Just For Fun / TV Tropes: The Webcomic

Clockwise from middle-right: Ayers, Ere, Report, Yug, Ecivres. Background: Dab ^note  Not pictured: Literally everyone else. If we did picture them, we'd take up the whole front page.^note Illustration by EclipseSeraph.

"From the makers of TV Tropes: The Website!, TV Tropes: The Card Game! and TV Tropes: The Flamethrower! comes a brand new brand name in webcomics!"

TV Tropes: The Webcomic is a very simple slice of life webcomic. Well, okay, perhaps with a little embellisment and some sci-fi, maybe a little fantasy, lots of gags, and some cut and pastes. And lots of Metafiction.

The comic started off following an epic struggle of the N.G.O. Superpower W.I.K.I. (We Investigate Kool Incidents) to stop its breakaway organization K.I.L.A. (Killing Is Like Awesome) from Taking Over The World. The narration focused on Report Siht, a beginning agent of W.I.K.I. from the New Trope City, whose Big Brother Mentor Dab Gib goes missing on one of their missions. Report and his new partner, the short tempered Ere D. Nust, infiltrate K.I.L.A. and discover the shocking truth: its leader is none other than Dab Gib himself! Aided by Dab's brother Yug, the sexy agent "Ms." Ecivres Naf, and the mysterious freelancer Bertrand Ayers, Report and Ere set out to stop K.I.L.A. once and for all.

Without spoiling much more of the original arc (it was also the longest one, and rightly so), Report eventually leaves W.I.K.I. and starts a private Occult Detective business with Ere, who follows him into retirement. Since then, the comic has consisted of largely standalone story arcs (though frequent Call Backs prevented it from becoming an utter Continuity Snarl), which explored all kinds of themes and settings over its long, long run. So far the comic featured, among other things: a Time Travel arc, multiple Alternate Universe arcs, a Beach Arc, a Blindness Arc, a Noir Arc, a few Family Drama arcs, a Musical Arc, multiple Gaming Arcs, a What Do They Fear Arc, and, of course, Parody Arcs (but no Recap Arcs, we promise!). There's even going to be a Tournament Arc. After a couple of years, the original author abandoned the comic and it was picked up by a series of "guest authors". The arcs written by the original author became known as the "Golden Age", with numerous different authors contributing afterwards, creating their own "Ages" as the story grew more.

The original run of the webcomic ended on February 28th, 2019, with a total of 1001 chapters, and over 9000 pages worth of material. On January 4th, 2023, it was announced a new run was planned, set in the Continuity Reboot from the end of Ended with a Bang and focusing on a new cast of characters. The new run, dubbed the Neon Age, began on February 28th, 2023 (the date was intentional) and follows four friends—Sachi, Chase, Merrill, and Phaedra—as they uncover evidence of a strange conspiracy in their hometown surrounding the Lunar Crests, learn Wiki Magic (and get some cool weapons) from the...odd Spiegel, and come into conflict with Tarot, a mysterious magician who desires the crests for his own purposes.

The comic can be read here. Actually, no. This comic does not exist (yet) but this page was deliberately styled after existing webcomic pages to perpetuate the illusion of the contrary. The story troped here, however, is as real as any—it's just being written by a cadre of fellow tropers and published in a deliberately confusing metafictional format. Compare Avatar and the Airbending Fellowship of Vampire Slayers.

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This fake webcomic provides examples of:

A-M

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers beneath the New Trope City are huge.
• Abusive Parents: Dione of the Umbral Court is Hyperion's mother, but this doesn't mean she treats him any more kindly than the rest of the Court—in fact, she might be the cruelest of all.
• Acrofatic: Taffy Is somehow able to go toe-to-toe against Google-hime without dying right away.
• The Ace: The bartender, before his Heroic BSoD.
• A-Cup Angst: Regnis lampshades this trope.
  Regnis: I've got a happy life with my awesome husband and amazing friends. Why do you think I'll be crying because my breasts are tiny?
• A Day in the Limelight: Retrope in Nine Realms.
• Affably Evil: Nothing is rather polite and friendly for an Eldritch Abomination who desires to destroy the universe. It makes it clear that it only tries to destroy the universe because that is its sole purpose, compliments Ere’s bravery, and whips up a feast for Yug for beating him at a card game. Of course, that just makes its moments of sadism and true villainy all the more frightening.
• Aggressive Negotiations: Ere and Retrope make a point by going from the main entrance of Don Marcone's mansion to his private study and leaving a trail of bodies behind. Marcone is quite ready to negotiate a permanent truce between himself and Retrope (who represents the entirety of her father's remaining mob).
• The Alcatraz: Fluffy Bunny Hearts n' Love Sunny-shiny Prison of Cute, which is where Loki is sent to after the events of Nine Realms. Don't be fooled by the name.
  Doog Gib: Nobody's escaped it since it was founded two millennia ago.
  Siegfried: Yes, I'm sure nobody can escape a place as terrifying as Fluffy Bunny Hearts n' Love Sunny-shiny Prison of Cute.
• All Just a Dream: Immediately after his "death" in "Worst Case Scenario", Gabe wakes up on a hospital bed with Betrand Ayers standing next to him and claiming that everything that happened has been a drug-induced hallucination.
• Alt Text: For the first few strips, it's just an additional joke, but after the tenth strip, they start becoming surreal rambles on the meaning of time, space, and corndogs.
  • They become far more lore-y in Ended With a Bang—at first, they seem to mean nothing, but putting them backwards from the final strip to the first tells the story of Nothing and the original Everything.
• Alternate Universe: The Fourth Dimension, which is where the Heroes of Troperia tournament takes place. One of the biggest changes in the Fourth Dimension from the Prime is that Gabe died of radiation poisoning, not Regnis. As such, Fourth Dimension Regnis is still alive.
• Ambiguous Gender:
  • It is never made clear which gender Erort belongs to. Retrope may have actually found that out, but...
  • A Long-Haired Pretty Boy (maybe?) appears in a recent strip, slices a baddie in half then vanishes. Maybe he/she'll be important later…
    • The long haired boy is revealed in "Revenge of the Siht" to be Nen Ohsib, someone with ties to Report.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The Neon Age sees the Mirror Brigade (Sachi, Chase, Merrill, and Phaedra) take the place of the W.I.K.I. agent’s and their associates as protagonists. Word of God has stated that, given the Serial Escalation the original comic underwent and the cast having largely completed their character arcs (plus Report and Ere being unavailable to how the comic ended), she felt there was nowhere else for the original cast to go and chose to let them enjoy their happy ending, making way for the new guard. He has stated, however, that he'd like to revisit them in a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, and that it's possible some of the more minor characters will return.
  "But the first generation's stories are over. They won, they had their time, and they deserve a break after all the crap they went through."
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Retrope gives one to Gale, snapping him out of his Heroic BSoD.
  Retrope: I BETRAYED THE FEELINGS I HAD! I BETRAYED MY LOVE FOR YOU! BUT I DON'T CARE ANYMORE, I LOVE YOU AND THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS!
• Ambulance Cut: Z. Tulk is trying to ski off a cliff in the summer. The results are what you'd expect.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Knights Who Say Yay in The Yay Agenda arc.
• And the Adventure Continues: The comic ends with Retrope deciding to move on, accepting that Ere and Report are gone, and taking up her first assignment as a new member of W.I.K.I.
• And This Is for...: Lyrica gives an epic one to Carissa.
  Lyrica: This is for Lyrus, who died for the sake of someone who couldn't give a damn about him! *stab* This is for Uso, who deserved infinitely better than what he got! *stab* This is for Lyon, who you manipulated and used up until you got bored and sacrificed him! *stab* This is for Ere and Retrope, who lost so, so much to end your delusions! *stab* AND THIS IS FOR EVERYONE I MIGHT'VE MISSED! *stab*
• The Antichrist: The Tsuki family has been trying to breed one for some time, to become the vessel of Nothing and bring about the End of Everything. As it turns out, they succeeded with Uso/Akuma.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Sun-Dog, Lili, Spirit, Shooter, and Myrrah are only villains by virtue of working for R.E.T.C.O.N. Other than that, there's nothing truly evil about them.
  • Lyrica and her twin brother Lyrus were forced into villainy by their insane mother. Other than that, they're villains in name only.
• Anyone Can Die:
  • The "Worst Case Scenario" arc establishes it by killing Regnis.
  • And then proceeds to further enforce it by killing off Report. Again.
  • The Amaterasu Arc also establishes it by killing a main character.
  • Sirena puts No Name Given firmly on the list, with the deaths of Report, Yug (maybe), Saena, and Kurotsume. And those are the only ones so far.
  • Casualties in the Jage Age now extend to Doog Gib, Yug (definitely), Google-hime, and Nen Ohsib. Subverted with Retrope, who is Not Quite Dead.
• Apocalypse How: The Myth Arc of the Jade Age focuses on the characters attempting to prevent a Class Z.
• Archive Trawl: Dear lord you'll be doing this a lot.
• Arc Symbol: The Neon Age, has mirrors: the new protagonists are referred to as the Mirror Brigade, their mentor is named Spiegel (which is German for mirror) and mirror imagery crops up a lot whenever the Lunar Crests are shown in The New Normal. The reason for all the mirror symbolism has yet to be explained.
• Arc Villain: Each arc has its own villain, some returning from prior arcs and others exclusive to their debut. In order:
  • Notable villains from the original run include: Dab Gib, Viel, OREZ, the Knights Who Say Yay, Amaterasu, Susano'o, S.U.E., Taffy, Ere, Loki, Reginald and Minerva, Alexa, Nothing's Devoted, and Nothing.
  • In the Neon Age: the Umbral Court and Tarot/Viel^note The New Normal, Maressa^note Dead Sea, and Iblis^note Make a Wish.
• Art Shift: All Slice of Life sequences showing Report's routine life are Deliberately Monochrome, spawning fan theories about how they are his "real life", whereas the (colorful) rest of the comic is just a product of his wild imagination.
  • In the Dark Age, the art style shifted to a more anime-like approach.
  • The Jade Age's art style looks similar to Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
  • The Neon Age's art is akin to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Armor-Piercing Question: This exchange between Kaen and Doog Gib.
  Kaen: I don't think you care about your sons at all! You're too preoccupied with your stupid job!
  Doog: I did care about them.
  Kaen: Then why didn't you prevent Dab from going crazy-evil?!'
• Arranged Marriage: Loki tries to set one up for himself and Retrope.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Ere goes Ret-Gone at the end to become the Embodiment of Everything, defeating Nothing and banishing him back to the void.
• Asshole Victim: Mitciv Elohssa is a perverted, sleazy drug dealer and Jerkass who loves to Kick the Dog, Would Hurt a Child, and gleefully recounts how he drove a man to suicide For the Evulz, so it’s impossible to feel bad when he’s painfully and slowly consumed by the horde of nanosprites.
  • Discussed and deconstructed in The New Normal. Sachi argues that no matter how much of a Jerkass someone is, that doesn't mean they deserve to die. Considering that Titan's death at the hands of Tarot is played sympathetically for the former, the narrative seems to agree.
  • It's downplayed for Dione's death. It's hard to feel sympathy for her, and the Mirror Brigade certainly doesn't, but Hyperion still had to watch her die and is incredibly torn up about it, not to mention his incredibly complicated feelings on her afterward.
• The Assimilator: The nanosprites.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • Report is promoted to Head Commander of the 74th Branch in Nine Realms, with Ere serving as his lietunent. The reason they aren't present for most of the arc? They have a mission to complete IN ANOTHER GALAXY!
  • After Doog kicks the bucket, Ere is promoted to Head Commander of W.I.K.I.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Dab Gib's hell-demon army included several Kaiju-sized monsters.
  • Also, the 50-foot catgirl in recent strips.
• Author Appeal:
  • Let's just say that almost every woman in the comic suffers from back pains. Until Yadayerf leaped onto the scene, at which point he activated the Rule of Sexy, creating a horde of Action Girls
  • During guest month, Trope Kira's week revolved around Ecivres being barefoot for no particular reason.
  • Yadayerf introduced one catgirl after another every time he came up in the rotation, to the point that each comic of his features a sidebar so the reader knows who is who.
  • The Steel Age Author really likes detailed weapons, fight scenes and impractical outfits.
  • The Dark Age Author likes cute things, heartwarming moments, and epic battles.
  • The Dork Age author seems to be a fan of Stripperiffic outfits and only uses the women in the comic for sex appeal.
  • The Jade Age author is a HUGE fan of comedy, especially slapstick. And apparently a fan of Anyone Can Die too.
  • The Neon Age author enjoys flashy, stylish combat, snarky heroes and villains alike, Lampshade Hanging, LGBT+ representation, and love in all its forms, especially when used to save the day.
• Author Avatar:
  • The original author: Trope-tan.
  • The A.U.T.H.O.R.: A.U.T.H.O.R..
  • The Silver Age guest author: Report Nwonknu.
  • The Bronze Age author: Axel (it's an In-Universe example, sheesh). Emphasis on avatar.
  • The Steel Age author:Nameless
  • The Dark Age author: Ophiuchus
  • The Dork Age author: Noah
  • The Jade Age author: Saena (formerly), Nova (currently)
  • The Neon Age author: Spiegel
  • The Catboy: Yadayerf Actually a catboy-loli-ballerino, but that's not revealed until his fifth appearance, where Clothing Damage leads others to comment on his physique.
  • The Critic: Wiki Witch Of The Web, who critiques each panel.
  • The Superfan: Mossa of the 56th Gemstone Force, who is only too happy to let others know about her extensive collection of TV Tropes: The Webcomic memorabilia.
• Awesome Underwater World: The setting of the Neon Age's second arc, Dead Sea; the Mirror Brigade discovers an Underwater City populated with merfolk.
• Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: Apparenly, Doog once tried to connect with his sons by taken them out on a road trip. They came back home two weeks later covered in maple syrup and feathers, and with a bunch of baby animals in Dab's hair.
• Ax-Crazy: Susano'o, from the Belated Happy Ending arc.
• Babies Ever After:
  • The Belated Happy Ending starts with the birth of Kitsune and Darryl's daughter, Ayaka.
  • Regnis is revealed to be pregnant at the start of Cyberpunk, and gives birth to her daughter, Ere, at the end.
• Back from the Dead: So many characters that Death Is Cheap, but the one that stood out the most was Doog's revival during the Heroes of Troperia Tournament Arc.
  • The original comic's Grand Finale saw everyone who'd died over the course of the comic brought back to life in the new omniverse. Report and Ere, however, are Ret-Gone entirely.
• Badass Biker: Siegfried.
• Badass Bystander: The unnamed Hawaiian Shirt Guy, who really, really hates to get his shoes wet.
• Badass Crew: Siegfried and his "Anti-God Force" consisting of:
  • "Dragon Blood" Siegfried.
  • Blue
  • Vali and
  • Ted.
  • and eventually Agni, the real leader.
• Badass Family: The Nusts. It turns out, Ere comes from a long line of adventurers, time travelers, and wiki magicians.
  • The Ehts, as well, if Gabe's brother and sister are any indication.
  • With the performances of Dab, Yug and Doog, the Gib family counts as well.
• Badass Longcoat: Teller wears a particularly awesome black one with blue flame designs.
  • It appears that the Steel Age author really loves these. After the Return of the Siht arc, many characters just start wearing them almost everywhere.
  • Report wears a black one with a red-and-navy-blue pattern and gold trimming, and Ere has one with red patterns. The reason why? They got promoted.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The 'Revenge of the Siht' arc begins like this, cementing OREZ's success in killing off most of the tropers around the world, with only the core of the surviving main cast still being alive. This then promptly jumps into a 6 month Time Skip (during which time Report is frozen ), showing the long term effects this has on world at large.
  • Ultimately how the Amaterasu Arc ends.
• Bag of Holding: The Hammerspace Box.
• Batman Gambit: Reginald ("Don't call me Reggie!") Chainias relies on the heroes' genre savviness (and his sister Minerva's shapeshifting powers) to break out of The Alcatraz. It works.
• Beat Still, My Heart: Poor Google-hime...
• Barrier Maiden: Ms. Naf was one for the Prime, Mirror, and Bizarro Universes, then her sons took over. The duties of a Barrier Maiden (or Barrier Fellow) consist of living their life according to the narrative rules that structure the world around her as a well-written story, counteracting the trope entropy and preventing such nasty side-effects as the Continuity Snarl and Great Crashes.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Quiet, snarky bookworm Mathias is the bombastic, egotistical Hyperion of the Umbral Court, though the "beware" in this case is...debatable.
• BFG:
  • the E.D.I.T. (Electrically-Dispensed Information Transliterator) rifle.
  • Hand Cannon: the E.D.I.T. pistol, which puts the Desert Eagle to shame.
  • Gabe's OMFG is named as such because that's the typical reaction someone has when he pulls it out.
  • The "Cyber Hand". A nine-foot sniper rifle that shoots eagles made of electricity. Ere used it to snipe at Cross Reeteksum.
  • The Ginnungagap, a massive-ass shotgun used by Ted.
• Battle of the Bands: The climax of the Heavy Meta arc is a three-way battle between the Crüe, Lady of War, and Burn the Witch. Subverted, however, when all three have to team up to prevent the space station from de-orbiting... with The Power of Rock!
• BFG: The "Moon Eater Cannon" wielded by The Wiki Emperor, who uses it to blow up Jupiter.
• BFS:
  • The M.E.M.E. (Mutated Easily-Memorable Experience) Blade (this is In-Universe, you stupid wiki engine!). It can change size from dagger to longcat lengths!
  • In addition, Brynn's Demon Buster can exponentially increase in size. Even at its smallest, though, it's still pretty big (at six feet long).
  • Kurotsume wields two of these, when he isn't using his claws.
  • Cross owns one, named "Cervantes" that incorporates a shotgun into its crossguard.
  • After Revenge of the Siht, Report gets one called No Name.
  • Susano'o has the Kusangi.
  • Siegfried's Balmung.
  • Then we have Reginald's Reminer, which can change from sword to crossbow.
• Because You Can Cope: Discussed near the end of Ended with a Bang.
  Ere: Retrope, when Report died, I was barely able to function. It took weeks for me to cope. But you...you can. You'll be just fine.
  Retrope: How do you know that?
  Ere: Because you have. You always have. You'll always be able to, even when I'm gone.
• Becoming the Mask: Hyperion took on the guise of Mathias to find the Lunar Crests, due to him being one of the only actual teenagers in the Umbral Court (Amalthea, the other one, would've had entirely different problems blending in). While there, he and Chase met, and after a somewhat awkward beginning, hit it off. When Dione learned of this, she pushed Hyperion into dating Chase to get info on the Mirror Brigade; while Hyperion complied, his feelings swiftly turned genuine.
• Belated Happy Ending: Maybe? The author of the Amaterasu Arc revealed that the new arc will be called "Belated Happy Ending". So it's entirely possible that there will indeed be a Belated Happy Ending. Turns out there was no happy ending. Susano'o's arrival made everything worse.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The main villains of The New Normal are the Umbral Court, who created the Lunar Crests and are currently trying to retrieve them to use their powers to Take Over the World, and Tarot, a mysterious magician with a magical tarot deck who wants the Crests for an ambiguous goal. The comic makes it clear they do not get along, and Tarot has actually aided the Mirror Brigade against the Court on two separate occasions.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Lunaris, leader of the Umbral Court, is set up as the ultimate villain and certainly has the intimidation factor down. But ultimately, he isn't nearly as strong or clever as he believes himself to be, and Tarot/Viel is the true main antagonist of The New Normal.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Yug falls into a volcano, Dab's immediate reaction is to grab his hand and try to pull him up.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Subverted in "Worst Case Scenario": Yug outlives The Hero, The Lancer, and The Smart Girl. Word of God is that the entire arc started as a constructed scenario where Yug would be forced into such a situation.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: A lot of them during the haunted mansion.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ere arrives in the climax of Grew into a Flame to chop through Nothing's Devoted during their siege on W.I.K.I.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Yadayerf's unmasking as Freyaday caused Ty to fall out of the plane they were in without a parachute. Freyaday immediately jumped out of the plane, using his lightning powers to rocket down to the much more aerodynamic Ty. Catching up to her, then pulling out of the dive with her in his arms, earned the catboy a Big Damn Robotic Kiss.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Report's notwithstanding, Gabe's family (the members that show up, at least) are quite insane by Meta- standards.
• Big "NO!": The victim in the basement when he was devoured by Alacra; Demon God of spiders
• Big "OMG!": This is Melodia's reaction to seeing the Mark of Ilya on Akuma's hand.
• Birthmark of Destiny: The Mark of Ilya; those who have it are supposedly fated to destroy all known worlds.
• Bittersweet Ending: The survivors of the Amaterasu Arc get these, except Report, Ere, Retrope, Haley, and Yui.
  • Wham Episode. Google-hime and the tans are back, Taffy is dead, and Kyra, Max, and Raven are alive, hooray! Except...Retrope is dead, possibly permanently, a half of the twelve hostages have disappeared, Report included, and Ere, who had to be put into a robot body, has gone completely haywire and is determined to destroy all of humanity, with only the Third Trio, Gabe and Regnis, Neeuq, and a dozen W.I.K.I. agents left to stop her.
  • In World of Wonders, Saqui and Ulysses are dead, and the Aunas are going to be under the control of Dave for life. However, the Miyora are free again, Maya and Fox are Happily Married, and Cairo (and the entire Daeyi race) is on the road to redemption.
  • Inverted. Lots of people are dead (including Report), and W.I.K.I. has suffered major backlash. But hey, at least Ere was able to prevent the world from being destroyed by demons.
  • Freaky February. Most of Alexa’s victims remain in a comatose state, and Alexa herself is at large...but Ere and the cats got their bodies back.
  • The Grand Finale. Ere becoming the Embodiment of Everything means she was able to rewrite reality to reverse all the damage Nothing did, saving everyone in the process...but she no longer exists in the new omniverse, due to both being Ret-Gone and her duty to keep Nothing at bay, with Retrope the only one who remembers her. Oh, and Report decided to stay with Ere, meaning he is also Ret-Gone. Sniff...
• Bizarro Universe: Report Nwonknu claims to be born there. We don't actually get to see the Bizarro Universe because he joins his half brothers in the Mirror Universe, claiming they wouldn't survive if they went searching for him in his own world.
• Blackmail: In Song For You, it is revealed that Regnis' ex-husband held a grudge at her, and has been extorting money for years by threatening to publish kinky photos that would ruin the image she has been building up. What makes it worse is that he is actually a successful businessman, so he doesn't actually need her money, but does it out of pure spite.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When Gabe and Report confront the blackmailer about it, he tries to talk smooth. It doesn't help his case.
• Breaking the Fellowship: By the end of The New Normal, the Umbral Court has more or less severed beyond repair. Titan, Dione, Oberon, Janus, and Lunaris are all confirmed dead, Hyperion and Helene have made Heel-Face Turns, Elara flees when the whole situation gets way too weird for her to handle, and Deimos is MIA with none of the characters quite sure what happened to him. Only Amalthea and Atlas are left, with Atlas planning to reform the Court with himself at the head, but who knows where that'll go.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Every 66th strip is dedicating to berating the readers of the webcomic for still reading it.
• Bolivian Army Ending:
  • "Worst Case Scenario" seems to be heading this way fast, as the remaining wiki agents (namely, Yug, Gabe, Neeuq, Eibwen, and a few Red Shirts) try to hold the Spaces Square of the New Trope City against the demonic hordes.
  • Subverted after Yug orders Neeuq and Eibwen to lead the remaining agents underground (literally), while he provides a distraction.
  • Similarly, No Name Given is going this way—before her hiatus, the last strip the author posted was of Ere, Retrope, Regnis, and some Red Shirts (the only W.I.K.I. agents left after Yug got thrown off the airship and Report was shot in the face) trying desperately to defend W.I.K.I. against an unstoppable demon army and an equally unstoppable inverter.
• Bond Creatures: The spirits. A person can bind their soul to the spirit's, thus making them "soulbound" and giving them that spirit's power. Throughout the Seven Stones arc, several characters end up binding their soul.
• Butt-Monkey: Hyperion of the Umbral Court. Not taken seriously by his enemies, constantly mocked, talked down to, and physically abused by his allies. The former is Played for Laughs, the latter...isn't.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Yug's viewpoint. He and Blue bond over it in Nine Realms.
• Call-Back: There's been quite a few in the recent non-A.U.T.H.O.R. arcs: the Yay Agenda arc developed the previously neglected trivia of Ere's artificial eyes having been created by Dr. Dam in the Blinded arc into Ere's temporary Face–Heel Turn; the Family Matters arc tied the storylines of Report Taht from the Mirror Universe arc and Ms. Naf's legacy from the Great Crash arc together; the Heavy Meta arc references both the Original Arc and the External Links, and so on.
• Calling Your Attacks: The "Invocation" aspect of Wiki Magic and Wei Ki involves saying the name of the trope out loud. Later justified by Tsidalb:

  Tsidalb: "Saying the name out loud helps to clarify to the gods which trope you mean to invoke...or something like that, I guess."

  • In order for a "Retcon" trope to take place, the user must announce it's name.
  • Exploited by Regnis to take down Commander Coph of the demon armies; she slices its head off as it chants a spell.
• Canon Character All Along: Tarot is Viel, Report's former Superpowered Evil Side who was forcibly separated from him following the Cosmic Retcon and has...not been having a good time since then. The reason he wants the Crests is to undo said retcon and restore the previous continuity. It's pointed out that this plan is insane and there's very little chance it'll actually work, but Viel at this point is desperate enough to try.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Tsidalb. Just Tsidalb. The premise of the first movie-arc was an experiment by him to see how drunk he could be while creating a series of four-panel strips page-by-page, taking another sip per panel and going through one can of beer per page. As a result, the first panel was his regular art style, the second was similar (but with slightly sprawling lines), and the third panel was just unreadable text. Reading the fourth panel played the movie.

  Tsidalb , in the next day's news post: I am an excellent comic-maker while sober. I am a movie-making god while drunk.

• Captain Ersatz:
  • Espoir Zero, who kidnaps anyone who dares to say his real name out loud, is a clear reference to you-know-who.
  • But for some reason Espoir Zero didn't kidn
• Cards of Power: Tarot wields a magical card deck.
• Cast Full of Gay: While the original run had little LGBT representation up until near the end of the comic, the Neon Age leaps out of the closet from the word go. Several supporting characters and the entire main cast is queer: Sachi is a lesbian, Chase is a gay trans man, Melvyn is bi, and Phaedra is "somewhere on the a-spec" in her own words. Their mentor, Spiegel, is genderfluid, using he/him pronouns somedays and she/her on others (much like the Neon Age author).
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Kerrie and Kuro do this in their very first appearance.

  Kerrie: Great. Facing off against an army of mooks in an unfinished universe we have no right to be in.

  Kuro: Relax, these aren't so tough. *smashes mook through wall*

  Kerrie: This is supposed to be vacation, though! I don't want to have to beat up bad guys when I could be vacationing in Moria! *smacks mook with flat of katana*

  Kuro: Why would you vacation in Moria? It's cold and dark. Not to mention full of Balrogs.

  Kerrie: Balrogs keep it warm and well-lit, I'll have you know.

