El Goonish Shive / Tropes S to Z

Tropes A to E | Tropes F to L | Tropes M to R | Tropes S to Z

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El Goonish Shive provides examples of the following tropes:

• Sarcasm Mode: Diane isn't buying into the idea that she's some sort of Vampire Hunter or that Nanase is some sort of princess. When her companion points out that Tara was able to somehow sense that Elliot and Ellen were twins, she sarcastically mocks Charlotte using the griffins realizing Elliot and Ellen are twins:
  Diane: OH MY GOD! She deduced that the people with nearly identical faces are twins?! She must be a wizard griffon!
• Save the Jerk: Tony is a homophobic Jerk Jock and general bully. Elliot is a heroic type with a bit of a Bully Hunter streak who has feuded with Tony in the past. When Tony is attacked by a monster (admittedly one that Elliot had been fighting previously), Elliot immediately jumps in and saves him.
• Saying Too Much: "An Endless Barrel Of Exposition" spilled it again when he accidentally reveals Grace can't get pregnant when transformed, revealing that she and Tedd could fool around without risks of pregnancy.
• Say It with Hearts: Used for Cardiovascular Love, in the 2003-04-23 comic, used in the last panel, with the hearts accompanying someone saying:
  God, I love that woman...
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Mr. Verres, on occasion, and Tedd here. Also Mr. Alephnull here. Preceded by Tedd's failed attempt to invoke this. Luke, a newish character as of this strip, apparently activates his after being called gay by another card player.
• Scenery Censor: These have been employed on occasion due to Grace's views on casual nudity and a lack of Magic Pants. In places where a scenery censor becomes unwieldy to use, an Angelic Tweeting Bird flies between the fourth wall and the audience.
• The Scream: It is a running gag that sometimes, characters yell, shout, or scream loud enough to be heard from space.
  • Catalina yells "Jackasses" loud enough for it to be heard from space in Sister 2 here.
  • Raven yells a Big "WHAT?!" loud enough to be heard from space in Death Sentence here.
  • Elijah squees loudly in Family Tree, with an Uryuom in space giving an annoyed look in the direction of Earth, here.
  • When Sarah yells in excitement over discovering her magic mark at the end of Squirrel Prophet, it is loud enough here the Uryuom attempts to cover their ears.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Magic usually functions under the Magic A Is Magic A principle. However, magic is also a Sentient Cosmic Force with a will and objectives of its own (and a penchant for drama). If it wants to, it can completely change the rules of how it works, and is stated to have done this several times in the past.
  Emissary of Magic: Magic is a force capable of defying the physical laws of the universe. It doesn't have to work the way it does now.
• Second-Hand Storytelling: During the Sister 3 arc, the subplot of various characters searching for Elliot, Ellen, and Ashley is not shown to the audience. Instead we get Ellen recapping the events to Elliot, Ashley, and Arthur after learning about them from Nanase. According to the author, this was done for pacing reason.
• Second Year Protagonist: The main characters are all in junior year, something Word of God states was only briefly meant to be the case. Eight years later, they've reached May of that year...
• Secret Identity: Elliot's Cheerleadra form also comes with several disguise forms, all representing different famed hero archetypes:
  • The mild-mannered Clark Kent disguise.
  • The Goth brooding Batman-esque hero.
  • The Genki Girl party animal form for the Tony Stark hero.
• Secret Legacy: Neither Nanase nor Tedd knew that Tedd's mother, also Nanase's aunt, was "A legendary monster hunter with a long family history of fighting monsters and evil wizards," until Agent Wolf accidentally let it slip to Nanase. Nanase's mother is fully aware of both this, and Nanase's own magic abilities, but deliberately keeps it a secret for reasons of her own. Tedd's father has also kept this information from Tedd, and convinces Nanase to do the same. However, only half of Tedd's legacy is truly hidden, as his father is a high-ranking member of the FBI's paranormal division, and doesn't keep this from his son at all. It's a bit complicated, and the audience doesn't yet know the whole story.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Justin and Ellen about Nanase's homosexuality. Grace and Sarah fall under this for the duration of the birthday party, although their response is more Shipper on Deck. When Nanase does come out to her friends, Tedd is the only one who doesn't already know.
• Security Blanket:
  • Originally, Tedd's glasses served as one. He started wearing them to hide his girly face, and although even he admits that they didn't help, he still felt extremely uncomfortable without them in public. He slowly gets over needing them thanks to his relationship with Grace and better understanding his gender identity.
  • Sarah tells Elliot that Susan only wears her Star Trek T-shirts if she's upset about something and Elliot compares them to security blankets.
• Self-Deprecation:
  • The title of this comic is "Ha! Take THAT, Nerds! (Ow! I Hurt Myself!)!
  • This one shows George giving a rant on certain writers which is mostly Leaning on the Fourth Wall about why the Hammerchlorians storyline is a bad idea, because "any writer who takes something no-one was questioning and tries to explain it is a hack in the very same storyline Dan is explaining where the anti-pervert hammers come from.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: A cult believed that a master of fire would rise and unite the seyunolu. Tired of waiting for the prophecy to come true, they created Damien to expedite the process.
• Self-Insert Fic: In-universe, Ashley writes embarrassing self-insert fetish fics in her spare time, oftentimes imagining herself as a powerful sorceress inflicting Karmic Transformations on misogynists and other jerks. One NP arc was about her trying to write a story without making it a self-insert... and failing miserably.
• Sensual Spandex: Uryuom clothes give a considerable protection and are made for shapeshifters. The net effect, however, is that three Action Girls have to wear outfits guaranteed to remain skin-tight in all and any circumstances. Tedd also has a hard time telling Grace not to wear the costume to a job interview.
• Sentient Cosmic Force: Magic has a will and objectives of its own. It's known to have a flair for the dramatic and even seems at times to have a sense of humor. Among its objectives is a desire to not be used by more than a small fraction of the people, and magic will rewrite its own rules if necessary to prevent widespread use. Or, in the words of the author: "Magic is a hipster that doesn't want to go mainstream."
• Sex Sells: Played with. It's not an official strategy of the comic book store Justin works at, but his friends Nanase and Ellen hang out there a lot, and though they hardly buy anything, the presence of two hot girls in the shop drives up sales.
• Sexy Santa Dress: Pops up in Sketchbooks and non-canon strips frequently around Christmas. Ellen tried to wear one in a filler strip but her mom thought she would catch cold.
• Sexy Silhouette: Diane asserts that she could win Elliot over from Ashley since "[Ashley] doesn't know what seduction is", punctuated with Diane posing sensually in silhouette.
• Shadow Dictator: Dissidents in Gryphon World are fighting against The Magocracy and have trouble grasping the idea that magical power is at best auxiliary in determining social status in the main universe. They interpret The Masquerade to mean that the tyrants merely rule in secret, arguably making them worse than their own tyrants.
• Shapeshifter Baggage:
  • Grace could originally change her density, but not her mass, which resulted in her squirrelly form being the same weight as her human form despite being a lot smaller. Then the TF Gun was introduced, which didn't obey the conservation of energy or mass at all, and Grace getting hit with it permenantly "fixed" her shapeshifting to break those same laws. Somewhat justified, in that despite the It's Magic! explanation, there are still rules to it, and Tedd creates a whole new field of study out of figuring out the laws and limitations of that magic.
  • Elliot still ends up wondering how he has his car keys after doing a series of costume-changing transformations (none of which have pockets). Apparently, if he has anything in his pockets when he shapeshifts, it temporarily merges into Elliot. Such as his smartphone.
• Shapeshifter Default Form:
  • Artificial transformations are temporary, in normal conditions new forms expire and the subject snaps back. A chimera may keep other forms for a good while, but is born in hybrid form and deem these the most "natural" i.e comfortable. Though Grace appears to have no problem remaining in her human form (with or without antenna) for long periods.
  • One major exception is Tedd's magic mark, which allows them to switch the sex of their default form permanently until used again.
• Shared Dream: The "Parable" storyline is eventually revealed to be a dream shared by almost everyone in Moperville due to Mist's Dream Weaver magic. He was trying to shortcut his search for people with royal lineage, but got tangled up in Jay's own dream magic, which mucked the spell up. This results in the "Do I Know You?" Anomaly, wherein total strangers are able to mutually recognize each other due to remnant memories from the dream.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend:
  • It happens a lot with Elliot and Tedd, both of them having to constantly deny they are romantically involved.
  • Starting from the Summer arc, Susan has to constantly deny she and Elliot are dating. This comic, in particular, holds links to most of the instances in the author commentary beneath it. She has not had to make such denial since the Identity arc.
• Sherlock Scan: Diane is incredibly observant and prone to piecing together the truth from very minor details. She is even reintroduced to the story by doing a cap-and-piped fantasy panel where she deduces that Ellen and Grace are new students.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Sarah, with Nanase and Ellen. Interesting because she's essentially returning the favor: Nanase helped Elliot get together with her. Grace is just as enthusiastic about pairing them up. In fact, the only person who doesn't like the idea is Tedd, who considers Nanase his "ugly cousin" — he can't handle the thought of her being in a relationship with anybody.
