Line #160 ComicBook/Monstress


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monstress_04_1_69.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:This is one of the less elaborate covers.]]
3
4	->''"There's more hunger in the world than love."''
5	-->-- [[TheCynic Maika Halfwolf]]
6
7	''Monstress'' is an ongoing fantasy comic series created by writer Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda, published by Creator/ImageComics since 2015. Winner of five Eisner Awards in 2018.
8
9	Set in a fantasy world modelled after 1900s Asia with magical, {{steampunk}}, and Ancient Egyptian elements, the time is during a truce between the Federation of Man (humans) and the Arcanic Empire ([[SlidingScaleofAnthropomorphism hybrid offspring]] of the beastlike Ancients and humans). But thanks to an order of human [[AmazonBrigade witch-nuns called the Cumaea]], who rule the Federation of Man with manipulation, propaganda, threats, torture, coercion, and a well-placed murder here and there, open conflict increasingly seems inevitable.
10
11	Both sides commit atrocities regularly. The humans take Arcanic slaves. The Cumaea go even further and use Arcanic body parts to make a magical potion called [[AppliedPhlebotinum Lilium]] that can be used to do everything from powering lighting systems to bringing back the dead. The Arcanics, meanwhile, brutally murder any humans who enter their lands, even by accident, and oppress their own lower classes.
12
13	Enter the protagonist, an Arcanic teen named Maika Halfwolf. The only daughter of the formidable Moriko Halfwolf — known, respected and feared by both the Cumaea and the Arcanics — Maika grew up a starving, degraded slave in human territory. Eventually Maika escaped, maturing into a strong, badass young woman [[AntiHero driven by rage at the humans who enslaved her, the Arcanics who abandoned her... pretty much everyone, really]].
14
15	Maika also possesses a deadly secret: [[SymbioticPossession Living in her body]], underneath her skin, is a [[EldritchAbomination Monstrum]].
16
17	Known as the "Old Gods", Monstra are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: terrible monsters, older than even the Ancients, long ago banished to the outer universe by the goddess Ubasti and her children, the sapient, wise but usually eccentric and poetry-crazed cats. Now though, one is living inside her... and it is ''[[HorrorHunger hungry]]''.
18
19	Joining Maika as she searches for answers about her dead mother and her secrets, as well as the ancient StarfishAlien god [[BodyHorror inside her body]], is an eclectic and often strange RagtagBandOfMisfits. There's Kippa, a young [[LittleBitBeastly fox girl]] who is still very much a child despite having definitely seen some horrors in her life; Master Ren, ThePhilosopher EccentricMentor cat with two tails, [[MysteriousBacker questionable motives]], and impossible knowledge; and a few extras who either help or hinder but are lucky to survive in either case.
20
21	A lot of powerful forces are trying to use Maika as a tool for their own goals, including Arcanic political factions, the Cumaea, the Monstra within her, and more.
22
23	But Maika has no wish to be anyone's pawn.
24
25	A SpinOff series bridging the gap between the fifth and sixth arcs called ''Monstress: Talk-Stories'' was published late 2020.
26
27	----
28	!!Tropes:
29
30	* AbsurdlySharpBlade: When Maika finds a group of soldiers cut to neat little pieces, she recognizes that the wounds were made with a weapon called a nightcutter. Since the nightcutter is only used by the Dusk Court, Maika knows that they're getting involved.
31	* TheAce: The Shaman-Empress was the most powerful Arcanic ever. She was also a scientist of the highest caliber and developed technology and magic that Lady Yvette claims "...makes anything we have currently look like the Dark Ages." Unfortunately, the Shaman-Empress took everything with her to the grave and this led to adventurers of all stripes looking for her tomb, among the would-be tomb raiders was a party that included Lady Yvette and Moriko Halfwolf.
32	* ActionGirl: About all the women in the series qualify for this, from Maika herself to the Cumaean witches and even several nameless female extras.
33	* AffablyEvil: Mistress Ilsa. A slave dealer whose specialty is Arcanic children, she is pretty unquestionably a villain. However, she isn't terrible about it. She lies to the children about their fate at the Cumaea compound [[PragmaticVillainy (though that might have been to keep them from struggling)]], she offers Maika her cigarette in a small act of simple kindness, and when Maika is unchained and led into the compound, she wishes her well and asks her to send her best to her daughter, who apparently she doubts she'll ever see again.
34	* AllPowerfulBystander: Maika is disgusted and horrified to realize that for all the Federation's might in psionics and technology powered by Arcanic death, the Ancients are stronger still and simply sit out the war, allowing their Arcanic descendents to perish when they could act.
35	* AllThereInTheManual: Professor Tam Tam's lecture notes at the end of most issues detail historical and cultural aspects of the setting that aren't fully fleshed out in the story proper.
36	* AllianceWithAnAbomination: Maika and Zinn have an uneasy relationship, but are working together because everyone else wants to either use or kill them.
37	* AlliterativeFamily: The last two known generations of the Halfwolf family, Moriko and Maika, mother and daughter.
38	* AloofDarkHairedGirl:
39	** Barring the typical pale skin, Maika fits all the other traits.
40	** Lady Sophia isn't quite aloof, but has the arrogant disdain of other people and DragonLady good looks, but this all changes after getting torched and now then just looked melted. With injections of [[AppliedPhlebotinum refined Lilium]], she's slowly getting to look like her old self, but with [[LockedIntoStrangeness white hair]].
41	* AlternateIdentityAmnesia: The first time [[spoiler:the Monstra takes over Maika]], she has no memory of [[spoiler:''eating'' a ''child'']], and finds out from a terrified Kippa after waking up in the back of Emilia's wagon. To be fair, [[spoiler:the Monstrum]] is implied to have been mostly unconscious at the time as well. Later "attacks" are conscious for both parties.
42	* AltarDiplomacy: The Baroness of the Last Dusk arranges to marry the Sword of the East (Maika's aunt) on the grounds that she doesn't trust her further than she can throw her and she needs an actual guarantee to secure the alliance between Dusk and Dawn courts.
43	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Averted. No matter how evil a race or order seems to be, an exception is always revealed. Emilia is a human who risks her life to help Maika and Kippa get back to Arcanic territory, [[spoiler:Lady Atena]] is a kind Cumaea member, the Monkey King appears so far to be an unselfish Ancient, and [[spoiler:Rezak]] is one of two characters so far introduced aligned entirely with Good, defying the trope of the brutal Arcanic. Even [[spoiler:the Monstra]] isn't so bad.
44	* AnArmAndALeg: One of the comic's most consistent themes:
45	** Maika is missing her left forearm when introduced, neatly amputated at the elbow. Revenge for her missing arm is explicitly stated as one trigger for her RoaringRampageOfRevenge. [[spoiler:She later loses the rest of that arm all the way to the shoulder.]]
46	** The Cumaea make Lilium from the bones of Arcanics by harvesting their limbs a little bit at a time to minimize waste, which means their cells are full of dismembered Arcanic prisoners.
47	** Maika rips an arm off Inquisitrix Flay and mooks just end up in pieces more often than not.
48	** Maika later [[LampshadedTrope lampshades]] [[spoiler:her second amputation]] with "There won't be anything left of me if I keep paying what it takes to survive."
49	* AncientAstronauts: [[spoiler: The Old Gods were actually refugees from another planet, as revealed in Issue #37.]]
50	* AndIMustScream: The souls trapped on the Isle of Bones.