• Catchphrase: Report's famous "Siht Happens".
  • Teller's "I never hold back".
  • Siegfried's "'The show must go on!'"
• Catgirl: Ad ridiculum. One even becomes a main character in the Parody Sue arc.
  • Another​ shows up in Nine Realms. She gets to fight Teller!
• The Cavalry:
  • The ex-Dipertni mob hitmen led by The Consigliere himself come to Retrope's rescue during the battle for New Trope City in "Worst Case Scenario". And it's epic.
  • Minutes later, Oyabun shows up with his Boryokudan Yakuza to join the fray. With their mecha.
  • ...and subverted just a few strips later, when almost everyone of them gets slaughtered while trying to get Retrope to safety. Including the mecha guys who are devoured alive by the Winged Kraken Thing.
  • In Seven Stones, it seems like Kaliyah is about to win. She has Report, Ere, and Retrope tied up, disarmed, and at her mercy...and then Kaida flies in with the rest of the Dragon Knights to rescue them. Even Amarial was surprised, thinking that the Dragon Knights wouldn't come.
  • The next strip? Deliye shows up with her fairy dust powered superweapon, and wipes out half of Kaliyah's Mooks.
• Characterization Marches On: Ere. Just...Ere. Compare her behavior in the most recent Jade Age strips to her behavior in the Golden Age.
• Chase Scene: Of particular note is the chase scene in The Yay Agenda arc, where Report and Ere's convertible is pursued by the Knight's Black Helicopter.
• Chekhov's Gun: Deliye's inventions, mostly powered by fairy dust, prove to be extraordinarily useful in a number of situations.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Ayaka, whose future self time-travels to the present to save her parents and their friends from Susano'o.
• Chickification: In True Love, Ere, Retrope, Trope-tan, Wikipe-tan, Neeuq, Status-ko, Ayaka, Kitsune, and even freakin' Google-hime all get this treatment, all of them tightly gripping the Distress Ball.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The fate of many, many characters in the original run, who would debut in one arc and then be completely forgotten about by the time the next arc rolled around. Sometimes, they get Killed Off for Real or Put on a Bus in a reasonable manner, but usually, they'd just vanish and never get mentioned outside of a Continuity Nod or two. Just as well, given the original run's cast numbered in the hundreds by its end (to drive the point home, the final strips of the Jade Age featured as many characters as possible and still didn't get all of them).
• Cerebus Syndrome:
  • After Ere is blinded and becomes a Waif Prophet in strip #300.
  • She gets better, in a way: in strip #342, Dr. Dam makes a pair of cybernetic prosthetics for her. Though, seeing how it is that Dr. Dam we are talking about, Ere is reasonably reluctant to accept his offer.
• Colony Drop: Spirit Tomec can bring down meteors with her Retcon trope "Torn Skies."
• Combat Tentacles: The flying kraken thing from the "Worst Case Scenario", whatever it may be.
• Comic-Book Time: The comic ran for a long, long time, and spanned dozens of arcs, but none of the characters ever seemed to get older (not that anyone's age was particularly well-defined anyway). Lampshaded in a late Dark Age arc.
  Retrope: Like, I've been hanging out with you people for ages and I don't remember the last time I had a birthday.
  • The passage of time is more evident in the Neon Age; The New Normal began mid-November and ended (In-Universe) in June, Dead Sea took place over the course of the entire summer, and Make a Wish kicks off at the beginning of the next school year.
• Compelling Voice: Saena's trope.
• Concert Episode: the "Heävy Mëta" arc, where the main cast have formed a Heavy Metal band "Tröper Crüe" to participate in the Rock in Space concert and ended up preventing a Colony Drop with The Power of Rock.
• Conspiracy Thriller: The Yay Agenda arc, complete with fittingly Film Noir Art Shift.
• Continuity Reboot/Reset Button: Beyond The Impossible was intended like this. However, it actually gave birth to two Silver Age continuities, which were merged together by the Bronze Age. Therefore, Retrope is alive and canon, while Ere has her green eyes back.
  • An In-Universe example occurs when Ere rewrites the omniverse to fix the damage Nothing did, which means everyone is alive and canon...except for her. And Report.
    • It should be noted, however, that it is not a full reboot, as some things from the previous omniverse carry over, such as Gabe and Regnis's daughter (whose name is still Ere).
  • The Neon Age is set in the aforementioned reboot, and expands on it a little: based on mentions of prior events, most of the arcs didn't happen in this universe due to Report and Ere not being present, several of the villains no longer being evil, and everyone having been spared their canonical deaths in this universe. That being said, Retrope still joined W.I.K.I., it's implied that Regnis is her fourth dimension counterpart and her prime version is still dead, and the Gib family reconciled their differences like in the original continuity.
    • As Make a Wish reveals, someone still freed Nij'd the Fire Genie from his ring, but it's not clear who outside of it not being Report.
  • In of itself, the Neon Age can be considered a reboot: new characters, a new plot, and a much smaller scale than what the Jade Arc ended on. Word of God is that this was done due to the Serial Escalation, Kudzu Plot, and overly-bloated cast that befell the original comic, as well as not wanting to disrupt the sense of closure the original ending gave. One could theoretically start with The New Normal (the Neon Age's first arc) and be able to follow along just as well as someone who'd read the original comic start to end.
• Continuity Creep:
  • As the strips accumulate, the narration tends to look back more often.
  • Yadayerf's strips deny this, almost as if he's trying to reverse the trend.
• Continuity Porn: Alot of this pops up in "Beyond The Impossible" arc.
• Continuity Snarl: Nobody, not even the writers, is really sure what is and is not canon.
  • A particularly confusing example is Worst Case Scenario. The end of the arc revealed the whole thing was a shared hallucination Report, Ere, Retrope, Yug, and Gabe had, which should mean none of the events in question took place...and yet later arcs treat the whole thing as having actually happened, including Regnis's death.
  • A chaos the catgirls are taking advantage of by abusing time travel to give themselves extra powers
  • In Timey-Wimey Ball, the main villain abuses this to kill off Report in the Original Arc. Hilarity Ensues.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Dab Gib's tickling machine, which he put Ere into to find the location of Unobtanium-9000.
• Cool Bike: Siegfried's Grani, forged by the Ultimate Blacksmith. It's best descibed as a "unicorn-motorcycle".
• Cooldown Hug:
  • Report delivers one to Ere after she kills Retrope while under the Knights' Mind Control. It does the trick of snapping her out of her delusions but there's still that small matter of the Death Trap(s)...
  • Ere later returns the favor to snap Report out of "Viel-mode", much to the shippers' rejoice/outrage.
• Cool Mask: L has a snake-shaped one, which hides his face from Retrope and the audience.
  • Tarot, one half of The New Normal's Big Bad Ensemble, wears a white and gold one.
• Cool Old Guy: Doog Gib and the real Ultimate Blacksmith Smithy.
• Cosmic Retcon:
  • Used to cure Ere and give her real eyes although they are still the same color as the cybernetic eyes.
  • It even spawned a meme: "She's got pretty eyes."
  • Used by Ere in the Grand Finale to reverse all the damage Nothing did, bringing back most of the deceased characters for good measure.
• Cradling Your Kill: This is how Neeuq finds Ere after she kills Report.
• Crapsaccharine World: At the end of A Perfect World (the last arc done by the Dork Age author before he left to work on other projects) Noah becomes God-Emperor of the Prime Universe with Ere as his empress. We're supposed to believe he's a perfect ruler and everyone is happy...but at the beginning of Ragtag Band of Misfits we learn that everyone is most decidedly not happy.
• Creator Breakdown: When the Original Author came down with the flu, suddenly every character in the strip would only eat soup and drink tea. Also the Informational Breakdown arc was meant to be a parody of this trope.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: In the Amaterasu Arc, a soldier is sliced open, and in that same arc, Avery dies due to being psychically linked with Quari.
  • In Western Zodiac, all of the Zodiac save for Ophiuchus end up dying. The most memorable is Capricorn, who's so distraught after Libra's death he throws himself into the Sea of Tears.
  • Noah's favorite killing method is burning people alive. Sweet dreams.
  • Noah himself gets one: He's torn in half by Mon's bite, before being completely vaporized by Mon's breath.
• Curse Cut Short: Two for the price of one:
  Gabe: And this one goes up your —
  (Is teleported away from plane but still 15,000 ft from ground)
  Gabe: FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU—
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Noah vs. Report. Noah easily wins after activating God-Mode.
  • Flipped in their next battle. Report's Plot Armor and Marty Stu Powers, along with Mon achieving his perfect form allowed him to not only tank Noah's God Mode, but absolutely annihilate him in combat.
• Cut and Paste Comic: One villain, Mr. Detsap, is just the same drawing over and over again. He eventually creates an army of clones, too.
• Da Editor: Retrope's boss Roti. Don't ask about his last name.
• Dance Battler: Regnis in the Jade Age.
• Dare to Be Badass: Hina beats the idea into Ere (almost literally—they were sparring). It works.
  Ere: There's nothing I can do...we're losing this war.
  Hina: So what? Have you gone blind again, Ere? Forgotten what you have, what we have?
  Ere: ...we're not dating.
  Hina: Not the point. The problem isn't that we're too weak. It's that you haven't been trying hard enough. You gave up. Left everyone else to solve the problems while you wallowed in misery.
  Ere: ...
  Hina: And that's a load of bull! Who the actual hell are you?
  Ere: ...Ere D. Nust.
  Hina: That's right. You're Ere D. Nust, leader of W.I.K.I. Now, it's time you acted like it!
• Darker and Edgier: Report has to look the part to sneak into an O.T.H.E.R. base.
  • The Amaterasu Arc.
  • The Jade Age's Myth Arc.
  • From the Dark Age, Dark Arc
• The Dead Have Names: Report has the dubious honor of making a speech at the farewell ceremony to all the W.I.K.I. agents who died in "Worst Case Scenario". Instead, he just opts for reading out a list of names of every agent who died there. It takes four and a half strips to finish.
  • After Zozomi's death:
  Diane: Not the skinny guy!
  Melodia: The dead have names!
• Deal with the Devil: It is revealed that Report has made an agreement with Viel in "Worst Case Scenario" in order to feel off the latter's energies and push himself beyond his physical limits in an attempt to rebuild W.I.K.I.. Viel's stake in this remains to be seen.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Considering how many times people die, this is pretty much one of the laws of the universe.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: When Gabe sneaks into Regnis' apartment at dead of night to give her the incriminating photos she has been living in fear of for years, she first stutters for words, finally managing a weak "Why?" When Gabe replies "Because I love you", an entire page is used to show her face going from shocked, to grateful, to uncertain, to Tears of Joy.
• Demonic Possession: It did not go well for Peachy in The "Dark" Arc.
  • A much more catastrophic example occurs with Akuma, AKA Uso Tsuki, who is possessed by Nothing at the end of Grew Into a Flame, and sets out to bring about the End of Everything.
• Department of Redundancy Department: W.I.K.I. has a literal Department of Redundancy Department, R.E.P.E.A.T.E.R., the Repeating Establishment Promising Echoes And Tautalogies Especially Repeating.
• Despair Event Horizon: Gabe crosses it in "Worst Case Scenario" after losing his powers, losing his true love, losing all his friends, and finally witnessing his own brother side with the man who caused all his losses in the first place. After meeting Fourth!Regnis, he gets better.
  • Yui also crosses it in the Amaterasu Arc after Commander Avery, a Parental Substitute and nice person, dies. On accident.
  • Gale crosses it after multiple unfortunate events. He gets better.
  • Yug crosses it after the death of Doog Gib.
• Duel Boss: Cross personally shuts off all access to him and Report during the White Raid, forcing Report to battle him all alone.
• Deus ex Machina: Report's true Trope. A horde of gigantic rainbow-themed swords fueled by The Power of Friendship that fly around him like wings. With them he's able to face the Chaos and save the multiverse.
  • This trope is namedropped during Ended with a Bang, in which Ere realizes that the only thing that can defeat Nothing is a god. So what's her plan? Become a god to save the omniverse, at the cost of her very existence. Retrope...doesn't take this well.
    • And, as of the Grand Finale, she's gone through with it.
• Did They or Didn't They?: When Report asks Gabe whether he and Regnis "got it on" the next morning, Gabe just smiles and doesn't answer. Interpret that as you wish.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: In the Dark Arc, Ostoro, the demon God of the hunt. For an demon god of the hunt, it sure isn't brutal. Hell it
• Die for Our Ship: In-Universe example: The pirates that attacked Report and Ere in Cupid's Right Hand were rabid Report/Gabe Slash Fans.
  • Another In-Universe example — the author of the Dork Age HATED Report/Ere, so he had his Self-Insert Gary Stu Noah burn Report alive so he could hook up with Ere.
  • A certain part of the fanbase seems to love killing off Gale to ship Retrope/Trevr.
• Disappeared Dad: Sachi and Hyperion have these. While Sachi's father is mentioned to be traveling abroad for work, Hyperion's dad is never mentioned once.
• Discontinuity Nod: Spiegel references events of earlier arcs all the time—which, due to the Neon Age being set after the In-Universe Continuity Reboot, leads to confusion from other characters due to having no idea what he's talking about.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Axel's elemental power, acting as a direct foil to Gabe's Lightning.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Yadayerf openly mocked Noah — both the Gary Stu and Dork Age author — in a guest strip. Noah responded by killing all his cat girls, raping Ty in front of him, then burning the poor Cat Boy alive. This is treated as heroic, but so many fans will never forgive Noah for it.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Explained as the reason why Gabe lost to Report in T3h L33t W4rz:

  Report: Dude, what the hell happened to you?

  Gabe: The lady in Section P, Row 14, Seat 18, Cup E was breastfeeding! I had to see!

