genuinely loved Atlas (i.e keeping the pearls he gave her), yet others suggest she'd do anything to accomplish her goals (i.e stealing a check from Wick). Either way, it makes it hard to tell what her character and motives are.
11	** Atlas himself, given how little page time he's had. Did he care about any of the Lackadaisy crew, or see them all as a means to build the perfect criminal empire? And if he did, who and how much did he care? Was his death a downfall of his own making, or did it involve either the Lackadaisy or Marigold crews? Was it inevitable, or avoidable?
12	** Should Mordecai be considered a traitor for defecting to the Marigold gang after Atlas' death, or was his resignation a smart decision when it became clear that the Lackadaisy was a sinking ship? Alternatively, was the Lackadaisy likely always going to struggle but Mordecai's defection just made the process that much faster, since he removed both himself ''and'' Viktor from being active triggermen for the speakeasy?
13	** Is Serafine a devout Voodoo devotee, or does she merely use her Voodoo queen persona to entice, intimidate, and manipulate other people?
14	*** Did Serafine carve a Voodoo glyph of protection into Mordecai's chest as a harsh but well-meaning way of protecting him? Did she do so to pressure him into joining her Voodoo circle? Did she merely do it to intimidate him and knock him down a peg?
15	** In the animated short, why does Mordecai let Ivy go rather than shoot her? Does he consider her a relative innocent compared to Rocky and Freckle and thus not deserving of death? Does he consider her no threat and thus NotWorthKilling? Did his time at Lackadaisy leave him with fond memories of Ivy, and/or her father? Did he decide to spare her because she and the others were retreating, meaning shooting them would be dishonorable and/or cowardly? Does she remind him of [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his younger sisters]] on some level? Does he need her alive for some reason? [[spoiler:Given that the comic is heavily implying Mordecai is a FakeDefector, does that factor into why he decides to let the "stragglers from Lackadaisy" live? After all, Ivy is Atlas's ''goddaughter''; if Mordecai is loyal to Atlas, he'd hardly want to wind up killing his goddaughter as collateral for avenging the man's death.]]
16	* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: Tracy has a mastery of perspective, human and animal anatomy, lighting, shading, backgrounds, realism, caricature and expression. This shows in her work even from the beginning, and it only gets more awesome from there. One can tell by her gallery of sketches that even when it's not polished up, her art is very high quality. Her several art tutorials display just as much understanding she has of her craft, to boot.
17	** For specific art, [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=397 this graphic]] for the back of Volume 2 is beautifully rendered in full color.
18	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouNJdh6OWpE Olive Branch]], a catchy and energetic Electroswing tune made by Sepiatonic with great use of techno and brass instruments. It's ''perfect'' for the car chase scene it appears in.
19	** Add in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG8kv9SE-LM Sunset Rose Cocktail]]. A soft, nostalgic intro segueing into something playful and bouncy. A perfect theme tune for the series.
20	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkxW26M_ZJE Liquid Gold]], an awesome, high-energy electroswing piece with vocals sung by none other than Creator/MichaelKovach, the voice of Rocky, himself.
21	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
22	** [[https://lackadaisy.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=486 Lackadaisy Attractive]] deals with Mordecai processing a fan question of why people consider him "attractive". While he rambles on and tries to find a way out of the scene, Mitzi slides in sipping her drink and making faces at the reader, ending with her licking a pawful of mayonnaise from a random jar. Creator Tracy justifies Mitzi's moment with this:
23	--->"''I tried to answer this in earnest, but Mitzi shot down all of my arguments with her face.''"
24	** [[https://www.lackadaisy.com/comic.php?comicid=14 Lackadaisy Dithyramb]] is just Rocky reciting an ode to the Mississippi River. While it shows off his poetry skills, it serves no bearing on the plot; however, Ivy does say in [[https://www.lackadaisy.com/comic.php?comicid=161 "Lackadaisy Consignment"]] that he's prone to "compulsive rhyming."
25	* CantUnhearIt: With the animated pilot's debut, many new fans started to imagine the voice cast in action whenever they read the comic. Particularly Creator/MichaelKovach for Rocky and Creator/SungWonCho for Mordecai[[labelnote:*]]Granted, Cho has done comic dubs both fanmade ''and'' official, so him being Mordecai's VA is nothing too new[[/labelnote]].
26	* CrackPairing: From the Lackadaisy Shipping War! thread, we have Moron. Mordecai and his [[CargoShip iron]].
27	** In the same thread, Pancky (Rocky/pancakes) was mentioned, however, the current task at hand is taking down all Domzi (Dom/Mitzi) shippers.
28	* CrazyIsCool: Rocky. One of his first exploits includes him trying to burn down a barn by launching a burning truck into it. The first one misses, so what does he do? ''He drives the second one himself''.
