History ComicBook / OnceAndFuture

* DoubleMeaning: Bridgette points out that the word "merry" didn't always mean "happy and jubilant". It's derived from a Germanic root word meaning "short" as in "makes time pass quickly". [[spoiler:Bridgette has the heroes join Robin Hood's Merry Men to exploit this aspect of the story and make time pass more quickly,]]

* Myth/RobinHood: [[spoiler:Shows up in issue 24, Bridgette comments that he's equally dangerous even if he's on the side of "the people"]].

* DoubleMeaning: Bridgette points out that the word "merry" didn't always mean "happy and jubilant". It's derived from a Germanic root word meaning "short" as in "makes time pass quickly". [[spoiler:Bridgette has the heroes join Robin Hood's Merry Men to exploit this aspect of the story and make time pass more quickly,

** Arthur is able to raise the body of the dead to remake his faithful knights, twisting them into skeletal monstrosities of exposed flesh whose jaws hang down when they speak.

* Myth/KingArthur: A pivotal character in the comic, stopping his rise and take over of Britain is the driving force of the s tory. [[spoiler:But once Britain is entirely subsumed into the Otherworld, the heroes have to contend with every version of him]].

* PositionOfLiteralPower: Important narrative roles like being the Grail Knight let someone enter inaccessible places and win against dangerous monsters. Some creatures are only able to be killed by certain roles otherwise they're essentially unkillable. But an advantage in the demimonde doesn't translate into a mundane advantage.
** Mixing roles is not recommended as you'll get pulled in many different directions.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: This is Arthur and Merlin's reaction to seeing [[spoiler:the version of the Arthurian knights mixed with the modern British Empire, resulting in a HumongousMecha of capitalistic knights.]]

* Myth/KingArthur: A pivotal character in the comic, [[spoiler:all versions of him]].

* MagpiesAsPortents: DoubleSubverted, in Issue 13 opens with a magpie lighting down and interrupting Bridgette's smoke on the care home's deck. Then the other world light show kicks off and it's joined by five other magpies and Bridgette recites two versions of old rhyme and asks if she's in for Gold or Hell, only to be told it's the latter. So Bridgette shoots four of them and says now it must be either joy or mirth, only for one magpie to tear the throat out of the other and say she's in for Hell.

The scabbard of King Arthur's sword has been found, and Bridgette fears that someone will be trying to resurrect him. It's said [[Myth/KingArthur King Arthur]] will return in Britain's DarkestHour, but never trust a prophecy that can be taken in two ways. After all, it never said anything about him ''rescuing'' Britain...

* PositionOfLiteralPower: Important narrative roles like being the Grail knight let someone enter inaccessible places and fight dangerous monsters. Some creatures are only able to be killed by certain

''[{{Beat}}]''\\

* DependingOnTheWriter: The King Arthur here is the one from Briton culture. [[spoiler:A Norman Arthur who is aesthetically closer to a KnightInShiningArmor later appears to challenge his Briton counterpart]].

* EvilVersusEvil: After claiming Britain, King Arthur faces a challenger to the throne: [[spoiler: the Norman version of Arthur (as opposed to the Briton one the story centres around). This Arthur has his own Merlin and Guinevere, and is aided by the Lancelot already introduced]].

* ExpyCoexistence: [[spoiler:It seems that Galahad aligning himself with the Briton Arthur caused a Norman Galahad to appear to fill the role.]]

* {{Medusa}}: [[spoiler: A rare Male version shows up when the group goes back to Bath to rescue rose's parents.]]

* ExpyCoexistence: [[spoiler:It seems that Galahad aligning himself with the Briton Author caused a Norman Galahad to appear to fill the role.]]

* ExpyCoexistence: [[spoiler:It seems that by Galahad aligning himself with the Briton Author caused a Normon Galahad to appear to fill the role.]]

* ElementalEmbodiment: "Of the lake" is taken seriously, [[spoiler: when he appears Lancelot is basically a shilloette opening on to a lake bed, fish can be seen swimming in him ansd there are reeds growing from his feet, that's on top of the water sword he has.]]

* AncientOrderOfProtectors: [[spoiler: The Family that Duncan, Bridgette, and Mary belong to may well be a thousand years old and have the full support of the government. That doesn't mean they can't get audited.]]

* FightingIrish: Bridgette moved from Ireland to Britain when she was 15 and slayed vampires across the country until she ran out of vampires. Once Duncan gets into the family business, he soon finds that he has a knack for it even though he doesn't ''want'' to have a knack for it.

* GenreSavvy: Bridgette is this by necessity, considering she fights monsters and villains from various stories come to life. Merlin is also uniquely aware of how the nature and conventions of the story affects those like him, and he naturally abuses this for all it’s worth.

* HunterOfMonsters: The Family, that includes Duncan and Bridgette, is part of a deal with the British government that predates the magna carta. They deal with Arthurian stuff but that isn't all they do either.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Bridgette notes that King Arthur is often remembered as the hero king who united the Britons and beat back the foreign invaders. People often forget that he went to war with a European empire and crushed it. Once King Arthur rises from his crypt, the first thing he does is slaughter the English nationalists who resurrected him for being Anglo-Saxons before declaring that he's reclaiming Briton for the Britons.

