Webcomic / Cirque Royale

The Royal Klownikov family. Top (left to right): Charlie, Claudette, and Red. Bottom: Queen Quinn and King Kingston

Cirque Royale is a fantasy Slice-of-Life Webcomic by atomicbritt.

After a fifteen-year absence, Quinn Mills-Klownikov is now the ruler of Clowny Island, a traveling circus kingdom, after her late father George's passing; she has returned with her mixed mime/clown husband Kingston and her three children: the twins Claudette and Charlie and younger Red. The comic follows the everyday lives — past and present — of the new royal family (and their friends and family) as they all deal with their respective personal issues and life changes — while Quinn is trying to keep their failing kingdom from falling apart.

Cirque Royale updates on Thursdays on Tapas, Webtoon, tumblr, Global Comix, and its domain. The Tumblr also has backstory, expansions and insights on the world and characters, and side comics, Filler Strips, information, and casual doodles that aren't posted elsewhere.

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This webcomic provides examples of:

• Absurdly Youthful Parents: Quinn was 20 and Kingston was 19 when their oldest children, the twins Claudette and Charles, were born.
• Alliteration & Adventurers: Charlie and his friends play Basements and Banshees, which is just like D&D except includes fantastic people and generic human characters. (Milo in particular is interested in humans and his character is a human named John Jackson who's an IT specialist.)
• Altar Diplomacy: This was the reason that Crown Princess Quinn was engaged to marry Leo; he was considered worthy to be her fiance as the Cashworthys are the wealthiest family in the kingdom, in a case of Nobility Marries Money. Quinn learns during the side story "Non-Stop: Side B" that she was basically sold off by her parents to cover contracts they signed; the influx of money from the Cashworthys was needed because the kingdom was all but broke, and marrying Leo would bring money to the kingdom and stabilize their finances after taking out many loans from Cashworthy Finances. The contract even says any breach (such as if she had divorced Leo later) would call in the unpaid loans immediately. She doesn't take it well. Especially when she learns that because the marriage arraignment was broken, she's the one the hook for the breach and has to start to pay back the loans without a grace period or else Aries will take the circus as collateral.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Penelope's poodles — specifically, the cotton candy poodles — have fur in the color of cotton candy: pink and blue, like her hair.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Quinn is associated with tigers, lions, and other large cats — they're not only her hyperfocus, but she is a skilled animal tamer. When she and Kingston ran away from home, they hid in a large cat sanctuary she ran. She was also engaged to Leo Cashworthy.
  • Penelope is associated with dogs, specifically poodles. As a child she played with and trained dogs to perform in the family circus, and is almost always seen with one. As an adult she not only keeps her curly hair the same shade as her cotton candy poodles, but trains and breeds them herself, including her two psychiatric service dogs Marina and Diamond.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • Penelope explains to her niece, Red, that the royal line has always had the parents set up the next in line with an "appropriate" partner with wanted qualities for the kingdom — such as strength, beauty, or wisdom. Quinn was set up to marry Leo Cashworthy, due to the Cashworthys' wealth in part because the kingdom was broke and needed the money the Cashworthys would bring to the kingdom, but she ran away from home and married Kingston instead.
  • Multiple kingdoms are stated to have these, in order to form alliances. Flower Queen and Cactus Queen are part of an arraigned marriage, and happen to have fallen in love. (Toothpaste Queen and Orange King are more a case of Unwanted Spouse.)
• Art Evolution: Early comics were a lot more "rubbery"; they had minimal backgrounds, paler character skin tones, and no Color-Coded Speech as seen in the pilot. (Claudie and Charlie didn't even yet have their fangs!) Comics have since become more detailed in fore- and backgrounds as well as improved character designs and details and the distinct speech colors.
• Artistic License – Biology: Conjoined Twins are always identical twins in reality, since they're one zygote that doesn't complete the split into identical twins. atomicbritt has stated she knows this, but it's her taking creative license in making Will and Fred born as Half-Identical Twins as well as conjoined.
• Bilingual Bonus: The native language Unicorns speak, Unicornish, is Swedish, and is sprinkled throughout.
• Bishie Sparkle: Used amusingly here as an Art Shift in "A-Okay", when Rosalind sees Charlie after the performance in the Flower Kingdom. She doesn't know yet he's acearo — and neither does he, which is the drive of the story.
• B-Side Comics: Many of these are posted on the webcomic's tumblr page, as well as information and casual doodles (including in reply to asks and Q&As) that aren't posted elsewhere. Several have also been posted on other hosting platforms; these include "Vaude Save the Queen" which shows Quinn learning her father died and she's queen now, "Princess Prince" which shows that Charlie is a Wholesome Crossdresser that his family accepts, and "Non-Stop, Side B" which shows what Quinn was doing while Kingston was running around all day burning himself out — namely having to meet with Aries Cashworthy regarding the loans and contracts her parents took out and she's now on the hook for as queen.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Enforced by Aries. His children Diana and Leo aren't allowed to call him Dad or Father and must call him "Mr. Cashworthy."
• Call-Forward: The Unicorn Princess, Valeria MajestyMoon, is seen in a tween magazine Princess Beat just below Claudette where she's mentioned as a Princess to Watch in "No New Friends." She doesn't debut properly until "Loud Mouth," and doesn't have a full part until "Date Night."
