History Webcomic / Archipelago

* DynamicEntry: Credenza is on the beach, surrounded by shadowmandyrs, and then, suddenly.... Blitz [[BigDamnHeroes emerges from the ocean]]. Smashing the shadowmandyrs. [[UpToEleven While riding a hammerhead shark]].

* NiceHat: Pretty much everyone on Quillotia.

* BadassNormal: Until Credenza started actually using Dragonfly's necklace she had no magical strength to speak of, but still threw herself into adventure and trouble. Snow also had no real native magical power before he was resurrected by the Great Raven and given the cyborg arm, but was still one of the most feared men in the world. [[spoiler:Raven becomes one after finishing his transformation into a near-human.]]

-->'''Raven:''' Curse it, Snow! You soul thieving son of a B- *Mona wallops with baseball bat* -UHK!

* HotSubOnSubAction: Second book, Captain Snow versus the Royal Guard.

-->'''Raven:''' What makes that woman think she can order us around like that?
-->'''Blitz:''' The way we always do what she says.

* ActionGirl: Most of the girls in comic.

* AdultFear: In backstory rather than the comic itself, [[spoiler:Tuff and Riley disappearing from Quillotia at the age of 16. As well as pitchfork-wielding mobs, Chesska dying, Anthony going missing, an army of horrible people attacking your village out of the blue...]]. The Archipelago, while certainly a nice place to live, is ''not'' a sugarbowl.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Amongst the villain camp. [[AntiVillain Knull]] and [[StalkerWithACrush Han]] both took a liking to Lucinda, who couldn't reciprocate as she [[EmotionlessGirl traded away her emotions]] after her heart was broken by a man from her past ([[spoiler:who, in an odd twist, [[{{Shapeshifting}} was also Han]]]]).

* SpotTheImpostor: Between Riley and [[ShapeShifter Han]]. At first, it seems that Tuff spots the difference when Han isn't strong enough to carry Riley's {{BFS}}, but as it turns out...

* FiveManBand:
** Heroes:
*** TheHero: Credenza (a rare example where the leader is female, while the rest of the band is male).
*** TheLancer: Raven.
*** TheSmartGuy: Tuff.
*** TheBigGuy: Riley.
*** TheChick: Blitz.
** Amongst the Great Raven's forces:
*** TheBigBad: Captain Snow.
*** TheDragon: Lucinda.
*** TheEvilGenius: Han.
*** TheBrute: Kurr.
*** TheDarkChick: Knull.

* NotSoDifferent: Not explicitly declared, but the parallels between Credenza and Snow are strong. Both are (or were) normal humans with negligible magical gifts and lost their parents, who went through various traumas (death for Snow, and Snow for Credenza), were granted artifacts and powers from the BigGood and BigBad, and often fall back on who they were before their careers as hero and villain - Snow out of pride, Credenza in humility. Where Credenza is able to build people up, Snow breaks them. They're also rather [[MagneticHero magnetic]], a strength they use as much or more than the gifts offered by Dragonfly and the Great Raven.

* FamousLastWords
** "O... Oh... Olivia..." ([[spoiler:Dragonfly]])
** "It's true, isn't it? [[KilledMidSentence You really are--]]" ([[spoiler:Holly]])
** "[--I'm sorry, [[spoiler:Knull]].--]" ([[spoiler:Lucinda]])
** "Aww, a gun. That's adorable. After all this time, [[TemptingFate you imagine a bullet is enough to stop--]]" ([[spoiler:Captain Snow]])
** "[-[[spoiler:Dragonfly]]...-] [--I'm sorry...--]" ([[spoiler:The Great Raven]])
** "The stitches... aren't pretty... but they'll hold him... together..." ([[spoiler:Snow, for real this time]], after bringing [[spoiler:Blitz]] back to life [[AffablyEvil as a parting gift]])

* BadDreams: Credenza had a few of these about her childhood. She later had her dreams [[DreamWeaver tampered with by Captain Snow himself]].

* {{Adorkable}}: Raven, especially after [[spoiler:he gets a body]]. Also, Tuff and Knull.

