Character Gush / Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater: Black Mage with his over the top evil and Butt-Monkey status makes the comic as great as it is.
  • Red Mage too, for his tabletop gaming shenanigans. The man broke Time and Space and put it back together.
  • The Black Mage is the only real sympathetic guy of them all. OK, Fighter -could- be so sympathetic, but he's usually too stupid to be hurt, so there's no reason to feel bad for him. Thief is a better-than-thou racist (or perhaps specieist), and Red Mage is just plain weird. But who on earth cannot symptathise with Black Mage's noble and admirable goal of destroying everything? I mean, is there anything wrong with that? OK, so maybe it is, but if the universe is going to be destroyed, then I'd much rather have Black Mage do it than anyone else. He's my hero and guiding light on an otherwise desolate planet.
  • Anytime Fighter and Thief interact with each other. It's not terribly often, but you'll get a gem every single time.
  • Sarda, almighty Wizard That Did It, knower of everything that has ever happened and ever will happen, older than time itself (by his own doing), and most importantly: a complete asshole. He has all the power in the universe and he focuses 100% of it on fucking with four guys who totally deserve it.
    Sarda: Except for Fighter. He's a casualty.
  • Bikke. Recall that Sarda is omnipotent and can see through time. Now understand how crazy it is that Bikke took him completly by surprise. Hell, even Sarda himself was impressed by that.
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: Dr. McNinja himself is this trope. He owns like half of the Moment of Awesome page by himself.
• Ansem Retort: Zexion, the morally bankrupt, Magnificent Bastard reality TV show star/Governor of Pennsylvania. Who blows his state's budget on hookers, fuses with Axel to become the almighty Andrew Jackson, hijacks a plane while governor and thus ends up negotiating with himself, and has been known to shout "Everything you love will have my dick in it!"
• Awful Hospital: The one and only Lady Maya Celia! I mean, who wouldn't love a sword-wielding, fedora-rocking lesbian bandit queen? She looks squishy, so extra points for looking huggable. Celia being one of Fern's first friends made me like her more too, and I liked her development Becoming the Mask. She's so swaggy and I wish more people would realize it!
• The Order of the Stick: Post-curse Belkar.
  • The entire cast, but I would like to mention Elan - Elan, who manages to maintain being The Nice Guy, even after taking a level in Badass and after having gone through several rounds of Break the Cutie, he's now a resilient, more solemn, but still basically Nice Guy who can still be amazing comic relief.
  • Xykon is perhaps the only villain I actually fear...and he's still freakin' hilarious.
    • Indeed. A true CM you still can't help but be impressed at.
    • Which makes him a Magnificent Bastard.
  • I have never been prone to Draco in Leather Pants, but find myself rooting for Redcloak regularly anyway. Despite his villainous nature.
  • I absolutely love Vaarsuvius (probably due to having a similar personality), and just felt like giving him/her a hug during his/her mental breakdown.
  • I think the Monster in the Darkness is hilarious.
  • Roy Greenhilt. Heroic, strong, intelligent, witty, good-hearted, and a gifted leader.
• Questionable Content: Hannelore Ellicot-Chatham. She ends messes.
• The black hat guy from xkcd is just hilarious. Especially after he got his girlfriend.
  • AS he got his girlfriend. Definitely my favorite arc, and among my favorite strips.
• Irregular Webcomic!: Steve. Why punch Cthulu when you can wrestle it?
• Girl Genius: Oggie, Dimo and Maxim. All the Jägermonsters are awesome, but these three who join up with Agatha really take the cake. They transition seamlessly from comic relief to pure badass and back again as the situation warrants.
  • I would like to nominate the entire freaking cast as being full of awesome. Even one-shot characters like the girl with the teddy bear.
  • Special points to Gilgamesh "Badass Bookworm" Wulfenbach, for raging Vole (or whatever his name was) into submission. Now that is how you handle a Berserk Button.
    • And owning the best hat in the history of existence.
  • You forgot Jenka. First female Jaeger introduced, sets a town on fire, bosses Da Boyz around effortlessly, and Gil/Agatha shipper? Yes.
    • The whole crowd's for it. But Jenka rides a bear. This counts too.
  • Ardsley Wooster is more subtly awesome on analysis. Even before he backhands the resident Axe-Crazy while she has a gun on him, he manages to read the situation before the rest of Agatha's party even NOTICES it, disappear, punch out a Wulfenbach soldier, take his gun and sniper perch and start shooting. Later, while Boris has to beat the location of the Jaegergenerals out of a Jaeger (itself a Momentof Awesome for him) Wooster finds it on his own, from the outside, and make a dramatic entrance and exit (after destabilizing the Wulfenbach-Jaeger alliance) from the outside of an airship. Nobody does it better, indeed.