29	-->'''Rocky''': Are you questioning my logic?
30	* CrossesTheLineTwice: So much, mostly involving Mordecai Heller.
31	** Mordecai and Viktor killing an innocent (albeit annoying) little dog? Horrible. Mordecai forcing said dog to [[DigYourOwnGrave dig his own grave]] at gunpoint? Good ''God''. [[https://www.lackadaisy.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=347 Non-canon, but still]].
32	--->''Pets? Who said there were pets? Nobody knows anything about any pets.
33	** Mordecai butchering a man with a hatchet for no reason other than he was ordered to is horrifying, but the whole thing is played for such dark comedy that it's impossible not to chuckle at it. Especially when Asa sarcastically suggests Mordecai arranged the body parts in alphabetical order... and he ''doesn't deny it''.
34	** This gem from Rocky: "Meat catches on fire easier than I would've guessed. So do I, as it turns out."
35	* DracoInLeatherPants: One forumgoer just about had a nervous breakdown when [[WordOfGod the author said that]] Mordecai was pretty much incapable of love.
36	** Lampshaded in an "author interview" with Mordecai. But of course she knew when she wrote the character that an obsessive-compulsive, well dressed sociopath who prides himself on lacking a personality and yet still has {{Adorkable}} awkward moments was the height of sex appeal.
37	* EnsembleDarkHorse:
38	** By the time Dom Drago showed up in two comic pages, he already had Lackadaisy Forumgoers declaring love.
39	** Elsa the former nurse is also fairly popular with Forumgoers, despite having only two scenes thus far.
40	** Joey the bartender has only been on three pages, but fans have fallen in love with his cute appearance.
41	* FandomRivalry: After the release of the pilot, one began brewing with ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'' and by extension ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss''. All three shows are indie animated series that feature anthro characters and dark comedy, and this is an interesting example given how the [[FriendlyFandoms two fandoms were almost 100% on friendly terms]] prior to the pilot. Currently, the relationship between the two is...''[[{{Pun}} rocky]],'' both for the usual reasons arising when people prefer one thing to another and other more complicated factors involving their studios and creators. This has caused no small amount of headaches for the fans who enjoy ''both'' shows equally and want all this drama to stop.
42	* FanNickname: Mordecai's ''Mo'Cai'' on the site's forum.
43	* {{Fanon}}: Some fan dubs give Mordecai a British accent despite the fact that he's a second-generation Jew from New York City who gives Yiddish holiday greetings, probably because of EvilBrit and related classy Brit tropes. (WordOfGod says that he doesn't have much of any accent, having deliberately killed his New York speech patterns.) After the animated pilot, this interpretation appears to be been dying down.
44	* HoYay: In the animated pilot, Zib briefly seems to be hitting on Wick at one point (albeit, in a way that comes off as a bit more teasing than sincere).
45	-->'''Zib:''' (''winks before getting rather close to Wick'') How 'bout you, Wick? Shall I serenade you ''personally?''\
46	'''Wick:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Er... once I've had a few more illicit beverages, perhaps]].
47	** The comic also had some in Revenuer. During his interrogation of Zib, Dom grabs Zib by the collar and teases him about his Lackadaisy pin. Zib promptly starts blushing.
48	* JerkassWoobie:
49	** Rocky could be considered this to some readers. He has zero moral qualms about working for a criminal organization or tricking his cousin into joining said organization. He's childish, irresponsible, and an all-around nuisance. However, he suffers from some sort of Ambiguous Disorder that makes it hard for him to relate to others, His aunt seems to have completely disowned him, and his letters to Calvin imply that his father is a complete deadbeat. He express fear of being replaced and states that he likes working at Lackadaisy because "they tolerate me". It's painfully clear that he's tried to find a place in society so many times, but it just keeps going wrong. He [[spoiler: lives in his car, gets ran over by ''a fucking hearse'' of all things, and he was sent away for a family tragedy that likely wasn't even his fault.]] If the final pages of Volume 2 are any indicators, he could snap at any moment.
50	** Mordecai also qualifies. He fled New York to escape men who wanted him dead. In a flashback, we see him as a frightened young man on a train, writing a letter to his mother and so penniless that he couldn't afford a stamp. Atlas "rescued" him by introducing him to a life of crime, transforming him into a ruthless hitman. Worse still, it seems he got into the life of crime in the first place to help his family out of poverty since his father was absent (either dead or having left). It likely was never going to end well for him, but Atlas' influence turned him from a small time criminal to a hardened killer who can probably never escape the life of crime - and this is the man he seems to have given up his sort-of second family with the Lackadaisy to avenge.
51	** Serafine and Nico, who were orphaned as young children and sent to a strict orphanage. The nuns who ran the place wanted to separate them, so they ran away, opting to take their chances in the bayou rather than be apart. They nearly starved to death, until a local took pity on them.
