History Webcomic / TrueVillains

The long-needed remasters are over, and True Villains is currently updating three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Can be found [[http://www.truevillains.com/ here]].

* FingerPokeOfDoom- When empowered by "Divine Favor" from his God, the Paladin can shatter swords and dispel wisps with a gesture and a word.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack- As bad as Xaneth is, Dove makes him look positively heroic.

* {{Facepalm}}- [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2013-07-03-Moving%20Out-jpg.htm Facewing]].

* EvilCounterpart- Each member of Alyssa's team is a good counterpart to one of Xaneth's minions: Alyssa to Sebastian, Olivia to Elia, Brawn to Tom and Zach to Bayn. Xaneth being as GenreSavvy as he is, matches them up that way when they attack Alyssa's camp.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome- Used in a certain scene. The comic went full B&W when [[spoiler:Mia sees Tom's lifeless body, tries to fix him, and fails.]]

* EvilSorcerer- Xaneth, Elia, Bayn.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent- [[spoiler:Gray]] is abducted by a group of vampiric beings who are apparently religious zealots (who ironically follow the same god as him)

* EverythingsWorseWithBees- The chests in Xaneth's dungeon are filled with bees, even when they are at the end of a complete and utter death trap.

* CameBackStrong- Xaneth tries to [[spoiler: use Dove's soul as a bomb against Alyssa, but ended up bringing him back as a powerful demon]]
** Also [[spoiler:"Carl"]] was just a no-name peasant who [[spoiler:Xaneth used as a human shield against Dove]], and was brought back by [[spoiler:the priests of Nox]] as an enforcer with magical powers strong enough to hold Sebastian and Elia off.

* AboveGoodAndEvil- [[spoiler: Sebastian]] since the end of Saga Five
** The Gods represent a single concept (e.g. progress, vision, love, etc.) and are completely morally neutral, they will provide power to champions of good and genocidal maniacs alike if that will further their individual causes
* {{Adorkable}}- Sebastian is pretty dang cute but also a nerd, what with his dumb backpack and him being rather ignorant of the very world he lives in.
* AerithAndBob- We have Xaneth Antaris, Sebastian Jalek, Mia Jalek, Elia Redscallon, Bayn, and Tom.
** Don't forget about [[spoiler:Dexter Pheonix and Gray]].

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents- Dexter
* AnimatedArmor- Amber
* {{Animesque}}- The original art style of the strip, but later and revised strips have a more realistic look
* AntiHero- Pre- HeelFaceTurn, Sebastian was a Type I, with some shades of Type III. Although he did do good, he seems to have been doing it more for thrills or material rewards than out of a desire to help people, and when he learns that Xaneth's dungeon requires a life be sacrificed to open the door, he unhesitantly snaps a guy's neck (although that was technically self defence).
* AntiMagic- While hopped up on divine power, the Paladin can remove the enchantments from Mia's magic armor simply by saying "Release".
** Alistor is immune to dark magic.
* AristocratsAreEvil- Lord Attera seems to be in charge of Xaneth and very evil.

* AxCrazy- According to WordOfGod, before she met Xaneth, Elia was this. She has a lot more self control now, but is still prepared to go on a bloody slaughter simply to rescue one person
* BadassBookworm- Sebastian, following his [[TookALevelInBadass leveling up]], and to a lesser extent, Elia
* BadassMustache- Bayn had one in his early adventuring years, but then it was burned off in a fight with a fire priest.
* BadBoss[=/=]BenevolentBoss- As far as villains go, Xaneth is actually a fairly decent guy to work for. He enjoys manipulating his followers and doesn't treat them with a huge amount of respect, but at the same time he doesn't needlessly throw their lives away or kill them as punishment for failure. He's even saved their lives on occasion and is remarkably forgiving of their various quirks that inhibit his plans.
* BarrierWarrior- After getting a wand of defensive spells from his God, Bayn is now this
* BetterLivingThroughEvil- Sebastian joins Xaneth and, in exchange, Xaneth doesn't kill him. Win-win!

* BiggerBad- Lord Attera seems to be the Big Bad on a much larger scale than Xaneth
* BigDamnHeroes - Mia jumped right in and saved Elia and Cecile from [[spoiler:Gray]].
* BlueAndOrangeMorality- The Gods are beyond human morality, they only care if the individual aspect of reality they represent is being served. To illustrate this, Gray and [[spoiler:Dove]] are both affiliated with the same God.

* BreakTheCutie- With the death of [[spoiler:Tom, Mia]] is devastated. So much so that [[spoiler:she can't even fix him.]]
* BroughtDownToNormal- After being de-aged, Bayn remembers everything he learned over his life, but can only perform the basic magic that he could do when he was ten.

