Webcomic / Slightly Damned

All spoilers regarding the first 1000 pages are left unmarked. Examples pertaining to recent pages can be spoiler tagged if deemed necessary.

From left to right: Kieri, Rhea, Buwaro (holding Thadius), and Death.

"I've seen lots of weird stuff from traveling with my family. But an Angel and a Demon being friends is REALLY weird."

— Samantha Kailum, who doesn't know the half of it.

Slightly Damned is a Comedic Drama Fantasy webcomic written and drawn by Chu. The story is based on the "life", death, and misadventures of Rhea Snaketail, as well as her "Demon supervisor"-turned-surrogate little brother Buwaro, and later on, the socially awkward yet badass Angel Kieri "Snowy" Suizahn.

The humor and emotional drama is derived from a full cast of varied and compelling characters, and the complex but rewarding plot is sure to inspire many an Archive Binge well into the wee hours of the morning. Updates every Saturday with a large full color page.

Originally updated officially every Saturday, it became notable for having the proud honor of being perhaps the only webcomic in existence with Reverse Schedule Slip, although this sadly ended up being played straight later on. Fortunately, this has happened less than a dozen times since the title page first debuted on March 13th, 2004. Thus making this webcomic a true Long Runner.

As of May 2016, the site has changed its formatting. Many of the links to pages older than 750 (May 8, 2016) may not work.

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Slightly Damned contains examples of:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Lampshaded by Heathcliff when his wife chopped a small but thick part of Buwaro's horn with her scissors:
  Cliff: With scissors like those, you could pierce the heavens!
• Abusive Parents: Kieri's mother (at least) is implied to be quite physically abusive.
  • Confirmed.
• Accidental Misnaming: Buwaro keeps calling Kieri "Snowy", as Rhea named her when they thought she was just a bunny. Nobody seems to mind it, though. Word of God is that he does this to avoid mispronouncing Kieri's full name.
• Affably Evil: Most Demons are this at least in regards to each other, as during the Gathering where most of them act more like rowdy party animals than the brutal conquerors from Hell that they are and are believed to be.
• Alcohol Hic: Iratu.
• Alien Sky: Medius has two moons, red and green. Hell has an utterly featureless sky that simply goes on and off. According to Word of God, a god did it. It is also offhandedly mentioned that it never really gets dark in Heaven.
• All Myths Are True: The Fairy Queen has been confirmed now.
  • Retroactively done. Most Medians - Rhea included - don't really believe in the Guardians or heaven or hell. Of course, Death shows up in the first page of the comic, and Rhea is introduced to her first demon by page five, so she's had to discard her skepticism in a hurry.
• All There in the Manual: A lot of details about the various characters are explained on Chu's Tumblr account. However, some details such as Iratu and Azurai being a couple and the fact that Iratu never loved Buwaro in the first place are sometimes later added to canon.
• Always Chaotic Evil: This, and most related tropes, are Averted in the story. The author and the story itself indicate that demons and angels have evil and good tendencies, but there are exceptions in all cases.
  • Berserk Demons are a straighter example, attacking and killing until they die or there's nothing left to kill. And then hurting the last one they have the option to: themselves.
  • This becomes apparent during the St. Curtis attack, with Demons other than Buwaro fighting against it, and some Angels aiding it. Buwaro even lampshades this after the fact.
  • This aversion is part of the reason that Lazuli hates angels so much, they're no different from demons, especially when it came to their actions in the Great War, but the Medians all but worship them like they do Gaia while, well, "demonizing" the Demons.
• Ambiguously Gay: Possibly, Eve.
• And Call Him "George": Death may be friendly, but when not watching his own strength, gave a pretty fierce hug to Buwaro and Rhea.
  • Also, Buwaro gave one to Rhea when introducing her to Sakido.
• Animesque
• Apologises a Lot: Kieri, especially earlier on. At one point moves into Sorry I Fell on Your Fist territory when Kieri claims it is her fault that she was cursed by a spiteful demigod. Justified by how Kieri is strongly suggested to have had an abusive mother.
• Annoying Arrows: Massively averted. An angelic holy arrow kills a berserk Sakido (who was one of the strongest warriors in Hell in her normal state) just by hitting her in the leg.
  • We also learn that Buwaro's biological mother was killed by a holy arrow through her chest.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite all her adventures with Kieri and Buwaro, Rhea is stunned to find out that mermaids actually exist.
• Armor-Piercing Question: The page picture gives the perfect example, as Sammy catches Kieri off guard.
• Art Evolution: With beautiful results! Seriously, look at this early page, and this more recent page! And the really impressive thing? The second one, and all the ones after it, use a principle of light explained at Real Is Brown.
  • An even better example: As a reward for large donations for a Kickstarter page to make SD plushies, Chu re-drew a few early pages.
    • Page 92 old new
    • Page 93 old new (Warning: both are tear jerkers.)
  • And, most recently, this post on the Chu's own Tumblr account
  • The berserk demons in general seem to be much larger than they were at the start.(warning spoilers)
• Artifact Alias: The party includes an angel who was mute when they met her due to a cursed collar she had at the time. Rhea nicknamed her Snowy, and kept calling her that even after she was able to tell him her real name (possibly because it's easier to say than "Kieri Suizahn").
• Artifact Title: The name used to refer to how Rhea was sentenced to being in the Ring of the Slightly Damned because she wasn't bad enough to go to Hell, but not good enough to get put in Limbo. Rhea, Buwaro, and Sakido all left the Ring in the first arc, and the Ring is hardly ever even mentioned beyond that.
• Art Shift: Several times, during Dream Sequences.
  • Also flashbacks, like when Kieri reads through Darius's diary, are done in the same style.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Played with in Angels, who dye their hair and uniforms based on their element. Demons' elements, however, totally change their physical appearance, with earth demons being upwards of 12 feet tall, wind demons tending to be very tall and thin, with wings, fire demons usually around human height◊, and water demons being fairly short (around 5 feet tall) and usually aquatic.
• As You Know: Used and lampshaded here. (Be warned of major spoilers, naturally.)
• The Atoner: "If you are reading this and I am no longer around, then I've gotten what I deserved."
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Berserk Demons. This is why they'll fight until they are killed or die of exhaustion. They hurt themselves when alone.
• Audio Adaptation: Currently, there's a fan made Radio Play project which was started back in August 2008. All of the characters are voiced by fans and forum members with the exception of Rhea who is voiced by the Author herself. Unlike the comic however, it suffers from Schedule Slip partially due to the fact that there are a lot of people who need to be coordinated in order for the project to work. The first four episodes are currently out with the fifth currently in production. You can listen to them here.
  • Currently entering Anachronic Order thanks to technical difficulties and the fact that the VA for Sakido Died During Production, barring outside help in the form of The Other Darrin.
  • As of July 14, 2011, Episode 3 has finally been released.
• Avenging the Villain: Lazuli becomes hellbent on killing Kieri after she kills Talus.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Buwaro never actually uses the wings he gets from Sakido's pendant because the group is of unanimous opinion they're too small to do any real good. Also, Kieri's Harmless Freezing powers seem to be like that, used only in one Random Encounter.
  • For that matter, Buwaro's Unstoppable Rage is rendered thus by being much more literal than usual. There are precisely two ways to stop it, and one of those is death. It's also totally indiscriminate.
• Ax-Crazy: Azurai. Quoth Iratu, in response for throwing out Tsavo's suggestion that they not vaporize a village to get one specific person: "What the hell is your problem?"
  • Lazuli was pretty nasty to begin with, but after her first loss against Kieri and the death of her friend, Talus, she's full-blown psychotic. She rants and raves about killing her in the most gruesome way possible, and slaughters several innocent people (and some bandits) in her path of vengeance. And when she encounters Rhea and Buwaro in St. Curtis, she immediately forgets about the angel she's apprehending and tries to murder them. You just know you've lost it when Azurai has to stop you from killing anyone.
• Bad Guy Bar: One is found in St. Curtis, specifically after the demons began to attack St. Curtis and after Rhea and Buwaro gave up Kieri to Azurai and Patch.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Rhea and Kazai are about to throw down with Dakos but they are all taken by surprise by berserk Lazuli who immediately kills Dakos and then attempts to kill everyone else.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Buwaro counts to an extent, as his bear-like feet are just about always bare, and Rhea may count as well if one doesn't count her paw-wrappings.
  • Any character that isn't human or an angel applies, but the most notable of them are the demons.
  • Addressed in this Q&A comic saying demon feet are tough enough that they don't need any shoes as well the fact that no one makes shoes that fit them.
• Bar Brawl: One breaks out in the Coiled Cobra Bar after Tsavo knocks Buwaro into Dakos, this causes a chain reaction that starts a massive fight that Iratu allows as it would blow off steam.
• Beast and Beauty: The Monster and the Maiden, an in-universe example.
  • Visually, Buwaro and Kieri. Interestingly, from an emotional standpoint Kieri represents the beast (emotionally scarred by how people react to and make assumptions about her being a warrior), with Buwaro being the 'beauty' that isn't bothered by this and makes her feel good about herself.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: This is the reason Tsavo is so loyal to Iratu and was so distraught by the news of Sakido's death as they were the only other war orphans who looked out for him.
• Battle Couple: Kazai and Sanjulo.
• Berserk Button: Buwaro's pendant, inverted since it suppresses his Superpowered Evil Side, instead of actually making him angry.
  • Denevol reacts very poorly to Demons. Even when an Angel and one of his friends tell him to stop.
  • Don't insult Sakido's poetry. No matter how bad it is.
  • Don't threaten or harm anyone Kieri cares for. She will can and will hurt you.
  • Bullying is also one for Kieri, since it gives her flashbacks of her mother.
  • And Denevol's attack on Kieri was perhaps the one (non-pendant-related) time we've seen Buwaro look genuinely threatening.
  • With Azurai it's getting his horns sliced/broken off.
  • When Buwaro brings up Darius to Iratu, he flies into a rage and immediately attempts to kill him.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Several demons have deadly weapons on their tails.
  • Iratu has massive scythe on the end of his long tail.
  • Sakido normally doesn't even have a tail but when she goes berserk, she grows a long thin tail with a blade on the end which she proceeds impale a demon with.
  • Tsavo has three stegosaur-like spikes on his tail.
  • While Abyset has a small, sharp barb underneath his tail fin.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Remind Kieri of her abusive parentage, or threaten Buwaro, and she will beat the ever-loving shit out of you.
• Big Bad
  • While it may be too early to tell, Moonshade and his Guardian-killing antics are a worthy candidate.
  • The Angel claiming to be Syndel and who is leading the demons could also be seen as this.
• Big Brother Bully: Iratu and Sakido to Buwaro, the latter much more than the former. When they reunite after years of separation, the older siblings are a little better about it.
  • Things are later revealed to be the total opposite. Word of God confirms Iratu absolutely hates Buwaro, even worse than Sakido did.
• The Big Guy: Iratu. Full stop. Talus too. Let's be safe and say all Earth Demons.
  • Though Iratu is especially huge (and strong) even for an earth demon, due to Darius's pendant.
    • Ironically, a later strip has Azurai commenting that without his pendant, Iratu is abnormally small for an earth demon.
• Big "NO!": No reincarnation for Rhea
  • Rhea's reaction to more of Sakido's poetry.
