Webcomic / SMGPMD

The "coming soon" cover page for Platonic Management Dilemma.

"Warriors from afar... Please, heed my call... My home is in danger, but I grow weak... I will use my power to bring you here, but... That is all I can do. The rest, brave warriors... I leave up to you."

— Mew, setting the events of Perplexing Magnolia Disruption into motion.

Perplexing Magnolia Disruption and Platonic Management Dilemma, known under the collective title of SMGPMD, is a series of sprite comics by Shard. The story covers the adventures of Team SMG after they are pulled into the world of Pokémon - specifically, the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series - and search for a way home while trying to help the Pokémon who live there.

• Perplexing Magnolia Disruption is the first comic in the series, and focuses on Team SMG's efforts to Save the World from Mewtwo. It has been completed as of April 9th, 2012.
• Platonic Management Dilemma is the second and most recent comic in the series, and focuses on Team SMG, Team KHV, and Team Rangers as they try to discover exactly what's going on so they can get back home.

The series is an Affectionate Parody of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, and thus contains several elements from it, while still using its own plot and ideas.

The main characters, as of Platonic Management Dilemma, are:

• Team SMG, composed of Shard (turned into an Eevee), Matt (turned into a Cyndaquil, who later evolved into Quilava), and Glandor (turned into a Riolu, who later evolved into Lucario). They are generally the 'heroes' of the series and fall under a morally good scale.
• Team Rangers, composed of Blue (a Wartortle), Pink (a Clefable), Red (a Magmar), Yellow (an Electabuzz), Green (a Groovyle) and Black (a Shuppet). A parody of Sentai who fall into more of a neutral good area, generally trying to help people but not exactly great with morals and aren't below fighting ditry.
• And Team KHV, the Evil Counterpart of Team SMG, composed of Kumori (turned into an Umbreon), Hatashi (turned into a Typhlosion), and Venus (turned into a Buneary, who later evolved into Lopunny). While they are usually villains, Kumori has stepped up and led them to try and help with the Pokémon's problems. As a whole, the team just wants to go home.

---

The SMGPMD series contains examples of:

