YMMV / Aurora (2019)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Zuurith give up on maintaining order because he saw firsthand how little his power meant in the face of an actual threat, or because the people of his city were more focused on helping each other than themselves and he's influenced by their beliefs?
  • Did Erin intentionally make a scene at the archives so they would remember him, or is he just spinning a bad situation to his advantage to catch The Dragon off guard?
  • Is Falst's dad a good parent? He did genuinely try to heal Emira, and he does protect Falst, but some other details seem to suggest he abandoned him later on. Red herself states that ‘his hair is the only good thing about him’.
• Applicability: The societal treatment of Ferin, and in particular Falst's relationship with that treatment, is similar to real-life discrimination against many demographics while steeped enough in the original woldbuilding of the comic that it isn't a one-to-one representation of any of them.
• Arc Fatigue: Sometimes, the fact that the comic updates three pages a week results in this, due to the fact that Word of God says the comic is meant to be read all at once.
  • If you read the comic as it was updating, the Zuurith arc was likely a slog to get through, clocking in at a whopping six chapters long (previous arcs were three chapters long at most). What occurred in two days in the comic took eighteen months to finish thanks to switching focus between multiple parties. It's generally agreed to be much easier to read through all at once.
  • Chapter 22 was twice as long as usual, ending after 63 pages compared to the usual 30-40, and it ended up taking half a year to finish.
• Awesome Art: Overall, the comic is full of impressive drawing and interesting visuals. In particular, the very first page showing the sky's aurora is something to stare at.
• Catharsis Factor: After Zuurith and his corrupt system put the squad (and especially Kendal) through hell, it's immensely satisfying to watch Tynan tear down his illusion of power and blast him into dust.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Collectolon (The Collector/Dr. Jolon), stemming from their similar mad scientist tendencies.
  • Another one with significant support is Falst/Void Dragon, usually called Falter.
  • Combining this trope with One True Threesome, we have Tynan/Vash/Zuurith, aka the Worsticule or the Divorce Polycule.
  • Falst/The blob monster, because they hold hands (it grabs him by the wrist) and look into each other's eyes (so it can use its psychic attack on him). Ship name: Florst.
    • Expanded to include Dainix, ever since it pinned him to the wall and seemingly forced itself into his mouth.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Of all characters, a nameless guard from Page 1.4.12 (revealed later to be named Ivan) for backing off from taking Kendal's sword due to the sentimental value it had. It is now popular to refer to all sympathetic town guards as Ivan.
    Red, about the Hilltop guard in chapter 9: Before you ask, yes, this one is ALSO named ivan
  • The paladin champion only appeared briefly at the end of chapter 7, but quickly became popular among the fandom for his cool design and his relationship with the Light Dragon paralleling Erin's possession by the Void Dragon. In absence of a name, he's been given the Fan Nickname "Michael".
  • Shrike grew fairly popular among fans as she posed a real threat to Tess, Falst, and Alinua while still having a nonchalant, fun-to-watch personality. Her past experiences in Zuurith's arena and her sincere friendship with the ferin Trusk are also regarded as genuinely interesting. Red herself states that though Shrike was originally only intended to be a one-off villain, she ended up liking her too much not to incorporate her into future arcs.
  • Pryder, diplomatic emissary of Zuurith, appeared on only one page in Arc 1 and made an impression on the audience due to his striking appearance as a Stygian elf and his polite demeanor in a strange, politically tense situation. His reappearance in Arc 2 was a pleasant surprise for many fans.
• Evil Is Cool: The Void Dragon is an incomprehensibly powerful primordial who is hellbent on being released, and it shows. With a strong air of menace in all of his appearances, a relentlessness nigh unequaled in the comic, and the moments he takes control of Erin being game-changers as well as villainous awesome moments.
• Fan Nickname: Due to character introductions often taking a while and names rarely being revealed immediately, there are quite a lot of these, and they're often very widely used. Three ("Vashn't", "Chimera Mom" and "Walter") are widespread enough to be acknowledged by Red.
  • Prior to receiving a proper name, fans took to referring to the person inhabiting Vash’s body as either "Vashn't" or "Floofy Boi". They have still managed to stick around even after he formally chose a name.
  • The Collector has been nicknamed "Chimera Mom".
  • Alinua is sometimes referred to as "Ally" and other spelled variants.
