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Delta could see that the ship that he was from has docked, quite calmly just like the wind whistling in his helmet. He has finally set foot on land, such a nice empty space; I wonder why it's empty though? Delta thought. he took one giant stride and put his metallic foot gently on the soft blades of grass. He wanted this to be his home, the nice outside world. But the problem was, that there was nobody around!!
SUBJECT_DELTA's first post on the original thread.

We Are Our Avatars (Escapist) is a permanently open Roleplay thread started on the Escapist by SUBJECT_DELTA, which now has multiple sequel threads, plus a spin-off thread.

    List of WAOA threads 

In We Are Our Avatars, the players control the character in their forum avatar. Many players also bring in extra characters from that universe as support characters (however they are not always from the same universe), and some play as original characters. The thread is similar to Ramthundar's Avatar Adventures, but was unconnected (except by certain characters). As many characters are from popular media, their abilities are well known or known to be non-existent.

As players change avatars when a character dies, because they want to change character, or between threads or story arcs, there are numerous characters.

There is a Recap page here, which will have summaries of previous WAOA threads, and their plots and subplots.


WAOA contains examples of:

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    A-G 
  • Aerith and Bob: Erica, Charlie, Joe, Mia, Will... and Four. AND BOB, the multiverse's GREATEST strawberry ninja!
  • Alien Blood:
    • Regulus and Caius have black miasma instead of blood.
    • The demons of the Abyss, Rex (after being turned into a demon) and Carmen have black blood.
    • Black has blue blood.
    • After going to the Hazama and spending some time there, Yukino's blood became violet.
    • Milly's blood is dark brown, actually just the blood of everything she's fed off of all still circulating in her system and mixing together. So since she ate some aliens at one point, it quite literally is Alien Blood.
    • Those infected with the Skye strain of the Logan Virus have multi-coloured blood.
  • All Men Are Perverts:
    • Well, let's see... Lesbianism, check... Large breasted females, check... Sex jokes, check...
    • Subverted by Gearhead mk2, who has called himself asexual several times.
  • Alternate Universe: Every thread where the setting is Earth is this. The sixth thread, while not set on Earth, featured alternate versions of past characters.
  • And I Must Scream:
    • In the second thread, Jio was briefly trapped in a black soul gem. After escaping, he trapped Satan in the same gem with the aid of the rest of the protagonists.
    • In the third thread, Jio and Jin became trapped in a magic obelisk, aboard a ship that ended up floating through space.
    • The many souls trapped inside Philosopher's Stones are this, which the exception of the one in Envy, where they can scream.
    • In the seventh thread, happened to the souls soul trapped by Erica before being set free by Tophat. It briefly happened to Makoto when she was cut off from all stimuli as part of the Queen of Blades' psychological torture.
  • Apocalypse How:
    • A Class 6 happened to the world of the second thread, which was hit by a bomb that released a virus, which turned every bit of organic matter to pulp. This act released vapours, which then self-ignited, burning up all the oxygen on the planet.
    • A Class 1 happened to the world of the third thread, where the world was largely flooded after Kefka used the continents of the world like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Add to this earlier occurrences like a small scale zombie outbreak, organic matter being absorbed by a Doomsday Device, and a large percentage of the world's population having their souls stolen, and things look very bleak indeed.
    • A Class X-4 happened with Joe's home universe. With a single soul keeping it all together, it all fell into oblivion when that soul was taken.
  • Artifact of Death: The divine tome from the fourth thread turned any mortal who read it to ash.
  • Ascended Demon: Several characters are good despite having a Superpowered Evil Side or even being Made of Evil.
    • Erica was generally good, despite—initially—being a Dark Soul. Though she had her moments. As does everybody.
    • Jio is good despite having Satan literally exist within him.
    • Joel has had his moments. Like when he got killed, but too bad he Came Back Strong.
  • Attack Its Weak Point:
    • In the sixth thread, this was the solution to the Icarus battle, where one of the golems shielding him would give off a glow.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames:
    • The first battle against Chanda in the third thread was fought in Rio de Janeiro, in a suburb burning with white fire.
    • The battle against the bug, in the ninth thread, was fought in a burning ICU unit.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Grace fought Nu-13 in Lambda's mindscape. Tophat fought Regulus and Loki in their mindscapes. In the seventh thread, it fought off Erica's Nightmare.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Do not steal from Greed. Blake learned this lesson the hard way.
    • Doctor Com and his hat, threatening to brutally murder Mia out of anger for her threat to his hat.
    • Definitely do not mention Etna being flat-chested. It won't end well for you. Nor the surrounding area. Possibly not even the planet.
  • Beach Episode: Quite the recurring theme.
    • In the second thread, the group spent a few weeks in the half-submerged dolphin city of Ambrosia.
    • In the third thread, the group also spent a few days on the beach of a lake in Brazil.
    • In the fourth thread, after before the conclusion of the Hojo arc, the group spent some time on a beach.
    • In the seventh thread, the protagonists are invited to a private island resort.
    • In the ninth thread, the group spent time on a beach near Cádiz during the Chocolate Ties That Bind Us arc.
  • Big Bad Ensemble:
    • In the second thread, there was Kessler, the Reapers and the forces of Chaos.
    • The third thread had the "League of Evil", the fifth thread had the Overlordians, Alex Mercer, and an unnamed force of demons.
    • The seventh thread had Skye, the Followers of the Dragonborn, and Shadar.
  • Biological Weapons Solve Everything: Predators unleashed Xenomorphs on Anilam. These were then captured by a nation thereon and genetically modified to serve as living weapons. When Anilam became Ragnarök, unleashing various types of genetically modified Xenomorphs on the enemy became a staple in warfare.
  • Bitter Sweet Ending:
    • In the third thread: Jio and Jin are sealed away in a spaceship as unsung heroes after sacrificing themselves to safe the world. Joe died after coming very closed to being saved, although what served as his soul managed to find peace.
    • In the sixth thread: Jessica was forbidden to avenge Ness, and although Ness came back from the dead, she remembered nothing about Jessica.
    • In the seventh thread: Erica was killed, although her spirit passed away happily after she watched the sun set with her surrogate daughter.
  • Bizarre Alien Reproduction:
    • Nanami and her people can reproduce with any species via touch, when there is a double solar eclipse on her home planet. Yeah.
    • The race of female-only cat people. Although, the less said about this, the better.
  • Body Horror: Flies laid eggs in a still-living Rémy, which then immediately hatched.
  • Booby Trap: Azimuth's tower, in the seventh thread, featured this a lot. Traps included: shifting floors, trap door floors, Knock Out Gas, tranq darts, and the magical equivalent of land mines.
  • Boss Bonanza: Happens all the time. Among them:
    • In the third thread, the Rockbird Arc, Nu-13 and Satan's clone, Belerophon and Ikaros were fought in that order.
    • Also in the third thread, Ultima Weapon and Luca Blight were fought on the Floating Continent of the Kefka arc.
    • At the climax of the arc mentioned above, the Warring Triad were fought before Kefka himself.
    • After entering the tower, the Pie Lord post-climax arc in the third thread was one boss battle after another.
    • Likewise, in the seventh thread, in the Virus arc, the climax consisted of battling Skye's dragon and Yukino, then being transported to Skye's pocket dimension, where numerous Mini Bosses fought to get to Skye herself.