• Achievements in Ignorance : Mew and Mewtwo's attempt to bring Team SMG to the world of Pokémon a second time resulted in Team KHV coming along for the ride. It's later revealed to be intentional, as per Celebi's desires, but they had no idea they'd accidentally done this until they were told.
• A God Am I: Moltres certainly seems to think so.
• Aloof Big Sister: Kumori is this to Shard, to the point that Mew was shocked to discover that the two were sisters. (According to Word of God, they're half sisters through their mother.)
• All There in the Manual: The cast pages, as well as various explanatory comments that Shard makes. This page, too.
• Angrish: Kumori is capable of making various characters fall into this, especially when she's right.
  • Mewtwo is reduced to this when Team SMG uses Never Give Up on him.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: For the most part, it's two or three Pokémon to a team. Team Rangers throws this out the window.
• Ass Kicking Pose: About as much of one as you can get from a Pokémon Sprite Comic, anyway.
• Attack Reflector: Shard's Mira, but only for special attacks.
• Ax-Crazy: According to Word of God, Raikou is this.
  • Venus, post-evolution, to the point that an element of the fourth wall is afraid of her.
• Badass Boast: Glandor gives one on behalf of Team SMG here.
  Glandor: We fight as a team! And we'll beat you as a team!
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Venus, who is for the most part a villain, uses black lightning.
• Battle Aura: Part of Team SMG's Never Give Up.
• Behind the Black: Mewtwo is owned by a liberal use of this trope here. Lampshaded, of course.
  Mewtwo: When did you all get there!?
• Berserk Button: Shard, of all people, has one in the form of bad puns.
  • Moltres has several. When Team KHV meets him, they take great pleasure in pressing every single one they can find.
  • Venus hates being weak, or anything that might imply her own weakness. It's one of the reasons she hated being turned into a Buneary. She also gets pissed when Kumori taunts her by telling her that she'll be alone forever.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Entei spends most of his time on-screen doing generally silly and derpy things - but he is still a Legendary Pokémon, with all the things that implies.
  • The rest of the Legendary Pokémon roll by this as well, with quirky personalities making them quite silly to be around, though not to as extreme an extent as Entei.
  • Team Rangers, who spend half their time acting like Power Rangers and arguing with one another, and the other half kicking ass.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • Pink is somehow able to scare Black away from waking her up by using martial arts. Black is a ghost-type and usually invulnerable to that sort of thing.
  • Venus evolves out of pure rage when bunneary are supposed to evolve out of friendship or love.
• Big Bad: Mewtwo for Perplexing Magnolia Disruption.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Guild shows up to help Team SMG.
• Big Good: Mew for Perplexing Magnolia Disruption. It's been implied that Celebi may be playing this role in Platonic Management Dilemma, but we haven't seen enough of him to know just yet.
• Big Sister Mentor: Again, Kumori to Shard. While the two are on opposite sides, it's clear that Kumori doesn't hate or dislike Shard. In fact, throughout the events of Perplexing Magnolia Disruption, Kumori was constantly guiding and helping Team SMG. When Mew called her out on being Team SMG's enemy and yet helping them, Kumori simply said that her reasons were her own. Word of God has implied that Kumori does what she does in order to help Shard become more brave and strong.
• Born Lucky: Pink, who weaponizes this in the form of her Metronome attacks.
• Breath Weapon: All over the place. Matt and Red have their fire attacks, while Blue and the ARE have their water attacks. Also, Moltres, Entei, Articuno and Suicune tend to favor attacks that come from their mouths. Then again, they're Pokémon- firing attacking from their mouths is a viable strategy.
• Brick Joke: 36 comics later, Shard and Matt finally get to wake up Glandor with a liberal use of water.
  • At the end of Chapter Four, Shard invites Entei to the guild and Treasure Town in exchange for some information. At the end of Chapter Five, Team KHV returns to the guild, only to discover Shard chatting happily to Entei (much to Kumori's confusion).
  • A series-crossing one comes when Team KHV goes to Mystifying Forest... and has a similar reaction to when Team SMG went there. Niv even lampshades it.
  Niv: Yes, this has happened before.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of Perplexing Magnolia Disruption, since Team SMG and Kumori aren't natives to the world of Pokémon.
