Webcomic / Hero Oh Hero

Hero Oh Hero (also available in an Archive Binge friendly format here) is a Pixel Art webcomic, created by Guido "Neorice" Bos, which is a reboot of their previous work A Path to Greater Good.

It follows a plot, similar to its predecessor, with multiple separate characters with their own Plot Threads (which slowly intersect), set in a fantasy world and updates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (with the occasional week of daily updates).

The protagonists (so far) are:

• Burk: A wandering quixotic Wild Man who literally falls from the sky into a village being troubled by bandits (at roughly the same time an aloof Aristocrat shows up with a trinket which points to...something).
• Noah: An aloof young man who lives in the city of Gloria in The Empire, where magic is strictly controlled...and he seems to be developing strange powers.
• Tobi: A Gadgeteer Genius who lives in the Hungry Desert based town of Rauel and is setting off on just another Dungeon Crawling expedition for resources.
• Held: A magical Child Prodigy born in Kragmoria during a period where magic users where purged by the government, taught by her uncle on how to fight with and without magic. Her story seems to occur much earlier than any of the other protagonists, taking place shortly before the Heroland organization was officially founded.

In addition there's a one-shot story, set in the same universe, which fills in some of the setting's details and can be found on Neorice's deviantArt account here, as well as stories available exclusively on Neorice's Patreon (seen here). There is also a wiki which can be found here.

This webcomic contains examples of the following tropes:

• Accidental Pervert: When Burk shows up at Norman's house again (only wearing his boxers), his sister answers the door. She's unfazed, but not entirely comfortable with it.
• All There in the Manual:
  • TOM RPG has background information on how magic and heroes work in the HOH universe which hasn't come up in the comic proper.
  • The name of the town Burk visits in the first chapter was revealed by some faux trading cards Neorice uploaded to his deviantArt page.
• Anachronic Order:
  • The three storylines are not synchronous and each has its own pace: a few weeks for Burk, possibly longer for Noah, but a single day for Tobi. Telling which storyline happens after which, is a major spoiler.
  • On a smaller scale, in Tobi's story the chapter 81 is set after the train got thoroughly trashed in the chapter 86, as seen from pages 2298, 2452 and 2456.
• Apocalypse How: Emergence of magic a few decades ago. Worldwide societal disruption or even collapse in some places. Many areas effectively reverted to feudalism and many technologies were lost, such as making TVs or robots, as told here.
• Arrested for Heroism: Subverted - It's illegal to be a hero without a licence, but when Burk admits he hasn't got one (and doesn't care) to Logan, the hero agrees with the sentiment.
• Arsenal Attire: Pablo and his "Diplomatic Weapons." Seems to be a trait of important Livarian figures, and it serves as much a proof of their identity as any papers, with added bonus of making it near-impossible to impersonate a Livarian - the sheer complexity of all the machinery required in Livarian garb makes merely wearing them a lethal prospect without the required training.
• Badass Cape: Burk wears one (and uses it as a parachute when he falls from the sky). He loses it when it becomes "a casualty of war" in his quest to find a restroom.
• Badass Normal: Burk.
  Burk is 100% Burk, no grain of magic. This is important.
• Beneath Notice: It turns out that the version of Detlef Noah meets in Detlef's Mental World was friendly to him because he barely even noticed him before.
• Benevolent Architecture: The dungeons the Rauelians raid contain features which makes traversing them much easier (such as "class change orbs").
• The Blank: Mr. Three, who is a Humanoid Abomination and speaks entirely in unintelligible TV static. He seems friendly though.
• Book Snap: Logan is introduced holding a book after having casually defeated Daryl in a duel. When he finally loses his temper with Burk and drops his stoic demeanour, he slams it shut.
• Brick Joke: Early on, the Aristocrat mentions he sent out letters asking if anyone knew anything about his amulet. Over a hundred strips later the town's local hero asks if Burk was the one who sent the letter.
• Calling Your Attacks: Most magic users do that.
  • Subverted when the Aristocrat pretends to do this in order to give himself a chance to run away.
  • The first (real) bandit has Blasting Chains!. Later on, Magic Shield fails to protect him from Destiny Punch.