    • In the climax of the Desperado Incursions arc in the ninth thread, the protagonists faced Jetstream Sam, the Metal Gear EXCELCUS And Steven Armstrong, in that order.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall:
    • Trilby expressed displeasure at the increase in craziness after a nap by leaping through it.
    • Knife brought in the Sixth Wall.
    • The whole San Fransisco incident. Which was quite strange, given that the two people who started it were both established characters, and Author Avatars. And the whole thing was set up to make the thread run smoothly.
      Knife-28: STOP MAKING CONFUSING PLOTS! note 
    • Joe would do this several times, often even passing right through it without breaking it. He even calls what he went through into the 3D world 'The Fourth Wall'. Since Joe could read text boxes instead of hearing people he'd often poke fun at Grammatical errors, or even telling to people to "...build a bridge out of it..." after someone said they were 'board'.
    • Yukino often responds to comments from the players by shouting up at the sky. This to much confusion from every other character.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • Happened with Four and Joe in the third thread, at the hands of a "therapist" and Valanetine, respectively.
    • Also in the third thread were Brazilian civilians and Noel, under the control of Kefka's slave crowns.
    • In the sixth thread, it happened to Rita, Jessica, and Ness, at the hands of Loki.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Early on, Robert said that Satan owed him money. Later on, he attacks Satan to get his $5 back.
    • At the start of WAOA2, Sasuke and Tophat started fighting, and created a violent rivalry. Then, Sasuke returned in WAOA3. It did not go well. Sasuke and Tophat returned again in WAOA6, and the two quickly began fighting.
    • Whenever the group gets access to a flying vehicle, it almost always ends up being severely damaged at best or a total loss at worst.
  • Britain Is Only London: Downplayed. Whenever the group goes to UK, it's usually London, but other locations have been featured as well.
  • Bus Crash: Fluttershy died not long after being introduced.
  • Butt-Monkey: Doctor Com. Not just attacked, mutilated. He's lost legs, bits of tail and some of his horn. This trend stopped after a while.
  • Call-Back: Knife reading a black book in the second thread, which was given to him in the first thread by Doc Sparkle. And it was a major plot point in the Eldar arc.
  • Car Fu: In a stroke of excessively bad luck, Greed was hit by a car, then run over while he was down immediately after being introduced.
  • Cat Girl: As of WAOA6, it's been revealed that there's an entire civilization of cat people, descended, at least in part, from Four.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The first three threads were chock full of silliness, however this vanished in the later threads.
  • Chained to a Bed: In the fourth thread, Joseph had Taokaka chained to his throne by a collar.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Land:
    • Everyone is insane in WAOA 2, as is lampshaded by Reginald.
    • The later threads seems to have a decline in mental characters, though there is still a handful of them.
  • Clown Car: At various points in the series, the protagonists stuffed themselves into a single van or car.
  • Cluster F-Bomb:
    • Eddie practically uses the word fuck instead of commas.
    • Joel, when he gets angry.
      Joel: "IT'S TWO FUCKING OUNCES, DON'T YOU THINK THAT'S FUCKING OVERKILL, YOU FUCKING LUNATIC!?"
  • Collapsing Lair: Happened with Azimuth's tower in the seventh thread. The tower was made to collapse by the Big Bad himself, to force the protagonists to flee.
  • Creepy Blue Eyes:
    • Loki and those mind-controlled by him have this.
    • Yukino gets this when using specific powers.
    • Nanami has this as well. The black sclera and the fact that her eyelids close sideways don't help in making the eyes any less creepy.
  • Cultured Badass:
    • Preginald was a DS with a cane and top hat. And a kill-count of millions.
    • Tophat had a large kill-count, and had a top hat as its body.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Loki, Rita, Ness and Nybeth against Bryce and the re-enforcements he brought along in the sixth thread, and the Meta versus Carmen in the seventh thread. In both cases, it didn't end well for the latter.
    • EMily taking on six merfolk, by crushing them with their own armour (using magnetism).
    • The "battle" against pirates in the tenth thread, which was ended in two attacks.
  • Curse: Erica unwittingly put a curse on the city of New York by casting the Ashes of Resurrection spell to revive Anise.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Practically every character had a troubled past of sorts.
    • Royce Maine. He watched his whole team die, and actually caused a few of these deaths himself. Some PTSD is too be expected after something like this.
    • Knife. How does someone who has died so many times stay sane?
    • Varger. Former soldier from a giant space fleet made up of different corporations known as the Conglomerate, Varger received an injury in the field that prevented him from performing in active duty. As a security guard for Asgard corporation he was the only volunteer for the V.A.R.G.E.R program to change him from human to a shape changing cyborg.
    • Renlen. Though no one has clue as to what he might have done. Though his brooding almost got him killed by a bunch of Ethereals, who hunt the soulless; then again, it is a misunderstanding caused by said Ethereals taking Renlen's choice of words a little too literally.
    • Jio lived his life devoid of friends and Satan made his life a living Hell.
    • Jin's parents were killed by Satan, something he originally blamed on Jio. He even spent his early life as a mercenary killing for money. And yet, he is good friends with Jio.
    • Dromaeus was hatched into slavery, and lived as a fugitive after killing his owner.
    • Æanna's family came to grief in a vicious feud that forced her to flee.
  • Description Porn:
  • Deus ex Machina: It's almost impossible to not have these occur from time to time.
    • Joe, the stick man. He was a literal walking talking Deus Ex Machina. He had the power to draw literally anything into existence! Still awesome, though! Everyone loves Joe.
    • In the fifth thread, a friend of one of the protagonists showed up in an attack helicopter, conveniently after their airship crashed.
  • Dimensional Traveler:
    • Joe. But he only can travel to dimensions that he has been to before e.g. The Dimension of Angry Chilli Peppers.
    • Doctor Com. Though it may be just a façade and he could actually be seeing universe through his many dimensional selves rather than actually travelling. (He is known to disappear suddenly.)
    • Renlen. Though he didn't display any Dimensional Hijinks in the first WAOA, he has more than made up for it in the second thread. Going so far as to threaten someone with a certain Dimensional of questionable activities and taking the same person and imprisoning them in the Zone of Silence. They did get a free suit of armour out of it though.
    • Rugal travelled to WAOA to take over it after several attempts to control the Avatar Adventure RP.
    • Severin's story is similar to Rugal's, but with more muffins.
    • Dromaeus's mysterious amulet. This amulet was later used by both Æanna and Erica to travel dimensions, and Tophat learned to travel dimensions from it.
    • Varger's ship can phase in and out of other dimensions to travel great distances or completely travel to another dimension.
    • Trilby has been on a dimensional journey leading him to two thread universes. note 
    • Ness has a dimensional portal in her lab along with transporters for most of her employees.
    • The Homonculi learned to alchemize a means to travel between dimensions, or to pull a person from one dimension to another.
    • Similar to the above, Jack found a way to travel between dimensions, but it required a lot of preparation, and sacrifices.
    • Preginald. Though it was unknown whether he went to multiple dimensions during the first WAOA thread, it became common knowledge that most of his trips were back to his own universe.
    • Conel is the founder and Co of Aperture Science in this universe. he travelled through the multiverse to take over and steal that 'Apertures' funding.
    • Jessica gets to travel dimensions as part of her job.
    • Much like Jessica, travelling dimensions is a part of Edward Alphonse's job. He is also, in his words, a bounty hunter and booty seeker... whatever the latter means. However, these aren't his 'real' job.
