Thaco: We are NOT jumping off this roof to our deaths! (long pause) Thaco: We're jumping off THAT roof to our deaths. It's got a tree.
Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes is a webcomic written, penciled, and colored by Tarol Hunt, nicknamed Thunt, following the adventures of a band of, well, goblins, as they fight off evil adventurers. It's a role reversal of the typical adventure RPG Dungeons And Dragons, though familiarity with the game isn't required to understand what's happening.The main story follows five members of a cannon-fodder goblin tribe (Thaco, Chief, Big-Ears, Complains-of-Names, and Fumbles) who decide to stop being cannon fodder and become Player Characters. A side plot follows a sixth goblin (Dies-Horribly) who goes on a solo adventure arc quite against his will. It features detailed world-building (including quite a few whole-cloth, background creatures with detailed biologies) and characterization, particularly of the villains. One of the goblin characters, Big-Ears, is a rare instance of a truly gentle, heroic and noble paladin, while the paladin status of the most opaque and brutal villain, Kore, thus far is one of the most foreboding mysteries.The comic doesn't give its characters very long to get used to their newfound abilities as heroes. Goblins thrusts its main characters in over their heads almost immediately, locks them into a course of action they can't possibly handle, and then calls into play a series of oddities, Deus ex Machina, coincidences, character-driven actions, more Deus ex Machina, and Chekhov's Guns that collectively get the heroes into a position where they might possibly be able to escape their impossible predicament. Because it didn't seem like they'd get into this much danger this quickly, the story instantly became edge-of-your-seat reading.The comic is also known for its twice-weekly (usually) update schedule, juggling three plots at the same time, spending literally months on mook battles, and skipping comic updates to advertise products.The site also hosts a sub-comic, Tempts Fate, about a lone goblin adventurer facing various dangers each comic. This part is Thunt's donation scheme and thus, people would have to stop supporting Thunt's artistic endeavors to kill Tempts Fate off. So far, he's survived every death trap.For the completely unrelated computer game, see Gobliiins. For goblins in general, see Our Goblins Are Different.
Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes provides examples of:
Drowbabe misunderstands the purpose of the Mage Armor spell, thinking it lessens the damage she takes (when it actually makes it easier to dodge incoming blows). When Ears points out how the spell works, she realises she should have taken more damage earlier in the battle, and promptly dies.
Minmax's oblivion sword is only able to exist because his mind can't fathom the concept of oblivion. In fact, Kin theorises that his ignorance might make the weapon more powerful. Minmax, naturally, immediately names the sword "Oblivious".
Seemingly a deconstruction of the trope. The Goblins and such are portrayed as creatures who are just trying to survive in a world where they are seen as mere XP Fodder.
It's also justified in the case of the Elite Guard: In one scene Thaco compares the Elite Guards' motivations to those of the standard city guard, and for the rest of the comic, it's okay to assume that the Elite Guards are Always Lawful Evil. Ears the Paladin confirms this with his Detect Evil ability.
Amazing Technicolor Population: The goblins have a wide range of skin colors, including various shades of green, yellow, orange, brown... and the Viper clan goblins are all chalk-white. Hilariously lampshaded in this comic:
Saves-a-Fox: Okay, now try a skin coloured one. Grem: You mean a white one? K'seliss: She means a green one. Saves-a-Fox: I mean an orange one!
Fortunately, the souls the demon owns were apparently released when she was banished from the Material Plane.
Angrish: A mild case of it, in terms of speechless anger, when Chief has just prayed to his god that there'd be no guards around the corner; this is his reaction.
Arrow Catch: Thaco in this comic. Not surprising considering he's a monk, and foreshadowed earlier.
Art Evolution: Thunt's style and technique have both improved significantly over the course of the comic's lifetime, most recently adding shading to the strip. The difference is so stark that the first page of the archive, rather than being the first strip of the comic, is a page showing just how much the art has changed over time.
As You Know: Psion Minmax feels the need to tell his version of Kin that he's killed her 817 times, and that she remembers them all, along with some other exposition that she really should know by now.
Kin: Don't throw the spear! Chief: Why not? Kin: I can't keep them back for long! They're going to rush in here in a moment, and that's our only melee weapon! (Chief throws the magic spear, and it reappers in his hand) Kin:(after a beat panel)THROW THE SPEAR!
Badass Mustache: Fumbles, or rather Señor Vorpal Kickass'o, tries to invoke this trope with his fake mustache.
Bad End: Our group narrowly avoids the end an equivalent group gets.
Baleful Polymorph: A good reason not to use the random-effect magic shield Complains picks up. Alternately, a good reason TO use it if utterly and hopelessly outnumbered.
Barbarian Hero: Minmax was already fitting the trope when a pure fighter (by D&D rules). As of this comic, he has officially taken his first level of barbarian. (With the "extra rage" feat, as befitting of a good minmaxer.)
Minmax: The strength bonus from raging is totally awesome!
Batman Gambit: Lampshaded. When Thaco challenges Dellyn to a duel, both of them know that Thaco has some sort of trap planned. Nonetheless, Dellyn accepts when Thaco points out that the only alternative is for Dellyn to order his soldiers to kill Thaco, and bear the reputation of not being able to kill a single old, frail goblin.
Battle Aura: Called Individual Magical Effect (I.M.E.) in-story.
Battle in the Rain: The first fight between the goblin warcamp and the adventurers.