• Bigger Is Better: GIGA pudding!
• Bishie Sparkle: Parodied with Buwaro while he's in Pimp Duds.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Apparently Angels hatch from eggs like demons do (according to Lakritz anyways). Although judging by his snickering it's likely that he's just messing with Buwaro. However, in a flashback, Kieri mentions hatching first, so it seems to be true after all.
• Black Bug Room: After another angel triggers Kieri's Berserk Button by hurting Buwaro, she basically snaps, and beats the crap out of him, leading to a scene with her surrounded by eyes shouting "Die Die Die" while she shuts away Buwaro and Crunky from her mind.
• Black Comedy: Denevol beating the crap out of bunny-Kieri was definitely not played for laughs. That strip's title, however, was a cheerful "Now with 100% more bunny stompin'!"
  • Azurai's pretty cheerful about leaving the corpses of people he kills around to rot.
  • Sakido Blowing a Raspberry at the remakes of the pages where she's killed.
• Blah, Blah, Blah : Pulled by Buwaro of all people. It quickly goes from funny to sweet.
• Blue with Shock: Rhea and Buwaro upon encountering Lazuli in St. Curtis, who they thought they had successfully fled from some time ago.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Miranda let Kieri and her friends travel to St. Curtis with her family so she could offer them protection. Just look at Cliff's fight with Denevol and Miranda's fight with Haury's squad, and tell me if they needed any protection at all.
• Body Horror:
  • Rhea undergoes a temporary transformation after drinking the magic-enhancing potion, which involved the flesh / fur of her tail seemingly partially sloughing off to reveal scales underneath, as well as getting fangs that were obviously way too big for her mouth.
  • When Sakido goes berserk the skin on her head becomes tight on her skull and her fangs become more pronounced, she also sprouts a tail that is pretty much just vertebrae with a layer of skin over it.
  • Seymour Sinclair has lost most of the flesh on half his body due to dying in his flaming wagon of doom (but thankfully for him the Ring of the Slightly Damned keeps it from causing him pain).
  • Cerberus has a large partially open wound where his middle head was removed.
• Bowdlerize: Angelic isn't particularly good for cursing.
  Demon: (in Angelic) You may kiss my posterior, you son of an ugly woman.
  Angel: (in Angelic) Wh-wha...h-how dare you! For such an uncouth remark, instead I will kick it!
• Break His Heart to Save Him: After Kazai is captured and Kieri learns that Buwaro's adoptive brother Iratu is leading the invasion, Kieri attacks and insults Buwaro so he won't follow her on her mission to save her brother and to spare him from having to go against his own brother.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Duster popping the lovey-dovey hearts in the second panel here might just be the first (if minor) example of this. Not that a lack of fourth wall breakage hinders the story or humor at all, of course.
• Brick Joke: Rock joke.
  • Which doubles as an Incredibly Lame Pun.
• Broken Pedestal: Sakido gets one when the trio read her journal entry confessing how she tore Buwaro's ear and left him for dead.
• Brutal Honesty: Sakido in her exposition dialogue's end. Not too depressing...
• Butt-Monkey: The main trio gets their moments, but Buwaro stands out. He's constantly berated by the other characters, eventually leading to his attempted Stupid Sacrifice at the hands of Denevol in Love and War, as well as getting injured a lot between and after (whether amusing or not).
  • Lazuli, especially after The Bus Came Back in St. Curtis. She gets a deep cut on her right side by Kieri, watches her only partner that was with her at the time Talus die right in front of her, gets cut on the right hand AND left side during the second fight with her, gets punched in the side by Buwaro and experiences Agony of the Feet during a Bar Brawl, and is smashed against the side of the wagon by an artificially-enraged Buwaro and culminating in her getting savagely mauled by him shortly after
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Demons, justified as switching on the eye glow improves their already good night vision.
• Canis Major: Though we don't see much of it Medius apparently has a dog breed larger than a horse called a Nirvenese Mountain Dog which Buwaro and Rhea end up getting chased by. We also have Iratu who (despite being an earth demon not an actual canine) is taller than 12ft when standing upright, at least when his moon pendant is active.
• Casanova Wannabe: Duster.
• Cardiovascular Love: With Heart Symbols:
  • Mixed with Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The bandit that speaks in Comic 202 has a tattoo that says "MOM" in a Heart Symbol, likely meaning Cardiovascular Love.
  • In Comic 965, an "I love you" that's being said with three pink heart symbols, and the recipient being shown in a Love Bubbles background with more Heart Symbols around their head.
• Catapult Nightmare: Snowy.
• Catching Some Z's: In a few comics, used to indicate sleeping characters:
  • Comic "237": The "Zzz..." in the last panel, indicates that Rhea has fallen asleep.
  • Comic "243": The "Zzz..." in the last panel, indicates that Buwaro has fallen asleep.
• Category Traitor: Kieri has been accused of this for her friendship with Buwaro. Buwaro also gets this from the demons in the Bad Guy Bar when learn that his girlfriend is an angel.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While intended as a plot driven story from the beginning, the focus on Rhea and Buwaro in the first several strips makes the beginning much lighter in tone.
  • It happens twice, in fact. First we have Rhea and Buwaro in the Ring of the Slightly Damned, and later their time in Medius with Kieiri, which was mostly lighthearted in itself. Still, a recent set of comics seem to indicate that the plot is getting ready to kick in again...
    • In first example, Sakido fought Cerberus.
• Cessation of Existence: Sakido explains that demons do not have an afterlife. The same also applies to Angels. It seems ironically fitting that Sakido explains it since she dies about 15 pages later. Darius later explained that, while Medians spend time in Purgatory before their souls are recycled and reincarnated, Angels and Demons have their souls recycled immediately upon death.
  • Darius later clarifies that Demons and Angels simply don't get the reward or torment of Heaven or Hell, with their essence being reincarnated directly into new Angels and Demons instead of getting an afterlife first. Why Median souls go the extra length is unknown.
• Chain of Deals: Parodied in this strip.
• Character Development: Quite a bit. Over a year has passed in-story, and the characters have come a long way from where they started.
  • Rhea is more tolerant and patient with Buwaro's antics, and she seems to be more comfortable acting as a surrogate older sister to him and Kieri. She's still a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but with slightly more emphasis on the heart of gold-part.
  • Buwaro has matured and is becoming more focused and serious. His commitment to Kieri drives him to try to and better himself by trying to learn to read and use his magic.
  • Kieri is more outspoken and confident, and she's no longer bothered by her feelings for Buwaro.
    • She also undergoes a secondary development regarding her feelings towards demons, earlier while she didn't display the same level of hatred her brother shows she was still terrified of demons who weren't Buwaro but after spending time with him, learning of his history and meeting other demons like Sahne and Lakritz, she has grown to view demons as equals and is distraught at having to kill Lazuli despite what she'd done to her and even calls herself a murderer.
• Cheated Angle: Thadius always looks the same — crevasse, shape, everything — because she is always drawn from the exact same angle.
• Chekhov's Gun: Death only has one eye. So does Darius.
  • This scene has two of them, within a few inches of each other. Buwaro's book and the feather turn out to be important later.
  • Mrs. Sinclair takes the red Rainbow Reverie potion when Threatened by demons.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Buwaro after learning what a hickey is...
• Clutching Hand Trap: Happens for Mood Whiplash on one page when Kieri is briefly considering the possibility that Buwaro is manipulating her during an argument with her brother who is trying to convince her that Buwaro is evil, but then she either imagines or remembers Buwaro being unable to get his hand out of a jar while holding a pickle in it and begging her for help, which causes her to immediately dismiss the possibility as something Buwaru is too dumb to be capable of.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Buwaro.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Azurai is prone to this.
• Coins for the Dead: Medians are buried with a coin that is used to pay Death for their passage across the river Styx. If they don't have one, or refuse to give it up like one greedy banker, they have to swim, which can take years. It's customary for the jakkai to place a coin in the ear of a dead loved one. After Sakido dies, Rhea puts a coin in her ear.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: This strip implies Lazuli did this to Kieri.
• Color Failure: Rhea caught with J's letter.
  • "Maybe that's because the Angels who went to Medius could never return home."
  • I'm with Rhea on this one.
  • Rhea is awfully prone to this trope.
  • You're not the only one scared, Buwaro.
  • What was that, Miranda?
  • See Flat "What".
• The Comically Serious: Sakido.
• Coming of Age: As the story goes on, Buwaro seems to be trading his emotional connections with Thadius for Kieri. Indeed, his maturity seems to scale inversely with Thadius's screen time, culminating in Thadius's death in the attack on St. Curtis.
  • The fact that Buwaro was willing to go this far for her says a lot.
• Common Tongue: Lingo, spoken by both Medians and Demons, the only other language that has appeared in the comic is Angelic.
• Companion Cube: Thadius, of course.
• Compliment Backfire: When Buwaro is worried about his appearance after his horn is damaged, Kieri tries to console him by saying he looks fine to her because she doesn't care how his horns look. But that's even more heinous for him...
• Conditioned to Be Weak: Earth dragons are tamed by encouraging them to struggle against their tether while young and weak so that they think it can still hold them when they are strong. This is used as a metaphor for Kieri's feelings of inadequacy due to her abusive upbringing.
• Confused Question Mark: In Comic 251, said in a Pictorial Speech-Bubble by Kieri and Buwaro, when they're confused by someone saying "Stop! Thief!".
• Cool Big Sis: In a more literal example, Rhea has taken on the responsibility of being a big sister to Buwaro since Sakido's death. Kieri also looks up to Rhea as a role model, since she envies Rhea's strong personality. Though she can be cynical and short tempered with them, Rhea's doing her best to look after them both and give them guidance.
  • Sakido to Buwaro.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Buwaro.
  • Duster seems rather silly normally, but he enables Cliff to be able to do the "Siara Special," an attack an Angel Seraph couldn't take lightly.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When Heathcliff Sinclair stands up to fight a Seraph who has been kicking the crap out of the comic's most accomplished fighter, we are led to expect a dramatic back and forth. Three pages later a smug Cliff dusts off from a flawless victory.
  • Soaking him with a bit of water and chopping off one of his horns - that's all the combined efforts of Kieri, Kazai, and Sanjulo managed to do to Azurai, who beat them down (and outright killed Sanjulo) without getting scratched otherwise. And until the horn incident, he wasn't even fighting seriously.
• Cursed with Awesome: Debatably, Kieri's transformations. While inconvenient, have saved her life at least once. Later, she uses it to help defeat her brother.
• Cute Bruiser: Kieri.
• Cute Little Fangs: Buwaro, and to a lesser extent Rhea.
• Cycle of Revenge: According to Lakritz, this is part of why the Great War was so long and bloody, each side kept seeking revenge on the other for previous atrocities. He's honestly afraid that unless something major changes it won't end until one side, the other, or both are annihilated.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Kieri said she was unpopular, she didn't say her mother was abusive. Iron Woobie, much?
  • Sakido and Iratu were abusive to Buwaro before he was old enough to talk. The former is responsible for the bite mark on his ear.
• Dark Is Not Evil / Light Is Not Good: Angels and demons are shown to suffer similar attitudes (including emotional instability and prejudice) to what you would expect of humans, given their respective cultural situations.
• Deadpan Snarker: Rhea.
• Dead to Begin With: Rhea, obviously.