    • A large part of the Forefront's operations revolve around dimensional travel, having an entire space station dedicated to it.
  • Downer Ending:
    • In the fourth thread: Terra lost her ability to trust people, and ended up a hermit, living in a sea cave in Mexico. Jean became severely depressed as everyone she cared about left her.
    • In the seventh thread: Harper collapsed under the weight of his stimpack abuse and killed himself. Lasinius was killed by the army after he killed a group of concert goers, believing they were cannibals.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him:
    • James took a knife to the throat when Zen panicked. (Both characters played by TrilbyWill).
    • Doctor Com. One moment, he was alive, the next, BAM, dead.
  • Dual Boss:
    • Nu-13 and Satan's clone, in the Rockbird arc, in the third thread.
    • Skye's dragon, and Yukino, in the virus arc, in the seventh thread.
    • Sundowner and Jetstream Sam, in the opening fight of the Desperado Incursions arc, in the ninth thread.
    • This isn't listening the various moments when a villainous duo decided to attack For the Evulz, which happened a lot in the earlier threads.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady:
    • Envy is often mistaken for female.
    • Although most could tell he's male, Anise often mistook Laguna for female.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Skye knew the protagonists were coming for her and that she had no hope of winning. She still decided to take them on.
  • Dysfunction Junction: We have mentally ill beastkin (one of which was a literal mental illness), violent son of bitches with depressing backstories, and enough evil token teammates to fill the Nile river. Saying dysfunctional to describe this bunch is an understatement. Though, to be fair, this trope was downplayed in the post-WAOA III threads, slightly.
  • Ear Ache:
    • Played for laughs in the sixth thread, where Black pulled on one of Yukino's ears whenever the latter did something the former didn't appreciate.
    • In the seventh thread, once pinned down by Lasinius, Greed slammed his palms onto Lasinius' ears to rupture his eardrums.
  • Easily Forgiven: Varger, twice! In the second thread, he attacked the protagonists without provocation, sided with the villain and proceeded to attack the protagonists two times more, then did so once more, just for the hell of it. And in the third thread, while in Fenris mode, he ate a guy alive, and killed Four's son by eviscerating him. While Four was watching. After all this, no one was so much as hostile towards him.
  • Eaten Alive:
    • Regulus swallowed Laguna whole in the climax of the second thread.
    • Happened to the majority of the people Gluttony attacked.
    • Rose did this to a living scone in the Pie Lord arc, in the third thread.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Envy got the protagonists to help it take down a magic-powered robot.
    • The Meta momentarily helped in the last battle against Seymour Blake.
  • Escape Sequence: This was the case whenever the protagonists encountered Nemesis donning her armour in the fourth thread.
  • Everybody Has Lotsof Sex: That's like the way you start a relationship in WAOA! You say you're attracted and on your first date... Wait, those don't happen... First meeting you have sex!... Bonus points if it's lesbian sex! This tradition was done away with after the forth entry in the series. Largely, anyway.
  • Everyone Is Bi:
    • Ferdinand, Joel (from Concession), Matt, Vriska (technically), Gwen, Four, Mia, Charlotte, Laura, Roland and many more are all either bisexual, or in homosexual relationships yet not confirmed as exclusively homosexual.
    • Vriska is only technically bisexual, as Trolls have no concept of sexuality. So her entire species follows this trope.
  • Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy:
    • The Mason sisters all curtsied when greeting a person, and some times when taking their leave.
    • Yukino curtsies using her jacket instead of a skirt.
    • Carmen curtsies when she feels like being polite.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: In the third thread, Kefka made a tower from the rubble of places he had destroyed. In the seventh thread, Azimuth had very much the same thing. The former was kept standing with magic, the latter with psychic power.
  • Evil Versus Evil: In the seventh thread, Greed and Alice fought the Meta. A few hours later, Carmen did.
  • Evil Wears Black:
    • Hazama wears a black suit.
    • Joel Calley wears black jeans and a trenchcoat.
    • Loki's apparel of choice is primarily black, as is Shadar's robe.
    • Many Homonculi wear black.
    • Azimuth's wizard garb is black.
    • Skye's outfits are black.
    • Camilla wears a black dress.
  • Excuse Me While I Multitask: The massive battle royale in II occurred while the characters were helping out with Four giving birth.
  • Explosive Leash: In the sixth thread, the unwilling workers of a brothel were prevented from escaping by these.
  • Eye Colour Change:
    • The eyes of those who are possessed by a mask of the Court become orange.
    • The eyes of those mind-controlled by Loki will become an unnatural blue colour.
    • Caius', Yukino's, Ness' and Carmen's eyes will change to red, blue, red and yellow respectively when using specific powers or abilities.
    • Anise's eyes were red when she was infected with Skye's virus, but reverted back to blue when cured.
    • Though not seen in-thread, Eve's mind-controlling crystal turns the eyes of the person being controlled blue.
  • Eye Scream:
    • Tophat stabbed a grunt soldier through the eye in the second thread.
    • In the third, Daniel had his eyes gouged out by metaphysical spikes conjured up by Grace, and Erica repeatedly shot a T-virus mutant in the eye.
    • In the seventh thread, Greed was shot in the eye with a bolter round.
  • Fan Disservice: This is what happens when you overdo Fanservice!
    • Dirty's rapist Brigade. A bunch of demons who commit rape, with tentacles. Though that scene was an accident (it's hard to explain) it still managed to be both hilariously funny and seriously creepy. But it was retconned, and even James was pro-retconning it.
    • Part of the 20% of non-fanservice in Rome was Four giving birth to triplet kittens.
    • In the seventh thread, Seras was splashed with acid which dissolved her uniform, exposing her ample bosom. What made this fandisservice is that the acid began dissolving said bosom after that. A day later, very much the same happened, but with fire.
  • Fantastic Racism: Nearly every NPC in the sixth thread was speciest towards Beastkin.
  • The Farmer and the Viper: Erica saved the Meta from his impending doom after his confrontation with commander Farsight and the Tau. She ended up severely regretting doing this.
  • Fearful Symmetry: In the fourth thread, when Terra and Terra-2 dueled, they matched each other move for move.
  • Fiery Cover Up:
    • Greed and Roxy did this when a home owner caught them in the act of home invasion. Greed disposed of the witness while Roxy stole the things were deemed of value. Greed then knocked the gas pipe of the stove loose, lit a candle and left, closing the door behind him.
    • Jessica burned down a brothel to cover up the murder of the owner and release of all the enslaved girls. And also partially out of spite.
  • Filler: A great deal of what happened while Knife was in the future, as that was required to continue Trilby's plot, and Knife was busy with exams at the time, so there wasn't much plot advancement.
  • Final Boss, New Dimension: In the seventh thread, the group was shoved off into a pocket dimension of Skye's before she decided to fight them.
  • Flashback:
  • Floating Continent:
    • There were two of these in the third thread. Rockbird, the lair of Ikaros, and the floating continent from Final Fantasy VI appeared in the third thread.
    • There was also a dual-layered flying city in WAOA5.
    • There were two floating cities in the sixth thread. The second of which was shot down, resulting in obliteration of the unfortunate town below.
  • Flunky Boss:
    • Ikaros and his living statues in the third thread.
    • Hojo summoning a variety of Elite Mooks, in the fourth thread.