  • Students at Veda's demonstration.
  • Iron Judge and Piper. Note that the teenage girl and an old man use different names for similar spells.
  • Pablo names his diplomatic "weapons". Strictly speaking, some of those aren't attacks.
  • Adell the rogue lampshades this by stating calling a "secret attack" kind of defeats its purpose. Unless she wanted to scare Pablo off.
  • Same for Aristocrat against Burk.
  • Livarian criminal Illuani the Hatter announces his attacks as "Illegal Weapon #[number] [Weapon Name]" as surely as Pablo announces his with "Diplomatic Weapon". It seems to be a Livarian quirk.
• Cast from Hit Points: Once a magic user depletes the spirit reserves, further casting starts to damage the body. Gaz on two occasions and later Noah are seen bleeding from their eyes and then coughing blood.
  • This can also happen if a magic user uses a particular spirit technique they either don't have a good affinity or haven't practiced with, especially if they're already low on their reserves. Examples include Noah using a spirit shield during the Chernyl's Nightmare arc and Held during her childhood whenever she used... well, any spirit techniques.
• Cast of Snowflakes: The author/artist has 150 characters already sprited, each with their own design (including a unique face, masked/helmeted characters aside).
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: The death rate in the Chernyl's Nightmare arc of Noah's story is astounding. Characters are killed off almost as fast as they can be introduced and without regard for rules like Nominal Importance, and in fact the arc seems to make a point of introducing characters with names to make it less certain if they'll live or die. For example, in the span of five pages, three characters out of what was at the time a party of five JSP Agent #1, Halmer, and Sezah are quickly killed off, leaving only Noah and Noel. Tobi's arc is also no stranger to named characters dying, but not nearly at the pace that Chernyl's Nightmare has killed characters in Noah's arc. By comparison, Burk's arc has a tiny death toll.
• Child Prodigy: Held. On top of being born with magic, she reveals that she has a shocking aptitude for spirit techniques, able to use spirit to move rapidly (to the point of resembling Teleportation when she was a toddler. Unfortunately, these techniques were too advanced for such a young body, often resulting in her coughing up blood whenever she had to use them extensively, to the point that her adoptive father sent her away for training to hopefully fix the issue.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Several:
  • The old man who the bandits initially capture, along with his granddaughter, Melany (that is to say they captured her with them; she's much more level-headed) is a textbook example from his first appearance.
  • The (as yet unnamed) Aristocrat also qualifies; his plan to learn more about an amulet was to send a letter to everyone in town asking about it. Including bandits who'll want to rob him.
  • Burk is very much one (from asking to use the bathroom as a reward for a quest to claiming his missing cape was "casualty of war" after doing so).
• Crazy-Prepared: Pablo with his "diplomatic weapons". This is said to be true for all Livarian diplomats.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: When Grandpa first sees the bandits, he assumes they're lawmen, despite them looking nothing like it. Later we find out they're former members of the Town Guard.
• Comically Small Demand:
  • Burk agrees to look into Resthill's bandit problem in exchange for being able to use a toilet. Mainly because he'd have done it for nothing, but really needed to go.
  • Subverted by the Aristocrat, who asks for a tailor to repair his clothes, whatever it turns out his medal points at and a lifelike statue of him built in the middle of the town.
• Continuity Reboot: Of A Path to Greater Good.
• Corrupt Cop:
  • The bandits are revealed to be former guards led by the ex-captain. Subversion — working as money collectors for bigger bads looked like the least harmful course of action.
  • Housten claims to be honest which is quite rare in Lorg.
• Curtains Match the Window: Melany has blue hair and eyes.
• The Dandy: The aristocrat cares enough about his appearance to ask that his clothes be repaired and addresses a crowd as "Ladies and Gentlemen... and Ladies".
• Defeat Means Friendship: Burk tries (and fails) to invoke this with "Piggy", the mount of one of the bandits he's just defeated.
• Depraved Dentist: One of the nightmares offers "dental surgery" as a cure for everything. It leaves victims with a shiny clean skull.
• Distinction Without a Difference: The girl from class C wasn't arrested; just conscripted into the VEDA project for using magic illegally!
