History Webcomic / PvP

* BadassSanta: Whenever Kringus shows up.

* BearsAreBadNews: The RunningGag where Brent gets mauled by a panda. This has been played with in just about every possible way, including an arc where Brent and the panda become FireForgedFriends when a crazy activist tries to kidnap it, only to have the ResetButton pressed a short while later after a ZanyScheme to get the panda to mate backfires and results in Brent getting [[RapeAsComedy raped by the female panda]] in question.

* AbortedArc: The "Thief" storyline in 1999, where Francis was skulking around the office pretending to be Garret from ''VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge'', which was cancelled after Creator/LookingGlassStudios went under and Eidos cancelled the funding, leading to an abrupt end.

* TheAllegedBoss: Cole is treated with little respect as a boss since he lets his employees get away with their zany hijinks. At one point the office had a new employee hired to help with finances, which Cole was not consulted about and was mocked when he complained.
* AllTrollsAreDifferent

* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Robbie must have won one ''hell'' of a lottery jackpot, he apparently can splurge the GDP of a small country whenever he wants. He hired accountants to make sure he doesn't run out of money. He seems to have some investments in the pornographic industry as well, and now a significant shareholder for [=PvP=].

* RealityEnsues: Francis mixes together energy drinks and Pixie sticks in a chance to get powerful enough to defeat his new rival. He then thinks that he has SuperSpeed and charges around the office. Brent and Cole go ThisIsGonnaSuck because Francis was hallucinating and got food poisoning from the combination.

* AccidentalMarriage: [[spoiler: Francis and Marcie]] got drunk in UsefulNotes/LasVegas and got married. However they are trying their best to make it work.

* ComicBookTime: ''OH'' yes. The characters have aged somewhat as the series progressed, but in periodic jumps rather than it happening naturally. Cole's children were toddlers when the comic began but are now in college, while Francis hasn't aged more than about five years. And of course, none of the pets are affected by aging. As of 2015, most of the cast are in their early 40s or late 30's, while Marcy and Francis are in their late 20's. Skull, being a mythical creature who's centuries old, hasnt aged at all.

* IHatePastMe: Somewhat played with. Duck is what Max once was. Max has a bit of a HeroicBSOD once he realizes what it's like to be on the other end.

* MoodWhiplash: Brent and Jade's wedding.

* OffhandBackhand: Robbie [[http://pvponline.com/comic/wed-jan-15 takes out a sales drone]] before he can do any damage.

** Brent puts Skull on lookout for Cole while working on a scheme.

* WackyMarriageProposal: The arc starts [[http://pvponline.com/comic/aug-2-2007 here]]. Starts out well, [[HilarityEnsues goes horribly wrong]], goes right when [[spoiler:Jade accepts]], goes wrong again when [[HilaritySues they end up in jail]], and then [[DeusExMachina back out again]].

* LevelUpAtIntimacy5: Francis and Marcy. Literally. Came free with complimentary [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]]. And [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2011/01/13/all-grown-1up/ it happened again]], only through ThePowerOfFriendship.

* SexAsRiteOfPassage: Combined with a PlotRelevantAgeUp with Francis and Marcy.

On May 18, 2020, PvP went through a time skip, soft-branded as "PvP 3.0", and seems ready to double down on the classic office sitcom shenanigans that were the core of PvP's humor for years.

* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Robbie must have won one ''hell'' of a lottery jackpot, he apparently can splurge the GDP of a small country whenever he wants.
** He hired accountants to make sure he doesn't run out of money. He seems to have some investments in the pornographic industry as well, and now a significant shareholder for [=PvP=].

** Also, there is a dog in the strip which was, and originally appeared as, Kurtz's dog. He later became Cole's. When the dog died in real life, the comic dog continued to appear.
** And Kurtz himself used to appear to speak directly to the readers. He hasn't done this in a while, probably because he keeps a blog now.
*** While we're on the topic, Kurtz writes in his father's actual comments from time to time, and Reggie is based on a real friend of Kurtz.
** Nowadays, Kurtz frequently uses Skull to reflect himself, but in a much less indirect manner. (His birthday reflected Scott's, etc.)

* CerebusSyndrome: The strip toys with this to some extent. It never goes full-over into drama, but for most of its run now it's alternated between Gag Per Day format, {{dramedy}}, and [[RuleOfDrama downright serious drama]]. Some people felt the strip fell full into CerebusSyndrome during the Brent/Jade wedding arc, which happened to overlap with a surprisingly serious turn for Skull, Cole's marriage falling apart, and a story about Robbie and Jase falling out. Of course, the strip quickly went back to comedic arcs after a few months, just as it always had done before.

