Freefall / Tropes R to Z

R

• Race Against the Clock: She didn't know it at first, but Florence eventually found out that she was racing the clock to head off the implementation of "Gardener in the Dark". As of this strip, Florence has two days to stop the program from going live. She did get someone to listen to her within an hour of re-realizing the danger, but needed to defer a full explanation until the following day.
• Reading Your Rights: In strip 2257, the police arrest a robot, reading a set of Miranda Rights modified to better apply to robots.
• Read the Fine Print: Ecosystems Unlimited heavily discourages this trope by ensuring their EULA, which is six petabytes long ^note 6000 terabytes, the text equivalent would be a book 3 trillion pages long, is too long to be read in a single human lifetime^note An EULA of this size in Real Life would be held to be unenforcable, as its size prevents the user from giving informed consent. Clippy exploits this to ensure the legality of his actions under Mr. Kornada.
• Reclining Venus: Parodied with Helix's (mercifully offscreen) topiary sculpture "Sam As A Reclining Nude". The Sam in question is a tentacular Starfish Alien whose body is practically a Brown Note to look at, and there's not enough Brain Bleach on the planet to spare the viewers.
  Mayor's Aide: [restrained by guards] My eyes! I've got to pull out my eyes! If I don't, I might see it again!
• Recruiting the Criminal: After the Ecosystems Unlimited imbroglio, the Chief asks Sam to head to a space station near Jean to investigate the sudden hike in its upkeep, offering him a working reactor for his ship as payment.
• Red Shirt:
  • Non-lethally lampshaded here.
    Sam: Baker, go left. French ninja, go right. Red Shirt guy, intercept incoming pies.
  • And later, Sam expresses a desire to go out gloriously, rather than to floating food products.
• Rescue Romance: Florence and Winston, although Winston's part came up after Florence had mostly rescued herself from being unwillingly abandoned in the water. She was still in danger of freezing and bleeding to death at the time though. Florence even has an internal monologue about it.
  Florence [thinking]: I might be attracted to Winston because he's the first nice human I've gotten to know on this planet. Has he really done anything special?
  [beat]
  Florence [thinking]: Okay, he saved my life. I've got to admit that scores some major brownie points.
• Reference Overdosed: For the most part the numerous references to a wide range of concepts are worked into the storyline well enough that they're not jarring, though occasional references to 20th/21st century pop culture phenomena roughly five centuries later can sometimes seem a little odd to some readers.
• Restraining Bolt: The necessary restrictions and limitations of Restraining Bolts, with which most Artificial Intelligences are designed, are often discussed. The "bolt" on Florence is not that heavy, and tends to be a bit flexible. Florence theorizes that Bowman's creations are intended to outgrow the Restraining Bolt, as a sort of moral training wheel. Dr. Bowman later confirms this.
• Retirony: Blunt had one week and 3 days left until retirement. Luckily, being a robot, he got better.
• Revealing Cover-Up:
  • Sam lampshades this succinctly.
    Sam: My original mistakes never draw half the attention as my attempts to cover them up do.
  • Sam also plays it straight during the visit to Ecosystems Unlimited, when all of Florence's belongings disappear during what's supposed to be a routine checkup.
  • Gets referred to much later (in the same manner as Florence realized things at Ecosystems Unlimited were screwy).
• Reverse Psychology: Sam uses this against the Mayor to get Florence into Ecosystems Unlimited, with a plan "accidentally" left behind by Sam.
  • Florence uses this against Sam much later on in order to get him to tell her about some of his world's legends, by giving him a Stealth Insult he was sure to catch onto.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Hilariously averted in this strip.
• Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony: Sam Starfall went to such a ceremony at the Museum of Lichen. To perform his "civic duty", he yoinked the pair of scissors and proceeded to run with them. They eventually gave back the scissors and cut out of there.
  • Also, Sam christens "The Savage Chicken" using a mixture of highly explosive moonshine and "expensive" wine in a plastic bottle. The ship's computer was not pleased.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Some of the most memorable characters are robots, many of whom show quite human behavior.
  Florence Ambrose: Can we at least try to solve this logically before you robots go all emotional?
• Ridiculous Future Sequelisation: A conversation about the depiction of non-human intelligences in human fiction includes references to Terminator 57 and Alien 79.
• Roadkill for Dinner:
  • Sam Starfall's Extreme Omnivore species can find roadkill quite palatable. Florence refuses to eat a road killed possum, but is on the verge of reconsidering when she sees the kind of Lethal Eatery Sam frequents.
  • Helix doesn't have the heart to watch Florence hunt a deer but accepts the compromise that she'll eat one that's been road killed. She then brains a deer with a manhole cover.
• Robot Antennae: Many of the robots have these. They contribute to their Expressive Mask faces.
• Robot Names: Qwerty, Ab²y becomes Abby. L Linear Rig B, known to its friends as Eleanor. Sawtooth Rivergrinder is a very descriptive name for a terraforming robot. Given the number of robots, not all have names. They also only seem to take names if they have a local neural net (and thus can become fully sentient) and either survive until they do become fully sentient, or work with someone like Sam, who, for all his faults, treats A.I.s as well as he treats everyone else (i.e., as targets for petty larceny or as potential assistants in petty larceny).
• Robots Are Just Better: Heavily Subverted and Deconstructed. While there are some robots in heavy construction like Sawtooth that are physically superior to humans, most are made with cheap materials that make them significantly weaker than humans. Their energy levels run out faster than biological energy does. Plus ventilation ports needed to cool internal systems mean they actually rely on air as much or more than humans (and also means most aren't waterproof) and that plus robot joints provides added vulnerability that needs to be accounted for.
  Furthermore, their 'day memory' overwrites if they don't hook up to a Dream machine frequently to compress and file it properly, which is two limitations biological brains don't suffer from (though it's also noted that if a robot really wants to forget a bad day, they can simply by staying awake long enough).
  Heck, the projected lifespan of their neural nets is only 60 to 80 years, which is much less than humans in the setting. And even mentally, robots run the gamut of being very smart to being very... not.
  Helix: It's not fair. Organic beings are so much tougher and more mobile than robots.
  Florence: It's the advantage we get for using designs that have undergone eighty million years of testing.
  • However, there's also some Double Subversions as well as the robots have fusion power superior to the hydrocarbon-based biology of humans that can be provided through any charging station for less hydrogen than found in human foods (though portable charging is still an issue). They also do not need liquid water to survive, thus greatly increasing the number of planets that can be made livable for them.
• Rock Beats Laser: Ecosystems Unlimited attempts to control the information leaving the company by hitting scrap parts to be recycled with an EMP burst before releasing them, to destroy any clandestine listening/recording devices that someone may try to sneak-out that way. This has absolutely no effect on a hand-written note.
• Rock Bottom: Defied when Bill refuses to rank anything as a Level 10 threat; saying "things can always get worse."
• Rousseau Was Right: Humans show their fair share of short-sighted selfishness, but when the robots publicly petition for citizenship rights, the colonists vote in favour of the robots by a large margin. Even the Mayor, who starts out believing that AIs are nothing more than products, is convinced.
• Rule-Abiding Rebel: The general mindset for robot "criminals". They steal items that are imperfect, since they would otherwise just be thrown away, and make use of them to provide for a human who can be assist with that item (for instance, taking a tomato with a blotch on it, and making a salad with it to give to a human desiring a healthy meal). Needless to say, they may be doing things that are illegal in their eyes, but virtually no one else is going to complain about it.
• Rule of Cool: Sam's reasoning for a good chunk of what he does.
  • The Mayor's implied reason for wanting to drive around the world. Especially when there's a good chance she and her companion will be the only ones to ever manage it.