* CameBackStrong- Xaneth tried to [[spoiler: use Dove's soul as a bomb against Alyssa, but ended up bringing him back as a powerful demon]]
** Also [[spoiler:"Carl"]] was just a no-name peasant who [[spoiler:Xaneth used as a human shield against Dove]], and was brought back by [[spoiler:the priests of Nox as an enforcer]] with magical powers strong enough to hold Sebastian and Elia off
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower- Sebastian; he suffers a crippling injury to his aura that drains his life force constantly, and forces him to train hard for three hours a day just to stay alive. [[spoiler:After Bayn fixes the damage, that training [[http://truevillains.com/comic-2011-10-04~N-Mightier%20than%20the%20Sword-jpg.htm catches up to him...]] ]]

** Elia's friend Cecile is a semi-parody of this trope- she wields a sword as heavy as a man (which even Gray can't use) one-handed, due to studying ''dance'' her whole life, meaning she can use the sword like spinning around a dance partner.

** Basically, if a character doesn't have magic or inborn powers, expect them to have this to some degree.
* CheerfulChild- Little Mia, with her constant smiles and sweet nature, is an obvious example.
* TheChessmaster- Xaneth
* ChildProdigy- Bayn as a ten year old with the mind of an experienced ninety year old wizard is basically one by default, although it's implied he was very smart the first time he was a kid also
* ChosenOne- [[spoiler:There is a chosen one of Nox, the god of fear, a warrior woman called Ritania]] who Xaneth believes is destined to rise up and fight him. Xaneth being Xaneth, he's taking steps to prevent that.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome- Sebastian is trying to get over this.
** [[spoiler: As of the end of Saga Five, he has]].
* CombatPragmatist- Sebastian. Demonstrated in Saga Five, where he starts off the confrontation with his former companions by [[spoiler: blowing up Alistor with an alchemical trigger he's dosed him with during their previous meeting.]]
** Xaneth [[spoiler:dropping an explosive potion on Dove while flying at a high altitude above him]]
** All the main characters fight pretty dirty, {{Justified}} since they're the villains.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan- Mia, who is adopted by Sebastian after [[spoiler:he blows up her hometown.]]

* {{Curse}}-
** The reason Xaneth's shoes are yellow? [[spoiler: Dexter cursed him so that any pair of shoes he wore would turn yellow. This extends to him going barefoot- his feet turn yellow after a while. It's such a mundane curse, but it makes Xaneth FURIOUS.]]
** Bayn also fell victim; [[spoiler:Dexter's curse forces him to refer to him as "dad", and makes him unable to become intoxicated. He ''hates it''.]]

* DaddysLittleVillain- Mia
** ParentalSubstitute- In the sense that Sebby is not actually her father.
* DanceBattler- Cecile. She calls her self-taught swordfighting style [[IncrediblyLamePun "Swing Dancing."]]
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy- Xaneth. For example, he warns the townspeople that he's planning to destroy them... and tells them that he's going to do it a week ''after'' the time he ''actually'' plans to destroy them.

* DungeonCrawling- Sebastian used to do this until he was contracted by Xaneth

* EnfantTerrible- Ten year old Bayn
** Mia isn't one of these, but Gray and Xaneth's other enemies consider her one.

* EvilVersusEvil- Xaneth vs Dove (The Man in White).
** Elia vs Malice
* EvilSorceror- Xaneth, Elia, Bayn.

* {{Facepalm}}- [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2013-07-03-Moving%20Out-jpg.htm Facewing]]
* {{Fembot}}- Amber, a golem with a female name who is referred to as "she"
* FingerpokeOfDoom- When empowered by "Divine Favor" from his God, the Paladin can shatter swords and dispel wisps just by speaking

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly- There are an infinite amount gods in the TV world, but only five have significant power at any given time because of how many people worship them.
* [[EvilCounterpart Good Counterpart]]- Each member of Alyssa's team roughly maps to one of Xaneth's minions; Alyssa to Sebastian, Olivia to Elia, Brawn to Tom and Zach to Bayn. Xaneth being as GenreSavvy as he is, matches them up that way when they attack Alyssa's camp.
* GoodIsNotNice- The Paladin, [[spoiler: Gray]]
** Also [[spoiler: Alyssa]], while she is deginitely a force for good, she isn't the kind of person you want to spend time with

* GoryDiscretionShot- You don't SEE Xeke biting a guy's head off; only the shadow of it, along with Aya's frightened reaction.
** Mostly averted however, the strip hasn't shied away from showing a lot of blood in fights

* HeroAntagonist- The Paladin, of course.
** Alyssa and her team.
* HeroesPreferSwords- Alyssa, Ritania and the Paladin both wield swords in contrast to the protagonists, who use magic, automata, knives and brute force.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard- The Paladin challenges Sebastian to a one-one-one fight in their first meeting, and casts a ward on himself to keep Tom and Mia away so they can't interfere. Tom simply steps forward and stands next to Sebastian, and the Paladin's own ward knocks him back- if you're going to put a magic forcefield around yourself to block a specific person, make sure they aren't significantly stronger than you.