• Dramatic High Perching:
  • Burk watches the real bandits (who he's agreed to defeat) enter the town from a vantage point on a roof.
  • In the second chapter's prologue, a pair of hooded figures watch the events unfold from a similar position.
• Dungeon Crawling: Rauel gets most of its resources this way. Tobi's chapter begins with her setting out on such an expedition.
• Dungeon-Based Economy: The desert town of Rauel gets all its resources from the dungeons which spring up (traps, enemies and all) for 24-hours and disappear. It's so common that the townsfolk consider them a natural resource. While it's routine, it can still be very dangerous, as the first chapter demonstrates.
• Egopolis: Justopea combines this with People's Republic of Tyranny, since its name both suggests "justice" or Emperor Justin's name.
• The Empire: The Empire of Justopea. The morning radio broadcasts blare out propaganda and magic users are pressed into service.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even the rest of the bandits are creeped out by Gary.
• Exposition Diagram:
  • Noah's first chapter has a Royal Guard provide them by using his training to rapidly draw them on a chalkboard, as he serves as Mr. Exposition.
  • Tobi's first chapter is full of every kind, from the In-Universe puppet show in the first few strips, maps which appear in the background when the characters are discussing local geography and numbers indicating the ranks of dungeons Tobi's team have cleared. Menus that characters are viewing also appear in front of them for the audience's benefit (other characters can't see them).
  • "Trivia quiz" in Tobi's story finally tells her (and readers) the structure and purpose of Global Order.
• Eye Colour Change:
  • In Tobi's plotline, someone looking at a menu has their eyes shift to the colour of the menu. The authour said that other people may notice blue sparks in Tobi's eyes — but only if they look very hard.
  • Noah's and Cherry's eyes become green when they use "spirit sight".
• The Faceless: The bandits' bosses have their faces hidden by their armour.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • The bandits (who are looking for an aristocrat) question a woman and her grandfather who have nothing but a rickety old cart, but completely ignore the man walking by in expensive clothes.
  • Nail, Noah and Aude miss a (rather large) elf who's standing on a roof behind them. Lampshaded by Nail.
  "...I should've looked up there."
• False Reassurance: Tobi assures her Grandpa that she doesn't think he's an old relic.
• Fantastic Racism: The people of the Empire are instilled with a strong hatred of magic users, especially elves. To the point where a room full of high school students (mostly) don't bat an eye when one's shot dead in front of them.
• Fantastic Slur: The "elves" are humans who are called that because of their resemblance to mythical elves.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: July tries to invoke this on Noah by offering to nurse him back to health. When he turns her down, she offers to watch him sleep instead.
  Noah: That's creepy.
• Foil:
  • The Aristocrat to Burk. Similar appearance, similar fighting style and approach to problems. Opposing personalities (and hygiene). The same is true of Logan, whose skinny build and Honour Before Reason attitude contrasts Burk in another way.
  • Each of the three main characters is also one to the other two: Burk is a massive, mysterious muscle man who has no interest in following rules, Noah is a skinny, pale Non-Action Guy who's introduced waking up and going through a mundane routine in a Police State, while Tobi's a dark skinned Action Girl who lives in a small, independent desert town full of Steampunk technology.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Each of the three characters has their own, independent plotline. Each chapter focuses on one of them and the next chapter shifts focus.
• Foreshadowing: Foxy is revealed to be colour blind, and it's explicitly pointed out this is why she was voting neutral; she didn't want to give away a potential weakness.
• Full-Boar Action: The bandit leaders ride acid spitting boars. They're less impressive when defeated.
• Gambit Pileup: The events at Clovercoast in Burk's storyline. Basically, Mage Baron and Livarall conduct poorly-coordinated investigations of systemic robberies. Of course, the culprits counteract. Additionally, Mage Baron keeps some interesting prisoners, who won't pass up an opportunity to escape. Then Burk and Aristocrat stumble in the middle of it.
  • Livarian diplomat Pablo needs to discuss robberies with Baron. But entry is denied. He then tries to sneak in.
  • Burk's plan involves following Pablo and bragging about beating Baron.