51	* AngstNuke: Well, [[spoiler:"Angst Monstra Release", but when Maika gets angry ([[RevengeBeforeReason more angry than usual]], anyway), the Monstrum tends to act up.]]
52	* {{Animesque}}: The art style is done by a Japanese artist so it would make sense for the series to resemble {{anime}} and {{manga}}. It leans far more on Western comics than on typical manga, though, with the only explicitly manga-like artistic elements being big eyes on younger characters and how Professor Tam Tam and company are depicted--the whole series otherwise uses a pretty realistic art style.
53	* AntiHumanAlliance: Made more out of necessity to protect ''themselves'' from the Federation of Man, but the Ancients accept the Arcanics as full members of their nations, and have allied with the Cats, while all of these are persecuted and reviled in Federation lands. Notably, in the recent history of the setting, while national tensions have been tight, there have been relatively high levels of tolerance of Arcanics in human lands and vice-versa.
54	* AppliedPhlebotinum: Lilium. A magical substance harvested from the bodies of Arcanics (or Ancients, if the Cumaea are lucky enough to catch and kill one). It can augment human psionics, allow them to use Arcanic magic, and can be used as a [[HealingPotion healing serum]] up to even resurrecting the dead, though it has the side effect of leaving those it heals [[LockedIntoStrangeness with white hair]].
55	* ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge: The Arcanics overwhelmingly prefer using swords, spears, and bows in a steampunk world (though some do carry steampunk guns). Could be justified as some of these archaic weapons are magical and a number of the Arcanics are primitive. The Cumaea witches also favor using knives, swords, and other archaic weapons.
56	* AristocratsAreEvil: The Arcanics are organized in a very hierarchical society, and the lower classes are heavily discriminated against — it's even stated that the higher-ups don't much care about "peasants" who are captured by the Cumaea, except to the degree that it makes the witch-nuns stronger by their Lilium.
57	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Combined with ArmorPiercingResponse in Issue #33. When the Baroness demands to know why Corvin hasn't killed Maika, he counters by pointing out that [[spoiler: Tuya]] has had ''years'' to do that herself, and so throws the question back in her face.
58	* ArtifactOfDoom: The famed mask of the Shaman Empress, recovered by Moriko Halfwolf from the tomb she was exploring in Maika's childhood. It has the power to summon or kill [[EldritchAbomination the Old Gods]].
59	* ArtificialLimbs:
60	** Maika is shown wearing a {{magitek}} wooden arm in flashbacks, though she apparently left it behind when she reentered human territory. In Issue #21, [[spoiler:her father]] gives her a new high-tech mechanical replacement.
61	** Such mechanical limbs are actually quite common, it seems, as both humans and Arcanics are seen with them. Maika's is still specifically noted as being especially advanced and perfectly integrated with the existing nerves at her shoulder, though.
62	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: At the siege of Ravenna, Maika takes command of the defending forces by killing any soldiers who disagree with her.
63	* AwfulTruth: In Issue #37, we learn what actually happened to Maika's mother. [[spoiler: Her life was drained by Maika the very first time Zinn awoke in her.]]
64	* BadassBookworm: Several of the Cumaea scientists, notably Lady Atena and Lady Sophia. Moriko herself was also an academic.
65	* BadassFamily: The Half-Wolf family of Moriko, Maika, the Sword of the East and the Queen of the Wolves [[spoiler: plus the Shaman-Empress who'd be a half-sister to Moriko and the Sword of the East]]. Zinn himself links to the Half-Wolf family and created a descendant branch tied through the Shaman-Empress.
66	* BarbarianTribe: The stereotype of the Arcanics. So far, except for the royal courts, much of Arcanic society seems to be based on Central Asian tribes, so you could make a case that it's partially true.
67	* BarbieDollAnatomy: The very first panel is Maika being sold as a slave. She's completely naked, with a collar around her neck and the slavemaster's whip threateningly lifting her chin up, but her nipples are either noticeably absent or small enough to be concealed by some fairly scanty GodivaHair. Whether that's the art, the audience, or an actual lack of SecondarySexualCharacteristics is not clear; other nude scenes where the "naughty bits" should be visible also have them conspicuously absent, though often with similar justification to Maika's introductory scene. Averted in the scene with the Arcanic female sumo wrestlers fighting in the tent.
68	* BarefootCaptives: Arcanic slaves of the Federation of Man are kept barefoot. Also a case of BarefootPoverty.
69	* BazaarOfTheBizarre: According to Professor Tam Tam, Zamora used to be this — a trading post between the Federation of Man and the Arcanic Empire, where all sorts of oddities and valuables, including stories and friendships, were exchanged. It's now a no-man's-land city on the edge of the truce lands, whose inhabitants are tough from constant war and always prepared for an attack from either the Cumaea or the Arcanics.
70	* BigBadFriend:
71	** [[spoiler:Tuya, the person Maika loves most in the world, is directing the Dusk Court's efforts to capture and kill her.]]
72	** [[spoiler:Ren is spying on Maika for his superiors, who know more about the Monstra than they're letting on. When they decide to abduct Kippa because she has seen it and ''hears'' it, however, he turns on them.]]
73	* BlatantLies: The Cumaean Mother Superior does not allow truth to stand in her way. [[spoiler:"Flay (the Inquisitrix) succumbed... I can only surmise her death was a delayed reaction from exposure to demonic, infernal energies."]]
74	* BlessedWithSuck: The Old Gods drain life-force at a touch, and this can't be turned off.
75	* BloodOath: Arcanic weddings involve having the participants cutting themselves and bleeding into a cup, mixing both samples, and then each taking a drink from it, symbolically becoming one.
76	* BluebirdOfHappiness: A small songbird briefly lands on the Cumaean Mother Superior's finger before she ruthlessly [[KickTheDog crushes]] [[SubvertedTrope it]].
77	* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:Maika has a monster-god living ''inside her body'', which usually shows itself in the form of ''tentacles bursting out of the stump of her severed arm''. The Mother Superior is possessed by another monster-god and she has [[ExtraEyes three]] enormous eyes that she hides under her mask.]]
78	* BreatherEpisode: The two-issue miniseries ''Talk-Stories'' is set right after a city siege. Maika and Kippa share their happiest memories, long before they ended up in the slave camp where they meet. Of course this being ''Monstress'', [[CrapsackWorld it highlights just how horrible their lives have gotten]].
79	* BrownNote: The opening of a breach to the Monstra's realm, such as happened at Constantine in the backstory [[spoiler:and Pontus in Issue #18]] drives Arcanics who witness it insane.
80	* BrutalHonesty: The Sword of the East will not hesitate to tell her Ancient superiors like the Queen of Wolves that they've grown feeble to the point of almost being mortal and that the only way the Ancients survived this long is through thousands of their hybrid children being used as cannon fodder.
81	* BullyingADragon: An octopus Arcanic pirate insults Maika by suggesting she's really human, so she rips off one of his tentacles with her bare hand.
82	* BurnTheWitch: As a way to anger her, Maika tells Lady Sophia that the devastation of Constantine happened when the Arcanics burnt five witches at the stake. While what happened in Constantine was caused by something else, there may be some truth to Arcanics burning witches, because Sophia took the bait.