    • The demon priestess and a flock of zombies, in the fifth thread.
    • Icarus and his mythril golems and flock of giant flies, in the sixth thread.
    • The first encounter with Seymour and a handful of zombies, in the seventh thread.
    • Mistral and Sundowner, who came with a flock of Mini Geckos and attack helicopters, in the ninth thread.
  • Friend or Foe?:
    • Friendly fire happens surprisingly little, but it does occur from time to time. Mostly when ranged fighters don't hold their fire when melee fighters engage the enemy.
    • In the third thread, Regulus and various mooks make liberal use of the protagonists' lack of strategic formations to the point where they barely had to do anything to hurt them.
  • From a Single Cell: So long as their Philosopher's Stones aren't depleted of souls, Homonculi can recover from any injury, even if that injury is complete disintegration.
  • From Bad to Worse:
    • In the second thread, there was a zombie outbreak, then two usages of weapons of mass destruction (one of which was set off by a protagonist.), then aliens invaded and destroyed every satellite orbiting Earth, followed the orbital bombarding of several locations, and finally the apocalypse.
    • In the Queen of Blades plot, Alice threw Thresher in the seventh floor which caused the stealth mission to fail. Edward accidentally killed a bunch of civilians in a huge explosion along with killing the guards in the security room which the group used as hostages, in turn that led him to have a depressive fit. And worse of all, 'Sarah', the group's employer, got killed at the end by her coworker, Makoto; therefore rendering the group's effort to save her pointless.
  • Gem Heart:
    • Some of the more powerful creatures in WAOA6 had crystal hearts.
    • Raven had a crystal heard, until it was replaced with a real heart by Thanatos for his help in retrieving the Tome of Eldritch Lore.
    • Homonculi have a Philosopher's Stone as a heart.
    • Eve (and other constructs like her) have these, along with other internal crystals.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: In the ninth thread, the group had to chase down Mistral across an oil refinement facility.
  • "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: The protagonists that were involved in the hostage situation in the third arc of the seventh thread were given this by the State of Texas for stopping the zombie apocalypse a few months prior.
  • Government Conspiracy: Averted. In the seventh thread, at the start of the virus arc, a number of the protagonists thought the government was only enlisting the aid of the protagonists so that they could Nuke 'em along with the infected. Turns out, it wasn't so.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot:
    • Roland had a boner when Mia and Four kissed.
    • Pointed out by Outisakanobody's post.
  • A God Am I:
    • When SilverShadow (user) got the 40,000th post, he declared himself 'a God'.
    • This has been a Running Gag on the thread as many people that get posts that are multiples of 10,000 or so posts declare themselves as 'a God'. Those that get posts that are multiples of 1,000 may declare themselves demi-gods. The records for the highest single and highest cumulative posts are Nailik and Kirke, being the gods of 70,000 and 110,000, respectively.
  • Groin Attack: In the second thread, Tophat did this a couple of times. In the eighth thread, Samus nailed a alleged rapist to a wall with a harpoon gun. No prize for guessing where he was hit.
  • Guns vs. Swords: Happens quite often. And usually, the gun user is at a disadvantage.

    H-O 
  • Hairpin Lockpick: Anise used a hairpin to pick a lock at the end of the seventh thread.
  • Hammerspace:
    • Doctor Com has access to hammerspace, along with his evil counterpart, Robert.
    • Dromaeus and Æanna both have satchels with near limitless capacity. Later, Erica acquired one as well.
    • Balthier and Rita have pouches with near infinite capacity.
    • Rozalyn and Loki could store and pull items out of thin air.
    • Similarly, Carmen can store items in and retrieve them from a pocket dimension.
    • Ness can turn objects into data and store this on her PDA.
    • Yukino's armoured suit has compartments meant for holding kunai that are larger on the inside.
  • A Handful for an Eye: Reginald did this by throwing sand that had gathered in his pockets. Tophat threw sand in Æanna's eyes when the two dueled.
  • Hard Head: In the earlier thread, characters were often knocked out for extended periods of time. Especially Laguna. None ever suffered any form of brain damage, however.
  • Harmful to Minors:
    • Children in the series tend to end up having less then stellar mental health. Which is unsurprising, considering the amount of carnage that tends to occur.
    • Ethan the Pokémon trainer averts this trope. He seems to be doing okay other than getting turned into a werewolf and changing into a wolf at night. Which really just means that he has to hide somewhere during the night.
  • Having a Blast: The mooks infected with Skye's virus could generate explosions by punching things. The staff/gauntlet Greed acquired also facilitated this.
  • The Heartless:
    • In the sixth thread, Erica had a Nightmare, an entity indirectly created by Shadar.
    • In the ninth thread, the Midnight Channel forces an individual to have an encounter with their Shadow, entities who embody one's darkest secrets.
  • Heroic BSoD: Joe suffered this after hearing a shocking reveal. Being that he in fact, didn't come to be by a ten-year old putting a lot of love in his drawing, but an AI that latched into said boy's soul.
  • Heroic RRoD: Riou, Jowy and Erica all passed out whenever they over-used the powers of their Runes.
  • Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Except when the heroes go out of their way to request payment.
  • High-Altitude Battle: The battle against the Order of Sanctity in the ninth thread, where Samus and Gwen fought flying- that is, Gwen did the flying and threw Samus at the enemy. Shara fought on top of her ship while it was on autopilot, EMily using a gunport on Dave's ship, with support of an XCOM squad, who fought from the loading bay of their aircraft. This battle doubled as a High-Speed Battle.
  • Hostage Situation:
    • Happened in the seventh thread, where a PMC office was stormed. The situation ended in the deaths of at least seventeen policemen, and three employees. And this was done by the protagonists.
    • In the ninth thread, the merman held up a school, intending to use the students as blood sacrifices.
  • Human Shield:
    • In the second thread, the Kid used Rose as a not-quite-human human shield.
    • In the seventh thread, the Meta used Laguna as a human shield to protect himself from Erica's wrath. Erica wasn't having it, and fired off a spell that she got to decide what it does and doesn't damage.
    • Also in the seventh thread, later than the above, Greed grabbed a police officer in a Hostage Situation at a PMC company. Personnel of said company decided to shoot anyway, which didn't have any effect on Greed.
    • In the ninth thread, the merman used students as human shields when the protagonists busted in and interrupted the mermen's ritual. This just ended up angering EMily, who proceeded to crush the mermen in their own armour using magnetism.
    • Also in the ninth thread, done in a unusual fashion by 'the bug' with Shara. Rather then standing behind her and grabbing her, it only stood over Shara, and let its irradiated blood serve as a deterrent for a Shoot the Hostage Taker scenario. Unfortunately for it, Shara simply threw it off herself.
    • Later in the ninth thread, Sam - much to his dismay - was ordered to capture a downed Victoria,and ended up using her as a shield.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: In the second thread, this was done to get Jio back in control after Satan took over for the first time. Also in the second thread, it was done in an attempt to get Erica back after Regulus took over. It didn't work.
  • Improvised Weapon:
    • Knife and Trilby are Mall Fighters. That's pretty much their entire arsenal.
    • The Meta/Maine uses whatever object at hand to fight, including enemies.
    • Matilda uses her cane and cutlery as weapons, though she does enchant them to make them more dangerous.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Dromaeus is a MALE Argonian. Not a female dinosaur.
