Webcomic / Reporterz

Reporterz, A Comic Strip by Mastercougar (formerly called "Reporterz Da Comic") was a Sprite Comic initially created under the Serebii forums, before being moved to Comic Genesis. Starring Gabby and Ty, the interviewers you could encounter in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, their job soon forays into interdimensional exploration thanks to their Dimensi-portals. A run-in with Trogdor the Burninator has them eventually encounter the author, who has them go on quests to find the cores of different universes. On the way they find new friends, and cross to both other franchises and original creations.

The comic was eventually discontinued in its sixth storyline, due to losing interest in spriting compared to writing. In addition to the main comic, there are a couple of extra stories which explain the backstory of Eliza and Sila, one of the main heroes and antagonists respectively

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Includes examples of:

• Adaptation Amalgamation: According to author notes, the Link and Zelda of the comic are meant to be composites and general versions of the characters, rather than any specific incarnation
• Adaptational Heroism: In so much as it applies to an object. Unlike in canon where the One Ring was exclusively created for evil purposes, here it was originally the core of the universe and thus naturally neutral-aligned. Sauron corrupted rather than truly made it.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike in canon where he truly has no care for anyone, here Sauron actually has the capacity for love and reciprocates Sila's affection (not that it stops him from turning on her when she won't let him kill her sister). This is a justified example since the One Ring falling into Yellow Dimensi-Space managed to restore his capacity for love and other emotions his corruption cost him. That said, he's still no less determined to fulfill his evil ambitions.
• Achilles' Heel: Demons are weak to extreme heat and according to some extra material, extreme cold. In addition, Eliza is unable to use her powers during a full moon and becomes fully human.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Granted she's got a bad girl streak already, but Sila thinks Sauron is dreamy, and joins an alliance with him. Sauron ends up reciprocating her crush until he threatens her sister.
• Aloof Big Half-Sister: Sila is rather aloof and stand-offish to her sister Eliza, but when push comes to shove (like her boyfriend planning to kill her), she'll protect her.
• Alternate Universe: Exploring different universes makes up most of the plot; Ty invents a dimensional portal to see different worlds. Some of them are versions of existing media (ie: early on they visit a version of Hyrule), but some are original creations like a math-themed world.
• Ambitious, but Lazy: Trogdor has a grand ambition to conquer as many worlds as he can, starting with whatever new universe he finds. However he has a habit of giving up too early and not putting in his all due to laziness. It's only by Storyline 6 does he start to put his all into his evil plan. According to the ending, the author planned to eventually have him grow out of this trope and train to be a real threat.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Logic and Illie/Illogic are personifications of logic and non-logic. Well, to be more accurate Logic used to personify logic, but splintered off from the Hive Mind to survive a Logic Bomb by being pointed out he wasn't logical.
• Author Avatar: The author Mastercougar or MC, who take either a human-looking sprite, or a winged Entei. He has a snarky relationship with the main characters and entrusts them to go collect the different cores. Other authors show up from time to time, such as J. R. R. Tolkien who acts as a supporting character in Storyline 5.
• Author Powers: Any author is a Reality Warper in whatever universe they wrote, such as Mastercougar. However this doesn't apply to authors when in their native universe, which is why Trogdor invading MC's universe is treated as the biggest threat he's posed.
• Bad Future: Eliza and Sila's universe is a negative Alternate Timeline for Bob and George; Dr Wily's death caused an old friend of his to go nuts, rename himself Daraku, use updated robots and a modified Bass to slaughter practically the entire cast except for Dr Light and Cossack. He then establishes himself as the world's dictator for over 30 years while Dr Light forms an underground resistance.
• Berserk Button: Ty is a man of science who prefers the consistency of the laws of physics. As such, Illie flagrantly violating those laws with Insane Troll Logic makes him almost silent with rage.
• Brick Joke: Trogdor refuses to have his Supervillain Lair be a giant muffin, even if the interior is cool. This bites him in the ass later on because he ends up being kidnapped by the Muffin Man, who was enraged by the disparaging things he had to say about the aforementioned lair.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While not without the comic's comedic style, Storyline 5's foray into the universe of The Lord of the Rings is less light-hearted and the main villain manages to be genuinely serious and threatening. Storyline 6 looked to be almost as serious due to MC's world being threatened by Trogdor and the Core he was going after being far more powerful than previous core, however the comic ended before the storyline finished.
