Roy Greenhilt

• Ancestral Weapon: He inherited the Greenhilt sword, his Grandfather's greatsword, from which his family owes its name.
• Back from the Dead: It took quite a bit longer than you'd expect in this kind of world.
• Badass Normal: No inherent magic whatsoever, in a world where Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards is in full effect.
• Bald Black Leader Guy: Though significantly more snarky than the traditional example.
• Bald of Awesome: Started shaving his head in fighter college.
• Bald Woman: While under the effect of the Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity.
• Berserk Button:
  Roy: YOU! BROKE! MY! SWORD!
  • And also:
  Roy: Bad guys not remembering their evil deeds is something of a pet peeve of mine.
• Black Dude Dies First: With regard to the main characters, though he got better.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Great Cleave!" Note that this is standard for the setting, though — calling your attacks is how you make them.
• Came Back Strong: Roy trains with his dead grandpa during his stay in heaven, and learns a new sword technique when he comes back.
• Carry a Big Stick: Temporarily, while his sword was broken.
• Catchphrase: "NOT THE POINT!"
• Changed My Mind, Kid: Roy does this to Elan after the latter is captured by bandits. The inevitable rescue is then hilariously subverted.
• Character Development: Goes from using his teammates as a means to an end to A Father to His Men.
• Combat Pragmatist: He's willing to resort to underhanded tactics if his opponent is powerful enough that he can't win a straight fight. During his arena duel with Thog, he uses discarded crossbow bolts and a potion bottle as improvised weapons, chucks a handful of sand into Thog's face to blind him, and finally wins by goading Thog into collapsing part of the ceiling on himself.
• Cool Sword: His grandfather's Ancestral Weapon, a greatsword. Now it has been reforged with Starmetal alloy which causes it to glow with green anti-undead energy.
• Coup de Grāce: He's seen giving it to goblins put to sleep by V's speech.
• Deadpan Snarker: Roy's coping mechanism for the insanity he endures is a near-constant output of sarcasm.
• Dead Person Conversation: With his father, thanks to the spiritual link granted by the Greenhilt greatsword. When the sword is broken, Roy settles with Talking to the Dead.
• Death Is Cheap: Subverted; it takes a long time to resurrect Roy due to Durkon being separated from Roy's corpse. It was also quite expensive on a monetary level.
• Despair Event Horizon: Very nearly crosses it when Durkon gets vamped. Belkar of all people pulls him back. He's still pretty much in Heroic BSOD mode, though.
• Diagonal Cut
  • Roy against an evil warrior in the afterlife — with "QUARTER" as an Unsound Effect.
  • And again, a perfect Great Cleave inflicted on five mummies.
• Fatal Flaw: Not paying enough attention to what's going on around (because of a crappy Spot Check and lack of Sense Motive) and thinking he knows more about a situation than he actually does. As illustrated in "Grand Theft Identity".
• A Father to His Men: Albeit after some Character Development.
• Freud Was Right: invoked Roy feels diminished without his sword.
• Friend to Psychos: Roy is kind of like this to Belkar, even putting in a good word to get the psychopathic halfling out of prison. Although in his case, it's more from realizing that the Heroic Comedic Sociopath is better off in his charge, where he can keep him "pointed at the bad guys", rather than placing his bets on the idea that any prison can hold Belkar.
• Gender Bender: While wearing the Belt of Masculinity/Femininity.
• Genius Bruiser: One wonders how many points our favorite fighter allocated into Int, and how many people who must have given him crap for it at the time are singing a different tune now.
  Roy: THAT'S how I use my Intelligence score in combat, DUMBASS!!!
• Good Counterpart
  • To Thog. Though Roy disagrees.
  • A more accurate mirror counterpart is Tarquin.
• Good Is Not Nice: Make no doubt that he's a heroic character, but he has little tact and a low opinion of his teammates.
• Hero Complex: Julia accuses him of having one, but in truth it's averted as Roy is too pragmatic for that.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Roy is The Hero and the only one in the group to regularly use a greatsword.
• Heroic BSOD: Has one (bordering on the Despair Event Horizon) when Durkon is killed and enthralled by Malack. Surprisingly, it's Belkar of all people who snaps him out of the DEH, but Roy is still clearly shaken.
• I Am Not My Father: He became a fighter for the sole purpose of proving he was different from his wizard father.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": Roy calls it his "Trouser Titan" in "The Ultimate Sacrifice", while protesting Elan's idea to disguise him as a woman.
  Roy: There's no way I'm saying goodbye to the Trouser Titan just so I can fool some lame-ass assassins.
  Elan: ...You call it the "Trouser Titan?"
  Roy: NOT THE POINT!
• Jerkass: Often, to both friends and enemies, and not always justified. He is called on this several times.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When he's not busy being a Jerkass.
• Joke Item: The Bag of Tricks. It's a bag that fires small animals.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He finds himself filling this role more often than he'd like.
• The Leader: Starts out as just the guy paying the team to go on the quest, but he evolves over time. When he's not around, it's shown very clearly that he's the only thing holding them together.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He does this occasionally. His charges usually turn out fairly well, though. His ill-fated attack on Xykon isn't an example — he knows he's outmatched and is as prepared as he reasonably can be.
• Lethal Joke Item: Roy eventually figures out how to use the Bag of Tricks in combat. It involved using them as a distraction, and finding out that there is a rhino in there. Unfortunately, the rhino kinda backfires on him.
  Roy: You know, this bag of tricks isn't so bad once you get the hang of it.
• Made of Iron: Roy has a lot of hit points.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman : Averted when Roy dons the Belt of Gender Shifting.
• Meaningful Name: His family got its name from the ancestral sword, which does have a green hilt.
• Mistaken for Special Guest: Roy is mistaken for the King of Nowhere when staying at an inn.
• Morality Chain: To Belkar, in a fashion. If Roy weren't capable of knocking him out in one shot, Belkar would be far more difficult to control.
• Neck Lift: Favors this intimidation method.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Roy brushing off the deva in "Down to Earth".
• Only Sane Employee: Most of his job is to manage the insanity of his party.
• Only Sane Man: The rest of his job is to act as the foil to everyone elses' antics.
• Phrase Catcher: Subtle, but he has gotten "Stop talking!" from more than one pissed-off opponent, due to his incessant combat banter.
• Refusing Paradise: Roy enjoys a peaceful afterlife with his family in Celestia. However, upon realizing that his allies have failed to resurrect him on schedule, he rushes off to search for answers.
• Resurrection Sickness: Roy lost a level from being resurrected. He also faceplants right afterward on his first attempt to walk.
  Roy: Oh, right. I have to actually move my legs when I'm on this plane.
  Celia: Don't worry, honey, I make that mistake ALL the time.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: See Berserk Button.
• Running Gag
  • He makes a reference to the Trouser Titan, and someone else says, "You call it the...?"
  • "NOT THE POINT!"
• Secular Hero: This dialogue shows it:
  Bureaucratic Deva: Let me ask you something: Why did you never consider becoming a cleric yourself? You have halfway decent Wisdom and Charisma scores, you could have pulled it off.
  Roy: Well, this is awkward to say, given where I am, but I've never been that religious.
  I mean. I guess my mom raised me to worship the Northern Gods, but I always figured as long as I don't actively offend any of them, they'd leave me alone.
• Sticks to the Back: His sword.
• Straight Man: Mocked by Belkar in "The Power Behind the Throne".
• Super Strength: With the Belt of Giant Strength.
• Thunderbolt Iron: His reforged sword is an alloy.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Virtually always chooses Good over Lawful when pressed, but doesn't fall into Neutral Good by virtue of trying to be both whenever possible.
• The Unchosen One: Roy eventually takes up the quest to destroy Xykon not because of his father's Blood Oath, but simply because Xykon needs to be stopped.
• Unknown Rival: Xykon can barely remember who he is.
• Vetinari Job Security: Roy may have trouble keeping the group on a single goal, but it's been conclusively established that he's a capable leader, being the only person capable of exerting any level of control over any of them. The "Don't Split the Party" arc is one long proof of this, but in particular his management of Belkar; without Roy's influence Belkar's projected "evilness" (measured in kilonazis by the archons in charge of the Lawful Good afterlife) would have skyrocketed. When Roy was temporarily killed by Xykon and Haley took over, she had little to no real control over Belkar. Comic #881 directly acknowledges this.
• Weapon of Choice: The Greenhilt family greatsword. He uses a large wooden club for a while when his sword is broken.
• Well Done Son Guy: The main reason he went after Xykon in the first place was because he wanted Eugene to be proud of him. Xykon actually calls him on it when they fight in Azure City, and he acknowledges it, then decides that stopping Xykon is more important than his father's approval. When he dies and goes to the afterlife, he meets up with Eugene and decides to stop taking his crap and calls him out.
• What the Hell, Hero?
  • After increasingly ignoring his party in favor of trying to get on Miko's good side despite her jerkassery, Elan finally confronts him in a way that Roy can't simply snark off: He asks him calmly and politely why he's doing that followed by asking if he likes some random rude paladin more than his party.
  • After dying, a deva calls him out for abandoning Elan earlier in the strip and says that if he hadn't realized his error he would have been tossed into the afterlife of a different alignment. He's also called out for being Belkar's leader despite his clearly evil tendencies, but on this point defends himself competently.
  • Subverted when the party is traveling through the desert. A spice-addled Belkar tries calling him out for using him as bait, but then laughs and admits that he's just joking.
• What Would Roy Do?: Roy is a model of levelheaded, intelligent badassery. Elan, Haley and Durkon all say something like this while trying to decide the right course of action.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Roy does this at least twice.
  • During his tavern recruitment of the party in On the Origin of PCs, after meeting with a refusal from some thirty adventurers, Roy begins to thank Haley for listening and saying that he understands, before realizing she just accepted to join.
  • In "Shattered Expectations", when the "Being of Pure Law and Good" renders the judgement of the Order's trial for weakening the fabric of the universe, Roy is so much expecting a guilty verdict that he starts saying "it has been an honor" to the rest of the party, until the words "not guilty" actually register.
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Even those enjoying the Gladiator Games.
• Wrecked Weapon: See Berserk Button.
• You Fight Like A Cow: Taunting his opponents is one of his defining character traits.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Trope Namer. Roy says it when receiving compliments from Belkar.