* JustAMachine- Subverted, [[spoiler: Tom is a golem, essentially a magical robot, and when he's destroyed, Mia is devastated, and the rest of the team are also saddened to one extent or another]].

* LethalHarmlessPowers- The only spells Bayn can still cast at his old power level are the purely defensive "Shield" and "Grounding". He uses them to [[spoiler:subdue a demonic Dove in three [[http://truevillains.com/comic-2014-10-17-Two%20Spells-jpg.htm moves]]]]
** He also hits people with the Shield.

* LittleMissBadass- Mia, with her ability to build [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2008-09-08-The%20Cavalry%20Arrives-jpg.htm this.]]

* MadeOfExplodium - What even makes a Fallen Angel Potion explode, though, right?

* MayDecemberRomance- Mia's crush on Bayn, somewhat averted in that though chronologically Bayn is nearly ninety, physically he is about ten.
** Sebastian and Elia are moving in this direction

* MemeticBadass- Pre-HeelFaceTurn, Seabastian was one [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2007-08-30~N-Word%20on%20the%20Street-jpg.htm in-universe]]

* MyNaymeIs- Dexter Pheonix. He even addresses the 'eo' spelling in-comic.
* NaiveNewcomer- In Saga 6, Bayn takes some time while traveling to fill Sebastian in on his past with Xaneth, as well as why Xaneth's shoes are yellow.

* ObliviouslyEvil- Mia, maybe.
* OlderThanTheyLook- And how! On the cast page Elia's age is listed as 87.
** Bayn can also count now. After all, [[spoiler:he was magically transformed into a little kid.]]
** Xaneth is at least as old as Bayn but looks about thirty at most
** [[spoiler: Gray, apparently]]
** So much of the cast is this that Sebastian comments on it--
--->'''Sebastian:''' Man, nobody ages normally anymore. Gotta get in on the immortality game.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent- WordOfGod says that Xaneth is a demon.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent- Gray has been abducted by a group of vampiric beings who are apparently religious zealots (who ironically follow the same god as him)

* ParentalSubstitute- Sebastian to Mia.

** Plus Elia freeing an elven slave girl from her human masters, although, she does use an army of zombies to slaughter an entire mansion full of people to do it, so...
* PowerTrio- All signs point to [[spoiler:Sebastian, Brawn and Olivia]] being one of these.

* ProtectedByAChild- One of the reasons Gray does not just kill Sebastian when they first meet.
* PuppyLove- Mia has a one-sided infatuation with [[spoiler: de-aged Bayn.]]
* QuirkyMinibossSquad- The protagonists

* ScaledUp- The [[spoiler:fake]] Chosen One transforms into a giant snake to fight Sebastian.
* SchmuckBait- Xaneth's entire dungeon, for instance, you need a special key to unlock Xaneth's chamber at the end. He keeps said key in his chamber.
** [[spoiler:The ChosenOne of Nox]] is an inversion, designed to trap smart people instead of dumb ones, [[spoiler:there's a public Chosen One, and a "secret" one. The idea is that people like Xaneth would look too deep and go after the "secret" Chosen One (who is actually an illusion) and miss out the real one]].

* SerialKiller- Elia, but Xaneth keeps her under control most of the time
* SiblingRivalry- [[spoiler:Sebastian's sister, Alyssa, kidnapped him and tried to lay siege to Xaneth's dungeon.]]

* StableTimeLoop- [[spoiler:Dove entered the story through a rift in the time-space continuum with no backstory and an unexplained hatred of Xaneth in Saga 2, finally in Saga 7 we learn that this is due to Bayn and Xaneth pushing him through a portal into the past after stripping him of his new demonic powers]]

* StreetUrchin- Mia, when she lived in Dorn, according to the musical. It holds true in the comic.