Bavarian Fire Drill: Part of the backstory for minor character Sticks involves him bluffing a Brassmoon guard into thinking he's not an orc, but a soldier who's been polymorphed into an orc to infiltrate an army of orcs who are besieging the city.
Bearer of Bad News: Kin, explaning about the Maze of Many's counter. She really, really would rather NOT be doing so.
Because Destiny Says So: Many goblins with names that aren't the case already will be happening. For example, the goblin named "Dies-Horribly".
One example is when Ears comes back to save the other goblins from the plant-possessed orcs.
Big "NO!": Big-Ears when he finds out that Chief is dead.
Bilingual Bonus: After the initial three Driz'zt-clones get killed off, one of their players re-rolls a Japanese ninja...er, Samurai. The character's name: Baka. Which, in Japanese, is the word for "Fool".
Bizarre Alien Biology: Kin's top half looks human enough, sure, but a discussion with Minmax proves that her insides are definitely different.
Black Eyes of Crazy: When a goblin is enraged, his pupils dilate, making his eyes completely black.
Blessed with Suck: Getting an awesome, new, set of armor from the Shield of Wonder. That grows until it crushes you to death horribly.
Blue and Orange Morality: K'seliss views fighting, eating, and mating as aspects of the same thing... and therefore believes that fighting anything he can't eat or mate with is sickeningly perverted, and refuses to do so. He also thinks eating the fingers and limbs of a potential mate is an acceptable display of affection. It's also implied that his entire race is like this, despite the fact that there's no more biological justification for it than there is for humans.
Dies-Horribly: How can a book knock clothing off an Amazon? Is it even possible? I mean, they hardly wear anything to begin with.
Body Horror: Goblins is not for the faint-hearted.
One of the Shield of Wonder's favorite tricks is to inflict horrific transformations on those who strike it (or anyone around them). An unlucky accident causes it to try to transform Complains into a demon. It partially succeeds before Big-Ears stops the effect. Complains now has scales, clawed fingers and fangs.
Though hardly the worst seen, one of the goblins that survives the escape from Brassmoon is a young female whose missing all the skin along her back, leaving her spinal column among other bones fully and completely exposed.
In March 2010, we discover that Minmax has Improved Unarmed Strike as a result of trading in his ability to rhyme on purpose. In July 2011, Forgath tricks him into reciting "I'm a Little Teapot", and sure enough, he can't even get the rhymes right.
A joke where the punchline comes seven years later: SummonBadger!
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Invoked. After their duel has finished, Thaco tells Dellyn that he intends to remember the fight as a 'random encounter' and that it will definitely not become the subject of goblin legend.
Buxom Is Better: Drowbabe and her replacement character. Lampshaded by Minmax to likely be the product of some lonely teenager who barely knows what women are like. Since Yodette isn't (literally and deliberately) falling out of her top, it's possible that Drowbabe's player is learning — a little. Maybe.
Not-Walter refers to Minmax as "bald turd". So does Alt Not-Walter to Alt Minmax.
Calling Your Attacks: Calling your spells is not only done, but apparently required, since Kore is unable to Lay Hands on himself when his voice is impeded by the rope fused to his throat.
Dellyn: What's the matter, Thaco? You didn't think that I'd spot your trap? Didn't think I'd see it coming? Thaco:Sigh. Of course it's a trap, you moron. Stop congratulating yourself for noticing the obvious.
Chief announces stabbing himself in the eye by screaming, "Aaaah! I stabbed myself in the freakin' eye!"
Cerebus Syndrome: Initially the comic was mostly about making jokes based on various D&D tropes and conventions, and had absolutely No Fourth Wall, with the adventurers explicitly being characters in someone's role-playing game. Quite soon it grew way more serious in tone and began developing the fourth wall, although various D&D mechanics are occasionally referenced by characters. Three of the five original player characters haven't been seen since.
Challenging the Chief: How The Goblinslayer got his job as captain of the town guard.
Character Development: After reading through the first couple arcs and noting how much of a supreme prick Minmax is, you totally wouldn't expect him to pull this later on.
On a darker note, although the issue was never raised until recently, there was an obvious clue that Dellyn Goblinslayer regularly rapes Kin way back on this page — Dellyn's bed in his room has shackles attached to it.
The Talking Wall of Brassmoon shows up in the background during one of the battles. It seems to have never appeared before this and claims to have been created during a really long story arc. Word of God says it's a mundane wall that got transformed into the talking wall by the Shield of Wonder.
Minmax's belt buckle, after being thrown through the magical hole in the wall of the Dungeon of Many, turns into a giant rock disc that crushes the alternate versions of Minmax and Forgath.
Sacred goblin tradition requires them to keep their few magic weapons in The Poorly Locked Chest in the middle of camp, rather than use them in battle. Complain-of-Names is Genre Savvy enough to use the weapon and gets banished because of it.
Minmax and Dellyn Goblinslayer have both complained about the main characters subverting this trope. On this page, Dellyn even calls Thaco's classing into a PC class the most perverted thing that he's ever heard of.
Minmax: A lot of them look really evil. Kin: The multiverse is predominantly evil. Forgath: What? I was always taught that good and evil were balanced. Kin: Nope. Evil is winning.