  • Erin is often affectionately called "Pompous Nitwit" within the fandom due to his Insufferable Genius status.
    • Before receiving an official name, he was instantly nicknamed "Icarus" due to thinking highly of himself, this hubris proving to be his (temporary) downfall.
  • The dark creature introduced in Chapter 5 (later revealed to be Erin under Demonic Possession) was instantly named "Dark Floof" by the audience.
    • A joke amongst the fandom was that the same creature was actually called Walter. Even though he was revealed to be called the Void Dragon, the nickname has stuck and has even been acknowledged by Red.
  • The entity Alinua channels is called "Life Mum" by the fandom.
  • Falst has managed to almost completely avoid fan nicknames, due to some sketches accidentally spoiling his name. This resulted in most of the fanbase knowing what he was called by the time he turned up in the story. Red referred to him as "lion guy" before his name was officially revealed.
  • Shirii has many, most notably "Angry Shoelace" and "Danger Noodle" (a reference to this video).
  • The Paladin has been nicknamed "Michael" for his Archangel-esque appearance and powers.
  • While Tess' name was accidentally leaked, she was still called Punchy Metal Lady, PML, or Sparky Sparky Boom Woman.
  • Junior Archivist Theia acquired the names "June" and Winji before her canonical name was revealed in Arc 2.
  • The many-armed blob monster is called The Glort, Mr. Gloopy-pants, Goopy Le Grande, and Jeff in different locations.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Void Dragon/Erin is probably Erin's most popular pairing, behind the Paladin Champion and the Junior Archivist, who are also examples of this trope.
• Genius Bonus: As pointed out here, the title of Chapter 19, "Petrichor", is full of double-meanings regarding the events in the chapter. The word not only refers to the scent that the earth gives off after it rains (as the chapter deals mainly with the aftermath of Tynan's assault), but can also be deconstructed into "Petra" meaning stone or rock, and "ichor" as in the blood of gods. The latter alone is a reference to Kendal's grievous injuries after fighting Tynan, but also his Semi-Divine nature when the two terms are read together.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • The platonic Alinua/Kendal is often called Soulfriends.
  • An alternate name for Tesslinua is Petrichor, since not only is it the chapter where the ship got off the ground, Alinua's powers are plant-based and thus grow from the earth, and Tess's skin is gold in color.
  • Ferinheit rose to prominence as an alternate name for Falst/Dainix.
• Les Yay: When Alinua opens up about how she feels she has no home without Kendal, Tess takes her hand, and as she gently takes Kendal's sword away from her, she opens up about her own struggles with finding somewhere to call home, and explains that she carries it with her wherever she goes. She caps it off by offering Alinua to share her home with her. The flagrant homoromantic undertones have even been acknowledged by Red herself.
  Red: the funny thing is this part of the conversation was barely my idea, Tess kinda wrestled the keyboard away to volunteer her thoughts on the concept of "home" and it naturally ended up much gayer than most of my scripts
• Love to Hate: Shrike. An exclusively self-serving and insufferably smug Corrupt Cop with no moral code, she was lucky enough to survive Zuurith's prison system... and immediately began sending other people into it to die for her own benefit. The very real issues she represents don't help her case. Most fans agree the only reason they would want her to ever come back is so she get her ass kicked once she can't back the squad into a corner.
• Memetic Hair: It's a running joke in the fandom that virtually every character is drawn with incredibly fluffy and luxurious hair. Long-haired characters are especially subject to this. It's gotten to the point the comments are calling the party the "floof gang".
• Memetic Loser:
  • Erin. Because of his ridiculous hubris in his introduction followed immediately by getting possessed by the most dangerous evil in the known universe, it's popular to depict him as failing spectacularly at anything he attempts to do or just being generally useless.
  • Also sometimes applied to Vash, since he gets his entire population killed and gets his soul stolen in the first 20 pages of a 500+ page comic.
• Memetic Troll: Void Dragon is generally seen as less a world-devouring terror and more an obnoxious prankster, who just wants to inconvenience Erin and the Paladins. Largely due to the Evil Is Petty Alt Text from the archive scene.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Amalgam Star ^ExplanationRed name-dropped an entity called the Amalgam Star on tumblr with no context and refused to elaborate, driving fans to ask a myriad of questions trying to figure out what it was. It tends to get referenced when trying to decipher any sort of mystery in the comic.