• But Thou Must!: Not present in Perplexing Magnolia Disruption due to Team SMG's tendency to have Chronic Hero Syndrome, but in Platonic Management Dilemma, Venus objects to helping the Pokémon (irritated from being turned into a Buneary). Kumori, Mewtwo and the ARE triple-team her to force her to help out.
• Butt-Monkey: Glandor at the hands of Shard and Matt, and the (Not So) Adorable Random Encounter at the hands of everyone else. He's not even on the cast page!
  • As of the sequel, the ARE gets better thanks to his upgrade, but Venus basically takes his place.
• Call-Back: When Venus is hit by a Water Pulse attack, she uses the exact string of letters that Glandor used upon being woken up by Buizel.
• Calling Your Attacks: Played with in Pink's case; she shouts "Randomize!" whenever she uses Metronome.
• The Cameo: Matt, Glandor, Hatashi and Venus are not actually Shard's characters. Unfortunately, since Matt doesn't make comics often and Glandor doesn't make comics period, a lot of people think they are.
• Chekhov's Gun: In comic 101, Kumori briefly asks if the guildmaster will look into "that place". 35 comics later, Team SMG needs to get to Darknight Relic but doesn't know where it is. Kumori then informs them that she had the guildmaster look into it, so he'll know where it is.
• Chekhov's Skill: Kumori's ability to possess people comes in handy later when Mewtwo decides to have a Taking You with Me moment. She possesses Mew, of all people, to save Team SMG from Mewtwo's attack.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Team SMG will help anyone in need. In Perplexing Magnolia Disruption, while getting home is an issue, they don't really prioritize it above figuring out of the world's in danger and helping the Pokémon if it is. In Platonic Management Dilemma, they, without thinking of any possible consequences, agree to return to the world of Pokémon to help them out again.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Shard and Entei.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Venus spends the first three panels of page 64 swearing. It's all censored, though.
• Colon Cancer: Parodied in the comment for the Chapter Three title page.
  Shard: Chapter Three: Outlaw Log One: Xatu: The Attack Of The Revenge: The Game: The Movie: The Game: The Comic
• Convection, Schmonvection: The battle against Moltres takes place on top of a volcano. The only consequence is that Kumori's ice techniques don't last very long.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Team Rangers against Xatu. Xatu didn't stand a chance.
  • And then, Team KHV against Moltres.
• Curse Cut Short: By the Fourth Wall, no less.
  Shard: Incidentally, this is not the first time the panel's censored cursing.
• Cursed with Awesome: Venus is quite annoyed with becoming a Pokémon because she became a Buneary, which is, in her mind, a "small annoying rabbit thing".
  • She starts to get over it when Kumori tells her she can still use her powers, though. And now that she's evolved, she's quite happy with the change.
• Deadpan Snarker: Kumori and Black play this role. Among Team SMG, the role varies depending on which member is holding the Idiot Ball at that time.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Generally, boss Pokémon won't listen to anyone until they've had some sense knocked into them. Averted by Moltres and Mewtwo, though, who had every intention of killing Team SMG until they were talked down - Moltres by Shard, and Mewtwo by Kumori and Mew.
  • Averted in the sequel with all three teams:
    • Entei only fights Team SMG because they can't pay him for his services conventionally, and when Shard proposes an alternative he stops fighting. Suicune only fights them to test their strength to make sure they can fight Raikou and Ho-Oh.
    • Team KHV have not befriended any of their opponents. They only get what they need from Moltres so he can get them out of his feathers, and Articuno seems to be terrified of them thanks to Venus.
    • Team Rangers is simply being tested by the Four Servants of Celebi, as the Servants want them to teach Celebi a lesson for bringing Team SMG and Team KHV to the world of Pokémon, which they don't believe was the right thing to do.
• Depraved Bisexual: Venus is one, if Shard noting that Tim said Venus would have been trying to rape Glandor is any indication. Also, this conversation-
  Kumori: If it were [a dream], I'd have had you make out with Matt or something.
  Venus: Actually, that wouldn't be half bad.
  • Outright confirmed once she evolves and starts hitting on Articuno... and some of the fans.
• Desperation Attack: Team SMG's final attack against Mewtwo.
• Determinator: Part of the reason for Never Give Up. The team even lampshades this when they start to use it.
  Glandor: She knows that we're Team SMG. And we Never Give Up.