• Death Equals Redemption: We only learn why Sakido was so willing to risk her life for Buwaro years after the strip where she died trying to make his life better.
• Deconstruction: Several show up in the comic.
  • Forever War: While the angels first waged war on the demons to protect the medians from them but after centuries of fighting, it has degraded into a war of extermination. Then there's the fact that the constant warfare has decimated their populations now there aren't many demons or angels left.
  • Hulking Out: Demons have the ability to go berserk which grants them enhanced magic and strength while also causing them to grow in size and altering their appearance, however it puts so much strain on their bodies that it will kill them in a short time.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rhea was one of these before she was killed but before she softened up she was just plain mean to most people except her friends and she was send to the Ring of the Slightly Damned which is just one step above hell proper.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Happens pretty much every time things are looking up for the Protagonists...as a means to move the plot along.
• Divine Parentage: The Twelve Guardians (thanks to their mortal disguises) are capable of having children with the mortal races. These descendents seem to possess any distinguishing characteristics their demigod ancestors disguises had, it is also implied that should a guardian somehow die any descendent they might have will inherit their power. It's heavily implied that Rhea and Moonshade are both descended from Moku the snake guardian and that Moonshade killed any other members of his bloodline and then Moku himself to exploit the divine inheritance aspect. It also seems that Cliff might be descended from Siara the Lynx, given his oddly pointy ears, powerful fire magic and the fact that he turned into a lynx to bite Haury's hand.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: Subverted. At first, Death seems to be an amiable person who even made friends with the rather lonely denizens of the Ring of the Slightly Damned. But then it's revealed that he's actually the angel Darius, who acts as Death's replacement. The actual god is at least implied to be much more callous.
• Didn't Think This Through: Buwaro, a lot. Sometimes approaches Leeroy Jenkins territory.
  • Ice Shards + Fire Breath = Getting hit in the face with water.
  • Fact: A Trouble Center I.D. badge will not protect you against a Knight Templar Seraph.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal: Occurred when Rhea stole Buwaro's star pendant, which resulted in Buwaro reverting to his berserk state and brutally killing her.. The cast has spent the remainder of the comic trying to avert this.
• Dream Sequence: In the first few arcs, dream sequences for the characters are fairly common.
• Drowning My Sorrows
  • Implied to be the reason Iratu got drunk this time as he's not cheerful like he was the first time we saw him drunk.
  • Rhea gets hammered after learning the reason behind her murder and her heritage.
• Dynamic Entry: Duster, in comic 560.
• Doomed Hometown: St. Curtis
• Due to the Dead: Angels of the fire clan are cremated as was done with Sanjulo.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: The conflict started in part because Syndel was ticked that the Medians worshipped Gaia over him when they both made the world together with Death. Thus, modern Median religion does its best to honor Gaia and Syndel equally.
• Dumb Struck: Kieri stops speaking after being traumatized by the sack of St. Curtis. Eventually she learns to communicate in sign language with Buwaro.
• Dying Race: The Great War has severely diminished the populations of both angels and demons and if the war were to continue then they will both go extinct, especially since both are having a harder time producing children (likely due to the disappearance of Gaia and Syndel).
• Ear Ache: Buwaro got a very damaged ear from Sakido.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Before the series' original mythology was established, Death referred to himself as being also known as both Anubis and the Grim Reaper, as well as implying he had many other titles. Even knowing that it's not really Death making these claims, this still makes little sense.
  • There were only four important characters not including Azurai, the angel that struck down Sakido, and Tsavo's Early-Bird Cameo, it was more of a fantastical Slice of Life story until Snow Angels, and the plot of demons trying to take over Medius didn't come about until Love and War. Iratu also wasn't revealed to be in a relationship with Azurai until Part Nine, and many of the gay couples weren't revealed until the "Invasion of St. Curtis" arc.
  • Artistically, the comic isn't a quarter of the quality it is in later pages. The style was a lot less professional, the highlights tended to be a lot harsher, there was a lot more use of the blur tool, and backgrounds were extremely minimalistic.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Buwaro at one point eats a plate.
• Elemental Dragon: Dragons come in several different forms depending on the element that they're associated with — fire dragons, which resemble and act like wingless, bipedal European ones; water dragons, which are surprisingly playful and good-natured; earth dragons, rhino-like and targets of poaching due to their crystal horns; and wind dragons, which have four birdlike wings and talons but are now extinct.
• Elemental Powers: All characters are attuned to a classical element. Some generic elemental behavior stereotypes, and certain eye colors, tend to be slightly more common among users of the related element. Demons have additional abilities based on their element, with earth demons being huge in size, wind demons being able to fly, water demons being amphibious, and fire demons breathing fire (as well as being fire and cold resistant). (Interestingly, the comic does not use Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors.)
  • Blow You Away, Shock and Awe: Sakido, Denevol.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Iratu, Talus, Darius, Rhea (though she's limited to only one spell).
  • Making a Splash, An Ice Person: Lazuli, Kieri, any of Kieri's family.
  • Playing with Fire: Buwaro, Azurai, Samantha, Cliff.
• The Empire: Subverted, The empire that rules The Dragon Island Archipelago was created by several governments willingly uniting and is an ally to Fragaria.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The bandit that speaks in Comic 202 has a tattoo that says "MOM" in a Heart Symbol, likely meaning Cardiovascular Love.
  • Iratu is a more serious version as even as a general for hell, he is still very fond of Darius since he kept a childhood drawing of him and when Buwaro (who he hates) brings up Darius, Iratu immediately gives up on trying to talk to him and tries to kill him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Unlike angels, demons forbid Child Soldiers from joining their ranks, placing young demons in a boot camp system instead and supervising them. So that's one thing they've got going for them.
  • Azurai doesn't look too keen on the idea that Mr. Moonshade could kill his own daughter, Rhea. Much less try to kill her again.
• Everybody Hates Hades: An In-Universe example. Father Syndel who did just as much to create Medius and its inhabitants as Mother Gaia but he was shunned (likely due to the fact his demons torture the souls of sinful medians) while Gaia and her angels received most the praise. Eventually, he got fed up with it and started The Great War by making a deal with a power-hungry general and having his demons invade Medius. Subverted with the third god, Death who doesn't seem to be viewed negatively and remained neutral in the war.
• Everybody Loves Zeus: Happens In-Universe with Mother Gaia who alongside Father Syndel both created Medius and the races living there but she and her angels received the glory while Syndel and his demons were shunned, eventually he grew jealous and had the demons invade Medius in retaliation and she sent the angels to drive them off but we see in the story that they could be every bit as brutal as the demons.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: If these statues are anything to go by, Gaia and Syndel both have rainbow colored wings representing the four Classical Elements. Syndel even went a bit further by having multicolored horns and elbow spikes.
• Evil Gloating: Iratu has to be reminded not to explain their plan, but he likes gloating.
• Exposition Fairy: Rhea within the parody incentive is Navi, functionally.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The Demons' invasion, burning, and destruction of St. Curtis, which lasted from late 2013 to the end of August 2017? All of that happened in a single day!
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: When Rhea, Kieri and a semi-berserk Buwaro catch back up to the wagon to rescue Kazai, Rhea positions Lazuli between Kieri and Buwaro (after giving her a high-speed punch to the gut) he immediately sinks his giant teeth into her shoulder, shakes her in the air like a dog with a rabbit and throws her off hard enough for a crunch to be heard.
• Eye Scream:
  • Buwaro's thoughts in this comic.
  • A not-at-all comedic example happens in the backstory, when Darius graps the baby berserk Buwaro to protect Sakido, Buwaro claws his face and damages his eye so badly his Healing Hands couldn't repair it.
• Face–Heel Turn: Two of Medius's Guardian Spirits sided with Syndel during the Great War. Toski, the rabbit spirit, seems to be the most infamous of them, to the point that many people view rabbits as signs of bad luck or worse. Also, as of page 634, Sahne seems to pull this with Kinako. But it turns out she was trying to save her
• The Fair Folk: While normal Fairies are of the tiny and playful variety, the Queen of Fairies gives off some bad vibrations.
  • To be fair, that's just a story. But then again...
  • A newspaper article suggests that she murdered the Jakkai merchant who tried to sell Willow and Eve on the black market, his skull was found covered in pink glitter.
• Fairy Companion: Sammy has two, sisters named Willow and Eve, who she rescued from an unscrupulous merchant in Riverside. They're you're standard fairy companion affair: small, cute, glowing, and silent. Less conventionally, Cliff has Duster, who is fast-talking and lecherous. He also seems to amplify Cliff's magical abilities.
• Fairy in a Bottle: Well, a jar, but close enough. It's someone containing fairies, in a small container, meaning that that's something worth doing, and that they fit in such a container. As shown in comic 252, a Jakkai is trapping and selling them like that.
• False Flag Operation: The Seraphim and demon lords are working together, with grunt soldiers from both sides and medians taking the brunt of their machinations. Confirmed in strip 713.
• Fangs Are Evil: Demons have mouths full of sharp teeth (aside from the ones with beaks that is) and most of them are brutal sadists. And among the worst of them is berserk Buwaro who has massive sabertooth-esce teeth and is a mindless killing machine most of the time.
• Fantastic Caste System: Angels are divided by their element and their societal role.
  • There are warriors who are taught to fight and are prone to zealotry, brutal actions and racism against both demons and medians. Then there are caretakers who who don't fight but are better at holy magic and are the ones who typically interact with the median souls in heaven (and unlike most warriors, can speak both lingo and their native angelic).
  • Angels are also not allowed to fall in love with angels from a different element but judging from the backstory of Kirei's mother are allowed to marry into warrior clans or vice versa.
• Fantastic Racism: Demons are nearly universally reviled by Medians and Angels, and the feeling is definitely mutual; Demons generally see Medians as worthless and despise Angels with a fiery passion. It also seems to be traditional in certain Jakkai villages to not allow humans to visit.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Several, mostly in the background but worth mentioning. The Dragon Island Archipelago(which is based on Mediterranean, Caribbean, Latin American and Polynesia and have darker skin based of Miranda who's a native), Nirveus(a cold,snowy country north of Fragaria based on Mongolia, Russia and a bit of Canadian) and finally Fragaria(North American and European).
• Feathered Dragons: The now extinct Wind Dragons had a mane of feathers down the back of their necks and four birdlike wings. Their smaller relatives, the Wyverns, looked similar, minus the second set of wings and the legs (in some cases).
• Female Angel, Male Demon
  • Kieri and Buwaro.
  • Gaia and Syndel also count.
• Finger-Snap Lighter: Cliff does this. Also Azurai if the quick fire-breath version counts.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: Hell as this going on complete with dead trees and rivers of lava. However it also has lakes (which the water demons use as homes) and icy areas. (which are used for inflicting more creative Coldblooded Torture on the souls of the damned)
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Word of God is that most Medians are "skeptical" about the existence fairies, angels, demons, and other "myths," nearly all of which have already been featured in the comic proper or confirmed by Word of God.
• Flat "What": Duster, after being told off in Median by one of Sammy's previously mute female fairy friends.
  • I just want to harvest your bodies for ingredients!
  • Nonverbal edition. (WARNING: offhand spoiler)
• Flipping the Bird: Rhea, here.
  • And later Azurai, when Iratu smacks him for being a Jerkass Psycho for Hire.
