Central Themes in webcomics.
- Since the main character in Aisopos is a slave, it will of course talk about slavery in Ancient Greece.
- Awful Hospital: A mother's love is forever.
- A recurring theme in the comic is that there will always be life after death, even if the multiverse ends. Reality was we know it formed from the remains of an impossibly ancient entity, which slowly broke down to form new things and ideas.
- Cobweb and Stripes: Love Redeems, and no one is beyond redemption.
- In Gifts of Wandering Ice it's immortality achieved by artificial means (memory transfer and other) and its price.
- Goblins: Inversion/deconstruction of Dungeons & Dragons Fantastic Racism — just because some races are
aligned as "evil" or "monsters" doesn't mean that humans and other player races are any better. - Gunnerkrigg Court is, at heart, all about balance. The Court and the Woods; Magic and Technology; Reason and Passion; Dark and Light. Everything ends up needing a balance, which the main character Annie is slowly becoming. Also: Violence is occasionally a necessary evil, though it should be used sparingly.
- Homestuck: The necessity of teamwork for survival, and the challenges of being a kid and growing up.
- Housepets!:
- For the King storyline; Being honest with yourself in regards to what you really want in life
- For the Keene storyline; Fighting to reach ones dreams even in the face of hopelessness.
- I'm My Own Mascot: What it means to be a member of a Fandom and how, in the grand scheme of things, the world doesn't revolve around us. Driving this home is the main character being both an Author Avatar and the resident Butt-Monkey (especially when he gets egotistical or self-indulgent).
- Kill Six Billion Demons: The comic has a lot of things to say about Violence, the correct use of power and authority, and about cycles and stagnation.
- Violence is inescapable, built into the fabric of the universe itself. Not desirable, but inescapable nonetheless. How one interprets this truth, and how one chooses to react to the Violence that cannot be avoided, is ultimately what decides what kind of person you are.
- You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!. Violence is power, but how one applies the power granted through Violence is key. The universe is ruled by tyrannical god-kings, but that tyranny is not the natural order of things. The greatest ability in the universe, True Royalty, can only be found through rejection of all worldly power.
The most powerful man has the capability to be violent, charismatic, or sovereign, all, but he chooses to be none of them, because if he does, he has become cruel, and a cruel man has lost all claim to power.- The universe will one day continue on without you. This must be understood and accepted. The Creator of the KSBD-verse literally committed suicide in order for things other than themselves to exist beyond its control, and the Demiurges are all trapped in their own Epiphanic Prison within a rotting heaven because they cannot accept that. Zoss in particular fell into this hard, and has stuck the multiverse in an Eternal Recurrence just to fix his own mistakes, only to learn that he cannot fix the problem with Time Travel and has to trust that Allison can do what he could not.
- Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: Being badass doesn't mean you'll have good life — most manly guys have strong problems with adjusting to normal life and traits that made them badasses in their games and shows only get in the way in normal life.
- Mob Psycho 100: Whatever it is that makes you unique doesn't make you above others. People that lack the same outstanding skill as you might have another skill, however mundane, that you lack, so ultimately, nobody is above anyone else. Understanding that you are ultimately ordinary can help one to grow into a responsible and good person without delusions of grandeur or guilt over not having control over your whole life.
- One-Punch Man:
- How do you find fulfillment in a life without struggle, where none of your victories feel earned?
- Dealing with boredom, depression, loneliness, and finding one's purpose in life.
- Dealing with people who look down on you for your (real or perceived) inferiority.
- Real heroism is more important than the glory or fame that might come with it.
- The struggle to become stronger and more powerful — and how that's not always a good thing.
- Don't let your personal insecurities or obsessions consume you, or else you may lose some of your humanity in the process.
- The Order of the Stick:
- The most recurrent theme is that single-mindedly obsessing over one thing can destroy you and make you lose sight of what's really important. Various characters including Roy, Eugene, Miko, Haley, Vaarsuvius, Elan, Nale, Therkla, Redcloak, Tsukiko, Tarquin, Vampire Durkon, Hel, and many more have recklessly pursued a goal, ideal or other thing while neglecting the big picture, which bites them hard.
- Teamwork and trust are key to victory—the more people trust each other and are willing to cooperate, the more effective they are, even the bad guys. People who cannot afford to trust their allies, such as Lord Shojo, think they don't need others to help solve their problems, like Miko or V in the "Don't Split the Party" arc, or just want to do what they want, not thinking about their teammates like Belkar, and perhaps Xykon will get in trouble.
- Also, Deconstruction of Dungeons & Dragons stereotypes by putting them in contrast with a realistic racial conflict.
- Another theme is the nature of power, and what it means to use this effectively and wisely. A recurring thread through the plot is characters who are supposedly more powerful being undone by their supposedly weaker opponents, often because the powerful get overconfident and/or limit themselves to brute force where the less powerful are forced to apply creativity and intelligence and exploit unforeseen flaws and weaknesses to solve their problems.
- One of the comic's most important themes is Character Development. The Order start as a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits and slowly evolve into more mature and capable people who can trust and rely on each other. By contrast, Team Evil's members refuse to develop. Xykon is described by Word of God as a Flat Character who will never be anything but a one-dimensional murderous jackass, Redcloak's extreme devotion to The Plan has made him selfish and monstrous, Tsukiko ends up getting killed because of her stubborn belief that the undead are anything but soulless constructs that only exist to follow orders, Oona is only helping Team Evil because there's nothing better for her to do and Greyview is a Straw Nihilist who believes that all he can do is obey and be rewarded. By contrast, The Monster in the Darkness becomes the Token Good Teammate after he learns to think for himself and realize that he can't mindlessly follow Xykon and Redcloak around forever.
- Penny and Aggie explores the bond that exists between individuals of contrasting, even clashing, personalities, and how that bond ends up changing them.
- Rain explores the trials and tribulations that transgender people, along with many others on the LGBT spectrum, experience, and shows that they a common part of our world. They're people in need of love and understanding just like everyone else.
- The title of one chapter in the comic essentially spells out exactly what this comic is really about. Love, Trust, and Respect.
- Romantically Apocalyptic:
- Is technology inherently evil, or does the fault lie with the people who use it?
- The evils and short-sighted destructiveness of greedy corporations.
- How easily good intentions can be corrupted.
- Sinfest: The comic has change its Central Theme considerably over the years, seemingly on which decade it's currently in:
- At the Turn of the Millennium, it was learning to get along with people in a world full of conflict and chaos.
- In the The New '10s, it’s the virtues of being a sex-worker trans exclusionary radical feminist.
- In the The New '20s, it’s how the “woke” are just evil supporters for the Patriarchy.
- Strong Female Protagonist: Can one person, no matter how powerful, really make a difference in the world?
- Tower of God deals with the rifts that are caused between people due to differences in power, luck, ability and resources and how these rifts cause betrayal and sacrifice that have no blame.
- A recurring idea in the Walkyverse is hypocrisy. It's most obvious in Character Development, where someone will realize they've been acting hypocritically, but it also shows up in smaller ways - Mike's favoured technique for inducing suffering is pointing out when someone is being hugely hypocritical (usually by painfully enforcing their own logic), one-shots in Shortpacked! tend to focus on hypocritical fan logic, etc.
- David Willis also likes exploring the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism. See the famous 'It's the rain' speech Walky gives in It's Walky!.