  • During their sparring match on the beach, Yug and Report stop to watch Ere and Retrope sunbathe in their new bikinis.
    Report: Truce? [looks to Yug]
    Yug: [not turning his head from the girls] Truce.
  • Implied to be the reason why Gale lost the spar with Ere...and then subverted.
  Ere: The hell was that about?
  Gale: I saw a human lady, and she was breastfeeding!
  Ere: You have got to be kidding me.
  Gale: Can you blame me? Human babies can be so cute!
  Ere: ...Oh.
• Divine Parentage: Vali, whose dad is Loki, and Retrope, whose dad is Thor.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Retrope begging Ere not to go Ret-Gone is very reminiscent of a breakup. Given Ere and Retrope's Pseudo-Romantic Friendship...
• Do Not Go Gentle: After being left in charge of the New Trope City defense in the face of a demonic invasion, Yug gives awesome speech to the painfully few defenders under his command. His speech is so awesome, even Gabe crawls out of his hidey hole to help them.
• Downer Ending: For Report, Ere, and Retrope in the Amaterasu Arc. To clarify: Retrope has lost both arms and is permanently deaf, Ere needs spine surgery and will never be able to walk again, and Report has amnesia and organ damage. Most of the other survivors get a Bittersweet Ending at the very least, and Haley/Amaterasu and Yui get Happy Endings, but these three have downright depressing endings.
• Dragon Knight: Kaida and her Dragon Knights. Report too, after Mon evolves.
• Dragon Rider: When Mon "evolves", Report begins riding him into battle.
• Dramatic Unmask: Tarot does one, revealing himself to be Viel. It's then immediately subverted (at least In-Universe) as none of the characters have any idea who he is.
• Drowning My Sorrows:
  • After receiving another extortion letter from her ex-husband, Regnis cancels the next show and attempts to drink herself to unconsciousness.
  • Interestingly, about the same time (we know it, because the news on TV in Retrope's apartment say that Regnis canceled her show), Ere finds Retrope drunk in her apartment and decides to return the favor and cheer her up. By taking her to her ancestral home.
• Dysfunctional Family: The Smiths. You have Jessica, a way-overprotective mother who may or may not be a Yandere, Micheal, an idiot who can barely pay the bills, Emily, a whiny brat who doesn't appreciate her family's massive wealth, Jacob, a complete moron who sticks forks into electric sockets, Aiden, a jerk who annoys his family to no end, and Sophia, the only well-adjusted individual among them. Oh, and Noah.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the Amaterasu Arc, the titular Amaterasu went through lots of crap to bring Yui back home. It does pay off in the end, however, as both get a Happy Ending.
  • It's so hard, and everyone goes through so much crap, but ultimately, Ere is able to bring about a new reality wherein Everybody Lives, and the world is finally at peace once and for all.
• Eldritch Abomination: Every single member of the Numero Warlords beside's En 0 and their master OREZ has one spell in their arsenal that is a last resort. It transforms them into monstrous beasts.
  • Wispers, who feed on a peron's ability to create speech or noises
  • Nothing, naturally. If what Hina said about him being an Embodiment is correct, then that means all Embodiments are, including Ere.
• Elemental Powers:
  • An Ice Person: Viel-Report during the "Rose of the Starry Night" arc.
  • Castinga Shadow: Lili is capable of animating people's shadows.
  • Gemstone Assault: Nova's power.
  • Green Thumb: Safari-chan is a chlorokinetic, something she doesn't hesitate to remind everyone.
  • Heart Beat-Down: Retrope gains this power after bonding with Evol fo Rewop.
  • Playingwith Fire: Ere gains access to guns that shoot fireballs during the "Westward Campaign". Firefox-chan is also a pyrokinetic.
  • The Powerofthe Sun: Sun-Dog's entire shtick.
  • Powerofthe Void: En 0's power, once he wakes up
  • Shock and Awe: Retrope's hammer in Nine Realms has thunder powers.
• The End... Or Is It?: The "Worst Case Scenario" arc ends with Yug writing a report about the incident to his W.I.K.I. superiors, concluding that whoever subjected them to the fear toxin is still at large. He then says that whatever the five of them may have experienced while under its influence doesn't have any base in reality. At that moment, Neeuq and Eibwen (whom he reported as figments of his imagination) walk into his office and report that they have just been assigned as his aides.
• Enemy Mine: Well, sorta in Heavy Meta arc: Just as the Tröper Crüe is about to perform "The Betrayer", an asteroid hits the station and it starts losing altitude, so Amadeus asks the three bands that are still on-stage (coincidentally, the Crüe, Burn The Witch, and Lady of War) to team up for the final performance in hopes of generating enough power for the station to maintain orbit. Much awesomeness ensues.
  • The W.I.K.I. agents and the Anti-God Force may hate each other, but they're willing to band together to save Retrope from her wedding and Vali from his psychotic father (coincidentally, they both happen to be in the same place).
• Et Tu, Brute?: Report suffers a Heroic BSoD after discovering that Ere joined the Knights. The little fact that the discovery came when Ere killed Retrope probably contributed.
• Eternal Engine: A factory resides near the mansion, the same place where the clockwork lord gets slained
• Evolution Power-Up: Mon, Report's spirit, evolves into stronger forms whenever Report's life is in danger.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Amaterasu genuinely cares about Yui.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved:
  • Yug does his best to convince Report and the others that his brother Dab, the main antagonist of the Original Arc, is not beyond redemption and is still a good person inside. He is ultimately proven wrong, however. Or maybe not...
  • When Amaterasu revealed to Yui that Amaterasu was her real mother, what does Yui do? Hug her mommy and start crying Tearsof Joy. This pays off when Yui shouts at Report not to kill a disarmed and injured Amaterasu.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Despite the amalgation of monsters, demons, and haunted chairs, zombies are not a threat. Lampshaded by Trey.
• Evil All Along: Immediately after the Dork Age ended, it was revealed Noah was a selfish Psychopathic Manchild Reality Warper who had forced everyone to play along with his twisted games by brainwashing them. Notably, nothing about Noah's behavior changes after this.
• Evil Plan: The plan of the Knights Who Say Yay boils down to infecting as many Normal People as they could with the "Yay mindvirus", then making them all shout "Yay!" on December 21, 2012 (under the pretence of a worldwide "unity for peace" action), thus creating an atmospheric resonance strong enough to shatter the Earth's crust, bringing about the end of the world as we know it. It Makes Sense in Context, really.
• Face–Heel Turn:
  • Trope-tan did this in the Informational Breakdown arc, which is really, really not in character.
  • Report also seemed to do this during the Report arc. But he was Not Himself.
  • Report's started off Belated Happy Ending.
  • After getting her brain transferred to a cyborg body (don't ask), near the end of Wham Episode, Ere goes berserk for reasons currently unknown and becomes the main villain of Cyberpunk.
• Family Drama: In the Family Matters arc, Report travels back to the Mirror Universe to persuade his Lawful Evil half-brother Report Taht to help him save their youngest brother, Report Nwonknu. Needless to say, Report Taht is less than cooperative.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: The way Noah kills Report can be considered one: Report is completely incinerated by Noah's Finishing Move, Phoenix Flare.
• Fanservice: The Steel Age of comics is known for throwing absurd amounts of this into the comics. However, it is relatively gender-equal, as many men get to show off as well as women.
  • The fanservice is dialed down for the Dark, the Jade, and especially the Neon Ages, due to a combination of it not particularly appealing to those authors and (in the Neon Age) the protagonists' younger ages compared to the original cast.
• Fantastic Time Management: In the "Heavy Meta" arc, the Tröper Crüe travels back in time (six times) to rehearse their songs for a concert that takes place in less than a week.
• Fantasy Metals: The series has various metals, in addition to normal ones, that are considered incredibly useful. All of these "special" metals are stronger and more flexible than titanium. They are, from weakest to strongest:
  • Phlebotinum—considered standard fare, it's used for the creation of weapons, armor, and buildings.
  • Fictionite—a durable alloy that possesses dimensional warping properties when worked incorrectly. Reginald's Reminer is made of the stuff.
  • Explodium—metal that explodes. Just about anything can trigger it.
  • ATLUS—said to be the strongest metal in existence, it is only ever used for forging weapons. Only four weapons made of ATLUS are known to exist in the world: Report's Katana Wit, Ere's Scythe Devil Song, Dab's Daggers Misery and Despair, and Amaterasu's unnamed sword.
  • Unobtanium—a metal considered mythical, it is unknown if it actually exists. Turns out Plot Armor is made of it
• Fantastic Racism: Retrope's mentor, L, is the child of the goddess Laufey and a giant. As a result, he got a lot of hostility from other gods.
• Fat Bastard: Taffy (Taf) Drat Sab.
• Faux Affably Evil: OREZ. He's polite even as he plans to wipe out the world's proper population for the sake of his own ambitions and desire for world domination.
• Field of Blades: Teller, from the "Dark side of the Moon" arc, uses this as his retcon-trope ability. It forms swords of varying origins to fight for him.
• Flaming Sword: Teller's new and only, after discarding his armory weapon, Hihiirokane, which acts more like a lightsaber than a blade coated in flames.
• Five-Token Band: Well, Four-Token Band, but it still applies. The Mirror Brigade in the Neon Age is comprised of Sachi (Japanese), Merrill (Vietnamese), and Phaedra (Greek). Chase is less clear; he has tan skin and dark red hair, and his surname has yet to be revealed so there are no clues there.
• Foe-Tossing Charge:
  • Subverted: Yug barely manages to cross half of the demon-infested Spaces Squared before being overwhelmed.
  • Double Subversion! After a Theme Music Power-Up, Yug finishes his charge only to be confronted by his long-lost evil brother.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: After a long dramatic arc following Ms. Naf's Face–Heel Turn, the author spent three weeks on a subplot involving W.I.K.I.'s duck counterpart, F.O.W.L. (Feathered Operatives With Lasers). It has been suggested that F.O.W.L. will be important to the plot later on.
• Four-Star Badass: Both Report and Gabe after becoming generals in the Rajuland Army which was secretly an army created by the villains to capture them.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The new protagonists of the Neon Age fall squarely into this category:
  • Sachi is Sanguine, a Fun Personified Genki Girl who always sees the best in people, but can be scatterbrained and is bad at focusing.
  • Chase is Choleric, a Determinator of the highest order and almost impossibly strong-willed, but with a very short temper.
  • Merrill is Melancholic, being quiet, analytical, and organized, but also a Mood-Swinger with a major case of Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
  • Phaedra is Phlegmatic, being reliable and patient, but easily overlooked (and revealed to feel like she's boring compared to her friends).
• The Friend Nobody Likes:
  • Played for Laughs with Spiegel, the very weird mentor of the Mirror Brigade. The protagonists are often confused by her, and don't particularly like her, but she's the one teaching them Wiki Magic, so they put up with her.
  • Decidedly not played for laughs with Hyperion, a member of the Umbral Court who is constantly belittled, mocked, and outright physically abused by the rest of the Court. The only ones who are nice (or at least not cruel) to him are Helene and Janus.
• Fun with Acronyms: Every suborganization at W.I.K.I. is like this, with the exception of O.N.I.N.A.A. (Our Name Is Not An Acronym).
• Functional Magic:
  • Both Trope-tan and Wikipe-tan are proficient with "Wiki Magic", which is basically shaping the universe in accordance to basic narrative rules ("tropes"). The word "wiki" is actually a mistranslation from Adamic "wei ki", "story flow" or "story power". Report Siht and Report Taht also learn it from Report Nwonknu, because they need it for fulfill their duties as Entropy Shields. Spiegel in the Neon Age is also proficient in it, and teaches it to the Mirror Brigade.
  • In addition, there is a non-magic form of Wiki Magic, simply referred to as "Wei Ki", used by physical fighters such as Axel.
  • Silent Troping, which allows a troper to use Wiki Magic without having to scream the trope's name. It's very hard to do, but Regnis learns it over the course of No Name Given.
• Fusion Dance: Erort, the fusion of Ere and Report, is of The Composite type.
  • Mon, Report's spirit, is also capable of fusing with other characters spirits, Power Booster type, giving him new abilities at the cost of the other spirit's disappearance.
    • With Ere's Firecracker, he becomes "Blaze Black Dragon, Mon".
    • With Yug's Wally, he becomes "Skull Black Dragon, Mon".
    • With Retrope's Donny, he becomes "Aquatic Black Dragon, Mon".
    • And with Gabe's Sparky, he becomes "Lighting Black Dragon, Mon.
    • It gets crazier with the reveal he can fuse with multiple spirits to become "Black War-Scar Dragon", "Black Avenger Dragon", or "Black Demon's Raze Dragon.
    • Exaggerated when Mon fuses with all the main characters' spirits, becoming "Dark Chaos Dragon: Diabolos Infinite.
    • And it's not finished there! With the power of Plot Armor, and all the spirits, Mon becomes his perfect form: "Shadow-Black Crystal Dragon MON*STAR: Spirit King of Infinity".
• Gender Bender:
  • There was one memorable arc where every member of the main cast switched genders. At the end, when things were returning back to normal, it was strongly implied that Ere, while appearing female again, didn't change all the way back. This hasn't yet been followed up on, but she has since adamantly refused to wear some of her favorite Stripperiffic outfits, and memorably would not show off her bikini bottoms in a Beach Episode.
    • Subverted, because Ere does wear a Stipperiffic outfit at a party in the Amaterasu Arc.
  • Alluded to in a Noodle Incident-esque manner between Kerrie and Kurotsume.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The Mirror Brigade of the Neon Age comprises two girls (Sachi and Phaedra) and two boys (Chase and Merrill).
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Neeuq delivers percussive maintenance to Eibwen after the loss of New Trope City in "Worst Case Scenario".
• Gilligan Cut:
  Report: [on hands and knees] Please, please, please! Database, if you are kind, if you are merciful, if you don't hate me, then please don't make me dress up in a chicken suit and do the tango!''
  [next panel] Report: [In a chicken suit, doing the tango] The Database hates me.
• Godzilla Threshold: In the 'OREZ' arc, this happens once and almost seemed to happen a second time. The first time, W.I.K.I. and R.E.T.C.O.N., who have been on opposing sides of the conflict up to this point are forced to team up, combining their forces to even stand the slightest chance against OREZ. The second time, several individuals on R.E.T.C.O.N.'s side suggested using some kind of ultimate weapon against OREZ, but were slaughtered before they could make any kind of call to do so.
• Guns Akimbo: Ere pulls out twin pistols named "Dramatica" in order to combat Hsahs-Koom. they make the man implode with a few shots
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Among the core cast, pretty much every male prefers melee combat, while women are unanimously gunslingers. The only exceptions to this are Gabe (who in fact built most of the guns the others use), Evi (who is arguably much better at melee than shooting, given that she can't properly aim while moving), and Amaterasu (who uses a sword that shoots lightning bolts because "it was the cheapest on the market). The last one is lampshaded during Report's first meeting with Amaterasu.
  Report: Hold on. That's not how things work here.
  Amaterasu: Huh?
  Report: Guys Smash, Girls Shoot. You can't have a sword.
  Amaterasu: Sure, I can. I avert tropes all the time.
  Report: But-
  Amaterasu: IT WAS THE CHEAPEST ON THE MARKET, OKAY?!? Shut up, leave me alone. (decapitates a W.I.K.I agent)
  • Elizabeth inverts this as well, being a wielder of the Axe-Chucks.
  • Reginald inverts it too...although since he doesn't have much control over his inverting powers, this is to be expected. His sister Minnie carries a gun-sword.
  • Downplayed in the Neon Age; the female Phaedra is the sole ranged fighter in her group, but the other girl, Sachi, wields a giant hammer.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The Lunar Crests in The New Normal, of which there are twelve: The Wolf Crest, the Snow Crest, the Worm Crest, the Pink Crest, the Flower Crest, the Strawberry Crest, the Buck Crest, the Sturgeon Crest, the Corn Crest, the Hunter's Crest, the Beaver Crest, and the Cold Crest. The names seem random until you realize they're named after the full moons of the lunar calendar.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Report, Ere, and Retrope have a threesome in the end of the "Worst Case Scenario". As Ayers puts it: "It's good to be young".
  • Darryl and Kitsune also have some after getting drunk, resulting in Kitsune getting pregnant.
• A God Am I: The Knights' leadership (represented mainly by Dr. Dam) was told that by sacrificing the entirety of humanity with their own hands, the chosen among them would ascend to divinity. They believed that load of bollocks, because it was literally the Word of God, as the final strips of the arc revealed. God lied, though.
  • Cross declares his godhood by crashing in on the W.I.K.I captain promotion exam and dropping exploding swords on the island.
  • Pix when he was left alone during the second act of the "Dark" Arc.
• God of Evil: Nothing, an Omnicidal Maniac who plans on bringing about a Class Z Apocalypse How.
• God of Good: Everything, Nothing's polar opposite whose duty is to keep him in check...or, rather, Ere.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Report and Gabe do this to a perp in the Scapegoat arc, and Gabe is the good cop. They do it again in Song For You on Regnis' blackmailer. Only this time, Gabe is the worse cop.
• Go Out with a Smile: Played during Yug's death. He is so happy to meet his brother again, he doesn't stop smiling even after his head is chopped off and keeps rolling down the street.
  • Avery dies smiling.
• Gorn: You know that somewhere, someone was turned on by Ere D. Uuk's, uh, appearance in "Worst Case Scenario".
• Grand Finale: Sirena, the author of the Jade Age, wanted to move on to other projects, couldn't find anyone else to draw the comic in time, and so wrote the three arcs making up the Jade Age Myth Arc (Started with a Spark, Grew into a Flame, and Ended with a Bang) to be this. She has stated that the reason the comic ended the way it did was due to the sheer Serial Escalation it underwent, to the point where preventing a Class Z apocalypse seemed like the only way to end it. While the comic would be Un-Canceled and resume four years later, the Jade Age still counts for the original run, as the Neon Age focuses on a completely separate cast of characters.
• Grief Song: Yug wrote one for his brother Dab, titled "The Betrayer". However, over the years he wrote and re-wrote it, it became more of an Epic Rocking, interspersing the usual mournful parts with furious solos and riffs.
• HAHAHA No:
  General Collins: (grins up at Amaterasu) Truce?
  Amaterasu: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- No. (decapitates him)
• Half-Human Hybrid:
  • The Ehts, as revealed by Axel, are half-human and half-dragon, which is what gives them their superhuman abilities. The flip-side is that they will die from overusing their powers, as Gabe almost did.
  • The recently introduced Canon Foreigner Kurotsume is one of these by virtue of a fanfic backstory.
• Happy Ending Override: The Amaterasu arc ends with Ameterasu and Yui finally together again, but that all gets completely shattered by the arrival of Susano'o.
  • Averting this was a major reason as to why new characters take the original cast's place in the Neon Age.
• Harbinger of Impending Doom: Ere D. Uuk in "Worst Case Scenario", who arrives at the new W.I.K.I. HQ horribly mutilated and utters a single breathless line "They... are... coming..." before expiring.
• Harmless Electrocution
• Hate Sink: In the Myth Arc, Lyrica and Lyrus are Anti-Villains (though Lyrica pulls a Heel–Face Turn later on and Lyrus suffers Death Equals Redemption), Lyon is more naïve than evil, and even Nothing at least has Evil Is Cool points and his Faux Affably Evil nature...so who can you hate? Carissa, Lyrica and Lyrus's Evil Matriarch and the one who kickstarted the conflict in the first place, abusing her own children and using her youngest son Uso (known better as Akuma) as Nothing's vessel to bring the End of Everything. Her death at Melodia and Lyrica's hands couldn't've come soon enough.
• Heel–Face Turn: Of all people, Dab Gib, the original Big Bad, has one in the Jade Age, with it having been heavily teased through the Dark Age. It's noted that the (permanent) deaths of his brother and father prompted the Heel Realization he needed to change for the better. In the Continuity Reboot, it's stuck.
• Height Angst: Chase's height topped out at five feet. If you like your kneecaps, you will not point this out.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Ere has one after learning about her parent's death, apparently at Report's hands.
