AFK is a webseries in which some fantasy gamers abruptly find themselves waking up inside of their computer game's world. They must then deal with the hardships of the setting becoming real — not only the world's conditions, but each other. Filmed in New Zealand, it has run for two seasons. It can be watched on its YouTube channel
and Amazon Prime. Some of the actors had previous minor roles in The Lord of the Rings and later The Hobbit movies.
AFK provides examples of:
- An Adventurer Is You: The show involves a bunch of fantasy MMPORG gamers abruptly waking up in a world like the game they had been playing, struggling to survive there.
- Always Identical Twins: Brendon made an alt character of his who's the former's twin brother.
- Ambiguous Gender: It's left ambiguous if Q identifies as male or female offline, as she has alts with both genders in the game world. Q also could be nonbinary (e.g. genderfluid), comfortable with both.
- The Anti-Nihilist: Serena expresses this viewpoint, that life has no meaning or divine oversight and is ultimately pointless, but people can make it for themselves nonetheless.
- Attempted Rape: A male gamer tries to rape Steven, but Jack stabs him in the back.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Serena is a healer and overall nice person, though when Clint pushes her too far, she nearly kills him with a sudden spell which causes an airless void to form around his head.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Season 2 ends this way. Maybel and Brendon are dead, V'rugga goes off with his brother, Steven chooses to stay with Serena's community and Q and Jack try and find a way back to the real world to reunite Q with her daughter.
- Cast from Hit Points: Serena's healing spells are fueled by her own energy, so the more she heals it weakens her.
- Chainmail Bikini: Steven wears an outfit like this as part of his female character. It's really impractical in a real world, and he steals pants at the first chance, which get remade by Maybel to fit, along with a vest.
- Defiant to the End: Steven, when he is about to be executed by the Devil's Cheerleaders on Clint's orders. When asked if he has any last words, Steven responds by calmly directing a stream of expletives at Clint. This also counts as a "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner.
- Disappeared Dad: Brendon's dad "went on a fishing trip" and never came back, leaving him with his mom. Q's partner left her with their daughter after she caught him cheating. Possibly it's the other way, because her true gender is unclear.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Vanya is a pretty brutal guy with few compunctions, but he seems to genuinely love his girlfriend Sheena, bringing healers in succession for her when she's injured and near death by septicemia.
- Fantastic Racism: Discussed as Brenda says the gamers who play dwarves, elves, humans and gnomes are dividing on racial lines with mutual antagonism.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Averted. Maybel's gnome character has a flintlock pistol, and a couple other characters do too. It's apparently a "gnomish device". Later on Sheena turns out to have a kind of stun sniper rifle.
- First Law of Gender Bending: We see three apparent male-to-female gender switches in the show against one female-to-male, and the only attempt at changing it back fails because of a neglectful wizard.
- G.I.R.L.: Steven is male, but online plays a female character.
- Gender Bender: Players of an online game (similar to World of Warcraft or Skyrim) suddenly find themselves living in the game world as their in-game avatars. While any number of avatar characters might be a different gender from the real-world players, there are three such players that we actually know for certain:
- In season 1 episode 1 (patch 1.1) Wizard Brendon saves a Chainmail Bikini clad warrior maiden from (more than likely) being raped. Her initial main goal is to find pants. In episode 2 (patch 1.3), we learn that her player's name is Steven. Later in episode 2 (patch 1.4) Steven explains that he thought if he's going to spend hours looking at an ass, it might as well be a nice one.
- Meanwhile, also in season 1 episode 1 (patch 1.2), we meet a male gnome named Maybel. It isn't until episode 3 (patch 1.5) that we learn Maybel's player is a girl who created her male gnome avatar to avoid frequent propositions from male gamers.
- In season 2 episode 1 (patch 2.1) we meet a female member of the Devil's Cheerleaders. Later in episode 1 (patch 2.2) we learn this is Steven, who met a wizard that changed his avatar.
- Also in season 2 episode 1 (patch 2.1) we meet male adventurer Quinn. Later in episode 1 (patch 2.2) we find out that Quinn is an alt for female elf Q from season 1 (still extant). The gender of the real-world player has not been definitively determined, so exactly which one of them is gender swapped is unknown, but one of them must be.
