Webcomic / Rain (2010)

aka: Rain

"A story for boys, girls, and everyone in-between..."

Rain is a long-running Slice of Life Dramedy webcomic created by Jocelyn Samara.

In public, Rain appears to be your average teenage girl. She enjoys shopping and dressing pretty and whatnot, but the fact is that she’s hardly average. In truth, Rain is a transgender girl.

At age 13, circumstance lands Rain in the custody of her Aunt Fara, whom she finally revealed her secret to. Rather than see Rain suffer, her aunt decided to allow her to dress like a girl around the house if it would make her feel better. And it did… for a while, anyway. As time went by, Fara noticed Rain had become a bit of an antisocial hermit for the sake of being able to dress as herself frequently. Already shy to begin with, this probably wasn’t a step in the right direction.

Fara came up with an interesting (but ballsy) plan to remedy this, but keep Rain happy. It took a long time and a lot of work, but she saved up enough money to move the two of them to a new town where nobody would know them. They acquired a fully female wardrobe for Rain, and she was enrolled in a high school as a girl. It would be potentially dangerous for Rain if she were ever caught, but her nature made her seek perfection in her presentation before going out into the world... Well, her voice could use some work anyway...

Rain updates were posted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until the final chapter ended on April 15 of 2022. It can be read on Comic Fury, or on Jocelyn's DeviantArt gallery.

An Animated Adaptation was announced on Christmas 2020 and can be viewed on YouTube here. The series mainly features short animations, music, and skits.

On December 2022, the author released My Impossible Soulmate, a standalone prequel centering on the life of Chiaki Koizumi, author of the fictional manga "Black Wings: Kaminari" which is Rain’s favorite manga.

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Rain contains examples of:

Tropes related to the webcomic

• Abusive Parents: Several.
  • Emily's mother leaves her alone for months at a time and has made her feel unwanted her whole life. Emily only really started dating Chase because she wanted her approval for once. It didn't help that she emotionally manipulated Emily into staying with him, knowing that Chase perved on underaged girls, cheated on other girlfriends, and gaslit them whenever they called him out for it. In Chapter C, she calls Emily a disgrace for having gotten pregnant and even says she can't wait for her to graduate so she can have an excuse to kick her out.
  • Rain's father is heavily implied to have been physically and emotionally abusive, and abandoned his 12 year old child one day without a word.
  • Maria and Rudy's parents are cold towards them in general for being gay, but their father officially crosses this line when he begins doing research on camps for "curing" homosexuality and trying to isolate them from their friends after Maria comes out and Rudy breaks up with Rain. And then in chapter 34, he really hits the roof after he finds out about Rudy's crossdressing and Maria's relationship with Chanel. It gets to a point where even his wife realizes he’s out of control, and even after her expulsion is reversed, Maria doesn't come back home.
  • When Heather said Ky was better off with her, she was not kidding. In chapter C, it is revealed that their mother and stepfather were awful to Heather for being intersex, and began to treat Ky the same after they cut their hair. After they came out to their mom about being genderfluid, she seriously distanced herself from them.
  • In Chapter 43, it's revealed that Liriel's and Fara's parents were just as bad to their children as Rain's father was to her, especially after Liriel mentions wanting to be a boy rather than a girl.
• Accidental Misnaming: Fara constantly gets Jessica's name wrong, much to the latter's eventual annoyance.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 38 takes place at the same time as 37, and focuses on Jess and Heather as they try to get closure on Jess' situation with Aiken.
• Adoptive Peer Parent: Heather (22) is the guardian for her younger sibling Ky (16) despite being only a few years older than Ky, since she rescued Ky from their abusive parents.
• All There in the Manual: Some of the characters’ biographical information, such as their ages are only stated in the official character page.
• All There in the Script: Rudy's name isn't stated in his first appearance and is only revealed through the author's commentary of the next page. His name is mentioned in the comic for the first time in the first chapter's penultimate page.
• Animesque: Has all the different anime tropes and references and is drawn in a very '90s manga art style but is not drawn by a Japanese person.
• And Then I Said: Maria ends some jokes this way. It’s even how she's introduced.
• Art Evolution: Jocelyn has come a long way since starting the story, as this piece showing the cover pages of chapters 1 and 27 show. The characters are more expressive, their character designs change subtly throughout the series, the lines are much cleaner, and the anatomy is much much better.
• The Atoner:
  • Brother Arthur has an FtM brother. He wants to help out Rain and Rudy because of the issues he caused his brother when they were younger.
  • After Fara compares him to his abusive father Marcus, Aiken slowly becomes a more accepting person and attempts to make amends to Rain and Jessica after the pain he caused both of them, especially the latter.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Gavin finds Rudy attractive when he dresses as a girl, much to Gavin's embarrassment.
• Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 34, a few pages in, has Channel worried about Ruby and Maria since she wasn't able to get in touch since Saturday, implying trouble with their homophobic parents. Luckily, they show up the next page, though they do reveal that they are indeed in very hot water with their parents and that their phones were confiscated as part of it.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Chase Brenton and Mrs. Caston (Emily's mother) are this to Emily's story. The former abused, gaslit, raped, and impregnated her while the latter emotionally neglects Emily and encouraged her to be in a very inappropriate relationship with the former, even though she knows Chase is a slimy, abusive, person.
• Big Damn Kiss: The last panel of Chapter 37, when Rain and Emily kiss on the dance floor in front of everyone.
• Bilingual Bonus: One thing Rain really likes is Thunder, the translation of her favorite Manga character’s name Kaminari (雷). Doubling as a Stealth Pun.
• Bland-Name Product: Video game systems and games (and possibly other things) in Rain's world tend to be lawyer-friendly versions of their real life counterparts. For instance, the "Super Nintendo" entertainment system instead becomes the "Super Funtendo" entertainment system, and the game Battletoads becomes "Fighter Frogs". And it's just as hard as ever.
  Six years ago.
  Gavin: Wow! We got all the way to level 12 together!
  Ryan: I wonder how many there are.
  Present day.
  Gavin: Wow! We just got piss-pounded on the first level!
  Rain: Out of how many again?
  • And as of the end of Chapter 10, we have Fabio Cart. You know what, let's just start a list of all future Bland Name Products.
    • GeekStation 3
    • Z-Box 180
  • There's also fake anime names, like Kill Book, Dragoncube A, and Hardsteel Physicist. Later Assault on Colossus is mentioned
  • As a lampshade of the entire concept, one Rain Delay has Rain reciting an overly Long List of all the video games she has. Rudy at the end asks, "Did you just make some of those up?"
  • Emily’s aPhone has a carrot logo on the back, instead of the more common pear.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: This comic has the trio of Emily (blonde), Debbie (brunette), and Holly (redhead).
• Brick Joke: On page 123, Holly talks about having an uncle who has a gay roommate he shares a bed with. On page 1,275, said uncle has come out and she finally gets it.
• Butt-Monkey: Gavin tends to be made the butt of the joke due to people snarking at his rude behavior and cluelessness in the rest of the gang's LGBTQ+ related situations/shenanigans. This is mainly in the early chapters, as he becomes more supportive of Rain.
• Bury Your Gays: Averted; it has been confirmed this trope will never come into play.