• Deuteragonist: While Team SMG are the main characters, Team KHV and Team Rangers get just as much focus and impact to the storyline.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Mewtwo's reason for wanting to cause The End of the World as We Know It? Mew disrupted his Magnolias.
• Disappears into Light: Team SMG and Kumori when they go back home. This is also how teleportation seems to work.
• A Dog Named "Dog" / Species Surname: Most Pokémon that aren't some form of main character have this, but the fact that Team Rangers all have nicknames - and Blue's tendency to call Shard by her species name in Perplexing Magnolia Disruption - indicates that it's possible for Pokémon to come up with nicknames for themselves and probably just chose not to for the most part.
• Dramatic Thunder: Everywhere on Mt. Thunder.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: The Mysterious Black Text Guy shows Matt and Hatashi a vision of the future to get their asses into gear.
• Dream Land: Various times, upon characters getting prophetic dreams or talking to others in their dreams. Kumori can manipulate these.
• Dream Sequence: Each member of Team SMG gets one of these at least once. Matt doesn't seem to be good at receiving them, while Glandor is much more capable due to his Psychic Powers, and Shard has Kumori to help her out.
• Dream Spying: Kumori is capable of doing this thanks to her ability to manipulate dreams. She does it here, to see what's going on with Moltres at Mt. Blaze.
• Dream Weaver: Kumori, the Mysterious Black Text Guy, and to a lesser extent, Mew and Mewtwo.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Mew appears in the very first comic as a silhouette- at least 80 pages before her actual first appearance.
  • Celebi has a brief, one-panel appearance in an early page when Mew is telling Team SMG why they're in the world of Pokémon again. He is formally seen for the first time on page 145.
• Evil Counterpart: Team KHV to Team SMG, as a whole- while Hatashi and Venus play this straight, Kumori is more of a subversion, being neutral rather than evil like the other two. Venus is actually explicitly this to Glandor - she is his corrupted opposite, making her everything that he's not and him everything that she's not.
• Evil Laugh: Moltres' Squakakakakakakakakakaka!
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Since most of the locations come from the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, a lot of dungeons are exactly this. Mt. Thunder is a mountain with thunderstorms, for instance. Lampshaded here.
  ARE: Northern Desert? It's... well... to the North, quite obviously.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Team SMG does this during their fight against Mewtwo, while they're using Never Give Up.
• Expy: By Shard's own admission, Entei is one of Accel, Suicune is one of Slash, Moltres is one of Silverado, and Articuno is one of Masky.
• The Faceless: Kumori, specifically the Eyeless Face type.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The sixth poll asks how the audience thinks Moltres will react to Team KHV. The options are "Well", "Badly because of Kumori", "Badly because of Venus", "Badly because of Hatashi", and "Badly because of all of them."
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos, obviously. The sequel gives us Team KHV, with Hatashi as Fire, Kumori as Ice, and Venus as Lightning, and Entei, Suicune and Raikou.
• Fish out of Water: Team SMG and KHV. It doesn't come up much, though, because Pokémon is a game series in their home world, and thus they are somewhat familiar with the mechanics. However, both Glandor and Venus don't know enough about it to have a significant advantage.
  • The second Q&A special and the 9th poll hint at one of Team Rangers' members having once been human. However, it hasn't been revealed who, and Word of God says it's not that important to the present-day story. This may mean she has a prequel centered around Team Rangers' backstory planned.
• Flat "What": Several characters use this as a reaction to particularly silly or stupid developments. This also tends to be Shard's reaction to some of the weirder comments that her fans make.
  Eviceturboman: NEXT TIME I WANT A 100 WAY.
  Shard: what
  • The only reaction Pink can muster to Michigan J. Togepi's introduction.
• Forced Transformation: Team SMG and KHV. Some of them are more annoyed by it than others.
• Foreshadowing: In the Q&A special, Matt is asked if he wants to evolve again. He says no, since Typhlosion reminds him of Hatashi. Come Platonic Management Dilemma, his rival, Hatashi, becomes a Typhlosion.