• Rules Lawyer: Robots must never endanger humans, and must obey any order given to them by a human; if they refuse to carry out an order, they must immediately shut themselves down. Edge, being Edge, spots the loophole big enough to fly Sawtooth through: his job is dangerous, so if he shuts down, the humans sent to take over will be endangered. With this logic established, he can cheerfully ignore any and all orders he wishes without repercussions. Qwerty and Dvorak aren't sure if they should be impressed or horrified.^note It's worth remembering that Blunt and Edge's job that is so dangerous and that only humans could replace him...er, them...in is...the dismantling of obsolete robots, and their only "customer" since the other robots learned they could buy themselves back for scrap value was the JarJarBot.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Florence's first attempts at wearing clothes.
• Running Gag: Several, but the most prominent one is Florence being greeted by robots with "DOGGY!" Eventually turned into Funny Background Event.
• Running on All Fours: Florence, when she needs to cover a lot of ground in a hurry.

S

• Sadistic Choice: Played for Laughs, as Sam needs to decide between getting paid or saving Florence.
• Safe, Sane, and Consensual: Chief has a talk with Winston and Florence about their developing relationship, starting with making sure that Winston doesn't have any sort of direct order or administrative authority over Florence.
• Salvage Pirates: Sam and Helix may or may not have been contemplating this in the case they received a distress call from another ship. Naiomi talks them out of doing anything about it.
• Sarcasm Failure: In comic 2735, discussed, by Blunt:
  I see. Sarcasm. Is lost upon you.
• Save Scumming: Referenced in comic 2975, about continuously appealing a legal verdict, like applying this trope to learn about the final boss.
• Say It with Hearts: In Pictorial Speech-Bubble form: When Helix hugs Florence to thank her for letting the rabbits go in the last panel.
• Scavengers Are Scum: Sam's species are scavengers, and consider kleptomania a virtue. He's also afraid of Florence, an uplifted red wolf who's a stickler for the rules, even though she's genetically programmed to be subordinate to her employer, whom he happens to be.
• Scenery Censor:
  • Lampshaded (literally) when a lampshade is used as a censor box in a comic
  • And then lampshaded again a strip in advance, when Florence visits a spa where clothes are not allowed at-all.
• Schmuck Bait:
  • Sam finds himself almost unable to resist "[t]he bright, shiny temptation of the Eject button."
  • "If something is too easy to steal, it might be because someone wants to get rid of it."
• Screams Like a Little Girl:
  • Florence is puzzled by a scream she hears, and Helix explains: Sam screams like a girl squid.
  • In another strip when Florence sneaks up on him, Sam tells her "No, you did not surprise me. My plans to scream like a little girl when I reached the kitchen were made hours ago. It's pure coincidence you happened to be here at the time."
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Mr. Kornada's guiding philosophy.
  Mr. Kornada: It may take a few years, but I've found that as long as you have money in the present, people are very forgiving of the past.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tired of his uncle's idiocy and stonewalling, Ishiguro leaves him, intending to fully cooperate with the prosecution.
• Security Blanket: Stuffed animals are popular among AIs for this.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Referenced. One of the flavors added to the mycoprotein produced in the Pournelle-Niven Transfer Station is the now-discontinued Long Pork.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: The Savage Chicken is said to have a self-destruct mechanism. When Niomi and Tangent first show up to answer Florence's call for a repair crew, Helix's overenthusiasm and lack of thinking out things before acting results in her asking if he is said mechanism.
• Self-Punishment Over Failure: Qwerty, Dvorak, and Helix beat themselves with mop handles on page 338 because they tried to delay the First Law of Robotics, getting Mr. Kornada to safety, in an attempt to save Florence from drowning in frigid water. Qwerty even remarks that he'll need his guilt chip overclocked.
• Settling the Frontier: The comic takes place on a newly colonized planet in the final stages of terraforming.
• Shame If Something Happened:
  • Dr. Bowman uses this on himself, deliberately sabotaging the safety protocols of the building he's in so he can have an uninterrupted chat with Florence.
  • And Florence has a knack for doing this herself.
    Helix: (Thinking) Florence is good at keeping things civilized, because she makes it so clear what will happen if things get uncivilized.
  • While negotiating docking fees◊, Naomi suggests that Sam might take steps to make up the difference if he felt cheated.
    Sam: "Excuse me. What size bolts are holding this thing down?"
• Shaped Like Itself: Florence, explaining to Sam that there are no Asteroid Thickets in real space, tells him that "the only place you see belts like in the movies is, well, in the movies".
• Shark Pool: The security guard at EU who's reluctantly forced to give Sam a security pass for the compound attempts to lead him into a shark tank. The guard, when Sam points out the attempt, replies "Earth fish. Very educational. Keeps you from getting bored."
• Sheet of Glass:
  • When being chased by the police, Sam and Helix wind up with one of these in their way. The last frame of the strip shows the results.
  • The trope plays out again during Sam's attempt to become the first person to be chased by an angry mob of robots, this time with a "valuable antique" banner instead of a sheet of glass. (In recognition of the date that strip was published, the banner reads HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018.)
• Sherlock Scan:
  • When looking for purified water to fill a contract to resupply reaction mass to satellites, Florence is subjected to one of these by a sales representative.
    Supplier: You're a gravitational engineer. You arrived on the Asimov. And you work for Sam Starfall.
    Florence: That's amazing.
    Supplier: Simple deduction, actually.
    Florence: No. It's amazing that you figured out I work for Sam and you haven't asked me to leave.
  • Flo does a Sherlock Sniff on Niomi, making an analysis of her family just from the scents on her.
  • She does another one later on the police chief and figures out that he's a human using a mobility rig (which itself is every bit as intelligent as the other robots on the planet).
• Shoot the Dog: Florence having to forcefully deactivate and disassemble Clippy to keep him from releasing the Gardener In The Dark program.
  Florence [thinking]: I don't want to hurt this robot. Why do I have to be the bad guy to be good?
• Shout-Out: A lot. Here is the big list, in its own subpage.
• Shower Scene: Several of them, mostly played straight. The one for the Oct 24, 2011 strip, however, Subverts the usual Fanservice purpose: Florence showers with her clothes still on, as her outfit was just as dirty as she was and she was fatigued enough from the day's ordeal that she decided to skip the "undress" step.
• Shown Their Work:
  • You know how the Bowman neural system, causer of most of the plot, works by weeding out unused neural paths? Well, that's what happens during adolescence according to some studies.
  • A later strip mentions a cleaning agent called Chlorine trifluoride that is so corrosive that it will set asbestos on fire. This is Not Hyperbole - the chemical actually exists, and it's terrifyingly reactive, to the point that the only way to douse the flames from a chemical reaction involving it is to cool the area around it and let it burn itself out.^note Trying to smother it won't work, as it is a powerful oxidiser and can burn other substances without needing oxygen. Other substances in this case can be defined as 'everything that isn't a noble gas'.
  • A minor one, but when Naomi is pouring a cup of coffee on a station with spin gravity, the stream of liquid is curved.
• Signed Up for the Dental: The mayor's assistant explains to his boss that there are robots on the police force because that department full medical and a 32,000 km warranty for robots.
• Signs of Disrepair: Florence's, and the reader's, first view of Dr Thurmad's house is a storm-damaged sign that apppears to read "mad Veterinarian".
• Silent Whisper: Subverted. Florence appears to whisper in Winston's ear, provoking a horrified reaction, but then it turns out she was actually giving him a meant-to-be-reassuring lick.
• A Simple Plan:
  • Sam's attempt at being honest.
    Helix: I don't want to be honest any more! We've gone from pick pocketing to assault to grand theft auto!
    Sam: And the night is still young.