• Calling the Old Man Out:
  • Chapter 35 starts with Rudy calling his parents out for trying to send Maria to conversion camp, causing her to run away from home, and bitterly suggests they're happy they've got one less gay kid. His mother realizes how much they've hurt their children, and she kicks her husband out of the house when he starts threatening Rudy.
  • Chapter 40 seems like it's setting up Emily to have closure by yelling at her mother for everything she put her through. It's then subverted when it turns out her mother's already left for business again, leaving behind only a curt note saying that she's kicking Emily out and selling the house. The author notes that sometimes there just isn't a chance to have the last word.
  • Chapter 43: While she can't say it to him in real life, in a dream Rain disowns Marcus as her father, affirming that the Bryers are her true parents. He fades into dust, and Rain says he never appears in her dreams again.
• Camp Gay:
  • Rudy is a somewhat downplayed example. He is flamboyant, sassy, and fond of fashion and crossdressing but he’s much more characterized by his impulsive behavior than any gay stereotypes.
  • Frank, the boyfriend of Gavin’s father, is a much more blatant example. He is overly dramatic and even more effeminate than Rudy.
• Cast Full of Gay: Most of the core cast is a part of the LGBT community, with the notable exception of Gavin.
  • Maria and Rain are lesbians, Chanel is lesbi-ish (meaning she's asexual and homoromantic).
  • Rudy, Gavin's dad, and Gavin's dad's partner are gay.
  • Ky(lie), Fara, and Randy are bi, Emily and Blair are pan.
  • Rain, Brother Arthur's brother, Jessica, Vincent, Ana, and Ryan are trans, Ky(lie) is genderfluid.
  • Chanel and Brother Arthur are asexual.
  • Ana and Heather are intersex, Heather is specifically CAIS. She was assigned at birth the gender she identifies as, while Ana was incorrectly assigned male.
  • Drew is questioning his sexuality after getting a crush on Ky(lie).
• Cerebus Syndrome: While the comic was always intended to be a drama with lighthearted elements, it started out mostly lighthearted with some serious elements here and there. Since then, topics like bigotry, abuse, insecurities, and trauma have become much more prominent. Notable examples include Rain receiving a Traumatic Haircut at the very end of Chapter 25 (and the resulting fallout) and Rudy and Maria being threatened with gay conversion camp by their father in Chapter 34.
  • Chapter 40 in particular comes with a Content Warning as Emily works through some of her emotional issues regarding her abusive mother.
• Chastity Couple:
  • When they were still together, Rain and Rudy were this (all they do is kiss a couple of times; makes sense since they're both really not interested in people of the other's gender).
  • Chanel and Maria are this as well. The former is asexual and specifically states that although some aces have or are interested in having sex, she's not one of them; Maria is fully aware and on board.
• Cheeky Mouth: A lot of the time, a character's mouth moves to their cheeks. This is likely due to the comic's animesque style.
• Childhood Friend: Rain (Ryan back in the day) and Gavin started off as friends from elementary school. As of a recent chapter, Allison, the girl they both had a crush on as young kids, has come into the picture.
• Cold Open: Chapter 43 opens with a Time Skip covering the birth of Emily's daughter, Lydia, and the lead-up to Rain's 18th birthday.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The grading system at St. Hallvard is arranged by colored collars. 9th graders wear red, 10th graders wear orange, 11th graders wear green, and 12th graders wear blue.
• Color Failure: Rain's reaction to Gavin asking her if she happened to be familiar with his childhood friend, Ryan Flaherty.
  • Maria gets in on the action here.
  • The entire Halloween party loses its color when [1] Rudy, in a drunken stupor, kisses Rain.
  • Rain gets another one when she finds out [2] Vincent was born with the name Vivian
  • Her friends do this when [3] Emily reveals about what happened during hers and Rain's weekend.
• Coming-Out Story: Rain's coming out as a woman is detailed within a bonus chapter of the "Rain: Volume 1" physical collection.
• Corner of Woe: Not in a corner, but on page 336, Maria mopes by Puddle for one whole panel after blundering.
• Crash-Into Hello: Rain and Rudy. The consequences get glossed over in the retelling.
• Crazy-Prepared: Rain has spare pads and tampons ready. You never know when another girl may need one.
• Cure Your Gays: According to Rudy's flashback, this was the reasoning his parents used for sending him and Maria to a catholic school after Rudy came out to them. Considering how they reacted, it's no wonder Maria has kept silent about her own sexual preferences.
  • In chapter 7, it is revealed that everyone thinks Rudy's homosexuality has been cured, after he kisses Rain.
  • Later, there is talk of “camps for ‘curing’ homosexuality”
  • The book “How to Cure Homosexuality and Reopen the Gates of Heaven for Yourself” Maria and Rudy got from their parents is almost cute by comparison: “I’m ... speechless.”
• Death Glare: Maria is a master at it. She could teach T-800 robots a thing or two about how to do it.
  • Rain busts one out at Rudy. It's super effective!
• Department of Redundancy Department: : “Cute people are cute.” Repeated in an author’s comment later.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Chanel loves Maria, and Emily is Rain’s favorite person.
• Distant Finale: The final chapter skips ahead six years.
• Double-Meaning Title: Chapter 43 is titled “Liriel’s Daughter” which refers to Rain, who is Liriel Flaherty’s daughter. After the reveal of Liriel being a closeted trans man, Rain decides to take his deadname and make that her new first name. The title suddenly refers to Lydia, who is Emily and Rain’s, whose first name is now Liriel, daughter.
• Dream Episode: Almost the entirety Chapter 25 is about Rain dreaming about being Kaminari.
• Dude, She's A Lesbian: The Trope Namer. Rudy says this exact line to Gavin when he was hitting on Maria in this strip
  • Gavin then says this to Rudy as a Brick Joke in this strip, when Rudy's hung up on a girl who isn't into boys.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Brett's eyes are completely covered by his hair, to match his apparently cool disposition.
• Faceless Masses: The cover of Chapter 8.