  • On their first night in the world of Pokémon, Team SMG contemplates their dilemma. Each one gets a fancy background to go along with this- Matt gets a fiery background, Glandor gets a blue glow, and Shard gets a lilac sphere. This turns out to be a direct reference to their powers and what order they figure out they can use them in- Matt utilizes his fire first, Glandor activates his telekinesis, which glows to show it's in use, second, and Shard activates her Mira, commonly in spherical or circular shapes, last.
  • In a batch of lyrics for a parody of I Am The Walrus, Shard gives us the following lines-
    No-emotion Suicune, Axe-Crazy Raikou
    Sorry if I just gave you all spoilers then
• Forgiveness: Team SMG instantly forgives most of the opponents they face once they're beaten or if they swap to their side. This is shown at its best when, near the beginning of Platonic Management Dilemma, Mewtwo apologizes for trying to kill Team SMG, and they shrug it off like it's nothing.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: When Két, as an element of the Fourth Wall, provides the box stating that Venus has evolved, she briefly comments on the fact that she evolved through sheer rage, before deciding to get out of there before Venus kills her.
• Friendly Rivalry: While it wasn't this way at first, Team SMG's relationship with Team Rangers developed into this, especially regarding Blue and Shard.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Basically the point of the Q&A specials.
• Fun with Acronyms: Perplexing Magnolia Disruption, which makes an acronym matching Pokémon Mystery Dungeon's. The same goes for its sequel, Platonic Management Dilemma.
  • Also done with Team SMG, which stands for Shard Matt Glandor, not Sub-Machine Gun or Super Mario Galaxy, and the ARE, or the Adorable Random Encounter/Authoritative Reasoning Enforcer. And then there's Kumori Hatashi Venus. Shard seems to be fond of this trope.
• Gilligan Cut: While discussing Black on Mount Steel...
  Red: Yeah, well, Black can float through walls.
  Yellow: I know he can float through walls! The guy's probably at the top of the mountain by now!
  (Cut to Black at the top of the mountain, with the words "(He is.)" floating above him)
• Goggles Do Nothing: Matt.
• Heel–Face Turn: The ARE and Team Rangers help Team SMG in the final dungeon, although each for their own reasons.
• Heroic Second Wind: This is basically what Team SMG's Never Give Up is.
• Hero-Worshipper: Mew is one of these to Team SMG. She brings them to her world so they can save it. It turns out that she can use her psychic powers to watch their adventures like a TV show, meaning she doesn't see details like Kumori living in Shard's mind.
• High-Class Glass: Entei wears a fedora (although, characters refer to it as a top hat) and a monocle because he is a "Gentleman".
• Hot Wings: Moltres. Matt also has this for his Phoenix Blow attack.
• Ignored Enemy: Team Rangers runs into a bunch of Unowns in Northern Desert. They promptly ignore them so Blue can explain what the Unowns are. Said Unowns were not happy about this.
• Incendiary Exponent: Part of Team SMG's Team Blast involves setting Shard on fire. Luckily, her powers protect her from being damaged by this.
• Incoming Ham: Moltres, obviously.
  Moltres: Welcome to Mount Blaze, FOOLS! Awfully eager to come to your DEATHS!
• Insane Equals Violent: Venus.
• I Shall Taunt You: Kumori does this to Venus. It's on purpose to get her to waste her energy so she can't kill Articuno.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Blue towards Shard, upon finding out she has a boyfriend.
• Jerkass: Kumori and the Mysterious Black Text Guy.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Kumori does this four times in a row to Team SMG in one comic here.
  • The Mysterious Black Text Guy pulls this on Mewtwo here.
• Kill It with Fire: Matt's solution to get the ARE away from them when they first meet him.
• Lampshade Hanging: Due to its nature as an Affectionate Parody, the series is prone to doing this, in regards to both elements of the series it's based off of, and elements of its own story.
• Large Ham: All of the Legendary Pokémon except Mew so far. Moltres is by far the biggest; when one commenter suggested that Articuno could probably be voiced by Dan Green, Shard replied that Moltres would probably be a better fit for him.
• Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Shard's powers do this for her. Unfortunately, up until midway through the Mt. Thunder arc in Perplexing Magnolia Disruption, she didn't realize she could actually use them, in part because of Kumori's meddling.
• Meanwhile, Back at the…: Done repeatedly in To The Sky!, where the perspective kept changing between Matt talking to Articuno, Glandor talking to Zapdos, and Shard talking to Moltres.
• Meanwhile Scene: The entirety of Nightmares in White was this. An interesting case in that the entire thing took place in Shard's dreamscape, but she wasn't in it aside from establishing where it was.