• Forced Transformation: Kieri, about half of the time.
  • Cliff got a similar curse to Kieri as a prank. He couldn't control it at all, since it was done properly.
  • Kazai also appears to have been cursed to turn into a dog or wolf (and sometimes has a wagging tail even in angel form). Kieri is apparently the only one to have noticed so far.
• Foreshadowing: Done by Death. "An illness? No, that is not the cause of her death... Unless you count being related to someone as an illness". It's later solidly confirmed that she's Moonshade's daughter, and that he apparently killed her as part of his plan to steal Moku's power.
  • Not long after this happened, something similar started.
  • For much of the comic's run, there have been subtle hints that Death is really Darius. This is the earliest of these hints.
    • Those glasses weren't suspicious at all, were they?
    • How about the puppet show?
  • Lakritz drops a few cryptic statements during his conversation with Kieri and Buwaro. It later becomes obvious that he was trying to protect his friends from the Demon operation in St. Curtis
    • Upon hearing Buwaro sing, he mentions that Demons who know Angelic are especially dangerous. Because the language is taught to high-ranking officers, like Iratu and Tsavo.
    • He also had convinced the Angel Kinako to wear something casual instead of her uniform, and urges Kieri do to the same, saying that "It might help." That is because the Demons are given an order to hunt down the Angels in the city.
  • Tsavo wanted to get his hands on the Rainbow Reverie and mentions it could be the key to some thing before getting distracted, later we learn exactly why he wanted it because it can give demons partial control over their berserk forms.
  • One page talks about various strange recent events, one of which is fertile soil drying up and farmers praying to Moku to fix it. Eventually we learn that Moonshade killed Moku and that this caused the season to become delayed among other things.
  • When Dakos exclaims his distrust towards "that man" among their ranks, who is apparently an angel, Iratu simply tells him to "have faith in Syndel". Syndel, the ruler of the demons, is shown to actually be an angel. Iratu meant that statement literally.
• Forever War: The Angels and Demons are locked in an apparently divine-mandated war of annihilation, reinforced by numerous Remember the Alamo incidents on both sides. The war is over, but now there are conspiracies instead.
• For the Evulz: Why Toski cursed Kieri, more or less.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Jakkai, khamega and fairies. Some demons as well.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: The Median version of "Beauty and the Beast" apparently involves a Wave-Motion Gun and a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • There are apparently a ton of these, although some of them remain as a Noodle Incident with just their name being mentioned.
  Rhea: What else is in here? "The Bloody Shovel of Regret," " Ms. Cow and the Ice Cream Shop Secret," "The Ice-Covered Doll," "Revenge of the Fairy Queen"...
• Gale-Force Sound: Iratu shows Buwaro and Rhea just how roaring is done.
• Giant Mook: Earth Demons are the largest^note at an average of 12-14 feet in height and most physically powerful of the demon breeds. They are also said to be The Brute but the only one who closest matched that was Talus and even then he at times he showed more sense than his partner Lazuli.
• The Glomp: Buwaro has a knack for this.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Demons when angry - or they just want to improve their night vision.
• God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Syndel started a genocidal war because he wasn't praised enough. Meanwhile, Heaven is revealed to have been fundamentally flawed from the start, with supposedly-equal caste systems taking on subcastes and frequent caste-based violence in what is effectively a fluffy cloud police state, which Gaia turned a blind eye to.
• God Job: Darius taking the place of Death.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Death, the most active god around, is surprisingly limited. For example his own creation can disobey and mock him. Ouch.
  • Justified, since Darius (the current Death) didn't create Cerberus and therefore Cerberus feels no obligation to obey him.
  • Also justified in that Darius is the one responsible for his punishment at death's hands so he's probably been nursing one hell of a grudge.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: Despite being one of the divine crowd, Death gets rather lame territory compared to Gaia (heaven) and Syndel (hell), just getting himself purgatory and judgment. Not to mention that given the nastiness of divine politics, his hands are tied in regards to the other gods. There is also no information on the other gods doing anything at all recently.
  • It eventually became known that Death has been missing for 15 years, having been replaced by Darius while he looks for the missing Gaia and Syndel, and making him the same.
• Good is Not Nice: He may be gruff, cynical, and less than friendly to most, but Heathcliff Sinclair only does what he thinks is right.
  • For that matter, what we've seen of angel society suggests that it's hyper-conformist and at least borderline fascist, but they canonically tend toward good, and the society seems to be constructed in this manner specifically to keep the tending-toward-evil demons in check.
  • And let's not forget Rhea. She has a short temper, likes to tease people, and often curses like a sailor.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Angels have their usual deal, Demons get all varieties of feathery and batlike, Fairies - butterfly wings.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: The Angelic language doesn't seem to have swears in it, so when Tsavo and an Angel get into an argument in Saint Curtis, it ends up looking far less tense than it actually is.
• Gratuitous English: Duster, but it's justified as Fairies generally speak their own language.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The reason for Sakido and Iratu's initial reactions to Buwaro joining their 'family', especially Sakido. So much so that it led to Sakido tearing off part of Buwaro's ear, and guilt from their behavior probably drives both demons' closeness with Buwaro earlier in the strip.
  • This strip implies that the reason Lazuli hates Angels so much is that they're no different than demons, but are practically worshiped by Medians while demons are reviled.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The war between heaven and hell. The angels are implied to be A Lighter Shade of Gray, as many of the demons have violent tendencies (and some are tasked with torturing souls in hell). However, not all demons are evil and most of them at least have redeeming qualities, while some of the Angels are merciless Knight Templars. Darius notes that both sides occasionally kill children of the other side.
  • Lazuli even lampshades this, and it appears part of her hatred of angels results from jealousy that the Angels are all bt worshiped despite being not that different from the hated demons.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: When Tsavo hits Buwaro with lightning he knocks him into Dakos who responds by throwing a bottle of booze straight for Tsavo's face but he swats it before it hits him and it instead konks Nikkei on the head. Surprisingly the glass doesn't break.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Miranda tosses the unconscious body of Triska at Haury with great force to get him off of Cliff.
• Grim Up North: The land of Nirveus which takes inspiration from Russia, Mongolia and a bit of Canada and it's cold enough that the native jakkai have winter coats year round. It was also the country who started the great war though now they have no risk of that anymore.
• Groin Attack: One bandit got one courtesy of Rhea's Terra Spike in Comic 203.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Hukai like Toby, who are half human, half Jakkai. (Hence the name Hukai.) The website explains that all median races can have children with each other but they are sterile like many real-life hybrids.
• Half-Identical Twins: Kieri and her brother, Kazai.
• A Handful for an Eye: When Kazai tries to force Kieri to leave Buwaro and Rhea, and then tries to attack Buwaro when she refuses, the two of them end up getting into a fight. When Kazai starts overpowering Kieri, he tells her she can't win and to give up; instead, she grabs some dirt, throws it in his eyes, and punches him in the gut.
• Happily Adopted: Buwaro proudly took Darius's last name after finding out about the contents of his diary, and what the angel did to protect him and his siblings, all of whom he considered his adoptive children anyway.
  • Rhea assuming the "big sister" mantle for Buwaro, at the behest of Sakido, works the same way. To a lesser extent for Rhea and Kieri.
• Harmless Freezing: One bandit got encased in ice courtesy of Kieri's Ice magic in Comic 203, and is shown alive and unencased in Comic 204. Unfortunately, he and his friend eventually run into Lazuli, who is nowhere near as merciful.
• Hard Truth Aesop:
  • Don't devote yourself to appeasing toxic, abusive and/or outright irredeemably evil people just because they're family. You will be far better off disowning them and cutting them out of your life entirely.
  • Neither side of a war are purely good or purely evil - just like the "bad guys" are capable of kind, selfless acts, the "good guys" are just as capable of committing horrific war crimes.
  • Children are not spared from the carnage and brutality of war. Warring factions absolutely will not exercise restraint against Child Soldiers on the opposing side, and will even slaughter whole generations' worth of innocent kids if they think it would benefit themselves.
  • Regardless of how much you regret your past crimes and work to atone for them, you must accept the fact that, sometimes, the people you hurt will ultimately never forgive you for what you've done, and aren't obligated to. While Kazai humbly apologizes to Kieri for attacking (with possible intent to kill) Buwaro, Kieri allows him to join the group, but refuses to forgive him for his actions, and doubles down on her stance whenever he pressures the subject.
• Have You Seen My God?: Mother Gaia and Father Syndel are missing, the real Death hasn't been seen either since he went looking for them 15 years ago.
  • Lakritz is the only confirmed individual who might have seen Syndel at one point.
• Healing Magic Is the Hardest: Multiple uses:
  • The holy magic healing spell is implied to be a very difficult spell to master (at least for warrior angels) as Darius couldn't repair injuries more serious than flesh wounds.
  • Inverted with the Rainbow Reverie Healing Potion as Miranda was able to make a vial of it without the four most important ingredients, in addition it works just the same for demons (and possibly angels) as it does for medians without any negative side effects unlike the other potions.
• Heart Symbol: Mixed with Cardiovascular Love:
  • Mixed with Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The bandit that speaks in Comic 202 has a tattoo that says "MOM" in such a symbol.
  • In Comic 965, an "I love you" is said, with the recipient being shown in a Love Bubbles background with Heart Symbols around their head.
• A Hell of a Time: The severity of this trope depends on how deep into hell you go. The Ring of the Slightly Damned is harmless, boredom and cliffs notwithstanding, whilst Hell itself ranges from a never ending rendition of The Song That Never Ends to wearing uncomfortable shoes to being tortured to death every single day for the rest of eternity.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Darius might view some of the more zealous angels as this.
• Heroic Bystander:
  • Subverted not once, but twice with Kieri.
  • Effectively Rhea's actions here though it almost becomes more of a Heroic Sacrifice
  • The young man who was the first to leave the crowd and help the Jakkai whose home was on fire, in the legend of St. Curtis’s founding.
• Heroic RRoD: This is an aftereffect of drinking the Rainbow Reverie, as we've seen with Miranda and Rhea it causes exhaustion when it wears off and is even more extreme with demons who go unconscious (understandable since it makes their body grow and shift).
• Heroic Sacrifice: Buwaro. He got better, thanks to only almost dying.
  • Sakido performs one earlier.
  • Sahne ultimately defies it, explaining how stupid it would be getting themselves killed just to save Kinako.
• He Was Right There All Along: Darius
  Kieri: Wow. Darius sure wasn't fond of my aunt. "A fat hussy always moving in on my man"?
  • Apparently, there are special fairy kisses that will inform the Fairy Queen to not kill you. Cliff's life was once saved by one, but he refused to say who it was.
• Hopeless War: As described by Lakritz, the Great War between angels and demons has become a perpetual cycle of atrocites between two sides demonizing each other and always adding more fuel to the fire by giving the opposing side more reasons to hate them with every slaughter they make.
• Horrifying the Horror: Dakos and Lazuli (a battle hardened war veteran and vindictive murderer respectively) are both terrified by the roar and appearance of berserk Buwaro.