  • The nameless rogue helps them sneak in. To use them as a distraction while she empties the baron's safe.
    • Then Pablo proves smarter than he seemed and somewhat hinders her.
  • Ramien is the former king overthrown by Mage King. He is the leader of non-magical prisoners. If freed, he can easily start a popular uprising. Actually, he knows the uprising would be doomed and wants to negotiate a surrender on better terms.
  • Moe the Shifter assisted the baron in the investigation, then was given magic and driven insane to make him kill the baron. Now he wants to continue his rampage. Switches sides real often.
  • Ariara is one of the world's top wanted criminals, "Pirate of the Storm". Nobody knows, how the baron managed to catch her. She wants all the prisoners to join her pirate crew — possibly, to replace the old crew that either fled or died.
  • "3rd magic user" and his partner were sent to kill the baron and take his amulet, but somehow got caught. When freed, they proceed with the old plan ruthlessly.
  • Iron Judge and Piper Pol investigate the robberies and the baron's death.
  • Guy Juliet seems to assist Iron Judge, but has his own agenda and isn't trusted. He was tailing "3rd magic user" and his partner, tried to warn Mage Baron, but was too late. In addition, Justopea wants Ariara dead.
  • Aristocrat just wants Burk's backpack.
• Gasshole: Liberty at last!
• Glamour Failure: When Noah's powers begin to manifest his reflection in the mirror turns green.
• Glory Seeker: The Aristocrat might be brave enough to take on the bandits (albeit after he's let the bandit's mount run rampant and put the rest of the town in danger to give himself a tactical advantage), but he's pretty quick to demand that they build him a statue after the fact (and gets irritated when it's pointed out that Burk's still fighting said mount).
• Goofy Print Underwear: Whenever Burk loses his pants (somehow), his underwear has polka-dots.
• Good Morning, Crono: Tobi's first chapter begins with her napping at the Oasis, before being woken up by Jake.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Burk and The Aristocrat both fight with their bare hands.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In the opening of the second chapter, a pair of crooks end up attacking a magic user. The camera pans up to a couple of mysterious figures commenting on the situation and we only get their summaries of what's happening to them.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Burk defeats the second of the two bandit leaders by throwing the former town guard captain at him.
• He Had a Name: The second of the two bandit leaders last words after being stabbed by the former Captain of the guard are;
  "I-I'm... Phil.
• Hidden Elf Village: Tobi's hometown, Rauel. Almost a Tree Top Town, but instead of trees it's built on metal pillars and platforms — to stay safe from desert predators. Inhabited by pointy-eared people with some unconventional abilities.
• Hollywood Acid: The "shimmering sea" under Lorg. Dissolves anything organic. (A Wizard Did It, of course.) Created to solve the waste problem, mainly sewage and dead bodies.
• Honour Before Reason: Several characters have their moments. Lacey borders on insanity when someone speaks ill or just brings bad news about his king.
• Horse of a Different Color/Cool Horse: The boars the bandits ride on; they can even spit acid.
• Humble Goal: Burk's quests so far have consisted of finding a toilet and acquiring a giant pig for a mount (or getting the pig he found to grow giant again).
• Humble Hero: Burk is one (he seems pretty content to deal with the town's bandit problem for the sake of a good deed), in direct contrast to the Aristocrat.
• I Gave My Word: At the end of the first chapter, Logan reveals that Burk has used the request he was given for defeating him to ask that he defend the village in a more proactive manner. He swears both revenge and that he'll stick to it.
• I Have No Son!: It's not uncommon in Justopea to disown children if they manifest magic abilities, because of fear and hatred of magic. Noah's mother does this. The presence of any legal guardian seems to severely limit what Justopean government people are allowed to do to magical children. Thus Noah's estranged father shows up to help him.
• Insistent Terminology: Al insists that it's not just the Subway, it's the Super Awesome Subway.
• Indy Ploy: The Aristocrat shows why they might not always be the best of ideas.
  "Don't be silly. Plans are for the unprepared!"
• Instant Sedation: Weapon of choice of Adel, the rogue girl, is syringes. For throwing and stabbing.