  • Unnamed "Star Trek fangirl" ships Elliot and Susan to the point that she shows up at the video store to ask Susan about their relationship, rather than to rent a video. And just happens to be there for the revelation that Sarah and Elliot have broken up. Cue Squeeing.
  • Grace and Sarah immediately fall into this when they suspect Luke has a crush on Justin.
  • Susan embraces this concerning Ashley and Elliot, although this is more to assuage her own issues, since they already had a date planned.
• Ship Tease:
  • Ever since the Summer Arc, there have been subtle shipping hints between Elliot and Susan, after the six month Time Skip, the hints have been...less subtle.
  • And then, even more strangely, Sarah, Tedd, and Grace have been getting threesome shipping since they started working together over the summer. They've all seen each other naked, pranked Tedd with awkward transformations making him guess who is who, and Tedd has accidentally kissed Sarah thinking she was Grace.
  • There have also been some... moments... between Tedd and Elliot, particularly after Tedd discovered his genderfluidity and Elliot decided he was "gender casual" (even though he admitted to making up that term). While they were always close friends, they have been getting a lot more cuddly and affectionate, and in one EGS:NP strip they fantasize about kissing... though the thought does make them both rather nervous.
• Shmuck Bait:
  • The PTTAOLUTASF is a government storage facility that's filled with magic artifacts but is sparsely guarded. As it turns out, it's actually a honey trap that contains useless or inert objects that send an alarm if they're removed from the premise, giving would-be magic thieves an easy target and making it easy to catch them in the act.
  • Sketchbooks and non-canon NP arcs sometimes have characters mess with an obvious magic object or push a button labeled "Do Not Push", only to end up getting transformed.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: If they can't be milked for drama, they're gone. At present, this means the Hammers are gone, and Greg is closing his dojo. Also leads to Doing in the Scientist with both Hammerspace and Anime-Style Martial Arts being explained by magic. Note that the Hammers had disappeared since Painted Black, and Greg is back in as a character, doing private tutoring sessions. So, in Greg's case, they shooed out the clown to bring him back.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The entirety of "Death Sentence", about an ultimately futile attempt by idealist Grace and pragmatist Raven to save a wild boar. Although Grace believes the attempt, while futile, was worth doing.
• Shout-Out: See here.
• Show Within a Show:
  • The Lucky Bunny Bounty Show: Greg and Dex are fans, Tedd owns the DVD, and now there's a poster.
  • Sarah draws comics — something about a squirrel-boy character named Dan.
  • Not only that, but once even lampshaded guest comic provided by a character from within the comic itself. Just in case the Fourth Wall wasn't already turned into Klein bottle.
  • Tensaided suggests that Susan and Elliot do a review show to help boost income for his video rental store in exchange for him giving them free video rentals. It has enough success to make the two minor local celebrities. It even has its own trope page, The Review Show.
• Shrouded in Myth: As far as the Child Left Behind is concerned, Grace is the mysterious figure who defeated Damien, and the main other thing he knows is that they are a woman of grace.
  Grace: You can call me Shade Tail.
  [whump]
  Greg: Are you okay?
  CLB: I'm fine! I tripped!
  Grace: But you were sitting.
  CLB: Yes I was. Sorry, mistress. Ma'am. Shade Tail.
• Shrug of God: In universe (as far as the Q&A) sessions count, Dan literally answered a question about his gender identity with "noncommittal shrug" in writing form.
• Shutting Up Now: Tedd quickly goes quiet after receiving a double Death Glare.
  Tedd: Withdrawn.
• Shy Finger-Twiddling: A rare male example (well, usually), Elliot does this a lot.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: While Tedd and his father were arguing the pros and cons of giving magic to the populace, Mr. Verres compares it to giving everyone rocket launchers and making it okay by giving them bomb suits. Tedd then wonders if a bomb suit would even help against a rocket launcher. His father's response of "That's a good question, isn't it?" subverts the trope by bringing the tangent full-circle to underscore his original point: They don't know if bombsuits (personal magic) could reliably protect people from rocket launchers (bad people with horrific magic), and aren't willing to take that risk.
• Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism: Tends towards the idealistic side due to the author's personal preferences for their story.
  Dan: I'm not saying a more "gritty" approach is wrong in general; I speak only of what is appropriate for this comic. The world is full of cynical, gritty and dark comics full of brooding, angst and doom, and while I'm sure many of those comics are good, one of my specific intentions for EGS is for it to not be one of those comics.
• Sickeningly Sweet:
  • Susan put up the act as cat repellent, accidentally giving Justin Brain Bleach deficiency syndrome.
  • Susan began physically choking after Elliot and Sarah started flirting in the same room as her.
• Side-Story Bonus Art: The Sketchbook and Newspaper, with parts occasionally squirreled into the canon.
• Significant Background Event: Over the course of this strip, a man in the background slowly turns into a woman. Later strips quickly show more and more men turning into women without any of the party goers noticing.
• Silence Is Golden: The scene where Susan kills the French aberration is entirely without dialogue, as a method of emphasizing just how impactful the experience was on Susan's psyche.
• Singing in the Shower: While setting up karaoke at the gender-swap party, Grace mentions that she knows Tedd's a good singer because she's heard Tedd singing in the shower before. Susan points out that the real issue is that nobody has had practice singing as the opposite sex so Tedd singing in the shower is irrelevant, before suddenly realizing...
  Tedd: Like none of you have thought about doing the same!
• Single-Target Sexuality:
  • Grace is "Tedd-sexual". It appears to be a result of her Uryuom heritage. Since they can change their external shape at will, Uryuoms form relationships based primarily on concepts and mental connections. Grace, being 1/4th Uryuom (or so), has inherited this disposition.
  • Later on, Tedd slips into this as well—over time, he loses some of his Chivalrous Pervert tendencies, starting to have eyes exclusively for Grace. Upon wondering out loud why this would be, Elliot just smiles and says that it's because he's in love.
• Sinister Silhouettes:
  • Grace is first introduced in silhouette reading a newspaper article about Tedd, thinking he could help her.
  • The Child Left Behind is introduced during a dark knight where their features are obscured talking to a gravestone. They are later revealed to be Noah, who has a spell that lets him shroud himself in darkness to invoke the trope.
  • During Q&A 5, Dan appears in silhouette with a fiery background when explaining that NP was on indefinite hiatus at the time.
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: The early strips had No Fourth Wall. As the years progressed, any mention of the author or even fourth wall breaks in general were dropped and are now relegated to the newspaper and filler strips, which are out of canon.
• Slumber Party Ploy: In the "Sister" arc, in order to sneak into a Secret Government Warehouse, Elliot tells his parents that he's spending the night at Tedd's house. Tedd doesn't need to tell any lies as his dad is out of town at the time.
• Smash Cut:
  • When Catalina tries to figure out how to make up for spreading a rumor about Elliot being gay, it immediately cuts to her kissing Elliot in the very next panel.
  Catalina: I'll think of something! I'll come up with an argument so airtight that
  [cut to Catalina kissing a surprised Elliot on the lips]
  • The last page of There Be Whales Here is Tedd making a declaration that he and his friends should be ready for the monsters that would be attracted to Moperville's ambient magic only for there to be an abrupt six-months timeskip where little of note happened.
• Soda Can Shakeup: In one Q&A strip, Chika opens a can of shrink soda which sprays all over Lisa.
  Chika: You didn't happen to... inadvertently shake the case while getting it out of the cabinet, did you?
  Lisa: Well, if you want to get technical about how intentional it was, and my assuming you would tilt the can towards yourself...
• Some Kind of Force Field:
  • One of Greg's skill as an anime-style martial artist is using his magic to create force fields.
  • Raven is able to create force fields and calls it a "Standard lockdown procedure." For schools that have a wizard teacher, that is.
• Space Whale: Invoked. The loosely-cetacean-shaped interdimensional ambient mana-eating creature would like to be compared to a [baleen] whale, thanks, not an algae-eater.
• Speaking in Panels: There's a panel of Sarah's fantasy of what the Magitek transformation watch Nanase's wearing might do to her.
• Species Surname: 'Sciuridae' is the formal name for the family which includes squirrels, and by total coincidence is also Grace's surname.
• Speech-Bubble Censoring: Used in a couple places, such as on Nanase while she was preparing to use the TF gun at Grace's birthday party, an un-shrunken Lisa in a Q&A comic, and with Grace while testing out how conventional magic works on her suddenly.
• Spit Take: Two near examples by Mr. Raven and Mr. Verres, both due to notes casually revealing shocking revelations written by Grace.
• Spock Speak: Noah, though Dan has said he is trying to limit this trope.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation:
  • For a long time, women who were offended by sexist men could conjure hammers from out of nowhere and use them to pummel the offender. This lasted until the immortal who originally created this ability passed away, although Susan's traumatic connection to the hammers let her still do it as a personal spell.