• Cast Full of Gay: Multiple characters are some form of queer. The only four known to be cishet are Quinn (though she does lean towards poly), dowager queen Louise, Penelope, and Pascal.
  • Kingston is biromantic demisexual.
  • Charlie is acearo and has no interest in romance whatsoever.
  • Claudette and Matisse are both lesbian.
  • Will is FTM transgender.
  • Fred is gay.
  • Leo is pansexual and polyamorous.
  • Cupcake is bisexual.
  • Daisy is pansexual, nonbinary, and intersex, and uses both she/her and they/them pronouns.
  • Milo, Charlie's friend, is genderfluid and uses she/they/xi pronouns.
  • Ron is homoromantic and asexual; he's married to Ted.
  • Manet, Pascal's father, was first listed as "unknown", with one side comic stating he seems straight but isn't. A later side comic confirms he's somewhere on the aromantic spectrum and doesn't particularly care about the specifics, just knows that romance "isn't for him."
  • All plants are asexual with any romantic orientation, but the Carnation Queen of Plant Kingdom is also lesbian.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Claudette has one in the front where one of her fangs was knocked out. It's also seen when some of the now-adult characters were children.
• Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: Quinn is much plumper than her husband Kingston.
• Circus Brat: Quinn, Penelope, Will, and Fred all grew up as such as the children of King George and Queen Louise. Claudette, Charlie, and Red are now.
• Clown Species: Clowns — along with many other species — are considered a race all their own, but can interbreed with other Demihumans.
• Color-Coded Speech: Each character has their own colored speech bubble. Furthermore, mime speak has black backgrounds behind the words, since their speech is telepathic and can't be heard by non-mimes (or those without translators), making them appear mute.
• Coming-Out Story: "A-Okay" has Charlie realizing he's acearo, after being set up with a date by his sister he didn't want. A side comic shows that if he'd talked to his dad Kingston — who is demisexual — the story would have been shorter.
• Conjoined Twins: A pair of female clowns who are conjoined twins are shown as one of the examples of "deformed" clowns that are regulated to The Freakshow. It serves as a Rewatch Bonus when "The King's Monster" reveals that Fred and Will Mills were born as conjoined twins from the chest down with three legs between the two of them, and originally called Wilfred and put on display in the show at only five days old.
• Continuity Nod: Diana is shown buying a Lil' Quinny doll as a child in the crowd where Penelope is talking about Quinn's popularity. When she's shown later with Leo when they're kids in a flashback, the doll is present next to her.
• Creator Cameo: atomicbritt places herself in the comics as Java Chip, owner of the local comic shop Atomic Comics. During the town meeting, she hangs a lampshade on various comic issues under the guise of complaining about an unnamed in-universe comic.
• Cute Little Fangs: Claudette (with one missing) and Charlie of the Klownikov children; this is because mimes all have sharp teeth and they're 1/4th through their father (who has sharp teeth). Red doesn't have them, though. They're also present on all the mime characters.
• Dead Guy Junior: Claudette and Charlie were named after their late paternal grandparents. (They're frequently distinguished out from the children by being called Charles Sr. and Claudette Sr. in notes.) Red was named after Quinn's grandmother and her great grandmother, Retta. Quinn herself was named after her grandfather King Quinten (making her Quinten II and giving her a Gender-Blender Name).
• Dead Person Conversation: Kingston has one of these with the illusion of his father, Charles Sr., in the audio-visual room dedicated in his memory while trying to produce the illusions for the stage play they're putting on in "Non-Stop." It's not actually a conversation; Kingston, stressed out, is projecting this to himself as a hallucination because he hasn't slept properly in a week and is having a mental breakdown (all while continuing to narrate and project for the play). This is followed by him flashbacking to his memories of the past leading up to the night of the Peace Gala that his parents died in.
• Demihuman: The clown and mime species, as well as other species. The author lays out each race's traits here.
  • Clowns' unique traits include light blue skin with colorful, often curly hair (any color but black), prominent red noses, solid black eyes, star-shaped nipples, and a fried and sugary-based diet; they can't digest meat. They have superhuman and physical abilities (super strength, voice manipulation) and an affinity towards Speaking Fluent Animal.
  • Mimes have pointy ears, claw like fingers, purple skin, black hair, sharp teeth that often involve Cute Little Fangs, blue eyes, and black facial markings. They are also mute and cannot talk verbally; their "vocal" communication is actually done telepathically and only able to be heard naturally by mimes. Some have psychic abilities (light manipulation, illusions, teleportation, etc). Also they are all obligate carnivores and need to eat meat, but aren't very buff.
• Domestic Abuse: Penelope went through this with her ex-husband, Benjamin, a novelty stuffed animal maker. Red sees a picture of him and, being obsessed with prince and princess stories, asks Penelope if he was her "Prince Charming." Penelope suffers through a short (but intensely seen) Flash Back (with the repeating of the words "prince charming" on a black background in jagged red letters in the background) of a time where — after another occurrence of Ben hitting her and breaking things — she stayed home with her dogs and missed the twins' birthday party, claiming to her mom that she had to help her husband with the novelty gifts before curling up with her dogs, bruised and crying. She then rips the picture of the two of them apart and says "no" emphatically. The comic does not play her abuse for laughs at all — it clearly traumatized Penelope as she has PTSD and fears of being touched unexpectedly, and the comic showing her being hurt has a disclaimer that includes contacting domestic abuse help websites in the US.