    • Erica doesn't appreciate people calling her a witch, instead of a sorceress or mage.
  • Kraken and Leviathan: In both the fourth and ninth thread, a Krakan made a appearance, although in both instances, no more then their tentacles were seen.
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    • This tends to happen frequently within the thread. Several characters have pointed out that they come from completely different places or different versions of the same planet or future.
    • Satan did this to Conall when he pointed out that Winona would have to return to her own time and universe without him, eventually.
    • Joe, the stickman, basically lives off this trope, even using it to fight - he tends to turn to his side, making him basically invisible.
    • Several characters have been shown to have two different voices, usually because there is another entity within them, which is usually symbolized by different text colors, and have switched between them. Occasionally within the same sentence. This has caused various reactions by other characters.
    • Several characters have been identified as Chroniclers. This basically allows them to read the very thread, giving them knowledge of things they shouldn't know normally. Though they can't read the Out of Character comments.
    • As of the seventh thread, characters have begun pointing how that (almost) all of them speak the same language despite being from different universes.
    • In the ninth thread, Winona mentioned people suddenly disappearing, calling this 'The Bus Phenomenon'.
    • In both the third and ninth threads, several characters commented on that the respective ships the protagonists were staying in kept increasing in size. This was due to the players not knowing the layout of the ships, and thus made things up, which then became canon.
  • Last-Second Word Swap: Done by Anise with Laguna in the seventh thread, where she was addressing Laguna with 'miss', but caught herself and corrected it. "Misssssster Laguna."
  • Licking the Blade: Kyo is fond of this. Yukino was too, until she learned that ingesting blood is a good way to contract diseases.
  • Living Polyhedron: In the second and third threads, Medea and Athena's angel forms were a sphere and a collection of blocks, respectively.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: A particular scene in the fifth thread had the protagonists live out their greatest desires. This would then crash and burn around them, as they were made to relive their single most worst memory.
  • Love Triangle: In the sixth thread, both Jessica and Lyra were in love with Ness.
  • Little Bit Beastly: Do you think that we'll be satisfied with Cat Girls only? Yeah right! We have a crazy (but became less crazy due to Character Development) fox-bitch named Yukino, a half dog named Yumi, a squirrelgirl named Makoto, a tube-rat... err... ferret girl named Sophia, a sheep girl named Amelia, and even a dragongirl named Priscilla.
  • Made of Explodium: Prinnies are highly volatile and prone to exploding. This much to the amusement of Jack of Blades.
  • Made of Iron:
    • A lot of the characters get thrown around, fall from the sky or otherwise beaten to hell, but tend not to die.
    • The Meta in VII survived an ice-spike to the face, and falling out of a tornado in a van, among other things.
  • Mage Tower: In the sixth thread, a seven-story tower served as a mage college.
  • Magitek:
    • The magic-powered robot in WAOA6, as well as all devices in Xiphatia.
    • Elm has and jet-bike it frequently controls have aetherlogical components to them.
  • Mass Hypnosis: Done on the majority of the people in Regina by the Followers of the Dragonborn.
  • Mega Crossover: The entire point of the thread is to make this happen. Hell, Rugal and Severin crossed over from another Crossover Role Play!
  • Mind Screw: In the second thread, Æanna was made to experience a mix of disturbing sounds and sensations. It was thought to be a case of Mind Rape, both in-universe, and out. But it turned out to be her reliving what it was like being born.
  • Misplaced Wildlife: In the seventh thread, Qual encountered a bear in the countryside south of London. In the same thread, Roxy encountered a wolf in roughly the same area.
  • Mistaken for Granite:
    • In the third thread, Ikaros fought alongside several statues that came to life.
    • Subverted in the seventh thread. When Greed traversed Shadar's castle and neared the throne room, he expected the two gargoyles sitting outside the door would come to life. It turned out they were in fact, just regular statues.
  • Molotov Truck: In the seventh thread, Torrin rigged a van to blow, which he drove into a small horde of zombies.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Alvarez was rather fond of preforming vivisection on those who succumbed to the Logan virus. She also showed great interest in creating Homonculi with Greed, despite knowing the costs of this. She eventually saw the error of her ways.
  • Mysterious Watcher: Prior to being found out, Sam and Elm were this. After making their escape, they later found the protagonists again, and watched them from the distance.
  • Narnia Time: Between the various dimensions the characters come from, time flows at a different pace. This can vary from a few days, to a several centuries.
  • Nebulous Evil Organisation:
    • Forefront, a shadowy organization running extra-dimensional operations qualifies as this. At least dealing in theft and, necromancy, and using resurrected individuals for slave labour. If not persuaded otherwise by Shara in the ninth thread, abduction and blackmail would've been added to that list.
    • With how the world was run with a policy of Bread and Circuses, the W.A.O.A also applies.
  • Nerf: In the early threads, the protagonists had enough firepower to level streetblocks, with the villains having enough to level cities. By the seventh thread, the protagonists had just about enough firepower to level a building or two between them while the villains might severely damage a streetblock if they tried really hard.
  • No Body Left Behind:
    • In the third thread, Joe disappeared in a burst of light upon death.
    • In the fourth thread, Hojo's disappeared into lifestream strands upon his death, after largely merging with it.
    • Happens to Homonculi when they die. Severed body parts also turn to dust even if they're still alive.
  • No Fourth Wall: With Doctor Com around, the fourth wall is non-existent. He routinely breaks it, outright stating that the people who are reading this are actually a work of fiction themselves. It has been completely removed, and now the actual players are characters. And those characters can talk to the Real Life players, playing them.
  • No Periods, Period: The majority of the characters are female, and they spend a lot of time nude. Over periods of months.
  • No-Sell:
    • Joe is immune to attacks from blunt weapons. Varger's and Space Marine armour is immune to electrical damage and heat. Chanda, Yukino and Carmen are immune to heat and fire. Rex is immune to electrical damage. Riou, Jowy and later, Erica and Anise are immune to things affecting their souls and lifeforce, as well as diseases. Homonculi are immune to poisons and diseases. Rika is immune to some forms of magic.
    • Laguna lampshaded the fact that he often suffers cranial damage, but never a concussion. He reasoned he must therefore be immune to concussions.
    • Many mooks and bosses have been immune to something or other. Too many to list.
  • Odd Friendship: Lasinius, a zealous, duty-bound space marine, and Harper, a space marine that was dishonourably discharge, has a drug addiction and a rather large criminal record.
  • Offstage Waiting Room: The only way to explain why villains are willing to wait for out "heroes" to finish talking or getting ready before completing their plans.
  • Oh, My Gods!:
    • Characters from the Imperium of Man do this, calling on the name of their God-Emperor.
    • Æanna and Erica also do this, calling on the name of their world's pantheon, The Nine.
  • One-Gender Race: Ashanians, the race of cat girls.
  • One-Winged Angel: There have been a whole host of these, with Big Bads, henchmen, and even some mooks undergoing a transformation.
    • Varger had three of these. A robotic wolf and dragon in WAOA 2, and a reality shifting cobra in WAOA 3.
    • James had this in WAOA 3, when succumbed to the T-Virus, turning into a largely skinless, quadrupedal monstrosity with a giant eye bulging from its shoulder.
    • Terra-2 had two of these, first transforming into a humanoid creature covered in pink fur, and later, merging with a towering doomsday machine.