  • The Epilogue also counts, which sets up the plot for the sequel.
• Milestone Celebration: A few different ones. For Perplexing Magnolia Disruption, comic 50 marked Team Rangers' dramatic entrance, complete with art, comic 100 was (sloppily) drawn, comic 151 was a Q&A special (which took questions on comic 150), and 200 was longer than normal. For Platonic Management Dilemma, so far, when the comic hit 15(1) fans, there was another Q&A special, and comic 100 was longer than normal.
• Mind over Matter: Glandor has this, as compared to psychic types' Psychic Powers.
• Mirror Routine: While exploring Fiery Fields, Team SMG runs into a wild Quilava while Matt is leading the way.
• Mistaken for Gay: A variation- When Yellow starts hitting on Glandor, Red expresses confusion that Yellow "Likes other men". Yellow quickly snaps, telling him that she's actually a girl. This was actually parodying the tendency for female Yellow Rangers to have been male in the Sentai version.
• Morphic Resonance: Team SMG retain their accessories (a headset for Glandor, goggles for Matt, and a headband (in Perplexing) or a headband and bandana (in Platonic) for Shard) as Pokémon. Team KHV does not keep any accessories (partly because they don't have any), but their coloration stays the same.
• Motor Mouth: Articuno, basically any time he opens his mouth. The characters eventually start telling him to shut up before he can get started. Even Niv tells him to shut up in the Q&A special.
  • Zapdos has the "speaking quickly" variation, where no spaces are used for her text, ever. The only exception was during her and Shard's race, in which spaces were given to Zapdos and an extra space was given to Shard to help punctuate exactly how fast they were moving.
• Mr. Exposition: Kumori, Mew, Mewtwo and Celebi have all played this role at some point.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Said word for word by Kumori to Blue here.
• Never Say "Die": Averted, Mewtwo says it quite a few times.
• The Nicknamer: Shard tends to give people she's close to nicknames so it's easier for her to remember them. Glandor is "Sunflower" and Matt is "Matt Matt".
• Nightmare Sequence: These are Kumori's specialty. Notably, she gives them to Shard when she needs her to wake up. This is problematic when the nightmare in question relates to Shard's abilities and makes her doubt that she can use them.
• No Indoor Voice: Loudred's font is always a size or two larger than everyone else's.
• Non Sequitur: Some of the comments can get a little... strange. It reached the point where Niv created a chat room so that the fans could talk about random stuff there, and actually comment on the comic on the comic itself.
• Offscreen Crash: Pulled by Shard upon entering Darknight Relic.
• Oh, Crap!: "What's this about making kissy-faces with my sister...?"
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Blue and Shard aren't going to be hearing the end of the latter being kissed by the prior from their teammates.
  Black: Reason two: There are more urgent matters to make fun of.
• One of the Boys: Kumori, to the point where at least one person has thought that she is a guy.
• One-Steve Limit: This is apparently the reason why Shard avoids having Pokémon of the same species show up, unless they're a wild Pokémon.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: This is what the ARE claims when he shows up with a small army to save Team SMG.
• Our Ghosts Are Different / Our Spirits Are Different: Kumori takes this trope and runs with it.
• Playing with Fire: Any fire type - Matt especially, who had fire-based abilities before becoming a pokemon.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Shue (Shard x Blue) and Glandatt (Glandor x Matt). The fans get in on the action here. Shard was not amused.
  Shard: (On the next page) Okay guys, can we keep the Portmanteau Couple Names to a minimum in the comments on this page? And all the other pages?
• The Power of Friendship: Basically what Team SMG runs off of.
• The Power of Hate: Venus uses this to evolve.
• Power Glows: Oh yes. Especially when Team SMG is involved.
• Power Nullifier: This is essentially what Shard's mira does. It also works in barrier form to bounce attacks back at their sender.
• Power Trio: Team SMG themselves, of the "Two Guys and a Girl" variety.
• Powers via Possession: When Kumori possesses someone who's willing to be possessed, she can use their powers as well as her own. When it's not willing, she only gets the powers of the one she's possessing.
• Psychic Powers: Any psychic-type pokemon- most notably, Mew and Mewtwo.
• Pungeon Master: Entei and his egg puns.
• Random Encounter: Happens in the places the teams have to explore. And let's not forget...