• The Dreaded Pretend Tea-Party: Red holds one of these with her dad Kingston and friend and mentor Ron in Non-Stop. But rather than a tea party, it's her plotting pretend destruction of the royal Rock Kingdom family on the Rock King's daughter's wedding.
• Easter Egg: The Sheep Kingdom's official name is St. Andrews. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, which is known for several sheep breeds.
• Everyone Hates Mimes: Less individual mimes and more the species as a whole. Other species (especially clowns) perceive mimes as violent, dangerous, criminals and thus in need of restraint and control. King George called them simple creatures (since they can't talk verbally) who are better off serving in other countries such as Clowny Island than "stumbling" around on the "dangerous" streets of Mimopolis, and that their powers need to be controlled to stop them from hurting themselves or others. He also never approved of his best friend's wife, Claudette Sr., and once called her a deranged mime harlot where Kingston overheard after she was dead and then called Kingston a harlequin. Leo and Diana's father, Aries Cashworthy, uses this perception of violent mimes to send an angry riot towards mimes celebrating during Lantern Day (to make Quinn look bad as a ruler). The anniversary paper of the bombing that memorializes Kingston's father Charles Sr. cuts his mother, Claudette Sr., out of the photograph completely; she was never memorialized in the Clowny Island News newspaper and only in a musical magazine. Zeppy rudely calls Charlie the "harlequin prince" to his face before he leaves Milo's Basements and Banshees game.
• Family Theme Naming:
  • It's subtle, but the Cashworthy Family are all named after signs in the zodiac. Leo and Aries are obvious, but Diana represents the virgin goddess Artemis with Virgo, and their mother Gemma is Gemini.
  • Cupcake's siblings are named Sundae and Mousse; they're all named after desserts.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Clowns toward mimes and vice versa. Mimes are seen as violent criminals in need of restraint while in servitude in other kingdoms, and a riot against them is formed on Lantern Day when they are dancing around a bonfire when it's framed as them conspiring together.
  • Other species in the world tend to be prejudiced against others as well; clowns are considered stupid, creepy, and have too many babies. Many of them don't live very far away from Clowny Island.
  • After Kingston and Quinn ran away (because Kingston was in mental distress), King George blamed Kingston for "kidnapping" her and banned all expressions of mime culture in Clowny Island.
• Fantastic Slurs: "Harlequin" is a slur used against clown/mime hybrids, referring to them being mixed up and put together "wrong." "Mutant" is also a slur for any hybrid.
• Fictional Currency: The currency used in Clowny Island is tickets, which are shaped to look like colorful carnival tickets.
• Fictional Holiday:
  • Lantern Day. It's a mime holiday celebrating mime freedom. Mimes had been enslaved as entertainers in Human Kingdom and to escape, scared the superstitious humans by sending lanterns shaped like ghosts floating into the sky, then ran away during the night back to Mimiopolis while the humans were hiding inside. To celebrate, mimes have parties, then send lanterns floating up into the sky to celebrate freedom and honor the dead. (Notes to those that have passed on are also a tradition; Kingston sends his annual letter to his late parents this way.) This is then followed with a large feasting dinner full of Mimean food. "Episode Nine: Lantern Day" covers the celebration being held since the Klownikovs have become the ruling family of Clowny Island.
  • Renamed holidays mentioned so far (in side comics, mostly) are Spooky Day in place of Halloween, and Carnation Day in place of Valentine's Day. Fool's Day is also mentioned as a clown holiday, similar to April Fool's Day.
• Flashy Teleportation: Claudette's Psychic Teleportation talent is marked by blue bubbles around her.
• Former Friends Photo: Leo had one of him, Quinn, and Kingston from when they were young adults that he tears apart after seeing them hiding in the Sheep Kingdom (while Quinn is pregnant) and overhears that Quinn didn't want to be found by anyone from Clowny Island. The three of them have now reconnected and Leo's forgiven Quinn, but he went through major abandonment issues after they ran off and left him behind.
• Fortune Teller: Queen Louise was the fortune teller for the circus. Her actual skill is up for dispute especially when it comes to what she wishes for her grandchildren, but that might just be due to her assumptions.
• The Freakshow: Quinn's father King George insisted on only the "right kinds" of clowns being allowed to perform in the circus in his day; he regulated anyone who didn't fit his vision to the freak show such as disabled clowns or a non-family friendly act. Daisy, Cupcake, and Kingston were all former freak show acts as well as Ron being regulated there before Quinn's return. Will and Fred started out there at only five days old, since they were born as Conjoined Twins and named Wilfred.
• Genki Girl: Claudette is often enthusiastic, friendly, trusting, and energetic, trying to make friends with everyone she meets — for good or bad. It takes her a while to make any real friends.