• Fag Hag: During their break-up Rudy asks Rain if she will be his fag hag. Rudy is mostly making a brave face. The break-up hits him much harder than Rain.
• Fictional Media: "Black Wings, Kaminari", "Halloween Princess Pandora", and "Mad Giga-Kaizer X" are all fictional manga and anime that Rain and her friends have collected.
• Fiery Redhead:
  • Fara has dark red and is very fierce especially when Rain is being disrespected and/or harassed.
  • The school’s bully Todd is a more negative example. He has bright orange hair and torments almost everyone, especially Rudy.
• Flashback: Used repeatedly throughout the comic, including one to a moment from Rain's childhood that takes up the first few pages.
• Foreshadowing: The prologue, for one. The appearance of Aiken is also foreshadowed by Fara's conversation with Kellen. Also, some of the Halloween costumes are hinted at before they are revealed.
  • Maria's comments here about Emily "not being that sort of person" and here about someone that she needs to "move on" from make a lot more sense when you learn that Emily is pansexual and used to date Maria.
• From Bad to Worse: Chapter 34 features the Strongwell siblings being threatened with a gay conversion camp by their father and then Maria getting expelled from St. Hallvard after trying to protect Chanel. Fearing what her father has in store for her, she disappears before her parents can retrieve her.
• Gaydar: Rain doesn't seem to know what one is...
  • A play on this is made in the comic when Rain and Maria are talking about gaydars at a book store in the mall and Maria calls the transgender equivalent of a gaydar a transceiver.
• Gassy Scare: In chapter 35, Emily pretends she was in labor just to get the secretary to leave, then blames it on gas when Brother Arthur shows up.
• The Generic Guy: Rand M. Guy (aka Randy) is the least characterized of the ensemble cast, and as of yet the only recurring character who has had no dialogue. He appeared in chapters 1 (where he gets stared down by Maria) and 6 (where Rain and Gavin both spit their drinks on him). His normalness is lampshaded not only by his name, but from appearances in "Rain Delays." (No one cares that he is bisexual).
• Gender Reveal: In-universe, with Rain coming clean about her secret to the core cast at the end of Chapter One. Also much later with Rain's brother Aiken. It does not go well.
  • It goes much better with Emily, but she had suspected it for awhile due to a few of the hints Rain accidentally dropped.
• The Ghost:
  • Rain's abusive father Marcus never makes a physical appearance. His deplorable actions are mainly described by other characters in the Bryer-Flaherty family and the only times we really get to see him are in Rain's dreams and flashbacks.
  • Emily's neglectful mother is only seen in silhouettes, and is mainly described through Emily only. Still, the impact she has on her daughter's life is clear as day.
  • Blair Carver started as this, only mentioned in Chapter 28 and is brought up here and there by Emily when discussing her past relationships. That is, until he finally appeared in Chapter 35 and since then made more frequent appearances. Most likely due to Maria moving to his school.
• Gilligan Cut: The page after Rudy crashes into Rain, and sees Rain's "junk" under her skirt:
  Rain (thinking): And even if he did, he probably wouldn't even believe what he saw, right? Yeah, I'm sure he wouldn't tell anyone...
  Rudy (to Maria and Gavin): Hey, guys! You'll never guess what I saw!
• Good Parents: While many of the characters come from troubled backgrounds, others have much more caring families.
  • Chanel's mother has no problem with her daughter dating another girl. Chanel's father has yet to appear, but he is said to be a good parent as well.
  • Ana's father is 100% supportive and loving, and privately admits that, while their situation might be confusing, he just wants her to be happy and live life the way she was meant to.
  • Gavin's mother is... odd, to say the least, but she genuinely wants her son to be happy and was quick to offer Rain a place to spend the night after Gavin told her that her aunt is a violent alcoholic. Gavin also has always had a solid relationship with his father.
  • Emily also believes that she and Rain will be good parents after her baby is born.
  • Liriel/Lorcan, while he admits he was a doormat to everyone in his life and never stood up to his abusive husband, nevertheless loved all his children and tried to protect them. He recognized that Rain was trans from a young age, and in his last will to her, he encourages her to keep trying to become the woman she always wanted to be.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Heather's initial attitude towards Ky's genderfluidity is actually this. Heather was born with CAIS which led to her resenting Ky for sometimes not wanting the reproductive organs she'll never have.
• Halloween Episode: Chapter 6 is about Rain and her friends attending a Halloween party at Chase's house.
• Hand Behind Head: Appears to be a favored trope in the comic due to the main cast encountering plenty of awkward situations in their daily lives. Most often done by Rain when she's flustered.
• Hate Sink: Chase, Todd, Marcus and Emily's mother are the most hated characters in the comic, in-universe and out. With two of them, Chase and Emily's mother being wholly responsible for all of Emily's issues. Needless to say, fans cheered when it was revealed that Chase got arrested for attacking someone in a drunken rage and when Emily disowned her mother by leaving her old house in ruins.
• Hidden Depths: Hardcore Kaminari fangirl Rain has more knowledge of manga than she lets on.
• If It's You, It's Okay: How Rudy eventually becomes attracted to Rain, despite being predominantly homosexual otherwise. Some of the comic's characters however, have expressed skepticism as to whether or not their romantic relationship will survive Rain's plan to fully transition one day.
  • It doesn't... but not from any loss of Rudy's feelings for Rain. Rather, Rain comes to the realization that it was she, in truth, who did not have truly romantic feelings towards him. She had been flattered by the attention he paid her, and accepted the dating because she enjoyed his company, and, in her mindset, dating boys was something that "normal girls" did. But she simply lacks any true romantic attraction towards males, and had simply not fully realized it. Whether this means she is a lesbian is still unknown (though it seems to be implied due to other recent story events), but the two have parted the relationship amicably and remain friends.