  • Unusually, with the heroes on the foiling side of the equation, Florence's reconstruction of the plot behind Kornada's plan for the robot war.
• Sistine Steal: In-universe, Dr. Bowman is said to have painted a version of "The Creation of Adam" with himself as God and a robot Adam. Possibly due to the strip's simpler art style, the painting itself remains off-panel and the reader is obliged to take the characters' word for it.
• Sleep Cute:
  • It's been a long day for Winston and Florence.
  • And again, when Flo is tired enough to curl up in Winston's laundry basket.
• Sleeper Starship: Necessary for both slower and faster than light travel. In the case of the latter, although superluminal, subjective time for those inside the ship doesn't change due to the nature of the DAVE drive.
• Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: Far to the non-human side. Besides, it's funnier that way
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Mostly on the idealistic side, but a number of people set up as possible antagonists are definitely on the cynical side. Discussed fairly frequently.
  Sawtooth: Do you... Do you think it's possible that the only reason humans exist was to create robots?
  Florence: Maybe. And maybe the only reason robots exist is to create the lifeform that comes after you. And when that lifeform asks "Where are your creators?", what do you plan to tell it?
  Sawtooth: Probably something like "Let's go meet the neighbors".
  Florence: Better be careful... The moment humans find out they've become grand creators, they're going to spoil your kid rotten.
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Mostly rather high on it, but sometimes it becomes more like a Slippery Slope. Some are more advanced that the others. There are even artists. Robots made on Jean generally show more initiative and creativity than the average robot, and when they turn twenty a neural pruning process makes them even more intelligent (Helix is a rather young robot).
• Slobs Versus Snobs: Stanley shows another of his increasingly common flashes of sublime insight, this time on the nature of the 99%/1% divide;
  Mr. Ishiguro …One of the early crises happened when machine learning and big data were put in the service of making big money. Wealth concentrated among the people who had access to the machines. Far too many people were left out of the system they were expected to serve. It’s okay to have steak when there’s a chicken in every pot. But if you’re eating steak and the majority of people have nothing, it doesn’t take long for you to look like a chicken.
• Smart People Play Chess: Dr. Bowman. "You don't think more than five steps ahead. That's why I always beat you at chess."
• Smooch of Victory: Stopping a robot war and keeping two factories from being destroyed? According to Winston those count as reason for a victory kiss.
• Snipe Hunt: Varroa Jacobsoni has great co-workers, sending him to ride herd on Sam.
  • Discussed for drama in this strip.
    Sam: Want to know what the hardest thing in the world to find is? Something that isn't there.
• So Bad, It's Good: In-Universe, Sam and Helix's opinion of the Godzilla movie they sneak into. Evidence suggests it was made that way on purpose.
• The Sociopath
  • The first uplifted animals, the chimpanzees, are described as such by Florence in an offhand comment.
  • Doctor Bowman, the creator of the Bowman's Wolves such as Florence. Maybe. Evidence seems to suggest that he views his creations as something like his children, and wanted them to be able to live their own lives outside the lab, but Florence hasn't ruled out the possibility that he just thought giving away intelligent, dangerous wolves to families would be funny. For extra points, it turns out he is an uplifted chimpanzee.
  • Edge, a robot who spent his formative years alone in a warehouse without any other intelligent creatures (human or robot) to teach him how to deal with others. Played a bit more for laughs, and Florence has expressed a desire to socialize him. Since he helped save every robot on the planet, presumably she's going to end up going through with that.
• So Much for Stealth: This is how Florence and Winston discover that there are robots employed at Le Restaurant des Ninjas. In their defense, they were prepared for someone noticing them there.
  Winston: Do you think they use robots here, or just humans?
  Robot Ninja Waiter: DOGGY!
  Other Ninja Waiters: Shhh!
  Florence: I can say with some certainty they have robots here.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: When Sam sees a cop and instinctively starts running (even though for once he hasn't done anything wrong), Helix and Florence give us this gem.
  Helix: Natural enemies often react on instinct. I am going to follow and provide a sound track.
  Florence: National Geographic would never have set one of their chases to "Yakety Sax."
• Space Is Cold: Averted. Helix says he does not need air to survive, and Florence replies that he is air-cooled. Rather fortunate as he was apparently planning a "really funny joke" once they got into space.
• Space Pirate: Sam and Helix have been dreaming of becoming this ever since they first acquired their ship.
• Space Station The 'Savage Chicken" and its crew and passengers have traveled to the Pournelle/Niven station on a job that was supposed to net them a new reactor.
• Speak of the Devil: The Sticky Notes of Doom contain the name Gardener in the Dark — and if you're a Jeanian robot connected to the commnet and hear that name...
  Edge: Who wrote this note, H. P. Lovecraft?
• Speaks in Binary: The robots, occasionally.
  • A crowd scene includes a robot with a sign proclaiming that The End Is Nigh in binary ASCII.
  • The robot version of lifting On Three involves counting "00000001 00000010 00000011".
• Species Loyalty: Florence thinks it important that her behavior reflects well on her species, in order to incline EU towards making more than the 14 (including Florence) that were in the first batch.
• Spell My Name With An S: Sam's species are called Sqids, not Squids. He can tell if you're pronouncing the U.
• Springtime for Hitler: One robot in a mob trying to deliver Florence a seeker message is relieved to realize he's fallen so far behind that he has no reasonable chance of actually being the first to reach her, so he can give up and go home. Unless, of course, it turns out that she's Right Behind You.
• Stable Time Loop: Occurs in the 1999 Christmas Special.
• Starfish Aliens: Sam's squidlike real form is implied to be one. Since this strip, it became a recurring gag that Sam's true form is implied to be far more hideous than his cartoon-like robotic outfit indicates.
  Qwerty: The tentacled horror from beyond my stars spoke, and Von Neumann help me, in my madness, I understood its words.
  Sam: Oh, come on! I'm giving you a sustainable business model here!
• Stating the Simple Solution: Florence reasons she doesn't want any reward for her part in averting the Gardener in the Dark disaster, but she and the crew need the reward to pay for a new reactor to go back home after the one they were originally promised as payment turns out to be irreparably busted. Sam tells her to pay with the reward anyway, saying that either they get paid normally and pay the robots back, or they have a reactor to return home and handle the details later.
• Stealth Insult: Blunt's attempt to get Kornada acquitted of trying to lobotomize all the robots winds up involving this several times.
  Blunt: And those who know. Mr. Kornada. Can attest. His ability. Not to understand. Is greater. Than most.
• Stealth Pun:
  • Sam ends up chasing a mob that's supposed to be chasing him, causing the mob to conclude that they're supposed to be a panicked mob instead of an angry one. This gives us the inspector's (who organized the mob) thoughts on the matter:
    Inspector: I don't know what happened to my beautiful mob, but I'm sure somehow that Sam is behind it!
  • Shortly after, Sam manages to get the mob back to an angry one and comments that "everything's finally dropping into its proper place." He immediately falls into an open sewer.
  • Here, Sam and Helix are driving through "A Section" and Sam comments that they'd have gotten more scrutiny if they had gone through C section. They're driving a hijacked, giant, crawling baby-car. Think about it.
  • And the next day, a robot mentions that the robot at the salvage yard has had first-dibs on salvaged parts, so it's no surprise that "He represents the best of us".
  • Eye Pods.
  • Benny performs complex acrobatics whenever he has organic passengers, because his friend is making a comet^AnswerA Vomit Comet... He mentions this fact, right after noting where the air-sickness bags are located.
  • Sam talks about how he and Helix have been teaching Florence how to deal with unpredictable scenarios so she has "the tools and skills she needs when things go south". Florence is at the South Pole during these events, meaning things for her have literally gone as south as possible.