52	* MagnificentBastard:
53	** [[FromNobodyToNightmare Atlas May]] was the founder of the titular Lackadaisy Speakeasy. Originally just a coffee shop owner, Atlas took advantage of prohibition and a hidden limestone network beneath his cafe to establish a speakeasy, making sure to vet which patrons could be trusted by having them wear a club pin. Atlas recruited Viktor after seeing his fighting style by paying a lawyer to shorten his jail time and honed Mordecai's antisocial nature and analytical skills to make him a proper hitman, before pairing the two up. After teaming up with the Arbogasts due to their location near a railway and having a wine shipment from them be hijacked by Sicilians fighting the Marigold, Atlas sicked Mordecai and Viktor on them to secure an alliance with Marigold, steal their cars, and take back the liquor. Atlas then took a woman named Mary Ellen in, knowing her band would come with her, and [[TheCorrupter turning her and Viktor more towards the criminal lifestyle to make sure they'd stick with him]]. Enlarging his empire together for years before his death, Atlas was [[BenevolentBoss remembered well by his employees]] and lived up to his name as the man who held the Lackadaisy together.
54	** [[TheHeavy Mordecai Heller]] is Marigold's chief enforcer, and their smartest. Having started as a common criminal, Mordecai joined the Lackadaisy Speakeasy and became Atlas' top enforcer afterwards, demonstrating quick thinking in his fights. Switching to Marigold after Atlas' death to see if they were involved in it, Mordecai remains just as effective, managing to disarm the speakeasy under everyone's nose, [[DangerTakesABackseat get into Mitzy's car]], track down the Savoy siblings, capture the much more physically powerful Gracie Grombach, and get the name of Grombach's informant in the Bureau of Prohibition.
55	* MemeticBadass: According to the more hyperactive of forumgoers, Viktor Vasko is the new Creator/ChuckNorris.
56	* NauseaFuel:
57	** Mrs. Bapka serves sandwiches to Ivy and Freckle, who are horrified to discover that they're sardine sandwiches. It's implied that they were made with the same sardines that Freckle found in Mrs. Bapka's clogged pipe.
58	** After Mordecai shoots Sniffles, Viktor observes that the murder got brains all over the car's interior. And that Sniffles' body was ''still twitching''.
59	** The batch of bootleg liquor that Rocky obtained from Captain Kehoe is implied to consist as much of ''embalming fluid'' than it does actual alcohol. Judging by the face Mitzi made when she took a sip, it most likely was.
60	** It happens offscreen, but the scarification of Mordecai by Serafine and her associates. What starts as a somewhat tense meeting escalates in tension - Mordecai sees Serafine approaching with a knife and tries to make an escape, but her associates stop him leaving. Cut to the next scene, and Mordecai is sitting in the back of the car with Serafine, her brother...and a still-bleeding sigil carved into his chest. It's ambiguous if he was given any pain relief for it at all.
61	* PopularWithFurries: It's a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, aided by some of the ''best'' visuals in webcomics. Furries aren't the only ones the comic's popular with, but they're definitely a huge chunk of the fandom. Tracy even does appearances and panels at UsefulNotes/FurryFandom conventions.
62	* ShipToShipCombat: A minor example. The "shipping war", for example, was basically created for a random battle thread in the forums (and the leading contender was [[CrackPairing Moron]]). There is the occasional spat between the assorted Mitzi and Ivy pairings, but it's usually all in good spirit, since Tracy's following is very devoted to her and to the story at large.
63	* UglyCute: Mrs. Bapka, a tiny, wrinkled old lady who is also adorable in her appearance and mannerisms.
64	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Unless you think murderous bootlegging cats are good role models for your children.
65	* TheWoobie:
66	** What we've been shown of Calvin so far. He's a good boy who's grown up under the very strict thumb of his devoutly religious mother, which has to an extent resulted in making him prone to violent outbursts and immediately regretting them after they happen. He also completely looks up to Rocky, who to an extent is just using him as a sidekick on his illegal exploits.
67	** Zib. All he wanted was to be an innocuous member of a band with the girl that he loved, Mary Ellen [[spoiler:or rather Mitzi.]] But he got wrangled into working for a speakeasy and stayed just because that same girl wanted to stay, until he was in so deep he couldn't leave. Especially as the Lackadaisy starts going under, he realizes he's going to go under with it. He rambles all of this as he's lying in a near comatose state on the sidewalk.
68	** Viktor's had his fair share of bad luck in the comic and even before. What with the {{Kneecapping}} and [[spoiler: the shotgun wound. Ivy's also not particularly happy with him right now, which doesn't help Viktor much. We later find out that he also had a wife and kid, which he left behind so they wouldn't get involved in his criminal activities.]]

Context YMMV / Lackadaisy