* ThePollyanna- Mia, her life has been endless misery and anguish, so much so that she's now immune to all negative emotions. It's actually a little creepy when she wanders into a torture chamber or loots a corpse with a smile on her face. [[spoiler:Even killing Ritania doesn't shake her happy demeanour]]

* TheTeamNormal- Sebastian is the only cast member who doesn't possess some kind of mystical or sorcerous ability, even his strength is just the result of hard (albeit magically assisted) training
* TheUnfettered- After spending five sagas agonising over his moral choices, [[spoiler: Sebastian]] decides to rise AboveGoodAndEvil, devoting himself totally to the thrill of adventure, and his own personal freedom. In his own words, all he cares about is what he ''can do'', not what he ''should'' do

* VillainousValor- Sebastian still has it, much to Xaneth's annoyance, [[spoiler:but he's growing out of it]].
** Augustus is something of an example as well, he acts like a stereotypical swashbuckling hero, but is 100% loyal to Xaneth and the others.

* WickedCultured- In Saga Three Sebastian and Elia infiltrate a formal party, when Sebastian tells her he can't dance she replies, "You're a villain now, learn to dance"
* WingsDoNothing- For the first few books we never saw Xaneth fly or use his wings for anything besides looking damn awesome. Nowadays he barely ever walks.

* [[spoiler:YaoiFangirl]]- Elia, as [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic.php?P=2009-04-31~N-Doki%20Villains.jpg this]] remastered page reveals.
* YourMindMakesItReal- Persistent illusions (like [[spoiler:the fake Chosen One]]) are illusions that have existed for so long that the world acknowledges them as real, meaning, if the illusion kills you, you die in real life.

* [[spoiler:YaoiFangirl]]- Elia, as [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic.php?P=2009-04-31~N-Doki%20Villains.jpg this]] remastered page reveals.

* BulletproofHumanShield- Xaneth uses an innocent bystander in his fight against the Necromancer.

* DisabilitySuperpower- Lurian's Shield is a spell which makes the caster completely impossible to scry, but it has a 95% chance of turning the caster blind, so no-one hardly ever uses it. Since Zach is already blind, he can cast it as much as he likes.

* TokenEvilTeammate- Alistor

** Also [[spoiler:"Carl"]] was just a no-name peasant who [[spoiler:Xaneth used as a human shield against Dove]], and was brought back by [[spoiler:the priests of Nox to protect the ChosenOne]] with magical powers strong enough to hold Sebastian and Elia off]]

* ChosenOne- [[spoiler:There is a chosen one of Nox, the god of fear, a warrior woman]] who Xaneth believes is destined to rise up and fight him. Xaneth being Xaneth, he's taking steps to prevent that.

* HeroesPreferSwords- Alyssa and the Paladin both wield swords in contrast to the protagonists, who use magic, automata, knives and brute force.

* ThePollyanna- Mia, her life has been endless misery and anguish, so much so that she's now immune to all negative emotions. It's actually a little creepy when she wanders into a torture chamber or loots a corpse with a smile on her face

* AnimatedArmor- Amber, in theory anyway, she really doesn't want to let Mia wear her.

** Also [[spoiler:"Carl"]] was just a no-name peasant who [[spoiler:Xaneth used as a human shield against Dove]], and was brought back by [[spoiler:the priests of Nox to protect the ChosenOne]] with magical powers strong enough to hold Sebastian and Elia off.
%%*** Subverted, [[spoiler:turns out he's [[http://truevillains.com/comic-2015-02-18-The%20Unexpected-jpg.htm an illusion]]]]

* ChosenOne- [[spoiler:There is a chosen one of Nox, the god of fear, a ten year old boy]] who Xaneth believes is destined to rise up and fight him. Xaneth being Xaneth, he's taking steps to prevent that.

* TheArchmage- Prophets of the various gods can use magics which been lost and all knowledge of them forgotten, making them extraordinarily powerful. Dexter is one, and the [[spoiler:protector of the ChosenOne]] is another.

%*** Subverted, [[spoiler:turns out he's [[http://truevillains.com/comic-2015-02-18-The%20Unexpected-jpg.htm an illusion]]]]

*** Subverted, [[spoiler:turns out he's [[http://truevillains.com/comic-2015-02-18-The%20Unexpected-jpg.htm an illusion]]]]

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly- There are an infinite amount gods in the TV world, but only five have significant power at any given time because of how many people worship them.

* MasterOfIllusion- The [[spoiler:priests of Nox]], basically everything in their temple isn't really there.

* WingsDoNothing- We have not seen Xaneth fly or use his wings for anything besides looking damn awesome. Until [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2011-08-19-Ironic%20Heritage-jpg.htm now]].

** TheBrute- Tom [[spoiler:after his death, replaced with Amber]]

** TheBrute- Tom