Webcomic / Sire

Get Genre Savvy or die.

"Welcome to Lineage Haven, where the only way to survive is to read between the lines..."

— Profile Quote

Sire is a webcomic by Alexis Royce, about split personalities Anna and Susan Enfield who journey to England after discovering that they are descended from Edward Hyde and that there is an entire subculture of people who are descended from characters of famous old works and have been cursed by "The Binding" to live the moral of their sire's story... or face the ironic consequences.

Rule 1: The Binding is everywhere and everyone is bound.
Rule 2: If everyone is bound then lineage children are doubly so.
Rule 3: The Binding cannot resist tension or drama.
Rule 4: We are characters in its story, and each have a moral to learn.

Confirmed to feature Sires/Dams from:

• The Canterbury Tales
• A Connecticut Yankeein King Arthurs Court
• Doctor Faustus
• Don Quixote
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• Frankenstein
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• An Ideal Husband
• The Invisible Man
• Jeeves and Wooster
• Les Misérables
• The Ministers Black Veil
• The Phantom of the Opera
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Pollyanna
• A Prayer for Owen Meany
• Pygmalion
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• The String of Pearls
• Sherlock Holmes

Unfortunately, Sire is on indefinite hiatus as of the end of Chapter 18.

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Sire provides examples of:

• All Myths Are True: Or at least a thousand great works of fictions are accounts of true events.
• Alternate Self: Anna and Susan.
• Ambiguous Gender: Riley.
• Art Shift: Sometimes when Susan is in control of the body both girls appear as blonde haired women. Artistic license on when this applies. There have been times where the same page has Susan drawn both ways. As of yet no confirmation on the reason for the art-shift has been given.
• The Atoner: Check out this page. If you know the meaning behind behind the chant it paints a clear picture of what type of person this character will become when introduced.
• Author Appeal: Royce is a fan of classic literature if that wasn't obvious.
• Because Destiny Says So: The comic is all about deconstructing this trope and the arguments for and against working with it.
• Big Damn Heroes: Emile rescuing the girls from the London thugs.
• Bilingual Bonus: Emile sometimes slips in to French.
• Blessed with Suck: Leif in particular. He shares Erik's creative brilliance but also his frail body and disfigurement.
• Calling Card: Julian leaves a very well written one for the girls in the suitcase.
• Cardboard Prison: The girls are escaping the asylum on high security lockdown after killing a man, still wearing a straight jacket at the end of chapter 1. At the start of chapter 2 they are successfully stowed away on a boat to London. High security lockdown and the manhunt for a murderer mean nothing to the Hyde-Child.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Canta sports one in Chapter 5. It borders on Slasher Smile.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 4 closes with an ominous letter from a thief who took the contents of Paul's briefcase.
• Contrived Coincidence: Emile and Julian being on the same boat that Susan and Anna take to London. Justified in that The Binding pushes Lineage Children in ways to make their "stories" dramatic.
• Cosmic Plaything: Each Lineage Child is one due to the ironic literary force of The Binding.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: A sign that Susan has come out to play within Anna. Very clear in their Evil Plan cameo.
• Cursed with Awesome: Many of the Lineage Children can fall under this. Riley for instance is permanently invisible whether s/he wants to be or not, though s/he has fun with it.
• A Day in the Limelight: The author has indicated that each of the Ensemble Cast in the haven will have chapters dedicated to their story. Chapter 5 seems to center around Leif.
• Death by Irony: The implied effect of the tragic ending.
• Deconstruction Crossover: A rare example where the original works are known to the characters and the deconstruction is integral to the plot.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Susan was ready to fit in and be a good girl. The Binding couldn't very well abide by that and so the girls discovered that they were lineage children and Paul had lied to them both. It gets worse from there.
• Did Not Do the Bloody Research: Averted at all costs. The author goes out of her way to make sure not only the British dialect is correct but also Canta's hand gestures are realistic.
• Dies Wide Open: Paul.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Shove her arm again and so help me I'll punch you square in the stomach. Emile shares his vulnerability for this trope with his sire.
• Dramatic Irony: Thy name is Binding.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Anna's lack of scar in the first chapter.
• Enemy Within: Played with. We may never know if Anna wanted to kill Paul, but Susan is very firm that she cannot do anything without Anna wanting it at least subconsciously.