Haley Starshine

• Action Girl: A rogue, to be more specific.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: The position of her loose hair depends on which direction she is facing.
• Back Stab: Her obvious choice for dealing damage.
• Badass Normal: No magic but her bags of holding and a couple magic weapons.
• Bags of Holding: Haley thinks one can never have enough extradimensional storage space, and carries a collection of them.
• Bare Your Midriff: Though the art style makes it hard to tell at times, her top looks a lot like a leather sports bra.
• Bi the Way: Haley has a "Latent Bisexuality" alter ego amongst the many fractions of her psyche. And she kissed a girl once. More than once.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Haley's reaction when her father judges Elan to be every bit as evil as his father, General Tarquin, accusing him of spying on her and tricking her into loving him.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Sneak Attack!"
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  Haley: Elan... I think I'm in love with y—
  Durkon: Cure Critical Wounds!
  Haley: ...Ukuleles.
• Chainmail Bikini: Haley buys one and lampshades the trope.
  Haley: I think some flaunting is in order.
• Character Development
  • She has become less greedy over time, and got a justification for her greed.
  • She has also become more moral, best demonstrated by her attitude towards slavery changing from And That Would Be Wrong to freeing her host's slaves just because she can. This likely ties into her self-description as Chaotic Good-ish as opposed to strictly Chaotic Good. She started out leaning toward Chaotic Neutral, but through Character Development is now more solidly Chaotic Good.invoked
  • She has also grown into the role of second-in-command; instead of just using the position to get a bigger share of the loot as she did in the beginning, she now uses her roguish experience to advise Roy on things a Lawful Good fighter might not consider.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: She's the one to take this role most often with Elan, both before and after they're in a relationship. She knows him enough to include an "Elan tax" in the shopping budget.
• Combat Pragmatist: Haley has no problem fighting very dirty. For example, she ambushed Crystal as she was in the shower, catching her without her weapons, armor, and protective jewelry, and killed her while she was stunned on the floor.
• Covert Pervert: Not above taking advantage of a discount Invisibility Sphere to grope Elan. Also the first party member to notice the phallic symbolism of a Gigantic Purple Worm. After she and Elan hook up, the "covert" part goes out the window.
• Cypher Language: She was afflicted with this for a while.
• Darkness Von Gothickname: When she was a teenager, she went through a Goth phase and called herself "Dark Mistress Shadowgale".
• Fanservice: She parodies this in the prequel. And later plays it as straight as one can with the comic's art style.
• Fiery Redhead: Haley sure can be fiery, but she's a bit of a subversion: she suffers from considerable self-loathing and feels it necessary to hide her true feelings much of the time, believing people wouldn't like her if they really knew her.
• Flesh to Stone: Looks like she blew the saving throw.
• Genre Savvy: Well, almost everyone in the comic is, but Haley is particularly so. She has a history of figuring out everything from the plans of bad guys, (seeing through Xykon's would be shell game) to noticing signs of deeper plots, (she was immediately suspicious when the Azure City unconditionally found the Order not guilty of blowing up Dorukan's Dungeon) or who is going to be evil. (She notably called Sabine and Tarquin as being bad news.)
• Give Me Back My Wallet: Except that she turns the tables by picking the pickpockets' pockets.
  Haley: Seriously, Durkon, if you're going to get your pocket picked in every town we visit, at least try to attract higher-leveled thieves. Twelve silver pieces and some string is a waste of my talents.
• Godiva Hair: Haley takes advantage of the Power Perversion Potential of magical cosmetics: "Picking Locks".
• Good Counterpart: To Sabine, Crystal, and Tsukiko.
• Goth: As a teenager, she was the gloomy, rebellious kind.
• Greed: Haley's initial personality, though she does receive character development and a real need to collect a lot of money.
• Heroic BSOD: She was hit with this early in the series after several craploads of her loot were utterly destroyed in an explosion. Afterwards, she gets an episode of Cypher Language (see above), and finally learns to get over her abandonment issues and openly admit her feelings for Elan, the shouting of which cured her.
• Important Haircut: In "You're It", but latter subverted by "Picking Locks".
• Impossible Thief: In "It's a Shame She Didn't Grab That Script While She Was There", Haley steals a diamond from the cast page, resulting in said diamond replaced with an IOMe (it's not an IOU because Haley stole it from herself).
• In-Series Nickname: Her Wanted Poster mentions she's also known as "Mistress Nightengale" [sic] or "The Red Blur".
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Does this to her rival Crystal. A bonus scene in Don't Split the Party gives her a better justification for this.
• The Lancer: Haley Starshine is the official Number Two and is a greedy thief to contrast the duty bound warrior.
• Loveable Rogue: Yes, she's a rogue, and would you dare say she isn't loveable?
• Ma'am Shock: "I'm not old! I'm 24! That's not old! Twenty! Four!"
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Haley and Elan once have sex on the back of a giant purple worm. She implies that its phallic shape turned her on.
• Miser Advisor: Justified by the ransom she needs to gather to free her father. Although she's still plain old greedy too, as fitting for a rogue.
• Missing Mom: Mia Starshine died when Haley was very young.
• Money Fetish: Elan mentions that she wanted to do it on top of a pile of gold coins.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her brief nude scenes reveal quite the rack.
• Ms. Vice Girl: Haley is the most common version, since she's always looking for ways to get more loot from adventuring, but won't sabotage saving the world to satisfy her greed.
• Multishot: She has the appropriate feat.
• Never Say That Again: Never tell her that treasure isn't that important.
• Number Two: She manipulated Roy into giving her the position for a greater share of the treasure. It backfires when in Roy's absence she finds herself actually in formal charge of the Order. While she struggles when in charge and is relieved to relinquish the role on Roy's return, she's gradually growing into the position of second-in-command and advisor.
• Only Sane Woman: Took over this role in Roy's absence and did not like it one bit.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Haley's mental projections.
• Power of Trust: She has this in Elan, in spite of her father's strenous objections.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: Consciously averted. "...so the Boots of Speed were totally powerful, but they were, like, lime green." A later arc reveals that she held on to them and got a craftsman to dye them a more suitable color.
• Rapunzel Hair: Haley gets this in "Picking Locks" after overcompensating for her short haircut before.
• Rebel Leader: After the timeskip, before handing that role off to Thanh.
• Red-Headed Heroine
• Refuge in Audacity: She steals two of Belkar's potions to heal Elan. When Belkar accuses her, she guilt trips him about being prejudiced.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: "Screw that, I'm just flat-out ignoring Roy right now."
• Silly Rabbit Cynicism Is For Losers: Grows out of this trope thanks to Elan's influence and becomes more optimistic and trusting.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Her love for Elan, as she explains to her father.
• Slipknot Ponytail: Happens to her during a trap search (along with Wardrobe Malfunction).
• Slipped the Ropes:
  Gannji: Wait, weren't you tied up a moment ago?
  Haley: That was a moment ago.
• The Snark Knight: Mistress Shadowgale, a.k.a. Haley's Self-Loathing Alter Ego.
  Mistress Shadowgale: Gods, I hate you all.
• The Sneaky Girl: As is fitting for a rogue.
• Spoonerism:
  Haley: I'm gonna sit on this spin until the room stops chairing.
• Sticks to the Back: Her bow.
• Street Smart: Required to survive Greysky City for any length of time, so her dad made sure she was.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: "SNEAK ATTACK — BITCH!"
• Time to Step Up, Commander: After Roy's death.
• Trick Arrow
  • After getting an Icy Burst Bow.
  • Also used to counter Tarquin's Snatch Arrows feat.
• Un-Confession: In "Hawaiian Love", Haley, seriously wounded and apparently not expecting to live, starts to tell Elan that she loves him. She's interrupted by Durkon curing her wounds.
• Wanted Poster: Shown in On the Origins of PCs.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Averted, but Crystal is under the mistaken impression that Haley is lethally vulnerable to pickles. Just to be clear: Crystal is dumber than a post.
• Weapon of Choice: A longbow.

Elan

• Bad Liar: Haley explains.
  Haley: No offense, but you literally can't bluff to save your life. In fact, I think your bluffs usually endanger your life in new and exciting ways.
• The Bard
• Beyond the Impossible: In strip #794, Elan seduces a succubus. As in, you know, a demon who is, by her own admission, an evil incarnation of illict sex. And then he apologizes to Tiny Stone Haley.
• Brainless Beauty: Very much so, even if the "beauty" part is difficult to tell thanks to the art style. Fairly unusual as a male example, especially among sympathetic protagonists.
• Bumbling Sidekick: To Roy until the party got split, and even moreso to Sir Franēois in On the Origin of PCs.
• Chaotic Stupid: Averted; Elan is Chaotic Good and Stupid separately (and has been working on the "Stupid" part... more or less).
• Character Development: Elan is not so much a dimwit now as at the start, but is still a Ditz nevertheless. Really underscored in issue 0889; in the early days of the comic, if Elan was the one to break the party out of an illusion, he'd most likely do it by being Too Dumb to Fool. Here, he has developed enough to realise that his dreams are "childish, unrealistic and completely unlikely", including outright calling his father and brother on the fact that they are evil, hateful people who will never be able to be a proper family to him. Thus he convinces the others by pointing out the plot holes in their own dreams, like how they apparently beat Xykon but never went to break up Tarquin's empire.
• Cheerful Child: Despite being at least 21 years old.

