Ingrid the Plague Doctor
is an all-ages comedy webcomic by Harriet "Harry" Amoros, edited by Amani Kabwe and Griffin Freitas. It focuses on the adventures of the titular character, an adorable plague doctor who failed to get an actual medical license due to her over-reliance on leeches, and the people in her town.
The "Classic" series began on August 24, 2019. On November 11, 2021, there was an announcement that it would now be published as a Webtoon Original. The "Classic" strips were declared non-canon and added to the "Comics" tab of creator Harriet's personal website, and the new version began on September 7th, 2022.
Tropes:
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Shared Tropes
- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Dr. Fleming can painlessly twist his back to absurd degrees in order to talk to people shorter than him, most regularly Ingrid, or to place a cat (or cat folk child in the Originals version) rescued from a tree safely onto the ground.
- Animals Not to Scale: E-Leech, the result of Ingrid's enhanced leeches continuing to evolve for 300 years, is half the size of a human and has hair while otherwise having all of the traits of a regular-sized leech.
- Arch-Enemy: In the Classics series and first season of the Originals version, Robert the Crusader, who believes that Ingrid is actually a witch, is the reoccurring antagonistic figure. In the second season of Originals, Robert's learned his lesson and his antagonistic role is replaced by Stella the Witch, who is a jealous con artist responsible for Ingrid being chased out of multiple towns in the past.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Ingrid is not a real doctor; in the Classics series, she was expelled from medical school after her thesis on the benefits of leeches was rejected, while in the Originals series, she studied alchemy under her mother (who wanted Ingrid to follow in her footsteps) and can craft healing tonics but never obtained a proper medical license.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Dr. Fleming, usually a jovial fellow, does not take threats against his assistant Ingrid lightly, as shown in his confrontations with Robert the Crusader; in the Webtoons Originals series, he turns Robert into A Twinkle in the Sky for publicly unmasking her.
- Bird People: Ingrid keeps the fact that she is one a secret, though in both versions, Robert unmasks her in public and the rest of town still accepts her.
- The Cameo:
- A scene of the leeches playing D&D in Classics Issue #127 depicts goblins the exact same way that JoCat does.
- Ember's plushie hoard depicted in Originals Episode #50 includes a Salazzle and Harriet's wolf persona.
- Originals Episode #171 has Ingrid ask if Bob has travelled anywhere weird during his crusading, with Bob recounting encounters with some strange people that are actually the protagonists of various Argentinian comics.
- Originals Episode #178 has Ember considering buying some knightly armor, and Ingrid recalling an encounter with a dragon knight that Harriet created for a separate, more cutesy setting, with an image of her giving a thumbs-up.
- Delightful Dragon: Ember the dragon, who Ingrid adopts after hatching her egg. She's far from dangerous, only using her fire breath to heat up Ingrid's cauldron, and making a hoard of plush toys instead of stolen wealth.
- Expressive Mask: The plague doctor masks of Ingrid and Dr. Fleming, as well as Robert the Crusader's helmet, express a full range of emotion, and the faces underneath them have yet to be revealed.
- The Faceless: Ingrid and Dr. Fleming's faces are always covered by their plague doctor masks, and Robert the Crusader is always wearing his crusader helmet, save for when they're instead facing away from the viewer or obscured by a foreground object.
- Gamer Chick: E-Leech is a NEET that lives with her mother and streams herself playing games.
- Gentle Giant: Dr. Fleming is quite tall and surprisingly buff, but is always eager to help Ingrid and others in need of medical advice.
- Given Name Reveal: Dr. Fleming knows that Ingrid's last name is "Corvus" and who her mother is, but doesn't reveal this to the rest of town until after Robert the Crusader unmasks her.
- Hospital Hottie: When their Plague Doctor cloaks come off, Ingrid becomes taller with a more curvaceous figure, and Dr. Fleming has rippling muscles.
- Idiot Hero: Adol, a local hunk who's frequently treated by Ingrid due to the number of traps he charges into, and who tends to prefer claiming rusty or cursed swords for himself over actual treasure.
- Killer Rabbit: Ingrid's leeches, while small and friendly, are capable of hunting bears on their own.
- Plague Doctor: Ingrid herself, of course, and her male supervisor/mentor Dr. Fleming.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Shortly after Ingrid is unmasked, Fleming reveals to everyone that he's good friends with Ingrid's famous alchemist mother Lana "the White Crow" Corvus, and he knew Ingrid's secret since the very beginning, but he respected her privacy and kept her secrets.
- Shipper on Deck: Ingrid fully supports her leeches falling in love with each other, occasionally ruining the mood by interrupting a secret rendezvous to state that they have no reason to hide anything from her.