• The Comically Serious
  • Logic is a straight-forward and dry-witted villain. Since he happens to team up with Trogdor and his number-themed world is rather wacky, it makes for some humorous interactions with him playing the straight man.
  • Sauron is the most competent villain by far^note excluding Daraku, who basically won in the backstory, and lacks even the dry humor Logic shows. However he's still in a mostly comical Sprite Comic and again, is teaming up with the bumbling Trogdor.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Dimensi-Space and Dimensi-Portals (recolors of the time portal from Chrono Trigger) have different colors depending on their function.
  • Blue: The vanilla Dimensi-space, used by the protagonists.
  • Red: Functionally identical to blue Dimensi-space, but tends to be used by evil characters.
  • Yellow: Designed to harm evil beings who travel through it.
  • Green: Lets people travel across time instead of other universes.
• Cosmic Keystone: The dimensional cores, which are, well, the cores of their world. They're indestructible, but give whoever holds them great power depending on the nature of the world. For example, the number-themed world of Gebra's core can change one number into another.
• Darker and Edgier: Out of the Ashes, a side comic that explores Eliza's backstory, is a lot darker than the main comic. It has an Evil Overlord take over, her and Sila's parents dying in the fight against said overlord, and only has a few jokes in it.
• Demoted to Dragon: Being far more competent than him, Sauron turns Trogdor into his minion. Trogdor tries to pull The Starscream, but Sauron overhears and imprisons him.
• Dumb Muscle: Madoom is so stupid he can't properly talk, but he's also a Machamp/Houndoom hybrid so his strength is nothing to sneeze at.
• Elvis Impersonator: Gabe's Pokemon Loudred has a pompadour, dresses like Elvis and acts as a disco-loving hippie.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Ultimately subverted with Sauron; while the One Ring's dip into Yellow Dimensi-Space has rendered him capable of love/compassion again, and he does genuinely enjoy his time with Sila, he disregards her when she steps in to protect Eliza. Played straight with Sila, of course, as she immediately turns on Sauron when he plans to kill her half-sister. She also had a strong connection with her parents, and losing her mother was what led to her becoming so bitter in the first place.
• Evil Genius: Zard is a cunning inventor and strategist who handles the technology of Trogdor's operations. He's probably the smartest member on their team.
• Freudian Excuse: Sila is a bitter and stand-offish person who self-describes herself as a mercenary. She became this way due to the tragedy of losing her mother against her world's Evil Overlord
• Fun with Acronyms: CLOVIS, which serves as the family name of Eliza and Sila, for the surnames of the scientists who created their father: Doctors/Professors Cossack, Light, Oppin, Vinue, Ivannova and Solaris.
• Fusion Dance: In order to stop Sauron, Eliza and Sila end up fusing into a more powerful form. The result is a massive black Yellow Devil with four arms and red and green spines.
• God of Chaos: Illogic, or Illie as he prefers to be known as, is the antithesis of all things logical and a sort of multiversal embodiment of chaos. Because of this it's in his nature to act inherently illogical, causing inevitable chaos due to his weaponized use of Insane Troll Logic. The more of a presence he has in the universe the more chaotic it is and the looser its laws of physics is.
• God of Order: Logic acts as a sort of multiversal embodiment of logic, who exists to enforce order and structure. The Logic encountered in the webcomic is a fragment that separated himself from the hive mind to avoid suffering a Logic Bomb. The more presence Logic has in a universe, the stricter its laws of physics are.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Red text is used for villains, the Red Dimensi-Space (which villains usually use), and the more villainous Sila is red compared to the green Eliza.
• Good Hurts Evil: Yellow Dimensi-Space was designed by J. R. R. Tolkien to have a negative effect on evil beings. Trogdor and his minions lose their lunch, and Sauron suffers great pain when the One Ring falls into it. That said he does start to regain a smidgeon of his humanity and be able to gain a fairer humanoid form, so it only hurt him short-term.
• Great Gazoo: Illie is the embodiment of the lack of logic and chaos. He's potentially one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse but his inherently chaotic nature causes him to be an overly quirky Cloudcuckoolander who often goes off on nonsensical non-sequiturs and alters reality with Insane Troll Logic.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Eliza is half-Demon^note that's Yellow Devil variant, not actual demon from her dad, half-human from her mom.