• Girls with Moustaches: Cupcake has a full beard and mustache; she inherited her hairiness from her father who is hairy from head to toe.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Red. She is a small stronggirl, but she loves pretty dresses, princess stuff, dolls, the color pink, tea parties, and stuffed animals.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Between Quinn and Penelope, starting in childhood with Quinn as the heir to the throne who didn't want to be and Penelope as the Spare to the Throne who from birth has constantly been in her older sister's shadow. They got along somewhat as children with help from Kingston and Leo as part of their friend group and because Penelope looked up to her older sister, but things became much worse after Quinn ran away from home. Penelope thought of her as ungrateful and unworthy of her position, and that Quinn had everything handed to her and threw it all away in a fit of rebellion. When Quinn first tries to connect at Red's birthday party, Penelope angrily snaps that Quinn had everything and she used to look up to Quinn, but Quinn now is trying to squeeze in like everything is "fine again." However, they are starting to reconnect after Quinn's return and while things still are tense and they spar and spat often, they do sincerely care for each other. Quinn comforts Penelope after she has a freakout about being touched unexpectedly due to recovering from Domestic Abuse, and offers to take Penelope to a cafe she likes to talk as sisters. And Penelope comforts Quinn during the Lantern Day dinner, after she's sulking after Aries' riling her up at the town hall; she reminds Quinn that there were more clowns on her side than on the side of the mob that went to attack mimes for celebrating Lantern Day and Aries is just a power-hungry egoist.
• Goth: Quinn went through a goth stage as a teenager before she left the kingdom. In some ways she's still in it and says it's not a phase, it's a lifestyle.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: It's a wine glass, but Quinn breaks one when she sees Kingston's ex Dusty Pockets when thinking she should give him a piece of her mind.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Cupcake is a blonde shy sweetheart with nervous anxiety tendencies. (She was originally drawn redheaded, but the change to blonde is explained in universe by her no longer dying her hair and going natural.)
• Half-Identical Twins: Claudette and Charlie are boy-girl twins who look very much alike. Fred and Will were before Will transitioned to male — now they look even more alike.
• Hates Wearing Dresses: Quinn despises dresses; she only wears pants now that she's old enough to choose what she wants. Inverted with her daughter Claudette who only wants to wear skirts and dresses.
• Heroic BSoD: Kingston in "Non-Stop" has a severe one after not sleeping properly for a week and stressing himself out all day with various events while trying not to think about it being the 20th anniversary of his parents' deaths in a terrorist bombing where he was present and his mother lost her life by projecting her powers as a signal for help until he was found and burning out in the process. He has a mental breakdown during his play narration and projection, sees and hears his late father Charles Sr., then is teleported back mentally to the night of the bombing for the second time that day — while still on autopilot for the show. Quinn finds him slumped over in the audio-visual room with his hands burnt black and unable to speak physically, and she has to escort him home and use the Blackfish earpiece translator she has to communicate with him.
• Hidden Depths: Dowager Queen Louise "the Beautiful" Mills initially came off as a shallow, anti-vaxx hippy who believed in crystal healing over traditional medicine, whose only major defining trait outside of being the circus's fortune teller was that she was beautiful (which is why she was set up to marry George in the first place). She also continues to call Red, Charlie, and Claudie her "lavender grandbabies", which neither they nor Quinn like. However she's shown to be much more than that. Her late husband, King George, never appeared to be interested in her the way she adored him and she knew it. She's nowhere near as nasty to mimes as George was; she's always cared for their servant Manet and treats him like close family, as well as his son Pascal who was raised alongside her children. She's learned how to respectfully refer to her trans son Will and the gender spectrum (she was taught by Daisy in what she calls "terrifyingly educational"). She did many things behind George's back to let her children thrive and mime culture continue in secret after he banned it in retaliation for Quinn running off with Kingston, and now has no problem that her daughter Quinn allows it openly; she's even pleased that the Freak Show is now part of the circus proper, smirking when she says that "George wouldn't like this at all" and showing she had some degree of contempt for her late husband. Most of all when her Conjoined Twins were born she loved them from the first day — and when George wanted to force their separation (which would have likely killed one of the two twins) Louise, in fear for her children's lives, talked him out of it by putting them in the Freak Show and saving them. And, when they were confined to the attic by King George who didn't want them walking around being seen in public for free, she spent so much time with them that she rarely appeared in public afterwards. Most of the mistakes she makes are not out of maliciousness, but a lack of knowledge, making her an Innocent Bigot.
• Hippie Name: Daisy. At age three, she was encouraged by her Hippie Parents to select her own name (as she was born intersex) and chose to name herself after the flowers in her mother's flower crown. Her brothers did the same and are named Monster Truck and Caterpillar.
• Hippie Parents:
  • Daisy's parents are stated to be so; Daisy and their brothers grew up in a household that basically didn't go to doctors or hospitals (outside of being born) and never bothered with modern medicine, and each child was allowed to pick their name at three, being called "child" until then. Unlike most of the examples of this trope, Daisy doesn't seem embarrassed by their parents or the way they grew up.
  • Queen Louise is described by the author as an anti-vaxx hippy. A side comic has her not wanting to deal with doctors, George saying that "crystals and candles" won't help, and Louise blaming vaccinations for Quinn's autism.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Clowns say "Vaude" in place of God; Vaude was a historical ancient giant who is praised as a deity in the modern era. They also say "honk" instead of "fuck."
• Human Cannonball: Leo performs as one of these, including as part of Red's birthday celebration. He no longer does since the back injury from scorpion venom.
• Hybrid Monster: Kingston, Claudette, Charlie, and Red are mime/clown hybrids. Rosalind, the Flower Princess, is a mix of carnation and cactus monster.