* TranslatorMicrobes: The characters of the stories generally speak in their native tongue, Arthur in old Britonnic and Lancelot in French. But they gradually "adjust" to the area they're summoned in and the people they're speaking to, resulting in Arthur and Lancelot switching to modern English.

* MerlinandNimue: This trope is {{Lampshaded}}}, {{discussed}} and {{Invoked}} just like many other Arthurian tropes. [[spoiler: When the Briton Merlin recruits Mary as his Nimue he is completely expecting her to betray him at some point.]]

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Wouldn't be an Arthurian tale without them stand out o course is {{Excalibur}} of course, [[spoiler: Lancelot cuts up bullets and later a huge army of undead.]]

* AncientOrderOfProtectors: [[spoiler: The Family that Duncan Bridgette and Mary belong to may well be a thousand years old and have the full support of the government. That doesn't mean they can't get audited.]]
* AndroclesLion: When Galahad makes off with the Holy Grail, no one is fast enough to catch him. But when Rose removes the sword plaguing the dragon that Lancelot defeated, she accidentally invokes the story of this trope or its even older prototype. The dragon then aids them in chasing down Galahad by allowing the heroes to ride its back.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Bridgette tends to be calm and collected in even the most strenous situations, with her OhCrap reactions usually amounting to her saying "Bugger." However, on two occasions she loses her cool. The first is the BigNo she lets out when realizing that [[spoiler:Prime Minister Boris Johnson is about to reveal the existence of magic to the world on live television, with disastrous results for everyone in Britain]]. The second occasion is weeks or months later, when one of the people in the retirement home that Bridgette, Duncan, Rose and other survivors are hiding in asks "When is this going to get back to normal?", which sets Bridgette off and sends her into a [[SuddenlyShouting shouting fit]] as a result of the desperation of their situation and the stress that she has been under.

The scabbard of King Arthur's sword has been found, and Bridgette fears that someone will be trying to resurrect him. It's said King Arthur will return in Britain's DarkestHour, but never trust a prophecy that can be taken in two ways. After all, it never said anything about him ''rescuing'' Britain...

* MusclesAreMeaningful: Duncan may be a museum curator, but he's also tall and broad-shouldered, letting him smash a door in two with a single kick.

* ProphecyTwist: Discussed by Bridgette. She's intimately familiar with the story of King Arthur, who is supposed to return in Britain's DarkestHour. While most would take it as a sign that he will return to save Britain, she always found the wording of it strange, as nothing in the prophecy says he couldn't ''cause it''.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: [[spoiler: William Shakespeare was a monster hunter, and one of the best at that.]]

* ExcaliburInTheStone: {{Discussed}}; Arthur is able to retrieve a sword from a stone
immediately, but it is explicitly '''not''' Excalibur. As stated, he does have the scabbard but getting the sword is a secondary objective of his. He gets a worthier sword a tick later but that, too, could at best be called Clarent, though that is a bit too late for a Briton Arthur.

* ObviouslyEvil: Arthur and his court are all visibly dark undead monsters associated with a SicklyGreenGlow. [[spoiler:Less so for the Briton Arthur.]]

* ExcaliburInTheStone: {{Discussed}}; Arthur is able to retrieve a sword from a stone immediately, but it is explicitly '''not''' Excalibur. As stated, he does have the scabbard but getting the sword is a secondary objective of his. He gets a worthier sword a tick later but that, too, could at best be called Clarent, though that is a bit too late for a Briton Arthur.

* DependingOnTheWriter: The King Arthur here is the one from Breton culture. [[spoiler:A Norman Arthur who is aesthetically closer to a KnightInShiningArmor later appears to challenge his Breton counterpart]].

* ExcaliburInTheStone: {{Discussed}}, Arthur is able to retrieve a sword from a stone immediately but it is explicitly '''not''' Excalibur. As stated he does have the scabbard but getting the sword is a secondary objective of his. He gets a more worthy sword a tick later but that to could at best be called Clarent, though that is a bit to late for a Breton Author.

* MirrorMatch: [[spoiler:After England is plunged into the Otherworld, the Norman version of Arthur rises to challenge the Breton Arthur, complete with his own version of Merlin and Guinevere. While the Breton Arthur has an undead army he can summon at will, the Norman Arthur has [[OneManArmy Lancelot]].]]

* PopculturalOsmosisFailure: Duncan is a major example, he's an english doctoral student but he's focused on ''modern'' literature he's out of his death with the arthurian mythos, this makes him a good AudienceSurrogate.

** [[spoiler:When the Breton Arthur summons an undead army to swarm the Norman Arthur, Lancelot effortlessly cuts the entire army down. As per Merlin's own words, an army cannot defeat a hero, as heroes would not be remembered otherwise.]]

* WorldsBestWarrior: Lancelot is described by Bridgette as one of the original "hard lads" as the greatest knight in the land. All of Lancelot's appearances show him to be a cut above the other stories, effortlessly dicing bullets sent his way to bits and going after a dragon without fear. Bridgette urges everyone to not bother trying to shoot Lancelot and to simply run when he shows up. [[spoiler:Then when the Breton Arthur summons an undead army to face the Norman Arthur, Lancelot sides with the Norman Arthur and cuts it down as the hero of the story.]]

* GiveHimANormalLife: [[spoiler:While Bridgette did raise Duncan specifically to have a Percival just in case, she also wanted to keep him away from the monster hunting life and have him live blissfully unaware of his screwed up family.]]