Crippling Overspecialization: Minmax is a god when it comes to fighting. He can't willfully blink, read, rhyme on purpose, think hard, or understand complex concepts. Most of these weaknesses he got in order to get more combat prowess and bonuses.
Quite a few of the deaths in the big Brassmoon fight. A few especially nasty ones are the guard who excrutiatingly turns into a bunch of snakes, the guard who is turning into an ogre, only to be cut down by his captain, and that captain, who gets the honor of having his armor grow until it crushes him.
Anyone the Orb of Bloodlight's guardian demon owns. Including Dies. The death happens fast and keeps happening. Forever. Or at least until the Demon gets caught in the terms of it's own deal.
Cruel Mercy: Thaco leaves Goblinslayer alive, with the knowledge that the latter was completely and utterly destroyed by Thaco.
Mryorg the Ogre, who features in the backstory of the Axe of Prissan, has a demon carve a rune into this chest for this purpose.
Mr Fingers was created when a farmer begged a devil to cure his son of nightmares; the devil successfully extracted the source of the nightmares from the kid's mind, but let them loose upon the world instead of destroying them.
Discussed by the demon who inhabits the Well of Darkness. Demons need souls for nourishment, but most of them aren't powerful enough to take souls by force and can only claim souls given willingly; which is why the phrase 'Deal with the Devil' has passed into common usage on the mortal plane. Dies makes one, but since his metallic arm effectively gives him two souls, the demon gets dragged to hell for breaking the deal.
Dear Negative Reader: Thunt uses The Rant occasionally to level countercriticism at reader complaints about his houseruled D&D mechanics. Most notable here.
Every major plot arc so far gets resolved through randomness that just happens to save the hapless protagonists. Some of the situations they get into are so bad that these don't get them out of hot water entirely, though...
The Shield of Wonder spams Ex Machinas of both the Deus and Diabolus variety every time it blocks a strike.
Similarly, Goblinslayer's tree half can do some major damage and produce its own wooden weapons.
One of the alternate parties in the Maze of Many has a Forgath with a staff that allows him to wear unlimited magic rings, but he needs to sacrifice a still bleeding finger to gain this ability. He also parties with a mute Minmax that gave up the ability to speak for a +6 to hit.
Divide by Zero: Psimax seems to be attempting something like this as of this strip. He seems to think that the rules of the pocket dimension they are in will allow it, as opposed to the universe at large.
Does Not Like Shoes: Most of the goblins are barefoot for most of the comic, with a few exceptions.
Fluffles the Owlbear, instead of attacking the goblin group, savages his "master".
Kin the yuan-ti giving the Coup de Grâce to Dellyn, after Forgath let go of her magical leash in the fight.
The orc in the Well of Darkness, having spent the past 600 years being tortured by demons, uses his first moment of freedom to decapitate one of his captors.
Forgath: Ya, but with a name like "Doom" I was expecting something grander. [...] Young-and-Beautiful: Well, "Very Annoying" doesn't really roll off the tongue as a spell title.
Alternate-Universe-Complains-of-Names: Wait, this isn't a brick, it's a book. Alternate-Universe-Fumbles: "Sequel to The Name of The Wind". Hey Dies, isn't that the book you're... um... wearing?
Minmax, who (as befitting his name) has min/maxed himself to have ridiculous combat stats but cannot even read (he gave up literacy for a bonus). With the extremes he takes this to, it may count as a Disability Superpower.
Hobgoblins, as seen in Sarcasm-Blind, though averted by the hobgoblin met during the Brassmoon arc. It is pointed out that while hobgoblins are usually keen strategists, the Chorgrak tribe that attacked the Viper clan was known for its... lack of subtlety.
Even Evil Has Standards: Minmax may be a powergamer, a jerk, and have all the mental prowess of a brick, but bragging about raping female monsters in front of him may just get you thrown through a window. Even if you're Dellyn Goblinslayer.
Forgath: That seems like the most obvious, clichéd...
Evil Hand: Odd non-evil example. The living-metal replacement arm Klik gave Dies-Horribly. When he gets scared, the arm grows blades and spikes to defend him. Unfortunately, the (many) situations in which he gets scared tend to go downhill fast if you start brandishing spiky things (and when it goes south he gets even more scared, and the arm gets spikier, and...). Although Dies's hand can also form non-violent images.
Whether or not it still can be called "non-evil" is debatableafterthisincident. Perhaps this is why what Klik did is considered forbidden by his species....
Evil Twin: The majority of the alternate versions of Minmax, Forgath and Kin in the Maze of Many.
Minmax: A lot of them look really evil. Kin: The multiverse is predominantly evil.
Evil Weapon: Inverted with the Axe of Prissan. It's a container for an archdemon capable of destroying the world, but is itself a good-aligned Empathic Weapon that will only give its full power to a Paladin, and refuses to harm one.
Saves-a-Fox: Go ahead, touch anything. I won't care. (K'seliss gooses her)
The Demoness in the Well of Darkness says that she's the guardian of the Blue Orb of Bloodlight, and offers a trade of 'one soul for one orb.' When Dies-Horribly offers her his soul, she gives away... an orb of ordinary blue stone. Leads to a Karmic Death when it turns out that Dies has two souls (presumably the second one is in his arm), which goes against the very Exact Words contract that the Demoness was manipulating, causing her to be banished into the deepest plane of hell which even demons themselves fear.