- Strong Family Resemblance: With the exception of some tertiary characteristics on specific leeches, such as Esther, who is both albino and wears a bow, and Radical Leech, who wears Triangle Shades, they all look exactly the same as each other.
- Talking Animal: Ingrid's leeches are capable of this. This is not a common trait, given the panicked reaction of regular people when they first hear them talk.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Esther, the female albino leech, is always seen wearing a bow.
Classic Strips
- All Animals Are Dogs: When Ingrid accidentally hatches a dragon, it behaves like a pet that's also capable of heating her cauldron, so she adopts it and names it Ember. However, said behavior only lasts until Ember matures.
- Bad Influencer: Issue #113, "Donations", contrasts the humble E-Leech with a human female streamer that has balloons sticking out of her padded bra and berates the people donating money to her for not giving her as much as E-Leech gets.
- Burn the Witch!: Robert the Crusader's mindset, as he outright states in Issue #52.
- Cassandra Truth: A Running Gag is a brief shot of someone (usually Ingrid) doing something unexpected, followed by the statement "No one is ever going to believe you".
- Cliffhanger: "Unmasked Pt. 1", which ends with a "To Be Continued..." instead of a joke.
- Comically Inept Healing: Some of Ingrid's treatments have done more harm than good, such as treating a fever with her leeches and then forgetting to stop them from draining all the patient's blood.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Issue #135, "The cure to all ailments", has Amber suggest that she and Ingrid host a booze-filled party to deal with the stress of Robert the Crusader constantly antagonizing her.
- Drugs Are Good: According to Ingrid in Issue #4, not just for medicinal value.
- Foreshadowing: There have been a few indications before The Reveal that Ingrid is a bird person.
- Issue #126, "Santa's letter" has a fluffy tuft sticking out the top of Ingrid's shirt.
- The "Unmasked" arc reveals that Ingrid's hiding a major secret about her appearance, though it's never outright stated.
- Immediately after the "Unmasked" arc, Issue #143, "Paying your debts" has tailfeathers poking out of the dress, next to one of Ingrid's legs while Ingrid's paying Amber back for an outfit she's revealed to have stolen during said arc.
- Human Disguise: The "Unmasked" arc reveals that Ingrid does not have a human face under her plague doctor mask. Issue #150, "Secrets (bis)", reveals that her arms and legs are actually bird-like, and Issue #176, "Body", clarifies that the obvious discrepancy with her appearance in earlier strips was due to Ingrid crafting a transmogrification potion.
- Lingerie Scene: The first instance of the "No one is ever going to believe you" gag in Issue #3, "Secrets".
- Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: In Issue #168, Ingrid has a nightmare in which she meets herself from the early days of the strip, who claims the series has stopped being funny after adding a story arc.
- The Reveal: Subverted in Issue #102, "FACE REVEAL!", when Robert the Crusader walks in front of the shot. Played straight in Issue #150, "Secrets (bis)", which doesn't reveal her face, but does show what's under Ingrid's cloak when she's not hiding her true form with a transmogrification potion.
- Sequel Episode: Issue #150, "Secrets (bis)", is structured just like Issue #3, "Secrets", but with more detail...and, of course, incorporating the recently-revealed fact that Ingrid's not a human.
- Shout-Out: Classic Issue #145 shows Adol recreating the boulder-punching quicktime event from Resident Evil 5 when Ingrid wonders if he ever actually does anything heroic.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Ingrid's (adopted) brother turns out to be a modern medical professional, who sees no value in her or Fleming's work.
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Ember the Dragon grows up fast in this version of the comic, going from dog-sized to person-sized between Issues #156 and #157. It's even lampshaded in Issue #161, "The passing of time", with Ingrid noting how few issues have passed since Ember's hatching.
- The Smurfette Principle: Averted with humans, as both Ingrid herself and Amber the tavern owner are female, but Esther is the sole named female leech among the group Ingrid raises in this version of the story.
- Wingding Eyes: The patient suffering from a fever in Issue #12 has X'd eyes after the leeches completely drain him.
Webtoon Original strips
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: King Kuchirou, the head of the Cat Folk village that also ends up leading Domburg upon learning it's leaderless, is an anthropomorphic cat that just wears a belled collar. This, oddly, does not reduce Ingrid's shock in Episode 166 upon seeing him bathe "naked".
- Almighty Mom: Ingrid's mother, Lana "the White Crow" Corvus, is a powerful alchemist that does not take "no" for an answer when she comes to town and decides to force Ingrid to return home with her.