  • Susan's magic mark (and one of her spells after she Awakened) allows her to conjure copies of items stored in a special chest. She keeps a sword in the chest on the off-chance that she runs into a monster of some sort.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Nanase and Ellen had a big problem with this early on. They even had the most screentime in Painted Black, Grace's backstory arc. Shive found a solution to keeping Ellen and Nanase out of the spotlight without putting them on a bus or just quietly forgetting about them: They go on exciting adventures, solving mysteries and righting wrongs... almost completely offscreen. Makes for lots of fun Noodle Incidents, too.
• Squee: Frequently, usually from Grace, and later on from minor character Elijah. One Q&A asked what would happen if the two ever met.
• Squishy Wizard: Tedd has tons of magic, but is physically weak, whereas Nanase also has tons of magic and is disproportionately strong compared to her build. Arthur theorizes that people with magical power can potentially receive a strength boost, but it isn't free and reduces how much magic they can use for other things.
• The Starscream: Sirleck helps Magus with the full intention of betraying him and taking him over once the latter regains his body. The latter is well aware of this, and manages to kill him first.
• Stat Grinding: Nanase constantly uses spells once she realizes she can since magic usage is the most common way of how people can get new spells.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Noah has a tendency to be very sneaky and also is rather awkward in social situations, meaning he tends to pop out of nowhere on occasion.
• Stealth Pun: Mr. Raven's Murder Shroud spell creates a cloud that exploding crows come out of. A flock of crows can also be called a murder.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero:
  • The Latin word 'Sciuridae' translates as 'Shade Tail', which was also Grace's Code Name, though it was not in reference to Dr. Sciuridae. Its also part of the scientific name for squirrel.
  • Having an appropriate name can lead to having magic affinities related to that name. Pandora for her part does not like this since in her opinion, it's cliched and predictable and thusly, boring for someone like her.
• The Stinger: It looks like Dan acquired the taste for it by the latter arcs (which somewhat improves Rotating Arcs side in itself). After all was said and done in "New And Old Flames", the last page has a good hook. "One Way Road" got an even better "postscriptum" in the last panels.
• Straight Gay:
  • Justin, and also Nanase. There are no flamboyant stereotypes to be found in this comic. Well, except for Justin really likes to play with hair. Though Dan tried to explain that it wasn't because he was gay it's just he happens to have a strong emotional link to hair...and it just happens to be a gay stereotype. He mostly plays with Nanase's hair, though.
  • Parodied in one comic where Justin handwaves his ability to deduce Susan's problems as "Hollywood teaching us all gay friends are insightful".
  • It takes a dark turn when Luke first assumes that Justin is heterosexual because of this.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Tedd likes seeing girl-on-girl action. Sarah likes seeing guy-on-guy action. It's one of the things they have in common.
  Tedd: Your argument is seriously "That guy is hot and I want to see him make out with my hot friend"?
  Sarah: Well, not exactly...
  Tedd: I understand completely.
• Straw Feminist:
  • Susan's mother actively hates all men in the aftermath of her ex-husband's adultery, and instilled it into her daughter. Susan is a Deconstruction of this, as her stereotypical views on men were influenced by an event where she walked in on her father having an affair. It turns out she doesn't actually hate her father for this, but was trying to excuse his actions by believing that he couldn't help it because he was male (a notion that her mother helped to reinforce). Eventually she realizes that people just make stupid mistakes, no matter what their gender.
  • This is actually later inverted. When the school institutes a uniform policy, Susan is upset about the skirts for girls (because she thinks they're sexist), and many students want the uniforms removed entirely. However, Susan acknowledges that the school can't do a 180 in policy immediately (due to the expense of the uniforms) and just wants girls to have the option to wear pants.
• Straw Misogynist: Ashley writes stories where misogynists get Karmic Transformations into women. In one of the B-Side Comics, Ashley writes a story in which several characters rather explicitly refer to themselves as old men oppressing women's reproductive freedoms. They immediately correct their opinions after becoming subject to the very laws they were planning to enact. Liz lampshades it, pointing out how hackneyed the story is. In a canon story, she writes a story about the same thing happening to Construction Catcallers.
• Stealth Pun: The story arc "Hair" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin for most of it. But it ends with a flashback with Ted's mother and Raven discussing magical heredity and family lines, and how she hoped Tedd would be her apprentice. Hair sounds almost exactly like Heir.
• Stuffed in the Fridge: Subverted. Voltaire was trying to kill Elliot to traumatize Tedd so that he couldn't fulfill his role as a Seer properly, thereby causing Magic to reset and allowing Immortals to reclaim their place as gods. Fortunately, all of his attempts failed.
• Stumbling in the New Form: When Justin turned into a woman at Grace's birthday party, he ended up tripping and falling when he tried to walk because of his new center of gravity. This isn't an issue for anyone else, however; Tedd explains that transformations normally come with the Required Secondary Powers to avert this and the only reason Justin tripped was that he was overthinking how to walk.
• Stunned Silence: Nanase can only stare in shock when Ellen reveals she doesn't even know what her dad's job is.
  Ellen: I want to say... accountant?
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Any straight Gender Bender becomes bisexual for the duration. A certain male-to-female setting - which can also be used on women - will, for 48 hours, make you extremely attractive, even to people who normally don't like girls. Not to mention the Stupid Sexy Flanders overtones of Gender Benders in the first place. Even without gender-bending, Tedd is constantly getting this; Justin once joked that he shouldn't worry about gay men being attracted to him. Also, while removing his glases was enough to make V5-ed Elliot blush:
  Sarah: In Elliot's defense, your face isn't really the best barometer of whether he was really into guys...
• Sudden School Uniform: Due to Webcomic Time, the uniform policy Moperville North announced in March 2005 and abolished in January 2010 was really in effect for two and a half days.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Tedd is attempting to treat magic just like any other area of the (mad) sciences — physics, chemistry, robotics, etc. So far, we've seen him trying empirical testing of transformation spells, running numbers instead of hoping that things "just work", and so forth. It's heavily, heavily implied that "Lord Tedd" resulted in one timeline when he forgot the value of friendship in lieu of obsessing over magic-turned-science — and thus, power — to the exclusion of all else.
• Summon to Hand: Susan can summon things to her hand via hammerspace magic, so long as the object was placed in a specially-marked container.
• Super-Empowering: Immortals have the ability to trigger Awakenings, provided the subject has built up enough magical energy. They also have the ability to grant magic marks, which allow people to build up that magical energy.
• Super Gender-Bender:
  • Elliot acquires a spell that allows him to turn into a voluptuous superheroine with a standard set of Flying Brick powers.
  • Discussed and deconstructed with Magus, who comes from a world where magic users commonly change sexes to better fit whichever job they want to do. Females who want to be battle mages thus change their default sex to male, because males are physically stronger. Terra defies this norm, and both she and Ashley have questioned Magus on whether the male form is truly more powerful or if that's just a gender stereotype.
• Super Mode: Several characters have spells or other abilities that allows them to access a super-powerful form:
  • Nanase has her Guardian form, an angelic form tied with religious connotations and comes with a lot of combat bonuses compared to when she's using her magic in general. However, once the spell ends she'll be burnt out for at least a day, regardless of how much magic she used previously.
  • Elliot with his super-heroine form, which is his most powerful combat form.
  • Grace's Omega form is an amalgamation of all the best traits of her multiple forms, with horns, spikes, and three tails.
  • Tedd builds a gauntlet that collects magic energy and can be used to give him a huge boost in magic, which also gives him Black Eyes of Evil. It later turns out he doesn't need the gauntlet, and any magic power storage device can do it.
  • Ellen was once able to copy Nanase's Angel form, but due to all the weird rules and conditions with that spell its unknown if that was a one time thing or not.
• Supernatural Aid: Because of restrictive rules, one of the few ways Immortals can help people is by giving them a power boost, either via direct spell-granting or getting them access to artifacts.
• Supernatural Hotspot Town: The town of Moperville is the center of magical weirdness. There's an unnatural amount of magic energy around the town, turning it into a Place of Power where magic is much easier to do and monsters and extradimensional visitors are commonplace. There's also the issue of an insane Immortal going around and giving as many people magic powers as possible. All of this makes it a hotspot for conspiracy theorists and government agents. It's later revealed that the magic buildup was caused by that same Immortal, who was using it as a way to eventually create an Unmasqued World where her son could be free to live as himself.
• Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person:
  • The genderfluid character Tedd once appears in a female body when astrally projecting, and later has a bout of Power Incontinence when their Sex Shifting magic spontaneously changes their body to match their preferred gender in the moment.
  • Sam, a trans man, gets a Magic Mark from Pandora that changes his biological sex to male. This is a pretty common mark — Pandora was deliberately not giving those kinds of marks to transgender people because that's "too boring", but was still able to give away at least twelve like that after her Heel–Face Turn before she was reset.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: Elliot is, from a certain point of view, Ellen's mother, despite the fact that they are biologically the same age.