• Heel–Face Turn: The ending reveals that, had the series continued, Zard and Madoom would've eventually joined the protagonists.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Zard serves as one of Trogdor's evil minions. While Trogdor is kind of stupid and lazy, Zard is an Evil Genius who proves time and again he's the more competent one.
• I Let You Win: Suggested in the author's commentary when MC loses against Link, as since he's the author, anytime he loses should be part of his plan.
• Interspecies Romance
  • Along with Link and Zelda, Eliza and Kyo are a steady couple. The former is a half-Yellow Devil variant, Half-Human Hybrid and the latter is a humanoid version of Kyogre from a universe where Pokemon are human-like. Eliza herself is the product of such a relationship with a humanoid grey version of the Yellow Devil and the fully human Kalinka Cossack.
  • In Storyline 5 the full-blooded Slime Girl Eliza has a crush towards Sauron, who's a Maiar that fell to darkness. Thanks to the influence of Yellow Space restoring some of his positive traits he eventually reciprocates, but this relationship is broken off when Sauron chooses to kill Eliza.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Illie/Illogic is the Anthropomorphic Personification of the lack of logic in contrast to Logic, which basically makes him the embodiment of Insane Troll Logic. This lets him bend reality to his will by using absurd reasoning; for example he creates an escape by cutting a table in half, as two halves make a (w)hole. As a man of science, Ty finds this aggravating.
• Knight of Cerebus
  • While Lighter and Softer to his canon self and not immune to jokes, Sauron is still incredibly dangerous and straight-faced. By the end he's only narrowly defeated by a Fusion Dance of Sila and Eliza.
  • Though limited to Eliza's backstory, Daraku is definitely this. He wiped out practically every hero, managed to take over the world where Dr Wily failed, and has ruled a dystopia for about 30 years. He even killed Eliza and Sila's parents. And unlike Sauron nothing is comedic about him.
• Laughably Evil: Trogdor is the recurring villain and a vicious, giant dragon. His emotive and quirky personality combined with how often he's flummoxed also makes him one of the main sources of comedy.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: While some worlds are original creations by the author, many are not. Link and Zelda are protagonists alongside Gabby and Ty, the main recurring villain is Trogdor, and the universes the gang visits include Tolkien's setting and a now defunct sprite comic on the same site.
• Multiversal Conqueror: Trogdor's goal in whatever universe he ends up is usually to conquer it. Fortunately, he's pretty bad at "conquering" thing. He gets a bit more serious in Storyline 6 where he invades the author's universe, due to that dimension's Core being so much more powerful than any of the "fictional" universes.
• Near-Villain Victory: Sauron ends up reclaiming the One Ring^note though author notes reveal he still can't be as powerful as he would've been with it, has handily defeated the protagonists and/or absorbed them into his new sword, and is about to fry Eliza to a crisp. Only Sila turning on him and working with her via an untested Fusion Dance saves the day.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons are Yellow Devil-based shapeshifting goo creatures composed of Nanomachines. Specifically Demon with a capital D, in order to distinguish them from traditional demons.
• Palette Swap: Zard is a black/shiny Charizard, and Eliza and Sila's demon forms are green/red recolors of the Yellow Devil. Downplayed with their dad, who was was a Bass sprite recolor, but the head is replaced with Champion Steven's. Logic is a gray recolor of the Rainbow Devil.
• Painting the Medium: Villainous characters speak with red text, while Eliza uses green text to match her coloring.
• Pieces of God: The Logic who rules in Gebra is revealed to actually be an avatar of a greater multiversal concept of Logic. He became his own entity separate from the hive mind when Wisest Pikachu pointed out his own illogical behavior and actions.
• Planet of Hats: Gebra is a planet/universe themed entirely around maths and geometry, with many of their residents being living numbers.
• Posthumous Character: Eliza and Sila's parents Alan and Kalinka/Alexis were killed before the start of the comic. Alan's ghost shows up in the comic proper to parody Star Wars by being Eliza's Spirit Advisor.
• Rage Against the Author: MC kidnaps Zelda to get Link to be part of a storyline. Link ultimately gets Zelda back by beating him in a Pokemon battle, though the author commentary suggested he allowed him to win.
• Red/Green Contrast: Half-sisters Sila and Eliza are red and green. The former is broody and hot-headed, while the latter is friendly and relatively calm.
• Robosexual: Eliza's mother could be considered a variant. Yeah her dad isn't your standard robot, but he is a collective consciousness of Nanomachines akin to the T-1000, and she was fully human.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Logic used to be a villain in the Wisest Pikachu sprite comic before being banished to X-Space. He later gets brought out to Gebra by Azad, and goes on to conquer the place.