Alternate Kin. Wearing tight fitting corset which gives her an Impossibly Low Neckline, we can even see the start of a humanoid rear before it goes down to her snake tail. And unlike Kin, she also feels the need to wear a loincloth covering her front...
Kin the yuan-ti begs for death upon being recaptured by the guards.
There's a group of demons living in the Well of Darkness, who have enslaved an orc and continually resurrect and kill him in order to nourish themselves on his suffering. He's been resurrected and killed once every few hours for the last 600 years.
There is a circle of hell reserved for anyone foolish enough to attempt to break a Deal with the Devil so bad that even demons fear its torture. Since Dies has a second soul in his arm, the Demoness is sent there after trading "One soul for one orb."
The Hero: Position currently absent, because someone broke poor Fumbles (although the sorting of the group might have been different before his capture, and after, or indeed if, he recovers).
Early in the series, Young-and-Beautiful the goblin fortune teller predicts that Forgath will die in battle with another dwarf. "When the serpent becomes your prey, friends will become enemies and love will fuel hate." Now consider that he and Minmax have befriended Kin the yuan-ti and Kore kills anyone who even associates with the monstrous races...
When we see the alternate parties in the Maze of Many, one window has an alternate Minmax standing alone. The next comic shows why. It isn't pretty.
Forest Ranger: The Goblinslayer was presumably this (ranger class, bow and sword, half-tree), but moved into Brassmoon when it was a more direct path to what he really craved — the power to rule over his little fief of sadism.
Four-Fingered Hands: The goblins, and about every non-human races (including elves and dwarves — though not the demons). Reptiles (like kobolds, yuan-ti or lizardfolks) tends to have three-fingered hands. All of them (well, those with legs anyway) also have three-toed feet.
Genius Bruiser: K'seliss. His dispatch of Noe (detailed above under Cutting the Knot) proved his raw intelligence, but here he displays surprising insight by correctly — and offhandedly — analyzing the Dies/Grem/Fox Love Triangle.
The naming ritual is apparently a sacred rite that cannot be interrupted or redone. This results in names like "Piss Off I Have A Headache" (Hava to his friends).
Hava: There's a goblin in my clan called "Stop The Ceremony I swallowed A Bug". Yeah, our teller really sucks at naming ceremonies.
Glass Cannon: Acording to his posted stats, Mr. Fingers has an extremely low hit point total for a creature his size. This does nothing to make him less terrifying.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: Kore's I.M.E. creates a a pair of Angel wings... made from chains and severed heads.
Gorn: This comic is notable for its almost savage aversion of the Gory Discretion Shot, most significantly during the Battle of Brassmoon City, and Kore's Cold-Blooded Torture of Chief.
Groundhog Day Loop: The Maze of Many. The characters don't remember each attempt, however, but they get a counter. Which is nearing two million loops for the protagonist party.
Readers believe, due to his appearance and the implications on this page that Saral Caine is one. Likely, he's a Stonechild: Somewhere along his family line, the primal element of Earth was fused with one of his ancestors, or him.
Dellyn Goblinslayer is one as well; from his appearance, he looks like he might be a treant/human hybrid. The yuan-ti Kin declares he was changed into his present state by a wizard. Given the most recent evidence, he might be a Half-Human Hybrid only in the same way a cyborg is — he looks to be a Half-Golem (a D&D template where an existing creature has golem limbs grafted onto it, kind of a Magitek cyborg).
Hannibal Lecture: "You've been taking levels as an adventurer, haven't you? That's the most perverted thing I've ever heard of."
Shut Up, Hannibal!: "You're some random human I fought in the early levels of my adventuring career. You're a random encounter."
Happiness in Slavery: What the White Terror thinks the fellow goblins she enslaved ought to feel as they carry out this "service to their god and all of goblinkind".
Hero Antagonist: Despite both parties being good-aligned, Forgrath and Minmax are these, opposite the Goblin party. Minmax's alignment doesn't really become obvious until he beats Dellyn within four hit points of his life for being so damn evil all the time.
Thaco tends to get rather twitchy when something reminds him the time he spent imprisoned in Brassmoon. Usually comes with a colorless, blurred flashback.
Big-Ears: It just occurred to me that I'm not comfortable attacking someone from behind. Orc: HISSSSSSS (spins around) Big-Ears: Thank you. (axes it in the face)
Hit Points: Only mentioned when people are close to zero or in the negatives.
Dellyn Goblinslayer was beaten and humiliated by a goblin, and later, coup-de-grâce'd by Kin, who he'd beaten and raped nightly.
Arguably, the whole of Brassmoon City for allowing the Goblinslayer free rein over their defense against the "evil" races. Apparently, locking up and torturing a whole army of monsters, quite naturally bent on revenge, within the walls of the city wasn't that great an idea.
In a non-sentient example, the Shield of Wonder is eventually destroyed by one its own random magical effects.
And the demoness guarding the Bloodlight Orb got Dies to agree to giving her his soul for "the orb", which was NOT the one he thought it was, and in turn, got tricked into taking TWO souls — Dies' and the piece of Klik, banishing her to a portion of Hell that even demonsare afraid of.
Fumbles makes his way to Brassmoon City to return an elf child's doll, alone, despite knowing full well the danger involved, because he "has to make this right."
More-or-less sums up why Minmax attacked Dellyn. Of course, wisdom is his Dump Stat.