• Superpowerful Genetics: There is a hereditary component to magical potency in the setting. Two key points:
  • A child of two wizards is guaranteed to also be a wizard.
  • Wizards and all other people with magical affinities are descended from immortals through their half-immortal children.
• Super-Soldier: Grace's brothers were created with the intention of them being super-assassins. Grace herself was created specifically to fight Damien.
• Super Special Move: Ellen has a transformation beam ability; while it became extremely versatile over the course of the comic, it started out as a simple version of the beam that created her, turning a target into a busty, female version of themself for a limited time. When she fought Vlad, she managed to use a powered-up version of it that blew Vlad across the room... and permanently turned him into Vladia.
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  • George is hostile to Justin's friend Elliot right off the bat and doesn't let up on getting the truth from Justin about the recent magical goings-on (which involved Elliot)...until he finds out that Elliot is not, in fact, Justin's boyfriend. Suddenly he's a lot less belligerent, and perfectly willing to admit that Justin has a point and the issue is kind of complex. Contextual clues suggest there may be a different reason for this than the one he ends up admitting to:
    Justin: Did my having a boyfriend just make you so uncomfortable that you got extra defensive about everything?
    George: ...Yes. I have learned a valuable lesson about friendship and acceptance and will never do it again.
  • Much later, when Greg comments that Elliot should cut his hair, Elliot asks if it's “because an anime protagonist might change their hair to symbolize their growth?”
    Greg: ...sure, let's go with that.
  • While out on a date with Ellen, Nanase runs into a Stereotypical Nerd who happens to be one of the many boys she dated before realizing she was a lesbian.
    Gary: Oh, I'm terribly sorry! I didn't mean to be rude, it's just I used to think you didn't want to go on a second date with me because I was too geeky.
    [Beat Panel]
    Nanase: Yes. It was entirely because I am a lesbian.
  • In the "So a Date at the Mall" arc, Diane states that Elliot couldn't possibly be the Cheerleadra because he was on the phone with Ellen while Cheerleadra was talking to the griffin. Ellen hastily agrees, not mentioning that it was actually Ashley using Elliot's phone.
  • In the non-canon EGS: NP story "Ellen Demo", the narration box explains that, like the TF Gun, Ellen's transformation beams don't actually enchant Grace, but automatically trigger her natural shapeshifting ability, which in turn gives her the ability to consciously take those forms later. Grace's reaction is "Wait. Am I a Mega Man?" and the narration box says "Sure, why not."
• Suspiciously Specific Denial
  • Tedd is adamant that he does not "crossdress in women's clothing". His penchant for recreational Gender Bending leaves some pretty blatant loopholes in that statement.
  • The cover of one character's spell book reads "The Ecology of Anteaters (Not a Spellbook)".
  • "I assure you that we have never met before, with the possible exception of that one time when we did."
  • Lisa had a bad first year of college, apparently.
  • "Why, father! I have been in this bathroom the whole time, and not sleeping with the squirrel girl as you previously suggested!" "Oh, well, that's good to know."
  • Grace wasn't chasing her tails.
  • Ellen does not want to drink at the New Years Party.
• Sword Cane: :Raven has a cane that hides a sword, but carries it only when expecting serious trouble.
• Symbol Swearing: Happens every once in a while:
  • The comic once launched a Precision @#$&! Strike.
  • And let loose a Cluster @#$% Bomb in an earlier comic.
  • DIE BY THE SHELLS OF YOUR FALLEN COMRADES, YOU @#$! TURTLES!
• Take Me to Your Leader: Invoked by William. "Greetings, human! Can you take me to your Tedd?" Which Tedd immediately calls out as lame.
• Take Our Word for It: Ellen's hair turns green due to some magic interactions, but as the comic is in greyscale, we have to settle for Elliot and Kevin pointing this out to learn it happened. Kevin's dialogue is extremely emphatic about the hue change, and Dan notes in his commentary that he had to draw attention to the discrepancy because everyone would've noticed it anyway.
• Take That!:
  • Ellen describes Elliot as "Me if I was directed by George Lucas." Elliot is outraged.
  • "CSI: Moperville"
  • Sexy vampires are mocked in this sketchbook (with specific reference to Twilight), and given an even more severe kicking by Susan here.
  • The sketchbook has this criticism of censorship.
  • "Get out of here, you blonde androgynous interloper! Go play Final Fantasy X or something!"
  • How about delivering a two-for-one to his own story in progress and to George Lucas both?
  • "By the Numbers" is an arc about Elliot worrying that, according to the review data he checks, a video store customer is possibly trying to rent the worst movie in the world. He's proved right when the guy almost immediately returns it, saying he just wants it out of his room. It's never named in the strip, but The Rant confirms it's Jack and Jill.
    Customer: And they kept making "man in drag" jokes when, in the context of the movie, she really was was a woman. Why did they keep making them? Why?
• Taking You with Me:
  • Damien says the trope name word for word here when he tries to blow himself up in an attempt to kill Grace.
  • Pandora takes over 99% of the global Aberration population with her during her forced reset.
• The Talk: Susan has to explain to Grace why nudity is awkward. Before that, others tried and failed.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Grace used to talk and scream in her sleep when she was having Recurring nightmares.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Nanase gambles on Abraham's good intentions to convince the wizard to swear an oath not to harm Ellen.
• Talking to the Dead: An unknown would-be avenger aka Mysterious Cloaked Figure (later revealed to be Noah) in "The Child Left Behind."
• Tangled Family Tree:
  • Grace is a hybrid clone (with 4 sources of DNA), and considers the other hybrid clones from the same lab her siblings though only one of them actually shares a source of DNA with her. Her "grandfather" replaced some of the DNA she was supposed to be cloned from with that of his dead daughter—Grace's "mother" (and namesake). Grace also considers Mr. Verres to be her adoptive father.
    Mr. Verres: ...But you're my son's girlfriend.
    Grace: We're a strange family.
  • Attempts to build a genealogy tree for Ellen results is full of Mind Screw. She's an Opposite-Sex Clone created by a magical artifact in conjunction with Gender Bender Magitek, but those around her keep trying to describe her parentage with traditional mother/father roles. For example, Ellen could be considered the daughter of Elliot and Tedd. Elliot's the mom because Ellen came from him and Tedd's the dad because he made it happen. Or she's a daughter of Elliot and Dewitchery Diamond, so one can discuss which is her "mom" and which "dad", etc. Turned serious with this strip.
  • Pandora Raven's family tree is all over the place. It starts with her and her late mortal lover Blaike, and their son Adrian. From there, Adrian unknowingly fathered children throughout his long life, meaning Susan is his distant descendant and Diane is his daughter. Adrian is also Tedd's godfather, so that makes Pandora his god-grandmother and connects her to Nanase through Tedd's mother (her aunt). Adrian also adopted Noah after his parents were killed by Damien, making Noah Diane's (not blood) brother and also related to a lot of the cast. To recap; Pandora, Adrian, Tedd, Nanase, Diane, Susan, and Noah are all related to each other in very different ways.
• Team Dad: Mr. Verres is this not just to Main Eight, but to his FBI team as well. He's the one adult in the magic community who regularly helps them out and gives them magic-related advise and help when they need it. It helps that he's Tedd's actual dad and Nanase's uncle.
• Teleporter's Visualization Clause: Nanase can create fairy dolls that are linked to people and take control of the doll at any time for a Remote Body. However, she can only make them appear in places she's been to before and can't create a doll if she doesn't have a clear picture of who she's trying to link to. Also, if she tries creating a doll on someone she's already linked with (and she isn't currently transformed), she goes back to the old doll wherever it is.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Discussed here. Grace and Raven know it's not good to tempt fate.
  • Abraham didn't when he thinks there's no more attempts to stop him from killing Ellen.
  • "I will slay the dragon." Cue a noticeably less badass pose 15 pages later.
• That Came Out Wrong:
  • Grace wouldn't be Grace without this. "Legally, it does (make me an adult)! You can do all sorts of things with me!" Cue cut-short response from Raven.
  • The first time Elliot woke up as a girl, Ellen heard him. "Bathroom time is me time!" was probably not the best defense.
    Elliot: What? No, wait! Interpret that in a good way! A GOOD WAY!
  • While conducting an experiment with Elliot's Sex Shifter spell, Tedd tells him to take off his shirt. Elliot is not impressed. He was actually testing how shapeshifted clothing is affected by magic resistance.
  • And when Ellen teases Elliot about the above experiment:
    Ellen: Have fun getting poked and prodded by Tedd?
    Elliot: I'll have you know he was a perfect gentleman.
    Ellen: ...Dude.
    Elliot: Yeah, that sounded weird. Let us never speak of it again.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: In this strip, the Omega Goo has this to say after Ellen flees: "Target has fled. Proceeding with a prepared set of curse words in order to imitate anger. Damn. Crap. F--"
• There Are No Therapists: Played with. There are therapists. The issue is that the cast don't seem to know when to get one. Grace for example has inner thoughts where one part of her always suggests she gets therapy, but she keeps resisting.