• Chick Magnet: It's been stated outright that he has 18 Charisma (the normal maximum at character creation). Indeed, Elan initially considered this part of his job description and did not understand why Haley didn't care for it.
• Childhood Brain Damage: A flashback explains Elan being The Ditz as a result of his brother Nale continually Dope Slap-ing him when they were babies.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He has had many strange ideas (such as "naked=invisible"), and his Genre Savvy comes across as inane babbbling.
• Comedy as a Weapon: Elan's moves as a Dashing Swordman gain more power if he makes a pun while attacking. The worse the pun, the greater the damage.
• Companion Cube: Elan worships Banjo the Clown, his own hand-puppet.
• Consulting Mister Puppet: Averted. While Elan worships his puppet, Banjo, he never believes Banjo can speak (barring the intervention of orcish ninjas).
• Contractual Genre Blindness
  • In spite of being as Genre Savvy as he is (in that, since Nale's corpse was never found, Elan knew that he must have still been alive), he acted surprised to find that Nale was, indeed, alive, but only because protagonists in a position like his are always surprised at such a revelation.
  Nale: But... if you know that then how can you be surprised... Why didn't you realize that thinking I was dead was... I mean... Gah! I'm giving myself a migraine trying to understand the level of wilful ignorance that requires!
  Elan: First blood: ELAN!
  • If Elan were like other bards he would have avoided telling Haley the story of Therkla in order to invoke Rule of Drama by causing misunderstandings.
• Despair Event Horizon: Briefly brought to the brink when he's half-goaded, half-Brainwashed (specifically, under the effects of Suggestion) by Nale into thinking Haley is The Mole, and almost kills her over it.
• Disorganized Outline Speech: We can't really not mention the epic one he gives just before the battle of Azure City.
  Elan: Friends, Azurites, countrymen, lend me your ears. Not literally, because ewww. I mean, that would be disgusting. And messy. And since you'd just be lending them, we'd have to figure out how to reattach them all, and that'd be a lot of work.
  Today, we stand here on the wall, preparing to defend this city from the forces of evil. And probably chaos, too.
  We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. And sisters. Definitely also sisters, they are part of the band too. I think they play drums.
  A day may come when the courage of men (and women) fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.
  And if the battle lasts through tomorrow, it's not that day either.
  It may or may not be the day after that, I'm not sure. Still too early to tell.
  But in case it's not that day, or it is that day but the battle is already over so it doesn't matter, I want you to remember this:
  No one ever won a war by dying for their country. They won by making the other guy die for his country. Which still applies even though hobgoblins don't live in countries.
  They live in caves, I think. So make them die for their caves. Which, admittedly, sounds a lot less heroic than dying for your country.
  But today will be the day when Azure City declared in one voice, "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!"
  And the fact that it rhymes does not make it any less true!
  We'll stand here together and tell our enemies that they may take our lives...
  But they will never take our freedom!
  (acclaims)
  Unless... unless they kill us, then animate the dead corpses as zombies to fight for them. Then I suppose they've taken our lives AND our freedom.
  (beat panel)
  ♪ Fight, fight, fight, fight the— ♪
  Random Azurite Soldier: You suck!
• Distressed Dude: Happens often enough he lampshades it:
  Elan: I wonder if I qualify for some sort of hostage-based prestige class by now...
• The Ditz: Very much initially, until Character Development toned it down.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Happens a few times.
  Haley: Am I drunk enough yet that later, I won't remember getting out-logicked by Elan?
• Dumbass No More: Post timeskip he's gone from The Ditz to something between a Cloudcuckoolander and a Genius Ditz.
• Dumb Is Good: Played straight. His lack of knowledge and common sense is a running gag, and he happens to be the nicest member of the group. Also played for laughs when he knows something the others don't.
• Dump Stat: Intelligence and Wisdom (they're getting better, though).
• Evil Twin: Nale
• Eyepatch After Time Skip: Invoked and parodied.
• The Face: He's highly charismatic and has talked more than one female enemy into a Heel Face Turn. Roy invokes this trope when the group needs to talk to someone, like the teenage goblin in the first arc.
• Face Death with Dignity: When he believes that his father is going to kill him.
• Face Doodling: He does it to Roy while the latter is paralysed by poison.
• The Fool: Elan is this trope played both straight, subverted, and averted depending on the strip.
• For Happiness: Elan and his mother both always try their best to live up to this trope.
• Genius Ditz: Primarily due to being Genre Savvy, but also often because he's just that good a guy.
• Genre Savvy: Although he's been mistaken sometimes. Also occasionally suffers from Contractual Genre Blindness, as lampshaded and, in the process, subverted (when it gives Nale a headache) in "Critical Thinking".
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: In addition to Chaotic Angel and Lawful Angel.
• Good Counterpart: To his own brother and father.
• Go Ye Heroes, Go and Die: His rousing speech prior to the Battle of Azure City.
• Hair Antennae: Shared by his brother and father.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blond-haired, and far and away the most sweet and innocent member of the Order of the Stick.
• Hammy Herald: For Sir Franēois in On the Origin of PCs.
• Happily Ever After: Elan's fate, according to the Oracle.
• The Heart: Referred to as such by Durkon. He's more heroic than anyone else and very likable. Even Belkar likes him.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Takes him a while to notice, but he eventually ends up in a relationship with Haley.
• Hero with an F in Good: Sometimes because he's The Ditz (to the point at which Roy briefly abandons him to his fate) and sometimes because he's too Genre Savvy.
• Horrible Judge of Character: His obliviousness to his father, Tarquin, being evil. This isn't so much a case of Elan's ditziness as it is Wrong Genre Savvy — Elan mistakes ruthlessness for the well-intentioned pragmatism displayed by Roy. Also, he understandably loves/trusts his father, and the affection is mutual despite his father's Card-Carrying Villainy.
• Idiot Ball: He grabs it whenever it has the potential to be funnier.
• Idiot Hero: He sure is an idiot, and he tries very hard to be a hero. Maybe not as bad since he Took a Level in Badass, but he still has some cringe-worthy moments.
• I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You: A good one from On the Origin of PCs:
  Elan: Sir, I'm not about to tell an innkeep I just met about the priceless antique shield Sir Franēois carries, or the pouch of rare gems he keeps hidden in his saddlebags, of his purse filled with platinum pieces that he hides in his left boot when he sleeps.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: The source of power for his prestige class.
• Informed Attractiveness: He's a stick figure character that doesn't look much different than any other, and yet has multiple girls flirting with him.
• Insane Troll Logic: See Invisible Streaker below.
• Instant Ice, Just Add Cold: When V "accidentally" encases him in ice, for helping with a concentration check.
• Invisible Streaker: Attempted inverted invocation. Elan tries to be this when he thinks that because wearing heavy armor makes you less stealthy, wearing less armor will make you stealthier and being naked will make you invisible.
• It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: Elan has a habit of saying this, usually shortly before the other shoe drops.
• Leet Lingo: Parodied in "Still a Long Way to Go".
• The Load: Elan for most of the beginning of the comic. Until he Took a Level in Badass, Roy compared him to adventuring with syphilis. He leans toward The Millstone when his music keeps making things worse, and especially when he blew up Dorukan's Dungeon.
• Loose Lips: It's a good thing the rest of the Order usually keeps an eye on him, because Elan is very bad at keeping secrets.
  Haley: A secret kind of quest.
  Elan: Yeah, we need to find this guy, Girard Draketooth, and tell him that—
  Haley: Elan!! What part of "secret" do you not understand?
  Elan: The part where I don't tell other people, obviously.
• Lover, Not a Fighter: Initially. Subverted when he gains a prestige class that lets him use his Charisma as his primary attack stat.

• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: "X, X, X, X the Y!"
• Man Child: It's a running gag from Elan to display behavior fitting more with a not-so-bright kid than an adult. Notably, Roy has pretty much to baby-sit, fixing at what time he could go to sleep. When reunited with his father, Tarquin, he spends a full day enjoying Empire of Blood equivalent to kiddy rides.
• Master of Illusion: Well... 'Master' is being a bit generous, but Illusion seems to be Elan's favored school of magic and the one he most relies on when he remembers to use his bardic magic.
• Meaningful Name: Elan — "enthusiasm"/"liveliness".
• Meta Guy: Genre Savvy is his only form of useful intelligence, and after he takes a level in Dashing Swordsman, he derives his new powers from adventure tropes.
• Metaphorgotten: A frequent trait of his, especially when giving speeches.
• Mr. Exposition: Most often through song, and with the addition of illusory magic to provide illustrations.
• Music for Courage: With varying success, though not for lack of trying.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Sometimes, as a result of his Genre Savviness.
  Elan: ...Hey, did anyone else get that foreboding feeling just now?
• Naked People Are Funny: "I'm invisible!"
• Nice Guy
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The others have to call him on his stupid choices sometimes, especially Roy after the destruction of Dorukan's dungeon.
• Noble Shoplifter
  • Elan does this to get a new lute while fleeing Azure City.
  • Earlier, after escaping the Cliffport prison, he leaves a note of excuse in the clothes shop he's stealing from (since he doesn't have any money at all).
• Odd Friendship: He gets along well with Thog.
• Picked Last: Elan is picked last when the party splits.
• The Power of Acting: The Dashing Swordsman class.
• Prestige Class: Dashing Swordman.
• Reality Ensues
  • When trying to help Roy bluff an ogre, he warns the ogre that they are bluffing.
  • Haley also has to remind him that singing can't ever improve moving silently.
• Rousing Speech: Spoofed in Elan's speech prior to the battle for Azure City.
• Royal Rapier: His weapon of choice, although he's lost a few. His current rapier was given to him by Julio Scoundrčl.
• Rule of Drama: He mostly follows it, though he also knows when to avert it.
• Running Gag: His bard songs making things worse instead of helping. Lampshaded by Belkar.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Though Elan is slowly getting a better grasp of sarcasm, it's still hit-or-miss for him.
• Shattering the Illusion: He's the first to realize the party was stuck in a Lotus-Eater Machine after descending Girard's pyramid, and subsequently assists the party in breaking out of it.
• Shipper on Deck: In book 4, he thinks Lien and Hinjo need to repopulate the paladin race.
• The Social Expert: He does try to be this... but most of his attempts backfire.
• Something That Begins with "Boring": Elan with Roy, while waiting in the dragon's cave.
• Spoony Bard: Elan's the prototype before taking a prestige class... and often afterwards as well.
• Super Window Jump/Soft Glass: His Dashing Swordsman Prestige Class gives him immunity against damage from shattered glass, so he's taken a liking to glass-breaking dramatism.
• Tempting Fate: Genre Savvy enough to become worried when someone invokes Retirony, for example.
• There Was A Door: Elan prefers to jump through windows even when doors are present, because his Prestige Class gives him immunity against damage from shattered glass. And because it's dramatic.
• Took a Level in Badass: A quite literal example of this trope. Dashing Swordsman hugely improved his effectiveness because its power is based on his high Charisma.
• Wandering Minstrel: He's a bard; his understanding of fictional devices is part of what gives him power.
• Weapon of Choice: A rapier.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Does this to V for disintegrating Kubota.
• What Would X Do?: When forced to think for himself, his default tactic seems to be "work out what Roy would say".
• With Catlike Tread: Elan is spectacularly bad at stealth, as shown in the strip when he ROLLS A 4! on his Move Silently check, and when Haley has to remind him that singing to encourage his companions to move silently across the battlefield is counterproductive. The one time he managed to use stealth effectively, he immediately snuck back into the bandit camp he'd just escaped from because he felt it was his duty as a bard to seduce the bandit queen.
• You Fight Like A Cow: It's part of his Dashing Swordsman skillset, but he hasn't exactly mastered this move yet. Although he did quite well during his battle with Nale just after getting the Dashing Swordsman class.
  Nale: We're identical twins, you idiot! You just insulted yourself!
  Elan: Really? 'cause you seem to have a couple more holes in you right now.

Vaarsuvius

• Action Mom: If V is female (see below).
• Ambiguous Gender: Word of the Giant is that no-one is sure what V's gender is, not even him. If anyone (including Rich himself) says it, they should be assumed to be guessing.
• Ambiguously Gay: Kyrie's gender is as unclear as V's and their children are adopted, and the background to V's transformation includes a pink triangle. No word on whether that is intentional. Approached at a convention on the subject, Word of the Giant was that Vaarsuvius' sexual orientation is not going to be revealed prior to V's gender.
• And That Would Be Wrong: Trope Namer. Namely, blowing people up over social problems.
• And Your Little Dog's Little Dog Too: Familicide, courtesy of Haerta Bloodsoak.
• Anti-Hero: V, despite hating Belkar, has come close to this due to his/her easily-offended personality, especially after making a Deal with a Devil, a Demon, and a Daemon, actually to save his/her family.
• The Atoner: After the incident with the fiends and Xykon. And again, after learning that the Familicide spell he used to kill the black dragons has wiped out the Draketooths, and anyone related to them.
• Awesome, but Impractical: V is a specialist Evoker who is denied access to Conjuration and Necromancy magic. This gives the elf access to the best destruction spells, but most D&D players would say this is one of the worst ways to play a wizard.
  Vaarsuvius: When I chose Conjuration as my barred school, Teleport was still a Transmutation spell. It is hardly my fault the universal laws have been revised since then!
• Badass Bookworm: Basically the definition of a wizard. Note that V became an adventurer to get more XP for spell research.
• Bad Dreams: Or rather, Bad Trance Memories, complete with the Catapult Nightmare.
• Berserk Button: Do not question Vaarsuvius's magic skills, call V a Warlock, or threaten the elf's family. Gods help you if you threaten the family. In fact, gods help your family and their extended family too.
• Break the Haughty: With a lot of salt being rubbed into the wound. Continued in a very literal fashion when V decides to take on Xykon single-handedly.
• Byronic Hero
• Calling Your Attacks: Subverted on occasion, as Vaarsuvius has both shouted out spell names for spells not prepared, and produced the effects of a spell without casting — in this case, describing the effect of Sleep put the monsters to sleep.
• Can't Argue with Elves: Try arguing with Vaarsuvius. Haley basically smacked V on the head after one too many "And the problem with that would be...?" replies in On the Origin of PCs.
• Charm Person: Suggestion, Charm or Dominate spells form part of V's arsenal, and are typically employed if an opponent cannot be blasted with evocations for whatever reason.
• Comically Missing the Point: Sometimes has trouble with the concept that wizards aren't all-powerful gods of destruction compared to the non-magic using classes.
  Vaarsuvius: Thrice-cursed Spell Resistance! It's almost like the universe is trying to deliberately force some form of arbitrary equality between those of us who can reshape matter with our thoughts and those who cannot.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Devoted to arcane knowledge, at the expense of everything else. This comes up twice in fairly quick succession when facing enemies that not only outclass the elf in magic but can also easily kill V in hand-to-hand combat: the ancient black dragon and Xykon.
• Deadpan Snarker: Only second to Roy in the snark, and even more deadpan.
• Deal With the Devil, the Demon, and Daemon: And is theirs for 44:16.
• Disintegrator Ray: V likes to disintegrate a lot, notably offing the adolescent black dragon, Kubota, and later the ancient black dragon this way.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Delivered to V and returned manyfold.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Admit it, you think Evil V looks cool too when commiting mass murder.
• Dumb Is Good: Vaarsuvius is sometimes condescending towards others simply because of their lesser intelligence, making this an example of the "smart people are mean" part of the trope.
• Dump Stat: Strength (can only carry one Bag of Holding), Constitution (elf; plus a backstory that involves studying, but little exercise), and Charisma (genuinely worried about being capable of apologizing to a friend). Hell, looking at decisions over the course of the comic, Wisdom is looking iffy too. Vaarsuvius' status as master of the dump stat has actually been Lampshaded, when V's singular focus was compared to Roy's extremely wide point spread as in the difference between a hamburger and a roast dinner.
• Elfeminate: The main reason for the ambiguous gender.
• Eureka Moment: During his/her fight with Zz'dtri at the Empire Arena.
  Vaarsuvius: How in the infinite planes of existence am I supposed to be capable of defeating a wizard who has tailored not just his daily spells but his very build specifically to defeat... me.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: V knows that, but unfortunately choses to ignore it and accepts the IFCC's deal.
• Evil Makeover: The soul splice; though V isn't actually affected apart from appearances.
• Expo Speak Gag: V's comedic stock-in-trade.
  Vaarsuvius: Fascinating. Durkon, I have just now formulated a theory that encompasses both Nale's likely method of engagement and the most suitable response on our part.
  Durkon: THA TREES BE ATTACKIN'!! RUN FER YER LIVES!!!!
  Vaarsuvius: Ah, I see you have already grasped the core principles of my theory.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride in the power of arcane magic, to the point where V's inability to admit to needing help has been a major factor in accepting a Deal with the Devil.
• Finger Poke of Doom: "Disintegrate."
• Fire-Forged Friends: V finally learns to treat Blackwing as an equal after witnessing the latter's bravery when he plays a vital role in V and O-Chul's attempt to destroy Xykon's phylactery.
• Flight: With the Overland Flight spell.
• Functional Magic: As fitting for a Dungeons & Dragons comic. Vaarsuvius is explicitely an evoker, with necromancy and conjuration as forbidden schools.
• Glass Cannon: V can dish lots of damage, but as your archetypal Squishy Wizard, is very less adept at taking it.
• Good Counterpart: To Zz'dtri and Pompey.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: Once the soul splice is completed, V's hair grows quite long and wild. Upon reverting, it's tied up into a ponytail.
• Hearing Voices: During the soul splice, Vaarsuvius' three "subcontractors" talk a lot amongst themselves and can be heard quite audibly. It's later revealed that they had as much influence over V's actions alignment-wise as cheerleaders do over the outcome of a football game.
• Heroic BSOD
  • Vaarsuvius is being driven insane by guilt over a perceived failure in Azure City, as well as many failures since. As a result, the elf has become completely obsessed with not failing and, by extension, with finally succeeding at something that will prove that V is not a failure.
  • Vaarsuvius has a bigger one when realizing the actual effects of the Familicide spell: not only did V kill all black dragons directly related to the ancient black dragon the spell was initially cast on, but also the entire Draketooth family, who descended from a black dragon, and everybody who the Draketooths had children with, and their families...
  Vaarsuvius: (curled on the floor) My fault. I am the cause. It sprang from my brow.
• Hero with an F in Good: V has had some memorable Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moments.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Vaarsuvius is usually knocked out of fights quickly to prevent Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards from taking play. But when V is able to participate, the fight either ends quickly or is against a powerful opponent with some form of magic resistance.
• Idiot Ball
  • V gets slammed with it in the epic battle versus Xykon, despite having more than enough sheer power on hand to win if the battle were fought in an even halfway intelligent manner. Justified due to V's overwhelming power trip and arrogance.
  • Played straight elsewhere. The Oracle all but tells V that the price for ultimate arcane power would be too high. Vaarsuvius only hears that the power sought is coming.
• Ignored Epiphany: Even if the plan they laid out was unworkable, the fiends make sure that V is aware of the fact that the true motives for accepting their deal were pride and desire for ultimate power, rather than any nobler goal. Despite this being thrown in V's face, the elf accepts the deal. S/he later learns the lesson, but only after the damage is done.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: So very much, particularly during the separation arc. During a string of (partially perceived) heavy failures and PTSD to boot, V becomes practically impossible to live with.
• Insufferable Genius: Yes, V is the most powerful member of the Order by a large margin. That doesn't mean he/she should bring it up all the time.
• Insult to Rocks: V apologies to the tables of the world for comparing them to Belkar.
• It's All My Fault: V's reaction to realizing the full implication of Familicide, and actually true in this case. However, it's also an important turning point in Vaarsuvius' character arc, as the elf refuses any potential loopholes, justifications, or excuses for the act in question and insists that the responsibility is theirs alone.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Part of V's reason for not contesting the divorce.
• Jerkass: Particularly in the fleet/Soul Splice arc. Culminates with V threatening to kill Elan.