Humans Are Bastards: Humans in general are portrayed in one of three ways: outright evil (Dellyn Goblinslayer and the Elite Guard), dumb (Minmax and the three Player Characters), or ignorant and prejudiced (the townsfolk of Brassmoon). Forgath is a decent (dwarf) Player Character, but this is a stretch.
Hypocrite: Kore has dedicated himself to destroying all evil, and will even kill young children just because they've been exposed to evil. He doesn't see the contradiction.
In this strip Dellyn Goblinslayer defines the term legendary by how much your enemies hate you. He prides himself on the fact that the goblins "would sacrifice anything for a chance at [his] throat." He denies any possibility that Thaco could be considered legendary, but at the end of the comic, states that he "would sacrifice anything for a chance at [Thaco's] throat."
I Call Her "Vera": Minmax creates a sword which is paradoxically made of oblivion, and Kin theorises it draws power from his ignorance. Minmax christens the sword "Oblivious".
Big-Ears: Well I'm not abandoning my friend! I'm not letting One Eye die! (astonished looks) Big-Ears: I mean... (buries his face in his hands) You know what I mean.
I'm Melting: What touching Mr. Fingers does to you. More contact speeds it up and spreads it.
I Know Your True Name: Houseruled in, meaning the pit fiend can be forced to serve any mortal who speaks his true name. Incidently, his true name is definitely not Richard, Francis, Leslie, Winkypoop the slippery monkey, or Walter. (The forum have hence nicknamed him "Not-Walter".) Turns out it's Grinnorarcen. They encounter him again serving an alt-Minmax who's really good at guessing names, and Kin convinces the demon to reveal his name so she can order him to return to Hell, freeing him.
Big-Ears: No offense to your short sword, but that is the coolest weapon in the whole damn party.
Kore's automatic crossbows. They fire several bolts in one go, lock into his tower shield for cover-firing, and automatically reload themselves in seconds from bolt caches hanging from his side.
Duv's two razor sharp shards. They're short, and they don't even have handles. Watching her fight with them is epic, but how she is able to even hold on to them in battle and not slash her hands open in the process is anyone's guess.
Minmax's new sword — Oblivious! The blade is literally nothing, and can't be affected by anything that's not Minmax — not even time!
One of the overpowered artifacts is introduced out of the blue with a large wall of text. Justified since this information is instantly telepathically communicated to Big-Ears when he takes the axe.
Duv, the White Terror, is also introduced with epically-sized speech bubbles.
Informed Ability: It's repeatedly mentioned that Goblinslayer is a high level adventurer, yet the highest-level ability he ever uses is Magic Fang (fourth level?) and he loses in a mostly-straight fight against an enemy of his favored target species. Taking Dellyn's cockiness and need to prove his superiority into consideration, it was likely a combination of bad luck, a Critical Hit, and his lack of decent sight within the battle, not to mention underestimating his opponent. After all, he survived being impaled through the chest and everything from his final fight. Then Kin...
Saves-a-Fox: So if I had never taken adventurer levels, you'd kill me for taking adventurer levels? K'seliss: Damn right!
In Minmax's worldview, monsters are fit only to be killed for XP. He decides to make an exception for Kin... if he can find something normal about her. He can't. At all. She doesn't know her birthday or her father's identity, because of the way yuan-ti mate. He really doesn't want to kill her though, so he gives her a birthday. So she'll have something normal.
Psimax uses this to prove that one equals zero and make the (artificial, pocket) Universe disappear in a Puff of Logic.
Instant Armor: The Axe of Prissan comes with a free suit of full plate.
K'seliss refuses to fight anything he cannot eat or mate with, considering doing so to be perverted. Bad news when the party runs into some Mecha-Mooks.
Minmax of all people manages to use an Ironic Echo as an insult during his fight with Dellyn Goblinslayer. "I heard a rumor about those who die complaining about the rules."
The Key Is Behind the Lock: The magical key to the Well of Darkness was actually inside it, with a group of dead adventurers. The Viper clan had to tunnel a Dungeon Bypass to get inside.
Kid with the Leash: The guardian demoness, once banished, proves to be the only thing keeping her minions from trying to kill Dies and Fox.
How Thaco reacts to Dellyn's using his ear as a trophy.
How Forgath deals with Dellyn. Being part-wood and covered in fuel...
Knight of Cerebus: Each time Kore appears, the series gets darker and more serious.
Knight Templar: Kore, to the extreme. This is a guy who's willing to kill anyone who has had contact with the monster races, even if the contact wasn't voluntary. Specifically, if the encounter may lead to said person (including children...) sympathizing with monsters.
Knuckle Cracking: Mr. Fingers is doing this kind of sound with every move. Every freakin' move. Revealed to be because the thing breaks and re-breaks its own bones to move.
The Orb of Bloodlight. Its powers have not been explicitly stated, except that Duv thinks it can regenerate her wing and allow her to take her place as the White Terror and ruler of all goblins.
The Jade Teapot for Kin & Co. Its power is clearly stated as a form of teleportation aiming at individuals rather than places. Forgath and Minmax plan to use it to find the GAP.
Made of Iron: As a result of playing D&DHit Points straight. Important characters can be run through by several spears and swords, but still survive, and injuries rarely have any lasting effect. However, it's worth noting that the author has developed a custom set of critical hit and fumble tables that can indeed result in lasting or permanent injury, incapacitation, and many other things. These are highlighted with Complains' broken arm and during the sewer fight between Thaco and Dellyn Goblinslayer.