• There Can Be Only One: Possibly subverted; while Lord Tedd is supposedly out to kill the "weak Tedds," Nioi insisted that he was misunderstood, and it is clear from various hints that he has a Freudian Excuse lurking in the shadows. Unfortunately, due to the Kudzu Plot, he's been Put on a Bus, so it'll be some time before we find out why.
• This Is a Song: Sarah's cellphone has one of these:
  * this is a ringtone song... ringing all the—*
• Thick-Line Animation: As the artwork improved, the outlines became thicker.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Melissa, of all people. And Justin. Don't forget Justin.
• This Is Reality: One of the immortals says so here.
• This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: As they said during the "Ink Blot Handwriting" incident,
  Justin: This is messed up on so many levels. I'm guessing you don't visit your cousin and uncle that much?
  Nanase: It's common sense not to.
• Thought-Aversion Failure: Diane is in an argument with her imaginary inner child. She states her intention of ending the argument by no longer imagining it. Her inner child demonstrates how pointless this is by telling her not to imagine an elephant.
• Threesome Subtext: Some Sarah/Grace/Tedd subtext starts cropping up when Sarah becomes Tedd's lab assistant. Tedd has a (brief) Imagine Spot of all three of them in sexy outfits, Tedd gave Sarah clone forms of himself with the explicit understanding that she could do whatever she wanted with them, and Sarah is the only person other than Grace who has shown to be able to call him "Teddy" and get away with it. Plus, after Grace learns of Elliot and Sarah's amicable breakup, she feels the need to reassure herself by clinging to Tedd... and Sarah. It's even been acknowledged in universe, like on this page. Sarah pretty much admits she's attracted to Grace in this strip, even if she's not admitting it to herself.
• Three-Point Landing: In the EGS:NP storyline Grace-A-Monsters, Gracemander can be seen striking this pose after evolving into Gracemeleon in this strip.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: Averted. Tedd's blush, however, is easily visible.
• Time Skip: Here and there:
  • There is 2-weeks long one between Sisters II and Bringing Silly Back.
  • The end of Summer features a 6-month long skip.
  • Between the third and fourth pages of Layers, there is a months long time skip. The exact length is kept vague, but characters are dressed for warmer weather, showing it's no longer Winter, but Spring.
• Time Travel: Defied. It's impossible.
  • Dan: No time travel. Something happens, it happens, damn it. No going back and undoing it (outside of Lucas-style edits).
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: During a discussion about Star Trek here, one party to the discussion gets confused on the tenses to use due to the time travel shenanigans.
• Timmy in a Well:
  • Parodied, almost by name, when Elliot senses something and Tedd asks "What is it girl? Is Timmy trapped in a well?"
  • Used by Hedge when he mishears Guineas trying to tell him Elliot knew his name as Timmy being trapped in a well.
• Title Drop:
  • In the first page of All Of The Curse Words, the second panel has a stressed Ellen thinking:
  ALL OF THE CURSE WORDS
  • Whispered with its own font, no less, in Escape From The Mall.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Happens to Abraham, an ancient wizard who created the Dewitchery Diamond intended to remove terrible curses like lycanthropy. And turned out to have the rather severe drawback of splitting a cursed individual into the original and an embodiment of the curse adept at spreading the curse to others. Unable to destroy the diamond, Abraham swore to dedicate his life to killing these cursed forms, which were generally vicious and powerful monsters (having failed to consider things like cosmetic magic). So he awakens from self-imposed suspended animation, sensing that the diamond has been used again. He is horrified to learn that one guy had used the diamond to cure himself of a Gender Bender, accidentally creating an Opposite-Sex Clone, so the latest cursed form he's sworn to kill is an innocent teenage girl — but feels compelled to go through with it. In the end, Nanase is able to convince Abraham not to murder Ellen, reasoning that following the letter of his oath would violate the spirit of his oath, since it was made with the intention of protecting innocent people.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Susan and Nanase's friendship. Susan is a very conservative, feminist who is just getting over her issues with men. Nanase is pretty much the opposite in most ways. the two of them are good friends, even if Susan didn't want to admit it for a long time.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: The "Pizza" sidestory has an In-Universe example. The story uses Animated Actors, and different characters put different amounts of effort into their roles. In particular, Ashley plays her role as Bridgette with absolute sincerity. However, her sincerity is matched only by her lack of talent, and all her body language comes across as choreographed.
• Too Much Information: Ellen almost goes into detail on what she plans to do with Nanase on a date but Elliot interrupts her with a Fine, whatever!
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: In the off-continuity Goonmanji arc, the main cast pisses off the evil cursed Reality Warper game by being far too perverted/accustomed to the Mad Science to treat whatever it does to them as something more than Fanservice at best and petty annoyance at worst.
• Toplessness from the Back: Grace is shown completely topless in an early strip, but we only saw her from the back.
• Touch Telepathy: Uryuoms can teach other people Languages they know, such as their Cypher Language, by touching their forehead with their antennae.
• Touched by Vorlons: If certain requirements are met, Immortals can mark a human to give them magic powers. Pandora has been handing out such marks without the knowledge or consent of the recipients.
• To Unmasque the World:
  • This is Pandora's long-term goal, which she starts by appearing on the evening news in her Creepy Child form. She then proceeds to empower random people with magic, so as to cause as much chaos as possible in a way the Masquerade cannot cover up. While the former only brings weirdness hunters to town, the latter proves effective, especially when the superheroes started showing up to save people. In fact, it was so effective that the head of the local MIB office essentially gave up, admitting on live television that it was all real. Pandora's reasons for doing all this are simple: Her son, Raven, is an elf, a half-immortal who is not allowed to interfere in situations that do not directly involve magic. Therefore, she is creating a world where everything directly involves magic, making the restrictions moot. That, and she's bored.
  • Tedd also wants to unmasque the world, but he's doing it in a far more responsible way. The reason the masquerade is in place is because most people have little to no magic resistance. Unveiling magic would be like handing out guns to random people when most people can't use either guns or bulletproof vests. Tedd, as a Magitek Mad Scientist, decides to create technology that will allow the average person to use magic to an extent that it is safe to remove the masquerade.
  • It turns out that neither of these have any chance of working. Magic itself is intelligent and wants to be used—but not by everyone. If too many people learn how to obtain magic, magic will change the way that it works for humans to render all that moot. Pandora's plan got close enough to working that magic came within a hair's breadth of changing things, but did send an avatar to inform Pandora (in the most convoluted way possible) of what was going on. Pandora agreed to fix things, but not before yelling about "no good cheating magic" and insisting that Tedd had the right idea.
  • The comic is a weird case; according to the MIB head (after he revealed the existence of magic on live television), the big secret was never that magic existed. The secret that everyone is taking so much trouble to conceal is that magic is easy. EGS has a very forgiving and intuitive magic system, with spells reflecting the person that acquires them under most circumstances... meaning that the real monsters usually get the most destructive and powerful spells.
  • Ultimately, though Pandora gave up on her goal, she actually succeeded. With her forced reset incoming, she took advantage of the mechanics of the forced reset to force every Immortal onto the physical plane to cast an Aberration destroying spell. That spell manifested as a wave of light that was visible for miles around, and since every Immortal was forced to cast it, well, the masquerade on magic's existence was completely and utterly shattered. The Will of Magic outright states that this one event was enough to do it on its own even without previous incidents. And when the Will of Magic consulted Tedd, Arthur and Van on what to do, Tedd successfully convinces it that it is impossible to remain secret with modern technology, so it decided that it will go along with its reveal.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Nioi acts on the assumption that Lord Tedd would be better off without his personal Blood Knight. In turn, General Shade Tail's opinion of Nioi is pretty low.
• Tragic Dream: Tedd can't give magic to everyone in the world, as it would just change to undo any progress he makes. It is later subverted. It turns out the Will of Magic tries to consult Seers when it can on whether or not it should follow-through on the change, and Tedd successfully convinces it that between modern technology and the very mechanics of magic changing, which will cause over one-thousand Seers to be informed of what they are and how the new rules work, it is impossible for magic to remain a secret and limited to a select few.
• Trans Equals Gay: Tedd catches a lot of this from the start, which is completely groundless. The author indicated in a non-canon piece that Justin would love being a girl so he could pick up guys. After receiving complaints, turned it the other way in follow-up piece and kept it from entering the comic's canon. Later on in the canon story Justin addresses the fact that he doesn't actually want to be a woman, even though it would make his life easier.
• Transformation Comic: A major focus of the comic is characters shapeshifting and being transformed, although it's rarely played for angst and character relationships are arguably more of the actual point. That said, non-canon NP strips and especially sketchbooks are a lot more shameless.
• Transformation Ray:
  • The Transformation Gun appears early on, which can reshape any humanoid into any number of pre-programmed forms (most often men into women). It was originally built by a race of shapeshifting aliens, and was repaired and modified by Tedd. Later on the gun was replaced with transformation watches, which were in turn cycled out in favour of wands.