• Indentured Servitude: Mimes who are criminals (or are framed as them for any reason, including just turning eighteen and thus now old enough to be made a servant) are sent out by Mimopolis to various kingdoms including the Clown Kingdom as indentured servants, where they have to serve until they've earned off their sentence (with the theoretical pay being sent back to the Mimopolis queen, Empress Renoir). This can be for decades or even life; Manet got a lifetime sentence. Some people who feel sorry for the conditions of mimes and the screwed up prison system apply to take mimes in as "servants" but instead house them more like exchange students.
• Innocently Insensitive: Charlie plays a piano piece for his dad Kingston from a songbook he found in his dad's room. It's titled "At Kingston Inn" and a piece by his late grandmother Claudette Sr., who named Kingston after the interspecies bar where she and Charles Sr. met and wrote it for the Peace Gala they both died in. Seeing his dad's visible upset, Charlie innocently says he thought his dad would like to hear the piece played again. Kingston (who has been struggling all day with the fact it's the anniversary of his parent's deaths and isn't telling anyone about his bad flashbacks and stress) quietly tells Charlie that he played it perfectly — but he and his sister should stay out of his things — before he walks off and puts the songbook back up.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Seven-year-old Red is close friends (and being mentored in strongmen acts) by Ron, who is seventy-six.
• Ironic Juxtaposition: Scorpowitz spends the whole time fighting Quinn, Leo, and Kingston — even going so far as to hunt them down to the Unicorn Kingdom palace — wearing a My Tiny Hippo shirt that says "Peace" and "Love."
• I Was Quite a Looker: Queen Louise, the former queen, was so pretty when she was younger that her subtitle as queen was "the Beautiful". She was selected to marry George because of it.
• Last of Her Kind: Queen Purl of the Yarn Kingdom is the last living giant; giants have long, but finite lifespans and by the time she was old enough to find a partner she couldn't.
• Lazy Alias: When Will is telling his nieces and nephews about how he lost his leg, namely that he and his twin brother Will were born as Half-Identical Conjoined Twins and only had three legs between them, he changes the names of his family in-story other than his parents, the then-king and queen who are only referred to by title; he does this in very small ways, making them also SueDonyms. Quinn is "Quincy", Penelope is "Pinecone", and Manet and Pascal are "Monet" and "Pierre". The author lampshades this in the notes below and includes "Princeton and Capricorn," aka Kingston and Leo.
• Little People Are Surreal: Daisy was regulated to the freak show for being a dwarf and intersex. Her Berserk Button is being mistaken for a child.
• Living Toys: The rag dolls of Yarn Kingdom (who were first created by giant Queen Purl) are living yarn dolls; each of the first ones were knit and brought to life by her, and they can if taught make more of themselves. They can live forever as long as their hearts aren't destroyed and can be remade if their heart remains. Lottie, the creation of the doll Buttons, tries to bring him back by tricking Claudette into stealing the heart Queen Purl took out of him after she had him torn apart.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Leo was one growing up. The only person in his family who paid attention to him was his older sister Diana; his father Aries was and is controlling and his mother was and is an alcoholic. After Diana left for colllege, no one noticed when he came home late and the lights were always off when he came home. He had friends in Quinn, Kingston, and Penelope but his abandonment issues is why he took it hard when Quinn and Kingston unexpectedly disappeared on him and he and Penelope stopped being around each other after she hit on him. He never spoke about his problems because (in his words) no one cares if some neglected rich kid didn't get enough attention compared to a traumatized hybrid orphan (Kingston) or the autistic first female heir to the failing circus (Quinn).
• Magical Profanity Filter: For Matisse; all of her swear words are covered with guitars.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage:
  • Quinn is frequently insulted for having run off and married a "harlequin", because Kingston is clown/mime mixed and looks a lot more mime (since those genes are dominant).
  • This was also true with Kingston's late parents Charles Sr. (a clown) and Claudette Sr. (a mime); King George once referred to Claudette Sr. as a deranged mime harlot within earshot of Kingston. She was never truly accepted by Charles Sr.' friends.
  • Lottie, a living rag doll, tells Claudette her mother was made of burlap and so she's been disowned as the Yarn Princess by her grandmother; The queen ripped her dad's eternal heart out from his body for his transgression. She was lying about the marriage to get Claudette to steal the heart of Buttons, her real dad, so she can remake him.
• Meaningful Rename: Will, being trans, formally changed their name. It's also only Will and not William. Fred insults him by saying he changed his five letter name to a four letter one.
• The Merch: In-Universe. Quinn, as the first female heir ever in Clown Kingdom history, was marketed kingdomwide by her parents. This included books and "Lil Quinny" dolls with clothes and playsets. Her "sidekick" little sister Penny would sometimes be included in books, but never got a doll of her own.
• Mobile City: Not as a unified city, but the Clown Kingdom — Clowny Island — has every building on wheels to make things easier to pack up and travel into other kingdoms to perform.
• Modest Royalty: The royal family — past and present — wear casual clothing most of the day in whatever style they prefer. Claudette wears her next-in-line Crown Princess crown with her day wear frequently, and Quinn really only wears hers as part of her royal ringmaster's hat in official capacity, the only visible signs of their royalty.
• Nobility Marries Money: This was the intention with the betrothal of Quinn and Leo, because the Cashworthys were (and still are) the richest family in the kingdom. This was in part because the kingdom was broke and needed the money the Cashworthys would bring to the kingdom. However, Quinn ran away from home with Kingston when he was having a bad mental break and married him instead.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Penelope — befitting her royal upbringing — laughs with one hand over her mouth and boisterously. This is in contrast with Quinn, who (though the queen) is socially unrefined and blunt, so doesn't cover her mouth at all.