• Important Haircut: Non-consensual on Rain's part, but her Traumatic Haircut removes her bangs. This later proves to be symbolic of her opening up to others and becoming more comfortable and confident with herself.
• Improvised Weapon: Aunt Fara's improvised weapon? Student artwork.
• Incompatible Orientation: Constantly.
  • Gavin was attracted to Maria when they first met, but she's a lesbian. Though they ended up fake-dating for a while in order for Maria to hide her orientation from her homophobic parents.
  • Gavin's parents split up before the start of the story because his father realized he was gay.
  • Rudy and Rain try dating, but it doesn't last very long because while Rain might be the exception to Rudy's homosexuality, she ultimately realizes she's not interested in boys.
  • Rain is attracted to Ana, who's straight.
  • Allison was attracted to Rain before Rain transitioned, but later tells Rain she's sad it wouldn't have ever worked out since she (Allison) is straight. In the epilogue, Allison ends up dating Ky, who's genderfluid, so she's apparently not as straight as she thought.
  • Heather is attracted to Jessica, who's straight and lets her down gently; they stay close friends though.
  • Ryan, a closeted trans guy, is interested in his male prom date. Said date is straight and Ryan's sure it's not going to go anywhere once it becomes clear Ryan is not a girl. Ryan decides to not even try to start a relationship.
• Internal Reveal: Emily about her pregnancy here. Even if Chanel was the only one who didn't already know, it still counts.
• Ironic Name:
  • Rain is actually not that fond of rainy days at all.
  • It's unknown whether this is intentional or not but Liriel Flaherty has one. "Liriel" in the latin origin means "Perfection of a woman", which is pretty ironic considering Liriel is in fact a closeted trans man.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Gavin in the early chapters was rude and prone to saying insensitive things, but deep down he always meant well.
  • Rob constantly tells queerphobic jokes, especially at Drew's expense and is quite obnoxious. But he genuinely cares for and likes his friends and reveals that he only meant those jokes as harmless jabs and didn't know he was legit hurting people. When Randy and Drew call him out on how he's hurt them due to those jabs, Rob entirely stops telling queerphobic jokes.
• Keet: Rudy is small, loud, colorful, hyper, and one of the youngest of the main cast.
• Kissing Under the Influence:
  Rain: I wish I could say I was surprised to see my aunt getting drunk and making out with a stranger...
  • At the end of Chapter 6, a drunk and cross-dressing Rudy kisses Rain, complicating their relationship.
  • And later, with Jessica and Heather. Of course it goes a bit farther than the kids do, and Heather ends up learning that Jessica is transgender, leading her to tell Jessica about her intersex condition.
• Lampshade Hanging: In Girls, one of the characters, Holly, gave this jewel. Note that she probably stepped outside to wait until her ears stopped ringing:
  Holly: Umm... Where's our teacher during all of this?
• Love Dodecahedron: Too many twists to list here. With a a Love Chart: “Look at this mess!”
• Mama Bear:
  • Aunt Fara. (In spite of not being anyone's actual biological parent.) Anyone who threatens the welfare of her loved ones is met with varying levels of violence, ranging from a stern lecture to assault via student homework. This even extends to protecting her family from other family, as Rain's elder brother Aiken learns the hard way...
  • Donna Strongwell, in chapter 35, defends Rudy against Norm, her husband, when he threatens to send him away after he stands up for himself and Maria.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Maria is a tough, feared tomboy while Rudy is a flamboyant and sassy kid. Though they’re actually quite a mild example. As the comic goes on we find out Maria has quite a lot of feminine interests and that while Rudy seems to fit the Camp Gay stereotype to T, he isn’t really defined by it. Being much more characterized by his impulsive behavior.
• Meaningful Name:
  • St. Hallvard (the patron saint of the school) was a martyr who died protecting a slave woman from further abuse.
  • Emily's middle name is Rose, and upon marrying Rain, she marries into the Bryer family. Roses are briar plants, and the Bryer surname is derived from "Briar". (Word of God has stated that this is a coincidence.)
• Middle Name Basis:
  • After hearing Rain's deadname at prom, Devon mentions he has a cousin whose legal first name is Ryan. However, she goes exclusively by her middle name because she thinks her first name is too masculine. He assumes Rain is a similar case and accepts her reasons without further questioning.
  • Rain herself becomes this when she changes her legal name to Liriel Rain Bryer.
• A Minor Kidroduction: The comic begins with a prologue focusing on a four-year old Rain (then presenting as a boy), before time-skipping to her final year of high school.
• My Beloved Smother: Gavin's mom hovers over him a lot, much to his dismay, although it's mainly Played for Laughs.
• Monochrome Past: Flashbacks and events that happened in the past are always portrayed in a monochromatic tone.
• Morning Routine:
  • Chapter 1's opening page has Rain feeding her pet rabbit Puddle, taking a shower, drying her hair, putting on her bra falsies, and then applying makeup.
  • Mirrored and averted by Gavin in the opening page of Chapter 3, where he barely does anything besides smashing his alarm clock. Heck, he only dresses up when his mother tells him it's time.
  • Averted once more by Jessica in Chapter 15's opening. She simply goes back to sleep.
• New Transfer Student:
  • The story kicks off with Rain's first day after transferring to a new school.
  • Chapter 15 is about the “January Girls”, usually female transfer students coming in after Christmas break
• No Bisexuals: Averted as there are several characters who are bi or pan (Fara, Ky, Carver, Emily), and when characters who think they are straight find themselves questioning, others encourage them to consider the possibility that they're interested in multiple genders. We also see some fluidity when Rudy dates a girl while still identifying as gay and Kellen, whose sexuality isn't specified but has only been shown dating men in the past, ends up having a girlfriend in the epilogue.