  • Due to the convoluted series of events that lead to her creation, Ellen can fire beams similar to the TF gun from her hands. At first these are limited to turning the target into a busty woman, but after Awakening she's gained other beams like being able to copy someone's appearance, alter specific things about her target, or even her personal favourite: flashlight hands!
• Transformation Trinket:
  • Tedd built the Cat Belt as a trinket to turn into a were-cat. Since Elliot used it shortly after his improper Awakening caused by the Dewitchery Diamond, he ends up getting the cat spell permanently.
  • Tedd also built a set of watches with programmable and adjustable forms for more convenient and less dangerous ways to transform. Although, he eventually abandons this when he's informed that the watches only work because he's accidentally been creating watch-shaped Magic Wands, and they won't actually work outside of Moperville.
• Trapped on the Astral Plane: Magus is actually from another universe altogether, but a spell gone wrong caused him to end up in the spirit plane of the "main" Gooniverse, which is also inhabited by immortals.
• Trapped in the Host: The Body Surfing aberration Sirleck takes over Ellen's body so he can take over Magus once he gains a new body. However, Sirleck finds that Ellen is stopping him from leaving her body, either because she's made of magic or because she's "just that awesome". Either way, she holds Sirleck in place then releases him in time for Magus to kill Sirleck before he can take another host.
• Trauma Button: A minor trauma with major consequences: As a baby, Tedd was scared by a very noisy magic detecting device, and still is into adulthood... However his traumatic reaction to the device involves unconsciously raising his magic defenses against it, which caused him to be mistaken for a Muggle Born of Mages, one of the causes of his parents' divorce.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Known as an Angst-Induced Awakening, one of the possible ways for magic potential to be realised is to suffer something traumatic, generally due to big events like home being destroyed or a loved one dying. However, if someone has a lot of pent-up issues, a minor event could trigger it in a straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back way, such as Susan having multiple sources of trauma from discovering her father's infidelity, going through a phase where she was highly misandrist as a direct result, and being forced to kill a monster herself, all contributing to her going into a rage over learning that Jerry made the anti-misogynist hammer to encourage inappropriate comments. Also of note is that it actually counts as a proper awakening since Magic is big on Rule of Drama and such awakenings are inherently dramatic, meaning Susan never had to deal with energy-buildups and accidental spellcasting the way Elliot and Ellen have to.
• Travel Transformation: The Pokémon parody arc has its own answer to the question of how a small flying-type pokemon can transport a trainer just because it knows fly. EGS being the kind of comic it is, this involves shrinking the trainer down to doll-size before carrying them. Meanwhile, the comic's version of the "surf" HM involves turning the trainer into a mer-person.
• Twice Shy: Justin and Luke like each other pretty instantly, but both dance around the subject of asking the other out, since they're assuming that the respective other is straight. Justin is the first to get over himself.
• Twin Threesome Fantasy : Nanase likes Ellen, but since girl-Elliot is identical to Ellen, Hilarity Ensues when Nanase sees them (more or less) tickle-fighting.
• Two Gamers on a Couch: A lot of NP arcs follow this formula, especially the ones where Grace plays a new game, often times with Tedd.
• Tyke Bomb: The "Project Lycanthrope" chimerae were genetically bred to be a shapeshifting assassins. Including Grace, although it didn't work very well.
• Ultimate Job Security: Principal Verrückt is complete insane, and yet hasn't been fired, as Susan notes.
• Uneven Hybrid: It turns out that all wizards, people with inherited affinities, and seers, are descendants of Immortals. The idea that the Human-Immortal hybrids known as Elves couldn't have children turned out to be deliberate lies. Diane is quarter-Immortal through her father, Adrian Raven, and Susan is a more distant descendant of Raven. This would also mean that Tedd, Sarah and Nanase all have an Immortal ancestor somewhere in their family tree.
• The Unintelligible: The Writer's Block communicates almost entirely in weird noises. It did say one intelligible word once, but that word was censored.
  Writer's Block: Mee moo f@&$.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: The Verres family has a cat-like pet named Jeremy who was brought home by Tedd's father one day. Jeremy has spines/spikes on his back that become erect when he's frightened or angry and his jaws are powerful enough to open metal cans of catfood. Tedd is a Mad Scientist and his father is part of an organization that deals with the unusual (supernatural, aliens, etc.).
• Unsound Effect:
  • Not all that frequent, but notably including Sensory Overload when Nanase saw Ellen and female Elliot tickle-fighting in their underwear.
  • When Nioi casts a spell on Ellen, it is accompanied by *MAGIC NOSE BEEPAGE!*
• Unstoppable Rage: After Grace finds out what happened to her real father, she goes utterly ballistic on Damien. She snaps out of it before actually killing him, though. Also happens to Nanase when Abraham tries to destroy Ellen.
• Unusual Euphemism: Sarah would like (with the help of magic) to be "taller". (Although, boobs aside, she would indeed like to be taller.)
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Subverted, perhaps even Inverted with Dr. Sciuridae's highjacking of the Shade Tail project into an attempt to clone his dead daughter. The point of the project was to deal with the threat Damien posed and the human DNA contributor was supposed to be a naturally-strong human male. However, Dr. Sciuridae replaced that with genetic material from his daughter. Damien laughs at that since he thinks the man ruined the only chance at defeating him, but, Grace is able to fight toe-to-toe with him anyway. The inversion comes from the implication that the main reason why the project, aka: Grace didn't wind up a Smug Super and potential Multiversal Conqueror like Shade Tail did in Lord Tedd's dimension is due to Dr. Sciuridae changing Shade Tail to Grace and showing her love and affection.
• Utility Magic: Magic is a fundamental part of the universe, and anyone could use it, if they tried. Magic doesn't like being used too much, though.
• Verbal Backspace: The Emissary of Magic is about to ask Pandora why she would take on a childlike form when she suddenly runs circles around him throwing a tantrum about Magic ruining her plan to empower all of Moperville by threatening to change its own rules to stop it from working. "Nevermind."
• Villain Episode: One EGS: NP story line shows a day in the life of Pandora as she searches for people to give magic to during the week before Halloween.
• Villain-Possessed Bystander: The "New and Old Flames" arc involves an unknown person summoning monsters that attack different parts of Moperville. The summoner turns out to be Dex, one of the comic shop regulars who was mind-controlled into the act by an Immortal.
• Visible Silence:
  • Principal Verrückt of Moperville North High School is temporarily rendered speechless by Sarah's Puppy-Dog Eyes.
  • Diane's reaction to Noah's Sarcasm Blindness while giving an Exposition Dump is just three dots.
• Visual Pun:
  • The Writer's Block, which is a block that shows up whenever Dan can't think of anything to do in the next NP story.
  • Susan's curiosity is a Cat Girl, and what do we say about cats and curiosity?
• Wake-Up Call: Grace and Adrian Raven had the best of intentions when they wanted to prevent a wild boar from being killed. They thought that there was a better way of dealing with the situation. They were forced to learn that good intentions means zilch if poorly thought out when they were forced to kill it themselves to prevent Grace from getting hurt and were forced to admit that there was no other realistic outcome.
• Wall of Text: Parodied in an early strip, detailing the plan to use the Dewitchery Diamond to break the TF Gun's effect on Elliot.
  Elliot: No seriously, what's the plan?
• Wangst: Played with in-universe in regards to Susan's "major angst-induced Awakening." Disappointment over origin stories should never have triggered an angst-induced Awakening, and the only reason it did in Susan's case is because she has pent-up issues and that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
  Jerry: Angst-induced Awakenings are usually triggered by things like murdered loved ones or a village burning down, not disappointment over origin stories.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Not shown on-panel, but Tedd's dynamic morph watches are all devilishly tricky to use, and while testing them with Sarah and Grace, the three of them end up losing their clothes quite a lot.
• Water-Triggered Change: Referenced twice in regards to Elliot's Gender Bender ability (more specifically, referencing Ranma ½). Sensei Greg dumps a bucket of water on Elliot's head to test it, only for Elliot to shout that that's not how it works. Later on, when Ashley accidentally sees him transform, she asks him if he needs hot water to turn back.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The fire-summon mooks have a weakness to water, despite not actually being on fire. Trying to make flaming creatures with a summon spell that can't allow it (the creatures would incinerate themselves) causes the effect.
• Webcomic Print Collection: Two volumes; the first is out of print.
• Webcomic Time:
  • Eight years of EGS as a webcomic is just over two months of time in-comic. The Birthday Party was a particularly jarring example; a year of EGS was one day of in-comic time. This makes Ellen's character development and Nanase coming out slightly odd.
  • It is getting a bit better, though. As of November, 2012, about 135 days, just over 4 months, have passed in-comic. Still, however, January 21, 2013 will be the 11th anniversary. It is yet to be seen if we will reach the 5-month milestone by that time. This panel makes sure that, while it may be a weekish late, they definitely are past the 5-month mark now.
  • The December 30, 2014 comic lampshades it. The tournament in question started in mid-April.