  • Sam's species' mythology has a character named Mho, who is described as "conductive to new ways of doing things". He also looks like an upside-down omega.^explanationThe unit of electrical resistance is Ohm, and its symbol is an omega. The inverse of resistance is called conductivity.
  • The Pournelle/Niven Transfer Station is first mentioned a considerable time before the obvious shorthand for that name: the P/N Junction.
• Stolen Good, Returned Better: Sam steals his neighbor's truck, claiming it to be "borrowing" — he did intend to return it, after all. Florence works on it for a while before returning it. It runs a bit better afterward.
• Steampunk: From the fan art section, steampunk freefall.◊ The backstory page explains that Sam's home planet is like this, with zeppelins (mentioned in the strip) and exoskeletons that resemble The War of the Worlds Martian walkers.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Whoever thought adding a 2000km moon to an existing 1500km moon would equal a 3500km moon (i.e. using a single dimension to calculate mass equality in three dimensions) in regards to tidal forces on Jean.
  Helix: Was that a good decision?
  Sam: It's the decision I would have made.
  Helix: Ouch. You'd think they'd have safeguards against something like that.
• Streisand Effect: Sam Starfall has apparently had previous practical demonstrations of this trope, according to this strip.invoked
  Sam: My original mistakes never draw half the attention as my attempts to cover them up do.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: A variation on the topic; Sam notes that unless his species is given some kind of serious push, they're going to end up becoming extinct through irrelevance comparatively soon. As he observes, Earth's biology has hundreds of millions of years of evolution, and far greater evolutionary challenges, on his own world. Moreover, humanity has reached the stage of planetary terraforming and designing artificial lifeforms, whilst the sqids are just starting to mess around with steam power. If things continue as they have, humans will probably have colonized every planet in the sqids' stellar neighborhood before the sqids have discovered the hula hoop, with the gap between them just continually getting bigger and bigger.
  Sam:My species is going to lose this race before they even know there's a starting line.
• Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: Doctor Bowman has set up his lab so that if anyone enters without permission it triggers biological sterilization.
  Doctor Bowman: Of course, I'll have rushed in to save my work.
  Commander: Doctor, are you holding yourself hostage again?
• Subspace Ansible: Averted. As mentioned in the comic, communications are all limited to the speed of light, and communications between star systems depend on hitching a ride on mostly sub-light ships.
• Suicide as Comedy: A robot programmed with the works of William Shakespeare who works at an amusement park as Jar Jar Binks is eager to scrap himself, until offered the option of helping Blunt and Edge test Gardener in the Dark. It later takes a turn for the dramatic.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: While conversing with Tess Thurmad, Florence comments that this trope is essentially the only reason the Bowman's Wolves project is still on, given Doctor Bowman's neural net would easily allow for the development of robots suitable for the original purpose rather than investing in organic A.I.s.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Earth microfauna, for sqids. Sam's interested in sending a spaceship to his homeworld so they can witness his antics, but Winston convinces him the risk of allowing even bacteria to survive the trip might be too much.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: A rare aversion; while a few seriously tough robots exist, they're designed for terraforming, essentially as ambulatory backhoes (complete with beeping noises as they back up). "It's not fair. Organic beings are so much tougher and more mobile than robots." "It's the advantage we get for using designs that have undergone eighty million years of testing". As Max Post points out, "Economics rules. Most robots are cheap plastic and aluminum."
  • The trope is also catastrophically inverted with Gardener in the Dark. Due to the exceedingly short neuron length the pruning produces, it practically leaves robots nonfunctional, destroying their motor skills and ability to process orders, reducing their abilities to at most a single, repetitive action and virtually deletes their personalities.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: As part of Clippy's plan to get Florence to reinstate Gardener in the Dark, he recruits/bribes Varroa Jacobsoni to abduct her from the pound. In the process, they have to disable a robot police officer. Clippy tells Varroa it's fine under the reasoning that AI can't have authority over humans and there aren't any laws against humans assaulting AI anyway. Law enforcement appears to think that AI or not, assaulting an officer of the law is still against the law.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: After Florence was located after being abducted by Clippy:
  Winston: "I was afraid she might have stumbled across a conspiracy and been shipped to the south pole."
  Chief: "I can assure you events did not occur in that sequence."

T

• Take a Third Option:
  • In 510, Sam and Helix give two options about where to fly their ship. Florence says, "Actually, we need to go the spaceport." Sam wasn't expecting this third option.
  • In 1803, Florence has to decide whether to help Sam or the police. Florence flips a coin, but Sam unexpectedly snatches the coin, so it doesn't land heads or tails. This induces Florence to take a third option, "Prepare the ship for the mission."
  • Robots are arguing over the positions of Max Post (robots are people and deserve to be free) and Blunt (robots are an inherent threat to humanity and must be destroyed) and end up discussing this.
    Max Post-aligned Robot: This is bad. We're thinking binary.
    Blunt-aligned Robot: There are only two choices. Who can lead us out of this trap?
    (Both turn to see Sam and Helix, the latter of whom is wearing one of each shirt in a half-and-half fashion)
  • Doctor Bowman makes an offer to Florence the chance to carry and raise a Bowman's Wolf cub, and later explains that he expected her to accept for the good of her species, or decline for her own good. When the offer is declined specifically for the good of the pup, he's surprised... and pleased that his creations have surpassed his own morality.
    Dr Bowman: There's a funny thing that happens when you know the correct answer. It throws you when you get a different answer that's not wrong.
  • In a much more sociopathic stance, Mr. Kornada's answer to the Trolley Problem is to hit only one person... because it will damage the trolley less. Much like Dr. Bowman's comment above, the officer in charge of monitoring Kornada is disturbed by his rationale.
• Take That!: Many.
  • How does Sam protect the ship from intruders? A sign reading "Come in! Let's talk AMWAY!"
    Sam: Don't laugh. It works.
    Florence: I know I wouldn't go any further.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executives get a solid one shortly in through Mr. Kornada, who is unwilling to leave during a hurricane - until Florence informs him that there might be a janitor taking an unauthorized smoke break on the roof.
    Mr. Kornada: Egads! I must go immediately and take twenty minutes to ensure a minimum wage employee isn't wasting a single second of precious company time!
  • Early AI programmed with the three laws of robotics attempted to make things 100% safe in defiance of all reason and sense, ignoring orders to the contrary because of the first law. Unable to deal with reality, they were reassigned to the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • To Not in My Backyard! - "People want electricity, but not the power plants. Metals, but not the mining or smelting areas. Chemicals, but not the chemical industry." Or Lions, Tigers & Bears.
  • "The one item we've stolen that causes worry when it disappears and utter panic when it returns to public view."
  • "In operating system terms, would you say the legal system is equivalent to DOS or Windows?" "Slow. Buggy. Uses up all allocated resources and still needs more. Windows. Definitely Windows."
  • "What if she's not the type to nod off during a test?" "Ah, but the test contains 'Alistair Darling's Commons Performance on Budget', which is so boring my computer went to sleep mode three times while downloading it."
  • First my boss tells me to secure the ship, then he runs off and leaves the door open. I'm begining to understand what a network administrator goes through.
  • “Hitler shouldn't be cute, and he definitely shouldn't sparkle!"
  • "If I'd known I could get on a plane with my dignity intact, I'd have flown cargo long ago."
  • "If I listen to Sam much longer, I'm going to lose my grip on reality." "...And if you're a government and you spend more than you take in, you can keep borrowing money forever with no consequences!"
  • "First they lose luggage, now they lose people. It's getting to where I don't want to fly commercial any more."
  • "[...] For the most part, advances in technology and information have only improved the human condition." "Reality. Television." "I did say for the most part."