• Horned Humanoid: Some (but not all) demons have horns on their heads ^note which to be most common on earth and fire demons and are very proud and vain regarding them, even to the point were Azurai kills an angel in a rage simply because his horn was damaged even though he was supposed to bring them in alive, even Buwaro who wasn't raised by other demons is somewhat vain about his horns since he starts crying after the tip of one is cut off.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Very prevalent in this setting as each of the median races can interbreed but it's mentioned that it's somewhat uncommon outside of mixed-race cities. It's extremely common with demons however as there is a large difference in size and appearance depending on element. Word of God says that demons of different elements can produce children and that the resulting offspring can resemble one or both parents and that they usually end up being the same element as the father but will sometimes take after the mother in that regard.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Kazai makes this extremely clear to Buwaro despite not even speaking lingo.
• Immune to Fire: Fire demons have a natural immunity to fire, something seen when Cliff accidentally tries to burn Buwaro and only manages to hurt his feelings. This heat resistance also seems to extend to spicy food.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When the Sinclair are attacked by three demons, one of the attackers, Abyset, is graphically run through with Kieri's sword. Later, She does the same to a berserk Lazuli.
• Improbable Age: Assuming that Iratu was around 10 years old when Darius adopted Iratu, Sakido, and Buwaro, then Iratu is a high-ranking military official at around 25. Sakido counts for this as well, since she's never been stated as having matured before Darius's near-Heroic Sacrifice in Darius's diary. Word of God is that Iratu is 27 and according to the main site demons tend to live short lives due to their violent lifestyles and also seem to practice Klingon Promotion , so it would stand to reason that it would be easier for a young demon to have a high military standing.
• Inept Mage: Jakkai and Earth demons are the worst magic users, most only managing one or two spells. Rhea using a magic-boosting potion ends up connecting her to her Guardian heritage.
• Innate Night Vision: A trait of demons, it also makes their eyes glow.
• Infodump: Lampshaded here by Rhea.
• Internal Reveal: Rhea learns she is the descendent of Moku the Snake Guardian.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: This strip. Understandable, given what Rhea's been through.
• Innocent Innuendo: "Yay, we get to sleep together again, Snowy!"
• Inspector Javert: The Saint Cirtus city guards still try to arrest Rhea and Jake for the fireworks incident despite the fact the city was recently ravaged by the denizens of hell and only just stopped burning.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Kieri's "bunny curse". It kicks in at unexpected intervals, and Kieri has difficulty changing back.
• Irony:
  • Rhea (unlike most jakkai) was very skeptical of the existence of the gods and Twelve Guardians until meeting Death and Buwaro but she is later revealed to be the granddaughter of Moku the snake guardian.
  • Kazai is a demon hating Blood Knight while Kieri is a Reluctant Warrior who now sees demons as equals yet Kieri has managed to kill a berserk demon (something Kazai says that most warriors would celebrate) while Kazai has lost every battle with a demon that he's been in.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: "You're as ugly as you are stupid!" "Hey, I'm not that ugly!"
• It's What I Do: Played for Laughs. Apparently Rhea has to be such a butface.
• I Am Not Left-Handed
  • Kazai, Sanjulo and Kieri get a few hits in when fighting Tsavo but ultimately loose, however Tsavo later states he could have easily killed them if they didn't need living angels.
  • A similar fight happens when the three of them take on Azurai later but when his horn gets sliced off, he flies into a rage and quickly kills Sanjulo.
• I Want Them Alive!: The demons that attacked the festival want to capture angels alive, but only so they can kill them later in a sacrificial ritual.
• Jerkass: IRATU. It's telling that his Ax-Crazy temperamental teammate/boyfriend Azurai is nicer than he is.
  • Dakos is worse. Unlike other antagonists, who had some humorous/quirky qualities, his cruelty and unkindly attitude are played utterly serious.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rhea, Cliff.
  • As of page 634 Sahne and Lakritz might count as this. It might be because they were secretly hunting angels, but because Lakritz told Kinako she should wear non-combatantive clothes they might be either planning to smuggle them out of St. Curtis or just get them to remove their weapons. As of page 672 only time will tell. Turns out they where trying to save them.
  • Azurai is sort of an evil version, he's a violent foulmouthed sadist who insults his allies, but he is loyal to his boyfriend Iratu (to he point where he keeps the fact that Iratu was raised by the angel Darius a secret), shows concern for him when his father is brought up and prevents other demons from making the same mistake he did regarding their orders.
• Kick the Dog: Lazuli and Talus.
  • Denevol when Kieri's curse kicked in.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: When the red potion wore off, Dakos slams the unconscious Buwaro hard enough to crack his horn, Dakos even gives a sadistic smile before doing so.
• Kids Are Cruel: Jake and Rhea come across a pair of kids strangling a mortori bird for their association with Meeros.
• Killed Off for Real: Sakido, Talus, Sanjulo, Thadius, Dakos and Lazuli.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Cliff nails this one, if you consider his past.
• Knight of Cerebus: The hooded archer and Denevol.
• Knight Templar: Denevol. Semi-justified, considering Demons slaughtered his whole family, but still...
• Lack of Empathy: Kazai, regarding both demons and Medians. He doesn't lift a finger to help any Medians being attacked by demons in St. Curtis, on the belief that, even if they do die, the good and bad ones will be sent to Heaven and Hell, respectively. He's actually surprised his sister Kieri remembers the names of the demons she's killed (in this case, Lazuli).
• Language Equals Thought: Played around with in the angelic language, which has no actual curse words. When people are shown to attempt to curse in that language, the literal translation is...rather bizarre sounding.
• Large Ham: Lazuli
• Last-Name Basis: Denevol
• Laughably Evil: A LOT of the villains (mostly demons) qualify. Even Moonshade has his moments. Notable exceptions are the hooded archer, Denevol, and Dakos.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Who would've thought Cliff and Duster were capable of this?
• Legend Fades to Myth: Implied, despite the great war occurring on Medius centuries earlier many medians are disbelieving of the gods, angels and demons (until they actually start showing up of course).
• Lizard Folk
  • Some demons have a reptilian appearance that makes them resemble these, almost every water demon end up lizard or amphibian-like (often with fins), it's also somewhat common for fire demons, a few background wind demons look like reptiles and there's artwork◊ of at least one earth demon that resembles a humanoid ceratopsian.
  • The Khamega are a turtle variant of this, they are the largest and physically strongest of the median races but are cold-blooded and clumsy on land, despite their fierce appearance they are described as usually calm and good natured.
• Losing Your Head: Cerberus' missing head seems to be perfectly fine with just being a skull/living headgear for Darius.
• Love Across Battlelines: Kieri the angel and Buwaro the demon.
• Lucky Rabbit's Foot: Inverted in this world. The Guardian Toski, who takes the form of a rabbit, sided with Hell during the great war, on top being a Jerkass in general. As a result, Medians view rabbits as being bad luck.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Moonshade is Rhea's father... and her killer.
• Luminescent Blush: Entire main cast at various points, with Kieri's blush being the most prominent and frequent.
  • Doubles as an excellent example of Innocent Innuendo.
• Made of Iron: Demons in general are able to take alot of punishment such as Lazuli getting stabbed in the side but is back fighting a minute later, Haury and Triska getting crushed by a heavy wagon and Abyset being skewered by a holy sword but a sneaking away shortly after. Even Buwaro who is a weak runt by demon standards is surprisingly tough as he can get knocked off a cliff (or fall off by letting go) and he'll still be back up in a bit.
• Magic Knight: Angel warriors are the most magically powerful of all races and are trained to use holy magic infused weapons and armor, also water and fire demons with the former leaning more towards magical power and the latter more towards physical.
• Magic Music: Kieri's singing may be a minor example. Everyone who heard it took notice. Even the horses.
  • Buwaro follows up with a good deal of untapped talent as well. While it's not magic per se, it's apparently insanely attractive to Angels, which means Kieri nearly falls on her butt just from hearing it.
• Magic Pants:
  • Averted when Iratu changes forms.
  • Lampshaded by Rhea after Buwaro is hit by Denevol's lightning spell. His shirt is totally destroyed, his coat needs refurbishing, but his pants are just fine (much to Rhea's relief).
  • Zig-zagged with Lazuli going berserk. Her pants are mostly fine, but her shirt gets completely torn in the back and front, which necessitates a bit of Scenery Censor.
• Mama Bear: Kieri as seen here.
  • A better example is Miranda Sinclair, an actual mother. The main protagonists usually have trouble facing a single demon in combat, even if they're fighting together. When Miranda's family is threatened, she single-handedly makes THREE of them look like FOOLS.
• Manly Tears: Rhea turns on the waterworks when she hears how Kieri and her brother had their birthday's celebrated. Basically they're told "be glad you're alive another year".
• Marshmallow Dream: Buwaro has one that became the page image. See the whole page here.
• Meaningful Name: Jakkai last names are often based on physical attributes.
  • Rhea Snaketail, who has a really long prehensile tail, which turns into a literal snake's tail when she ingests the magic-enhancing potion of Rainbow Reverie.
    • Rhea also exemplifies a more subtle (and convoluted) version of this. The local Crystal Dragon Jesus is named Gaia. In greek mythology, the Earth-Titan Gaia's daughter - who became the mother of Zeus and the other olympian gods - was named Rhea. Later comics reveal that Rhea is descended from the Earth Guardian Moku. The titan Rhea was also the wife of Kronos, who usurped his father Uranus and - fearful of his own child doing the same to him - proceeded to devour all of his children. In the comics, Rhea is the daughter of a man who killed his divine ancestor Moku to gain his power, and then proceeded to hunt down and kill his relatives, including his own children, to keep that power to himself.
  • Ramirez Bloodeyes, whose eyes are blood-red.
  • Mr. Moonshade, whose heterochromatic eyes happen to have the exact two colors of Medius's two moons.
• Mirroring Factions: As time goes on, it becomes clearer and clearer that angels and demons have more in common than either side would like to admit. This is actually part of why Lazuli hates Angels so much, they were just as bad in the Great War as the demons were, possibly worse, but humans practically deify them while reviling the demons.
• Moment Killer: Thank you, Rhea.
• Mood Whiplash: Protocol? "More like protoBALLS" says Azurai, while the blood of the man he just murdered is still drying on his bare hands.
  • Somehow, I don't think that was meant to be funny.
    • Bet Azurai found it hilarious!
  • Azurai in general helps to lighten the mood whenever we're given a shot of the villains plotting.
  • An example of Double Whiplash: After Darius's tearfilled farewell to Sakido, Buwaro, in her arms, "boops" her nose (just as Darius had done) and giggles. She does not take it well.
• Motivation on a Stick: A new take on this trope that is both hilarious and badass. Spoilers: http://www.sdamned.com/comic/804.
• Multiple Head Case: Cerberus. Currently 2-headed, 3-headed in flashbacks. Mental capacity of heads varies. While its heads do get along, the severed third does enjoy the opportunity to spend some time alone.
• Mundane Afterlife: The Ring of the Slightly Damned consists of a large open landscape, filled with rocks, a pet rock, mountains made of rock, and flat places made of rock.
• Mundane Utility
  • Azurai and Cliff have lit up cigarettes using their fire magic.
  • The various power crystals are for a variety of everyday things, fire crystals are used in cooking, water crystals are used for cleaning and fire-fighting depending on size, ice crystals are used for refrigeration and ice cream making and wind crystals are children's toys.
  • Kieri has trouble sleeping on a couch so she shifts to her rabbit form to sleep on the pillow.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Played with. For Demons, being evil is as much a choice as it is their instinct so long as the berserker thing is kept in check, but most of them are unsavory characters anyway, as their role in the greater scheme of things is to torture the souls of the damned.