  • Retrope has a major one at the end of Ended With a Bang after she realizes Ere and Report, her best friends, are Ret-Gone and never existed in this new omniverse.
• Heroic RRoD: Gabe suffers it in the "Worst Case Scenario" after deliberately going past his limits to save Regnis from radiation poisoning. He fails.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Angelica pulls one in hopes of saving Susano'o from himself.
  • Ere, in a very weird way. She's not dead, but as the Embodiment of Everything, the original Ere is Ret-Gone to everyone sans Retrope.
• Hero of Another Story: Implied with the drunkard in Tropes Tavern.
• Hidden Buxom: Turns out Retrope is actually quite stacked. She merely hides it with bindings.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The villain of the "Worst Case Scenario" is finally revealed as Dab Gib himself, who came Back from the Dead to take revenge upon W.I.K.I. and everyone who's been involved in his downfall.
• Hollywood Atlas:
  • The Eagle States - The United States
  • New Trope City, New Trope - New York City, New York
  • Giga-Nippon - Japan
  • The Motherland and the Fatherland - Russia and Germany, respectively
  • Nova Sambango - Every Latin American country you have ever heard of, but mostly Mexico. (It's mentioned in "Worst Case Scenario" that it borders the Eagle States.)
  • Wikawaii - Hawaii
• How Dare You Die on Me!: Viel has to pull this on Report at the beginning of End of All to save the latter while he's unconscious in Ere's energy-draining pod, which is slowly killing him.
• How We Got Here:
  • The Yay Agenda arc begins with Report entering the Knights' underground temple where Retrope is held for interrogation and torture, before moving four days back in time to his first meeting with Retrope.
  • The Amaterasu Arc begins with Retrope, Ere, and new character Haley hospitalized because of an accident caused by the villain Amaterasu. We then go back in time to when W.I.K.I first encountered Amaterasu.
    Caption:Now, they're in the hospital.
    Caption:And it's all Amaterasu's fault.
    Caption: Who's Amaterasu? Good question.
    Caption: Let me go back and start at the beginning.
• Human Popsicle: Report ends up frozen for almost exactly 6 months between the 'OREZ' arc and the 'Revenge of the Siht' arc, during which time OREZ kills off most of the world's troper population and the other surviving main characters go into hiding.
• Iconic Outfit:
  • Report's "SIHT HAPPENS" t-shirt.
  • Ecivres' black vinyl bikini.
  • Yug's headband
  • Ere's rocker outfit, even though she only wore it for one arc
  • Cross's pirate jacket.
  • Sun-Dog's giant fur shoulder-boa.
• It Always Rains at Funerals: As shown in a flashback, it rained at Regnis'. Inverted, though, at the symbolic ceremony for the W.I.K.I. agents who died in the explosion (no bodies could be recovered for most of them).
  • Inverted again for Report's fake funeral.
  • It rained at Doog Gib's funeral.
• I Choose to Stay: Yeah, Report could've come Back from the Dead in the new omniverse Ere created, but then she'd have to fight Nothing alone for all eternity, so...
• Idiot Ball: The famous use of an actual ball, which the villains kept trying to give to Report during an early arc (#42-#101) Hasn't been seen in a while, but Gib has constant plans to stick it back to them. Usually, Hilarity Ensues when he it the one who catches it accidentally. Hasn't been seen post #300.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: This is what Ere's fight against Report in "Worst Case Scenario" was, from her POV. It didn't help that he was drawing heavily on Viel's just to keep up with her.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Taffy Sab.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: It's implied (and eventually confirmed) that Hyperion suffers from severe self-hatred due to the abuse he undergoes at the hands of the Court, and his egotistical ways are a mask he uses to cope.
• Infinity +1 Sword: When Noah activates God-Mode, he gets a sword made of unobtanium, which is really, really unfair.
• Information Wants to Be Free: The Yabetarip Collective in "Blinded."
• Instant Expert:
  • Deconstructed in the Heavy Meta arc, when Report realizes that it is physically impossible to form a band out of four people, two of whom never had any musical experience and one only has a vague idea of it, no matter how central their characters are.
  • However, in the case of him suddenly switching from guns to swords, it's never really brought up. Ersoh did it.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Averted—Sachi is Japanese, Merrill is Vietnamese, and a clear distinction is drawn between both.
• It Has Been an Honor:
  • Yug says that to the few remaining W.I.K.I. agents after ordering them to retreat while he charges at the demons in the attempt to reach their leader (who he doesn't yet know is his brother).
  • A revived Doog says this to Yug and Dab right before they go to hold off Noah long enough for the S.C.I.KILLER to charge up and drain his Reality Warper powers.
  Doog: Yug, it's been the greatest honor of my life to see the man you've become. And Dab, I've always loved you and I always will. Even if we die, it'll have been a pleasure to fight alongside you again. Now let's go kill this asshole.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum:
  • All of T.V.T.R.O.P.E.S. robots run on "fictionite." Occasionally, they turn evil, because "fictionite is very, very unstable and should never be made into frisbees."
  • Gabe prefers to power his robots and contraptions with an artificially-created type of fictionite classified S.C.I. (Stable but Constrictive Isotope), called "sci-fi" for short. It's a lot more stable than fictionite (so no turning evil), but in return throws off radiation that has a high chance of turning AIs into crapshoots. It should still never be made into frisbees.
  • Avery's sword is actually made of nonsensoleum. After a while, she switches to one made of ATLUS.
• It's Personal: It wasn't until the Hyper Eddie put Ere D. Nay into coma while targeting Report Taht that the latter joined forces with Report Siht.
  • Now a new version: Shale Niatpac wants to kill Ere, who apparently killed her brother 3 years ago.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Ere doesn't take threats to her friends very well, and will get very physical when she needs answers fast.
• Jerkass Realization: Teller has one.
  Teller: You're not the crazy one...by all means, I'm the crazy one.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Teller I. Lover, who, while hating Report, is willing to help find the Ultimate Blacksmith to revive Ere.
  • The Norse gods. Averted with Odin, Frigg, and Freyja and Freyr.
• Just Friends:
  • Word of God is that Report and Retrope have never seen each other as more than Fire-Forged Friends (their initial flirting in the Shard aside). Tell that to the shippers, though...
  • Despite a considerate fan support, Wikipe-tan and Trope-tan are also said to be this. Doesn't stop the story form torturing fans with Ship Tease, though.
    • They later become an Official Couple in the Jade Age.
  • Darryl and Kitsune are Fire-Forged Friends, even though Darryl ended up choosing Avery in their Love Triangle. Their shippers were outraged. Then, Avery got killed, And There Was Much Rejoicing from said shippers.
  • Firefox-chan, despite being bisexual, is not in love with Safari-chan.
  • Per Word of God, the Mirror Brigade, despite their close friendship, have no romantic feelings for each other. Helps that in this case, Incompatible Orientation applies for everyone except Chase and Merrill (and Chase has started dating Mathias anyway).
• Karmic Death: Viel-Report kills XD using the same move the latter had used on the audience several pages before.
  • Loupe Garou is eaten alive by his own spirit hounds, after commanding them to do just that to Retrope.
• Kaiju: Yeah, they're here. Ere and Retrope have to fight some during the Giga-Nippon Fireball arc.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Just ask Kerrie! Or, better idea, don't.
  • Out of all the swords he could summon, Teller chose a katana to duel Report. It didn't end well for Report
  • Bluescreen also has one, though it's only used for sending waves of blue fire.
• Kent Brockman News: An interview with Dab Gib had the reporter show amazing amounts of hostility. It later turns out to be Mary Sue, Dab's ex-girlfriend.
• Killed Off for Real:
  • Retrope seems to be heading this way fast—Wham Episode is nearly over and she still hasn't come back.
  • Yadayerf. In the Dork Age, Noah killed him and his catgirls, and they haven't shown up since.
  • Of all people, Saena is first to fall in the Jade Age, dying protecting an elementary school her little sisters were inside. Why was this such a shock to the fanbase? Because apart from Noah, Author Avatars have never died in the comics before...and this came after Sirena revoked the protections of Death Is Cheap.
  • Speaking of Noah, he’s stayed dead after being incinerated by the exploding Destruction Matrix at the end of his battle with Ere and Report. The closest he comes to making a return is XD using a stash of his weapons he had discovered.
  • Enforced as of the Neon Age. Spiegel explicitly notes that the restructuring of the universe to bring back everyone who had died severely screwed with the resurrection system, meaning all deaths are final from here on out.
• Kneel Before Zod: In "Worst Case Scenario", Gabe is forced to kneel before Dab Gib... and proceeds to badmouth him.
• Kudzu Plot: Everyone who has tried to make a coherent summary of the overall plot wound up suffering from Spontaneous Cranial Detonation Syndrome. The Neon Age strives to avert this, and thus far, has succeeded; the most confusing bits are Spiegel's references to arcs in the previous ages, which also confuse all of the other characters.
• La Résistance: Angelica formed one in the Bad Future.
• Last Stand: The battle for the New Trope City in "Worst Case Scenario" quickly turns into this in absense of Report and Ere. And Axel. And Brynn. And the aspect of Gabe that makes Gabe Gabe.
• Large Ham: Sir Desselb, whose bubbles can barely fit his extra large, extra hammy speech. He "prefers" it if you call him Sir.
  Sir Desselb: HOW DARE YOU! Try that AGAIN and I'll kick your ASS from here to TAIWAN! AND! BACK! AGAIN!
  • EZ, who expects people to BOW DOWN TO UTTER EPICNESS!!!
  • REJOICE, MORTALS, for Hyperion has arrived to bless this entry with his presence! He becomes a lot more subdued around his mother, though.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Ere likes Report, Gabe is a Marty Stu, Report didn't die in Chrono Troper Cross, Ecivres and Bertrand are (likely) Report's parents, Dab is evil, 75% of the regular cast is awesome, and the fact that A.U.T.H.O.R. cares more about the fans' reactions than paying income tax and respecting zoning laws isn't saying much.
  • The Neon Age makes no secret of the In-Universe Continuity Reboot that the original comic ended on, explicitly being set in said reboot and having Spiegel reference the Cosmic Retcon a few times (much to the confusion of everyone around him).
• Later-Installment Weirdness: The Neon Age is the first to not have W.I.K.I. and co as the main characters, considerably scales down the scope of the comic (which reached omniverse-levels at the end of the Jade Age), has younger protagonists^note the Mirror Brigade are high schoolers, reduces the Fanservice, and most notably, Report and Ere play no role at all (understandable, of course, given their situation). Perhaps in reference to this, the first arc of the Neon Age is titled "The New Normal".
• Leet Speak: How XD speaks. Fitting, considering his position as sponsor of a tournament hosted in the Dimension-1337.
  • A 1337 Man speaks this way in the Tournament Arc.
• Legacy Character: Being the Ultimate Blacksmith is a position passed on through a Master-Apprentice Chain. when Smithy dies, Lydia takes up the title.
  • Everything turns out to be one, if the Alt Text is true. The original was killed by Nothing, and Ere ends up becoming the new Everything.
• Legion of Doom: T.V.T.R.O.P.E.S. evil counterpart is called O.T.H.E.R., the Organization That Has Evil Rules.
• The Legions of Hell:
  • Apparently, they launch an all-out assault on Earth and it's up to W.I.K.I. to put up a defense.
  • As Eibwen puts it: "Earth is burning."
• Light Is Not Good: Tarot wears white and gold, is quite affable, and even works with the protagonists on two separate occasions, but he's still perfectly willing to kill teenagers to get his hands on the Lunar Crests.
• Linked List Clue Methodology: The first 40 or so strips of The Yay Agenda arc are basically about Report following in Retrope's footsteps via brief messages she left behind.
• Little "No": Report drops one after Ere is deactivated. They gradually grow in volume until he lets out a Big "NO!".
  • Kerrie's reaction when Kurotsume dies.
• The Load: Explorer-chan. She's annoying, slow, and unreliable...and based off Internet Explorer.
• Logic Bomb: The L.O.G.I.C bomb (Low Oridinance Grievous Intellect Charge) was used against the mainframe of a Hyperactive security system. R.E.P.E.A.T.E.R has filed many petitions against its name.
• Long-Distance Relationship: Seems to be the status of Gabe and Regnis after the Song For You arc.
• Long List: Exagerrated; Beeghly demonstrates her resume to Thesis, Thesis is incredibly overwhelmed.
• Love Transcends Spacetime: Prime Dimension Gabe and Fourth Dimension Regnis.
• Lovable Traitor: Elom.
• Love Redeems:
  • Played with in the Family Matters arc. While both Report Taht and Ere D. Nay are definitely evil and sadistic (their normal communication best resembles The Masochism Tango), both show their more caring sides when the other is in danger. To elaborate, Nay takes the magic bullet for Taht, after which he opens up to idea of teamwork with Siht, even if only to exact revenge upon the Guardian.
  • Played straight in The New Normal. Hyperion's genuine love for Chase brings him to Heel–Face Turn (that, combined with realizing the Umbral Court will never care for him and Tarot killing his mother Dione).
• Luke, I Am Your Father: L (or rather, Loki) to Vali.
  • Carissa, Big Bad of the Myth Arc, to Akuma (birth name Uso Tsuki)—he is the little triplet brother of Lyrica and Lyrus.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title: "The Yay Agenda".
• The Mafia:
  • Don Dipertni approaches Report to find his missing daughter Retrope. After Retrope is killed, he offers his unconditional support to Report against the Knights. It ends badly for him and his family.
  • Also, Don Marcone's mob from Troublesome Heirloom.
• Magic A Is Magic A: The Neon Age goes into more detail on Wiki Magic: as Spiegel explains, it's basically recognizing the narrative devices in your life and twisting them to suit your own purposes.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Tarot, the Big Bad of The New Normal, wears a very fancy white and gold mask that conceals his identity. And looks really cool.
• The Man Behind the Man: The Omniscient Council of Vagueness that is really behind the Knights Who Say Yay is revealed to be a group of members from an obscure anime forum who were displeased with the direction TV Tropes: The Webcomic took under A.U.T.H.O.R. and decided to give it what they consider to be "a proper plot". But then again, the final strips of The Yay Agenda arc are a complete Mind Screw, which many fans still refuse to accept as remotely canon.
• Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: The Crüe has to team up with its two rival bands in the Battle of the Bands in Heavy Meta arc. Incidentally, all three have learned "The Betrayer" (Selene "got it from Ere the other night", while Burn The Witch, being jerkasses, simply stole it from the Crüe's van), so that's what they play. Later, Yug comments that he has never dreamed that this song will be performed on that scale.
• Maximum Fun Chamber: If the team fail a mission in particularly spectacular fashion, Report or occasionally one of the others may worry that they'll be put in "the Bunker".
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is Spiegel just a Cloudcuckoolander whose weirdness leads to him being a pseudo-Fourth-Wall Observer? Or does she actually remember the events of the previous Ages (which were Ret-Gone at the end of the original comic)? The author refuses to answer, and there's evidence for both interpretations.
• Meaningful Name: Minerva is the name of the Roman goddess of wisdom. Word of God says that the author named her that because she was "one of the smartest villains in the webcomic".
  • Trey Dor, from the "Dark" Arc, apparently had a history of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
  • Uso Tsuki is Japanese for "liar". And given that Akuma has a history of lying...
  • The Mirror Brigade, the protagonists of the Neon Age, are a Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sachi (as in sanguine), Chase (choleric), Merrill (melancholic), and Phaedra (phlegmatic).
• Megaton Punch: Delivered by Eeno to Gabe at the end of "Left 4 Gabe" to wake him from his coma. Apparently it was so powerful that uploading the page caused Tsadlib's computer monitor to split in half, forcing him to buy a new one.
• Mercy Kill: This is what Ere tries to do to Report in "Worst Case Scenario", believing him to be irreversibly corrupted by Viel. Or maybe she just wants to avenge her parents.
• Metal Head: Everyone in the "Heavy Meta" arc.
• Mirror Universe: The focus of the eponymous arc and revisited in the Family Matters arc.
• Mob War: Narrowly averted in the Troublesome Heirloom arc, when it turns out that the remains of Don Dipertni's mob make their Last Stand against the invading Marcone family who aim to take over the "unmanaged" city.
• Monster Clown: Vali, though he's​not really a bad guy, and not much of a clown. He justs likes the eye-covering mask and parachute pants.
  • After the events of Nine Realms, he decides to drop the pants.
• Monstrous Humanoid: The Iltzoloz people from the dark arc
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Doctor Dam. Also, Professor Suigen has a Morally Ambiguous PhD.
• More than Mind Control: Ere's prosthetic eyes constructed by Dr. Dam are perfectly harmless in every reasonably verifiable way. However, there is a secret module installed in them that slightly adjusts what she sees in a way that is currently favorable to Dr. Dam. This culminates in The Yay Agenda arc, when she is manipulated into a Heel–Face Turn. Also, the "Yay" brain trojan that hides under the pretense of a simple forced meme.
• More than Three Dimensions: The Fourth Dimension exists alongside the Prime, Mirror, and Bizarro Universes. This comes as a shock to pretty much everyone in W.I.K.I.
  • Most of the Demon gods and eldritch from the haunted mansion in the outskirts of NTC.
• Mr. Fanservice: Trevr.
  • Every male in the Dork Age is this or becomes this, except for the males the author doesn't like.
• Ms. Fanservice: Ecivres, Ere, Retrope, Eeno. Essentially, any girl that ever shows up can be, and will be, used for fanservice.
  • It's exaggerated in the Dork Age. Every female has ridiculously large breasts and butts to the point where, in real life, they wouldn't be able to stand up. Why?
  Author: Yeah, I know these chicks shouldn't have blonde hair and blue eyes and humongous hourglass figures. But it's my story, I'm the author, and my word is god, so STFU!
• Muggles Do It Better: In a mini-arc by Sirena that takes place between Nine Realms and No Name Given, Regnis kills Owt. How? By standing on a balcony with a sniper rifle. Which he is weak too. Because sniper rifles are not magic. Boom.
• Musical Episode:
  • Halfway through the Beyond The Impossible arc we were treated one of these doubled as a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment and filled to the brim with Awesome Music, lots of Ship Tease, and Rule of Cool.
  • And of course, a lot of things happened offscreen.
• My Future Self and Me: In a fit of ingenuity, Report comes up with an emergency plan to give himself and the rest of the Tröper Crüe extra practice time by traveling a week back in time. He goes to great lengths to avoid encountering the past version of himself, but imagine their embarrassment when seven more future versions of themselves show up in the studio they've just rented! Hilarity Ensues, by the way.
  • Yug encounters a future version of himself in the "Rose of the Starry Night" arc, and is surprised to find he acts just like Dab even wearing his old coat.
  • Two versions of Ayaka show up in Belated Happy Ending - her present self, a baby, and her future self, a Badass teenager.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After Ere kills Retrope, it is revealed that Dr. Dam was leading the Knights all along and he also manipulated Ere into joining them. Cue Heroic BSoD, which is just perfectly timed, as Report is currently having his own and they sit right in the center of four (!) Death Traps nested inside each other like Matryoshka dolls.
    • Doubles as a Tearjerker and leads to a CMOA for Report.
  • Report himself has this reaction in "Worst Case Scenario", when he uses Viel's powers to slaughter Ere's masked captors, only to realize that they are actually members of her squad, ordered to attack him as a Secret Test of Character of sorts.
  • Ere gets another one of these when she shoots through, and kills, Yug in order to defeat Cross. Cross survives, and it turned out killing Yug was apart of Owt's plan to resurrect En 0.
  • Amaterasu, of all people, has one when she accidentally kills Avery.
  • Ere gets one at the end of Cyberpunk while she dies.
  • As Reginald is dying, this is what he's thinking.
• My Greatest Failure: Both Lyrica and Lyrus watched their younger triplet brother get swept away by a raging river. Lyrica especially took it hard, becoming an Emotionless Girl and little more than a weapon for her mother. The moment she learns Uso is alive, however...
• Myth Arc: It seems that from The Stinger of Freaky February onward, the Jade Age will be one. It likely has something to do with Melodia and Akuma.