    • Envy reveals its true form as a Eldritch Abomination when cornered or sufficiently angered.
    • Seymour Blake first grew skeletal appendages, and later transformed into a winged demonic creature.
  • Only Mostly Dead: In the cases of Erica, Carmen and Tophat, their bodies died, but their souls were stored in a dagger and staff respectively. After their souls were plopped into a new body, they were fine.
  • The Only One: Especially true in the earlier threads, everyone seems incapable to minimize the damage villains cause without the protagonists helping out.
  • Opposites Attract: Black and Yukino became a couple, despite them having rather radically different personalities.
  • Original Character: Lots. In fact, there are more OCs then there are established characters.
  • Ouroboros:
    • The Homonculi all have the mark somewhere on their bodies. Envy, its left outer thigh. Greed, back of the left hand. Gluttony, the tongue.
    • After becoming one, Salvatore had it on the palm of his right hand.
  • Our Princess Is In Another Castle:
    • In the fourth thread, the protagonists were tasked with retrieving a divine tome from a thief. This went as followed: Thanatos would appear before the protagonists to reveal where the thief was hiding, the protagonists would seek out and confront the thief, whereafter the thief would flee. This process repeated itself several times.
    • The first plot of the seventh thread had the protagonists seeking out Seymour, who fled twice before standing his ground.
  • Our Souls Are Different: There have been many characters with powers governing the soul/spirit/heart/mind. This can and has lead to some confusion.

    P-Z 
  • Patrick Stewart Speech: A Running Gag.
    • In the third thread, this was given to Sara and Riou to Kefka after he commented that all of existance had no meaning. He wasn't impressed.
    • In the fifth thread, this was given by Bryce, to Alex Mercer, after the latter commented humanity was evolutionary stagnant. He, also, was not impressed.
    • In the ninth thread, it was given by EMily to Victoria and Matilda, after they commented cities were nothing to get excited over. Neither were impressed.
  • Pervert Revenge Mode: Samus smacked Yorick in the face with her Arm Cannon, aided by a kinetic burst, after Yorick slapped her on her rear.
  • Plot Armor: In the early threads, characters could be assaulted by missile barrages and not recieve so much as a scratch. The amount of plot armour characters enjoyed diminished after WAOA3, and by WAOA6 it was practically gone.
  • Plot-Powered Stamina: The times someone grew tired in battle that wasn't the result of a Heroic RRoD can be counted on one hand.
  • Polar Opposite Twins: Yukino and Skye. Coincidentally, they also developed in polar opposite ways. Yukino started out as someone who delighted in bloodshed and became more noble in fighting to protect others. Skye started as a Morality Pet for Yukino, and ended up wishing to kill Ness, spreading her virus in New York and essentially taking the entire city hostage.
  • Portal Slam: Connal nearly killed Tanner by having him fall through portals, then removing the portal located on a steel wall, leaving Tanner to slam headfirst into it.
  • Potty Emergency: When she was held prisoner by the group due to being suspected of wilfully causing a bloodbath, Rika had this. Fortunately for her, Milly let her go.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • Æanna cursed once after killing a Thalmor agent.
    • Sara Mason swore once after Kefka angered her enough with his nihilistic views.
    • Erica swore when confronting James, and to a lesser extent when denied vengeance for the apparent death of her friend in WAOA7.
    • Cloud cussed when Terra became distressed as various people kept questioning her.
    • Carmen generally speaks in a well-mannered way, but cussed on some occasions when sufficiently annoyed.
  • Private Military Contractors: Desperado, a company of Cyborgs, out to start a War for Fun and Profit.
  • Properly Paranoid: In the seventh thread, the majority of the protagonists were wary of the invitation to the private island. Although not due to the reasons they suspected, they would've been better off had they not went.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality:
    • In the third thread, the protagonists stole clothing and money from the cash register from a store keeper that had been murdered in front of them. They also stole his wallet.
    • In the fifth thread, the protagonists were fine with Yukino tagging along, who then was still a complete psychopath, and didn't shy away from showing it.
    • In the eighth thread, no one was bothered by Samus shooting a (non-hostile) mook in the crotch with a harpoon, without having any evidence he had done anything wrong.
    • In the beginning of the seventh thread, no one was bothered by Torrin stealing a total of four vehicles.
    • The ninth thread. Hoo, boy. Samus and Yorrick shot injured people captured by the mermen, calling it a Mercy Kill, although neither bothered getting the victims to the hospital, or even checking the state they were in other than a glance. Numerous people stole from dead foes. They sat idly by whilst Joel stuck his arm down Kamshin's throat and cooked his oesophagus. They also sat idly by whilst Victoria stuck a knife in a disabled mook's gullet and twisted it around, just for the hell of it. As long as they only prey on foes, the group stated they had no problem with Joanna devouring souls. And no one cared when Joel stole a car, everyone eagerly going along with it.
  • Psychic Static: In the third thread, in the battle against angel!Athena, Joe filled his mind with senseless drivel to counter-act her mind reading.
  • Psycho for Hire: After being told he was expected to cause as much chaos as possible, Jack was quite happy to agree to work for the Followers of the Dragonborn.
  • Punch a Wall:
    • In the third thread, Grace punched the hull of the Tanner after a confrontation with Athena.
    • In the seventh thread, the Meta punched a wall on two occasions to let off some steam.
  • Put on a Bus
    • Raziel was left in the Spectral Realm after his battle with Alex Mercer.
    • Travis Touchdown was last seen chilling with Doc Sparkle.
    • Both Shara and Sam were last seen duelling aboard the Sworder. The outcome of their duel, is as of yet, unknown.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: No matter the thread, the protagonists are always this. Coordination? Tactics? Expect to see none of that.
  • Rainbow Speak: Used to make speech stand out, and also to make it more obvious when a character's voice changes significantly (usually because they have a second personality that's taken over).
  • Rapid Aging:
    • The cat-people in the second thread. They matured to adulthood in a few days.
    • The clones from the fourth thread were aged to adulthood via Time Materia.
  • Really 700 Years Old:
    • Riou and Jowy look like their in their mid-teens, despite being well over a hundred years old.
    • Erica looks like she is in her early twenties, while being 374 years old by the time of the seventh thread.
    • Yukino and Majeh look 19 and 17 respectively, while both are over 300.
    • Caius looks to be in his early twenties while being over 1700.
    • Envy looks like it's in its teens, while being 175.
    • Loki looks to be in his early thirties, while being well over a thousand-years old.
    • Greed and Carmen look like they're in their early twenties, while being over 200 and 1800 respectively.
    • Etna looks like an adolescent girl, while being well over 1400 years old.
    • Trilby is biologically in his late teens, but is chronologically over 200. Knife may be in a similar situation.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: Mr Bug helped spread a virus throughout East Africa, in the summer of 2014.
  • Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: The simple way to wrap up the earlier threads was to cause planet-wide destruction. Characters, some of whom are immortal, leave the group, but not the universe.
  • Running Gag:
    • The WAOA Drinking Game. Every time something becomes a running gag, it is added to the Drinking Game.
    • Taking a shot when either HatchyHatch14 or Random Berk get the last post on a page.
    • Take a shot whenever Salty argues with someone. Usually Outis, Rosh or Gear.
    • Joe and his constant habit of getting covered in rubble, traumatizing any NPC cooks that are unlucky to serve him, and with some of the more violent characters, having his face slammed into the floor.