• Ensemble Cast: Though not introduced until Chapter 4, we now find ourselves with a rather large group of characters with interesting concepts and quirks.
• Establishing Character Moment: Most major characters get one. Susan destroying Anna's doll, Emile punching Susan in the stomach, Johanna hugging the girls when they first arrive and most recently Riley playing tricks on the girls by pretending to be a ghost.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Anna's self-inflicted one sure does.
• Expy: Although every character is living the story of their sire/dam it is very important to note that they are unique characters who are forced to live the moral and themes of their ancestors story.
• Fiction as Cover-Up: Many classic stories are real events that were sold as fictionalized accounts, especially The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Hyde sired the ancestors of the protagonist, although it isn't mentioned in the book).
• Finagle's Law: It exists as an in-universe force which the characters know about and try their hardest to avert.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Obviously when they are the same person with and without inhibition.
• Forced to Watch: Anna to all of Susan's atrocities in the body. Most notably the two murders.
• Foreshadowing: "It's as true as Holmes and Watson, Anna.". We have not yet seen any indications of a Holmes/Watson lineage child. This line is a promise that there will be one eventually.
• Generation Xerox: All the lineage children are these.
• Genre Savvy: This is a series where "The Genre" is a malevolant force of the universe and not playing by its rules will get you killed.
• History Repeats: Every Lineage Child must face the same trials as their Sire/Dam. Running from that truth will only lead to The Binding killing them off.
• How We Got Here: The story opens with Anna being interviewed in a juvenile mental hospital and proceeds in to a chapter long intro story.
• Inspector Javert: Emile, naturally. His sire is the trope namer.
• Institutional Apparel: Anna is wearing a loose straight jacket until they reach the ship.
• Invisibility: Riley.
• Ironic Echo: "You had your turn with it. Now you wait 'til I'm done."
• The Jeeves: Dr. Silversmith, via lineage. Though rather than serving Lineage Haven she runs it.
• Jekyll & Hyde: Anna and Susan are descended from the title character(s) of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, inspiring the same condition.
• Knight Templar: Emile, naturally.
• The Lad-ette: Susan.
• Legacy Character: All the lineage children.
• Little Stowaway: How Anna and Susan escape America.
• Marshmallow Hell: Susan experiences this during Johanna's Establishing Character Moment.
• Meaningful Name: Johanna Thornhill. Two characters from The String of Pearls. Guess which series she owes a Dam to.
• Mood Whiplash: Susan is so proud of how well she has been behaving while Paul was on vacation... and then he returns, with a ripped outfit and broken glasses. It gets worse.
• Mugging the Monster: London street gangs do not want to mess with Susan. She's already killed two people.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Anna's reaction to Paul's murder.
• The Pen Is Mightier: Johanna used a fountain pen on Riley at the end of chapter 4.
• Pet the Dog: This page.
• Pimped-Out Dress: The famous straight-jacket dress from the Chapter 1 cover.
• Plot Triggering Murder Paul.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "You had your turn with it. Now you wait 'til I'm done."
• Pronoun Trouble: A common problem at the haven where Riley is concerned. Emile and Johanna seem to have given up.
• Psychic Link: Susan and Anna share one.
• Public Domain Character: Many of the sires.
• Reconstruction: Every character has to live the "story" of the sire/dam. This does not mean they are not their own person, more a reboot of the concept the original character was based on.
• Rule of Drama: Rule number three! The binding cannot resist tension or drama.
• Scenery Porn: The first shot of London.
• Shown Their Work: The author has not only read every story that she is referencing. She has studied them with a fine tooth comb.
• Stalker with a Crush: How Canta has been displayed, creeping on Leif.
• Supernatural Angst
• Team Mom: Johanna will hug you the first time she sees you.
• Theory of Narrative Causality: Of course, they call it "The Binding".
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Dr. Enfield is actually quite an effective therapist, even for someone who actually does have a "Hyde" in her head... right up until when she kills him.
• Troperiffic: Inevitable, given that the comic deals with numerous stories which shaped modern fiction.
• Unsafe Haven: Lineage Haven US was raided and destroyed in the first chapter of the story.
• Wham Line: Anna, help me!
• What You Are in the Dark: This page spells it out pretty clear for poor Anna.
• Wicked Cultured: Julian's letter.
• Wild Mass Guessing: Natural when every character is based off of a Public Domain Character and not all of them have been revealed yet.
• Would Hit a Girl: Emile cares not for etiquite. Emile cares for justice!
• Wrong Genre Savvy: "When the time comes, these people are punished with a "tragic ending"".