History ComicBook / Saga

* VirtualReality: When you watch plays on The Circuit, you can use a helmet to virtually sit in the audience and heckle the cast members, all from the comfort of your home.
** Ianthe walks in on Mr Zlote masturbating while wearing a similar helmet.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Frequently, and in fully uncensored glory. Prince Robot does this once, as does the bull dragon. With his mouth.

* PleasurePlanet: Sextillion.

* AbusiveParents: Prince Robot IV's father doesn't care that he's trying to start a family and settle down after surviving a hellish campaign. His demanding orders are the driving force in his son's life. And Marko's parents Barr and Klara, arguably.

* MeddlingParents: Prince Robot IV's father doesn't care that he's trying to start a family and settle down after surviving a hellish campaign. His demanding orders are the driving force in his son's life. And Marko's parents Barr and Klara, arguably.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Marko and Alana are shown to have healthy libidos and a [[CasualKink pleasantly kinky]] sex life, even continuing to have sex while Alana is pregnant. By contrast, Prince Robot IV is first introduced as he [[TheLoinsSleepTonight fails to get it up]] while having sex with his wife, and he blows several months having emotionally empty sex with prostitutes on Sextillion after [[spoiler: being shot by Heist]]. The Will, meanwhile, also travels to Sextillion on Wreath High Command's tab, only to be bored out of his wits with its offerings [[spoiler:until someone made the fatal mistake of trying to sell him an underaged SexSlave]]. Lampshaded by Oswald Heist, who explains that the title of his book ''The Opposite of War'' actually refers to sex; the pacifist Marko and Alana have a loving sex life, which the [[LousyLoversAreLosers more hawkish characters don't]].

* BadassAdorable: Hazel and Ghus. ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes Especially]]'' [[BewareTheNiceOnes Ghus.]]
* BadassAndBaby: Dengo and [[spoiler: Prince Robot IV's baby.]]
* BadassFamily: Marko, Barr and Klara.

* BuffySpeak: Shows up from time to time.

* EnemyMine: Between [[spoiler: Marko and Prince Robot IV]].

* FantasyConflictCounterpart: The endless, self-perpetating war between Wreath and Landfall over a relatively small pot of land brings to mind RealLife conflicts between Ireland and the UK over Northern Ireland, or Israel and Palestine over Gaza that have spilled over into international hostilities.
* FantasticSlur: "Moony" is a very common one for the people of Wreath. "Goat-head" is another one. People from Landfall get various unflattering permutation on the word "feathered", and Alana gets called a "housefly". The Robot Kingdom has "machine head," "drone," and "blueblood" - although the latter is literal and might just be an inoffensive nickname.

* FishPeople: Anyone from Jetsam.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Marko and Alana are shown to have healthy libidos and a [[CasualKink pleasantly kinky]] sex life, even continuing to have sex while Alana is pregnant. By contrast, Prince Robot IV is first introduced as he fails to get it up while having sex with his wife, and he blows several months having emotionally empty sex with prostitutes on Sextillion after [[spoiler: being shot by Heist]]. The Will, meanwhile, also travels to Sextillion on Wreath High Command's tab, only to be bored out of his wits with its offerings [[spoiler:until someone made the fatal mistake of trying to sell him an underaged sex slave]]. Lampshaded by Oswald Heist, who explains that the title of his book ''The Opposite of War'' actually refers to sex; the pacifist Marko and Alana have a loving sex life, which the more hawkish characters don't.

* SnakePeople: Quain.

* SwordBeam: Petrichor can shoot them.

* ZebrasAreJustStripedHorses: While on the planet Pervious, Alana rides a [[HorseOfADifferentColor white, zebra-like animal]] with orange stripes at the front that fade to grey at the back

* {{Cephalothorax}}: The attendants on Sextillion are giant human heads with human legs wearing fishnets. It's...[[UncannyValley gross]].

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Frequently, and in fully uncensored glory. Prince Robot does this once, as does the bull dragon. [[{{Squick}} With his mouth.]]

* LazyDragon:When Gwendolyn, Sophia, and Lying Cat travel to the planet Demimonde in search of dragon spunk ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]), they find the aforementioned last male dragon not just constantly lounging, but… [[{{Squick}} auto-fellating.]]