  • Tynan's "Then shatter" has been compared to the infamous "Then Perish" meme.
  • Bag Erin ^Explanation On the comic's merch store, one of the products available is a drawstring bag with one of the chapter covers printed on it. In the pre-render on the page, the bag is fully stretched, meaning there's a significant bulge in the center of the image. When the cover for Chapter 5 (a picture of Erin's face) is selected, it makes him look... odd, to say the least.
  • Zuurith Arc 3/week ^ExplanationThe Zuurith arc, though now looked on very fondly, was hell for many readers, due to taking over a year to complete at the comic's slow update speed, as well as being twice as long as any previous arc. Sticking with the comic that whole time (and being caught up since the start of the arc) is generally seen as a badge of honor among the fans.
  • Mysterious colors, unlike any seen on earth ^Explanation The blob monster is a black and rainbow-ish Eldritch Abomination, prompting fans to bring up the repeated quote from Red's HP Lovecraft video.
  • Dainix doesn't know if he has bones/Dainix has no bones ^Explanation A meme stemming from a fanfic where Dainix doubts he has a skeleton because "He just might be all fire in there". Gets brought up any time Dainix and bones are mentioned in the same breath. Boosted when Dainix's fire arm fizzled out while fighting the blob monster, revealing... no bones.
  • I SHIT YOURSELF ! ! ^ExplanationA deep-fried image of tynan with lens flares over his eyes bearing this caption, dubbed over at comical volume and reverb levels preceeded by the Duke Nukem guitar riff. Spawned endless snowclones of "I [x] YOURSELF! !" or "YOU [x] MYSELF ! ?"
• Portmanteau Ship Name:
  • Tess/Alinua is usually Tesslinua.
  • Played with by Crustables, the ship name for Dainix/Falst, since it's a combination of Falst and Crucible, the fandom's (and Tahraim's) name for Dainix before he was introduced.
• Realism-Induced Horror: Zuurith's prison institution. Its prisoners are made to produce Zuurith's goods and exports and a large portion of those prisoners are Ferin. Let's say that again: its prisoners are used as a cheap labor force and many of them are members of a race subject to discrimination. Sound familiar?
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Michaerin, the ship between the Paladin Champion and Erin, is one of the most popular ships in the fandom, despite the fact that they've never met, the Paladin Champion will probably try to kill Erin on sight, and we don't even know "Michael's" real name.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Every member of the main party who isn't canonically trans gets this to varying degrees:
  • Kendal's whole storyline is about trying to find his own identity in a body that isn't his.
  • Alinua's experience with taking part in civilization for the first time in ten years is very easy to read as a recently out Queer girl learning that she can finally enjoy life.
  • Erin's mention of a past identity crisis leads some to see him as a trans man.
  • Falst's bitterness towards discrimination and deeply entrenched self-hatred are reminiscent of many genderqueer folks' own experiences.
  • The concept of "Sparking" is one that's very easily applicable to gender, so Tess getting this is no wonder.
  • One fan theory is that the Collector was male before she touched Life's mind, but like her name, her original identity was washed out of her mind.
• Ugly Cute: The Collector's chimerae are pretty cute when they don't have their mouths open.
• The Woobie: The entire party (perhaps sans Erin) for varying reasons, but the standouts have to be Alinua, Falst and Dainix:
  • Alinua was abandoned by her parents at birth, ran away from society at age ten, spent ten years living alone in the wilderness, and for about twenty years kept waiting to die.
  • Falst is subject to racism and hostility no matter where he goes. In Zuurith, he's at risk of being put into the arena simply because Ferin make good combatants. This treatment was so bad in the past that he literally attempted experimental magic to change his own race rather than continue to be Ferin.
  • Dainix grew up in a fairly happy and stable society, but then his friends were attacked by Obsidian Ghouls, he turned into a fire-monster, he destroyed his village, and was exiled by his people. He then made the mistake of camping too close to Zuurith, got attacked by bandits, and got arrested by the city guards. Because he was 'godless' which in this world seems to mean simply not living under a god's rule, he is thrown in the Arena for death-matches. Since he won't kill anyone in said death-matches, the Arena-Master starts putting more and more effort into killing him or forcing him to kill others.

---