• Mysterious Past: Sakido, Buwaro, Iratu, Darius, Death, as well as what Ramirez has been up to since Rhea died, although that's more of a Mysterious Present.
• Mythology Gag: (warning: links have spoilers) The wind demon in this page is the same one◊ from an earlier piece of artwork talking about the different demon types.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: At first, Iratu seems like a carefree drunk who can't stand up straight while sober, let alone intoxicated. Then, a few chapters later, we discover that he and his cronies decimated all of Weyville.
  • ANY demon in Iratu's army, really. Haury, Triska, and Abyset seem like the demon version of Team Rocket. Nope! Haury outright defeated Cliff - the same Cliff who wiped the floor with a friggin' SERAPH - in one-one-one combat. Triska would have done the same to Miranda had she not taken the red strength potion (and she still struggled). And Abyset easily manhandled Rhea and Buwaro before Kieri intervened. And in the same league are Hakka/Patch and Nikkei, two Straight Gay demons who are seen being gushy to each other and making out most of the time they're together. Patch defeated an experienced warrior angel with no trouble, and the both of them fought Verammi, a Seraph, to a draw - which took an entire day. It should also be noted that none of them (except Iratu) are high-ranking officers, either. Long story short: THESE. GUYS. MEAN. BUSINESS.
• Nice Guy: Several characters. Some of the more notable ones include:
  • Buwaro, who (despite being a demon) is an extremely friendly and likable guy. Initially, his willingness to make friends seems to be tied mostly to his naivety and the VERY long time he's spent alone, but he's later shown to be very loyal, protective, and willing to change himself for the people he cares about as well.
  • Miranda Sinclair is caring and generous, contrasting her husband's gruff and cynical demeanor. Her niece Samantha counts as well.
  • Death, as seen right from the start. He takes care of Buwaro and treats the souls he collects with respect. Makes perfect sense, considering he's actually Darius in disguise. The original Death is implied to have been much less pleasant.
  • And speaking of which, Darius Elexion might be the most extreme example in the story. What do you do if you're trapped in hostile territory, with all your allies dead and no means of espcape? Adopt the children of your enemies and protect them with your life, obviously.
  • Kieri is also a very nice person, but she averts the "psychologically well-balanced" part of the trope, largely due to her backstory.
    • Hell, it's to the point where she wonders if Lazuli - yes, the murderously deranged water demon that beat and (presumably) tortured Kieri after she captured her, tried to kill her friends twice, tried to kill her THREE times, and almost killed ALL of them after she went berserk - deserved to die at her hands. THAT Lazuli. Damn.
  • Lakritz is a very empathetic and supporting person which is astounding as most adult demons are nothing like that.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cliff's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Buwaro could be viewed as indirectly leading to Buwaro's near-Heroic Sacrifice. Eventually, it's Cliff himself who has to save the day.
  • Darius took in Iratu, Sakido and Buwaro out of the kindness of his heart and even gave them his pendants, while Buwaro and ultimately Sakido turned out to be good people, Iratu used the power of his pendant to rise through the ranks of Hell and lead an invasion that has already killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent people and if successful will conquer Medius.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Lazuli demonstrates why having a short temper can be very dangerous on the battlefield. ^note For added stupidity, Lazuli and Talus were the ones who put the power-restricting collar on Kieri in the first place.
• Nightmare Sequence: Kieri's first "angel" appearance is here, during a nightmare. Her next Dream Sequence also begins like a nightmare, but ends happily.
  • Also, Sakido's nightmare in this strip.
• Nobody Poops: Demons don't need food while in hell, but do when they arrive in Medius. The fact they should also need to go the toilet for the first time is not mentioned.
• Non-Heteronormative Society: Median society doesn't seem to have any particular homophobic leanings, and even the highly regimented and ordered society of Heaven doesn't seem to have any issues with homosexuality (Kazai's worries about his relationship with his boyfriend are about him being a fire angel while Kazai himself is a water angel), and while Heaven doesn't approve of crossdressing, due to how angels have a firm dress code, a non-binary angel has been seen with no indication of discrimination.
• Noodle Incident: The readers never learn what the explosion incident that occurred at J's previous job involved, only that it was truly spectacular.
  • There's also the question of what happens when wind demons get drunk.
  • Some damned souls are forced to wear REALLY, REALLY, REALLY uncomfortable footwear.
  Rhea: Ouch.
  Buwaro: Reminds me of the time I got Thadius stuck in my nose...
  • Whatever happened during Rhea and Jake's night of partying, it involved lots of fire.
• The Nose Knows: Jakkai and Demons apparently have a better sense of smell than humans or angels. Rhea actually states the trope name when offering to find Kieri's brother by scent.
• Not So Stoic: I just have something in both my eyes, okay?
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Has its own visual effect, seen here.
• Obviously Evil: Mr. Moonshade
• Odd-Shaped Panel: When a berserk demon is present, the panel borders change from clean lines to messy, hazy splatters... usually. After Sakido touches the star pendant during the escape from Hell, and much later when Buwaro drinks the Rainbow Reverie strength potion, the borders are normal, signifying that they are still partially cognizant.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Death.
• Oh, Crap!: Buwaro, panel three at the wind Angel mother, which is understandable having had bad experiences with a certain other wind Angel. Enforced by immediate Color Failure.
  • A rather hilarious one given by Cliff on panel 6 (7?) of this page when his niece asks a... private question.
  • What does the red one do again?
  • Dakos gets one when he sees Buwaro has gone berserk and is now pursuing their wagon.
  • Everybody has one at once, and they're not wrong.
• One-Hit Kill: The Holy Arrows are capable of this.
• Only One Name: Demons generally only have a first name. Buwaro recently broke the trend and is now Buwaro Elexion.
• Only Six Faces: In-universe, Angels are noted to look fairly similar to one another.
• Opposites Attract: Buwaro the fire Demon and Snowy Kieri the water Angel.
  • Kieri's brother Kazai is also a water angel. His boyfriend is a fire angel.
• Order Versus Chaos: Basically what the conflict between Heaven and Hell boils down to, though the two sides like to present themselves as good and evil. Angels represent Order, with a strictly-regimented society where every Angel must dress the same and be Color-Coded for Your Convenience with regards to their elemental affinity (with humans noting that they tend to look fairly similar regardless). Demons represent Chaos, living short, brutal lives filled with jealousy and infighting (at least, before Iratu's rise to power), and where no two Demons look alike.
• Order And Chaos Are Both Dangerous:
  • Hell is violence epitomized. Demons frequently kill each other if they don't have angels to fight. Most like tormenting sinners and bully anyone who makes them feel sad. They don't conform to contracts - so they're willing to betray everyone during a festival.
  • Heaven is oppression made normal. Laws and castes define everything. Warriors rule Heaven, and three-star warriors don't need to listen to anyone. Child abuse is tolerated in public as long as the one inflicting it is a high-enough rank. Angels are also forced to dye their hair the color of their element in ways corresponding to their gender identity, and wear clothes with that color as well.
• Our Angels Are Different: While Angels may appear very similar to Humans (save for not having much variety in their appearances), they are powerful wielders of magic, proud warriors, and have no afterlife. They can also be a bit overly xenophobic and militaristic for a race of supposedly good guys. They're also born from eggs like demons are. They do reincarnate, but unlike Medians, they don't get an afterlife in-between lives.
• Our Demons Are Different: They resemble anthropomorphic animals, having mammalian, reptilian, avian and amphibian features mixed in various configurations. Their vary greatly from one another, and are also the only race where elemental affinity defines physical (not only magical) capabilities.
• Our Dragons Are Different: They are among the few animals in Medius that can use magic,there are three different main types of dragon: Fire dragons who are the closest to classic European ones, being large aggressive animals that breathe fire but surprisingly lacks wings. Water dragons who somewhat resemble sea monsters from old maps but are ironically very playful and get along well with the sentient races. Earth dragons who look like a cross between a rhino,triceratops and armadillo with a sharp crystal for a horn and are docile unless provoked. There was also a (now extinct) species of Wind dragon that reassembled Quetzalcoatl.
  • Then there are the wyverns who are the smaller, weaker remnants of the wind dragon species resembling large legless lizards with feathers down their neck and bird wings, which come in multiple variations including one with two-heads and legs as well as the golden variety which have the most magical power of them and are closest to their ancestors.
• Our Fairies Are Different: As said in comic 254, the fairies of this world are small insect-like Winged Humanoids with presumably powerful magic and the only median race with their own language. An interesting feature is that their appearance is different depending on the insects in the region of their birth as a form of camouflage and ones that look like bees even have stingers (which Duster found out the hard way). They are ruled by a powerful and immortal queen who is violently protective of her people and only leaves the skulls of her victims covered in pink glitter but she won't harm you (at least right away) if she detects the charm left by a fairy kiss on you.
• Our Wyverns Are Different: Wyverns are small snake-like reptiles with bird wings and come in a variety of colors and subspecies. They possess magic that allows them to control wind and lightning, they are also the only living relatives to the now extinct wind dragons.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Darius's children disappear without a trace and when he meets up with their friend, he finds out that one of them has died.
• Papa Wolf: Darius.
  • Even while in terrible pain and dying from internal injuries he still protects Buwaro's egg, the demon Darius is defending them from counts as well!
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The pimp suit used to disguise Buwaro didn't really hide his purple fur, ear shape and horns, traits which none of Medius' known races have. It worked, though it led some people to believe Rhea and Kieri are hookers.
  • Then there's the case mentioned under Weirdness Censor, which made Buwaro think no one would recognize him if he wore the Trouble Center badge he had at the time.
• Partial Transformation: Kieri manages to push through the curse to save Rhea from a berserk Lazuli, leaving her with rabbit ears and paws.
• Personality Powers: Based on elemental affiliation. An established tendency, but not a rule.
• Persona Non Grata: If Buwaro and Kieri ever go back to Weyville, Denevol will almost certainly kill them. But at least, out of deference to Cliff, he won't pursue them.
• Physical God: Death.
  • The Guardians of Medius. They can assume human (or possibly other sapient species) form and engage in such mundane activities as attending festivals, or mugging mortals just to screw with them.
• Pillar of Light: They appear deep in Hell from time to time, which upsets Death for some reason. It turns out they're portals leading to Medius.
  • Turns out Heaven has something similar.
• Pimp Duds: The pimp suit.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: He didn't.
• Pointy Ears: Angels, Demons, Jakkai, and basically every other non-human species has pointed ears.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Most demons in general hate angels (due to their divine mandated war that's been going on the past few centuries) and view medians as lesser beings but Dakos in particular stands out as he completely mistrusts the rogue angel Verammi and the currently unnamed angel assisting them in hell while the other demons have accepted them. He is also an ableist as he refers to Iratu and others as a "generation of cripples" and claims that they will ruin of hell as it's implied demons with disabilities where unable to serve in hell's army till recently.
  • It's implied that Azurai dislikes women; he treats his female teammate Lazuli with utter contempt, is implied to act the same way with Triska, and hurls misogonystic insults at Kieri when he takes her prisoner. He is, however, seen being rather chummy with Rhea later on. He's also rather fond of throwing the word "retarded" around and continually calls General Iratu, his own boyfriend a fatass.