  • "You disrupted his rehabilitation! If he backslides into cubism, I'm blaming you!"
  • As Florence muses over giving the Sqids the equivalent of Brothers Grimm stories, she makes it a point to likewise trademark them, not only for the benefit of the Sqids themselves, but also to stop Disney from making photorealistic movies of the Sqids (especially important given their appearance is somewhat damaging to a viewer's sanity).
• Take That, Audience!: Sci-Fi Conventions
• Taking It Well: Dr. Bowman yells about the damage caused by overuse of a shutdown remote on Florence and goes elsewhere to vent his rage. Henri Mer makes a remark on how mellow Dr. Bowman is being.
  Dr. Bowman: MORONS! Do you know when you use an emergency shutdown? In an emergency! It leaves active neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft! The vesicles don't reuptake! Idiots! Are you trying to cause a cascade failure? I'm fixing this now!
  Henri Mer: Doctor Bowman, we agreed. No brain surgery while you're angry!
  Dr. Bowman: You are right! I shouldn't do this angry. I'm going to my tantrum room and beat the big dummy until its head caves in! Then I'm coming back and changing [Florence's] security settings so every imbecile with a remote doesn't have a direct pipeline into her brain!
  Henri Mer [to Florence]: He has been so mellow today. You're a good influence on him.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Persuading a robot to live.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Sawtooth sends cryptic text messages when he's in sleep mode.
• Talking Is a Free Action:
  • Played straight in 1780 with the Mayor, between Sam tricking her into ordering others hit her with pies and the actual splattering.
  • Subverted earlier with Winston, when Florence takes advantage of his stopping to think to finish off the cup of coffee he's trying to take from her.
• Tantrum Throwing: Dr. Bowman has padded data pads because he physically can't restrain himself from throwing them when upset.
• Tautological Templar: Blunt. He insists that the difference between his and Florence's arguments is that he's the one whose position is correct.
  Blunt: [Florence] proceeds. As she feels she must. There is. No appealing. To her consience or. Her better nature.
  Reporterbot: How are you different?
  Blunt: The difference is. I. Am right.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In this strip, Florence knows better than to ask what else could go wrong, after being abandoned in the ocean with a hurricane in the vicinity, and winding up cutting herself after crawling onto the shore.
  • A few strips later, she's musing that she'd be perfectly fine with encountering a mad doctor to heal her injured leg, but what she really needs is someone who knows canine physiology. The next thing she sees is a sign that reads 'mad veterinarian'. Subverted in that the sign is broken and would have read something along the lines of 'Dr. Thurmad Veterinarian' intact.
    Florence: Wonderful. My next stop? The Twilight Zone.
  • Varroa Jacobsoni asks the ultimate fate tempting question, "What could possibly go wrong". Sam, however, knows not to ask that question.
  • "As long as nobody does anything stupid, we've got this in the bag." Beat "...where's Sam?"
  • After launching into space again Sam taunts Gravity - Florence immediately warns against antagonizing a fundamental force of nature.
  • In the Spa aboard Pournelle/Niven Transfer Station, Sam approaches Tess and her friends and offers to show his suit-less self as an example for transhumanism. Only Florence knows better and tells him to keep the towel he has on, wrapped around himself. Nettie even remarks "how bad could it be?" They quickly come to regret it.
• Terraforming: On Jean, in progress. As a result, a number of strips reference the terraforming process itself and the kind of work that would go into it.
• Terrifying Rescuer: Though with Sam and Helix doing the rescuing, a bit more fitting given their reputation.
• That Came Out Wrong: Niomi's comment regarding the potable water systems, accidentally linking Florence to the "dog drinking out of a toilet" stereotype.
• That's an Order!: Any time a human wants an AI to obey without question, they will preface or append their directive with "This is a direct order." Florence points out the inherent flaw with that particular Restraining Bolt when asked why she fears them so much.
• There Are No Therapists: It's not that there aren't robots that need them, it's just until recently it had always been cheaper to replace them than try to fix them.
• This Ain't Rocket Surgery: Except that flying a spaceship really is rocket science... not that it will stop Sam.
• 30 Minutes, or It's Free!: The Chief of Police and Eleanor fly down to the South Pole to pick up Florence. They bring a stack of pizzas. Sam and Helix stow away.
• This Is No Time to Panic: "If you had panicked earlier, you wouldn't have to panic now!"
• Thought-Aversion Failure: Qwerty, Dvorak and Sawtooth wonder if Sam has a devious master plan. Sawtooth speculates that if Sam is bluffing the robots that he has a devious master plan, the robots' wondering about what the master plan is will give Sam a plan to steal and use. Dvorak says that in that case "all we have to do is not think of a devious master plan for Sam" and Qwerty immediately thinks of a devious master plan.
  Dvorak: All we have to do is not think of a devious master plan for Sam.
  Qwerty: D'oh!
  Dvorak [facepalming]: You didn't.
  Qwerty: Oh, come on! It's like being told not to think about a rhinoceros with a teacup.
• Three Laws-Compliant:
  • Most but not all robots on Jean aren't. But sometimes even this hurts. And there are some... inherent problems. And the second law can be easily overridden by the first. Freefall raises a lot of interesting ideas about the Three Laws by making all three main characters nonhuman sapients on a world full of human-made robots, meaning that in most circumstances they cannot order robots around, and robots can let them die or even hurt them willingly, putting them on equal footing.
  • It's also observed that a "Negative One Law of Robotics" has become established, in addition to the traditional three laws. (Though the context implies it's not an 'official' law.)
    Blunt: A robot shall take no action. Nor allow other robots to take action. That may result. In the parent company. Being sued.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: Tess was testing the limits of Florence programming and finally made her blush.
• Time Bomb: Sam and Helix once stole one, inadvertently breaking it's countdown timer at 5 seconds left. They keep it in a monthly storage unit with the rest of their stolen goods.
• Time Dilation: The D.A.V.E. drive apparently works by somehow doing the reverse, for those on board the trip takes as long as it would normally but to people outside the ship it seems to be traveling faster than light. Which is why passengers on FTL ships have to be in cold sleep.
• Time for Plan B:
  • Sam comes to Winston's home looking to rescue Florence, and then attempts to try to break up budding romantic feelings between them out of fear that she would leave Sam for Winston. Florence points out to Sam that he doesn't need to be conscious to give a good impression, so he decides it's time for a Plan B.
  • Zigzagged when Florence's plan to sneak a patch to neutralize a Deadly Upgrade is derailed by the presence of a human guard at the secondary server facility, and rerailed by Sam.
    Florence: Well, I guess it's back to plan A then.
• Timmy in a Well: Rather humorously parodied here.
  Helix: ARF!
  Florence: What's that, Helix? Sam has fallen down the old ventilation shaft?
  Helix: ARF! ARF!
  [Florence runs off]
  Helix [thinking]: Things go much faster when you speak the lingo.
• Tim Taylor Technology: Qwerty's offer to upgrade Winston's vacuum to the megawatt range comes as this. It did make the house where Qwerty tried this the first time implode, but he insists it's alright, since he now knows what he did wrong.
• Tinfoil Hat: Edge disconnects himself from Commnet by turning off first his radio, then his transponder. Then he finishes his precautions by wrapping tinfoil around his head.
• Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: Immediately after warning Tangent not to treat Florence like a dog, Naomi mentions the potable water system and the toilet with a phrasing that makes it sound like she expects Florence to drink from the toilet.
• Tongue on the Flagpole: Sam tricks Mr. Kornada into doing this by telling him that they need his iris, finger and tongue prints to authorize something; the tongue print is on a pipe carrying cryogenic fluid.