• Non-Ironic Clown: Clowns are not any sort of innately evil. But they are seen in stereotypes as evil, dumb, stupid, and that only give birth in litters.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Red's full first name is Retta after her great-grandmother, Queen Retta. She's almost never called that.
  • Quinn doesn't go by her full first name, Quinten (which was her grandfather's name).
  • Fred doesn't go by "Frederick" often.
• Pardon My Klingon: Clowns say "honk" in place of "fuck".
• Parental Abandonment: Manet was dropped off at a Mimopolis orphanage a month after he was born and has no idea who his parents are.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Manet for Quinn. While the Mills children all had two parents growing up (and their mother Louise is still alive), Manet was brought on initially because George and Louise were struggling with Quinn from infancy and took on the role as another parent to her. He took care of her and taught her sign language when she was non-verbal, and while she was being forced through ABA therapy, he was the one she found comfort in before and after her training. He also expected her not to come back to Clowny Island after she left.
  • Ron for Leo, whose father was and is a jerk. Ron took him in under his wing to train him as a strongman, and complimented him where Aries never did. As Leo got older he connected more with Ron as a father figure, though he won't admit it, and now that Leo has been disowned by his father which meant repossessing his house, he's since moved in with Ron and his husband Ted.
• Parting-Words Regret: Before Quinn left home, the last words she said to her father were "I hate you." By the time she returned to Clowny Island, he had died and she was now queen.
• Patchwork Kids: The three Klownikov children have lavender skin, bluish eyes, and fangs (except Red) from their mime genes and red noses and red hair from their clown genes. (It's been shown in flash fowards that Claudette and Charlie's hair will likely get darker as they get older.) Kingston is also like this; he has the black hair, purple skin, sharp teeth, and blue eyes of his mime mother, but the red nose and curly hair (and bushy eyebrows, a Klownikov family trait) from his clown father.
• Plant Person: The majority of the citizens of Flower Kingdom, known as plant people. They're all asexual and reproduce via budding or cross pollination with bees, but can have any romantic orientation. They can also range from very human shaped to very plant shaped.
• Posthumous Character:
  • King George Mills — the former Clown King, late husband of Louise, and father of Quinn, Penelope, Fred, and Will. His death is why Quinn is queen now, seen in the side comic "Vaude Save the Queen", and has only been dead for about two months at the start of the comic. Because of this, he's seen only in flashbacks, often to Quinn's childhood and youth (and that of her family and friends).
  • Kingston's parents, Claudette and Charles Klownikov Sr., have been dead for about twenty years by the time the comic starts, having died in a terrorist attack. Claudette Sr. sacrificed herself by burning out while sending illusions out to rescuers so Kingston could be found before he succumbed to his own injuries. "Non-Stop" has Kingston discuss the terrorist attack that killed them.
• Prophetic Names:
  • Leo Cashworthy, along with his father Aries and sister Diana, are part of the richest family in the kingdom. Although Leo's not part of the family anymore since he's been disowned. He was also considered worthy to marry Crown Princess Quinn.
  • Ron Strongson was and once again is the circus strongman.
  • Queen Quinn and King Kingston Klownikov are now the queen and king of the Clown Kingdom.
• Punny Name: The author stated that the name of the clown kingdom, Clowny Island, is a direct pun on Coney Island.
• Really Royalty Reveal: For Quinn and Kingston's children; until Penelope showed up and informed Quinn that their father had passed (and so she was now the queen), the children hadn't known they were royal at all. Red immediately decides she's to be treated like one from that day on.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Inverted for every male in the clown species. Clowns cannot physically digest meat; they can eat it (as in chew and swallow) but it will all come back up undigested. The Klownikov children can eat meat because they are 1/4th mime, as can Kingston being half, and in fact need it as mimes are obligate carnivores; Kingston tells Leo this outright.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: Inverted for clowns; clowns' diets are extremely sugar, carbs, and sweets and fried-heavy, regardless of gender. True for Leo, who avoids carbs but he has an eating disorder.
• Rebellious Princess: Quinn ran away from home as a teenager with Kingston, and was seen as this by her family and Aries Cashworthy who think she left because she was in love with Kingston. In truth, she left to support Kingston while he was in the middle of a severe mental crisis and, while away with him, realized she was no longer under the pressures of being next in line to the throne anymore. She willingly stayed hidden from her family for fifteen years, living in the Sheep Kingdom and taking care of large cats in a sanctuary (and marrying Kingston and having three children). Her children didn't even know they were of royal lineage until Penelope told Quinn their father had died and thus she was queen now. Penelope calls Quinn being rebellious a tired trope Quinn was foolish to believe in.
• Renamed the Same: Will changed his five letter unstated dead name to "Will" after he got his legal name change. It's a Meaningful Rename for him, but his twin brother Frederick — Fred for short — says it was a lazy change, hurting him. Not that either of them were born with their names; as Conjoined Twins they were named Wilfred, and Fred's full name is now Frederick.
• Resign in Protest: All the other performers of the circus quit after Quinn took over as queen, calling her traitorous (for leaving fifteen years ago) and insulting her children and Kingston as half-breed mimes in their resignation letter. The current circus performers outside of the royal family all used to be part of the Freak Show — except Ron, but he was regulated there after Leo took his place as the "oldest strongman".