• It Makes Sense in Context: To explain how his ridiculous actions are going to save them, Noel needs to retell his biography. Noah asks to just do it and explain later, since there's no time.
• It's Raining Men: The first chapter is called "The Man Who Fell From The Sky". Burk's introduced when he does just that.
• Jade-Coloured Glasses: Norman's sister could give Daria a run for her money.
• Kill All Humans: Ghouls have this reputation.
• Leeroy Jenkins:
  • Burk typically deals with threats by rushing straight into them, although he's tough enough that he can afford to (and, ironically, tends to fight by dodging).
  • Aude ends up being one when she attacks an elf who was happy to let her, Nail and Noah leave, since they weren't soldiers (or at least didn't appear to be, in Nail's case).
• Lightbulb Joke:
  "How many Burks does it take to screw in a lightbulb? It takes... FIVE LIGHTBULBS!"
• Little "No": Burk's quite fond of taunting with "nope" when he's dodging attacks.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Played With as there are three types of magic with different rules. One thing is more or less universal — magic drains "spirit reserves" and depleting them is dangerous to the magic user's health. The unfamiliar magics drain more, while well-practiced techniques cost much less.
  • Mostly averted for Pandemonium magic, as it can be essentially any ability with little or no limit to what it might manifest as, though each user has a very specific form of it. It also spends almost negligible amount of spirit. However, chapter 68 reveals that some kind of "chained spirits of pandemonium" may be responsible for this. Thus, something like the spirit magic rules may still apply, in a roundabout way.
  • Free magic in an aversion as it can do more or less anything, as long as the user can imagine the result with sufficient detail, but is draining to use. Most users limit themselves to a small handful of more specialized and easier to use techniques to avoid burning themselves out.
  • Spirit magic or "magical potential" plays it completely straight. Spirit magic has a set of defined techniques and more advanced use is down to how these techniques are combined and applied. As shown in Gazz and Kyra's fight, a spirit magic user who knows what techniques their opponent is using and how they're using them can relatively quickly and easily duplicate their opponent's technique. Pandemonium magic users can also use spirit magic, though whether they bother to develop (or be trained on) this skill generally depends on how useful their pandemonium magic is. For example, Jamal, who can stop time focuses most of his training on his pandemonium magic, while Felix, who can store objects as cards, is trained instead as a spirit magic user. Same is true for free magic users, but them training in spirit techniques is always a waste of time.
  • Esper abilities seem to follow the rules of spirit magic (too little is known as of page 2500), with the distinction that espers have no spirit of their own and only manipulate spirit of magic users. And they are quite good at it.
• The Magic Comes Back: This happened several decades ago. With drastic consequences.
• Magic Compass: The aristocrat's medal points towards something when it's held by the end of its chain. That something appears to be Burk, or something he's carrying.
• Mathematician's Answer: Burk's quite fond of giving these. For example, how did he get past The Hero's secretary?
  "On foot."
• Man Bites Man: Or rather Ax-Crazy schoolgirl bites elf's ear off.
• Mental World: Noah's power turns out to be able to enter these. So far we've seen:
  • Mind of Detlef the elf's — an abstract memory of the first time he met Empire soldiers, whom he sees as suits of armour speaking Black Speech and setting things on fire with their eye-beams.
  • "Home" — presumably Noah's own mind, in the form of a subway station.
  • Cow's mind — an infinite flat grassland, where the cow is the only landmark. Exiting it proves tricky. Noah needed a place the cow didn't know. He had to dig a pit with his bare hands.
• Minor Living Alone: Noah is a highschooler living in a dorm. Which looks more like an apartment complex.
• Morning Routine: Noah's chapter begins with him waking up and getting ready for school.
• Mugging the Monster: The first Noah chapter opens with a group of thugs attacking a young girl and her friend (who promptly flees). She ends up defending herself with magic.
• Mundane Made Awesome: When a royal guard shows up to explain things to Noah's class, he dramatically pauses before saying he'll draw on a chalkboard. Judging by the classes' reactions, it worked.
  "I shall educate you adolescents...with this chalk!"
• Mutant Draft Board: In Justopea illegal magic users are drafted into service for The Empire. It's not stated explicitly, but looks like there's no legal magic outside empire service.