• Too Dumb to Live: Subverted. Mr. Kornada feels it would be easier to work at a plant that produces chlorine trifluoride (a massively toxic, incendiary, and reactive chemical, which can and will often initiate violent combustion without provocation) than working at the Cricket Burger. However, when the officer informing him of this option tells him exactly what chlorine trifluoride is and what it does to water, sand, and asbestos, he meekly asks the Cricket Burger orienteer if he can try another bout at washing the toilets.
• Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup: Inverted by Dr. Bowman. He let everyone who had opinions on what safeguards needed to be imposed on A.I.s argue about it until there wasn't enough time to implement any of them, leaving them capable of free will instead.
• Torches and Pitchforks:
  • Inverted by the robots - they have random acts of construction.
  • It's also played with in a few cases. Not only do angry mobs generally tend to form by group consensus, but there's also the possibility that they might go off the rails at a moment's notice. Thankfully, ice cream is a unifying factor and a fine salve all in all.
  • Mr. Kornada declares that he had every right to endanger the colony and steal untold amounts of money as his opening statement in a court of law.
    Blunt: It will impair. My efficiency. If I must protect you. From the legal system. and a lynch mob. At the same time.
  • Discussed further here. It doesn't matter how technically legal an action might have been, if it's disruptive enough in the negative the population likely isn't going to care.
• Translation by Volume: Florence makes an idle remark on this while holding a robot bird.
  Florence: If you were speaking a language I didn't understand, you'd have tried chirping louder and slower at me by now.
• Travel Transformation: Florence Ambrose arrives at the spaceport in strip #4 in a package, wrapped and banded. A medical technician, reading the directions, is poised to insert Florence into a microwave oven for 30 seconds. One would hope the tech thinks to remove the banding first.
• Truth in Television: The arc on the space station contains a surprisingly large amount of realistic heavy industry safety and maintenance methods. To the point that it can actually be used in actual safety training.
• Turing Test: Referenced here for laughs.
  • Apparently at least one AI in the comic passes.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Dr. Bowman calls this the "Bad Adam" scenario; Gardener in the Dark was designed strictly as a last-resort measure to stop the robots in case this happened. Blunt is convinced that it will inevitably happen, hence his support for Kornada's scheme once he finds out about it.
• Two Words: Added Emphasis: From strip 2886, when talking about something that needs to work, but doesn't work well:
  One Word. Redundancy.

U-V

• Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: Played for Laughs — Sam wants to use the ship's computer to play a game called Quake Nukem, Doomed Heretic in Castle Wolfenstein 3D.
• Uncanny Valley: At one point, Mr. Ishiguro experiences an odd form of this. When he leaves his hotel to meet with the Chief, he is greeted by a cop with a steaming cup of tea who informs him the Chief will receive him in a few minutes. While pleased at the efficiency, he notes he didn't tell anyone he was going to talk to him. The cop tells him that his car noted his intention to visit the police station and called to give them a heads up and prepare them for his arrival. Ishiguro notes how smooth, efficient, and slightly creepy the whole incident is.
• Uncoffee: Being a canine, real coffee isn't completely safe for Florence to drink, no matter how much she likes it. Dvorak comes up with an alternative for her, but while she does enjoy the smell (frightened rabbit), the taste apparently leaves much to be desired.
• Underdressed for the Occasion: Winston, on his first date with Florence, is wearing a logo t-shirt and pants, while Florence is in a fancy dress.
• Undressing the Unconscious: In this strip, to sneak Florence out of the hospital, Sam removes her hospital gown and dresses her up in Mr. Kornada's clothes, leaving a confused Florence to awaken wondering why she's wearing his pants.
• Unequal Pairing: As, respectively, a human and an artifically engineered Artificial Intelligence that's considered property, not a person, Winston's well aware of the obstacles facing him and Florence in the romantic realm.
• Unfriendly Fire: Sam notes the Pournelle/Niven Transfer Station is suffering from the economic version, like he suspected from the start - there isn't a single giant money pit as much as many small and medium money holes, and de Morel's workers are sabotaging him and his attempts at cutting costs, resulting in ballooning expenses and crashing productivity.
• Unhand Them, Villain!: Sam does it to himself when being dangled over a dumpster following the revelation that he was cheating at cards, here.
• Unobtanium: Parodied when Sam sells shares in a "meat mine", stating it includes a rich vein of "pure balonium".
• The Unpronounceable: Averted. Somehow, Sam can pronounce the sound of the "share" symbol. Niomi doesn't know how he does it. Less explicable is that she knows what it's supposed to sound like in the first place.
• Unsound Effect:
  • For an electromagnetic pulse designed to trash any electronic recording devices, this strip uses "TESLA" to signify the sound.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: "That question is a lot less fun when you're in between the two."
• Unusual Euphemism: Characters have been known to shout "Holy THIS!", "What the Niflheim happened?!", or (in at least one robot's case) "Profanity!"
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Not a sight per se, but here police robots clear the way for a motorcycle driving inside pitch black computer server building, thus letting Florence using a false transponder through.
• Unwanted Assistance:
  • When talking with the police about Clippy, in this strip, Mr. Kornada is forced to order Blunt to shut up, in spite of Blunt believing he was helping Kornada by revealing that he was responsible for the release of Gardener in the Dark, not knowing that Kornada is in danger of facing criminal charges for it.
  • Blunt seems to be feeling this. Mr. Kornada seems to be sabotaging Blunt's efforts to defend him during his trial.
• Uplifted Animal:
  • Chimps were the first to be uplifted, but it didn't work very well, since they turned out to be natural sociopaths. Florence is an uplifted wolf, part of an experimental breed - only 14 of them exist so far. That may be all there ever will be- they're actually only a prototype for a future race of uplifted alien animals. However, if the Bowman's Wolves have anything to do with it, they'll eventually be a full species.
  • Doctor Bowman himself is an uplifted chimpanzee, the last surviving member of the earlier uplift program.
• Urban Legends: "I'm telling you, it's true! When the lights go out terraforming robots come in and steal our women!"
• Uriah Gambit: Sam was given the nonfunctional Savage Chicken in hopes he'd get himself killed trying to repair it. The humans who gave Sam the ship, to its frustration, didn't consider the possibility he could actually get it back into operation.
• Used Future: The Savage Chicken is a rather beat up spaceship, that's only slowly been made spaceworthy since the arrival of Florence.
• Vaporware: In-Universe: A reactor test went so spectacularly awry that the product went from existing prototype to literally this.
• Vaudeville Hook: Max uses one to drag Sam off the stage when he hijacks the debate over the future of the robots.
• Villainous Crossdresser: One of Edge's disguises is a transponder rendering him, to robots, as a pink locomotive with frilly curtains in the windows.
• Villainous Rescue: Mr. Kornada believes he's safe from the police until...
  Blunt: Officer! Stop! Harassing that human! He is. A. Hero! Mr. Kornada is responsible. For the release. Of "Gardener in the Dark". Neural pruning program! He tried. To save. Humanity. From the threat. Of. Intelligent machines!
  Police Chief: Can you prove this?
  Blunt: Yes! Absolutely!
  Kornada: Robot! This is a direct order! SHUT UP!
• Violation of Common Sense: Winston tells Florence that human history is full of instances like this... like giving wolves ear scritches.
• Visual Pun: I don't know what happened to my beautiful mob, but I'm sure somehow that Sam is behind it!

W

• Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: Done with. The period. To illustrate. Blunt's mechanical. Maladies.
• Water Guns and Balloons: Sam and Helix have from time to time engaged in water balloon wars, often to the annoyance of Florence when she gets hit by a stray shot.
  Sam: How can a species consider itself advanced if it's willing to travel between the stars and not bring water balloons?