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: V still has good qualities beneath the haughty exterior, and is trying to become a better person with Blackwing's help.
• Just Eat Him/Her: Swallowed once by an owlbear and twice by black dragons...
• Kick the Dog: If offing Kubota didn't qualify, then taunting the black dragon about her dead son definitely does. And if that's not bad enough, then how about simultaneously committing familicide against every black dragon related to her?
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Honestly, Kubota had it coming.
• Kill It with Fire: Fireball or Scorching Ray are often the first choice of offensive spell.
  Vaarsuvius: Burn, you insufferably terse dullard!!
• Knight Templar Parent: As part of his epic Heroic BSOD, he sets a long distance record for Jumping Off the Slippery Slope with this trope when fighting the mother black dragon.

• Last Name Basis: Calls Roy "Sir Greenhilt", Haley "Miss Starshine" and Durkon "Master Thundershield", and tends to follow a similarly formal, professional pattern for other people. Just about the only people he doesn't refer to this way are Belkar (probably reflecting his level of respect for him) and Elan (quite possibly true again, but then he doesn't actually have a given surname.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again
  • The incident in which Belkar kissed V whilst drunk must only ever be referred to as "The Event".
  • The two days spent in the Semi-Elemental Plane of Ranch Dressing after being sent there by Zz'dtri is a story Vaarsuvius would much rather have go untold. Especially in the books.
• Lethal Joke Item: Doilies.
• Levitating Lotus Position: Vaarsuvius floats in this position while in a trance to regain spells.
  • Belkar took advantage of this once to play a prank on V.
  • V also does it in the Draketooth temple after calming down and awaiting doom at the hands of what the elf thinks is a revenant.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
  • By the #600 comic point, V has incredibly powerful magic available, and is the most powerful of the group (by quite a lot) in terms of sheer damage-causing ability. However... this is somewhat tempered by V's "barred" schools, and the fact that if the elf gets too close to the action and gets either knocked out, gagged, paralyzed, transformed (lizard), or runs out of spells, will end up being not really very helpful. Which... is a causative factor behind a Heroic BSOD. Probably because of what happened in the flashback strip "Running Away". Also subverted by V's arrogance in doing everything personally, rather than working with others. Had Vaarsuvius helped the rest of the Order rather than seeking personal power, everything would have gone smoother for everyone.
  • Played with and ultimately defied in "Right Tool for the Job". V is up against a character who has tailored his very build to shut down the elf's entire spell list directly, even at its most effective. V gets around this by dominating the mind of an enemy crossbowman (crossbowkobold?), and correctly estimates the physical bolts as a weakness to be exploited. Hence, for all the supreme power V has, victory is achieved by using a ranger's abilities instead.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: But only the screams of people that are really hated. For example, forcing the Linear Guild's third kobold Yukyuk to serve as Mr. Scruffy's litter box while he is under mind control, and V is very much aware of what's going on; V, as the one controlling him, is the only one who can hear his screams.
  Vaarsuvius: His silent screams are a symphony I cannot share.
• Mama Bear or Papa Wolf: Whatever V's gender is, you do not mess with V's kids.
• Mass Teleportation: "Epic Teleport!"
• Moment of Weakness: "I... I must succeed."
• Morality Chain
  • According to the books, Hayley helps rein in V, and her absence contributes to V's breakdown in Don't Split the Party.
  • Blackwing has taken on this role to keep destruction to a minimum.
• Morphic Resonance: V keeps a pink or purple color scheme whenever transformed.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Not so different from Belkar and Miko on this point, despite hating those two. Notably, over mere interaction problems:
  Vaarsuvius: As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.
• My Gods, What Have I Done?: V seems to have at least half a clue as to what having a brief Superpowered Evil Side has done. Also appears to have caught on the other half when learning that the Draketooth family are all descendents of an ancient black dragon.
• My Greatest Failure
  • Vaarsuvius is distraught over not having had enough power to win the battle at Azure City (though the wall would've fallen much earlier without V's aid), and failing to overcome the Cloister spell (though the elf very nearly succeeded with the bird-messengers, if not for a freak incident that was no fault of anyone).
  • The reconciliation with Durkon counts, as V is incredibly regretful of how the immense power gained from the Fiends was used and how, only after receiving a withering Hannibal Lecture from Xykon after being defeated did V become truly effective.
  • Vaarsuvius goes through it again when realizing that the Familicide spell inadvertently killed the Draketooth family. And anyone they reproduced with. And their families.
• Nerf: V can't cast teleport, through no fault of his/her own because when came the choice of opposed schools, Teleportation was not a conjuration spell, thus V thought it was safe to take conjuration as an opposed school.
• Never Live It Down: In-Universe example.
  Vaarsuvius: I have a plan.
  Blackwing: Does it involve selling your soul?
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Whether or not the black dragons Vaarsuvius murdered were Acceptable Targets, the sheer undiscriminating effects of Familicide killed quite a few innocents tied to them as well. Including the Draketooth clan, the protectors of Girard's gate.
• Not Brainwashed: The Superpowered Evil Side has absolutely no effect on alignment. V Jumps Off the Slippery Slope without help.
• No Time to Explain:
  Vaarsuvius: Time is at a premium, precluding extended discussion.
• Oh Crap
  • "Say 'disintegrate' one more time, Vaarsuvius. For me."
  • V also has this expression on discovering the ramifications of casting Familicide on the black dragon.
• Ostentatious Secret: Vaarsuvius's gender.
• Our Elves Are Better: Subverted. V struggles with a lot of very human troubles and flaws such as pride, stubbornness, and thoughtlessness towards others. Vaarsuvius feels these flaws more and more keenly as time goes on and is working to improve.
• Paint It Black: When V accepts the Soul Splice, the elf's normally red robe and cape turn black (along with instant hair extensions and pointy teeth). Bonus: the strip title is "I See a Red Robe and I Want to Paint it Black".
• The Plot Reaper: Vaarsuvius's killing of Kubota is for this very reason.
• Pointy Ears: Comes with being an elf.
• Power Floats: While trancing.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: A side-effect of the Soul Splice.
• Powers via Possession: Takes possession of three evil souls to gain their powers. Notably, V is Not Brainwashed by them.
• Prepositions Are Not to End Sentences With: In a Dragon strip, V blows the party's cover by ranting at a pair of wights who kept doing this.
• Pride: Very much V's Fatal Flaw. When given a choice between selling hir soul and getting help from hir friends, s/he chose the former.
• Pronoun Trouble: For everybody else.
• Real Men Wear Pink: If V is a male: his magical aura is always pink and he wears his hair in a ponytail from the end of the previous arc. Also, his soul splice background is a pink triangle, and it causes his speech bubbles to become black with pink lettering and borders.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Hoo boy, Xykon gives a potent one to V about what power really means.
• Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Reason: Pretty much the wording of the Oracle's prediction concerning V finding ultimate power.
• Ring of Power: A Ring of Wizardry, pried from Xykon's charred fingerbone.
• Running Gag: V's use of Explosive Runes.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Which, at times, becomes a problem. At one point V overcomes one of the rules of the game (namely, that Talking Is a Free Action).
  Vaarsuvius: Actually, now just [six seconds]. I was being particularly verbose just there.
• Shock and Awe: Lightning spells are amongst Vaarsuvius's favorites.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: "Disintegrate. Gust of Wind. Now can we PLEASE resume saving the world?"
• Sophisticated as Hell:
  Vaarsuvius: I may be in error, but I believe the appropriate proclamation is, "Sneak Attack, bitch."
• Spock Speak: V's normal way of speaking.
• Squishy Wizard: As per standard for D&D wizards.