• Mythology Gag:
  • "Bandit Punch" was the name of The Bandit's main attack in A Path to Greater Good. In Hero Oh Hero, The Aristocrat yells "Bandit Punch!" the first time he punches someone . . . because he's punching a bandit.
  • Chapters 1, 2 and 3 each start out like the beginnings of their arcs in A Path to Greater Good, but then go in different directions:
    • Chapter 1 begins with Melany and her Grandpa being accosted by bandits in the woods. In APTGG, Burk showed up and saved them. In HOH, the bandit boss lets them go because they're not who he's looking for.
    • Chapter 2 begins with the criminal Sharkface Sam cornering a young blonde woman on the street. In APTGG, he kills her, but immediately falls victim to a suspicious cult. In HOH, she blasts him with her magic.
    • Chapter 3 of APTGG begins with Tobi asking her grandfather to let her off guard duty so she can concentrate on inventing. HOH's third chapter sees her falling asleep on a guard post while trying to invent, before enthusiastically setting off on a Dungeon Crawl (after discovering her grandfather's too distracted to stop her).
    • And then the three respective stories continue more or less like in APTGG.
  • Several scenes in APTGG involved Burk fighting offscreen and losing some of his clothes. Several scenes involved losing clothes onscreen. In HOH all of them happen offscreen with just a comment they were "a casualty of war".
• Nerf: The authour said he regretted making Joy cult too strong in APTGG.
• No, I Am Behind You: Ciel does this to Noah when they first meet. Apparently just because she can.
• Noodle Incident:
  • How Burk lost his pants while "Piggy" was chasing him off screen.
  • How Burk defeated the second boar (it apparently involved a wheelbarrow and a shovel, the former of which the town is now short of).
• No-Sell: The Aristocrat's attempt to fight off one of the bandit leaders doesn't go as well as it did with his subordinates.
• Not So Stoic: After over 200 strips of non-nonchalantly dodging attacks, Burk finally has to put effort into avoiding something in 202.
• Not What It Looks Like: Noah went to a petting zoo and came home around midnight with bleeding hands. Guards assume something kinky, possibly illegal. Actually, no animals were harmed. He got stuck in a cow's mind and had to dig the exit in the imaginary soil.
• Old Master: Tobi's grandfather no longer goes to dungeons. But only because he's so high level, he gets no treasure. He also has either cheat codes or debug access as seen here.
• Our Elves Are Different: On two levels; the HOH universe has at least one magic-using race of humans called elves... apparently as an insult because they resembled elves that already "existed" in the Empire's mythologies.
• Our Humans Are Different: Humans are able to use magic and can also randomly have strange hair colours (the latter typically being from being born in high magic areas regardless of if the person in question has any powers). The setting's elves are a race (in the non-Tolkien sense) of humans with green hair, skin and Green Thumb powers who're called "elves" as a slur by The Empire.
• Pixel Art Comic: A rare example of one which uses completely original pixel art.
• Plot Threads: As with its predecessor, there will be three separate ones. Each following a different protagonist.
• Power Nullifier: Black crystal nullifies magical powers, making it useful for weapons intended to be used against magic users and their constructs. Or if fed to them, to deprive them of their powers for an extended period, though doing so without killing them requires regular doses of an anti-toxin until the crystal is passed.
• Rotating Protagonist: The focus of the story often shifts between Burk, Noah, Tobi and Held, in no particular order, often with multiple chapters centered on a specific member before switching back to one of the others.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse:
  • Hinted at in Burk's arc and TOM RPG (which both referenced a ranking system)
  • Played completely straight in the first few chapters of Tobi's arc (complete with dungeon crawls, class changes, stat menus and rankings). Tobi seems to have lived in a MORPG.
  • Ghouls behave as if they are player characters and the rest of the world is their MMORPG. They respawn, when killed, and kill NPCs for fun.
• Rules Lawyer: Burk promised Pablo not to fight bad guys while inside the castle. But if a bad guy destroyed part of the castle, does it count as outside? Burk decides it does.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: The students in Noah's chapters all wear their uniforms, even when they're not attending. The same appears to be true of other schools in Gloria, too. Felix is an exception, though.