  Emily: The rainbow isn't black and white. There are an infinite number of possibilities.
• No Periods, Period: Averted here. Rain is very prepared even though she doesn't get periods, and has supplies in case a classmate should need them.
• Nosebleed: Rain's gym outfit has a rather distracting effect on Maria. Preceded by a Luminescent Blush and comboed with Color Failure.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  • Maria can’t even begin to describe what gay conversion therapy camps do, she just breaks down crying.
  • We never get a single flashback of Ana’s tragic past but the small facts we do get are enough to paint a depressing picture.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: As of the end of chapter 25, Rain suffers a Traumatic Haircut courtesy of Kellen.
  • Chapter 35: Not only has Maria moved out of her abusive household and left St. Hallvard, but she's now attending school with Ky. Also, Father Quenton is forced to resign, Todd is transferred out, and Brother Arthur becomes the intern headmaster.
• Oblivious to Love: Rain, to Maria and Gavin's early-comic crushes on her.
• Occidental Otaku: Rain is fond of manga, and Gavin is into anime. Chanel is a huge fan of both media.
• Old Flame Fizzle: When Rain and Gavin hang out again, they feel it's not the same as when they were kids, and Gavin thought Rain was Ryan. Somewhat subverted, as Rain and Gavin still remain friends, and Gavin has a crush on Rain.
• Once More, with Clarity: When Allison makes her first appearance, she mentions how she was turned down by Rain (who still presented as Ryan at the time) back before she moved. When Allison and Rain reunite, it's revealed that the "it's complicated" was referring to Rain being in the process of coming to terms with being trans.
• One Degree of Separation: Where should we start?
  • Back when Rain was Ryan, she and Gavin were best friends. A couple years later, when Rain has moved to a new town with her aunt and starts attending an new school, she runs into Gavin once again.
  • Rain's older brother Aiken was engaged to Jessica, whose therapist, Vincent, is his and Rain's Aunt Fara's ex.
  • Emily was dating Chase, who later has a few dates with Jessica and is much later revealed to be Rain's older sister's ex-fiance. Emily herself used to date Maria, is currently dating Rain, and is pregnant with Chase's child.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Averted, Ryan is the deadname of Rain, and the chosen name of Colette.
  • Played straight with Devon’s cousin Ryan, she goes by her middle name due to it sounding quite masculine.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lampshaded in the author's commentary in a strip where the normally kind Brother Arthur is very noticeably furious at Todd in the aftermath of him getting Maria expelled for threatened violence while getting away with injuring Chanel, and then threatening to kill Rudy just a bit ago.
  I don't know about you, but when a typically friendly, light-hearted person reaches that point where they just aren't having it anymore, it scares me a little.
  • Ana, who is usually smiling and friendly to everyone, is quite rude to Rain after she discloses her Trans status to her. Because of everything she has been through, Rain's sudden openness caused her to fear being outed herself. She calms down after speaking to Rain about it though.
• Painting the Medium: Rain's "girl voice" is represented by slanted text. This especially stands out when she slips into her male voice.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Rain's father Marcus abandoned the family for unknown reasons.
  • Ana's mother abandoned her because she could not accept that Ana was not a boy.
• Parental Neglect: Emily's mother neglects her and almost entirely avoids contact with her at all costs.
• Parental Substitute: Rain's snarky aunt Fara took Rain in when Rain was 13, after "circumstances" separated Rain from her parents, later revealed to be one parent passing away from illness (implied to be cancer) and the other abandoning the family, his current status and whereabouts unknown. By chapter 43, Rain has fully accepted Fara as a parent, even changing her surname to that of Fara and her brother.
• Patron Saint: St. Hallvard is the patron saint of protecting the innocent.
• Pet Homosexual: Inverted with Gavin who is straight and cisgendered in a Cast Full of Gay.
  • This inversion is entirely averted once Ana enters the main cast. Because even though she’s intersex, she’s also straight.
• Punny Name:
  • The full name of Randy, who’s just a minor supporting character, is Rand M. Guy.
  • Randy’s parents also have similarly punnerific names. Like his mother Notta Guy and his father Norm Al Guy.
• Rape Discretion Shot: Chase’s rape of Emily isn’t shown on page nor is it even directly referred to as such, but the way Emily very heavily implies what he did, combined with the impact it has on her is spine-chilling.
• Red Herring: The early chapters appeared to be setting up a love triangle between Rain, Gavin, and Maria. That is until the Halloween Party when Rudy accidentally kisses Rain. He realizes the following day that he has a crush on her and asks her out.
  • After that revelation, it would be easy to think that one is meant to view Rudy's attraction to Rain as problematic given her trans status. That he sees her as a way to get a girlfriend that he'd be attracted, because he "sees Rain as a boy". Further fueled by his initial shock at Rain saying she will fully transition. As it turns out Rudy really does see Rain as a woman. He fell in love with her due to her boldness and that despite being gay, he saw her as his only exception.
  • To many readers who thought the relationship was doomed to fail anyway, one is led to believe that Rudy will be the cause of him and Rain's relationship ending. Due to him being gay and his shock at Rain saying she'll fully transition. As it turns out, it's Rain who ends up being the cause for them breaking up. As she realizes she isn't into boys.
• Relationship Upgrade:
  • Maria and Chanel get one in Chapter 13.
  • Rain and Emily get one at the end of Chapter 28.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: After hearing some gossip from around school and reflecting on the subject of Rain's short hair, Drew ends up asking Ky if Rain is a boy. Except a genderfluid one like them, who just happens to always be in girl mode. Seems he's never even heard of transgenderism.