• Weird Trade Union: The demonic duck belongs to the Distraction Union. And he doesn't like "scabs." The Distraction Union apparently has a booth at EGS-Con.
• Weirdness Censor:
  • The aliens, when walking among humans, use a system of disguise that involves wearing shirts bearing the label 'human'. Despite their natural forms looking like Little Green Men, this method somehow successfully convinces anyone who has not been explicitly informed of their existence. This is later Revisioned into just being part of a Lie to the Beholder effect, using an ability called projections to create illusions to make them appear human.
  • Played with later on when a monster attack happens in public, all the bystanders record the incident and release the information, the local news station immediately shows up and interviews the man who fought the monster, and that very same day the head of The Men in Black openly confirms magic and monsters are real. The trope actually ends up being subtly deconstructed as The Unmasqued World really isn't any different from before. People still go about their lives as usual, The Men in Black still do their job as before, and most denizens of the magical world still stay out of sight. Even while The Masquerade was in place a lot of people knew about magic. It seems like people just don't let all the weirdness going on around them get in the way of living their lives, yet aren't in the least bit of denial about how strange things are. They just treat the fantastic the same way as they treat the mundane.
  • There's also change blindness, the real-life phenomena of where people not actually seeing a change can prevent people from noticing it (Grace likes to play around with this) and transformation blindness, where people who have been transformed by magic usually adapt instantly, and may not notice unless it's actively pointed out (Pandora compares it to no one thinking about their hands until they're pointed out).
• We Need a Distraction: Ashley and Elliot need to make a quick exit from the middle of a busy mall without being followed. Tara the griffin also needs to leave, but it's a good deal less important if people see which way she went. The solution is to have Tara make the loudest, showiest exit she possibly can, drawing enough attention that no one realizes Elliot and Ashley have left until they're already long gone.
• We Were Rehearsing a Play:
  • Tedd once claimed that they were rehearsing a play when a pizza delivery guy questions the weird things going on at Tedd's house.
  Tedd: They're... um... rehearsing a play...
  Pizza boy: A play?
  Tedd: Yes. A play.
  Pizza boy: About two guys fighting over skirts?
  Tedd: Yes..No! They're staying true to the play's Shakespearean roots by having men play female roles!
  • At the end of "Sister II", Ellen claims they were rehearsing a play about CPR when Nanase's mom catches them kissing.
• Weak to Magic: vampires (humans who sacrificed their humanity for immortality) are universally weak to summoned magical weapons.
• Wham Episode:
  • The "Painted Black" arc was a turn for the dark when Elliot gets kidnapped, Grace almost dies, and Damien actually dies, resolving Grace's personal conflict with him.
  • Hammerchlorians reveals a massive part of Susan's character, and that she was forced to kill a monster herself.
    invoked Word of God: I have frequently seen Susan described as having a "bored" look on her face. For a long time now, I have seen it as something else.
  • New and Old Flames. Magical forces have become so blatant that the guy in charge of keeping these sort of things secret just gave up, admitting it was all real on live television. Later on though, he states that the real secret was not the existence of magic per se, but how almost anyone on the planet could gain access to it.
  • From "Hair", we learn that Tedd is magically challenged. We also learn that he plans to use his science to make it safe for everyone to use magic. And to top it all off, the final page features Tedd's mom's first appearance albeit in silhouette.
  • "There Be Whales Here - Part 3". HOLY CRAP. First off, we discover a fundamental function of the EGS universe. There are giant, psychic algae eater - sorry, whales - living on another plane of existence. These whales feed on excess magic, keeping earth stable. As the next arc shows, not even Mr. Exposition Mr. Verres knew about that. Secondly, an explanation for why Moperville is a City of Adventure: the magic energy is increasing beyond normal standards in Moperville. The watches won't even work anywhere else. Because of that last detail, more magical creatures will be coming soon. And more magic will spread. And just to cap off the "Holy Shit!" Quotient, we're hit with a six-month Time Skip, which is massive when you consider the comic had only progressed about five months so far during its eleven-year run.
  • "End Of An Era". Not as big as some of the previous, but Sarah wants to "just friends" Elliot. They were together through roughly 1400 updates.
  • A Wham Page in "Family Tree", where Ellen and Nanase learn a surprising piece of information which implies that Diane and Susan are identical twins.
    • Followed rapidly by the final panel of this comic, which seems to prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt.
  • Most of "Family Tree" is this, with the first big threat after the whale's warnings, more people breaking through The Masquerade, hints and exposition on both Susan and Tedd's respective parents, and finally an explanation for why The Masquerade exists: Tengu was human. Ordinary jerks can become psychotic, self-entitled, overpowered monsters with a god complex. And all it takes is just a taste of magic.
  • A seemingly filler arc takes a turn for the dramatic with the last panel of this page: Pandora is back.
    • That's just the tip of the iceberg. So far: A new character with the ability to see magic auras, who might be a love interest for Justin, appears, Tedd's aura apparently looks like this, Grace becomes aware of not only Justin and Rhoda's magic marks, but also that Catalina apparently has one as well, Tedd figures out that he's gender fluid, Pandora gave Tedd a magic mark that turns him into a girl, Tedd figures out that he has a supernaturally intuitive insight into the inner workings of magic, and Justin's magic mark is gone because Pandora awakened his powers, and Sarah got her own magic mark. Dang.
  • So A Date At The Mall quickly turns into this in part 3. A Griffon knight shows up in the middle of the mall looking for Elliot, having been led there by an Immortal. Then the Immortal shows itself when the Griffon starts backing down only for the two French Immortals to reveal themselves (after having been absent for quite awhile) and assure the Griffon that its been tricked. The Immortal retreats, but not before exposing Elliot as Cheerleadra. And keep in mind, all of this happened with many witnesses, effectively ensuring a Broken Masquerade.
  • Sister 3, being the culmination of several long-running plotlines that were present since nearly the beginning, provides a whole lot of whammies. In order:
    • Tedd's status is finally explained after it became clear that there is something weird with his magic affinity. He's a Seer, a rare and very specific type of wizard that can see magic, have lots of magic energy, can create wands, but can't awaken. It's also explained that people like him have two purposes, one being that should magic severely change, Seers are to make sure people know the new rules.
    • This page contains two whams for the price of one. Sirleck has possessed Ellen, and used his control over her to let Magus possess Elliot. The pages after that reveal that everything to do with Ellen's creation and the incident in France was directly caused by Magus, triggering pretty much most of the events of the comic, masterminded by Pandora as an incredibly (and deliberately) convoluted scheme to get Magus into Elliot's body.
    • And the whammies continue. It turns out that elves can have children and the earlier information that they couldn't was a lie that immortals pass to their next incarnations so that they don't have to deal with descendants. The reason why this is relevant? Susan is Adrian's distant descendant and Diane is his daughter. And this come just after Pandora has just blatantly broken immortal law by saving Adrian from the aberrations, meaning she's due for an imminent forced reset.
    • Continuing on from the above, Pandora exploits the mechanics of her forced reset in order to force every single immortal on Earth to cast a spell that kills aberrations, wiping out the vast majority of them (Sirleck managed to escape due to being too far). In the aftermath of this, it appears magic has decided to change, and the second function of seers is revealed: to determine the severity of magic's change. And the people chosen for this? Tedd, Arthur, and a previously unseen British kid named Van who is stated to be Tedd's half-brother, with the author's commentary implicitly confirming Noriko is his mother. Ultimately, Tedd managed to convince Magic that upholding The Masquerade is no longer an option due to information technology, which resulted in Magic going along with its reveal.
• Wham Line:
  • The TV interview where Arthur J. Arthur says, "It was real. The monster was a golem created by one who must be found. The girl is a good Samaritan who can fly. What was seen is what was."
  • At the beginning of New And Old Flames - 5 Justin talks with George at the comic shop.
  George: Anyway don't worry about it. And I won't tell anyone your boyfriend's Cheerleadra.
  • In "Family Tree", when Rhea calls Diane "my lord".
  • Later in "Family Tree", not-Tengu reveals that Tedd isn't an only child, likely a half-sibling. Problem: nobody heard what he was saying.
  • And at the end of "Family Tree", Mr. Verres explains that there is nothing special about not-Tengu. He's just an ordinary jerkass who stumbled across one of the many common and easy ways to use magic in the setting, and anyone could easily do the same if they only knew how. This is what the masquerade exists to hide.
  • "She's like a sister to me," says Elliot, while trying to articulate his feelings for his then-girlfriend, Sarah.
  • Tedd: "Okay. You know how if you focus your eyes just right, you can sort of 'see' magic?" Sarah and Grace: "No."
  • "They're not twins." says Mr. Verres despite all the coincidences and evidence pointing towards otherwise.
    • Granted, in the next comic he does acknowledge the possibility that they could instead be half-sisters, given that Susan's father was known to have cheated.
  • "For the record, I consider the whole of my efforts with Dexter to be one attempt." From Voltaire, confirming that he was the one responsible for the events of "New and Old Flames" instead of Pandora.