• Tears of Remorse: A little overdue, very out of character (up until then: see below)... and definitely meant, in "Lack of Foresight".
• The Smart Guy/Girl A powerful mage, and magic requires high intelligence.
• The Spock: Most of the time. Although V has experienced enough emotional turmoil lately to lose cool at critical moments.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: V's resistance to anything not involving Xykon directly, arrogance and overall occasionally rude behavior skyrocket during the period after Azure City where V refuses to trance for months. This culminates in threatening Elan and ditching the rest of the Order of the Stick. After the whole Deal with the Devil thing V returns to normal behavior or better, however.
• Tragic Hero: Especially since the Familicide.
• Troubled Fetal Position: After finding out that V caused the deaths of countless innocents with the Familicide spell.
• Unwitting Pawn: Accepting the Deal with the Devil and attacking Xykon play right into the Gambit Roulette spun by the Inter-Fiend Cooperation Commission.
• Vancian Magic: Isn't too happy about it, as the article's epigraph indicates.
• Victorious Loser: Against Xykon.
• Wall of Blather: Early on. It puts a bunch of goblins (as well as Belkar and Elan) to sleep.
• Weapon of Choice: Spells. Prefers Fireball, Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning, Disintegrate and Prismatic Spray as attack spells. Also, Explosive Runes — *BOOM*
• What You Are in the Dark
  • V's state during the Deal with the Devil is actually this. The IFCC tells the elf that the splice will affect alignment, while in reality it's only three additional shoulder devils, who don't have any actual influence. The answer is going Drunk with Power and committing a genocide of black dragons. While the rest of the party doesn't know, Vaarsuvius's mate, familiar, and the Powers That Be (and Karma) do.
  • V's rescue of O-Chul qualifies. Vaarsuvius is heavily injured, nearly out of spells, and completely out of his/her league, against Xykon, an Epic-level sorcerer and the Big Bad. V turns invisible and means to escape through a hole in the wall, one Feather Fall away from safety... Nobody could possibly know or blame the elf for escaping in that situation, but V instead chooses to go back and help O-Chul instead, rather than abandoning yet another person to their death. It is a very poignant and touching moment - an important first step to redemption - after everything Vaarsuvius has done.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer: The way V's been using magic since the beginning. Trying to break the habit in the latest arc, with difficulties. And could be said to have succeeded, if "Right Tool for the Job" is anything to go by.

• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": Familicide. Oops, V. Killing the Black Dragons? May not, in retrospect, have been your brightest hour.
• Wreathed in Flames: "Fire Shield."
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Purple. Most other elves also have odd hair colors.

Belkar Bitterleaf

• Abstract Scale: His evil is measured in KiloNazis.
• Alliterative Name: Belkar Bitterleaf.
• Anti-Hero: The only thing that separates Belkar from being a Villain Protagonist is that he is pointed towards the Big Bad. In fact, he might have joined Xykon if his poor impulse control didn't have him throw a cat in the recruiter's face for his own amusement.
• Ass Shove: Implied.
  Belkar: But speaking hypothetically, if I had managed to conceal a Ring of Jumping someplace on my body that I was reasonably certain no one would search...
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: His most iconic moment, after slaughtering an entire army of hobgoblins.
  Haley: Do you want to tell him he probably won't get any experience from killing them?
  Durkon: Let's draw straws.
• Badass: Three words: None Left Standing.
• Badass Normal: Although as a ranger, he should be able to cast spells... if he didn't have the wisdom score of a lemming.^note Lemmings have a wisdom score of 12 - which isn't that bad. Unfortunately, this was an insult rather than accurate character description.
  Belkar: Hey, lemmings are cute.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Belkar hoped to push Miko over the edge and make her fall. He succeeded, but she ended up killing someone he liked in the process.
• Becoming the Mask: There are hints that Belkar's fake character development is turning into real character development. It becomes very apparent in "Wild Empathy".
• Berserk Button: It doesn't matter who you are... if you value your head remaining attached to the rest of your body, you should never, ever, EVER threaten to harm Mr. Scruffy in his presence.
• The Berserker: He has a couple barbarian levels, but it's not always obvious when he goes into a rage.
• The Big Guy: He's the most bloodthirsty of the group and has the highest body count. Shares the role with Durkon (ironically, the two are the smallest humanoid members of the party).
• Black Comedy: He's main source of this on the protagonists' side.
• Blood Knight: Fighting and slaughtering living beings is all he initially care about.
• Brutal Honesty: Nothing in his Cruel To Be Kind speech is false. It's just delivered in an incredibly offensive way in order to enrage Roy enough to make him want to continue.
• But He Sounds Handsome: "That Belkar, as stubborn as he is stone-cold sexy."
• Chaotic Stupid: Moreso in earlier strips, where he would do things like set a tent on fire just to watch it burn — when they were trying to sneak into a camp stealthily.
• Character Development: Faked character development, which ironically is real development for him too. To clarify: at the end of the "Don't Split the Party" arc, Belkar is in many ways still the same sociopathic murderous halfling. However, he actually promises someone else that he would stick to him to the very end, no matter the outcome, which is something the old Belkar would never have done. In the book commentary for that section the author described the conversion scene as going from sociopath to slightly more high-functioning sociopath.
• Charlie Brown Baldness: He's not bald, but the very short hair atop his head is hard to see (unless in close-ups or from behind). Notably, it's identical to the hair on his feet.
• Chef of Iron: He has ranks in the Profession (Gourmet chef) skill.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: The Ring of Jumping +20. First when he uses it to escape from prison in Azure City, and again when he lends it to Roy.
• Combat Sadomasochist: To the point where he can hardly be bothered killing things that won't scream.
• Cruel To Be Kind: Gives Roy a massive, insulting speech specifically designed to spit in the face of Roy's grief over Durkon's death, which has Roy so demoralised he seriously contemplates giving up the quest. It shocks the team and enrages Roy - which is enough to get Roy off the bench, at least for now.
• Crutch Character: As befitting someone with such a terrible build. He's a veritable Mook-slaughtering machine but has perhaps the lowest success rate of the group against higher-level opponents. Spellcasters in particular tend to steamroller him because he has such a laughable Will save. In addition, he's levelling up slower than everyone else because of his multiclassing (and the Mark of Justice severely limiting his killing power at crucial points). Early on in the story Roy expresses a fear that Belkar could take down the entire rest of the Order if he chose to, but if that ever was the case it certainly isn't any more.
• Deadpan Snarker: Notable even for this World of Snark.
• Devil in Plain Sight
• Does Not Like Shoes: Like all halflings. And he especially dislikes sandals.
• Dual Wielding: Two daggers. It is implied that Belkar choose Ranger because of the Two-Weapon Fighting feat.
• Dump Stat: Wisdom. This comes into play in an early strip, "First Aid", when V buffs Belkar's Wisdom to enable him to use a healing scroll, it completely changes Belkar's personality and life goals. Of course that would not only make Belkar less funny, but also less useful in a fight, so Status Quo Is God...
• Evil Counterpart
  • Inverted in his Good Counterpart, the late Yokyok, whose father he killed earlier in the comic.
  • Also both inverted and played straight by Yokyok's aforementioned father Yikyik, who's Belkar's counterpart and is genuinely evil because he's just like Belkar.
  • And then Yukyuk, whose relation to Yikyik and Yokyok is currently unknown, but he seems to be as evil as Yikyik.
  • And now Chancellor Kilkil. Well, sort of.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Unexpectedly, this trope works out in his favor. When he tries to tell the rest of the party that Durkon has been turned by a vampire and Roy dismisses it as a lie, he mentions that Durkon's last request to the vampire was for his comrades to be spared. This causes Haley to believe him, since Belkar is so much of a sociopath that he wouldn't think to include that detail if he was lying.
• Failed a Spot Check: All the time. He's almost as bad as Elan.
• Fan Nickname: Originating from his own words — he is the SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR.
• Fragile Speedster: Roy rather unsubtly shows him that he isn't as good at taking damage as he is at dishing it out, and he should stick to slaughtering Mooks.
• Gay Bravado: Is "confident enough in his sexuality" that he can make come-ons at Roy to squick the latter out.
• Geas: The Mark of Justice. He breaks it half by accident: he kills the Oracle of Sunken Valley, but the Oracle had gotten just enough kobolds to move into the area to technically constitute a settlement.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Nope, it is shown instead that he's got two shoulder fiends (representing his impulsive evil side and his long-term evil side), and a shoulder slaad. The shoulder angel "...doesn't work here anymore."
  Angel: (twitching) ...and he kept stabbing them, again and again... He's a halfling, he's supposed to be jolly... Why isn't he jolly? WHY ISN'T HE JOLLY???
• Halfling: Of course, he subverts every expectation of the race.
• The Halfling They Couldn't Hang: "Hangin' Around". He is offended by humans who think their methods of execution would work on a halfling.
  Belkar: I'm not even pulling this rope taut!
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: A textbook example; his blood lust and sociopathy are played for laughs such as "trying to kill Elan for XP".
  Belkar: How the HELL am I supposed to make myself feel better if there's no one to hurt?!?
• He's Back: In a Crowning Slaughter of Awesome.
• Hidden Depths: Averted. Belkar has no depth at all, and his hallucination of Shojo tells him that he better fake some Hidden Depths or he'll find himself in deep trouble.
• Ho Yayinvoked/Foe Yay
  • He gets the tingles when Roy goes all Badass.
  • See also New Year's Eve (if Vaarsuvius is male). Further, the fourth book includes a Cast Page with lines indicating the relationships between the characters. According to this Belkar wants to "shtup" V, which means exactly what you think it does.
• Hypocritical Humor: "What kind of idiot could screw up something as simple as protecting the casters?" Belkar's kind of idiot, that's who.
• I'll Take Two Beers Too: "There are exactly two sandwiches here, aren't there?"
• I Should Write a Book About This: Parodied, like other halfling-related tropes.
  Belkar: You know, I think I could make good money writing a guidebook to the jail cells of the world.
  Dark but clean, I'd give this three stars — "Would be incarcerated again."
• I Will Show You X: When Belkar's friend Buggy Lou suggests eating Mr. Scruffy with a nice marinade.
  Belkar: I got your marinade RIGHT HERE!
• Jerkass: His main selling point.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Sometimes. Even Hinjo, a paladin, has to admit it once.