** [[spoiler: The final heir is not only Uru, Credenza's slave friend, and was Charlie the entire time, giving him a personal connection to Snow and Credenza, our main protagonist and antagonist, and Kor, another heir.]]

[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archipelago_cover_4311.jpg]]

* [[OurMonstersAreDifferent Our Owl Bears Are Different]]: If it weren't for their six limbs and weird retractable Film/{{Aliens}} mouth, Jabberwockies could pass as Owl Bears.
* PainfulTransformation: Were-creatures who lack certain RequiredSecondaryPowers, such as the half-breed Luck brothers. [[spoiler: Tuff receives said powers as a gift from Dragonfly, Riley... doesn't.]]

* DoNotCallMePaul: Holly calls Clair by her mother's name by accident, though she wasn't paying attention at the time.

* DullSurprise: Lucinda, to pretty much everything. Justified, since she's EmotionlessGirl.

* ShowWithinAShow: Vaniji and Kor are introduced presenting and performing within a play called "Cord of Gold," full of flashy magic special effects. Kor calls back to it during a [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome rousing swordfight with Snow]] through the theatre's storage rooms.

* FiveBadBand: Amongst the Great Raven's forces:
** TheBigBad: Captain Snow.
** TheDragon: Lucinda.
** TheEvilGenius: Han.
** TheBrute: Kurr.
** TheDarkChick: Knull.
* FiveManBand
** TheHero: Credenza (a rare example where the leader is female, while the rest of the band is male).
** TheLancer: Raven.
** TheSmartGuy: Tuff.
** TheBigGuy: Riley.
** TheChick: Blitz.

* AnimalMotifs: Most of the cast is in some way part-animal, thanks to the {{Magitek}} AfterTheEnd setting, and are referred to as such. Tuff and Riley, half-weresharks, are "fish", Raven is a "bird", so on. [[spoiler:Even characters who aren't beastmen or spirits get in on the action later, when we see their souls in the dream world or character portraits.]]

** [[spoiler:Kor, one of the heirs, happened to work for Anansi, someone who knew Captain Snow personally and was gifted Paollo's Royal Guard for MindControl.]]

* AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: Literally, in the form of Dragonfly's necklace that unlocked Credenza's power. Vaniji also has his cane, in which he has invested and concentrated his powers. [[spoiler:To the point that Vaniji's cane becomes an AmuletOfDependency, as he has left nothing for himself.]]

* TheAntiChrist: Snow, who is about as close as it gets without literally being the spawn of the Devil, and if you consider the Great Raven close enough to take the title...

** [[spoiler:Raven]] slides between the Disney Anti Hero/KnightInSourArmour and PragmaticHero sub-types.

* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Resident hypnotist Vaniji tries it on [[spoiler:Blitz]] and [[http://thearchipelago.smackjeeves.com/comics/1910142/book-7-page-100/ gets a nasty dose]] of DarkAndTroubledPast.
-->'''Raven:''' Broke into the wrong brain, didn't you? [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} He]] looks all frail and frightened, but he has a mind that will swallow you up before it lets you take over. Take it from me, more powerful minds than yours have tried.

* MindScrew: Snow is really fond of this in the last two chapters. In Chapter 9 he uses dream magic to nearly convince Credenza [[spoiler:that the whole adventure was [[AllJustADream all just a dream]] ]], and a similar scenario is the whole setup [[spoiler:to the climax of Chapter 10]], also courtesy of Snow's dream magic.

** [[spoiler: In the climax The Giant Robot Raven Thing that snow created is referred to as a colossus. An apt description considering that it seems to have both artificial parts and living flesh, just like the colossi in VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus.]]

** For an in-world example, the Listing of Names.

* AndIMustScream: Those who are posessed by a raven spirit but are captured or simply no longer useful may be Soul Sealed. Essentially the subjects soul is sealed deep within their body and while they remain alive and aware, they cannot move or act in ''any'' way at all. [[spoiler:Raven attempts this on Anthony when he first possesses him, but it's interfered with when Anthony [[EyeScream cuts his own left eye out]] to block Raven's escape route, inadvertently leading to breaking his own mind and trapping Raven in it.]]