• Retirony: Charles and Claudette Sr., Kingston's parents, died in a terrorist attack while attending a Peace Gala in Mimopolis. A side comic shows they were going to pack up and leave the kingdom the day after, in fear of changes after the new Empress took control and worried for Kingston's safety.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • When Claudette laments that she doesn't want to lose people she cares about so often (as now living in Clowny Island means constant travel), Kingston looks distressed. It's later revealed why: he lost his parents in a terrorist attack. His mother died projecting to signal for help for him, as she burn out in the process.
  • It's barely noticeable that Will and Fred as children are always seen from the chest up, with Will on the proper left and Fred on the proper right. Then it's revealed in "The King's Monster" that they were born as Conjoined Twins.
• Royal Blood: Quinn is obligated to, as the heir, step up as queen to the kingdom after her father's passing. She had never told her children they were royalty, as she had left years before they were born.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The royal family of Clowny Island is in control of the circus and its performances.
• Secret-Keeper: Leo knew for fourteen years that Quinn and Kingston were a) hiding in the Sheep Kingdom running a big cat sanctuary, b) were married, and c) had kids (he only knew about the twins, though, and that's because Quinn was pregnant with them when he saw her and Kingston). He only revealed this fact when her father was dying.
• Shared Family Quirks:
  • Both Quinn and Claudette tug on their hair as an autistic stim when stressed.
  • Both Kingston and Charlie are on the aromantic spectrum; Kingston is demisexual, while Charlie is acearo.
  • Charlie can call cats (large and small) like his mother Quinn does with large cats.
  • Leo and his father Aries both have Expressive Hair locs that react to their emotions.
  • A distant one, but Red has super strength like her great great grandmother, Josephine the Strong.
• Shipper on Deck: Princess Valeria is one for Quinn/Leo/Kingston. When she asks if Leo is a "close friend" to Quinn and Kingston and Kingston says it's "complicated", she says this is just like one of her fanfictions. When Quinn wants to ask Leo a question before the venom is cured, Valeria excitedly asks if she's seeking a love confession and that it's a Love Triangle (or an OT3). The author jokes about Valeria shipping people she and Hemlock know in a doodle and Valeria is wearing a shirt with their faces on it that says "Ask Me About My OT3".
• Shock Collar: Mimes serving their sentences out as servants are outfitted with shock collars their masters have the remote of; they can be zapped for misbehaving or stepping out of line, and the collars also suppress mime abilities and activate to shock them when mimes are too angry or have violent thoughts. At the end of "Loud Mouth," it's shown that Quinn is stealthily replacing the collars with inert decoys in Clowny Island, to try and help make mime servitude less oppressive in her kingdom and let people come together. Manet refused to have his own swapped out, however.
• Shout-Out: Now has its own page.
• Sickly Green Glow: Leo has a nasty green glow in his eyes while poisoned by the scorpion venom in his body. It's also shown through his skin and around his memories, taking over as the prominent color when his memories are at their most painful.
• Speak Ill of the Dead:
  • As more comes out about the late King George and his actions towards others when alive, his family and others speak up more and more about him in a poor light. Penelope is the major exception, often complaining when others around her speak ill of her late father.
  • King George called Claudette Sr. a deranged mime harlot in earshot of Kingston after his failed audition. Charles Sr. and Claudette Sr. had been dead for several years at that point.
• Species Surname: The royal clown family has the last name Klownikov. Notably, this was passed down from Kingston's line via his clown father, Charles Klownikov. Quinn had the last name Mills before she married.
• The Speechless: Mimes as a species. They cannot talk verbally; their "vocal" communication is actually done telepathically and only able to be heard naturally by mimes. Communication with other species is done with sign language. Kingston can (as can his children) as they're biracial, but they also "speak" in mime. When Kingston suffers flashbacks in "Non-Stop" remembering his parents' deaths on the twenty-year anniversary, he wears himself out so badly he burns out completely and can't speak, and has to initially sign to his wife Quinn until she can put in her Blackfish earpiece translator (which she has because of him and the children and used to belong to Kingston's father, since he had a mime wife and half mime child.)
• Stage Magician: One of Kingston's jobs and main interests is stage magic; he can cast illusions with both his voice (due to being half clown) and light (due to being half mime).
• The Strongman: Ron Strongson, Leo Cashworthy (well not anymore, since his scorpion injury), and Red are all strongpersons.
• Super-Strong Child: Red, age seven, is naturally super strong as her clown trait — a trait that comes from her distant grandmother, Josephine the Strong. She is learning under Ron how to perform as a strongwoman, and her nickname is "Buff Baby."
• Take That!: When Claudette and Red bring up Valeria's complete My Tiny Hippo collection, Quinn calls it that old toy line they brought back that "creepy old nerds like now". Charlie says they call themselves "HipHomies". Everyone else cringes.
• Tattoo as Character Type:
  • Among Kingston's many tattoos, the ones near his right wrist of five elephants represent his family, and his back one is of the Mimopolis skyline, which is where he grew up, as well as one in memory of his pet rabbit. (The octopus is just because he thought it was cool). He also was in the Freak Show as a tattooed harlequin.
  • Quinn has three stars near her c-section scar representing the children.