N-Z

• Narnia Time: It is implied that the Bizarro Universe has different time flow than the Prime and Mirror universe (which are almost synchronous), since Report Nwonknu is both the youngest and the oldest brother of the two other Reports: he was chronologically the last child to be born to Ecivres, but he is physically older and more experienced than his brothers.
• Never Found the Body: While we know the fates of most of the Umbral Court, last we see of Deimos is the building collapsing on him, and Helene confirms afterward that she didn't find the body.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Silent troping, which allows someone to use Wiki Magic without Calling Your Attacks.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Report delivers one to XD in T3h L33t W4rz as Viel-Report, for being such a damn sadistic bastard.
  • Retrope of all people has this happen to her, by Report when she refuses to assist in helping resurrect Yug.
• Noir Episode: The Yay Agenda arc was this, combined with Conspiracy Thriller.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Hyperion, the perennial Butt-Monkey of The New Normal, manages to successfully steal both the Pink and Hunter's Crests from the Mirror Brigade, and then captures Merrill to blackmail them with a Friend-or-Idol Decision. Even Lunaris is impressed. Everything gets derailed when Tarot shows up, though...
• No Name Given:
  • The original author is always referred to as "the original author" in discussions, no real name or nickname given. Out of respect for him, the guest authors are also never referred to by their names: instead constructs like "the guest author who wrote the [insert title here] arc/strip" are used. Even the A.U.T.H.O.R. follows the convention to a degree, refusing to spell out what his acronym pen name stands for.
  • Sometimes is get's really confusing when it's unclear if one is talking about A.U.T.H.O.R. the character or A.U.T.H.O.R. the writer.
  • Literally the name of the Jade Age's first arc. At the end, Sirena revealed the real name of the arc: Inverted.
• No Fourth Wall: From the Golden Age to the Jade Age. The Neon Age seems to restore the fourth wall, though Spiegel is an...odd case.
• Not a Date: When Ere starts sulking over Report leaving without a word in Troublesome Heirloom, Retrope drags her out into the city to "have a cup of tea and cheer up". Ere initially gets a wrong idea and is confused and very cute.
• Not Staying for Breakfast: In the end of Song For You, Regnis leaves just before dawn, while Gabe is still asleep. It is later revealed that she needed time to sort out her own feelings. And write a song for Gabe.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Ere helps Retrope get "a speck of dust" out of her eye, it looks like they are making out from afar. And then her mom walks in on them.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. Sometimes the upper levels at T.V.T.R.O.P.E.S will make references to missions that we haven't seen. Guest authors sometimes tried to explain them, but results were mixed.
  • Also, don't ever ask Ere how exactly Selene got the lyrics and tabs for "The Betrayer" out of her "the other night".
  • Apparently, Gabe was suspended from Wikawaii for an unprecedented amount of time...
  • Fictionite frisbees. That is all.
• Nosebleed: Retrope passes out from blood loss after meeting Erort for the first time.
  • When Ecivres came out in a bikini during the Trope Team's stay on the beach, everyone in the generally vicinity (Report, Ere, Yug, Betrand, Retrope, Gabe and Axel) all got massive nosebleeds.
• Nuke 'em: Let's just say that the "Worst Case Scenario" opens with a BANG.
  • Cross makes his debut with one of these as well.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: As much as Report would like to turn down W.I.K.I.'s (quite well-paid) offer in the Heavy Meta arc on accounts of not knowing any music at all, he really can't. The nameless W.I.K.I. official hints that Yug has been suffering from depression, having never really gotten over what happened to his brother Dab in the Original Arc, so his band was actually part of W.I.K.I.'s rehab program for him. And Report was the one who contributed considerably to the source of Yug's depression, no matter how little he could do about it.
• Official Couple:
  • From the original run: Report and Ere, Gabe and Regnis. Both were...complicated by various factors, mostly involving the deaths of one or both partners. There were multiple attempts to make Retrope part of one, but none of them stuck.
  • From the Neon Age: None yet, but Chase and Mathias are heading this way. Not without their own complications, though.
• Off with His Head!: The way Amaterasu kills most of her enemies.
• Omnicidal Maniac:
  • OREZ was implied to be this due to the nature of his goals, but it was all but confirmed come the 'OREZ' and 'Revenge of the Siht' arcs, where he kills off most of the world's troper population.
  • Nothing, who seeks to wipe out the entire universe.
  Nothing: (While firing planet-destroying blasts) Hello, world! (BOOM!) Bye, world!
• Omniscient Councilof Vagueness: Despite being mentioned several times throughout the story, the Numero Warlords have not actually done much to impact the story (besides Owt). Once the "E.N.D" arc kicks off, they take a more central stage.
  • Turns out there's actually an organization called The Omniscient Council. They're investigating the mysterious substance called Plot Armor. And Doog and Google-hime are apart of it.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Smithy" is just the nickname given to the Ultimate Blacksmith. They lose their real name upon taking the title.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Seven Stones has Gale and Trevr E.P. Elbavol, who can shrink down to the smaller size that the media associates with fairies. Normally, though, they're human size.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: In Nine Realms, giants range from seven feet tall to over two-thousand feet tall!
  • Half-giants, however, are only as tall as regular humans.
• Our Dragons Are Different: They're tiny, chibi-esque things bound to the main character's spirit. Of course, once Evolution Power-Up kicks in, it looses the cuteness factor.
• Our Genies Are Different: Dab finds a ruby encrusted ring that commands Nij'd the Fire Genie, who must obey the one wearing the ring. However, Genies do not have the ability to automatically grant any wish, but rather have a long list of elemental powers that they use to try to grant the wish manually. Report destroys the ring to free Nij'd from this plane, but it's implied that Nij'd has a brother, two sisters and a father, and that there are four other rings.
  • In fact, one appears to be in possession of the 56th Gemstone Force, as they have a similar ring with sapphires instead of rubies.
  • The Neon Age's Make a Wish arc is centered on them; specifically, on Nij'd's siblings Sylph, Marid, and Shaitan, who team up with the Mirror Brigade to battle their evil father, Iblis.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Laroma, Attorney-at-Law, usually comes in to inform characters about any legal mattersfor O.T.H.E.R.
• Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Lampshaded in Troublesome Heirloom. Ere and Retrope weren't really making out, but it looked that way, prompting Mrs. Nust to comment that she "used to fool around in her day, too", leaving Ere very flustered.
• Parody Sue: After An Ice Person, the next arc will be called S.U.E., and it will feature Sunrise Gemmalyne Sakura Rose Aphrodite Snapdragon D'Kay. Three guesses as to what she is.
• Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Used in the "Worst Case Scenario", each time in conjunction with a character's death, namely, Report, Ere, Retrope, Yug, and Gabe's.
• Pensieve Flashback: In her dying moments, Aquarius uses the last of her magic to send Retrope and Ere back in time as observers of the past to find out why Ophiuchus is trying to kill all the Zodiac and what happened to Eclipse.
• Personality Swap: Wikipe-tan and Trope-tan switched personalities at one point, Hilarity Ensued.
• Personof Mass Destruction: BLAZE "SUN-DOG" DOG-NUS. He is literally so powerful, that his arrival to the Westward Campaign caused the entire W.I.K.I army to flee. He casually destroys stars!
• Pietà Plagiarism:
  • After Yug almost dies by his brother's hands.
  • Also, Report carrying Retrope's body across the Dipertni mansion.
  • And again for Regnis by Gabe who combines it with a Skyward Scream.
• Pirate: Cross and his "Hero Brigade Pirates". However, they're pirates in name only, and don't actually do much pirating.
• Playing with a Trope: Literally, and one of the most important aspects of Wiki Magic and Wei Ki. Depending on how a trope is Invoked, it can do different things:
  • The most fabled technique in a Wiki Magician's arsenal is called "lampshading."It allows them to hijack reality while a trope is in effect. Trope-tan has been established as the undefeated champion of this ability.
  • Subverting a Trope creates a direct defense against it.
  • Inverting a Trope reverses the intended effects. Or, y'know, corrupts its users.
  • Averting a Trope is essentially ignoring the trope and its effects altogether
  • Exaggerating a Trope is essentially that trope achieving Bankai
  • You've also got Zig-Zagging (altering a trope's base form to create different effects), Deconstructing (Breaking a trope down to original, lesser, or different components), and Reconstructing (making tropes out of components).
  • Now you have Retconning a trope, which completely stops a Trope from being invoked.]]
  • Oh yeah, and we also have Exploiting and Parody-ing.
• Police Are Useless:
  • It seems that any investigation in the New Trope City and surroundings (including that of the nuclear bombing of the frigging W.I.K.I. HQ) falls on the shoulders of either Private Detectives, Intrepid Reporters, or the local Private Military Contractor's head or one of his two brothers. Often all at once.
  • Finally subverted in No Name Given with the 56th Gemstone Force, a group of 200 hyper-competent magical warriors led by Nova. The Force handles all problems on a citywide scale, but specialize in the removal of dangerous magical items.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Is that what you call when an ANC system is activated just as Report is about to explain to Ere (who tries to kill him) that he is not, in fact, being controlled by Viel?
  • She shouldn't have sicked those commandos on him, too.
  • Had The Trope Team decided to talk, Yug probably wouldn't have died, again
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: In one of the more hilarious deaths in the series, Trevr kills Wendy in a way that's completely in-character: he inflates her breasts and butt with water until she explodes.
• Postmodernism: Where the hell do we start?!
• Power Fist:
  • Ere obtains a pair of black gauntlets when utilizing the Demon Surge revolvers. Said revolvers shoot out her own negative energy as compressed bullets.
  • This is Agni's trope.
• Power Limiter: The cloak Saena inherited from her mother is meant to keep her extreme magic prowess in check.
• Power Trio: In the Family Matters arc, Report Siht is The Kirk, Report Taht is The McCoy, and Report Nwonknu is The Spock.
  • Report, Ere, and Retrope have pretty much become one in the Dark Age.
  • As of Soul of a Tsundere, Report, Yug and Teller have become one.
• Pretentious Pronunciation: 'It's pronounced Eh-seev-ray, not Ecky-vres
• Private Eye Monologue:
  • The Yay Agenda arc runneth over with it. Every single strip includes at least one grim remark by Report (even the ones that don't feature him per se).
  "A pair of Italians inviting you to see their boss was the clue to start running fast. But I didn't. If the Don wanted to see me, either I crossed his path... or he had a job for me. Back then, I didn't know what was worse. I do now."
  • Brought back in Stoolcow Browned, managing to be both hilarious and adorable. Became even more hilarious after convinces Ere and Gabe to join in on the fun.