* CheatedAngle: Before Brent revealed his face (well, [[NegativeContinuity again]]), he would always be drawn so that you could never see his eyes behind his sunglasses. Now, when seen from the side, [[ArtEvolution you can clearly see his eyes]].
** Also Jase's eyes were always covered by his hat until he started dating Robbie's gardener and temporarily stopped wearing it. He got his hat back but now his eyes are clearly visible (and he's lost a lot of weight).

* ColorfulThemeNaming: Brent Sienna is a pun on "burnt sienna". Note that he's also pretty [[DeadpanSnarker dry]]...

* DealWithTheDevil: [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2010/07/05/brent-and-the-devil-pt-1/ One soul for a cup of coffee.]] Then again 1) Brent didn't really think the barista was the Devil, and 2) it was a really good cup of coffee. The Devil(?), rather than taking Brent to Hell as is the usual way these deals turn out, uses his ownership of Brent's soul to make him his errand boy.
** [[spoiler:Also, [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot he's not really the devil]]. He's a computer security expert, and he's using the terror and humiliation he's engendering by pretending to be the devil to soften up Brent and Cole to the notion of hiring him to redo their security.]]

* GamerChick: Marcy is a cookie cutter example (right down to the {{Tsundere}} girlfriend aspects). Averted with Jade.

* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Many of [=PvP=]'s women are buxom with slim waists and wide hips, notably [[http://pvponline.com/comic/sister-act Miranda]].

* KlatchianCoffee: Francis' twitch gamer 'power drink'.
** Except all it did was make him hallucinate and vomit uncontrollably. A bit too powerful...

* LevelUpAtIntimacy5: Francis and Marcy. Literally. Came free with complimentary [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]].
** And [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2011/01/13/all-grown-1up/ it happened again]], only through ThePowerOfFriendship.

* RevisedEnding: Kurtz frequently pokes fun at other works, usually through parody. Occasionally he'll indulge his sense of the ridiculous by creating an alternate ending to a known work, often simply by brushing away ArtisticLicense and showing a more probable outcome.
** [[http://pvponline.com/comic/left-4-read This]] is a parody ending of one of the original Twilight Zone's most famous episodes,[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last Time Enough At Last]].

* ThanksForTheMammary: Francis honks Jade's boob when he thinks that he's in the future and therefore his actions have no consequences (ItMakesSenseInContext). This leads to Jade leaving [=PvP=] to start her her own magazine.
** Part of the reason she returns to [=PvP=] is because one of her (female) coworkers in the new magazine does the [+exact same thing+].

* TwoGamersOnACouch: Robbie and Jase were very nearly a parody of this as a B side story. At one point they got locked in their playing room for four months and didn't even notice.
** Also later the couch broke and they had a funeral pyre for it.
--> Robbie "Okay everyone stand back. This thing absorbed decades worth of farts and it's going to go up like a Roman candle."

* WhamLine: [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2013/06/14/change-of-plans1 "I'm late."]]

* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Skull's super-intelligent cat.
** Inverted with Skull. Everyone in the comic can see Skull with the exception of Max Powers.
*** [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2010/04/09/deja-view/ Not anymore.]]

** Justified as the magazine is now no longer in production.
*** They're now a game publishing company that never seems to publish any games.
* PornStash: Robbie entire second floor of his mansion is one.
--> Francis: My God Robbie, How did you amass this much porn?!
--> Robbie: I own a couple of adult entertainment companies. They send me one of everything.

* ProductPlacement: Not necessarily in the comic itself, but several of the site designs have been lousy with it, almost to the point that clicking anywhere outside the comic accidentally would take you to a sponsor site.
** As of the end of July 2011, [=PvP=] is now sponsored by TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering (at least for the next quarter). Kurtz explains why at http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2011/07/22/oh-oh-its-magic/
* ProudToBeAGeek: The whole cast, with the exception of Jade. Even she might just be a different style of geek...
** Brent is actually an aversion, and while he admits to "interests that coincide with nerdity" he denies being an actual nerd, which Francis (a straight example of this trope) calls him out on. He's an avowed Apple geek who will buy ''any'' product they make, a D&D player, a gamer, he plays ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' with his wife (who's in many ways geekier than him), quotes movies constantly, has declared Creator/JossWhedon his master, almost dropped out of college because he was hooked on Sega games, and consistently gets into arguments about genre fiction or gaming with Francis and Cole. [[BlatantLies But he's not a nerd. Definitely not a nerd.]]
*** He's also a big fan of StarWars and plays every game released in this franchise with Cole.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Particularly obvious with the treatment of Max Powers. He is, by all appearances, a friendly guy who's happy to help, whose worst crimes are being successful and pulling bad jokes [[http://www.websnark.com/archives/2004/10/because_i_keep.html no worse than the protagonists would pull]]. Yet every time he stopped by the [=PvP=] office he was received like he was some sort of colossal dick dead set on destroying everything the staff held dear, for no discernible reason. This was confronted and deconstructed during the [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2008/11/19/excuses-excuses/ Thanksgiving 2008 arc]].
** The trope is now moot, as Max is now [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2010/04/06/now-hire-zing/ an accepted member of the staff.]]