• Rule of Three: The “Dude, she’s a lesbian” running gag is built on this. Having about 3 variations on the joke.
• Rule of Symbolism: In Rain's final dream about her biological father, she visualizes Liriel giving her his ribbon. While Liriel is drawn with breasts, his hair is undone and he stands behind Rain as if to protect her, obscuring his chest and giving himself a more masculine presentation. This all signifies Rain accepting Liriel as her true, spiritual father, and acknowledging and accepting his identity as a transgender man.
• Running Gag:
  • Fara always gets Jessica's name wrong. This eventually reaches a point where Jessica somehow gets her own name wrong at a job interview.
  • Rain, when she still had long hair, usually had a hairstyle which covered one of her eyes, as such, when a character saw her with a hairstyle that shows both of her eyes, they ask "Did she always have two eyes"?
• Sex with the Ex: Fara and Vincent go out to dinner to catch up after reconnecting, and then we see that one thing led to another...
• Shipper on Deck: Shipping gets discussed, but they don’t really do anything about it. And Emirain/Rainily seems to come along without help anyway.
• Show Within a Show: The manga Black Wings Kaminari, of which both Rain and Chanel are fans.
  • Plot summary: Kaminari is a Winged Humanoid from a Floating Continent. On this continent, almost everyone has white wings, but people with black wings are feared due to an ancient villain having black wings. If a baby with black wings is born, it's thrown off the side of the Floating Continent. Kaminari is a Princess, but- surprise, surprise- she has black wings. She's raised in seclusion in the castle by her parents, but on her 16th birthday, she sees a black-winged baby being thrown off the side. She dives after it, but being raised in the castle, she doesn't know how to fly. Plot Armor saves her and the baby, but she lands in a small village where all the graves of the black-winged children are. She feels horrible, and swears to save a life for each grave present. She teams up with three companions: Child Mage Rei, former mercenary Aneko, and Jerk with a Heart of Gold Hokori, who searches for the seven legendary blades after failing to protect a loved one. Together, they journey around and help people.
  • Chapter 25 is a Dream Sequence about Rain being Kaminari, with her closest friends as Kaminari's True Companions.
  • In Chapter 28 Rain finds out that Kaminari is getting an anime in the summer, though since it Overtook the Manga in-universe, it's likely it will have a different story. Of particular note is a Canon Foreigner with one black wing and one white wing who appears for three seconds in the trailer, but quickly becomes quite popular with the fanbase.
• Shout-Out:
  • Someone should be careful when watching Horror Movies.
    Rain: Or the fear that I haven't actually passed at all this whole time, and everyone always hated me, and getting crowned prom queen is just going to result in being doused in pig's blood.
    (Allison and Ana look shocked'')
    Allison: Maybe campy 70s horror movies aren't the best point of reference, but I see what you're saying.
• Shy Finger-Twiddling: Rain does this when even more nervous than usual. So does Chanel.
• Sinister Minister: Father Quenton, the school principal, is established as this in his opening panel. (Ok, he is probably the lower-grade "high-school" version of evil incarnate, but he still qualifies). Also established to have a Bald of Evil.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Kellen and Heather's relationship went down this route, as revealed by Chapter 44, where they've been dating for about a year.
• Spit Take: From time to time.
• The Stinger: Page 107 is marked as the end of Chapter 4, but two pages follow it before Chapter 5.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Rudy can cause this as "Ruby".
• Sweat Drop: Both Rain and Rudy display one the page after their collision.
  • Also, Gavin when the lie that he told about Fara's drunken violence finally catches up with him.
• Take a Third Option: The first several chapters had a lot of people wondering whether Rain would end up with Gavin or Maria, whose crushes on her are a large focal point. Until the Halloween party, Rudy manages to keep to himself that he also has a crush on her, and he ends up being the one to ask her out.
• That Came Out Wrong: Rudy says this word for word verbatim when he offers to clear out dust from Rain's video game.
  Rudy: Want me to blow on it? I won't choke.
  (Rain coughs)
  Rudy: Wait... that came out wrong. I—I mean, in context! Blow on... uh... in the cart of course.
• The Voiceless: Randy never spoke onscreen until Page 1,183, where he reveals onscreen he's bi.
• Time Skip: Chapter 44 jumps ahead to 2019, where Rain is an internet personality, sharing her story as an AMA.
• Trans Equals Gay: Discussed when Jessica tells Heather that until she was in her late teens, she just thought she was a gay guy.
• Trans Relationship Troubles: Rain's brother Aiken stays at her and her aunt's place over Christmas because of "relationship troubles" with his fiancee. The issue is later revealed to be that Jessica, his fiancee, is a stealth trans woman, who was planning on having bottom surgery before they got married. When her insurance backed out, she was forced to come out to him, and he abandoned her.
• Trans Tribulations: The story mainly focuses on Rain, her struggles with dysphoria and being trans in an environment that isn't always very understanding towards trans issues. Ryan is revealed to be the same, though hasn't tried to transition yet due to postponing it until after graduation. Partway through chapter 43, it turns out that Liriel was also trans; unlike his daughter, though, he never got the chance to transition, because of his parents' and husband's hostile reactions.
• Traumatic Haircut: Kellen does this to Rain while she is sleeping.
• Understatement: There is a brief Flashback that shows Rudy coming out, with his dad calling the operator for a young priest and an old priest, and his mom crying badly. The page title? Slight Overreaction.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal:
  • Gavin is rather shocked that the cute girl Rain is his childhood friend, formerly known as Ryan. He gets over it eventually.
  • Aiken is very angry when he finds out his fiancée Jessica is transgender, and breaks up the engagement. It doesn't help that she told him only because she knew she wouldn't be able to hide the truth any more. He calms down, but doesn't seem to really get over it. And then he finds out about Rain.