• Kavorka Halfling: He is successful at seducing human women (with obviously low standards) from times to times.
• Kill It with Fire: "When in doubt, set something on fire."
• Kissing Under the Influence: With Vaarsuvius.
• Knife Nut: He sure loves his daggers...
• Laughably Evil: He's evil, but a big source of laughs. Only second to Xykon.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Belkar provides a near-perfect example of how a Leeroy can cause havoc in "A Lesson in Leadership".
• Level Grinding: It takes Belkar months of killing off undead to get one level after the Time Skip, and it gets drained almost immediately.
• The Millstone: Belkar's sociopathy and frequent refusal to listen to orders ruin the party's planning several times — for example, leaving the spellcasters undefended to kill goblins, putting the bandit camp on fire because he couldn't wait, or killing the Oracle. He has somehow grown out of it after his Vision Quest... until that time in prison when he pushes Roy to snap during the gladiator selection for the games, dooming the leader of the OotS to a dangerous fight in the arena (though Gannji also helps for this to happen).
• Mind Screw: Favorite way of being a Jerkass to his teammates. He claims to have taken the feat "Craft Disturbing Mental Image".
• Min-Maxing: Inverted! Belkar's "build" is (deliberately) badly constructed; as a halfling he gets a Strength penalty and a Dexterity bonus but hardly ever uses missile weapons and taking Wisdom as a Dump Stat impairs his use of key Ranger skills and spellcasting. The only aspect of his build that isn't complete crap is that he appears to utilize his dexterity to extremes, jumping around like Yoda, meaning he is very good at defeating low-level minions. Later, he attempts to offset some of these deficiencies with a dip into Barbarian. Since his racial favored class is Rogue, the disparity between his Ranger and Barbarian levels means he now earns 10% less experience than the rest of the party (assuming that rule is being enforced).
• Morality Chain: Without Roy's restraining influence, he would be an even worse psychopath.
• Munchkin: For example, wanting to murder a team member just to get the necessary XP to level up.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Belkar works on the definition, "Enemy combatant = anyone worth XP."
• My Death Is Just The Beginning: His tactic of holding Miko back. He didn't quite think it through, though.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: He gets this treatment a few times.
• The Napoleon: Short and bad-tempered? Check.
• The Nicknamer: Belkar loves to give ludicrous (but creative) nicknames to about everyone or everything (including himself), but especially for Durkon.
• Nominal Hero: See Anti-Hero, above.
• The Nose Knows: "Halfling sense activated!" Notably, Belkar tracks the Order's way through the Windy Canyon by scent alone.
• Odd Friendship
  • Any actual friendship would be odd, but he really seems to care about Mr. Scruffy.
  • He also is on good terms with Lord Shojo, and is upset when he dies.
  • He's also surprisingly amiable with Elan. He makes him laugh.
• One-Halfling Army: Proven in "Seeing Orange".
• OOC Is Serious Business: Yet another way he will screw with people's minds.
  • "Horse Sense"
  Belkar: Are you feeling OK? I'm really worried about you.
  • "Probably About an '8'"
  Belkar: I think they've worked out a good plan to end this pointless conflict without any more lives lost, and I support it fully. Let's stop the violence. (big grin)
• Pet the Cat
  • Mr. Scruffy is possibly the only thing he's ever cared for unconditionally.
  • There is also the time when he saves the two reptilian bounty hunters by releasing an Allosaur to distract the soldiers trying to kill them. It's pointed out that he could have just waited for the soldiers to kill them before letting loose the Allosaurus: bunch of dead guards, on their own, would have been funny, but dead mercenaries that he hated and eaten guards? Hilarious in his eyes. "Wild Empathy" reveals that he helped them because it reminded him of his relationship with Mr Scruffy.
  • He's genuinely upset that Durkon died trying to save him from Malack.
  • His illusion of a perfect life when he was trapped in Girard's dungeon? Hanging out with Lord Shojo and Mr. Scruffy.
• Pint Sized Powerhouse
• Quit Your Whining: In his own way, he does this to Roy when the latter is in a Heroic BSOD over Durkon's death.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He has ranks in gourmet cooking, he knows the score to "Meet Me in St. Louis" and his best friend is a small, white housecat.
• Restraining Bolt: The Mark of Justice. It works even better than Roy's threats of bodily harm. Kept him locked down for a while. It's been removed.
• Ring of Power: A Ring of Jumping +20; he puts it to very good use.
  Belkar: A magic item that can allow me to rain death from above on my enemies AND lets me reach stuff on the top shelf? Done.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The one the Oracle gives him. He makes sure it happens the way he likes.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Though this role falls most often to talking animals, he's snarky, he's non-human, and he's a psycho, so...
• Square Race, Round Class: Halfling Ranger/Barbarian? He makes it work, though...
• Stereotype Flip: "He's a halfling, he's supposed to be jolly... Why isn't he jolly?"
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred: Belkar succeeds at doing this to Miko, but his effort is stopped by a well-timed Scorching Ray.
• Stupid Evil: He starts out as this, but moves to true Chaotic Evil through a dream sequence with the spirit of Lord Shojo. In the early comics he literally is Stupid Evil: when his Wisdom is raised, he becomes nicer.
• Sympathy for the Devil: "Hurting people is the only thing I'm good at." Said after his Cruel To Be Kind moment.
• Team Chef: He has skill points in "Profession: Gourmet Chef".
• Technical Pacifist: The Mark of Justice forces Belkar to be one, within towns at least. Not that he doesn't find several creative workarounds.
• Time for Plan B: Belkar has a tendency to play with this phrase.
• Token Evil Teammate: Deconstructed. At first, Belkar's antics are Played for Laughs, but as time passes, they are shown to have consequences both in the world in general and in his relationship with his teammates. Although, this is slightly reconstructed when Roy temporarily dies and goes to Heaven. He talks with a deva about his decision to let Belkar to be part of his team. Roy says that while Belkar is a complete asshole, if it wasn't for Roy's leadership, he would have turned out far worse.
• Troll: See Mind Screw above. He does it because he finds it funny. He also trolled an already pretty screwed Miko Miyazaki into Sanity Slippage in order to make her lost her paladinhood^note Which she finally lost by her own fault.
• Unusual Euphemisms: He spouts D&D-based euphemisms and innuendo regularly.
  Belkar: Hey, Sweet Thing, wanna hold my Rod of Lordly Might? If you press the right button, it might extend!
  • Note that the title of said strip is Comically Missing the Point: "What? It's a Legitimate Magic Item." (It is, too!)
• Vision Quest: As a result of his magically-induced hallucination of Lord Shojo, Belkar learns to fake character growth.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Parodied in On the Origin of PCs. Belkar thinks he deserves a reward for the restraint he showed by not killing all the barmaids in a tavern brawl, and suggests that if humans don't want him to murder people, they should put up a sign saying, "Thank you for not killing more than five of us."
  Prison Guard: We don't want you to kill ANY of us!
  Belkar: Now you're just being unreasonable!
• Weapon of Choice: His daggers, as mentioned above.
• Weak Willed: Both Nale and Malack have taken advantage of it. The latter uses the exact term, although Durkon complains that it could describe half the party. It's to the point where when trapped in an illusion world granting his "happy ending" with Mr. Scruffy (a cat), it doesn't feature his desires but those of the latter.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Belkar assumes he will win his fight against Malack because he spouted the sentence "I have someone worth fighting for!" and guys who do it "always win for some weird reason". He then gets anticlimactically defeated in two panels.
• Your Days Are Numbered: It's initially implied, then outright stated by the Oracle that he'll take his last breath before the end of the year. The Giant is officially teasing the fans over this — strip #870 ends with Malack deciding to turn Belkar into a vampire, only for Durkon to show up with Mass Death Ward at the beginning of #871. Then, in #886, he appears to die to Xykon's Meteor Swarm, before it is revealed as an illusion..

