Bar'd is a Sprite Comic by Dregan (with support by Exerkol), which focuses on the staff of the Leafy Bar (Vasiel "Vas" Loup, the centaurian bouncer; the bartenders Shelia (anthro sheep) and Leonardo "Leo" Connelly (human), the Beast of Anko (aka Boa), former Freak-Off Champion turned drinks tester, Caek, the spokes-dog-girl who has issues with her native Interactive Comic format, and Dejero, the landlord and owner of the bar who left it in the care of Shelia when he left to get his soul back together), along with its various eccentric patrons.
Currently hosted on SmackJeeves here
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Bar'd provides example of:
- Allergic to Evil: The main reason Chris couldn't possess Maximillion back in #200. Apparently, Max has an "aura" of death and horror and other outright unpleasant stuff, and it creeps Chris out.
- Alt Text: Fun Facts, from this strip until this one. Now replaced with "Ask the characters", and later with snippets of the world the comic takes place in.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Caek's parents end up coming off as this when they start mentioning her one-time octopus girlfriend.
- Attention Deficit... Oh Hey, Green Tea!
- Author Avatar: Dregan sure loves putting himself into the foray of things. First seen in his official role here.
- Author Catch Phrase: "How to:..."
- Bait-and-Switch: Vas sets up a trap to prevent Shelia from executing "standard bouncer-waking procedures". It gets Dejero instead.
- Bearer of Bad News: When Shelia receives a letter for Vas from his ex-girlfriend Billie, she has Boa read the letter to him.
- Behind a Stick: Parodied again!
- Berserk Button: The Undertaker has one in the form of being constantly asked what he's doing.
- Big "NO!": Here and here. Somewhat with Godmodern too.
- Black Void Room: For non-Canon events, like the time when Vas and Dregan got their "centaur" on, much to Shelia's
utter disgust.- There are no walls in the black void! THERE ARE NO WALLS IN THE BLACK VOID!
- Breathless Non Sequitur: "Also, he's incredibly squishy."
- Butt-Monkey: Vas at the hands of Briano and Solidus.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Parodied. Happy April Fools!
- Chekhov's Gunman: Seth, the guy who originally showed up plastered way back at the beginning of the comic. He comes back in comic 300◊ to lend Vas and Dejero a helping hand.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Tsurugi. Not even her troubled past can break her silly demeanor.
- Continuity Nod: Looks like Stew came back for an encore.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Maximillion. He thinks love can be bought!
- Crapsack World: Not shown, but a crossover with two opposing commanders can't be good.
- Delayed Reaction: Two times over Vas's fluency in Dogspeak.
- Double Entendre: Seth makes a bucketful of them when being interrogated by Jax.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Valence is called "Mother Nature" by Shelia and Vas, but he refuses to divulge why. Not that it stops them from doing so.
- Expy: Caek is this to Deadpool, albeit with a little Tsundere thrown into the mix.
- Fan Sequel: In the form of the aptly named Bar'd 2
- Fanservice: Bikini Shelia, ooh la la.
- Fantastic Racism: Maximillion towards humans, not helped by some really troubling childhood developments involving a human bully. Vas is a subversion in that he eventually accepts humans to be perfectly normal where he's staying.
- Flash Step: It saved the day.
- Flat "What": Boa's reaction to Leo asking him out on a date.
- Freudian Excuse: Maximillion's anti-human sentiments? It's due to a really rough childhood with a really mean human bully◊ and his cohorts.
- Fun with Acronyms: Passion Of Tears' Individual Open-wound Nullifier.
- Furry Confusion: All animals are stated to have both anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic varieties . . . which is why humans confuse Vas, as he's never seen a non-anthropomorphic human.
- Gender Bender: Many times, mostly when Cintreuse de Genre is involved.
- Gonk: "Ooh Mister Shelia"◊
- Good-Guy Bar: True to the heroic virtue of tolerance, bad guys also visit it regularly.
- Good-Times Montage: Vas had some good moments.
- Groin Attack: Standard bouncer-waking procedure.
- And now subverted. Too bad Shelia has other ideas....
- And now subverted
- Guest Strips
- Hammerspace: LampshadedChris (when Vas throws a washing machine from out of nowhere at him): Wh... where did you get a washing machine...?
- Healing Potion: Healing P.O.T.I.O.N.
- Hidden Badass: Ready to Rumble!
- And then Dejero, Guardian of Fire gets into the act in #300◊.
- And then Dejero, Guardian of Fire gets into the act in #300
- Hilarity Ensues: Pretty much all the time. One such moment is when Leo reminds Vas that every date is supposed to have a kiss in it. Even Leo's own date with Boa.
- Implausible Deniability: C'mon, Shelia, we all know you're into muscles.
- Indy Ploy: Leo of all people manages one, even faking a Face–Heel Turn to make it work. Though you'd have to wonder just how he knew there was a storm coming....
- Interactive Comics: Parodied, to the point where Caek punches the narration text box to shut it up.
- Caek was originally introduced in Choose Your Own Bar'd, a "choose your own adventure" comic.
- Caek was originally introduced in Choose Your Own Bar'd
- Ironic Echo: "Hah! These spare arms are completely unnatur...Wait...."
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ze, upon finding out that Shelia was actually in love with Vas.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted with Chris's ex Cassandra, if this comic's "Ask the Character" segment is any indication. She was proven innocent of what she did to Chris, but since she pleaded "not guilty on reasons of insanity" she was locked up in an asylum, where she died not long after. Except she didn't die at all.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Vas, you look...different.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Vas uses his sudden femininity in a squishy way.