- An Arm and a Leg: Ingrid first meets Igor when his left hand (and most of his arm) is bitten off by a pig he was taunting, requiring her urgent medical attention. While the same thing occurred in the Classic strips as a gag, it's deliberately used to advance the plot in this version, as it's what leads to Ingrid being brought to his hometown of Domburg where the rest of the series is primarily set.
- Book Ends: Season 2 begins with Ingrid and her friends searching for help to deal with an ordinary plague of mice, and ends with Ingrid and her friends working together to stop a witch that's summoning a magical plague of mice.
- Cat Folk: Season 2 shows that there's an entire village of anthropomorphic cat people that live in Ingrid's world, whose appearances range from mostly catlike with just accessories like collars to mostly humanoid and fully clothed.
- Con Artist: Stella the Wizard comes to Domburg in order to peddle her wares, none of which are of decent quality; her dragon repellant is just blueberry juice (though Ember does dislike blueberries), her rat repellant uses the wrong type of oil, and a cheap clock self-destructs in her hand.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Episode 128 has Dr. Fleming reassuring Ember that Robert the Crusader's belief that Ingrid was a wicked witch coming to invade Domburg was just an overactive fantasy not worth paying further attention towards, while at that exact same time Stella the Wizard, who is dressed just like a traditional wicked witch, arrives in Domburg.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The final strip of Season 2 ends this way, to Igor's confusion, having missed most of the action and wondering what the joke is.
- Fastball Special: After a few strips building up to it, Episode 195 has Dr. Fleming using his toned muscles to pitch an unwilling Ingrid at Stella in order to get Stella's new spellbook and dismiss the magical plague of rats she summoned.
- Friendly Enemy: Unlike his depiction in the Classic strips, Robert the Crusader genuinely wants to protect Domburg from malevolent magic, and tries to genuinely make amends with Ingrid after accusing her of being an evil witch. However, he still refers to her as "wicked", and his tendency to put his foot in his mouth keeps their relationship rocky at best. He even gives Stella, who proclaims to be an actual witch, a chance to use magic to run Ingrid out of town because he thinks it'd be amusing.
- Ironic Echo: Episode 87 has Ember decide to take a part-time job as a sheep herder for Igor, despite being a dragon that terrifies the sheep with her mere presence. Ingrid, who wants what's best for Ember, says that she is "dense" and "should stick to what you're good at" because "it's better for you", upsetting the independence-seeking Ember. In Episode 97, Ingrid's mother Lana uses the exact same phrases when trying to force Ingrid to leave Domburg and return home to be a part of the family business, which Ingrid recognizes, and she apologizes to Ember for not being supportive earlier.
- It's All About Me: Stella's taken to chasing Ingrid out of the towns where she's set up shop in the past in order to try and make herself seem better, ignoring that her own products are shoddy and, after summoning a plague of rats in Domburg that she boasts Ingrid can't dispel, she's wrecking the town she wants to praise her.
- Karmic Transformation: In her final appearance in Season 2, after antagonising Ingrid for so long, Stella is hit by one of Ingrid's potions and turned into a leech like the kind Ingrid raises.
- Last of Their Kind: Rather than just being from a random egg that Ingrid found like in the Classic strips, Ember's origin in this version is that her egg was the last one left after her birth mother choked to death on a sheep.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: The initial story arc of Season 2 has Ingrid, Amber, Adol (with his talking cursed sword), and Robert seek a neighboring Cat Folk village for help curing a plague spread by rats, while Dr. Fleming, Igor, Ember, and the leeches stay in Domburg to treat the ill villagers and deal with Stella's arrival.
- Love Triangle: Ingrid is attracted to both Amber, the female human tavern owner she is friends with, and King Kuchirou, the male leader of the Cat Folk. Some Season 2 strips are about Ingrid trying to choose between them, and when Amber & Kuchirou suggest just sharing Ingrid towards the end of the season, Ingrid gets so flustered that Dr. Fleming warns them they're going to break his assistant.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Episode 167 reveals that Igor's flock of sheep are fully sentient and can shift into an anthropomorphic form to gossip about him and Ember, but return to their more animalistic "cover mode" when he's looking at them.
- Smoke Out: Attempted by Stella to make a dramatic exit after Ingrid's team returns to Domburg with some Cat Folk to deal with their rat infestation and refuse her services. However, the smoke dissipates before she's out of sight, and just in time to watch her trip and fall.
- Tempting Fate: Once in each of the first two strips; first Ingrid hopes something exciting will happen and her wagon breaks (with her even saying she "spoke too soon"), then she says that things can't get worse and the horses pulling the wagon run off.