83	* CastFromHitPoints: Maika thought that [[spoiler:giving the Monstrum its true name]] would allow her to use it at no cost. She was wrong. Controlling [[spoiler:the Monstrum]] exacts a price. Each time Maika takes control, her flesh and bone are consumed by it. [[spoiler:Using it twice meant losing everything up to her elbow and then her whole arm.]] Otherwise, the trade-off is [[spoiler: consuming other living, sentient beings. Maika is ''not'' okay with having to (metaphorically) eat people as a result of this]].
84	* CatsAreMagic: The Nekomancers.
85	* ChildrenForcedToKill: Several Arcanic children, including Maika herself (who is only 17 when the series starts and much younger in often-violent flashbacks) have to kill to survive throughout the series.
86	* ClusterFBomb: The Border Warden of Pontus when telling off the Blood Queens.
87	-->''You are in violation of the First Treaty of Fair Waters, Stipulation 5, Section 2. Specifically, and I quote: "Do not cross the fucking border without the fucking permission of the fucking Pontus government." Which you do not fucking have.''
88	* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: In the third issue, Kippa draws attention away from the friendly human woman Emilia just before the Cumaea can kill her baby for harboring Arcanics. Master Ren draws attention away from Kippa, but the Cumaea surrounds them both. Kippa is backed up against a tree, surrounded by Cumaea {{mooks}}. She fights back but is no match for them. Then suddenly, one of the Cumaea's unicorn steeds comes running at them, bleeding, in pain, and frenzied, and it soon becomes clear that someone ''tore off its horn''. Cue the Cumaea EliteMook being gored through the neck [[BigDamnHeroes by the horn Maika ripped from the unicorn's forehead and threw like a javelin]].
89	* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: The Cumaea novices, who complain about the ickiness of processing vivisected and dismembered children in their lab classes but express no moral qualms about it.
90	* TheConspiracy: The Cumaea leadership [[spoiler:who are all possessed by Monstra]] are seeking to take over the Federation and start an unprovoked war with the Arcanics.
91	* CoolAirship: The gigantic Zeppelin.
92	* CorruptChurch: What the Cumaea have become; they were originally just an insignificant religious organization that worshipped Marium, the psychic scientist who discovered Lilium and developed the applications for it. Professor Tam Tam claims that, if she were alive today, the science-oriented Marium would scoff at the Cumaea.
93	* CultureChopSuey: The different societies in this world are mostly based on the writers' Asian roots, but while many elements of our Asia are obvious, different Asian and a few Western cultures have been thrown together to create each society.
94	* CruelToBeKind: Moriko once strangled Maika with a scarf; the reason was to teach her how to kill in preparation for the hard life she would be forced to endure.
95	* CrystalDragonJesus: According to Professor Tam Tam's lectures, Marium, the witch and scientist who inspired the Cumaea, would have disdained being treated as a religious figure as she is now. Nevertheless, her name was ''Mari''um, she was from a region named Galilea, and she had thirteen apostles who founded the Cumaea after her death. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything
96	* DarkFantasy: Marjorie Liu used elements of events that happened to her paternal grandparents in WWII China and mixed it in with Asian fantasy along with a touch of CosmicHorror and steampunk to create this dark fantasy tale. Sana Takeda's visuals reinforce the impression.
97	* DeadlyDoctor: The people whom [[spoiler:Master Ren]] reports to have an agent known only as "the Doctor", who is apparently an interrogation expert and TheDreaded among the other agents. [[spoiler:In actuality, the Doctor isn't an agent but their leader — Maika's father.]]
98	* DeadpanSnarker: Master Ren qualifies as this. Maika also has her moments.
99	* DecadentCourt: The vast majority of the Ancients — and quite a few of the Arcanic nobility — form this.
100	* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest[=/=]ParentalAbandonment: The fate of Maika's formidable mother Moriko was a mystery for a long time, appearing only in visions, memories, and remarks from enemies and allies alike on the assumption that she's dead. As it turns out, [[spoiler: she was Maika's first "victim" after she became halfway possessed by the Monstrum known as Zinn, being consumed by her own young daughter shortly after that happened]].
101	* DefectorFromDecadence: A villainous version of this. Lady Sophia and her mother, Lady Yvette, were actually renegades from the Cumaea. The Cumaea had forgotten their scientific roots and became almost purely religious, so Sophia and Yvette struck out on their own to do their own research into Lilium, the Old Gods, and the mask.
102	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Maika and Zinn combine the power of two of the mask fragments to utterly obliterate a Monstrum that's entering reality through a dimensional tear over Pontus.]]
103	* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: [[spoiler:The Monstra inside Maika appears to have been once in a relationship with an Arcanic. It later turns out that the Arcanic was the Shaman-Empress and that a resulting lineage descended from that. In a bit of a twist on how this normally happens, the vaguely-male Zinn was the "mother" in this process.]]
104	* DismantledMacGuffin: Key to the MythArc is a mask, split into five scattered pieces. Wearing any of the pieces allows for the wearer to commune with the Monstra sealed outside reality [[spoiler:and either unleash or kill them]].
105	* DoesNotLikeMagic: Most humans. Even the ones who aren't actively against magical beings such as the Arcanics are wary around them.
106	* DraconicAbomination: The Border Wardens at Pontus, as well as the Dracul living in the tomb of Bahru. Neither are really malevolent, however.
107	* DramaticIrony: The readers are let in on [[spoiler: Tuya]]'s status as a baroness of the Dusk Court relatively early, something that Maika is unaware of, [[spoiler: or at least she appears to be--she reveals to Tuya herself that she'd known for a long time before seeing her against after years apart from each other]].
108	* DrawAggro: Little ''Kippa'', of all people, does this when she realizes that the Cumaea are threatening to kill Emilia's baby. She breaks off a thorny branch and beats the Cumaea's horses (unicorns, actually) so that they run and the Cumaea have to run after them. Master Ren does it later in the same scene, attacking a Cumaea {{mook}} to give Kippa time to run as the Cumaea come back.
109	* TheDreaded: Professor Tam-Tam speculates that the Wave Court are this to the Dawn and Dusk Courts, and that this is why there's so little interaction between them.
110	* EldritchAbomination: The Old Gods are a race of giant, many-eyed, dark-skinned monstrous beings who are exiled from another dimension; the Old God inhabiting Maika's body in particular frequently appears as a mass of black tentacles with some eyes floating in it. They all drain life-force at a touch and have great supernatural power even in death. The one god that died, an island spontaneously formed from his/her bones as did undead guardians to defend it.
111	* ElectricTorture: Prisoners are electrocuted via the chain around their neck.
112	* EmotionSuppression: To deal with her life, Maika appears to experience no emotions besides hunger and rage. It's unclear — even to her — whether her other emotions are gone or just suppressed.
113	* EnemyMine: Moriko Halfwolf, an Arcanic aristocrat, was more than willing to join forces with Cumaean researcher Lady Yvette[[spoiler:, the Mother Superior]] to look for the Shaman-Empress' tomb. It helped that hostilities between the races were lower then. Then all bets were off when they found the mask, instead of the tomb.
114	* EnemyWithin:
115	** [[spoiler:Maika's Monstrum, Zinn. Apparently it's been inside the bodies of her ancestors from her father all the way back to the Shaman-Empress, but it was sleeping until now.]]
116	** [[spoiler: The Baroness of the Last Dusk isn't just a title, it's [[MindHive a collective of the minds and spirits]] of each of its host bodies, which is incarnated from one body to another over the centuries. Tuya, the current host, very much doesn't want to be subsumed by it.]]
117	* EnergyBeings: In one lecture, Professor Tam-Tam mentions legends that the first Ancients were this.