• Outliving One's Offspring: In Eliza's backstory, Kalinka Cossack is her mother and died fighting Daraku along with Eliza/Sila's dad. Dr Cossack is still alive as of the comic's present.
• Shout-Out: To Inuyasha: Eliza turning fully human and being mode-locked on a full moon is a reference to the title character, while her world's dictator, Daraku, is named after the anime's Big Bad Naraku.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Eliza and Sila^note well, half-sibling yin-yang. One is cheerful and heroic, the latter more sullen and a mercenary.
• Slime Girl: Sila and her parents Alexi and Alan are humanoid versions of the Yellow Devil without needing a core. In effect, they're made out of a slime-like substance composed of nanomachines, akin to the T-1000, and are able to shapeshift and change colors like it. Eliza is a half-human version of this, where for the most part she is made of the same stuff but every full moon she reverts to a pure human form.
• Spared by the Adaptation
  • Thanks to Yellow Dimensi-Space opening up in Mt Doom, Gollum avoids falling into the lava, however he eventually gets turned into a cursed weapon by Sauron. Played straight with the One Ring, however; being revealed as the dimensional core the One Ring ends up being purified to its original state instead of being destroyed.
  • In the sense that he isn't reduced to an impotent spirit, Sauron manages to persist albeit further weakened. While he is eventually blasted to parts unknown, it's stated that he's still alive though will never be as powerful as he used to be.
• The Unreveal: Who killed the Dr Wily on Sila and Eliza's universe, leading to Daraku's Start of Darkness? He thinks it was Mega Man, but we're never given a definitive answer.
• Thicker Than Water: Sila and Eliza have something of a Sibling Rivalry and she's considered a villain, however, when her boyfriend Sauron tries to take her out, she doesn't hesitate in turning against him.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Sauron, of all people, due to the One Ring entering Yellow Dimensi-Space. He's still a villain, but compared to his canon personality he's now capable of lost emotions like love again and starts a romance with Sila.
• Villain of Another Story: Daraku is the Big Bad of the "Out Of The Ashes" narrative, and the tyrannical dictator Eliza and Sila were born under and fought against. However, he's not the focus of the comic proper, and it was discontinued before the protagonists reached his universe.
• Villain Protagonist: Trogdor is the star of "Storyline 1.5", as he tried to break into being a big villain by finding minions and a good evil lair.
• Villain Team-Up: If he's not the sole main villain, Trogdor will usually try to work with the other villain. He's able to get along well with Logic, but when he works with Sauron, he soon gets on Sauron's nerves and they turn on each other.
• Villain World: Eliza and Sila's world is one where a supervillain called Daraku took over an alternate Bob and George universe and has ruled with an iron grip for 30 years. Most of the old characters are dead or missing, and Dr Light and Cossack have joined up with other scientists to try and stop him.
• Villainous Friendship: Trogdor and Logic end up rather being rather chummy during their team-up, even if they aren't both bickering with each other. Generally he gets along with his underlings Madoom and Zard and appreciates their company, even if he does yell at their screw-ups.
• Villainy-Free Villain: Sila in her first appearance is an antagonist, but unlike Trogdor, she's only trying to fight Eliza for their dad's blaster she thinks belongs to her, and leaves after she's beaten. This gets subverted in her second appearance when she sides with Sauron, though mainly because she has a crush on him.
• Weak to Fire: Eliza and Sila are vulnerable to fire, as it's the only sure way to kill a Demon. Though made of nanobots, they're still metal and metal still melts.
• Weaker in the Real World: Meta-fictional example; being the author, Mastercougar is practically omnipotent within the settings he created. However in his own universe he is nothing more than an normal human, which is why he needs the heroes' help in Storyline 6; Trogdor has managed to invade his universe, which puts him in actual danger for once.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: With the comic ending prematurely, where Eliza, Sila and Sauron were transported to after their clash is left a mystery, though MC does mention Eliza was sent to the near-future after their current arc is finished.
• Wild Card: Sila is listed as one of the villains in the character bios, though she's closer to this trope than an outright bad guy. She only antagonizes Eliza for person reasons regarding their dad's inheritance, is a self-described mercenary and is more just going along with her own plans in the LOTR storyline partly because of her crush on Sauron.