- I Choose to Stay: Vanya and Sheena want to stay there in the game world, because they can rule an empire in it. However, they'd be willing to charge for others passing back through a portal. Serena also doesn't want to return, because she'd been dying in the real world while she's fine there.
- I Owe You My Life: Sheena insists on helping Serena, because the latter saved her life. Afterward though she makes it clear Serena is no longer owed anything from her.
- Internet Jerk: This behavior sadly translates across into the world which the gamers find themselves in, as the more sociopathic ones are only too happy to kill and rob others there as well.
- Killed Offscreen: Maybel is killed in between seasons.
- Language Barrier: The orcs can't speak to other races in the game, so the people who become these don't understand each other's languages either.
- The Medic: Serena, who is a healer, and thus a valuable resource for everyone else.
- Mercy Kill: Q euthanizes a gamer who's been stabbed, robbed and left for dead in the woods.
- Me's a Crowd: A number of the gamers had alts (alternate characters) and thus end up with multiple selves there in the game world.
- Missing Child: Q, it turns out, has a daughter, and being sent into the game world left her behind. As a result she doesn't know if her daughter's properly being taken care of since she's been left alone. Of course, her daughter also has no idea where she went, and Q is distraught at the idea of the distress it's no doubt caused. She later takes comfort in the fact her parents were coming to visit that day, so her daughter wouldn't be alone for long. Then she's further relieved learning that almost no time has passed.
- Mistaken for Afterlife: Serena thinks she's gone to Heaven after she woke up in the game world, as she'd been slowly dying of some condition on Earth. Running into Vanya's people quickly shatters that idea.
- Never Split the Party: Whenever anyone suggests it, someone objects that this isn't a good idea.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: In the first season, Hwei Ling Ow, who plays Amy, tries to put on an American accent as her character's American. Then in the second season she drops it and just uses her normal one.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Most characters on the series are played by New Zealanders, but aside from one, Ravi Narayan (Maybel), use American accents (except for some gamers from Russia and China) in the first season, so their natural ones slip through at times. The second season has more who are explicitly New Zealanders, and one (who's Maori) references the "influx" of them, so they don't have to bother with it anymore.
- Screw Yourself: Q ends up having sex with a male alt character of herself.
- Shout-Out: Unsurprisingly, as a fantasy series the show has many references to famous work in the genre, such as Brenda retorting "I am no man" when taken for male and then removing a disguise.
- Sick and Wrong: This is Jack's reaction after learning Q and Quinn had sex (since they're alts of each other).
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Maybel pretended to be a guy in the game, so she could escape being harassed and hit on.
- Synchronization: Alts can feel the pain when another is killed. However, this doesn't kill them as well, and goes away quickly.
- Trapped in TV Land: All of the gamers, who find themselves waking up in a world like their computer game. Some are fine with this and even prefer it. Others though are desperate to get home, particularly Q as she left her young daughter alone there.
- Twofer Token Minority: Serena, the sole Maori who's also a woman.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: Surviving in a real world similar to the game is no picnic. Unlike their characters, the gamers can't simply shrug off damage if they have the hit points left, find supplies easily, or know the skills to survive out in the wilderness. Not to mention that, as gamers, far too many are intent on killing and robbing the rest. They start to hunt for food, and those with knowledge of useful skills like sewing start teaching other people.
- Villainous Rescue: Vanya and Sheena come to help save the camp from Clint.
- White Mage: Serena has healing powers, and even wears white.
- White Magic: Serena's healing magic, which uses her own energy as fuel. However, she's capable of offensive spells on people if they threaten herself or others.
- White Magician Girl: Serena fits into this mode, as she's traditionally effeminate, a healer, in a support role, carries a staff, and always caring toward others.
- Work Off the Debt: The non-player characters regenerate as the party dines in a tavern they found, and one of those characters is the bartender. When he asks how the party will pay for their meal, they inform him that they are short of money, and this trope ensues.
- Would Hit a Girl: Clint has no problem with hitting Amy, and not when she's armed or free, but tied up as he's trying to get information from her.