  • Let us not forget Agatha herself: unstoppable Mad Scientist, heiress to a terrifying dynasty with a sentient murder-castle, constant Improbable Weapon User, and still a lovable, good-hearted, cake-loving girl.
• Oddly enough, I have a special place in my heart for Shortpacked!'s lovable jerk Mike. Sure he's a total asshole, but Mike is also not afraid to point out the huge personality flaws in people that are otherwise blissfully unaware of them. Also, he banged your mom. In the ass.
• Looking for Group: Richard. Just as psychotic as Belkar and Black Mage, but he manages to pull it off with such style.
• Nodwick. Deadpan Snarker. Butt-Monkey. Bad luck lightning rod. Catapult ammunition. Greatest henchman ever.
• Keychain of Creation: Elegant Nova of Progression. While again pretty much the entire cast is awesome (they're Exalted, it comes with the territory), there's just no going wrong with a cheerful robot Mad Scientist who can transform into a giant kitty.
  • Also, honorary mention to Mew Cai. * salutes*
• Ping from MegaTokyo. Because nothing says "I care about you" like throwing giant turtles at anyone who tries to hurt your friend.
  • And Erika. Got to love the way she just comes out and says things as she sees them. A girl with a deep heart as well as beauty and more than a little courage.
  • Largo. Because he's both a Cloudcuckoolander and so incredibly Genre Savvy that it hurts. Usually him. But he gets better! And he's surprisingly deep... and his uncertainty is strangely adorable, especially when he's feeling bad. So there.
    • Not to mention how he knows how to turn the most depressing scenes utterly hilarious
  Erika: You're not the most sensitive person
  Largo: I see a booze machine. Give me some quarters
• EVERY FRAKIN' CHARACTER from Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name, the absolute winning position going to Hanna himself for being the cutest redheaded ball of klutzy energy ever.
• Most of the main cast from El Goonish Shive! Special mention for Susan, who started to lose her idealism as a child, had all sorts of horrible things happen to her since (her parents divorcing, being called upon to kill a vampire, learning that there were other people who could have and should have been the ones to kill said vampire, being ignored and ridiculed by most of the school) and she still stands by her beliefs and does what she thinks is right. It also pleases me to no end that she started out as a Straw Feminist and was developed into such an awesome character.
• Too many Homestuck characters to name. Even bit part players like AR and Nepeta get their share of characterization in this comic, and every single one of them has legions of fans somewhere on the expanse of the internet.
  • Special honors go to Karkat, though, for being possibly the best played Knight in Sour Armor that I've ever seen. His thorny demeanor and ridiculously Flowery Insults make his logs hilarious to read, and even though the whole "he's only mean to people because he's, like, insecure and stuff but deep down he's a really nice person!!! X333" angle can get obnoxious very easily, Hussie actually managed to pull off the Jerkass Woobie archetype with great effectiveness. In the end, Karkat is the kind of character that just tugs your heartstrings, if only by virtue of being so dysfunctional and lovable at the same time.
  • No mention for Kanaya the Vampire Fashion Queen yet? I'm surprised, considering she only got shot through the torso by Eridan, then later on right before the mega-awesome three-way showdown is about to go down, she comes out of fucking nowhere glowing and tied back together with a piece of cloth, to kick Gamzee in the nuts, punch Vriska in the face, and then slices Eridan in half after breaking his wand he worked so hard to get. And then she retracts her chainsaw into lipstick form and puts on lipstick the same color as her blood, which is still spattered with Eridan's. Then she licks her lips like it's no big deal. No wonder Vriska just stared at her with this little "<333333333" expression. And that's nine threes, not eight. Pretty big deal for the eight-obsessed Vriska.
• Sleepless Domain: Zoe Blecher is an adorable Shrinking Violet that you just can't help but want to hug. She gets bonus points for not only being a transgender Magical Girl — something that there really aren't enough of to begin with — but an exceptionally well-written one at that. Also, her hair is soft and fluffy. paf pof.
• Ash from Misfile. He is the only character I've ever seen to get gender bent and have it not Played for Laughs. Ash is a mega-Woobie, acting like a real transgender teenager would, feeling trapped in his own body. Those of us in the LGBTQ community definitely appreciate it.
• Jamie and Erin from Girls with Slingshots are so freaking adorable I can't even stand it. Every time I see them together in a new strip, even if they're not its main focus, I can't help but Squee.
• Florence from Freefall. She's very smart and funny. She deals with Sam and Helix very well given the circumstances, and actually remains sane when she found out that Helix thinks you can cook with explosions. She also manages to get herself in and out of trouble quite a lot on her own.
• Hyperbole and a Half: How about Allie? Or Simple Dog? Or for that matter any character from the comic at all?

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