    • Various characters having physical reactions to naked women.
    • Antarctica being some Doom Magnet for blowing up the world.
    • Another gag related to the drinking game is that actually playing the drinking game would kill you in minutes.
    • When the setting is Earth, expect Paris to suffer extreme or complete destruction. Because no one likes this French. This was even lampsaded by Dr. Alvarez.
      Dr. Alvarez: (after hearing news about Shadar's work in Paris) Guess this place isn't the only one getting hit by stupid crap like this... Then again, no one really cares about the French.
    • "Walking Fridge" is commonly used to describe Space Marines or other individuals with oversized armour. Sometimes used by the more comical characters in the series.
  • Sadistic Choice:
    • When Ness was captured by Loki, he gave a brainwashed Jessica two choices: She was to either kill Ness herself, or watch her suffer a literal Death of a Thousand Cuts. Fortunately for both Jessica and Ness, Loki was convinced to brainwash Ness instead.
    • Not being too pleased a pirate crew stole everything in his estate that wasn't nailed down, Greed tracked the crew down, killed the opposition, then gave those who surrendered two options: Either one of them was to kill the rest of their crewmates and live, or every one of them would die. They chose the second option.
  • Schizo Tech: Most threads have this, due to being set on modern Earth, and getting people and groups from sci-fi and fantasy universes showing up.
    • The sixth thread had this before the group arrived, due to one country being technologically advanced, and the other being unable to use that tech. This meant mechs and people with laser rifles could go up against people with swords. When the group entered the scene, the sword-using Xiphatians would be marching into battle with gun-wielders and cyborgs.
    • The ninth thread seems to be heading this way. Desperado brought in HF blades and cybernetics, which XCOM now have. Shara and Phaesan both brought XCOM technologically advanced gear.
  • Sequential Boss: The Medea, Athena and Ikaros battles in the third thread. They start out in their human form, turn into something more monstrous when cornered, and go full on One-Winged Angel when pushed further.
  • Shown Their Work: Slenn, in basing the majority of the Mason sister's powers on hard science.
  • Slashed Throat:
    • Dromaeus dispatched of various mooks this way. Loki did this to someone who stood in his way, then framed another thorn in his side for it.
    • Victoria's throat was slashed in her back story.
  • Slave Mooks: The brainwashed Brazilian civilians Kefka sicked on the protagonists, in the thread thread, and Valantine's clone army, that appeared a few days later. As they were modified to be powered and controlled by disembodied souls, Kefka's Magitek armours apply, too.
  • Sliding Scale of Villain Threat:
    • Barring a few instances, the enemies encountered in the seventh thread posed a increasingly greater threat. First was Seymour Blake and his zombie horde, who was a city-level threat. Then came Azimuth and his followers of wizards and mystic knights, who were a state-level threat. After this came Skye and her spreading viral outbreak, who were also a state-level threat, but considered a national threat.
    • Both Shadar and the Followers of the Dragonborn started as a city-level threat, but may likely have grown beyond that.
  • Small Role, Big Impact:
    • Sable. His appearances are few and far between, but if he hadn't shown up, Four wouldn't have gotten his castle, and Ashania would never have come to be. This would mean Jessica was never born, leaving Ness single. Loki wouldn't have brainwashed Jessica, and wouldn't been able to topple the majority Xiphatian royal family without her teleporting abilities, and would have had his plans foiled by Tophat and the Rookie, thus Ragnarök would never come into existence.
    • Bryce. Although having more appearances then the above, his were still few. Regardless, if it wasn't for him, Skye wouldn't have been born/created, thus completely avoiding the virus plot in the seventh thread. Roxy would still be alive, and Anise would've remained an orphan. The protagonists would've never been invited to the island resort, meaning Erica wouldn't have died.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Salvatore and Qual'Pilz had a case of this upon their first meeting.
    Qual: If you must, pecker head, you do whatever you need to not have that brain of yours leak out of your ears.
    Salvatore: Kind of ironic calling me that when you have a literal mushroom head, don't you think, Q?
    Qual: How very observant of you! I hadn't noticed.
    Salvatore: Really? Well that would explain why you would use such an ironic insult, a shame you had to embarrass yourself like that before you noticed your little physical condition.
    Qual: You're just jealous that you don't have one an eighth the size of this.
  • So Proud of You: Erica said this to Anise in their last few moments together.
  • Space Station: Forefront has one as their base for extra-dimensional operations.
  • Standard Human Spaceship: In the third thread, the Tanner appeared, being described as a "space brick" by some.
  • Status Effects:
    • Kefka made use of a plethora of debuffs.
    • Erica often used a spell which made a target lose all hostile intentions, and one that paralysed them.
  • Steel Eardrums:
    • Suffering hearing loss due to firing guns and launching explosives without ear protection? There shall be none of that!
    • Ness suffered no adverse effects while being exposed to sound waves said to be equal to the shock wave produced by a bomb exploding next to one's ear.
    • Victoria suffered no hearing loss from a jet engine starting up mere feet away from her, had Steel Eardrums more literally, due to being a Cyborg.
    • Averted with Jessica, who due to having hearing far more sensitive hearing than humans, was rendered permanently deaf by the event in the first example. Or at least it would have been permanent if not for healing magic.
  • Storming the Castle: There have been multiple instances of this, most notably:
    • The group attacking Rugal's office building and Preginald's base in WAOA1.
    • The assault on the Floating Continent, Kefka's tower and the Pie Lord's tower in WAOA3.
    • Attacking Azimuth's tower in WAOA VII.
  • Superpowered Evil Side:
    • Jio and Satan share the same body, and Erica shared a body with Regulus. Both eventually did away with their evil sides. Black has Insane Rock Shooter.
    • Joel's elemental side isn't evil, just very violent.
  • Surveillance Drone: Watchers, floating drones shaped like an eye, deployed by Forefront to monitor extra-dimensionals.
  • Swirly Energy Thingy: Every portal in the series takes on this form.
  • Talking to the Dead: In the sixth thread, Tophat returned to Earth from the third thread, and went to visit the graves of the various characters who died there, and in the second thread, and said a line in front of each of them.
  • Tears of Fear: In a cast comprised almost exclusively of badasses, the instances where this happens are few and far between. Every once in a blue moon, however, it does.
    • In the seventh thread, Rika cried in fear after a fire elemental emerged and caused a fair amount of damage.
    • Also in the seventh thread, during the virus arc, Roxy cried in fear. And that was the last thing she did before being killed by Greed.
  • There Are No Girls on the Internet: Every player is male note . This was lampshaded, leading to Slenn becoming an honorary woman (simply because other players accidentally used 'she' and 'her' when talking about him).
  • There Are No Therapists: For all the mental problems the Dysfunction Junction of a cast tend to have, none ever bother to get therapy.
  • Title Drop:
    • In the fifth thread, the thread's subtitle "You're Not in Kansas Anymore" was said by Bryce.
    • As of the sixth thread, an organisation which is called the Wheaton Altiverse Organization Association, or WAOA for short, exists.
  • Time-Limit Boss: The third thread featured three of these. The fight against Medea, where Four was placed on a scale, which would kill her once it tipped to the bottom. The second against Ikaros was a race against the clock as the Doomsday Device he activated kept on working towards the end of the world. Later, the battle against 'Godess' was a race against the clock as she inflicted the majority of the protagonists with a curse that would turn them into zombies.