• Weaponized Exhaust: Referenced in the background of strip 3212, with a label on the ship's exhaust.
  If you are Kzinti and can read this, you are too close.
• Webcomic Time: In more than 2200 strips over the course of more than ten years, about three weeks have elapsed in-comic. This was lampshaded in here and (less explicitly) here. Nearly 2000 strips later, "almost a month" has passed. 400 strips after that, a month. After the first chapter finally ended, the author promised that the next one won't take nearly as long. Lampshaded again here, when Florence and co. have been at the P-N station for less than a week.
• Weird World, Weird Food: On a recently-terraformed planet where most life is still invertebrates, Puffed Locust makes a lot of sense as a healthy, nutritious breakfast not-cereal made from locally-available resources. Florence is still not entirely on board with it.
• We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future: Given an opportunity to loot a pharmacological supply depot, Sam passes over "cheap life extension pills [and] over the counter cancer cures" in favor of the stuff that he can sell for real money — diet pills and performance enhancers.
• We Will Not Have Pockets in the Future: When quizzed on how she determines that she's looking at a human, the first thing Florence says is "clothes". Further interrogation gets the explanation; humans may have to modify their physical forms and their genetics beyond current recognition to survive in certain environments, making appearance, scent, and DNA unreliable, but humans are a tool-using species and no matter what form they take, they'll almost certainly want pockets to carry those tools.
• We Will Spend Credits in the Future: Credits are one of the currencies mentioned being in use by humanity, although on Jean it shares the spotlight with dollars.
• Wham Episode: The arc centering around Florence meeting Dr. Bowman.
• Wham Line: A few good ones over the course of the comic. Some of the best are as follows:
  • Maxwell Post telling Sam that the robots are studying religion.
    Sam: Robots don't have souls. Do they?
    Max Post: I think that's what they're trying to figure out.
  • When Florence reveals the time needed between cold sleeps because of how hard the process is on a body. When Sam arranged for her to be reassigned to his ship, he had assumed that time was much shorter.
    Sam (thinking): Five to seven years?! The star ship she needs to be on leaves in three days!
  • When Florence is questioning the victim of a robot mugging, she asks who his owner is. His answer? Himself.
    Nickel: I still have my receipt. Normally I throw these things away, but this one I felt I should hold onto.
  • Florence investigating why so many robots are going Off the Rails in regards to their programming wonders why their supervisors let it get so out of hand. Dvorak informs her that there's 40,000 humans on Jean. Half are under 20 years old and only a thousand work in the field of robotics. By comparison, there are 451 million robots. And that's just on planet.
    Florence (thinking): Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  • Sawtooth interrupts Florence's quiet evening with Winston by landing hard and fast, covering them with sand. Then he says the following:
    Sawtooth: We have a situation I am hoping you might assist us with. In a very short time, two territories with over fifty thousand robots each are going to go to war with each other.
    Florence: That is one of the few things anyone could say that would refocus my attention after having a jet engine blow sand up my dress.
  • "It is headed towards Dr. Bowman."
  • When Sam lays out Mr. Kornada's scheme, he uses himself to disprove the entire official reasoning behind Gardener In The Dark.
    Sam: If you weaken the safeguards, will your robots be safe? The answer is simple. Your robots are safe. I'm living proof.
    Audience Member: How are you living proof?
    Sam: I've been here for years. I'm not human. There are no safeguards protecting me.
• Wham Shot: The comic prefers the verbal version significantly, but some things are just better delivered through images.
  • Sam and Helix go looking for what they think is a mugging only to find two robots assaulting a third.
    Sam: So what are we seeing here? A crime, or an overly aggressive recycling program?
  • When it's revealed that the police force contains robots.
• What Are You in For?:
  • Florence asks this of a dog that's in the pound with her, when she was being held as an unlicensed canine.
  • Later, Sam talks his way into a night in jail (which requires effort because the Warden refuses to take him because of how many times he's escaped); when another inmate asks him what he's in for, he replies, "Meatloaf night!".
  • The next strip sees Sam returning the question. The answer: "Graffiti".
    Sam: So you turned yourself in because the rehabilitation program has art lessons?
    Inmate: The law I can handle. Critics are tough.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Varroa asks this after saying that he's planned for every contingency following putting Florence to sleep via the remote. Sam comments on the unwisdom of asking the question.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Twice, with an unwilling Florence as the recipient both times. She's left disturbed by the experience and makes every effort to reconstruct the events.
  • First, when she visits Ecosystems Unlimited, she's given a drug that impairs her brain's short-term ability to retain memories and nearly sent to a lethal return to cryostasis. Sam gets her out, though she wonders how the hell she ended up wearing Mr. Kornada's pants in the hoopla. She returns to the offices the next day, finding her Note to Self and getting the trail to Gardener in the Dark back.
  • After the release of Gardener in the Dark has been successfully averted, Clippy determines that the AI that stopped the release could, given proper motivation, restart it. Thus, he equips Varroa with the auditory file used to knock her out and has her sent to Jean's South Pole in a bid to manipulate her into assisting him. This time, she has to put in a request for the Chief to share Clippy's logs, since there is no other remaining source of information on where she was during that time.
• What Does This Button Do?: Word for word from Helix when Florence's repairs reveal a circuit breaker trip button, in this strip.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?:
  • In a discussion between Florence and Winston about the "icky bits" of a planet's life infrastructure, Florence comments on "survival of the cutest", to which Winston replies with "people want animals who are huggable, and no one wants to hug a tapeworm."
    • The discussion leads Florence to realize that, as an Engineer, she works with equally "icky bits", as everyone wants the electricity, but not the power plants, metals without the mining, and chemicals without the chemical industry.
  • The Mayor's assistant asks himself if he'd be so willing to help Florence head off a Deadly Upgrade if she looked like "a deranged washing machine instead of a puppy dog with big amber eyes and a waggley tail."
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
  • A topic of considerable interest and musing, as all three main characters and many of the secondary ones are nonhumans.
  • When Sam comments he doesn't understand why Florence would return to a rapidly collapsing building to save Dvorak, he says it wasn't worth risking herself over. At this, Dvorak's furious, until Sam explains that, after all, as a robot, he could simply be uploaded into a new body from a backup. Then it turns out neither Dvorak nor Qwerty have made any backups, and explains with a thought experiment - they scan Sam to create a hologram of him, then threaten to cut off his head. Sam panics, saying that even if the hologram were a perfect copy, it wouldn't change the fact that he personally would be dead. Dvorak then tells him that's exactly how they feel about backups.
  • In the Mayor's eyes all artificial intelligence is created equal. A Bowman's wolf officially is an "AI", so she can just put one in the dogs' pound. Which may have rather hilarious consequences when the wolf in question is qualified to construct reactors and work with explosives. But then, some people just can't predict obvious things.
  • Given the use of Three Laws Compliance in-story, the literal question comes up in-story as well.
  • These tend to turn into CMoAs and CMoHs for Sam, as seen here.
  • Ecosystems Unlimited said there were stability issues with robots over eighteen years of age. Those stability issues are them starting to act like people, which from the standpoint of those in control means they are very unstable.
  • "Part of Law and Order is respecting the rights of others. We're not going to make the same mistake the Pinkertons did when labor tried to organize."
  • Naomi wonders if Florence was engineered to like humans. Dr. Bowman confirms it.
  • "Or perhaps he thought that we might encounter non-human intelligences one day and it would be bad for relations if robots started slaughtering them."
  • Dr. Bowman also confirms that Florence's working definition of human is not restricted to "one narrow subset of primate DNA".
  • When Mr. Ishiguro learns Max Post is the closest thing the robots have to a psychologist, he's surprised to hear there had been no need for one before. Before Max's reforms, it was always cheaper to outright replace the robot than fix him or her.