118	* EnforcedColdWar: Ever since the event at Constantine, which saw 146,000 Arcanics and humans killed in a single blast, both sides have established a hostile peace with each other. The Human Federation lost almost all of its Cumaean witches in the blast, leaving only novices and a small number of elites. Without the Cumaeans, the Federation fear Arcanics would steamroll them. Meanwhile, the Arcanics are trying to build up their forces and discover the cause of the blast. The Sword of the East fears that the humans still have the means to dominate the battlefield, while the Ancients and the noble court have grown too indolent to adequately wage a war. And then Maika destroys the peace treaty with her destruction of a Cumaean compound...
119	* EngineeredHeroics: [[spoiler: The Lord Doctor has Yvette give the Federation forces besieging Ravenna some of his HatePlague gas, which gives them an opening to take the city. Then he has his Blood Court forces sweep in to chase off the humans and save the day.]]
120	* EverybodyKnewAlready: As Issue #32 reveals, [[spoiler: Maika deduced that Tuya was the Baroness long before walking in on her in bed with the Warlord]].
121	* EveryoneHasStandards:
122	** Maika is a vindictive pragmatist who has no problem mutilating or killing people to get her way, but she won't hurt children. Also, having once nearly been lynched by a mob for being Arcanic, she states she wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone, even humans.
123	** Yafaela, one of the bounty hunters sent to [[spoiler:abduct Kippa]], states that while she's low, she hates slavery.
124	* EvilSlinks: Some of the Cumaea move with disturbing elegance.
125	* [[EvilUncle Evil Aunt]]: The Sword of the East is this to Maika, even before she knew she had a niece. Before her death, Moriko warns Maika never to trust or go to the Sword of the East for help.
126	* EyepatchOfPower: Tanno, the badass cat general introduced in Issue #5, has an eyepatch.
127	* EyeScream:
128	** A poked out eye in Issue #6.
129	** Issue #19 reveals that Corvin wears a half-mask because the left side of his face, including that eye, were destroyed at Constantine.
130	* EyesDoNotBelongThere: The Monstra. It seems to be a characteristic of their species.
131	* FacialHorror:
132	** When forcibly removing the two mask fragments that Gull is wearing, Maika tears her entire face off in the process.
133	** While we haven't seen the damages yet, Hammer's face was apparently ravaged by the Constantine blast, hence why she's mute and always wears a veil.
134	* FamilyOfChoice: Maika, Kippa, and Master Ren are starting to develop into this, though in the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism dark]] [[SubvertedTrope subversion-heavy]] [[CrapsackWorld setting]], it's unclear how they will turn out.
135	* FamilyMan: Seizi Imura, Maika's goddessfather, is a brutal former pirate and rules his trade empire with an iron fist. His love for Maika and his brother is his sole redeeming feature — he wants Maika to inherit his empire one day when she's done rampaging.
136	* FalseFlagOperation: At the end of Issue #24, [[spoiler:the Lord Doctor destroys the holy city of Aurum with an infernal energy bomb]]. The Federation naturally blames the Arcanics for this, destroying the fragile peace and kickstarting the long-looming war.
137	* FamousAncestor:
138	** Moriko Halfwolf, Maika's mother, is both known and feared on both sides of the trucelands. Made especially interesting by the fact that both the Arcanics and the Cumaea (who are ''deadly enemies'', just back from war) refer to her as a sort of TokenEvilTeammate, making you wonder what Ms. Halfwolf [[TheMole has been up to]]. Especially when Lady Yvette, whom Maika knew in happier times and blames for the loss of her arm, tells Maika "your mother betrayed you worse than I ever did."
139	** Known to few, but Maika is the granddaughter of the Queen of Wolves, who is the most powerful Ancient alive.
140	** The other side of Maika's family turns out to be [[spoiler:descended from the Shaman-Empress]].
141	* FantasticDrug: Dreamtar is a fantasy analog to opium and it causes feelings of euphoria and seeing visions. Unfortunately, Arcanics are easily hooked on it. Because it was the cats that introduced the plant that is the main ingredient for Dream Tar, many Arcanics hate cats, believing the cats had done so to purposely hook them on the drug. However, it has no narcotic effect on cats themselves; they only cultivated the plant for its pretty flowers.
142	* FantasticNuke: [[spoiler:The Lord Doctor creates a bomb fueled by infernal energies drained from a captive Monstrum, which upon detonation devastates a city and even has a mushroom cloud.]]
143	* FantasticMedicinalBodilyProduct: The Cumaean witch-nuns harvest [[AppliedPhlebotinum Lillium]] from the bones of Arcanics, a holdover from their ancestry with the magical Ancients. Lillium enhances Cumaean's psychic powers, has many healing effects, and its applied use allows for magic constructions. A modified serum even brought one character back from the dead.
144	* FantasticRacism: Loads and loads of it. Heck, it drives the entire conflict of the series! The humans hate the Arcanics, the Arcanics hate the humans, both of them resent the Ancients, the Ancients often resent them both and the cats, everyone distrusts the cats, the cats hate the Old Gods, and the Old Gods hate everybody. There's even racism between the Arcanics, as human-appearing Arcanics like Maika are seen as being borderline humans by some of the more animalistic Arcanics and treated with disdain (animalistic traits are seen as gifts from the goddess by the Arcanics).
145	* TheFerryman: An skeletal [[EldritchAbomination eldritch]] version takes people to and from the Isle of Bones.
146	* FictionalCounterpart: The in-universe Ubasti Coffee has a sign that resembles the Starbucks logo.
147	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Kippa is shown to be able to understand Zinn, something only Maika is able to. Issue #19's opening flashback suggests this is because of a blessing given to her as an infant by a mysterious Ancient.
148	* FurryConfusion: There are both non-sapient cats kept as pets by humans, and [[TalkingAnimal sapient]] cats with multiple tails and special talents with magic. [[spoiler: Turns out to be a subversion, the pet cats were [[{{Lobotomy}} lobotomized]] by the Federation.]]
149	* FusionDance: In Issue #34, [[spoiler: Maika and Zinn use the mask fragments to merge into a combined form]].
150	* GambitPileup: This series has numerous factions, and factions within factions, all scheming and plotting against each other, with Maika stuck in the middle and determined to find her own way.
151	* GaslampFantasy: On the one hand you have airships and clockwork prosthetics, on the other you have animal-people with magical abilities.
152	* GiganticMoon: Shown in the background after Maika killed all the wolves.
153	* GodInHumanForm: Well, Arcanic form, but [[spoiler:Yimh Nem]] turns out to be an Ancient disguised as an Arcanic.
154	* HalfHumanHybrid: Professor Tam Tam mentions that some academics argue that the Arcanics shouldn't be classified as a separate race as they're really just a hybrid of Ancient and humans. The first Arcanic happened when an Ancient female became pregnant from the human she was dallying with and gave birth to what appeared to be a full human. This girl would be the Shaman-Empress, and shortly after her birth many Ancients found themselves with half-human children.
155	* HandicappedBadass:
156	** Maika's missing arm really does hinder her, during a fight she has to bash someone in the face with her stump. It's only because of surprise and her own inhuman strength that the attack was enough to knock her opponent over. The lack of an arm also limits how much she can carry, so she needed to recruit Kippa as a personal carrier. [[spoiler:She gets a prosthetic arm later into the story courtesy of her father.]]