• The Pollyanna: Buwaro, given his history.
• Power of Love: Played for Laughs with the Demon Siblings.
• Power Crystal: There are multiple types of magic crystals that are elemental in nature and are shaped like the element's symbol, the bigger they are the more powerful they are. The medians mine them for their myriad of uses.
• Prehensile Tail: Rhea Snaketail. She can (and often does) use it as an extra limb for grabbing and carrying things, like rocks and bunnies. She can even lift herself off the ground with it.
• Proud Warrior Race: Angels have a pretty militaristic culture for a race of good guys.
  • Justified by the Forever War with the Demons.
• Psychotic Smirk/Slasher Smile: "The bloodline ends with me..."
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Happens occasionally:
  • Buwaro, rarely happens to other characters.
  • Kieri busts them out if the situation calls for it. Aw that's really not fair Kieri.
  • Even Rhea breaks them out once in a while. Note Buwaro's reaction.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In page 767: No. More. Distractions.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Heathcliff "Cliff" Sinclair really hammered Buwaro for his fighting ability, looks, and intelligence in this page. It reduced Buwaro to tears.
• Reactive Continuous Scream: Rhea and Death/Darius upon meeting back up.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Haury, Triska, one of Moonshade's. Averted with Buwaro and Lakritz, personality-wise. However taking off Buwaro's pendant or waking up Iratu the day after he drinks leads to bad results, seemingly subverted with Iratu but it turns out he's leading the troops of hell to conquer medius and is kind of a dick when sober.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: From red to blue: Buwaro, Rhea, Kieri
  • A literal case within Buwaro and Kieri's relationship, since Buwaro uses fire powers, and Kieri uses water/ice powers.
• Regretful Traitor:Buwaro and Rhea are forced to capture Kieri and pretend to be members of hell's army or go up against three demon soldiers( one of whom has a murderous grudge against them, another is a temperamental sadist who kills on a whim and the other who just single handedly beaten an angel warrior) their inner thoughts show they are deeply torn up about this.
• Refuge in Audacity: When people see an Angel and Demon walking hand in hand, it must just be two people in costume.
• Reincarnation
  • Darius goes into detail about how the afterlife functions. Basically after the soul of a median spends enough time in the appropriate afterlife, their energy is broken down and mixed with the energy of other and they can even be reborn as a totally different race. However Death didn't give Darius the ability to reincarnate souls and that will have massive ramifications down the line.
  • He also explains that when angels and demons die, their life energy is immediately recycled by their respective god into a new member of the race while the original individual goes into oblivion. It's currently unknown how this is affected by Gaia and Syndel's absence.
• Relationship Upgrade: Buwaro and Kieri. Twice!
• Reluctant Monster: Buwaro gets this a lot for being a Demon.
• Retired Badass: Heathcliff Sinclair to a Tee.
• The Reveal: "My children are gone, Blue. I don't want to keep doing this." "I'm sorry, Darius."
• Rewatch Bonus: Early in the story Sakido mentions that she left Hell for "personal reasons" and tells Rhea and Buwaro not to pay attention to the periodic beams of light. Later, after Iratu learns of Sakido's death, he laments about her "not seeing things his way, meaning that Sakido knew of the plan and she left Hell in protest.
• Rise from Your Grave: When Rhea, Buwaro, and sadly, not Sakido escape from the Ring of Slightly Damned, the emerge into Medius via Rhea's grave. Which they then use to bury Sakido.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Fairy Queen. You do not want to mess with her subjects. And a fairy showing fondness is one of the only ways to not be killed on sight by her.
• Running Gag: Multiple:
  • Buwaro loves to play catch with Thadius, which usually doesn't end well. The gag was later lampshaded here.
  • If something someone says has a huge impact on someone else, the text bubble has a second arrow that impales the affected character.
  • "WE! ARE NOT! HOOKERS!!"
  • Just how many people does Cliff Sinclair know?
  • Angels' favourite colours were a short lived one.
  • What is everyone doing in Cliff's wagon?
  Buwaro: E-eating cookies...?
  Meeros: Eating cookies! Delicious!
  Cliff: I'm eating cookies.
• Sacrificial Lion: Sakido. Word of God even says this was her main purpose in the story.
• Sand In My Eyes: Cliff has some.
• Say It with Hearts: For Cardiovascular Love in Comic 965, an "I love you" that's being said with three pink heart symbols.
• Catapult Nightmare: Snowy.
• Scaled Up: The Twelve Guardians themselves are sort of an inversion as their giant animal forms are their true appearance while their mortal forms are a disguise.
  • It is Played Straight with Moonshade however as he's a mortal man who turns into a giant cobra (which he obtained by killing his father Moku) in order to kill any guardians who could threaten hell's plans.
  • Rhea has a partial example as after drinking the magic enhancing yellow potion, her tail becomes mostly reptilian, develops serpents eyes, long fangs and a forked tongue.
• Scenery Porn: The page where the characters arrive in St. Curtis.
• Semi-Divine: The Guardians can reproduce with Medians when in their mortal guises. Rhea and her father Moonshade are descended from the Earth Guardian Moku, who Moonshade apparently killed to steal his power, and the Sinclairs are hinted to be related to Liara the Fire Lynx.
• Shadow of Impending Doom: Giant dream bunny.
• Shapeshifter Hammerspace: Obviously, Kieri turning into a snow bunny (her clothes disappear too). Demons going berserk also gain mass.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Kieri's "bunny curse" occasionally kicks in and is difficult to revert.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: More than likely a part of Denevol and Kieri's mother's Gotta Kill Them All reaction to Demons.
• Shipper on Deck: Multiple people:
  • Rhea is clearly supportive of Buwaro and Kieri's relationship. One of the primary reasons is because it means she gets a bed to herself (or at least, she only has to "share" it with Thadius). Provided they aren't keeping her awake.
  • Of all people, Seraph Verammi.
    • Unfortunately, as seen in Comic 713, there's a good reason for it.
• Shirtless Scene: Buwaro has some, mostly justified by circumstances, but from page 501 on apparently just for the heck of it.
• Shout-Out: Multiple:
  • To The Legend of Zelda and Ace Attorney, in this comic. Minor shout-outs to Ace Attorney in the form of red, spiky "HOLD IT!" bubbles are also found.
  • And one to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night here. And for Castlevania IIS Imons Quest here.
  • "With scissors like those, you could pierce the heavens!"
  • GARY WAS HERE, ASH IS A LOSER
  • The roof, the roof, MY ROOF IS ON FIRE!
  • Meeros' ultimate technique? Running (or rather, flying) away!
  • The obstacle course Kieri and Kazai fly through to earn their wings seems oddly familiar...
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Good boy, Buwaro!]]
  • Considering how bad things had gotten shortly beforehand, it was also a Smooch of Victory the second time.
  • Has since been returned.
• Shrinking Violet: Kieri, to the max. She eventually becomes just a little bit more confident, at least around Buwaro and Rhea.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Rhea is sick of Buwaro and Kieri.
• Sinister Scythe:
  • Iratu has a large scythe-like blade at the end of his tail which he almost kills Buwaro with.
  • Darius has a holy scythe that enhances his magic, it's also Foreshadowing for when he fills in for Death.
  • Rhea gets an old scythe from a farmer and she even injures Lazuli with it, however it's later broken during a Bar Brawl in the coilded cobra bar and it's currently not known if it's been repaired.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Azurai and Lazuli. Rhea is more-or-less the only other character that swears.
  • Don´t forget Lazuli´s Cluster-F-Bombs shortly after we meet her.
• Slasher Smile: Moonshade's really happy about the upcoming Flower Festival
  • This one is even worse...
• Sleeps with Both Eyes Open: Buwaro manages to fall asleep during a staring contest with Kieri, without her noticing.
• Spell My Name With An S: Invoked in universe for Kieri Suizhan.
• Squishy Wizard: Angels and wind demons are the best and second best magic users respectively but an angel's magic is significantly weaker without pendants and they are no more durable than humans, while wind demons are the physically weakest of the demon breeds (though still stronger and much tougher than humans and angels).
  • In general, it seems that the ability to learn spells is inversely proportionate to racial physical ability. For example, Jakkai, who are strong for their size, can only learn one or two spells on average, and Earth demons are similarly limited, even if their demonic nature means that their spells can have some more oomph.
• Straight Gay: If it had never been explicitly stated, the audience would never know that Darius was gay. After it comes up in his diary, it isn't made a big deal of because it has almost no bearing on the plot, and the characters who know don't see it as being very important.
  • In fact, the only reason Kieri even mentioned it was because he had a massive crush on her uncle, who eventually married her aunt. No indication if it was Incompatible Orientation or Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? Either way, as Rhea says: awkward.
  • Add to that the casual appearance of a background (male) character buying a gift for his husband, and Rhea's lack of comment at a (female) fairy's apparent crush on her, one might assume that gender-preferences aren't generally considered very important in this world.
    • It happens to be a point that the author tries to present to the comic readers, a setting where people take each other's sexuality as casual blurb. It's not looked down upon by anyone, it's not a shocking topic, and it's treated as trivial as stating your age.
• Suicide Mission: When Kazai wants to go and rescue the Angels captured at St. Curtis, Kieri bluntly points out that trying to do so without help is one of these, given that they're only two warrior angels against an entire army of demons, and they don't even know where the angels were taken to begin with. This is part of why she wants to seek out the Dolphin Water Guardian first.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Demons aren't exactly "good" to begin with, but they are able to enter a berserk form that is... Well, see for yourself. The downside is that once they enter this form, the easiest way out of it is death by overexertion.
  • Buwaro is a Demon squarely on the Good side of things. Just don't remove that necklace.
  • Lazuli later enters this state after Buwaro's berserk form mauls her. It's huge.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Rhea dives into an ice-cold lake to save a kid from drowning. She is implied to nearly drown herself, and though she survives, she is bedridden for an entire week with pneumonia.
  • As pointed out by Iratu, turns out spending 300 years killing each other will make you an Endangered Species.
  • The three huge, clumsy claws on both of Iratu's hands make even the most simple tasks like getting dressed and even unwrapping a cupcake practically impossible. His lieutenant/boyfriend Azurai has to help him button up his pants each day, among other things.
  • While the angels Kazai and Sanjulo have both trained from a young age to slay demons but when they go against Tsavo and later Azurai they both lose...badly, with the latter fight costing Sanjulo his life. Several things to point out: 1. Despite their training, they are still inexperienced and hotheaded teenagers and demons have to fight their entire lives just to stay alive; 2. They're up against Iratu's lieutenants, whereas even standard members like Lazuli, Talus and Haury are difficult to take down, and 3. Demons will NOT hesitate to use lethal force against Child Soldiers on Heaven's side; you wield deadly weaponry and fight demons with it with the intent to kill, you're an armed combatant in their eyes, and they will fight and kill you just as mercilessly as they would an adult soldier.
  • Cliff Sinclair is very strong for a human, being able to curb-stomp a Seraph with his fairy comrade Duster's help. But at the end of the day, he's just that - a human, and no less vulnerable than one. When fighting the wind demon Haury - a mook who isn't even an elite soldier of Iratu's army like Azurai and Tsavo - all it takes is one good attack to connect before Cliff is out for the count. Duster is soon caught in the demon's grasp, unable to assist him; a strength-potion-boosted Miranda has to bail him out.
