Webcomic / Purple Hyacinth

Purple Hyacinth is a mystery webcomic created by Sophism and Ephemerys.

In the city of Ardhalis, a terrorist organization known as the Phantom Scythe lingers in the shadows, wreaking fear and death wherever strike. Lauren Sinclair, a former detective now cop, who has the ability to detect lies, has a personal grudge against them. When she encounters the infamous Purple Hyacinth, the most notorious assassin in the Phantom Scythe, he offers her a surprising deal: team up to take down the Phantom Scythe together. She agrees, and the two of them begin working together while remaining hidden from the watchful eyes of both the police force and the Phantom Scythe itself.

You can read it here.

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Purple Hyacinth contains examples of:

• Action Girl: Lauren, being a cop, definitely can hold her own in a fight.
  • Kym also counts, as she is one of the best shots with a gun out there.
  • Davenport is another assassin in the Phantom Scythe with quite a body count.
• Anti-Hero: Lauren, due to being a Cowboy Cop working with an assassin to bring down a terrorist organization.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Albeit partly because of her being a Living Lie Detector, Lauren is very good at filling in the pieces of a person’s life by being able to tell when they’re lying.
• Badass Normal: Pretty much most of the characters. Each cop has to have some level of fighting ability. But of course, the Purple Hyacinth is the most obvious example of this trope; he is the city’s most notorious assassin, after all.
• Berserk Button: Because of the many men who have complimented Lauren on her “pensive golden eyes”, reminding her of the phrase will tick her off.
• Boom, Headshot!: Lauren’s go-to threat, although she hasn’t actually done it. Kieran comments that that threat is getting old.
• Boyish Short Hair: Kym has short hair and is rather tomboyish.
• Breather Episode: The Lunatic Lovers episode is an almost purely comedic one, featuring a hysterical woman with a lamp on her head trying to find out where her… "handsome" butler went. After disappearing for ten minutes.
• Broken Ace: Lauren, as she lost her parents and best friend to the Phantom Scythe as a child.
  • This definitely applies to Kieran as well: despite his prowess as an assassin and his confident, charming front, he clearly has some major issues of his own.
• Calling Card: Purple Hyacinth earned his name from leaving his namesake next to every corpse he’s killed.
• Cliffhanger: Season 2 ends with a Phantom Scythe bomb going off in the immediate vicinity of Lauren and Kieran, while Kym watches helplessly from afar. While Lauren seems to survive the initial blast, it is unclear in what state she is.
  • Season 3 mid season finale ends with Lauren's kidnapping.
• Covered in Scars: Kieran’s back is utterly slashed up with scars. He is an assassin, so it makes sense he’d have some, but that many...
• Cowboy Cop: For the most part Lauren obeys the rules, but the reason she got demoted from detective to a police officer had something to do with her ability to detect lies and making a scene. And, you know, she’s working with the city’s most notorious assassin.
• Crapsack World: The world the characters live in is brutal and violent. Poverty is rampant, and it has fueled a terrorist organization that has been murdering people daily for ten years straight.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Lauren lost a close friend during the Phantom Scythe’s first attack, and has also been raised by her uncle since her parents died.
  • Kieran was abducted during the attack, Made a Slave, and became ruthless enough to survive when most of the other kids died off.
  • Kym's sister was killed in action with poison.
  • Will's father is an abusive Control Freak, his brother couldn't take it and ran off to join the Phantom Scythe, and his mother went crazy from losing her son.
  • Belladonna was once a Little Match Girl. Then the Seventh Apostle took an interest, convinced her to kill her abusive father, and then trained her to become a ruthless, only to end up about as abusive as her father by breaking up her relationship with her girlfriend.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Henry is a fake double agent, as the Phantom Scythe believe them to be their mole, while the police department believes they are a Double Agent. Their only loyalty is to their hatred of the crown, as they blame The Royal Family for getting their family killed.
• The Dreaded: The Purple Hyacinth for being the city’s most notorious assassin. Both in and out of the Phantom Scythe as well.
• Establishing Character Music: Despite being a comic, Purple Hyacinth impressively does this quite a lot. Examples include:
  • When the Purple Hyacinth's name gets dropped in episode 4, it's accompanied by a fittingly sombre and chilling viola and piano theme. This theme then gets an encore in episode 40, when he massacres dozens of people at the prison tower for his latest mission.
  • When the Butler finally makes his appearance in episode 18, a hilarious recorder theme plays in an ironically emotional manner, completely fitting with his comical design and character.
  • A snazzy beat and a catchy electronic melody plays in episode 86, when Neyra Elena Darcy is first introduced as she walks into the party in a stylish outfit. We don't really know who she is or what she does yet. All we know is that she is cool as heck.