  ARE: Hi there! I'm an evil wild pokemon!

• Reaction Shot: Matt, Glandor, Mew and Black get these when Blue kisses Shard.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Kumori can give herself glowing red eyes to intimidate others. In a subversion, several pokemon have red eyes, but none really mean anything - it's just the pokemon species has that color eyes.
• Schedule Slip: During the prep-time for, and about a week after, the 151 Q&A special on Perplexing Magnolia Disruption, updates were a bit slower than usual. Lampshaded by Shard, of course.
  Shard: Hey, remember when I updated this comic regularly? Neither do I!
  • And let's not forget the three-month break between comics 134 and 135.
  Shard: The full title of this page is "135- Oh My God The Last Update Was Like 3 Months Ago What The Hell Have I Been Doing I Swear To God This Is Kind Of Ridiculous Why Haven't I Updated This Comic I Mean Really It's One Of My More Lighthearted Things And Yet I've Been Neglecting It I Mean It Even Got To 200 Fans While I Was Ignoring It I'm So Sorry Here Have An Update I Haven't Forgotten About All You Assholes I'm So So Sorry For Not Updating Sooner"
• Sentai: Team Rangers, what with them being based off of Power Rangers and all.
• Sequel Hook: The last five comics of Perplexing Magnolia Disruption were essentially this.
• Shipper on Deck: Shard ships Matt x Glandor. After the "Shue" incident, Matt and Glandor are pretty eager to get payback about it.
• Shout-Out: Let's get down to business! Team Rangers has a field day with this one.
  • HELLO MY BABY, HELLO MY HONEY, HELLO MY RAG TIME GAAAAALLL
• Sibling Rivalry: Shard and Kumori.
• Speak in Unison: Happens every now and again, usually among Pokémon on the same teams.
• The Stinger: The Mysterious Black Text Guy talking to Mew and Mewtwo about bringing Team SMG back to the world of Pokémon for some unknown reason in the last five comics of Perplexing Magnolia Disruption.
• The Stoic: Suicune is calm under basically any circumstance.
• Sucking-In Lines: Some of Mewtwo's attacks do this.
• Super-Speed: Shard and Zapdos both have this, to the point that their battle is a race instead of an actual fight.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Kumori, especially when dealing with Team SMG.
• Sweet Tooth: Entei has one.
• Taking You with Me: Mewtwo decides to do this to Team SMG.
• Talking in Your Dreams: Usually during someone's Dream Sequence. Even more so when Kumori gets involved.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Played with. According to Word of God, most Pokémon are affected by the turn-based system, however legendary Pokémon and outsiders - that is, Team SMG and KHV - are exempt from this rule and are able to attack in whatever order they choose. This means that Xatu is unable to attack Team Rangers until all six of them have attacked him - and Black didn't take his turn.
  • It's also played more straight during the fight against Entei - a badly-placed Sunny Day attack causes Glandor to evolve, and Matt explains Glandor's new weakness to him... while Shard and Entei have a staring contest.
• Teasing Creator: Shard's constant interaction with her fans leads her to do this sometimes.
• Technical Pacifist: Mew is one of these. While she understands sometimes violence is necessary, she still doesn't like to use it, especially if her brother is involved. This, along with being weakened, is reason she called on Team SMG's help in the first place.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Team KHV's modus operandi. Venus cites it as the reason they can't beat Team SMG.
• Tempting Fate: All the time. Glandor is the prime offender.
  Glandor: If he gets up now, though, we're as good as through...
  Mewtwo opens his eyes
  Glandor: Oh, come on!
  Shard: Sunflower, if we survive whatever he's about to do, I'm revoking your speaking privileges.
  • Parodied in Mt. Thunder, where every time someone says, "Good thing lightning never strikes the same place twice!" Lightning strikes the exact same spot it just did. It turns out it's Zapdos accepting the "challenge."
• Through His Stomach: Entei is convinced to stop fighting Team SMG when Shard offers to bring him to Treasure Town so he can set up his business there, as well as get a free meal at the guild.
  • He also insists on being paid through sweet foods.
• Time Skip: Between Perplexing Magnolia Disruption and Platonic Management Dilemma. The exact amount of time was left ambiguous.
• Title Drop: The aptly-named update Title Drop.
• Took a Level in Badass: Prettymuch everyone over the Time Skip.
• Trapped in Another World: Team SMG, and later Team KHV, being sent to the world of Pokémon.
• Trolling Creator: One of the fans, Aura X, was translating the Unowns so that other fans could read them. What did Shard eventually do? Make practically an entire comic of Unown speak and title it "Have Fun, Aura".
• True Companions: Team SMG.
• Two Girls to a Team: Team Rangers has Pink and Yellow.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Team KHV. They can beat most Pokémon relatively quickly, but their preferred method of doing so is "hit it until it stops moving".
• Useless Useful Spell: Shard's Mira is very potent against powers, making her effectively immune to any type of Mind Manipulation (except Kumori's possession, but that's because she knows how to get around it). However, it also makes her immune to things like healing, teleportation, and Status Buff spells. It also can't defend against physical attacks and weapons, and if the barriers are broken by those, Shard herself takes damage because of it.
• Villainous Rescue: Done by Team Rangers here.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The only way to explain why Team KHV hasn't killed each other yet with stunts like this.
  • Team Rangers spends quite a bit of time arguing for a team that graduated before the events of Perplexing Magnolia Disruption.
• Violence is the Only Option: Of course. This is lampshaded a few times when the team is at Mt. Blaze.
• Wall of Text: Often caused by Articuno as part of his Motor Mouth tendencies. At some points, it even covers other characters.
• Warm-Up Boss: Xatu.
• Weak, but Skilled: Glandor compared to the rest of Team SMG, Team SMG compared to Team KHV, and the ARE compared to most other Pokemon.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Justified. Green explains to Matt that should he be knocked out, the rest of Team SMG will have to take him to safety so he can recover. This ends up working both ways - when Shard defeats Blue later on, Pink decides against getting revenge so she can take Blue to safety.
• Win to Exit: Since it's a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fancomic, beating the final boss in Perplexing Magnolia Disruption will most likely result in Team SMG and Kumori being sent home.
  • Confirmed by Mew in the 151 Q&A Special.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: When Team Rangers is asking around town about the Second Servant of Celebi, Breloom mentions something about it. Blue begins thanking her for talking anyway when he realizes what she said.
• Word of God: Since Shard's constantly interacting with her fans, this comes up quite often.
  yoshi freak: ...that's not pink, is it?
  Shard: No, it is.
• Word Salad Title: Perplexing Magnolia Disruption started out as one of these and the author having Fun with Acronyms. Subverted when Niv finds a way to work it into the comic, resulting in the Title Drop mentioned above.
• The Worf Effect: Moltres suffers this when going up against Team KHV.
• Write Who You Know: Various Legendary Pokémon are Expies of either Shard's own characters or characters her friends have made.
• Your Money Is No Good Here: Entei doesn't take money for his services. He'd prefer to be paid in cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and other sweets.