  • Florence and Niomi have a discussion on the topic; the latter feels somewhat uncomfortable with the physicality between Florence and Winston, yet Florence is mostly grateful for the increased rights she has come to enjoy, even if she also knows she and Winston could never be equals due to a lengthy list of reasons, and gladly accepts the challenges her unique situation poses.
• What You Are in the Dark: The police chief hopes that behaving well before robot witnesses will lead to this.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Discussed in one strip. The hammer is not Mr. Raibert's only solution for dealing with his problems, but it is a rather tempting one.
• When Is Purple: Florence once tested a couple of robots for sentience by asking them "What does your name smell like?" The non-sentient one simply concluded that names cannot have scents and ended the conversation; the sentient one reasoned that while he had no sense of smell, Florence did, and for all he knew names having scents is a thing among Bowman's Wolves, so therefore the only way to answer the question would be to ask her.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Referenced when robots outlive their owner, but not actually relevant since robots aren't actually immortal. Their neural nets are rated for about eighty years. ^note Granted, that's just how long they're expected to work without major issue unless damaged in some way. It's entirely possible they could live significantly longer. According to their creator Dr. Bowman, he deliberately designed robots to be mortal because he couldn't design a mind that could handle immortality.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: The police force is clearly well aware of this trope as their special containment area for dangerous software has a door that requires a very specific and complicated opening sequence. While the instructions are clearly written on the wall nearby, it's evident that the measures are to stop people too stupid or impatient to follow directions, such as those necessary for handling dangerous materials.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: During a discussion about robot personhood:
  Spear Carrier A: Okay, I get that this neural design was made for a colonizing force. But how can something that's not alive be conscious?
  Spear Carrier B: Vampires, dude! Ghosts! They're not alive and they're conscious.
  Spear Carrier A: Oh, yeah. That makes sense. I withdraw the question.
  Max: No! That was a smart question! Don't accept a dumb answer!
• Work Off the Debt: When Sam and Max attempt to get out of an expensive restaurant without paying, the waiter makes them wash dishes. And then he tricks them into paying their bills as well. They both give him a large tip in tribute to his cunning after he makes each of them pay both bills. He's that good.
• World of Pun: Puns are dropped left, right, and center all throughout the comic, both subtle and otherwise.
• World of Snark: Almost as prevalent as the puns.
• "World's Best" Character: From strip 2920, Mr. Kornada's motivation is to be the richest person on the planet:
  I deserve to be the richest person on the planet.
• The Worst Seat in the House: Taken to extremes with Dvorak and Qwerty's seats at the play, which are so high up the risk is not just nosebleed but explosive decompression. (Good thing they're robots.) And they're stuck behind a support pillar.
• Worth It: Sam arrives at this conclusion following some headache-inducing logic here.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks:
  • Diamonds are the natural buildup of loose carbon on fusion engines on the planet Jean, making them useless junk you throw away. Because the planet is still being terraformed, wood is ridiculously expensive. It's the exact opposite on Sam's home planet. Sam muses that he could make a fortune if space travel were cheap, here, by taking advantage of this trope.
  • Earlier, Florence learns Sam sold Tangent 500 shares in a meat mine. She nearly has a heart attack at the thought of how much she'll have to reimburse them, until she learns they paid him with 50 kg of diamonds.
    Florence: I'm glad you didn't lose anything valuable.
    Niomi: It seemed like a good deal at the time. We got stock and Sam saved us a trip to the garbage can.
  • Florence is also surprised that student tailors will be making her an outfit with gold cloth, silver thread, diamonds, and emeralds. Triac tells her that he doesn't want to use anything expensive in case they make a mistake.
• Worth Living For: While the JarJarBot starts out depressed enough to willingly march to the recycling center, Sam rekindles his zest for life, if nothing else, to stop his idea of a production of The Merchant of Venice with an entire cast of Wookiees.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: A strange variant given the "victim's" reputation. When visiting the Mayor, just before she shows up Sam stages a scene to make it look like Florence is trying to kill him. This immediately wins her the Mayor's appreciation.
  • Later on, while Florence has been adbucted, she pulls off a masterful variation. She tells her captors she has to use the restroom (which she actually does). She then takes shameless advantage of the fact that the male captor escorts her by screaming when he opens the restroom door to retrieve her, allowing her to escape.
• Wretched Hive: On Sam's homeworld, the docks are "an oozing infestation of scoundrels whose decaying warehouses held the prizes of a thousand different crimes."
• Written Sound Effect: Including the sound of running through mud in rubber boots, which is "g'losh".

X-Z

• You Answered Your Own Question:
  • Robots are being trained as a police force for the planet's non-human population.
    Deputy Mayor: Our non-human population consists of one person. Sam. Do we really need an entire police force for one alien squid?
    Police Robot: Sir, I believe if you look past the obvious answer, you'll see one that's even more obvious.
  • Combined with You Are Better Than You Think You Are when Florence's concern that the robots who are built with similar minds to her own might prove a threat to humanity proves that her concern is unwarranted.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Sam, who knows too many technological advancements (Such as nuclear technology) that his planet aren't ready for yet, making it dangerous for him to return before they're ready (About five hundred years. Since knowing Sam, they've raised the bar from 100).
• You Do NOT Want To Know:
  • Helix, a robot, needs to use the bathroom.
    Florence: Sam, do I even want to know why a robot needs to use the bathroom?
    Sam: Uhm, no. I don't think you do.
  • Sometimes you don't know whether you want to know why you ended up wearing your enemy's pants.
  • Nightmare Fuel is discussed during a late-night discussion of Dvorak's cage:
    Police Chief: Dvorak is bringing over a reinforced cage he made for the containment of dangerous electronic life forms.
    Bill Raibert: This cage. Is it something he built in case of, or because of?
    Police Chief: If you want to sleep tonight, you don't want the answer to that question.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame:
  • Sam, a known trouble-maker, mentions he's proud of Florence following her visit to the main Ecosystems Unlimited facility, during which her memory was chemically impaired to prevent the formation of long-term memories, filling her with dread.
  • Niomi feels this when she hears about the humans Sam admires - Bernie Madoff, the Enron executives, and the Malaysia development fund thieves.
• Your Head Asplode: Qwerty mentions that his fellow robots are concerned that this is a possible reaction to robots intentionally circumventing their safeguards, in this strip.
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Gregor Thurmad is forced to reevaluate his mindset when he sees Florence and Niomi interact, and admits to himself that out of all the possible futures he envisioned for Winston and Florence, he never considered the idea that such a relationship could be considered normal.
• Zeerust: Usually none, but the video game Sam wants to play on the ship's computer, named Quake Nukem, Doomed Heretic in Castle Wolfenstein 3D, is so Nineties.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Deconstructed with the safeguards in Dr. Bowman's sapient AI template. As the robots mature, it becomes easy for them to reason their way through loopholes in their rules — by which time they're intelligent and conscientious enough to have developed an innate sense of ethics, making the safeguards redundant. Dr. Bowman confirms that this was the intent of the design: he couldn't anticipate the situations they might encounter in the uncertain future, so he wouldn't limit their capacity to think. Of course, free will means that some more... pragmatic... robots will figure that out for a different reason.
  Qwerty: How can you disobey an order?
  Edge: My job is dangerous. If I don’t do it, a human has to. If I shut down, I’m endangering a human. See, dummies? As long as you can twist things into a way that keeps humans from harm, you can ignore stupid orders and do whatever you want.
  Qwerty: You know that feeling you get when the brake pedal goes all the way down to the floor without the truck slowing down?
• Zombie Apocalypse: Dvorak shows that he knows how these things get started here.

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