- Living Statue: Devon, kind of, except he's a scarecrow with a vegetable for a head.
- Local Hangout: The Leafy Bar, though this comic focuses mainly on the staff.
- Loud of War: Another way◊ to wake Vas up without resorting to the standard procedures.
- Mad Barmaid: Shelia, especially in the strips when she starts making her own Leafy-Bar-exclusive drinks.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman: When Vas gets turned into a woman, the first (canonical) thing he does is give himself an experimental grope.
- Medium Awareness: Caek. Particularly that time when she punched out a speech bubble.
- Mister Seahorse: Spoofed.
- Played a bit more straight with Valence as far as Shelia and Vas are concerned.
- Played a bit more straight with Valence
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Dejero.
- The Mole: Godmodern Commander, one of the Outcast Mercenaries.
- Mood Whiplash: While Shelia and Vas are fretting about their relationship going sour, Caek is exulting about getting married to Roger!
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: There's a drink for that.
- Mushroom Samba: Apparently, Tsurugi can't handle her Green Tea.
- Noodle Incident / Orphaned Punchline: First panel.
- Nosebleed: Oh, Ze, what's so special about her?
- Official Couple: Caek and Roger. Also counts as a Beta Couple to Vas and Shelia.
- Oh, Crap!: Shelia's reaction when Dejero lets the staff know that she's no longer the boss of them.
- And another by Caek, Leo and Boa when Vas sees through their scheme to have the latter two pretend to go out on a date so that Vas and Shelia would. Especially since Vas turned it around by suggesting they make it a double date.
- And another by Caek, Leo and Boa when Vas sees through their scheme to have the latter two pretend to go out on a date so that Vas and Shelia would. Especially since Vas turned it around by suggesting they make it a double date
- One-Steve Limit: Subverted for laughs. There's Leo Connelly (the usual bartender), and then there's Leo Maverick (the guy Vas mistook for the former).
- Opening Narration: The very first page of the comic.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: Vas started out as a perfectly normal anthro but underwent massive changes (mostly his brother's fault) that made him the way he is now.
- Our Demons Are Different: There are several different species of demons coexisting in the webcomic, the majority of them having heritages from extraplanar dimensions. For convenience, the label "demon" is used to refer to them as a whole.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Christopher "Chris" Curran. Instead of haunting the place (s)he died at, (s)he went and stayed at the bar which (s)he used to frequent with his/her ex-girlfriend.
- Our Souls Are Different: Dejero's soul being broken into pieces and having to spend eternity in limbo if he doesn't recover them.
- Out-of-Clothes Experience: Most likely Chris, but s/he could have been naked when he fell down the escalator, but even Dregan's not that cruel, right?
- Playboy Bunny: Dregan, but not Shelia.
- Punch a Wall: A neutral example: Jax, when interrogating Seth.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Stew proclaims his Small Name, Big Ego-ness here, but Vas later throws it back in his face. Later still, given a proper Shout-Out here.
- Punny Name: Caek Aisecreme.
- The Quiet One: Black. His only line occurs in this strip.
- Really Gets Around: Subverted in this page. Caek lists off almost ten separate descriptions regarding her relationships. Leo proceeds to point out that she's actually describing her one, current boyfriend.
- The Rival: Blane desperately tries to invoke this trope on as many people as he can possibly find.
- Running Gag: Vas being woken up every morning with a foot to the nads, courtesy of Shelia (or whoever else is available), though it's been played with.
- Saving the World: Averted and lampshaded.Shelia: Vaaas, what have I told you about saving the world?Vas: (sigh) "I am not to save the world or otherwise prevent its destruction during work hours."Shelia: Good boy.
- Ship Tease: Parodied.
- Shout-Out: THIS. IS. BAR'D!
- Also, this comic contains a few references to alcoholic drinks. Can you spot them all?
- Also, this comic
- Show Within a Show: Panda TV when seen inside the bar and Caek's advertisements.
- Snake Anthro: Safor.
- The Spokes-Dog-Girl-Turned-Naturally-Muscly-Man Your Man Could Be After Drinking Brargh
- Stuff Blowing Up: Boa.
- Super-Strength: Jake, one of Thorn's new partners, manages to lift Vas just fine.
- Tempting Fate: Happens every once in a while, usually with Vas as the culprit.
- There Was a Door: Not that Roby was paying attention....
- Time Skip: Here.
- Truce Zone: Apparently, Sheila's bar (and the surrounding city of Trinus) is considered a neutral zone...
- Town of Badass: Trinus itself, which is why nobody wants it.
- Tsundere: Shelia, by her own admission.
- Two Beings, One Body: Boa-fied Vas.
- Unstoppable Rage: Vas does not take his girlfriend dumping him well.
- Walking the Earth: What Dejero was doing in his absence, so as to retrieve the broken pieces of his soul to avoid being stuck in limbo upon death.
- Watsonian versus Doylist: Used to explain why the Leafy Bar moved:
- Watsonian: Dejero explains that the bar has a very inconvenient location, and isn't as friendly-looking to boot.
- Doylist: The bar background (taken from Mega Man ZX Advent) has become so generic that Dregan decided to get a friend to make a new background that just screams "Leafy Bar" note .
- Who's on First?: Dude? Dood!
- Wingdinglish: The undisputed master.
- Wham Episode: #200. And how. Then comes #300, in which (among other things) the source of Max's Fantastic Racism is revealed, Vas gets into an epic battle with Max's forces (only to collapse drunk from all the POTIONs he took to recover from the injuries), and Seth finally becomes plot-relevant!
