Follow TV Tropes

Following

The Smurfette Principle / Webcomics

Go To


  • Terra the earthworm is introduced in 1/0 after the Interactive Author initially didn't want any female characters. He wanted his three male characters to remain romantically frustrated, but when it became clear Ho Yay would be the inevitable result, he relented and added her. To spite his characters, he made her a lesbian, so the guys would still be frustrated. The cast grows somewhat over time, but Terra remains the only female in the whole strip.
  • The primary protagonist group of 8-Bit Theater would be Fighter, Thief, Red Mage, and Black Mage, plus White Mage. Of the five, only White Mage is female, and she only shows up occasionally.
  • Charby the Vampirate:
    • LaBelle is the only female in her pack, and when she leaves it she joins up with another group that consists of all males outside of herself.
    • Han is the only woman employed as one of King Samrick's Royal Justiciars.
  • Genocide Man: The titular quintet of Super Soldiers has one female member, Lola Lamb. Coincidentally, she's also the only one who had an adverse reaction to the Genocide Project's Bio-Augmentation and was left wheelchair-bound with brittle bones. Zig-zagged when they induct a second woman, Caera Shou.
  • Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name has an almost all-male cast. Out of half-a-dozen protagonists, only one is a girl. The only other recurring woman is a villain.
  • In the Insecticomics, Kickback claimsnote  that viewers had complained that the comic didn't have enough female characters (there's half a dozen male robots introduced in the first dozen or so strips) and uses this as a justification to start a vote over changing Laserbeak's gender to female. This makes her the only robot-female for the next fifty strips (and only the second female in the work). While the cast isn't a Gender-Equal Ensemble, several more females are added.
  • The Order of the Stick's eponymous group consists of four males, one female, and an elf (although elves tend to have genders in this series, the androgyny of Vaarsuvius is a Running Gag). While other female characters have become prominent, notably Celia, the six-character band has, at most, Two Girls to a Team.
    • In a VERY early interview, when asked about V's gender, Rich indicated that he had originally "totally smurfetted" the group, and then decided to run with the androgeny after so many fans commented on it. However, he has never SPECIFICALLY used a gender for V.
  • Questionable Content inverts this: depending on your definition of the main cast, there's anywhere from three to six main girls, but after Steve gets Demoted to Extra as the comic starts focusing on the Coffee of Doom crew, Marten's the only guy in the main group.
  • Six Pack Of Otters: We have not yet been introduced to all six of the Otters that the title implies...but of the five that we have met, four are male. And the fifth, female Otter's presence is felt mostly by the other four (male) cast-member's reaction to her: she's not unseen, but she hasn't had a whole ton of screen-time either.
  • Linda Concarne is the only female regular in Triangle and Robert, a webcomic of shapes and... things. There's dozens of different characters, but only the one rectangle.
  • Amongst the Redshirts of "Ice" in Monster of the Week:
Caption: Cynical hard-bitten pilot! Wacky scientist whose quirks will be missed! Suspicious guy who will probably turn on everyone! AND A WOMAN!!


Top