• Screw You, Elves!: The Empire is currently at war with the elves. Their local propaganda is apparently effective enough that they're Not Even Human as far as its citizens are concerned.
• Smug Snake: Morty, Vonesperda's secret accomplice has the power of multiple magic users due to messing with Evyle's magic contract with the heroes... and apparently very little in the way of actual combat experience. He then makes the mistake of facing off against Burk, who proceeds to kick his ass repeatedly.
• The Smurfette Principle: Burk's ideal party includes a character simply named "Girl".
• Stealth Pun: The authour said Noah needed reflections to talk to Ciel, because he was self reflecting. He didn't touch the implications of no longer needing mirrors.
• String Theory: Mage Baron made such a scheme in his secret room. And it's huge.
• Stylistic Suck: Burk's drawings are deliberately crude MS Paint style scribbles.
• This Was His True Form: When Burk defeats one of the bandits' mounts it turns into a normal pig.
• Title Drop: The gates outside the hero's house have the initials "HOH" on them in a similar font to the title of the comic.
• Too Much Information: Noah's not impressed when one of his classmates starts describing his dreams.
  "STOP! And never speak of this again."
• Toxic Phlebotinum: Black crystal has a fantastic variety of anti-magical properties that make it very appealing to those who seek to level the playing field with magic users. It's also extremely hazardous to mine, driving most miners to death and/or madness, has some connection to an extremely toxic black "water", and is lethally poisonous when ingested. Also of some note is that every known survivor of the black crystal mines was discovered to be an esper, suggesting that either espers have a certain resistance/immunity to black crystal, or that exposure to black crystal may cause some people to become espers. Noel's revelation that Esper abilities are usually the result of magical trauma suggests that the latter is the case - exposure to black crystal is a form of magical trauma that can induce esper powers.
• Tragic Villain: The Emperor. His mass-murdering ways stem from a combination of brain damage (in fact, everything damage) when his uncle tried to poison him in the womb, and corruption from using his resulting magical powers when he tried to become the perfect king by stealing stats from everyone else. From the Emperor's perspective, he knows he's something inherently wrong but believes he can do good, the exact opposite of his situation.
• Trans Tribulations: It's revealed that the Beast Kingdom discriminates against "non-productives", which apparently means queer beastmen. This is the reason that Foxy lives in Lorg instead of there; they'd refuse to recognize her as a woman.
• Twinkle in the Eye: Burk has these quite frequently. Usually when he's motivated to do something. Sometimes he'll get a twinkle in both eyes.
• Unsound Effect: Bandit Punch!
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The farmer outside the town, who just ignores Burk as he walks in wearing a cape over his head (and later walks back wearing nothing but his underwear and a pig strapped to his back.
• Upper-Class Twit: The Aristocrat (see cloudcuckoolander above).
• Vanishing Village: The dungeons in Tobi's chapter appear at random and disappear after 24 hours. Raiding them is apparently Rauel's main resource.
• Versus Character Splash:
  • Burk and Logan get one when they begin sparing, complete with Art Shift.
  • Adel the Rogue vs. Pablo the Diplomat.
  • The three pairs of students giving a demonstration in "The Meeting" chapter. Two pairs get their own smaller splashes.
  • Burk vs. The Aristocrat. They are interrupted, though.
  • Pirate of the Storm vs. Iron Judge.
  • Pirate of the Storm vs. Burk.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The most Burk's wore between his neck and his legs while fighting the bandits was a cape; when he later gets a waistcoat, he still wears it open. The Hero's also caught shirtless when he first appears, too.
• Wall Jump: Burk does this to get at Logan when he starts flying.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Most of Held's childhood is framed as a story being told by her uncle/adoptive father while he's in prison to explain to another prisoner how he ended up there.
• Wild Man: Burk has this look, with his bare chest and shaggy hair.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Quite a few examples. In the Justopean Empire it's associated with elves, but elsewhere it isn't anything unusual. Usually it means a person was born in a place with a lot of magic around.
• Wretched Hive: Lorg. Drug addicts, blood sports and dead bodies everywhere.