• Evil Versus Evil: The core of the main story, using Evil Running Good to turn everyone else into pawns. An apathetic, obsolete royalty that gladly resorts to torture and genocide to maintain control, versus a terrorist organization of Not So Well Intentioned Extremists that constantly betray each other. Both sides employ those who just want stability and/or a better life, and will gladly murder them the second they stop being useful.
• Fiery Redhead: Lauren plays with this trope. Her hair is a reddish brown, and it takes a lot to fire her up...but it can happen, and you do not want her angry.
• Flower Motif: Obviously purple hyacinths, as Kieran always leaves one behind after his kills. It symbolizes regret, or begging for forgiveness, and may imply that Kieran wishes to express remorse for his crimes.
  • This is done with daisies in episode 49: in Lauren's flashback, her daisy crown gets crushed by a car as she saves Dylan. Daisies symbolize innocence, so this could be seen as the moment when her innocence was destroyed. Rather fitting, since this one event of injuring her ankle causes her to unwittingly send Dylan to his death.
• Gonk: The "Handsome Butler" who appears in episode 18 is...not what anyone was expecting.
• Hidden Depths: Despite her goofy exterior, Kym is actually quite intelligent, a good cop, and an excellent shot with her gun. Plus it’s hinted that her past is rather dark.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Kieran is usually quite light hearted, even during an interrogation. Doesn’t mean he can’t pull these off.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The Purple Hyacinth’s real name is Kieran White.
• Leitmotif: For a Webtoon, there is an incredibly impressive frequent display of this.
  • The Deal, as the name implies, plays when Lauren and Kieran make their first deal. This theme then plays again in episode 50, when Lauren calls off the deal on Kieran after he shows up at her office.
    • The Deal gets a twisted reprise as Dissonance, in which the main melody plays in reverse, in episode 43, when their partnership falls apart after a rather dark and violent confrontation between Lauren and Kieran.
  • Flor y Sangre is the spicy, tension-filled tango theme that commonly plays when Lauren and Kieran fully take on their persona as Lune, such as while interrogating people or while doing a literal tango together for an undercover mission.
  • Une Promenade plays whenever Kym and Will are walking together and having a sincere and (somewhat) serious conversation, such as in episode 40 and episode 63.
• Living Lie Detector: Lauren can somehow detect when someone is lying, but only as long as the person knows they're telling a lie. If they believe the lie to be truth, she can't detect it. This is represented with the type becoming red.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Downplayed with Kieran. His hair isn’t that long, but it is tied into a short ponytail and he is very pretty.
• Mood Motif: Many, many examples of this.
  • Blindest of All and its reprise Blindest of All II often plays during sombre or important moments of the story. This includes the end of episode 10 when the deal is made, the end of episode 23 when Lauren contemplates the discovery of Anslow's photograph, and the end of episode 42 as Lauren runs to Kieran's cave, about to confront him for the prison tower massacre.
  • You is a very nostalgic, bittersweet theme, and it plays when Lauren has a flashback to the day of the Allendale Train Station Tragedy in episode 49.
• Running Gag: Lauren’s “pensive golden eyes” being complimented.
• Scenery Porn: The backgrounds are extremely detailed and beautiful.
• The Sociopath: Deconstructed; in order to turn Kieran into the sociopathic Purple Hyacinth, the Phantom Scythe put his abducted class through years of Made a Slave, Training from Hell, and other brutal life lessons that murdered most of the students, conditioning Kieran to feel nothing when those he has no connection to suffer and die, turning him into a textbook sociopath. But, unlike a textbook psychopath, Kieran does have a general understanding of right and wrong, and when the few people he does care about call him a monster, it hits him with the guilt and self-loathing of what a normal person would feel.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: During Lauren and Kieran’s interrogation scene, the music playing in the background sounds more appropriate for a tango.
• Tag Line: While the comic doesn't have an official one, the co-authors' motto — displayed proudly at the end of each strip (over the picture of the two of them fist-bumping, no less) — seems to be "Let's make it spicy".
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome /Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Kieran, Kieran, Kieran. Not only is he a dark haired looker, his wit and responses are as sharp as his sword.
• Title Drop: The titular Purple Hyacinth is the city’s most infamous assassin.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Kym and William are always bickering, but it’s clear they are friends. Also counts as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Phantom Scythe is not one big happy family of disenfranchised revolutionaries; the Leader is a paranoid wreck who will murder anyone that shows the slightest hint of disloyalty, while about half the revolutionaries don't give a damn about equal rights and just want to seize power.
• Wire Dilemma: Used in the first episode to demonstrate Lauren’s lie detecting abilities.