  • Token Good Teammate: General Sherman, Joe, Renlen, Laguna, Makoto, Ness and Eve are among the few actually good heroes, which is worse when you realize how many 'heroes' there have been.
  • Token Evil Teammate: 'Token' is pushing it.
    • Beauty Queen Etna pilfered billions in goods from dead civilizations, destroyed an irreplaceable piece of Japanese history, (basically) enslaved the souls of the damned, threatened to blow up the planet on multiple occasions, and attempted to convince members of the group to kill each other for her own amusement.
    • Hellosh burned down a forest for the hell of it and almost killed a group member.
    • Archimedes tried to brutally beat a little girl to death.
    • After joining the group Maine has cut down on murdering people. He will still kill anyone he can get away with. At least, until he had enough of putting up with the group and turned on them.
    • Trilby is an interplanetary terrorist, drug dealer, arsonist, murderer and thief.
    • Greed occasionally went on stealing sprees, extorted others, killed various people who stole from him, tried to take advantage of naive women twice, sought to distribute a dangerous virus, and ultimately agreed to murder people on someone's behalf in exchange for more power. He is not a good person.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Four went from having a sword and an SMG to getting a mech suit. Then another mech suit that could fly and had a rail-gun. And then another mech suit with missile launchers and combat drones.
  • Toontown: Joe's home world, visited in the third thread, being a 2D world of stickmen and living baked goods.
  • Tortured Monster: In the seventh thread, two infected were this. Both were put out of their misery, although one ended up wishing he picked someone else to do the deed.
  • To Win Without Fighting:
    • Done in the beginning of the sixth thread, by Loki, of all people. Where he talked an elder faerie down.
    • Also done by EMily in the ninth thread, convincing the merfolk to stand down.
  • Trapped in Another World: This is the main theme of every WAOA thus far. Very few characters have been exempt from it.
  • Villain Team-Up:
    • The Dark Souls, Hazama and Kessler.
    • Regulus and the forces of Chaos.
    • Emory, Joel and Regulus. Although this alliance never really got off the ground.
    • Relius and Nu-11 teamed up with Ikaros and his band of Recipes.
    • Valentine, Regulus, Kefka, William and a bunch of others in WAOA 3's League of evil.
    • Loki and Envy formed an alliance that was as shaky as it was brief.
    • The Followers of the Dragonborn used Jack and Renard to cause chaos for their own plans.
    • Camilla and Vice. Which were aliases for Milly and Carmen.
    • Greed had made a agreement with Carmen, and later with Shadar. In both cases, it things didn't really take off.
  • Villains Act, Heroes React:
    • This was the case in the early threads. Especially the third one, where the protagonists knew of highly dangerous villains walking about, yet did nothing until said villains caused some trouble.
    • The seventh thread also had this, where Shadar turned Paris into a monster-infested necropolis, covered by a poison gas cloud, and the protagonists largely ignored it, instead going on vacation. Greed took notice, but he only went to Paris with the intention to loot as much as he could carry.
  • Violence is the Only Option: Just try to find a conflict that isn't solved with (possibly excessive amounts of) violence.
  • Violent Glaswegian: Trilby.
    Alang wi' rolain, fa, efter gettin' some drugs pumped intae heem, proceed tae gie a bad Scottish accent, an' started shootin' at reg.
  • Walking Techbane: The Xiphatians in the sixth thread were this. At least, to tech native to that world. Extra-dimensional tech was exempt from the effects.
  • Walking the Earth: Lambda set out on doing this in the third thread. What happens to her afterwards was purposely left up in the air.
  • Water Tower Down:
    • In the forth thread, Marcus tipped a water tower over, the water of which Terra then electrified.
    • In the seventh thread, Alice had Greed's Pokémon drop a water tower on a small horde of infectees.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • In the fourth thread, Hojo's plans awakened the WEAPONS. Sapphire was destroyed by the group, and Emerald when it attacked Hojo's ship. The rest? They were never encountered, nor mentioned again, after their introduction.
    • In the seventh thread:
      • Kara became addicted to Milly's blood. After a single mention of withdrawal symptoms, however, this wasn't mentioned again.
      • There was a ghost who pleaded the protagonists to get a message to her lover. The ghost eventually just disappeared, and the subject was never touched upon again.
      • Otto left a message wherein he asked that his manifesto was brought to a publisher. Nothing ever came of this.
      • A group of witches came looking for Rika (who at that point had already left home) and fought the protagonists thinking they were lying to protect Rika. After the defeat of this group, the subject never came up again.
      • It was stated a mysterious visitor carrying an invitation card was approaching the mansion on the private island, while the protagonists were having dinner. This mention of this individual was also the only one.
  • When Trees Attack: In the sixth thread, Envy faced these when setting fire to a village, which brought the wrath of the native treants upon it. note 
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: All the threads end with a separate epilogue for every character, with possible exception if a character was too minor to be given an epilogue or if they died. The sixth thread also mentioned what had become of the various locales in a general epilogue.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity:
    • Maine was significantly enhanced by having an AI in his head. That AI later broke his mind and made him hunt down his former team-mates for more AI and equipment.
    • Jack, a blood mage and swordsman, goes completely manic around fresh blood.
  • Wizard Duel: Azimuth versus Erica. It started out on a crumbling platform in Azimuth's tower, then turned into a Free-Fall Fight, and ended up in a desolate wasteland of a dimension Azimuth had conquered.
  • Workout Fanservice: In the fifth thread, Rozalyn walking in on Royce Maine, who had worked up a sweat punching a punching bag.
  • World-Healing Wave: This happened at the conclusion to the main plot of the fourth thread, where every person on Earth that had been killed with the Tome of Eldritch Lore was brought back to life.
  • Written by the Winners: At the end of the sixth thread, Loki banned all regional and national holidays, and made referencing the past prior to his taking over a serious offence.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Regulus pulled one off in the second thread. Either the Space Marines incited Exterminatus, destroying the world, or the world would be left saturated in Warp energy, making it a breeding ground for all sorts of nastiness, and a surefire way for Regulus to increase in power.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: There has been quite a bit of this.
    • Regulus. At the beginning, he/she/it/whatever speaks in Ye olde English with an occasional valleygirl dialect. However, further in WAOA II, he/she/it/whatever dropped his/her/its/whatever valley-girl dialect.
    • Due to Dirty not knowing about old Engish much at V's time, Tarkus mixes both broken Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe with modern English.
    • Because he did his research this time, Dirty managed to subvert this trope with Priscilla. Her speech is spot on most of the time, though Dirty does make occasional mistakes.
  • Zerg Rush:
    • In the seventh thread, the protagonists faced Seymour, who had surrounded himself with a zombie horde of over a hundred thousand strong. What ensued, was this.
    • In the ninth thread, the first battle of the Mann-ly Adventure had the protagonists facing dozens of Scout-bots whose tactics consisted of 'charge at the enemy and beat them down'. The protagonists were quick to issue a tactical withdrawal. Even the Blood Knights amongst them.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: WAOA loves this trope. There was a full-blown zombie outbreak practically as soon as WAOA2 started, there was a smaller zombie outbreak in Paris in WAOA3, and not one, but two zombie outbreaks in WAOA7. The first was in Dallas, brought about by necromancer, Seymour Blake, the second one was brought about by Erica in New York after casting a spell she really shouldn't have.

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