157	** On the villainous side, whatever happened at Constantine did a number on Hammer. She's always wearing a veil over her face and has been rendered mute, needing to use sign language to communicate with her fellow Inquisitrixes.
158	* HatePlague: [[spoiler: The Blood Court eventually develop a chemical means of duplicating the BrownNote effect of the Monstrum, which has this effect on Arcanics.]]
159	* HaveWeMetYet: [[spoiler:Maika has a vision of the Shaman-Empress, who speaks of having met an older version of Maika at some point.]]
160	* {{Hermaphrodite}}: The Old Gods are all male and female at once, and refer to each other as "sister-brother".
161	* HiddenDepths: Kippa is one of the few who can hear the Monstrum, which implies she's either Arcanic nobility or possibly even the child of an Ancient.
162	* HomosexualReproduction: Implied when the Baroness Tuya warns her wife, The Sword of the East, against getting too frisky as it's both their "Lunars" and getting pregnant during the war would be inconvenient for either of them. Whether this is just how it always was in this universe or if that's unique to Arcanics is unclear.
163	* HorrorHunger: The Monstrum will consume anything (or ''anyone'') given an opportunity. Suppressing this hunger only makes it harder to control when it gets out of hand. [[spoiler:Over the course of the story Maika manages to wrest enough control over her Monstrum to limit its eating to people she's willing to do without.]] Maika's own horror hunger (she's shown killing and eating a hyena with her bare hand in one of her first scenes) likely stems from this source.
164	* HumanityIsInfectious: For thousands of years, Ancients had been having sex with humans and there had never been any resulting children. However, all that contact with humanity had been reducing the differences between humans and Ancients until a baby boom of Arcanic hybrids happened. Also, being with humans so often may be leading to the Ancients becoming weaker. The Sword of the East tells the Queen of Wolves that the Ancients have been losing power for 1000 years and are almost mortal now.
165	** Living with the half-human Shaman-Empress led to the Monstrum, Zinn to turn from what looked like the head of a mop but made with black tentacles to its current favoured form of appearing as a [[HumanoidAbomination humanoid made of tentacles]].
166	* HumansAreWhite: Averted, the palest humans or human-like individuals are a light brown or dark yellow. After that, there are many people with much darker skins.
167	* IAmAHumanitarian: People who are possessed by the Monstra have an appetite for sentient meat.
168	* IAteWhat: During a meal between Maika and her father, the Doctor, Maika realizes something about the taste of her stew and goes to the kitchen to find out. After a round of vomiting, Maika chases after her father with a carving knife. Because inside the stew pot was a human hand and other bits.
169	* IGaveMyWord: Ren continues to follow Maika knowing full well she doesn't trust him even before she finds out about his divided loyalties because he promised Tuya he would keep her safe.
170	* ItGetsEasier: By Issue #26, Maika has gotten so desensitized to the HorrorHunger that comes with being Zinn's host that while she's horrified at having to feed on people, she doesn't get full of suicidal self-loathing over it anymore.
171	* IKnowYourTrueName: [[spoiler:Maika's method of control over her Monster. But it has its limits, she thought it would prevent Zinn from devouring more of her body when she summoned it. It didn't]].
172	* InterserviceRivalry: The Federation Navy and the Federation Army despise one another to the point that when war reignites the Federation Navy immediately begins leaking exact troop deployment information to the Arcanics. The Navy also appears to have taken the Cumaea's purges of Arcanic personnel ''much worse'' than the Army did, such that it's in question if they'll join the fight-or even outright defect to the Arcanics.
173	* ImmortalRuler: The Ancients might be losing their power, but they are still ageless and run the Arcanic Empire.
174	* ImNotAfraidOfYou: Maika says this a lot. [[spoiler:Especially to the Monstrum, as she's first finding out what it is. She repeatedly threatens to "cut it out" if it acts up. She even draws blood (her own) to make her point before Master Ren stops her. Of course, she's crying helplessly while she says it, and she's clearly terrified of the Monstra, so it comes across as more bravado than anything. Still, it wins the grudging respect of the Monstrum.]] Most of the people she says it to wind up dead.
175	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Maika is caught in a bomb blast and, standing near a window, she gets impaled in many areas of her body with large pieces of glass.
176	* InternalReveal: In Issue #32, the Warlord finally finds out [[spoiler: that Tuya knows Maika and about what happened at Constantine]].
177	* InterrogatingTheDead: The Sword of the East has six children who survived Constantine killed so her Nekomancers can compel their ghosts to tell her exactly what happened there.
178	* InterspeciesRomance: Arcanics can trace their existence to relationships between humans and Ancient basically impossible today. [[spoiler:It also turns out the Shaman-Empress controlled Zinn not because she had the techno-magical might to order Monstra around, but because they were lovers... at least, that’s how Zinn remembers it.]]
179	%%* IsThatTheBestYouCanDo
180	* KillerRabbit: The Monkey King looks like a cute toy monkey with a heart-shaped design on his face, but he's still a powerful Ancient and he's going to have six Arcanic children tortured or killed to get the information he wants.
181	* KryptoniteFactor: Lilium in high concentrations will cause Arcanics to be paralyzed with agony. Lady Yvette tries to use this to her advantage — however, Maika is nearly immune because of the god inside her.
182	* LadyLand: WordOfGod says that ''Monstress''[='=] world is influenced by the matriarchal culture of ancient China; the Cumaea, who basically rule humankind, are all women, while the Arcanic Empire is more egalitarian, but still has an awful lot of women in the leading roles.
183	** In [[https://www.guernicamag.com/making-a-monstress/ Guernica magazine]], Liu mentions she wished to flip the switch on the SmurfettePrinciple and make a world where there are 5 women for every man with [[HandWave no explanations required]].
184	* LanternJawOfJustice: [[spoiler:Rezak.]]
185	* LaserGuidedAmnesia:
186	** After escaping the Isle of Bones, Kippa and Ren forget everything that happened there. Maika, however, retains her memories, possibly due to the Monstrum.
187	** Zinn is missing large chunks of his memory. The Lord Doctor claims that this is because he's deliberately repressed those memories so that he doesn't have to remember [[spoiler:betraying and killing the Shaman-Empress]].
188	* LightningGun: The weapons technology of this world has reached a point where some of the guards carry rifles that shoot lightning.
189	* LickedByTheDog: Kippa voluntarily follows Maika when she breaks out of the Cumaea slave prison because Maika's "good at killing people" and would therefore make a good protector. Even after Maika frightens Kippa [[spoiler:by eating another rescued Arcanic child in a fit of HorrorHunger]] Kippa seems to instinctively know that Maika cares for her, and sticks by her even in dangerous situations. (Although it doesn't stop her from temporarily running away when she knows her life is in danger from the Monstrum.) After Kippa learns that it was the Monstra that forced Maika to eat the child she's willing to give Maika credit for trying to do the right thing. Maika is surprised by this, but it ultimately wins her over.
190	* LittleBitBeastly: Most Arcanics — excluding Maika, Moriko, and Tuya, who are the only Arcanic thus far seen who have a fully human appearance — have horns, animal ears, wings, or some other animal-like trait, but are mostly humanoid. This is in contrast to the Ancients, who range from looking like talking animals to simply having animal heads.
191	* LongLostRelative: The Sword of the East, Warlord of the Arcanic Empire, is a female Arcanic determinator with scarred but familiar and entirely human facial features. She's reminded that there's still hope of her being reunited with her long-lost sister. No points for guessing who that might be. [[spoiler:She's later revealed to be Maika's aunt. And it turns out she had no idea that Moriko had a daughter.]]