    Report: "She came to us on an uneventful Saturday afternoon. Well, as uneventful as afternoons can be on Saturday, between Mrs. Naf's pool parties and slaying dinosaurs in F-16s."

    Ere: "The mid-day sun beat down hard outside as we met her in the ice cream shop for a sundae. Yet for what it's worth, that it could be a rainy Tuesday night; she offered us ice cream, and there's no way I'm passing up a chance like that."

    Gabe: "Mom only packed tacos in my lunchbox. I hate tacos, especially when I go in expecting a burrito and get taco instead. After all that was about to happen, though, I've never been happier to eat a taco since."

  • Brought back again in Ended With a Bang for the last few strips, with Retrope making the remarks.
  "I don't think I'll ever truly 'get over it'. Your best friends no longer existing anywhere in the omniverse isn't exactly the kind of thing you 'get over'. But I'll try to move on. They're gone, yeah, but they're here in my heart. And, y'know...that's all I need."
• Precocious Crush: 7 year old Lydia finds herself swooning over 27 year old Report. He has to straight up tell her everything she's thinking is illegal.
• Product Placement:
  • Banner ads appear for the Brackets Equals CamelCase Equals Brackets Bank; all the characters bank there and ATM logos are plainly visible.
  • The series currently is sponsored by Idiocracy Brawndo. Yug Gib would usually carry a spare can of Brawndo in case things got really intense.
• The Power of Rock:
  • It is revealed that the Rock In Space station in Heavy Meta arc is literally powered by rock music, and the whole point of annual festivals is to charge up its energy reserves for the next year.
  • Also, Yug is literally powered up by the sounds of metal.
• Pull the Thread: Retrope was writing an article on the internet slang and Memetic Mutation when she noticed the unusual proliferation of the word "yay" used on the ever-increasing number of fora and image boards. When she noticed the same trend carrying over to the Real Life, she grew concerned. When her editor casually dismissed her concerns as "New Media Are Evil" sentiment, she grew suspicious and started spying on him. She eventually overheard him mentioning "the Knights" and saying "yay" after every other word in conversation with a mysterious masked person...
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Umbral Court is...quite colorful.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: OH YES. Resiurb Suoretsiob is in charge of W.I.K.I's soldiers for the Westward Campaign. It shows, as he is capable of taking down the entire Trope Crew by himself, one handed, while sitting in a chair and drinking coffee. His death greatly affects the W.I.K.I soldiers in a negative way.
• Reality Warper: The Lunar Crests hold this power: they are infused with Wiki Magic, allowing whoever has one to bend the narrative. Notably, they actually have the power to change a trope entirely, hence the reality warping—when all are gathered together, one could basically deconstruct and then reconstruct the entire universe. Which is Viel's ultimate goal.
• Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: The issue with the aforementioned "remake the universe"? It's hard. Really hard. As Helene puts it:
  Helene: There is a .06 percent chance he will successfully recreate his universe as he knew it, a 5.37 percent chance he will recreate the universe with numerous differences, and a 94.57 percent chance he will cause the whole universe to collapse in on itself like a house of cards.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Yug utterly tears into Dab after he blinds Ere.
  Yug: How could you?! I've always looked out for you, I have given you so many chances to atone!
  Dab: And what the hell makes you think I want that?! I'm happy like this. And I don't need your help. It'd be like asking a gorilla to help find my car keys. Sure, they're big and strong, but they're dumb as shit. And - another thing you have in common with them - they're beneath me.
  Yug: Fine. No more second chances. No more clean slate. You've always been an arrogant bastard, Dab. I thought you had a heart. Maybe you used to. But when I look at you, I don't see my brother. I see a two-bit punk with a god complex, lashing out at the world like a child throwing a tantrum because daddy didn't love him. I'm sick of making excuses for you, Dab, and I'm sick of you putting your shit on me and Dad. What you're doing right now, it's all you. You'll die, alone and unmourned for what you've done. And let me tell you, by this point I am not going to lose any sleep over it. Go fuck yourself, Dab.
• Recycled In Space: The Rock In Space concert literally takes place inside a huge space station on geostationary orbit. Which looks like a large asteroid.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • Yug tries to convince Dab to repent and make a Heel–Face Turn, but is rebuffed everytime. He eventually reaches a Rage Breaking Point after he blinds Ere and declares he's done giving Dab second chances right belfre decking him hard enough to draw blood.
  • Yug also tries to reason with Noah once it becomes apparent how dangerous he is and how much he's messed with reality, going into an impassioned speech on how he can still makes things right and become a true hero. Noah's responds thusly.
  Noah: LIAR! I am a hero. And you're standing on the wrong side of history, my friend. (aims his gun at Yug) Now get out of the way.
  Yug: So be it. (fires a flare gun directly into Noah's face)
• Redshirt Army: Oddly enough, M.O.O.K.S. are the good guys, while R.E.D.S.H.I.R.T. are the bad guys.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Reginald is the red oni, Minnie is the blue oni.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Teller, even duringSoul of a Tsundere, is still a massive jackass Finally becoming a decent human being allows him to active his Trope: Wild Card.
• Relationship Reveal: In The Great Crash, it is revealed that Betrand Ayers and "Ms." Naf are actually an old married couple.
• Relationship Upgrade: Downplayed. While they haven't officially started a relationship, Chase and Mathias have acknowledged their mutual attraction and are giving dating a try. Whether or not it will last is unknown, considering that Mathias is Hyperion of the Umbral Court.
• The Remnant: Troublesome Heirloom reveals that some of Don Dipertni's old mob stayed around after his death. When Marcone tries to invade their town, they approach Retrope to lead them but she flat out refuses:
  Retrope: "My father was a criminal, yet also a great man. But I am not my father."
• La Résistance: Eibwen, Neeuq, and a few dozen Red Shirts are all that's left of W.I.K.I. after Gabe's death. But they are not about to lay down arms against Dab and his demons.
• Remember the New Guy?: Maku, who suddenly appears in the "Worst Case Scenario" arc and was supposedly always there. However, it turns out she can manipulate memories and replaced everyone's memories of Retrope with memories of her.
• Ret-Gone: Embodiments. When someone becomes an Embodiment, all of reality is rewritten so they were always an Embodiment...however, the original person will never have existed to begin with. Nothing is hinted to be an Embodiment, and Ere decides to become one herself to stop him.
• Riddle for the Ages: Is Spiegel truly aware of the previous continuity? If so, how does she remember? The author has refused to clarify, and we never get a definitive answer.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: At the end of the original run, Retrope is the only one to remember the universe prior to the Cosmic Retcon, and is thus the only one to remember Ere and Report.
  • The Neon Age gives us Spiegel, who might have this too (or is simply a Cloudcuckoolander) and Viel, who definitely has this due to having been forcibly separated from Report in the Cosmic Retcon.
• The Rival: Tröper Crüe finds two rival bands at the Rock In Space concert (there are actually many more but we only get a few glimpses of them): Burn The Witch, a Trash Talking, nasty-spirited black/death metal group, and Lady of War, an all-female power metal band with much more healthy attitude. The three of them were the top contenders for the Battle of the Bands until these plans were thrown out of the window.
  • EZ declared himself rivals with the world. It got him killed soon after by a sniping Ere.
  • Teller I. Lover is a rival for Report, being a complete anti-thesis in terms of personality and skill.
  • Rivals Team Up: Teller decides to join Report in the search for the Ultimate Blacksmith, mainly because he wants an Unobtainium sword, but also to help Ere.
• The Roadie: Gabe The Sixth Ranger started moonlighting as a roadie for the main cast's band "Troper Croe" soon after his first appearance in the series.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Axel embarks on a personal search-and-destroy mission against the perpetrators of the nuclear attack that killed Regnis and left his brother an Empty Shell. The moment he leaves doubles as a CMOA and the birth of his Catchphrase.
  • Lyrica was teetering on the brink of this after her father figure Lyon was sacrificed, but Lyrus's death causes her to lose it.
  • Gabe gets the mother of all Rampages when Regnis is kidnapped by Cross's pirates. Owt needed Gabe to release all his power as one of the 'ingredients' for resurrecting En 0
• Robot Girl Ty.
  • Ella as well.
  • After receiving a fatal wound from Taffy, Ere has to be placed into a cybernetic body. While they do save her life, we now have a bigger problem...
  • Helene of the Umbral Court is revealed to be one.
• Rock Me, Asmodeus!:
  • The irreplacible host of the Rock In Space concert, Amadeus, sports red eyes and a goatee, never takes off his horned helm, and speaks in BOLD CAPS. Hmmm...
  • In "Worst Case Scenario", Dab Gib mentions that he could only take over Hell because the Big S was too busy overseeing "some lame charity show" upstairs.
• Rogue Agent:
  • Ere and her commando squad in "Worst Case Scenario" sever all ties to W.I.K.I. after certain events. It still remains open what they are gonna do now.
    • Ere does return. Eventually. Her squad doesn't.
  • Kerrie and Kuro are... not technically licensed members of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum.
• Running Gag: Everytime a character dies Altair can be seen somewhere in the panel. Possibly also a Shout-Out
• Rule of Cool: This is Minnie's trope, and it allows her to bend reality for the sake of cool.
• Save The Girl Screw The World: Kinda. After receiving a message from Neeuq that Ere is being held at an abandoned factory, Report immediately leaves the defense of the New Trope City to Yug and Eibwen and flies off to rescue her.
• Scary Black Man: Agni, a powerful Social Darwinist who appears near the end of Nine Realms. The official leader of the Anti God Force.
• Schedule Slip:
  • After the Cliffhanger in strip #515, in which Ms. Naf is shot just as she was about to reveal The Plan, the comic went on a six-month hiatus because the cartoonist was "really busy with work and a new boyfriend." It then resumed, now with a once-weekly as opposed to M-W-F update, until near the end of The Great Crash arc, when Ere was about to confess her love for Report. Since then, the comic has been on hiatus for another ten months, the cartoonist showing up only to post occasional angry Rants telling people to stop complaining about the update schedule of a comic they get for free and by the way, could they please make a PayPal donation to support the comic?
  • It has afflicted the comic again after the "Worse Case Scenario", with Tsadilb repeatedly promising new strips and missing all deadlines.
  • The Jade Age went on a two-month hiatus after Reginald’s death. To make up for it, Sirena uploaded all the strips she missed out on.
  • The Neon Age went on a hiatus after Dione's death, Tarot's Reveal as Viel, and Hyperion's Heel–Face Turn. In this case, it had a more reasonable explanation: the author was getting married, and wedding planning ate up a lot of her time. Once it was over and he had time to unwind, the comic resumed its regular schedule.
• Scenery Censor: Somewhat averted, since Ere's nudity is censored out by a naked Ecivres
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Mad Scientists are victims of the "Paranoia Plague," which apparently affects 1 in 100,000 Americans.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Alexa pulls one at the end of Freaky February.
• Sdrawkcab Name:
  • Practically all of them, with the exception of Alice.
  • Bob, being a palindrome, is a borderline example.
  • As well as Bertrand Ayers, but he has an entirely different problem.
  • The Eht-Ecas' given and nick names are forwards, but their family and last names are backwards.
  • Most characters introduced in the Dark Age don't have Sdrawkcab Names, though exceptions do exist.
• Self-Deprecation: The Author Avatar of the Neon Age is Spiegel, who is depicted as a Cloudcuckoolander whom the rest of the cast is often confused by and don't particularly like.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Scrap's is "porcupine."
• Serial Escalation: Oh dear god, the stakes and scope just got higher with every arc. The original run topped it with the threat of a Class Z apocalypse—the Neon Age scales things back to something more manageable.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Gabe and Report are sometimes like this, though who is who depends on the current circumstances and mood.
• Sequel Hook: The New Normal ends with Viel defeated, the Umbral Court in tatters, and the Mirror Brigade victorious; bonus points for Phaedra finally mastering the lampshading technique of Wiki Magic and Chase and Hyperion starting a proper relationship. The sequel hook comes twice: first is when Spiegel outright says that their adventures have only just begun, and second is when Atlas and Amalthea are revealed to have survived and are planning to recreate the Court with Atlas at the head.
• Shared Mass Hallucination: The entire "Worst Case Scenario" turns out to be a shared hallucination of Report, Ere, Yug, Retrope, and Gabe after getting hit by a "fear toxin" of unknown origin during a Tröper Crüe rehearsal. In his report about the incident, Yug even lampshades how "shared hallucinations" are supposed to be impossible according to modern science.
• Sheathe Your Sword: Subverted when Report drops his weapons during his fight against Ere in "Worst Case Scenario" in a last ditch attempt to convince her he's not evil (since they are prevented from talking by an ANC). She takes it as Report's last effort to cast off Viel's influence and takes the chance to "release" him.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: In the "Rose of the Starry Night" arc, Yug gains access to a suit of fictionite armor that uses this premise. He needed the extra speed to save Report from falling off a sky ship.
• Ship Sinking: When the Jade Age ends, Retrope is single, thus ending any ship she had over the course of the comic's long, long run.
• Sibling Team:
  • The Gib Brothers, a.k.a. the "Ludicrous Gibs" (Incredibly Lame Pun intended), in their youth before joining the W.I.K.I..
  • Also, the two (later, three) Report half-brothers in the Family Matters arc.
  • When Shale teams up with Coal, her little sister, things get hectic.
• Significant Anagram: If you pay attention to the names of the two arcs immediately before Report is brought back to continuity, you'll realize that "A Cribber Kinging Tromp" anagrams to "I'm Bringing Back Report", and "Hexact Prent" to "Next Chapter".
• Sins of Our Fathers: In the Family Matters arc, Report and his brothers are being hunted down by the Hyperspace Eddie for their mother's role in The Great Crash.
• The Sixth Ranger: Fifth Ranger, more accurately, but as of the end of The New Normal, Hyperion is considered one to the Mirror Brigade.
• She's Back: Ere spends most of Grew Into a Flame out of commission due to the severe emotional roller coaster of the Jade Age. After learning about Akuma's true origins and a pep talk from Hina, she returns to the war against Nothing's Devoted with newfound determination.
• Shout-Out: Hundreds of thousands. We had to make the Trope Overdosed page just to keep track of how many times each major series has been referenced. And every update has more Shout Outs than the last!
• Skinship Grope: Blue manages to fondle Retrope while they're bathing.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Report was frozen in some form of cryo-stasis (the specifics of who did this to him are still a mystery) for 6 months between the 'OREZ' arc and all but the opening section of the 'Revenge of the Siht' arc. During that time, OREZ killed off most of the world's troper population and reduced large areas of the world to barren wasteland, forcing the other surviving main characters to go into hiding.
• Slice of Life: Occasionally, the storyline will diverge away from Report's adventures and show his "real life": sleeping, going to work, watching television, etc. Some say this is just Agent Report's imaginings of what his life away from W.I.K.I. would be like; others say that the entire webcomic just a fantasy imagined by the "real" Report.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Depending on the Writer (and particular arc), the story has fallen anywhere between Mundane and Fantastic (with the "Ducky" Arc being the only lapse into Surreal thus far). The more realistic arcs tend to concentrate on characterization and deal with grittily close-to-life issues, whereas more fantastic arcs focus on over-the-top, no-holds-barred action and the Rule of Cool.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Adbot the Robot. T.V.T.R.O.P.E.S resident robot, he was built by Professor Suineg. Frequently goes evil, but will turn back to good with one good hit. Earns money for Trope-tan via advertising work on the side.
• Spin-Off:
  • The City of Gold: written by the same guest author as The Yay Agenda arc. It features Ere as the main character and sees her trapped in an Aztec-inspired alternate dimension, where she is revered as the Kung-Fu Jesus by the natives thanks to her gold eyes and fighting prowess and has to lead La Résistance against the evil Emperor based in the eponymous City of Gold, a.k.a. El Dorado. The canonicity of the spin-off is still disputed, since it is published on an unassociated website and the Word of God is still silent on the matter.
  • Trope Gakuen: A High School AU started by Tsidalb in the early stages of the Bronze Age. Features every character introduced in the comic, each slightly retooled to fit the setting. As new characters are introduced in the main comic, they are shortly written into Gakuen as well.
  • Lil' Troperz: a spin-off featuring the characters of TV Tropes: The Webcomic as children (or as younger adults, in the case of the "older" ones), but mostly retaining their "original" personalities. Each arc is set up in an episode-like format (complete with "Next Time", "Last Time", and "To be continued"), and are released as "Episodes" rather than single pages. A recurring theme is that each "Episode" starts off rather light-hearted, but always manages to reach varying degrees of dark by the end. Notably, Axel and Tsidalb are separate entities here; the former is featured as a part of the "main" cast, and the latter owns and hosts a local radio station.
  • Tiny Tropers: Very similar to Lil' Troperz, with the main cast all being children. Unlike Lil' Troperz, however, it stays light-hearted throughout its run and is very comedic and fun. Most of the time, the plotline is original; however, some arcs are from canon. The most notable is Worst Case Scenario, in which Gabe actually succeeds in saving Regnis from radiation poisoning.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Wikipe-tan has stolen role of the main character several times.
• Stalker with a Crush: Uncyclo-tan to Wikepe-tan. She becomes a Clingy Jealous Girl when Trope-tan is in close proximity to the latter.
• Starter Villain: In the original run, Dab Gib (combined with Starter Villain Stays). In the Neon Age, the Umbral Court as a whole and Hyperion specifically.
• Stellar Name: The Umbral Court are all named after moons. In order of appearance: Hyperion, Amalthea, Deimos, Helene, Titan, Janus, Dione, Oberon, Elara, Atlas, and Lunaris.
• The Stinger: At the end of the The Tröper Crüe Saves Santa arc, just before the comic went on Christmas hiatus, a single strip entitled "Worst Case Scenario" was published. It consisted of six panels, depicting a nuclear explosion, Report and Yug wearing high-rank W.I.K.I. uniforms, Gabe carrying Regnis' bloodied body Pieta-style, Ere ordering a squad of W.I.K.I. commandos to open fire on another W.I.K.I. squad, Retrope pointing a revolver to her head with tears in her eyes, and a dark silhouette of someone overlooking a burning city. The strip ended with a promise: "The Dark Age Is Coming". Needless to say, the forums exploded with attempts to explain what is going on, as the Word of God has been silent on the matter.
  • At the end of Wham Episode, we see a similar strip entitled "End of All". It depicts Regnis in the middle of a 360-no-scope using a futuristic plasma rifle on gun-wielding robots, Trope-tan and Wikipe-tan trying to use Wiki magic to escape a glass cage and failing, the Gib brothers setting up a turret, Report lying in a glass pod unconscious with wires hooked to him, Gabe overlooking a cyberpunk city, and Cyborg!Ere watching said city erupt into flames and laughing. The last panel shows a character who is probably not Retrope saying, "Man against machine...and the future looks bleak for man."
  • At the end of Freaky February, there’s a strip called Started with a Spark. Rather than having events from an upcoming arc, it instead has Ere, typing up a report for what W.I.K.I. agents have termed the 'Freaky February' incident, saying that Alexa, who ran away after Ere got her body back, is still at large. Shortly after submitting the report, the recurring Yuppie Couples - whose names are revealed to be Melodia and Akuma - walk into her office and say that they’ve been assigned as her age. The strip ends with this: “The Myth Arc has Begun.” Many fans are eager to find out what this means, and the forums have practically exploded with theories.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Hyperion starts seeing one at the end of The New Normal to deal with his self-esteem issues and the trauma of watching his mother die in front of him.
• Storming the Castle: Retrope and Ere decide to negotiate a truce with Don Marcone... by breaking into his hideout.
  • This is done again during the war between R.E.T.C.O.N and W.I.K.I.
• Synchronization: There seem to be some between the Prime and the Bizzaro Universe: Report Siht died soon after Nwonknu was reported dead and Ere D. Nust was killed within hours of D. Uuk's death in exactly the same manner.
• Stormof Blades: In addition to summoning a field of swords, Teller is able to simply spam them with enough force to tear through buildings. as of Soul of a Tsundere, he no longer has this power.
• Squishy Wizard: Owt, a very powerful wizard, can be taken out with a single punch to the face. He himself lampshades this.
  • Notably averted with Lili, who trained her body to withstand attacks in the case someone got close to her.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In this World of Badass, so many people want to work for W.I.K.I. that no one on the entire continent has gone to medical school, devoiding said continent of healers and doctors. So when Gabe gets his arm chopped off by Reginald, there's nothing anyone can do except advise Regnis to make her condolences.
• Take Over the World: L promises Retrope that if she helps him, at the end of the adventure he'll make her Queen of the Omniverse.
• Taking You with Me:
  • When the Dipertni manor is stormed by Noggard's commandos, the Don himself waits for Noggard to enter the study, then blows the entire manor wing with the explosives he planted there, anticipating the attack.
  • Aelf tries this after being defeated by Report, but fails when Report fuses with him and runs fsck.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Mathias is decently tall (more so than Chase at any rate), is a dark-skinned blond, and very snarky.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Following exchange from Troublesome Heirloom:
  Retrope: "Isn't it nice to just hang out once in a while? Where nothing explodes and nobody's coming after your head..."
  [enter six impeccably dressed young men with Tommyguns]
  Ere: *frowns* "You just had to say that, didn't you??"
  • And later:
    Retrope: "...Well, look on the bright side; we left all that stuff back home. We're in Japan, away from all of those 'Mafia'-shenanigans."
    [enter six impeccably dressed young Japanese men with Tommyguns]
    Ere: *Glares at Retrope*
    Retrope: "Oh, right...Yakuza. Japanese Mafia..."
  • Between newcomers Kerrie and Kurotsume:
    Kerrie: "Wait, is this a non-corrupted 'verse? What happened?!"
    Kuro: "It looks like a 'verse in progress."
    Kerrie: "My coordinates must have been off…"
    Kuro: "Even if they were, why are you complain
• Trans Tribulations: Chase, one of the protagonists of the Neon Age, is transgender. Usually, not too much attention is drawn to it, but it's noted that much of his social circle distanced themselves from him and his relationship with his parents has grown strained.
• Unexplained Recovery: Happens quite a bit actually. It was lampshaded during this conversation when it turns out Retrope is alive.