Made of Plasticine: Most low-level characters, due to their low hit points, can die to being breathed on harshly.
Major Injury Underreaction: K'seliss tries to be this to keep up appearances when his arms start melting off.
Pretty much every single goblin of the protagonists' tribe; names are given by the tribe's fortune teller and supposedly prophetic, which isn't much of a comfort for poor Dies-Horribly. (The Viper tribe's fortune teller pointedly doesn't follow this custom, but it still seems common practice among other goblins.)
Non-goblin examples are also not uncommon, such as a player character resembling a Japanese samurai named Baka. Or for a less subtle example, Minmax. Or the hardcore Kore. And Dellyn Goblinslayer.
And then there's "Duv", who might well be able to bring peace to the goblin tribes...
Medium Awareness: Intermittently throughout, since the characters are aware of the nature of their universe, and the rules by which it runs.
Men Are the Expendable Gender: Maglubiyet evidently buys into this trope, as it's apparently a divine mandate that no females (spellcasters excepted) are allowed in a goblin warcamp. As warcamps are essentially decoys to lure adventurers away from the women and children, this means a lot of goblin males die to deflect danger away from their families. Especially notable as Young-and-Beautiful, the only female in the warcamp, hides whenever adventurers approach.
Forgath: That's it! From the waist down, you're mine! Minmax: Okay, that is the gayest thing you've ever said.
Mistaken for Pedophile: Minmax shouts to a girl that she is "13 and hot," by which he means she has a charisma score of 13 and is therefore physically attractive. The people in the crowded city around him unfortunately don't know he's talking about ability scores.
Forgath: Yeah, we're gonna get lynched...
Monty Haul: Forgath mentions at one point in Brassmoon that they shouldn't expect to find magic items in a blacksmith's shop since "even Herbert isn't THAT Monty Haul." It's clear from some of the other things that they DO find that they're playing a campaign where all the cool stuff they get is going to be necessary later.
Munchkin: Minmax is, in all likelihood, a subversion of this — while his character design is heavily minmaxed, he roleplays the disadvantages he took in exchange for all that combat potential to the hilt.
Forgath, after the slaughter of the goblin warcamp.
Fumbles, too, after accidentally injuring an elf girl. That's why he goes to Brassmoon, after all — despite having been rather explicitly warned that it's the home of the Goblinslayer, and having witnessed Thaco's reaction to the idea of anyone in the party going there.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Mryorg, after almost releasing the demon in the Axe of Prissan intentionally, his quest for the greatest pain lead to him choosing to end his time with the axe and give it to a paladin. He chose the demon's pain in the end.
Mr. Fingers invokes this in all who look at him as a game mechanic, by means of a fear-causing aura (forcing a Will save against panic). Dies fails his savehere, while Fox blows hers soon after. Grem can handle the saves until Mr. Fingers uses an alternate method on him.
Said outright by Alt Minmax when Kin banishes Alt Not-Walter to Hell, depriving him of his only ally and ensuring he has a really bad time in the afterlife.
One-Dwarf Army: Kore is said to have wiped out entire armies of orcs and ogres by himself.
One Size Fits All: Generally averted; size modifiers have been mentioned, and human-size gear has occasionally been rejected as unusable. The Axe of Prissan and Big-Ears' armor play this trope straight, justified by them being magical and designed to reshape and suit the needs of whoever uses them. Note that One Size Fits All is an actual rule of D&D magic items. Imagine how much it would suck if you found some awesome magic armor you can't use because it's designed for an ogre.
Only a Flesh Wound: K'seliss fighting with his teeth after his arms literally fell off.
Our Goblins Are Different: The goblins are the good guys this time around. Well, at least some of them. The only way to consider Duv even remotely sympathetic by this point is to take her backstory (told in the first person) as the whole truth. Even then, she behaves awfully like a beginning Evil Overlord, with a self-admitted sadist, Riss, as her Dragon. Either way, though, it's more character development than goblins usually get.
Minmax believes that monsters should be killed for XP and treasure. However, when he finds out that his hero, Dellyn Goblinslayer, has been repeatedly raping a yuan-ti... his first reaction is to promptly throw him out of a window.
Then, he gets another one, which may qualify him for a true Heel Face Turn, here. Say it with me now: Awwwwww!
A lesser example, and it doesn't make him any less of a Complete Monster, but when he found Saral Caine's corpse, Dellyn was, quite startlingly, reduced to tears. That was his best friend and sidekick.invoked
Fantastic Racism is one of Goblinslayer's defining traits.
Kore refers to his targets as "evil", "monster", and "lower beasts". In his first appearance, he made his views clear.
Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder: Apparently, a raging barbarian is completely unaware of injuries. Names has collapsed or screamed in pain the moment the rage ended on multiple occasions.
Power Gives You Wings: Kore's Individual Magic Effect is a pair of glowing wings made of chains with his victims' heads attached.
Power Limiter: Kin's collar supresses her magic and prevents her from hurting anyone if the attached leash is being held.
The Power of Love: Kin and Minmax's love is almost magically confusing. It's also able to nauseate mathematics. Yes. You read that right.
Psimax: I've run the Maze of Many eight hundred eighteen times and had one thousand nine hundred ninety one encounters with other multiversal variants. You're the first to surprise me.