192	* LoomingSilhouetteOfRage: In one of the alternate covers, Maika gets one of these — with her eyes glowing, no less.
193	* LostTechnology: The Ancients of old and the Shaman-Empress could create amazing technology, which includes stasis chambers, robots, and memory-recording devices. According to the Lord Doctor ([[spoiler:Maika's father]]), they could even travel the stars and manipulate time. One of his professed goals is to build a world where such technology can be recreated.
194	* LovecraftianSuperpower: Anyone possessed by a Monstrum, like [[spoiler:Maika and the Mother Superior]], can sprout CombatTentacles which are capable of devouring things.
195	* MadeASlave: This is the fate of many Arcanics. In the beginning of the series, Maika is made a slave for a second time. She was going up for auction, likely to be a SexSlave but instead is taken by Lady Sophia to be a lab animal. [[spoiler:This second enslavement is actually a BatmanGambit to get her inside the Cumaean defences.]]
196	* MadeOfIron: Lady Sophia takes direct hits from Maika's flamethrower twice in an attempt to KillItWithFire. Maika then impales her with the flamethrower's bayonet, and Sophia still survives. It turns out many of the Cumaea are almost as tough — apparently lilium is powerful stuff. Maika herself can take a beating and get back up.
197	* MagicalEye: Issue #19 reveals that Kippa has the ability to, seemingly, see people's true selves.
198	* MagicalGesture: All the time. A particularly memorable one is when [[spoiler:the Cumaea Mother Superior mysteriously drains an Inquisitrix of life force in a way suspiciously similar to Maika's]].
199	* TheMagicVersusTechnologyWar: Averted, while there are primitive Arcanic tribes, the Arcanics do use technology that is on par with the humans and were stated to have far better tech in the days of the Shaman-Empress. The Sword of the East is also building a fleet of the largest category of combat airship to battle the humans. As for the Human Federation, even in the earliest days they had psionics and will happily acquire any magical artifact they can use.
200	* MayflyDecemberRomance: How Arcanics came about. According to Professor Tam Tam, Ancients just can't resist human "company".
201	* TheMole: [[spoiler:Lady Atena of the Cumaea is passing reports to the Prime Minister of the Human Federation, who is eager to try and end the witch-nuns' influence on her country. And Rezak, the Arcanic slave at her compound, is actually Atena's half-brother.]]
202	* MoralityPet: Kippa will prick the conscience of the brutal Maika… and the pragmatic Master Ren.
203	* MultipleTailedBeast: Most cats have at least two tails, being based on Nekomata. Some Ancients and their Arcanic progeny have multiple tails as well, the Wolf Queen has nine and her daughter the Sword of the East has three.
204	* MysteriousParent: See FamousAncestor. Moriko Halfwolf may or may not be dead, but it's a bit hard to believe she can be, once you hear the way people talk about her.
205	* {{Mythopoeia}}: This comic has developed a world mythology starting with cats being possibly the first sapient race (some legends say there was an earlier extinct race) in the world and were created by the Goddess. Next came the Ancients, beings of light from another world before they took [[BeastMan animalistic humanoid form]]. From the seas, were the sirens and also emerging out of the waters was humanity. Millenniums of humans living under Ancient rule resulted in the birth of the Arcanics. Leading to the Shaman-Empress who opened a way to an exiled group of incredibly powerful entities known as the Monstra or Old Gods.
206	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
207	** All of the Inquisitrixes use NomDeGuerre like "Flay", "Hammer", and other decidedly bloodthirsty references.
208	** Also the Lord of Carrion, the only god that died (though the Lord can still exert influence in the world and may resurrect).
209	* NatureTinkling: In the fifth issue, Maika squats to piss on the ground, Master Ren chiding her for not going behind a bush for the sake of decency.
210	* {{Necromancer}}: Cats are the necro... er… nekomancers of this world. They have the power to hold a spirit from going to the afterlife and compelling it to talk. The Sword of the East had several children killed and their ghosts interrogated. Doing so, she discovers that her sister had a daughter, Maika and that it was Maika that killed over 140,000 at Constantine.
211	* NGOSuperpower: [[spoiler:Maika's father leads an organization called the Blood Court, which refutes the rule of the Dawn and Dusk courts and contains the forces of many of the world's most powerful warlords.]]
212	* NiceGuy: Rarest of rare in ''Monstress''[='=] world, but there is one: [[spoiler:Rezak]]. He risks his life to save an Arcanic child, is friends with a high-up Cumaea member, and when Maika is pushed into him by a Cumaea after being bought, his first instinct is to hug her. Whether he'll remain nice in this CrapsackWorld remains to be seen, but he's doing a pretty good job of it so far.
213	* NighInvulnerable: The Ancients are nearly impossible to kill. Usually the best one can accomplish is hurting them enough to put them in a death-like coma while they heal.
214	* NobodyPoops: Averted. To mess with Corvin the Arcanic Lord, Maika squats to take a piss right in front of him, leading Master Ren to chide her for not using a nearby bush. After that, she takes a scarf from a dead soldier and wipes herself with it.
215	* NoodleIncident: Constantine. All that anyone knows is someone or something set off a FantasticNuke that killed more than 140,000 people. Maika and seven other Arcanic children were the only unwounded survivors; survivors whom the Ancients are perfectly willing to sacrifice hoping to learn what happened because human fear that the Arcanics were responsible is the only thing holding the tenuous peace. While the Arcanics are doing their best to stoke that fear, they have no more idea what happened than the humans do. [[spoiler:It is later revealed to be due to Zinn appearing due to Maika and devouring almost everyone there, including part of Maika's left arm, with only Tuya and several other children knowing about it and swearing not to tell anyone what happened, including Maika herself.]]
216	* NotQuiteDead: In Issue #35, after learning just how hard it is to kill an Ancient, Maika realizes that [[spoiler: the Blood Fox]] probably survived her attempt to kill him back in Issue #12.
217	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: When the Dusk Court elite forces turn on Maika and ambush her, she whips out her assault rifle. In the next scene, you see Maika unconscious inside a high-tech sarcophagus and Tanno saying that she killed some of his finest soldiers.
218	* OhCrap: Maika, when she realizes that [[spoiler: the Queen of Wolves has been infected with the Blood Court's HatePlague.]]
219	* OneWordTitle: Monstress.
220	* OnlyMostlyDead: Everyone, including Maika, believe the Old Gods are dead thanks to the Shaman-Empress. However, the Monstrum reveals that only one god has ever died and that its bones and flesh became very valuable commodities.
221	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The Dracul are based on Asiatic dragons or ''lung'', but also have the multiple eyes and shadowy coloring of a Monstrum a.k. Old Gods. In fact, a Dracul encountered by Kippa tells her that the Dracul are distantly related to the "Old Gods" but are singers to the stars rather than exiles like the Old Gods.
222	* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: The Federation of Man. Apparently it used to be an actual [[TheFederation Federation]] until the Cumaea took over; there's still an elected parliament officially running things, but it and the military are heavily influenced by the witches.
223	* PersecutedIntellectuals: The cats. "Everybody knows [their] kind are thieves," after all. The Cumaea describe them to a group of young novices in a background panel as "the most treacherous creatures a member of our Order can face." They appear so far to be mostly harmless, even ineffectual — if mysterious — poetical philosophers, but there may or may not be something deeper and darker to them. [[spoiler:The afterword from Professor Tam Tam in Chapter 26 suggests that the cats were taught by warriors called the Jagaran to move between worlds and mysteriously vanished, and could explain why they were persecuted in the first place.]]