  Ere:Retrope, you're alive!

  Retrope:Yep.

  Ere:But...but I killed you?

  Retrope:I got better.

  Ere:But how?

  Retrope:I find it's best to not to worry about these things too much.

• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Nothing loses it after Ere turns into the Embodiment of Everything and starts sealing him back in his can. He does regain enough composure to call her a worthy opponent at the end, though.
  Nothing: NO! THIS CAN'T HAPPEN! YOU'RE A MORTAL, A FUCKING TERMITE! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!
  Ere: Correction. I was a mortal. Now I'm an Embodiment. The Embodiment of Everything. And that means I can seal you back where you can't hurt anybody ever again.
  Nothing: NO! I'M NOT GOING BACK THERE! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOO! I'll give you whatever you want, just let me go!
  Ere: This is what I want.
  • OREZ has a memorable if composed one towards the end of the Revenge of the Siht arc, as his genocide of the troper population is reversed through magic, and decides that he'll settle for killing Ere and Report.
  OREZ: No... Everything I've done, all come to naught! Fine! I'll live with it. As long as I kill you two, I'll die a happy man!
  • Noah has an utterly spectacular one as everything he's built for himself crumbles around him and his Reality Warper powers are taken away by Doog's device.
  Noah: No, no, you can't do this! I'm the hero! I'M A GOD! THIS ISN'T HOW MY STORY ENDS, REPORT! I'll KILL YOU! I'LL RIP YOU INTO ATOMS! JUST DIE!
• Weapon-Based Characterization: The Neon Age: Phaedra carries a crossbow, Sachi swings around a giant hammer, Chase punches wearing gauntlets, and Melvyn wields a rapier.
• Wham Episode: The Grew Into A Flame Arc is a Wham ''Arc''. It starts with Kitsune dying and piles on The Reveals from there.
• Wham Line:
  • The Fire and the Fury has one that confirms without the shadow of a doubt that Noah was Evil All Along.
  Yug: So, boss, what do you wanna do?
  Noah: Oh, that's real easy. Kill 'em.
  • Several near the end of Grew Into a Flame.
    • First off, when Akuma's facing off against Carissa:
    Carissa: If I had known you'd end up so defiant, I would've killed you the moment I saw you, Uso!
    • Then, when Lyon is speaking to Lyrica:
    Lyon: Uso Tsuki is alive. His name is Akuma now, and he's not quite as timid...but your brother is alive.
    • And before Carissa starts the ritual:
    Carissa: Nothing lives, Uso. You were born to carry it and bring the end times, and by Nothing you are going to do it!
  • The biggest one of all in the *last strip:
    Ere: People are dropping dead, the world's unraveling around us, one of my assistants has been possessed by an almighty god and is going to end the omniverse... This cannot get worse.
    Retrope: Actually...it can.
    Ere: How?
    Retrope: The comic is ending.
  • A big one in The New Normal that casts the character and everything about them in a new light:
    Tarot: Karma's a bitch, huh?
• Wham Shot:
  • In Grew Into a Flame, Akumal finally takes off his glove to reveal the Mark of Ilya.
  • Following Chase and Mathias's first date, it's revealed (but only to the audience) that Mathias is Hyperion, the perennial Butt-Monkey and No-Respect Guy of the Umbral Court.
  • The above-mentioned Wham Line at the end of The New Normal is accompanied by a panel of Tarot removing his mask and being revealed to look just like Report, only with white hair and Viel's eye color.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Ended With a Bang for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, as both involve someone (Ere) sacrificing themselves to save everyone else, going Ret-Gone in the process with only one person (Retrope in this case) remembering they ever existed.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A hell of an example comes from The New Normal. What originally began as a "Reason You Suck" Speech from Chase to Hyperion following learning the latter was Mathias the whole time and had been spying on the Mirror Brigade on order of the Court turns into this after Hyperion admits to his self-hatred and that he genuinely loved Chase and liked having something good in his life.
  Hyperion: You can just— fuck, you can just go now. Find someone who'll love you for actual reasons and not stupid selfish bullshit. Just— I'm sorry. For everything.
  Chase: ...you meant it?
  Hyperion: Meant what?
  Chase: When you said you loved me, you— you meant it?
  Hyperion: (laughs) Who wouldn't love you? You deserve the world, and I—
  Chase: I'm sorry too.
  Hyperion: ...what?
  Chase: I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I was wrong. You're not the best person, but you can love and feel happiness and show actual kindness. And...I still love you. And you deserve good things too.
• You Have Failed Me: Dab pulls this on Mictiv, dropping him into the pit of nano sprites so he'll be painfully eaten alive for having let the heroes escape. It's implied to be partially motivated by the fact Mictiv took a young boy hostage to get them to stand down, something that disgusts him.
  Mictiv: Please, Dab, tell me how I can make it up to ya!
  Dab: Easy. Die.

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