Bravemule - Television Tropes & Idioms

27th Obsidian 1050

The arm of Matul Remrit is severed and we dregs are left scattered. The broker is too dead to count for me. I cut off his fingers and he is not faking. I will do what best I can to describe the situation: a sunrise happened since the wooden sword pierced my side. I am with enough dregs to fill a squad. No dwarf reports the strength to move the mule corpse off this cursed wagon but I cannot find my whip to verify these claims. When we split from the brothers, some were run through and dead in the bellies of animals at last correspondence. I do not know if the brothers live. They are not coming for us, and I hear the wolves howl.

— Introduction

Bravemule is a Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress (yes, another one) by Kevin Snow. Each month is reported by one dwarf specifically on his diary, and it's heavily illustrated with depictions of important events. It is available to read here

This Let's Play provides examples of:

Action Girl - Quite a few examples. Squib, Caten, Lasui...
Alien Geometries - The chief architect mentions that anything that isn't rectangular is an affront to dwarven aesthetics. Octagons in particular give multiple dwarves Catapult Nightmares.
Anyone Can Die - This is a Dwarf Fortress LP, what did you expect ?
Arc Words - "Matul Remrit endures."
- "Matul Remrit will crumble."
Badass - Caten, definitively. While she's not yet in the army, she spots a Giant Cave Spider in the horizon, decides it's a threat to the burrow, and lures it into the serrated discs. In Reast's update, however...
- The first true journal entry has Squib kill three harpies, with the help of only a single war dog. She continues to rack up kills in later attacks, culminating in her jumping off a tower just to bisect a harpy! Unfortunately, because she jumped off the tower...
- Handicapped Badass - In Limestone 1052, one of Lasui's arms is ripped off in combat; she refuses to get medical treatment for this. A mere month later, and she's back in battle, snatching a harpy by the hair with her remaining hand and slamming it face-first into the ground, killing it.
Cast of Snowflakes - Each with their own portrait.
Conspiracy Theorist - Hyte is intensely paranoid, believing that even the most harmless actions are 'schemes'. Exacerbating this is the fact that she's the sheriff.
Driven to Suicide - Hyte, after Squib's death.
Establishing Character Moment - Even before Dett's entry, we get a good feel for her personality when she eats a maggot to prove a point to Trame.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin - Some names are oddly specific, like "Miserable Pits to Work In", "Striking Water Holes to Drink Of", and "Careful Square to Negotiate Commodities Under", except the last one is inverted once Behem installs a lever that causes the ceiling to collapse upon the traders. A later depot is called "Amicable Trade Post Where Behem Will Not Construct Murder Levers" — time will tell if it stays that way.
Follow the Leader: Subverted. Yes, this is another Dwarf Fortress Let's Play. Yes, it is from the points of view of many dwarves keeping a diary. But the tone, characterization, and presentation is so radically different from other LP's that Bravemule really stands in a class of its own.
Gory Discretion Shot - Averted in Hog's update.
I Don't Like the Sound of That Place - Some of the in-universe suggestions for the fort's name included "Elfmurder" and "The Miserable Tower of Miserable Death".
I Need a Freaking Drink - Several times in Deon's update. Justified in that the clods are normally denied alcohol; ale privileges are a big reason to why he joined the militia.
Jerkass: Even with the Blue and Orange Morality, Voxe stands out. A child dies, she jokes about it to the mother, and says that It is good nature jest.
- This becomes sadder when you remember how Mendo mentioned a goblin kidnapped one of Voxe's previous children, thus her mean joke to Vill can be seen as self-blame for her "failure" to protect her own children.
Jumped at the Call - Clods are quick to join the milita because of all the privileges it gives (including, as stated above, ale privilege)
Killer Rabbit - The only thing Snow changed in the raws was the ability for mules to be trainable into war animals. They are surprisingly good at it.
- One of the updates includes an army dwarf accusing a war mule of killstealing. It's not as funny as it sounds.
Let's Play - One of the most complex ever made.
Mad Artist - Logna, justified since he was having a strange mood.
Mad Doctor - Dett, previously a butcher. She complains that her hospital lacks enormous corkscrews and serrated blades.
I informed Exi it would be to my excitement to cut his face meat and transplant beard hair onto others who cannot grow beard hair without transplant.
Madness Mantra - Shows up during Hog's death and Ridor's surgery.
Screw You, Elves! - The dwarves tend to refer to everything bad (or simply non-dwarven) as "elf". It isn't a compliment.
Strange Syntax Speaker - The dwarves have such bizarre language patterns and euphemisms that, along with the Blue and Orange Morality, it cements the impression that they're a totally other culture.
Throwing Your Shield Always Works - Sorc does not understand the shield.
Unusual Euphemism - Kou's entry. She's a hardened killer. She's told to grow crops.
"Drowning fire that murders the crop murders the fire therefrom I surmise drowning the seeds would unmurder the crop."
Urban Segregation - The dregs (of Matul Remrit) and the clods (of Dunan An).
You No Take Candle - The way dwarves talk seems to be a weird mix between this, Spock Speak and Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe.

MATUL REMRIT ENDURES

Boatmurdered

Community/Dwarf Fortress

Waterburned

∇
troperville

∇
tools

∇
toys

This Let's Play provides examples of:

∇troperville

∇tools

∇toys

This Let's Play provides examples of:

∇
troperville

∇
tools

∇
toys