• Tattoo Conceals Scars: Kingston has full body black-ink tattoos that cover everywhere but his face, hands, and feet; he originally got them to cover up the scars inflicted from the bombing he was in — and in which both his parents died. He now has to keep them covered as the Clown King.
• Theme Naming: Mimes have first names based on various French artists.
• Theme Twin Naming: Charlie and Claudette, along with being named after Kingston's late parents, both have names that start with C.
• Third Wheel: Charles Sr. was this to George and Louise; he was George's best friend and George kept him around for years. Louise put up with him more than anything else, eventually suggesting he be the Clowny Kingdom Ambassador to Mimopolis to get him off her couch. Played for Laughs when a side panel shows that a photo George had on his desk of him and Charles was actually his wedding picture and Louise had been clipped out; she was standing to the side giving a dirty look.
• Took the Wife's Name: A side doodle on the comic's tumblr reveals that Aries married into the Cashworthy name; it was his wife Gemma's last name and he dropped his original last name. It's also implied that since he and Gemma are divorcing he'll have to go back to his maiden name.
• Torches and Pitchforks: The mob that goes to attack the mimes for celebrating Lantern Day (riled up by Aries) are carrying both when they confront the mimes; they have been goaded into a mob by him making the mimes appear to be criminals conspiring against the kingdom by dancing and enjoying themselves during a night bonfire.
• Uneven Hybrid: Charlie, Claudette, and Red are all 3/4 clown and 1/4 mime; since mime genes are so dominant, they have looks that lean more mime than clown.
• The Unwitting Comedian: Fred wants his skits for the circus to be taken seriously and make people think, saying at one point a skit of his is intended to be a meditation on how life is chaotic and meaningless. He's wounded every time his skits — or him — are called funny, sometimes to the point of anger.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If Quinn and Leo had never sent the exploding glitter bomb to antagonize Dusty Pockets, Scorpowitz wouldn't have dropped his one of a kind ceramic My Tiny Hippo and broken it and attacked them in a rage, and Leo wouldn't have been injected with scorpion venom, skirted the edge of death, and become disabled. And if Dusty hadn't sold him a fake one in the first place.
• Visual Pun: Red during her running away wins a "parting gift" from one of the booths. A comb.
• Wanted a Son Instead: Zigzagged. After Quinn and Penelope — both girls — King George was hoping the third pregnancy between him and Louise would result in a son; he wanted a boy to pass on the family name and be able to do the things "fathers and sons were supposed to do" with. The doctors predicted a third princess and the first prince from the twin pregnancy, and they were born. As male-and-female Conjoined Twins, which were named Wilfred and that George rejected.
• Wealth's in a Name: The richest family in the Clown Kingdom (who control the bank) are the Cashworthys. It comes from Leo and Diana's mom Gemma and not their father Aries, who Took the Wife's Name.
• Webcomic Time: While the comic has been going for eight years, only a few months have passed in-universe, starting with Quinn's stepping up as queen. Only two major indicators of time passing have happened; Red's seventh birthday and Lantern Day.
• Wham Shot: Fred is telling his nieces and nephew about how he lost his leg on Red's insistence that he do so. He starts saying that his parents King George and Queen Louise were expecting twins: a third princess and the first prince for their family. Then you see George's horrified face, followed by the image of Fred and Will as infants — born as Conjoined Twins, with only three legs between the two fused babies.
• What If?: In universe. While deep in the effects of the scorpion venom and on the edge nearly dying, Leo has a hallucination of what might have been if instead of watching Kingston and Quinn (who was pregnant with the twins at the time) walk away in the store when he saw them in the Sheep Kingdom (and thus letting them remain hidden) he had spoken to them, reconnected, and ran away and stayed with them instead. He imagines a whole life of the three of them and their children living together as a happy hidden family before the venom is cured.
• What's Up, King Dude?: The royal family doesn't live separate from the citizens of Clowny Island, wander around the kingdoms they visit freely, and live in the same kind of mobile-place on wheels as the other citizens albeit slightly taller. Charlie plays Basements and Banshees with other friends and, outside of Zeppy being nasty when Charlie arrives, is not treated any different; Java Chip in particular refuses to genuflect to them, teasingly calling him and Claudette "Madam Dorkette and Sir Dorkus." Quinn holds a public town meeting on Lantern Day — which means she and Kingston can't be available initially — that anyone in the kingdom can attend and speak their mind to them at, even if they have nothing useful to say.
• The Whitest Black Guy: The clowniest mime. Pascal, having been raised in Clowny Island with his father Manet (who serves the royal family with a lifetime servant's contract) and never been to Mimopolis, is much more aligned with clown culture than mime culture, including being used to sweets and sugary foods. His Embarrassing Nickname among the other mimes is "Iris Berry" — blue on the inside, purple on the outside. The author theorizes that he'd be more comfortable in a romantic relationship with a clown instead of a mime, shown by his crush on Penelope.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Charlie likes to wear skirts and dresses. His family sees no issue with this, with the exception that Claudette is annoyed that he takes her clothes. When he was younger he always dressed to match his twin sister down to the skirts, but has since grown out of it — though not the desire to wear skirts.
• Your Mime Makes It Real: Pascal is capable of producing solid illusions that others can interact with as long as he understands the shape and how it works, including vehicles (as he studied them from childhood and wanted to be a pilot). The larger and more complex shapes, like a car, take more energy and so don't last as long and can lead to burnout — and the item disappearing — if he strains himself.