Durkon Thundershield

• And Then Durkon Was a Vampire
• Badass Beard: Required for a dwarf.
• Bald of Awesome
• Berserk Button: He takes it rather badly when people make fun of theology. Like, by worshipping hand puppets, or pretending to convert when handy.
• The Big Guy: When he uses "Thor's Might" to grow to Large size.
• Came Back Wrong: Yeah... not only is he a vampire, he's purposely kept under a Thrall effect.
• Combat Medic: Standard-issue healbot, but also packs a big hammer and a pocket full of lightning spells.
• Dating Catwoman: Briefly, with Hilgya.
• Daywalking Vampire: Thanks to Malack's Protection from Daylight spell.
• Drop the Hammer: His standard weapon is a hammer and shield.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: invoked Most would be rather depressed by the idea that they'll never return home again except when their corpse is taken there for burial, but Durkon is happy about it because it means he'd be buried at home with his ancestors and not somewhere else. It also means he'll be buried with honor, instead of dying in the belly of some random monster while out adventuring. Unfortunately, overly literal prophecies cheat.
• Exact Words: Durkon will return to his homelands posthumously. Now that he's been killed and raised as a vampire, it looks like he'll be making a trip home soon. After all, Kraagor's Gate is in the Dwarven Lands.
• Face Monster Turn.
• Fan Nickname: Count Durkula, after Malack turns him into a vampire.
• The Fettered: Believes in honor and obligations, no matter how hard they are. This has given him at least one recent example of Genre Blindness: in #865, he insists that the Linear Guild's new cleric cannot be Malack, as he knows that Malack hates Nale and wants to kill him for murdering Malack's children. The reality, of course, is that Malack has put aside his oath to do so in order to work with Nale on Tarquin's say-so. The fact Tarquin has promised to let Malack kill Nale after they're done didn't hurt, though.
• Funetik Aksent: Durkon, lampshaded.
  Belkar: Wait, he can pronounce "stratosphere" but not "the"?
  • It's contagious.
  Vaarsuvius: And yet I see no reason why I still need ye. You.
  • And persistent.
  Roy: You do know that you don't need to transcribe your accent?
  Durkon: Transcribe my what, now?
  Roy: Never mind.
  • In one of the creepiest examples of this trope, Durkon doesn't seem to have an accent anymore since he became a vampire.
• Good Counterpart: To Hilgya Firehelm, and later Leeky Windstaff. And even later on, Malack...
• Good Shepherd: A lawful good and honest cleric.
• Go Out with a Smile: Knowing, despite his death at the hands of Malack, he'll one day return home. Of course, now that he's been reanimated...
• Grumpy Bear: For a brief period (in On the Origins of PCs), though he grew out of it after meeting Roy.
• Healing Hands: "Cure Light/Moderate/Serious Wounds!"
• Home Sweet Home: He really wants to go even if it must be posthumously.
• Honor Before Reason: The dwarves know that he's so lawful he won't attempt to return to the dwarven lands until sent for (i.e. never). Subverted in that while even Miko knows he can be trusted to be unfailingly honest, he still twists the truth a little to protect his friends.
• Immune to Drugs: It's one of the benefits of dwarfdom. Malack's Poison spell? "Tastes like me mum's crabapple cobbler!"
• Killed Off for Real: Darn it, Malack. Well, not quite... even if he'd prefer it that way.
• Last Request: Before he dies, he asks of Malack that if his friendship was true and not just a trick, to spare his friends.
• Locked Out of the Loop: He has no idea about the real reason he was sent away from the Dwarven lands.
• Luke Nounverber: "Thunder-Shield" sure fits a dwarf cleric of Thor.
• Magic Knight: As a D&D cleric, he wears armor and fights with a hammer but he can still cast spells.
• The Medic: In one early strip, the other party members visualise him as a walking medical kit.
• Milkman Conspiracy: Durkon is convinced that the trees everywhere are part of some giant conspiracy. So are all the other Dwarves.
• Misery Builds Character: "A dwarf should always do his duty, even if it makes you miserable. Especially when it makes you miserable."
• Never Gets Drunk: Durkon loves his beer, but has never been drunk in the comic. In a New Year's Eve story, he and Belkar count down to midnight with 10 straight pints. Belkar kisses Vaarsuvius and passes out, but Durkon doesn't appear affected at all. Of course, Dwarves in this universe have two livers. According to him, it's a dwarven custom to take a drink every time someone counts down.
• Never Say That Again: Don't tell him that beer isn't important.
• Not That There's Anything Wrong with That:
  Durkon: I love me god Thor will all me heart — inna strictly heterosexual "buddies" kinda way. Not that there's anything wrong with the alternative.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: A parody of the concept that plays some traits straight.
  Cleric of Loki: Can you tell me anything about him that differentiates him from every other dwarf?
• Paint It Black: Upon being vampirized by Malack, his armor turns quite dark and his beard gray.
• Prematurely Bald: Not explicitly stated, but evident with a little math based on the evidence — he's currently 55 years old, and says to Haley that he's been bald for "forty years", meaning he went bald roughly around 15 years of age. He almost never mentions it, but it's apparently a touchy subject. (And since he's a dwarf, that's makes it the human equivalent of losing your hair in kindergarten.)
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes turn red when he reawakens as a vampire.
• Reforged into a Minion: What happens after Malack makes him a vampire.
• The Reliable One
• Shock and Awe: "Thor's Lightning!"
• Sizeshifter: "Thor's Might!"
• Static Character: Lampshaded in "Be Prepared".
• Straight Dwarf: Shares the role with Roy.
• Tragic Monster: As of comic 878, Malack has made Durkon a vampire.
• Turn Undead: His power as a cleric. He sometimes gets over-enthusiastic with it.
• Wall Master: With the "Meld into Stone" spell.
• Weapon of Choice: A warhammer and shield. Though he also uses cleric spells quite often.
• What Would Thor Do?: In practice, not as applicable as one might hope considering that Thor is a mighty god and he is a dwarf cleric.
• Why Did it Have to Be Trees?: Truly irrational in this case as he thinks they have a conspiracy of some kind and want to take over the world. He justifies this with his patron Thor striking them with lighning.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Though he bent the truth once or twice by using Exact Words when benefiting the rest of the order.
  Durkon: I count "able to be picked by a rogue" as a pretty major defect, aye?
• You Can't Go Home Again: A prophecy states that Durkon's return to his home would destroy the dwarven homelands. To keep this from happening, the higher-ups sent him off on a Snipe Hunt and told him not to return until they called for him. Which Durkon never does, because he's just that lawful. However, the higher-ups neglected to tell their successors about the prophecy. Durkon can now return whenever he wants, though the message telling him so was destroyed. Though according to the Oracle, he will be returning. Posthumously. The funny thing is, when he found that out, he was actually happy to learn that his body would be returned home, presumably for an honorable burial. The whole situation becomes even darker than it already was when you realize that being said to return somewhere "posthumously" doesn't mean the first prophecy won't come true. There's also the fact that returning as a vampire can also count as posthumously.

Blackwing

• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He is still a raven, after all, and tends to fixate on shiny objects at inopportune times. Also, Blackwing's first reaction to V being turned into a lizard is to try to eat it.
  Blackwing: Wait a second, is that a bauble? I could use a shiny new bauble.
• Chekhov's Corvid: Early in the comic he only appears in order to be involved in jokes about arcane casters neglecting or abusing their familiars. Then O-Chul and Vaarsuvius need someone who can fly as part of their plan to destroy Xykon's phylactery, and he gets a promotion to one of the main cast.
• The Conscience: To Vaarsuvius, to an extent.
• Dark Is Not Evil
• Deadpan Snarker: He's obviously taking hints from his wizard.
• Disembodied Eyebrows: Blackwing has the same range of eyebrow expressions as other characters, but being quite small those brows appear above his head.
• Familiar: Ignored for hundreds of strips, until he helped almost save the world, at which point he became a full-fledged character.
• Feather Fingers: Although he doesn't manipulate anything with his wings, he often gestures with them (even while flying), most commonly to "raise a finger" or point at someone.
• Fire-Forged Friends: His relationship with Vaarsuvius becomes this at the end of the "Don't Split The Party" arc.
• Flight
• Good Counterpart: To Qarr.
• Intellectual Animal: Once acknowledged as such.
• Morality Pet: Offers guidance to Vaarsuvius to try and avoid a repeat of past transgressions. It must be effective on some level, as Qarr's immediate priority on crossing paths with the Order again is to try and get Blackwing out of the way.
• Non-Human Sidekick
• Not Now, Kiddo: V doing it to Blackwing. Turns out that elf is Zz'dtri in disguise, and he ambushes them shortly thereafter.
  Blackwing: Hey, was that elf glaring at you?
  Vaarsuvius: Now is not the time.
• Not So Imaginary Friend
• Parrot Pet Position
• Psychic Link: With Vaarsuvius.
• Ravens and Crows
• Remember the New Guy: Subverted and played with. The rest of the Stick members forgot V ever had a familiar to begin with because of their neglect, including Haley, who named him Blackwing in the first place. This leads to them thinking V has an illusion on their shoulder, infuriating the elf to no end.
  Blackwing: Now that you feel my pain, the healing can begin.
• Sarcastic Devotee
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: "Screw THAT! You're on your own, mammal!"
• Talking Animal: A trait for raven familiars, though before he refused to talk in anything but his native raven given V's mistreatment of him, and therefore only communicated in caws and through V's empathic link.
• Typical Cartoon Animal Colors: Raven with yellow beak and feet.

Mr. Scruffy

• Art Evolution: The cat originally had black "stick figure" legs like other animals; only later (after the fall of Azure City) did the legs got depicted as white lines.
• Berserk Button: Just as threatening Mr. Scruffy will set off Belkar, threatening Belkar will set off Mr. Scruffy. If you're lucky, you might be able to keep your intestines intact.
• Cats Are Mean: Averted. He isn't that mean... unless you threaten Belkar.
• Chekov's "Skill": His dicky tummy. Almost makes you feel sorry for YukYuk.
• Fluffy the Terrible
• Formally-Named Pet
• Good Counterpart: To Sir Scraggly.
• Head Pet: To Yukyuk, while the latter is dominated.
• The Hedonist: His dream is to have his tummy endlessly stroked by Lord Shojo and to be fed an infinite supply of fishes by Belkar. Or, in short, he's a cat.
• Killer Rabbit: Proved in "The Duel Everyone's Been Waiting For", and justified by D&D 3.5 rules. All successful attacks deal at least one point of damage, and cats get up to three a round. An EL1 encounter of four stray cats can easily wipe out most 1st level adventurers (with actual class levels!) in a single round, especially if the cats use their insane racial stealth bonuses to launch a surprise attack. This is why 1st level commoners don't walk down alleyways at night. (To further cement that gladiator's demise, Mr. Scruffy is the animal companion of a high-level ranger, giving it more combat bonuses.)
• Loyal Animal Companion: Belkar's ranger animal companion.
• Morality Pet: For Belkar... though he's still Chaotic Evil, only a little bit less so.
• Right-Hand Cat: To Lord Shojo, and then Belkar.
• Team Pet
• Timmy in a Well: With Durkon, in "The Papers Chase".
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from a pampered, probably overweight (given what Lord Shojo did consider as "table droppings") pet to the lean (after weeks of living on rice and the occasional salted fish), deadly dangerous animal companion of a ranger. Just contrast the original reaction to his old master getting killed (to flee in panic, a natural reflex) with his fierce attacks over anyone threatening or hurting Belkar.