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Zig-zagged [[http://pvponline.com/comic/sat-feb-18 here]]. Scratch has ''actually'' made a cure for the common cold -- but uses it for selfish and trivial purposes.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Not long after Scott Kurtz moved from Dallas to Seattle in 2009, the [=PvP=] staff made a similar relocation. Averted by the TimeSkip to PVP 3.0, as Kurtz explicitly stated that the reason for the reboot was so RealLife ''didn't'' write the plot as he felt he couldn't address the very serious issues in the comic without trivializing them but ignoring them would also be problematic, so he opted to to TakeAThirdOption and shift the timeline into the future.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Not long after Scott Kurtz moved from Dallas to Seattle in 2009, the [=PvP=] staff made a similar relocation.

* BiTheWay:
** [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2011/04/26/turn-of-the-bookworm/ Miranda, apparently]]. Or maybe she's not, and [[AttentionWhore just likes attention]]. Or is just messing with her sister.
** Brent occasionally shows some same-sex attraction, but he's always [[PlayedForLaughs playing it for laughs]] in-universe. Like Miranda, he may just be messing with people, though one strip implies he may have experimented in college.

* HelloNurse: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2012/01/05/hello-nurse/ here]].

* RedundantParody: In one Lolbat strip we see his GrammarNazi-themed RoguesGallery. Kurtz made one of the villains "Onomatopoeia" as a joke both on the theme and the use of onomatopoeia in the sixties Series/{{Batman}} show. However, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia_%28comics%29 there actually is a DC Comics villain called Onomatopoeia]], based on a sinister reinterpretation of the same reference, and he even looks somewhat similar (by coincidence) to what Kurtz drew. To his credit, on being informed of this Kurtz edited the strip and replaced him with a palindrome-themed villain.

** This became part of the comic due to the decline of print media and gaming journalism, eventually moving to an exclusively online magazine, and eventually shutting it down completely. The company, while still called ''PvP'' instead produces mobile games now.

** As of the end of July 2011, [=PvP=] is now sponsored by MagicTheGathering (at least for the next quarter). Kurtz explains why at http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2011/07/22/oh-oh-its-magic/

*** And yet another ally: [[http://pvponline.com/comic/2016-11-18 while bored one day]], [[spoiler:Miranda [[ShaggySearchTechnique stumbled]] onto Lolbat's [[BookcasePassage hidden]] lair, [[http://pvponline.com/comic/2016-12-07 discovered]] his suits were made of AppliedPhlebotinum, and used one to make herself into [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram Instagirl]]]].

* ComicBookTime: ''OH'' yes. The characters have aged somewhat as the series progressed, but in periodic jumps rather than it happening naturally. Cole's children were toddlers when the comic began but are now in college, while Francis hasnt aged more than about five years. And of course, none of the pets are affected by aging. As of 2015, most of the cast are in their early 40s or late 30's, while Marcy and Francis are in their late 20's. Skull, being a mythical creature who's centuries old, hasnt aged at all.
* UniversalAdaptorCast: Some sequences, such as the "Bulldog and Cooch" strips using Cole, Brent and Max Powers playing different characters.

* CommediaDellArteTroupe: Some sequences, such as the "Bulldog and Cooch" strips using Cole, Brent and Max Powers playing different characters.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Ladies and Gentlemen, [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2009/12/07/high-pitched-pitch/ Gordy and the Prairie Dogs]] "[[Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks Hula Hoops!]]".

** Including the "MY PARENTS ARE DEAAAAAAD" take on Batman delivered by [[Franchise/{{Superman}} everyone's favorite dick]].

** [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2011/04/26/turn-of-the-bookworm/ Miranda, apparently]]. Or maybe she's not, and [[AttentionWhore just likes attention]]. Or is just messing with her sisters.

** [[http://pvponline.com/comic/left-4-read This]] is a parody ending of one of the original Twilight Zones' most famous episodes,[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last Time Enough At Last]].

** Series/House shows up when Brent is injured in a [[http://pvponline.com/comic/its-never-lupus Paint Ball accident]].

* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Brent and Cole need a good table tennis partner to beat the Penny Arcade team. They choose [[http://pvponline.com/comic/table-menace the panda]] because, well... pandas are Chinese, right? [[spoiler: Turns out he's ''really'' good at it.]]