Seth: Well, well. Three goblins who are too old to fight back. Easy XP. Thaco: You know, in the old days, we depended on ingenuity, rather than feats, the strength stat used a forward slash as a decimal point... and there were no such thing as drow. (pulling his cane into two swords) I miss the old days.
One example is Saves-a-Fox. She was prophesied to save a fox on a specific day. She decided to Screw Destiny by killing it instead. Eventually it's revealed that she DID save it... from terrible suffering due to an incurable illness.
Another example is Dies-Horribly. Fan theories abound about how it will be subverted. One predicts that he will eventually get over his fear of death and walk willingly into a Heroic Sacrifice. Another is that instead of being destined for a horrible death, he is simply horrible at dying... that is, he repeatedly survives things he really shouldn't. He's apparently died horribly at least once in the comic. Hard to tell if he'll do so again.
Dellyn Goblinslayer, a sadist who justifies his brutality through the fact that he's doing it to supposedly Always Chaotic Evil creatures and that (his idea of) Utopia Justifies the Means.
Riss, maybe — he doesn't even try to deny taking the interest in suffering of others.
Puff of Logic: Psimax tries this on the entire Universe.
Minmax considers Goblinslayer his hero until he learns exactly what the sicko has been doing with his yuan-ti pet. Then again, this was the first hint Minmax got, period, that Goblinslayer was much happier with things like vivisection than just killing his enemies. It's possible he may have reacted the same way to finding out that Goblinslayer didn't just kill monsters in fights, but also captured monster women and children and tortured them unspeakably.
On a meta level, at one point someone thought that a page that in context had nothing to do with rape was making light of it, leading to a (now deleted) blog post where Thunt explained how the very idea that he'd take such a thing lightly deeply offended him.
Ret Gone: When Psion!Minmax opens holes of oblivion, anything that falls in is not only destroyed, but erased from the memory of everyone, including the fact that they fell in. Kin is tipped off when Minmax throws his boots in, and she's left wondering how no-one ever noticed that he only wears one boot... er, he walks around barefoot...
Rousing Speech: One guard gives one to his men right before battling the party as a rare villainous example.
RPG Mechanics Verse: The comic uses a heavily houseruledD&D ruleset. The author has even gone out of his way to state that all the combat results that may seem like an Ass Pull are indeed legitimate. The system the comic uses undoubtedly relies on circumstance bonuses and penalties derived from good tactics, role-playing and the various in game circumstances. Called shots are likely factored in as well. It's also possible that certain effects like being doused in oil and lit on fire have been tweaked to be more realistic.
Latter, Minmax acquires a weapon that mimics whatever material it touches. Within minutes, he stuffs it into a hole in spacetime, which renders said weapon made of nonexistence. Fortunately it stops moving through time when he lets go of it and comes back when he needs it, which means that it's impossible for him to lose it.
Big-Ears:I detect sarcasm. Chief: You need to be a paladin to detect Thaco's sarcasm?
Duv, above.
Save Scumming: Effectively what occurs in the Maze of Many, as every unsuccessful attempt by every iteration of the party is rewound to the beginning again and again until each one succeeds. This has already happened to Minmax's group almost two million times, which Forgath is flumoxed to find out about. Presumably that also means that exact conversation has taken place pretty close to that many times. And Minmax has kissed Forgath that many times.
Schedule Slip: The strip really suffered from this for a while, though it's gotten much better and hasn't been a problem since migrating to the new site and two updates per week.
Screw Yourself: Alluded by Kin and Scorpion!Kin. It's a trick by Kin to get her prehensile, sensitive tail wrapped around Scorpion!Kin's tail and throat. With the tail disabled, Neck Snap ensues.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Axe of Prissan is a powerful paladin weapon that contains a nigh-unstoppable demon. The axe needs to be recharged regularly (by being used to kill evil things) or the demon will escape and probably cause The End of the World as We Know It.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Saves-a-Fox fell victim to one of these. She was given the choice between saving a fox from a trap, or killing it - and thereby saving it from a horrible, lingering, invariably fatal disease.
Chief goes to fight Kore knowing that he'll fail, but hoping to delay Kore. Kore simply incapacitates Chief and starts torturing him, knowing that Chief's screams will bring the rest. And then, when they do return to rescue Chief, he dies from his wounds before they can get him healed.
Dies-Horribly accepts a Deal with the Devil, believing it will free Duv's slaves from suffering, but the demon used Exact Words to give him a worthless stone orb instead of what he expected.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Kin's first speaking page; high intelligence causes her to use unnecessarily long words when nervous. Or that's her excuse, at least.
Ship Tease: People have speculated on a Kin×Minmax pairing almost since she first joined the party, and it was helped along by this event, among others. Finally, the "tease" part was dropped.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Harshly averted, as Fumbles walks headlong into disaster rather than away from it.
Forgath Bladebeard has a horned helmet with one of the horns broken off. In R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels (you know, the ones with Drizzt the not-evil Dark Elf in them), this is one of Bruenor Battlehammer's defining features.
Skewed Priorities: Kore wants to eradicate all evil. He's murdering kids, not-evil people, and torturing to avoid it taking him longer to do this. Hypocrite would be a compliment.
Slasher Smile: Evil humans can contort their faces in some... interesting ways, although it's implied that this is as much a matter of their victim's perception of them.