  • Kazai attempts to invoke rank on several caretaker angels but they quickly point out at his rank means nothing on Medius and his less-than-pleasant personality makes them even less inclined to listen to him.
  • After a night of binge drinking in St. Curtis, Jake and Rhea are strongly implied to have burned down private property while they were inebriated. The next day, several local guards attempt to arrest them for arson and public indecency. Even a few days after the two of them help out and save civilians during a devastating demon attack on the city, the guards haven't suddenly pardoned or forgotten about those crimes, and promptly chase after them when they see them again. Indeed, after disguising themselves to avoid attention, they realize they now have wanted posters of themselves.
  • After a particularly intense fight amongst themselves, Kazai finally swallows his pride and returns to Kieri, begging her for forgiveness and to join her group. While Kieri agrees to let her brother travel with them, she refuses to forgive him for his actions. Kazai crossed a line by attacking and nearly killing the person she loves, and even went as far as to attack Kieri herself, and it's going to take a generous amount of time and trust-rebuilding for Kieri to truly forgive him, if she even decides to forgive him at all.
• Talking Animal: Kieri can speak even in bunny form. Magic.
• Tear Jerker: The in-universe story "The Puppy Who Looked For a Family". Even Cliff of all people can't help but wipe his eyes.
• That Was the Last Entry: Darius' journal was supposed to end with a message to Iratu, Sakido, and Buwaro: "I love you, my children." But there was one last entry written by Sakido, which describes him going to his apparent death against Cerberus. She then laments her and Iratu blaming Buwaro for his death, and abandoning him.
  Kieri: ...that is the last page.
• The Bus Came Back: Death AKA Darius returns during the Saint Cirtus arc the collect the souls of the many who died during or after the invasion.
• These Hands Have Killed: Kirei falls into this after killing Lazuli.
• This Was His True Form: Whenever a berserk demon is killed they change back to their regular selves, this also happens if they are rendered unconscious as we've seen with the berserk infant Buwaro.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: Blushes on Buwaro and Kieri in bunny form. It's adorable.
• Tragic Keepsake: Sakido's pendant. Buwaro even wears it the same way.
• Truce Zone: St. Curtis is this during the Spring Blossom Festival, though its made clear that there's still tension between Demons and Medians, and especially between visiting Demons and Angels.
• Underestimating Badassery: Iratu thinks that a potion-induced berserk Buwaro would be to stupid to pose a real threat and would either get killed by the other demons or wear himself out, under normal circumstances he would probably be correct but under the influence of the Rainbow Reverie Buwaro seems to retain some intelligence and is significantly larger and potentially more powerful than his "normal" berserk form. Not to mention he brought Rhea with him.
• Unexplained Recovery: Averted with Buwaro's near-death at the hands of Denevol. He's out for two days after, and is still not 100% physically for several pages afterward.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Demons are widely despised in Medius; ergo, several people Buwaro selflessly helps out will usually respond with violence. Such as when he offered to help an old lady with her groceries, only for her to whack him in the face with her purse. She apologizes, though, because she apparently thought he was wearing a costume.
  • Rhea, Buwaro, and Jake help out civilians during the demonic invasion of St. Curtis. When Buwaro tries to help out a Jakkai, this particular Jakkai's response is to punch him in the face.
  • Kieri's brother Kazai is one taken up to eleven. Demons from Hell's army take him and Kieri as hostages, taking them to Mt. Sentinel via wagon, where they will be sacrificed in order to bring more demons into Medius. After Buwaro risks life and limb to save the two angel siblings from the demons' clutches, finally managing to succeed after a grueling battle against several demons that left both him and Rhea heavily battered and fatigued, Kazai physically assaults him the next time they confront each other, and refuses to be any nicer to him, much less even THANK him, despite the fact that Kazai and his sister would be DEAD if not for him. The fact that Buwaro took Kieri as a "prisoner" in the first place (though only as a ploy) probably had something to do with it, but by that point, even a complete idiot (like Azurai) could tell he was a Fake Defector.
  • Also, in St. Curtis' cathedral, a caretaker angel sees Buwaro, clearly looking terrified, and runs from him, dragging her blind angel friend along with her, yelling at her to run. This is despite the fact that Buwaro had also saved her and her young son from certain death - i.e. they were literally on the same wagon as the Suizahn twins were.
• The Unpronounceable: In mild form: nobody gets "Kieri Suizahn" right the first time. Justified, since the official pronunciation is "kee-AIR-ee soo-EE-zahn".
• Unreliable Voiceover: Kazai tells Kieri that after he punched Broxis, the wolf was impressed by his convictions and challenged him to a duel which lasted for hours and Broxis only won after landing a lucky hit, what the flashback really shows us was that Broxis was actually furious, it was Kazai who challenged him to which Broxis reluctantly accepted and Broxis immediately won the fight by batting him away with his tail.
• Unscaled Merfolk: Merfolk in the world of Slightly Damned are based on sea slugs, specifically Glaucus atlanticus. They haven't yet appeared in the comic but the author has done some artwork of them. She also mentioned during one of her streams that they give live birth like sharks.
• Unstoppable Rage: Demons have the ability to go berserk, gaining great power. Unfortunately, they will Attack! Attack! Attack! everything within sight until they die. There is a temporary solution, thanks to the nature of Angels and their pendants, but this is rife with potential for violent hilarity.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Denevol's attack on "demons and traitors", aka Buwaro and Kieri.
• Villainous Breakdown: Denovol starts getting antsy.
• Villainous Rescue: Twice.
  • The first instance occurs when Iratu swats the enraged Azurai aside before he can kill Kieri since they need living angels for the ritual.
  • The second happens when Azurai himself saves Buwaro and Kieri from Lazuli after being reprimanded by Iratu for killing Sanjulo.
• Visible Silence: A fairly common occurrence, especially on comedic bits.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Cliff and Duster. Also Rhea and Buwaro, at first.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Kieri can control her transformation some of the time, Death changes size at will.
  • The guardians of Medius, who are all animals naturally and can change form as needed. The Kieri example above was a semi-botched curse done by one.
• Waif-Fu: Both Kieri and Rhea have, can, and will dish out the pain when needed.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Many male demons. Moonshade also wears a cape, but no shirt beneath.
  • Broxis, the Wolf Guardian.
• Weirdness Censor: The sight of a Demon and an Angel walking around together instead of fighting each other is so unthinkable, everyone assumes Kieri and Buwaro are wearing costumes.
• We Do Not Know Each Other: Seems to be type 2 when Iratu meets Buwaro in medius, saying he only knows him as a loser from the Ring of the Slightly Damned(he probably doesn't remember Rhea as he'd only seen her once while drunk) as Buwaro is considered a runt by demon standards and acknowledging him as family might reveal that Iratu was adopted by an angel as a child to the other demons, though his question on how he got to medius and his increasingly aggressive demands for answers show he still might care for him.
• Wham Episode: 2010 was a big year for these. The most shocking [MAJOR SPOILER]: Who would've guessed that Darius has been Death this whole time?
  • Iratu and co butchered an entire town.
  • Moonshade has killed a Guardian before. And he kills one onscreen shortly after this revelation.
  • Sahne confirms that the purpose of Ascension is so that the Demons can leave Hell and conquer Medius.
  • After drinking the red strength potion Buwaro is next seen in his berserk form, however this time you can still see his pupils when the other times we've seen him berserk his eyes where solid red.
  • Moonshade revealing he is Rhea's father...and her murderer.
  • In page 945, we learn the identity of the Angel who shot Sakido, he claims to be Syndel himself and he's the current leader of the demons.
• Wham Line: Moonshade ups his Not-So-Harmless Villain status with this exchange:
  Melli: You're... You're not Moku!!
  Moonshade: Hahahahaha!! Of coursssse not! I killed him!
  • Barely two strips after the above:
  Buwaro: Snowy, is that your brother?
  • Uh oh...
  Mr. Moonshade: I don't know HOW, but my daughter is alive. Again.
  • On Page 945, Rhea reveals that she learned who killed Sakido. Whether he’s telling the truth or not about his identity, it’s still very big, very troubling news.
  Rhea: Only an Angel could have fired that holy arrow, and there’s only one Angel in all of Hell. That Angel... is the current leader of the Demons. He calls himself Syndel. THE Syndel, the one and only Father of Creation and God of Chaos.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Comic 310, when Kieri learns that Buwaro's gentle personality is (mainly) due to his pendant keeping his Superpowered Evil Side in check, she becomes rather upset that Buwaro is "no different" from the other demons she had faced before. In Comic 311, Rhea counters that the fact that Buwaro was born "evil" doesn't change the fact that he was nice to Kieri since the day they met, and she's a hypocrite and an Ungrateful Bastard since Buwaro and Rhea put up with her curse while she, on the other hand, is unwilling to accept Buwaro over his condition. In Comic 312 Kieri flew away crying because of this.
  • When Rhea learns that the cycle of Median resurrection has been broken, and that Darius and Blue are basically just trying to maintain a holding action while they wait for the real Death to return, she gives the former a Death Glare with a maniacal grin. Not that it's really their fault, but the moment is glorious. She also gives another 'What the hell, hero?' about Darius not having any contact with Buwaro, which is rather more his fault.
• White Magic: Angelic holy magic has very few combat applications but has spells that can protect, bless and heal, angel warriors also tend to be worse with it than caretaker angels.
• Whodunnit to Me?: The events of the entire comic were all started by Rhea's death, and yet we didn't have even the slightest idea why is it that she even died in the first place until Comic 828.
  • As of Comic 390, the picture is starting to become clearer.
    • Amazingly enough, hinted at in a throw away line SIX YEARS EARLIER.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Kieri's abusive mother always blamed her.
• Winged Humanoid: Angels, of course. Though they get their wings from pendants, so they aren't a natural part of their bodies, and not all angels can earn one.
• Wings Do Nothing: The wings Buwaro gets from Sakido's pendant are implied to be these.
  • Somewhat justified. They're kind of tiny, and it's not like Buwaro has the same inherent magic that Crunky has....
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Ignoring the Sinclair family, most of the major characters are around their late teens to twenties. Buwaro is the youngest of the main trio, at around 14 to 15, and assuming Rhea and Jake are the same age then Jake's around 17 to 18 as well.
• Wonder Twin Powers: Cliff needs Duster's help to use his most powerful spell.
• Wrong Context Magic: The angel claiming to be Syndel is able to use all types of magic (except dark), something that we haven't seen before. There's also the fact that he appears to be immortal.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Buwaro finally starts using Kieri's real name during the demonic sacking of St. Curtis.
• You Should Have Died Instead: Iratu seems to feel this way regarding Buwaro in Sakido's death, saying that it was a shame she died for such a stupid reason directly at Buwaro and seemingly not having any objections to Tsavo blasting him with lightning.
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: After Kieri's brother Kazai was finally introduced into the comic, it's been made increasingly obvious he is in love with another male angel. When Kieri point-blank tells him she realizes this, he's worried people will think he's a freak... because they're of opposing elements. The idea that a same-sex relationship might seem odd or objectionable to anyone doesn't even seem to occur to him.
• Your Little Dismissive Diminutive: Less intense than most, certainly not hostile, but still counts.
  Meeros: Sorry [Buwaro], but your little lapin lover's situation [her curse] is out of my jurisdiction.

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