• Unwanted Harem:
  • It seems that every kid in the school with a compatible sexual orientation gets a crush on Rain. The attention is very much unwanted, for fear that someone will find out her secret.
  • Mercilessly lampshaded by Maria, who points out to a new transfer student that all female transfers end up being doggedly pursued by the male members of the student body.
    Maria: Welcome to St. Horndog... I mean Hallvard.
• The 'Verse:
  • Rain shares universe with My Impossible Soulmate, with that comic in fact being a prequel to Rain.
  • This comic also shares its universe with another of the author's other works called Magical, a Magical Girl-esque story featuring Transgender characters. Rain meets Carmen, one of the protagonists, on her visit to the gender specialist.
• Visual Pun: When Rain's brother (who doesn't know she's transgender) is coming to stay for a week, Rain suggests that she could just hide in the hall closet instead of facing him.
• Webcomic Time: The comic has been ongoing since 2010. In-universe, less than a year has passed for the cast. Lampshaded by Rain and Gavin during prom.
  Rain: I know it's only been like eight months, but so much has happened that it feels it's been nine years.
  Gavin: That's...a weirdly specific number.
• Wham Episode:
  • The penultimate comic of Chapter 6, where Rudy kisses Rain while drunk.
  • Have A Wonderful Day. Maria comes out of the closet in front of a crowded hallway.
  • Chapter 11 through 13. Which deals with Aiken coming to visit after finding out his fiancee is trans, only to find out that Rain is trans too, and the aftermath.
  • At the end of Chapter 25,Rain wakes up from a Dream Sequence to find that Kellen cut off her hair in her sleep. Especially jarring since the Dream Sequence was mostly lighthearted up to this point.
  • Chapter 26 starts with Rain calling out Kellen for cutting her hair against her will while she was sleeping and disowning her after she shows no remorse about it. Shortly afterwards, Heather reveals that she suffers from CAIS (though she doesn't use the term).
  • Chapter 34 has Father Quenton expel Maria for trying to defend Chanel. Then Maria vanishes before her parents can get to her.
  • Chapter 35 is described by the author as akin to a Season Finale, and it certainly lives up to the descriptor given that it deals with the fallout of the previous chapter. Maria is revealed to have moved in with Blair with Emily's help. Her departure opens a rift between her parents which ends with Maria's mom throwing her husband out of the house for threatening Rudy with "cure the gay" camp, not wanting her remaining child to leave her too. Ryan (although he had not chosen this name yet) ends up admitting to being trans to Rudy. Brother Arthur, infuriated by how the situation unfolded, gathers a mountain of evidence of all the bullying Todd's done that Father Quenton turned a blind eye to and submits it to the local diocese. As a result, Father Quenton is forced to quietly resign and Todd is transferred out and put into rehabilitation, with Arthur taking over as headmaster for the rest of the school year. However, while Maria's expulsion is rescinded, she decides not to go back and instead transfers to Ky's school and gets a new style.
  • Chapter 37 chronicles the Prom Night that the last ten-or-so chapters were building towards, and it was suitably large-scale. Rudy switches clothes with Ky in public, Chanel sees Maria for the first time after the events of Chapter 35, Rain is accidentally nominated for Prom King, and the chapter ends with Rain and Emily kissing in front of the entire school.
  • Chapter 43 shows us a lot more than we previously knew about Liriel's and Fara's parents, including this Flashback:
    Liriel: I do... I do wish... That I could be a boy, though, and I-
• Wham Line:
  • Maria outs herself in the school cafeteria: "I am a flaming dyke!"
  • And later:
    Emily: I... I'm... pregnant... It's my ex-boyfriend's.
  • Much later. Also doubles as a Love Confession.
    Rain: Emily, I have the biggest crush on you.
  • Chapter 34 has two of them, one shortly after the other.
    Father Quenton: Maria Strongwell, you are hereby expelled from St. Hallvard High School.
    Brother Arthur: We don't...know where Maria is.
  • Chapter 37 has Rain being chosen as prom king.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Chapter 44 shows where the group is six years later.
  • Rain is a lets-player, who's been sharing her story online, and is married to Emily.
  • Emily is happily raising her daughter Lydia with Rain.
  • Rudy is a teacher at St. Hallvard, wanting to help the next generation of LGBTQ kids at the school and dating Ryan Dixon.
  • Fara is still teaching at St.Hallvard, and is married to Vincent.
  • Aiken has become an assist manager and has started a new relationship with his new girlfriend Mona, while Kellen has become an office receptionist and is dating Ky's sister Heather.
  • Ryan Dixon has come out to his parents, working out in his dad's pawn shop as a clerk and dating Rudy. He also gives Ana the strength to become a voice actress.
  • Ana is in college, between jobs, and is dating Gavin.
  • Gavin is a games journalist and podcaster, and is planning on proposing to Ana.
  • Ky is a programmer and works with Gavin on his podcast.
  • Maria is a voice actress and seamstress, and is living with Chanel.
  • Chanel is a graphic artist and has created her own webcomic.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Well, Pregnant, but with some help from Maria Emily pretends to be in labor to drive Pete from the office so Maria can go to Blair's house to lay low.

Tropes relating to The Animated Series

• Adaptational Skill: In the webcomic, Rain is dreadful singer who can barely sing in key. Here, "A Rain/Extra Christmas" has her singing decently.
• Bland-Name Product: "Just A Picture" gives us Clamor as a counterpart to real-world instant messenger apps like Discord.
• Loose Canon: The series' skits are mainly seperate from the comic's main continuity. But they appear to take place both during, and after the comic's story.
• Shout-Out: This video has the Flaherty siblings lined up like The McElroy Brothers. With Rain taking the place of Griffin.
  Rain: I am incredibly uncomfortable with the energy we have created in the studio today.

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