  • And a very sedate "Reason You Suck" Speech from son to mother - "Father would hate what you've become."
  • "Of COURSE they were his!"
  • And one from Susan to Pandora - "Can you start by explaining why your son looks like my dad?"
    • And just a few strips later, Pandora delivers this bombshell - "Susan is your direct descendant, and Diane... your daughter."
  • "Uryuoms are not from outer space."
  • "At this rate, the first they're going to hear about it is when the moving van shows up."
  • "Last weekend, I proposed to my girlfriend, Lavender. She's an Uryuom, and she's moving in."
  • "Mr. Raven? He retired."
• Wham Shot:
  • The end scene of Death Sentence. Rhoda has a Power Tattoo, her power makes things grow, and she was the one who turned the boar giant in the first place. And not even she realizes it.
  • In the final panel of "One Way Road", while Tedd is narrating, we finally know one of the inventions he spent the chapter obsessing over creating...A replica of Lord Tedd's glove.
  • Oops, Elliot got caught transforming into a girl at school by someone he doesn't know.
  • During Squirrel Prophet, Grace remembers who got magic marks, and one of them is Catalina Bobcat! Before this, she wasn't known to have a mark.
  • During Sister 3, there was one big whammy. Sirleck possessed Ellen.
  • During Untitled Party. "We finally see what Tedd's mom looks like. And a likely reason for why she felt she needed to protect them.
  • An interesting example, one that typically doesn't qualify as a Wham Shot. But when a character who has had his eyes hidden for the entirety of a story's twenty-year run suddenly gets his glasses knocked off, followed by a close-up of his eyes during an already intense scene... it's going to have this effect. This also reveals that Mr. Verres has heterochromia, which is just plain cool.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: "Surely Nothing Bad Can Come from This... Right?"
• What Does This Button Do?: Three sketchbook comics show characters unable to resist pressing an "Awkward Button".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Cecil appears to have been being set up as a possible love interest for Sarah, but he hasn't appeared since the storyline that introduced him. It's likely whatever, if anything, that was planned for him was dropped in favor of Sam.
• What Have I Become?: Tedd asks this of himself after saying that he would rather figure out the science behind Elliot's transformation magic than ogle his breasts (yes, the pronoun is correct).
• White-and-Grey Morality:
  • Save one or two bad eggs,^note and both of them had been convinced that the world needed them there are no really evil characters in the comic; all of them so far have either been misguided or acting off their own sense of what's right rather being downright evil.
  • Aberrations are fully evil by nature, since they give up their empathy as part of their transformation. Some may still have once had morally grey intentions however, such as Sirleck who says that he became a Puppeteer Parasite as a way to Eat the Rich, although he's long since abandoned that ideal.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The "Parable" side story is a parody/deconstruction of Fable II.
• Willfully Weak: Mr. Raven is half immortal and very powerful — but not allowed to interfere with mortal events. Mostly. unless the situation involves magic.
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Referenced by the title of this comic, "Suspension of Disbelief #967 - Being morphed by a beam of energy is good for you."
• Wine Is Classy: The presence of a glass of wine in Mrs. Pompoms hand seems to be an example of the high society version.
• Wing Ding Eyes: Several characters have had the "Spirals" version.
• Wings Do Nothing: Many characters and summons which fly have wings, but commentary notes that the flight is all magical. The aerodynamics just don't work out for a Winged Humanoid, and the best the wings can do is help maneuver.
• With Great Power Comes Great Hotness: Magic can impact a user's physiology based on their subconscious desires, affecting size, muscle, and probably the Most Common Superpower. Simply having magic power can also attract people on a subconscious level.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Revealed to be the reason why Immortals "reset" every two hundred years. As time goes by, they become "more bored, more powerful, and less sane," which as Jerry notes is "kind of a bad combo." This is why Pandora acts the way she does, since alleviating boredom through certifiably insane plots is her entire reason for doing things. 200 years is considered the safe limit, but by her own admission she's been pretending to be on year 299 for a few centuries now.
• Wizard Duel:
  • Magus and Terra were in the middle of a magical sparring match when Magus was sabotaged and trapped in the EGS universe.
  • Abraham and Raven have a duel in the school halls using both magic and swords when the former invades Moperville South to kill Ellen.
• Wondrous Ladies Room:
  • Lampshaded and averted when Sarah offers to take Tedd (in Grace's form) to the women's room, which he's over-the-moon about. And then he finds out it's just a washroom, and also Sarah doesn't actually know what girls are supposed to be doing when they go to the washroom as a group.
  • Parodied in this panel, where the inside of the ladies' room is apparently a perpetual pillow fight.
• Word Salad Title:
  • "Shive" is the last name of the author, but beyond that "El Goonish Shive" is entirely meaningless. Lampshaded here.
  • In-universe, spellbooks are automatically given fake names as part of the Masquerade. Only, Magic has a hard time understanding humans, so the books end up with titles like "The Tacos of Yesteryear" and "The Ecology of Anteaters (Not a Spellbook)".
• World-Healing Wave: Pandora's final act is to force the rest of her kind to cast a spell that manifests as a light wave that destroys Aberrations on contact, destroying most of the Aberrations in the world, with the only ones left being those out of range or otherwise not detectable that way.
• The World Is Not Ready: This is the official reason for The Masquerade on magic. It is theoretically possible for almost anyone to gain magical powers, and since few of magic's limitations are known, it is impossible to predict and deal with the many abuses that could be committed with such power. As such, it is kept a secret to restrict access to a manageable number of people. Tedd's current goal is to make the world ready by searching for an easy way to give everyone magic resistance. The real reason magic is not widely spread is because for unknown reasons, magic itself wants to be exclusive. If too many people cast magic at the same time, the metaphysics of magic will be re-written, and humanity will have to re-discover spellcraft from scratch. Word of God says that it's entirely possible early wizards only came up with The World Is Not Ready as an excuse to coverup the real reason not to spread magic.
• World of Buxom: Enough so to lead to the theory that it's being caused by the fact magic can affect physiology and is extra concentrated around Mopperville, which Word of God has acknowledged as a fitting theory, but is mostly actually just because of art style.
• World of Technicolor Hair:
  • As explained here, hair colours like purple, green, and blue are entirely mundane. However, they are considered a scientific anomaly, unexplained by genetics, so magic is probably responsible. When magic changing your hair and/or eye colour is common enough that it's registered as an actual disorder, it makes sense that those hair colours would become commonplace over generations.
  • There is some implication the hair color a person has after burnout is their genetic hair color.
  • According to Dan's Twitter account, Tedd's purple hair was intended to be black, but by the time he learned how to paint it without ending up with an ink blob, colors were already established and he liked the idea of this being a natural color.
  • This is brought up in one of the Q&A sessions. Upon reading a question asking whether strange hair colors are natural in the EGS universe, Chika wonders if the person writing it lives in a universe without brown, black, or blonde hair before giving a somewhat hesitant "yes".
• Writer's Block: Shive has this, and many filler strips consist of him chasing a box-like creature labeled as such.
• Wrong Bathroom Incident: Arc "Night Out", subarc "Elliot's Crew". Tedd uses a Gender Bender gun to transform himself into Grace's female human shape and masquerade as her. When he and the others go out to the movies, he ends up in the girl's bathroom.
• Wrong Context Magic: Werewolves once existed in this setting. They were victims inflicted by a contagious Curse that turned them into wolves the size of bears every night. No wizard ever managed to find a true cure for it. The curse was dangerous enough that it could have very well inflicted a werewolf style Zombie Apocalypse and caused The End of the World as We Know It had Pandora not intervened. The werewolf curse is very different from all other brands of magic seen so far. According to Noah, no magic users are publicly known to have any idea where the curse came from or how it was even possible.
• Xanatos Gambit: Ellen considered her fight with the goo to be a "win-win," given that loosing the physical fight would have resulted in a "noble death".
• X-Ray Vision: Tedd's glasses used to have an x-ray feature that was originally designed to check for concealed weapons, although Tedd removed that feature because it wouldn't be right for him to have. Grace suggested a version that would remove the wearer's clothing when taken off and vice versa (It Makes Sense in Context).
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Used in the narration for this strip.
  Laterz... What? Z's are cool.
• Year X: Word of God likes to joke that the comic takes place in the year 20XX, partially as a Mega Man reference. The comicverse is intended to be an Alternate Universe Earth with some shared history with our universe. However, in order to keep the comic contemporary while dealing with Webcomic Time, the exact year is vague. Services like video rentals are still popular, because they were in 2001 in our world. In the comicverse, losing business to internet streaming is a recent phenomenon.
• You and What Army?: Gerald asks Tedd what army is going to get him to stop bothering the double date Tedd, Grace, Ellen, and Nanase are on. The answer is Grace, Ellen, and Nanase. Gerald immediately backs down.
• You Say Tomato: There is a quick gag where two hypothetical non-human species wage war over how to pronounce "potato".

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