224	* PowerAtAPrice: Maika's [[spoiler:monstrum]] makes her the most powerful person in the whole setting. It also causes her HorrorHunger and [[spoiler:consumed the remains of her left arm]].
225	* PowerIncontinence: Maika's infiltration plan depends upon using her Arcanic magic to break her slave collar. When she's finally fueled by enough rage [[spoiler:and boosted by the Monstrum]] her power breaks open ''all'' of the slaves' collars and also breaks open all of their cell doors to boot, flinging the entire front of Maika's cell across the cellblock with enough force to fatally pin her tormentor to the opposite wall.
226	* {{Precursors}}: One of Professor Tam Tam's quoted lectures speaks of a race known as Jagarans who were the first sentient beings in this world, were advanced enough to travel among the stars, and taught the cats everything they know. Most cat scholars deny they ever existed, as they don't want to admit that they were predated or needed uplifting.
227	* PretextForWar: The story starts with Maika, in a personal action to find out more of her mother's projects, allows herself to be captured as a slave, then to be hijacked at auction by the Cumaea, and brought to their local fortress. Maika sparked off a prison break to cover for her while she went hunting for the Cumaea witch Yvette (an old associate of her mother's) for answers. After the riot, the Cumaea arrive in force and kill the surviving Cumaea and army grunts, putting in their report in very racist and ideologically-charged terms that the Arcanics deliberately left no survivors. The Cumaea then and recaptured the Arcanic fugitives and executed them to make sure that there were no loose ends. This all gave the main Cumaea enough material to justify the Federation to go back to war. The only survivors of the massacre were the Cumaea Sophia, Atena, and Yvette (after the latter resurrected after Maika killed her), because they were still useful to the Cumaea's schemes.
228	* TheProphecy: Apparently there's one that a descendent of the Shaman-Empress will inherit her power during a war worse than any other, and be the deciding factor in the outcome. Just about everyone thinks that Maika is the one spoken of.
229	* ProudScholarRace: Throughout history, cats were chroniclers and poets, refraining from involvement with outside conflicts. Until the Great War, when the Federation of Man began to hunt them down, forcing them to take up arms themselves.
230	* PsychicPowers: It's fairly rare, but some human females have these powers, including precognition and telekinesis. These abilities mimic much of the supernatural abilities of the Arcanics. And then it was discovered that Lilium can boost these abilities. In the first issue, when Maika blasts apart her cell with only her mind, the other inmates note that she has just used a "witch power".
231	* PunBasedCreature: Cat sorcerers who can (temporarily) raise the dead are called Nekomancers.
232	* RapidAging: This happens to the victims of [[spoiler:Maika's Monstrum when it "feeds" off of them]], as well as [[spoiler:a few other characters, foreshadowing that the Cumaea Mother Superior is also possessed by a Monstra.]]
233	* ReallyRoyaltyReveal:
234	** While she's not exactly royalty, there is no way the reader could have guessed that Maika is a lady before [[spoiler:Corvin]] mentions it. There's the implication that Maika's mother is the sister of the warlord known as the Sword of the East.
235	** [[spoiler:Tuya]] is revealed to be a Dusk Court aristocrat at the end of Issue #6.
236	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The Ancients and the Old Gods are practically {{Time Abyss}}es. [[spoiler:Maika's father claims to have hosted the Monstrum for 500 years before passing it to her, but it's unclear if that's an Arcanic trait or a benefit of the Monstrum.]]
237	* RenegadeSplinterFaction: The Blood Court refutes the authority of the Dawn and Dusk courts and acts under their own distinction.
238	** Additionally, every other major faction has its own power struggles which are coming to a head, with the possible exception of the Wave Court of which little has yet been revealed. The Sword of the East's power struggle with the Queen of Wolves divides the Dawn Court, while elements of the Dusk Court actively sabotaged the desperate offensive of the Baroness of the Last Dusk against a Federation lilium refinery. Meanwhile the Federation Prime Minister and Admiral Brito of the Federation Navy conspire against the Cumaea's stranglehold on political power in the Federation, whereas Colonel Anuwat of the Federation Army seeks only to kill as many Arcanics as possible in a bid for total extermination.
239	* TheReveal:
240	** Issue #11 answers a lot. [[spoiler:The one old god that died is named Hajin, and he/she was killed by Zinn (the Monstrum). Their quarrel is over Zinn's desire to conquer the world and slaughter anything that isn't Old God. Hajin reveals that the Old Gods are just exiles from the Shadow Plain and it's actually against their belief system to harm the living (Hajin even apologizes to a deer that died from accidentally touching him/her). Other reveals of that issue include that the Arcanic offspring are draining power off of the Ancients, so one Ancient known as the Blood Fox tried to eradicate them, and that Moriko had Maika only as a means to have someone of the Shaman-Empress' bloodline influence the Monstrum. The mask is an artifact to protect its wearer from the worst effects of the Monstrum.]]
241	** Issue #21 also answers a lot. [[spoiler:The "Doctor" whom Ren reports to is Maika's father, who is the leader of a secret army of Arcanic warlords that is planning to usurp the rule of the Dawn and Dusk courts, and TakeOverTheWorld.]]
242	** Issue #32 reveals several of Maika's own secrets. [[spoiler:Maika figured out a long time ago that it was Tuya trying to kill her, and her reflections and messages to Tuya are all in light of her realization of that betrayal. Immediately afterwards she reveals that the necklace she carried is a method to contact her grandmother the Queen of Wolves, and does so, summoning the Queen of Wolves into her prison cell.]]
243	* RightHandVersusLeftHand:
244	** The Federation's army and navy are at odds with each other, with the WarHawk leaders of the army siding with the Cumea while the more reasonable and peaceful admiralty side with the Prime Minister.
245	** The Dawn and Dusk Courts are technically on the same side against the Federation, but each has its own agenda. This is best exemplified in the relationship between the Warlord and the Baroness after they get married to unite their respective military assets -- aside from them not sharing information and running independent searches for Maika for their own reasons, during the siege of Ravenna the latter takes command of the former's air fleet to go after a separate target without letting her know in advance.
246	* RunForTheBorder[=/=]FugitiveArc: After trashing a Cumaea compound, Maika is now well-known as the equivalent of Public Enemy #1 in the Federation, and she has to get across the border as fast as possible. Not that she's safe even then.
247	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When the Federation army starts marching on the Arcanic city of Ravenna, the city's political and military leadership all hop aboard airships and flee, leaving the civilian population to their fates.
248	* SealedEvilInACan: Two thousand years ago, the Ancient known as the Blood Fox tried to wipe out all Arcanics, as he believed that doing so would reverse the Ancients' power loss. To stop him, the Shaman-Empress bound him on the Isle of Bones.
249	* ServantRace: Rift Fiends are the servants of the Monstrum and their distant relatives, the Dracul. While superficially resemblant, Zinn tells Maika that the Rift Fiends are as close to him as a worm is to her. Zinn also tells her that the Rift Fiends are an envious, grasping species that seek to elevate thmselves to his stature.
250	* ShelteredAristocrat: [[spoiler: Corvin]] accuses Maika — or "Lady Halfwolf", as he calls her — of being spoiled, to particularly ironic effect considering what we know of [[MadeASlave her backstory]].