** The series is littered with it! There's Prince Robot IV's people, the Robot Kingdom, who are metallic humanoids with [=TVs=] for heads; The Stalk, a chalk-white woman with eight red eyes whose bare humanoid torso is armless while her spider-like lower body has eight limbs with opposable clawed thumbs; the [[UncannyValley unnerving]] and [[FanDisservice distinctly nonsexy]] inhabitants of Sextillion; and on, and on, and on...

* AdultFear: Their governments both want Marko and Alana dead, but ''want their child captured alive''.

* AllGravityIsTheSame: Landfall is orbited by a moon and dwarf planet, all three have humanoids of similar size and strength. If Landfall is the largest planet in the galaxy, it's gravity should be multiple times our own and significantly more than its moons.

* StunGuns: Alana has a Heartbreaker, a small pistol that isn't lethal, just paralyzing. Marko describes the effect as what it felt like when his dog died, so it seems to not so much stun as overwhelm the target with emotions (sadness, judging by the name and the effect as described), leaving them temporarily incapable of taking any effective action. It's later stated that a shot from it would probably kill Hazel, so presumably there's also some kind of physiological effect. It does nothing against robots.

* TakeThat: Issue 17, "Because th only journalists that deserve killing are sports writers."

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Just as Marko has the Will dead to rights, he calms down and decides to spare him. Unfortunately, the Will uses the opportunity to stab him in the back.]]

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Prince Robot IV's entire race. In addition to having sex and bearing children, there's also a case of Prince Robot IV using a toilet. And having erectile dysfunction.

* RuleOfDrama: The horned humanoids and winged humanoids are locked in endless proxy war in the first place because their homeworlds are orbiting each other (and because their governments profit from it). Neither faction can afford to destroy the other's world because they'd go spinning into space. A reader can think of plenty of ways to ''sterilize'' a world without destroying it, but then there'd be no story.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Marko is noted for his mild personality and aversion to violence. However, he's also prone to going into an UnstoppableRage, which is why he's become so reluctant to kill. We see him enter his bloody frenzy early in the series, and several characters mention him flipping out during a combat mission.

* ScienceFantasy: The series becomes science fiction elements of advanced technology, robots and space travel with magic, ghosts, dragons, intelligent trees and other supernatural staples.

* HumanoidAbomination: A newborn Timesuck looks like a baby that dwarfs planets and can take it out an entire armada and even destroy planets.

* TraumaCongaLine: ''Good lord almighty'', the hits just don't stop coming for Hazel's family! [[spoiler:First, Marko's father dies saving his family. Then the family meets their personal hero, D. Oswald Heist, who is killed when Prince Robot IV and Gwendolyn show up. Then Alana gets hooked on drugs shortly before Dengo abducts Hazel, Alana, and Marko's mother. Then Hazel and Marko's mother are imprisoned on Landfall until Marko breaks them out. Then the family settles for a time on Phang, but Izabel is destroyed, and the whole of Phang is destroyed by a Timesuck and a conspiracy by both Landfall and Wreath, killing all of the new friends Hazel and company made. At around the same time, Alana was pregnant with a second child, but said child becomes stillborn while escaping the Timesuck and must be aborted. Then the family travels to Jetsam, where The Will finally catches up to them and ''kills Marko''.]]

* TVHeadRobot: Robots all have televisions for heads, which are usually blank but will occasionally reveal their thoughts. When they're recalling a memory or dreaming, their screen will show what they're thinking. When they're feeling strong emotion, they will show a metaphorical image of their emotion, such as a lighting bolt for anger or a rose for love. Each robot has a unique style of television that sometimes implies their rank. Prince Robot IV has a sleek and rounded set, King Robot has a massive widescreen, and the peasant Dengo has an old-fashioned set with knobs. Queen Robot also has a very old-fashioned set, so the modernity of the design does not always follow class lines.

* HumanoidAbomination: A newborn looks like a baby that dwarfs planets and can take it out an entire armada and even destroy planets.

** Prince Robot IV [[spoiler:shoots The Stalk dead the split-second he thinks she's about to pull a weapon. As he does so, a rattle appears on his monitor, implying that his thought process was that he had to be alive to raise his future child at all costs]].

** The higher-ups [[MalignedMixedMarriage ain't happy about]] Marko and Alana. There are also numerous other couples, almost-couples, and ex-couples throughout the series: The Will and The Stalk, Heist and Yuma, The Will and Gwendolyn, Klara and Heist...