The Smurfette Principle: Female goblins aren't welcome in the war camp unless they are spellcasters, hence why Young-and-Beautiful the fortune teller is the only woman (?) around. Lampshaded, by the way:
The So-Called Coward: Sort-of example with an ogre who literally has "COWARD" written on his forehead by torturers. Guess who's staying to cover the escape for others?
That's how much our Minmax has from his Strength bonus
.
Spell My Name with an S: Most of the goblins' names were using hyphens at the start of the comic. Later strips, however, tend to omit them. Thus, "Dies-Horribly" and "Dies Horribly", "Complains-of-Names" and "Complains of Names", "Big-Ears" and "Big Ears", etc., are both Canon spelling.
The Stoic: Orcs of the Roak clan are taught to accept loss without pause or regret, so they aren't weakened by the pain of losing things. When Biscuit escapes from 600 years of demonic torture, only to find out that the rest of the Roak clan was destroyed 200 years ago and he may be the Last of His Kind, his response is 'Meh, oh well.'
Subverted/deconstructed: The first thing Kin the Yuan Ti does after being freed from Dellyn (besides murdering him horribly) is put on the most conservative coat she can find. She was only dressed this way in the first place, it seems, because Dellyn forced her to be. Which makes sense, considering what Dellyn used her for.
Stupid Sacrifice: Dies-Horribly gives his soul to the demoness in the Well of Darkness in return for... an orb of ordinary blue stone. Fortunately, he gets out of it due to Loophole Abuse.
Grem: You seem to know a lot about dungeon crawls. Have you ever done this before? Saves-a-Fox: What? No. I'm not an adventurer.
Swallowed a Fly: One goblin tribe with a particularly inept fortune teller (and even more inept scribes) has a member named Stop The Ceremony I Swallowed A Bug.
Saves-a-Fox needs to get some Genre Savvy. She really should know better than to talk about how her entire sense of self is built on Screw Destiny. Though if she doesn't believe in Fate in the first place...
It takes much less than two rounds for Grem to be proved very wrong on this page.
The last panel of this strip. Really, Dies? Shouldn't you know better by now?
Too Dumb to Fool: Minmax's smarter traveling companions eventually work out he's too dumb to confuse as he can't see what's wrong with what they're saying... right as they need him to become bewildered or they'll all die. Almost Too Dumb to Live before Kin manages an alternative — which doubles as a Ship Tease.
Tragic Keepsake: One alternate dimension Minmax wears a necklace whose pendant says "This Is A Helmet"... and Forgath is nowhere to be seen...
Tron Lines: A magical version. Whatever shape it takes, the Axe of Prissan and the armor that goes along are adorned with such glowing motifs, the color of the I.M.E. of the wielder.
Villainous Breakdown: Dellyn's really got started after he saw all he worked for being taken apart, then he found Saral Caine's corpse, shortly followed by his loss against Thaco, finally ending with his loss of position, being left as an angry drunk at a bar. And then came his Karmic Death.
Villain with Good Publicity: Dellyn Goblinslayer, known by the town as Captain of the Town Guard, who is nonetheless confirmed as having an evil alignment.
K'seliss: Oh for the love of meat, SHUT UP! No one wants to hear your emo character background! My hands are LITERALLY melting away and I'm complaining less than you are!
What Measure Is a Mook? / What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The comic is largely built on deconstructing the typical concept of goblins and other Always Chaotic Evil creatures being slaughtered without remorse by humans. This deconstruction is then inverted upon the Elite Guard of Brassmoon, who are always evil (being recruited as such) and are killed without remorse by the goblins.
Who's on First?: The summon guide appears any time his name is spoken outside of his presence. If he is summoned more than three times, he will just kill the summoner(s). His name is "Noe". You can certainly see where this is going. Though it is also brutally subverted in thesepages.
Kin: They're only a danger to the dumbest of individuals. (beat panel as she shares a look of horrified realization with Forgath) Kin & Forgath: MINMAX!
Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: The guards end up discussing how Dellyn's obsession with personally killing Thaco is a liability.
Winged Humanoid: Duv is marked out as the chosen one of Maglubiyet and rightful chieftain of all goblins by being born with wings.
You Can't Fight Fate: It's a predominant theme in the webcomic. Goblins are supposed to follow the path their seers saw for their future. As a result, there have been attempts to circumvent that fate.
Eye Scream: When Tempts kills a Demon Lord, the demon's (still sentient) eye latches on to Tempts' body. Unfortunately for it, Tempts makes sure it latches on to the sole of his foot, then goes for a walk across some gravelly ground.
Improbable Weapon User: The dwarf who has been cursed to only use household items for weapons and armor.
Immortality: A Demon Lord curses Tempts with immortality so he can get revenge on him 10,000 years later. Tempts' response to this shifts from Who Wants to Live Forever? at the idea of being completely immortal, to Cursed with Awesome when he finds out he can still die from injuries.
Lighter and Softer: Compared to the main comic. One Tempts Fate segment involved Chris Hansen from Dateline (why doncha have a seat right over there.), a fast-talking giant maggot, the Kool-Aid guy (OH YEAH!!!), Wil Wheaton, and Michael Bay.
Thanks for the Mammary: Happens to Tempts Fate in the Realm of Naked Mudhoney-Covered Babes... with three girls. In one panel. Subverted, though, as he has no attraction to human females and is therefore squicked by it.
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