251	* ShockCollar[=/=]SlaveCollar: The Cumaea use these on Arcanic slaves. Maika has to break out of hers, which is not an easy task.
252	* SophisticatedAsHell:
253	** Ren tends to speak quite eloquently, but the end of the first issue gives us this:
254	--->'''Ren:''' To quote the poets... we're fucked.
255	** The Dracul that Kippa encounters in Issue #22 also has a quite flowery way of speaking, but when Kippa suggests that it spend some time on the surface, it states bluntly that it wouldn't go up there "if my fucking life depended on it".
256	** Red does this again in Issue #29 while discussing their respective betrayals of Maika with [[spoiler: Tuya]]:
257	-->'''Ren''': The Halfwolf may ''kill'' me, [[spoiler: Tuya]], but as the poets say, '''''you're fucked'''''.
258	* StalkerWithATestTube: [[spoiler:Turns out Moriko is this. She went to find the last direct descendant of the Shaman-Empress in order to breed with him for the purpose of having a child that'd be a near-incarnation of the Shaman-Empress.]]
259	* {{Steampunk}}: Very much so, although with more Asian and ancient Egyptian aesthetics than the usual. Advanced technology, including flamethrowers and prosthetic limbs, in an old-fashioned society, complete with plenty of bronze-colored metal and large numbers of airships.
260	* StrongerThanTheyLook: Wanting to show off her great strength to Tuya, Maika challenges a winning Arcanic sumo wrestler who's over twice her size to a match and easily throws her down.
261	* SuperSerum: Inverted for the Salvific Serum. In one of Professor Tam-Tam's dispatches, a Cumaean excerpt about the dangers of cats mentions how the witches have developed a method for dealing with cats. The serum will revert a cat to the normal variety we're familiar with in real-life. Repeated injections will cause a cat to lose its extra tails, powers, speech and intellect.
262	* SuperStrength: Maika has this even without [[spoiler:the Monstrum]]. She's capable of punching through a stone wall and easily rips the arm off a pirate.
263	* SuperiorSuccessor: The Arcanic Lords are more powerful than their Ancient parents, though they lack the Ancients' immortality. This greater power comes from the drain an Arcanic Lord has on its Ancient parent.
264	* SympatheticSlaveOwner: Mistress Ilsa. A slave dealer whose specialty is Arcanic children, she is pretty unquestionably a villain. However, she isn't terrible about it. She lies to the children about their fate at the Cumaea compound (though that might have been to keep them from struggling), she offers Maika her cigarette in a small act of simple kindness, and when Maika is unchained and led into the compound, she wishes her well and asks her to send her best to her daughter, who apparently she doubts she'll ever see again.
265	* ThereIsAnother: The Monstra hints that the reason [[spoiler:it is living within Maika]] has to do with her lineage. But when she threatens to kill herself to get rid of it, it replies, "No matter. There is still another of your line into whom I may pass." Maika is understandably surprised.
266	* TrueBreedingHybrid: Arcanics are the descendants of the immortal Ancients and their assorted human lovers over the past few centuries. Most consider them to have become a distinct species.
267	* UnwantedFalseFaith: Zinn isn't too pleased with being referred to as an Old God. A religion formed around the Monstrum because of the mythologizing of the relationship he had with the Shaman Empress. The religion (implied to be Edenite or something related) then grew to believe that the Old Gods are benevolent and peaceful. The followers of this religion could hardly be more wrong...
268	* VampiricDraining: How Monstra feed; most living things have the life drained out of them on contact with a Monstrum in seconds.
269	* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: A non-video game averted example. Not only is the flame stream devastating, but the flamethrowers in this world don't have any bulky tanks and have a large bayonet. Lady Sophia found out first-hand and only survived through a large infusion of an experimental Lilium serum and it still took her a long time to recover.
270	* VisionaryVillain: The Lord Doctor's plan is to [[spoiler:return to the stars,]] which horrifies Ancients and Old Gods alike. After all, [[spoiler:they fled to this world and hid here for good reason.]]
271	* VestigialEmpire: The Arcanic Empire. It's not quite "vestigial" yet, but it is on its decline, and most Arcanics so far appear to live nomadically in rural areas (within Arcanic territory, of course).
272	* WardensAreEvil: And if you are [[BullyingADragon mean to the wrong prisoner]], you don't live long.
273	* WarIsHell: Pretty much the point of the entire series.
274	* WeAREStrugglingTogether: Both sides.
275	** The Federation has an ongoing tug of war going on in the background of who has the most pull on the future of the Federation. The Prime Minister is trying to erode the power of the Cumaea, who have a huge amount of pull within the Federation for what's supposed to be a religious organization, and it's mentioned that the Naval command has considerable power and is on antagonistic terms with the Cumaea. This doesn't touch upon the army commanders or any other major forces within their politics.
276	** The Arcanic Empire is more or less an Empire in name only. It appears to be composed significantly of nomadic tribes, and has at least two seperate de facto nations in the Dusk Court and Dawn Court, and that's not mentioning the the powers available to the Blood Queens and what appears to be numerous independent city states, all with their own politics going on.
277	* WeHaveReserves: Colonel Anuwat, the commander of the Federation attack on Ravenna, has no problem sacrificing her soldiers in order to advance, on these grounds.
278	* WeaponOfMassDestruction: The Constantine event caused over 140,000 Arcanic and human casualties. The humans believe an Arcanic superweapon caused all this and they quickly called for a ceasefire. [[spoiler:There is no superweapon, but the Arcanics are happy to let the humans believe this.]]
279	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Neither the Monkey King nor the Sword of the East hesitates to murder innocent Arcanic children if it suits their purposes.
280	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: This is the Cumaea's motto and M.O. Even humans who would otherwise want to make peace with the Arcanics are too afraid of the Cumaea to try — except for [[TheResistance the Edenites]], of course.
281	* WhatTheHellHero: Whenever Maika tries to do something truly questionable that isn't in self-defense, or deny her inner humanity (basically...) [[EccentricMentor Master Ren]] gives her a good talking to.
282	* WideEyedIdealist: Although she knows when to fight or run if she or her friends are in danger, Kippa is still pretty idealistic. She reacts to a cat like any child of our world would (where cats are cute and not eccentric and not always trustworthy sapient philosophers) when everyone in her world knows you should never trust a cat. (Or a nun... or a nurse... [[Series/DoctorWho huh]].)
283	* WolverineClaws: Cats naturally have extendable ones that go much further than their paws should allow. Some Arcanics and Ancients have a usable set of claws. In the defense of Pontus, Maika got a SwissArmyWeapon that combined a powerful but faulty ArmCannon attached to a gauntlet that had 3 claws made from the bones of an Old God.
284	* WorthlessTreasureTwist: Happens twice involving the Shield of Pontus, the Shaman-Empress artifact that was supposed to save the city when used by Maika. It turns out the Shield is actually a device to help Zinn feed and the shield was a side-effect. So mishandling the artifact broke it, but it was believed that parts can be found to fix the shield and prevent a 2nd misfire. This led to Maika on a quest to find spare parts, she succeeded but it turns out they were the parts wouldn't fit so a new device had to be jury-rigged.
285	* WorthyOpponent: Colonel Anuwat respects Maika, her former Academy student, as an adversary in the field.
286	* YouHaveFailedMe: The Inquisitrixes massacre the survivors of Maika's raid to eliminate all witnesses and to provide a pretext for a new war on the Arcanics.
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Context ComicBook / Monstress